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Literary Titan Silver Book Award – Apr 2023
The Literary Titan Book Awards are awarded to books that have astounded and amazed us with unique writing styles, vivid worlds, complex characters, and original ideas. These books deserve extraordinary praise, and we are proud to acknowledge the hard work, dedication, and writing talent of these brilliant authors.
Award Recipients
Higher Steps Solutions for Healing by Louise Pyant
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
Forty Years At Saquish Beach
If you’ve ever envisioned yourself living or retiring in a charming beach house, surrounded by endless ocean views and the tranquility of a quaint cottage, then Forty Years At Saquish Beach: Our Impossible Dream by Connie Matuzek will surely captivate you. This remarkable memoir chronicles the family’s journey spanning over 40 years, from when the couple first met to their love affair with Saquish Beach after being invited by friends to starting a life from scratch.
Connie Matuzek’s story is one of sheer determination, as they literally built their own ocean cabin, navigated harsh environments, and overcame everyday obstacles. This book is an inspiring must-read for those who relish DIY projects and tackling challenges head-on. The authors’ passion for fishing is also a prominent feature of the book, with vivid descriptions of fishing techniques, exciting adventures on the lagoons, and photos of the sea life they caught. Readers will be delighted to catch a glimpse of a medium-sized striped bass and be immersed in Matuzek’s joy and love for the sea. The book is also highly descriptive, offering readers an intimate glimpse into Connie’s journey. It includes pictures of the house they built and details about the Gurnet-Saquish association. It is a testament to the family’s ability to start a new life in a deserted place and eventually create a wonderful community. There are detailed descriptions of building the house and a comprehensive historical look at the community. This intriguing book offers a unique perspective of the events that were important to Connie Matuzek.
Overall, Forty Years At Saquish Beach: Our Impossible Dream is a fascinating read that is both engaging and informative. I highly recommend it, especially to those who enjoy house projects, rebuilding, and creating things from scratch.
Pages: 192 | ISBN : 979-8885677264
Lived Experiences
To Help Just One follows three separate people who have mental health challenges and the road they navigate to get through. What was the inspiration for the original and fascinating idea at the center of the book?
There are two pivotal moments that provided the inspiration.
The first was about a year before I started writing the book. The experience of being able to tell my story as part of the panel discussion to start an open conversation on mental health in my corporate job . It was a special moment to own my story and I could see the impact telling it had on others. The number of follow up conversations I had with individuals about their stories showed me the healing powers stories can have. The prologue and epilogue use this experience as a vehicle for the doubts and positivity that comes wrapped with sharing your story.
The second was a few months before I penned the first word, when a friend shared experiencing depression for the first time in their adult life. They were still trying to understand the unfamiliar and uncomfortable place they had found themselves in and were far from discussing solutions. I had so much to tell them, yet no way to do it without adding pressure. A book became a safe way to give them comfort that they are not alone in what they are experiencing and hope that there is a path forward. They could choose which bits had value for them and which bits are simply someone else’s story.
With the collection of lived experiences from myself and others, there was enough inspiration to thread themes and events across multiple characters.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
- Internal Acceptance – being comfortable with who you are, how you’re feeling and needing help
- Belonging – Finding in the right environment that is tuned to the right frequency and will help you thrive
- Simplicity – The little things whether it be acts, words, or moments that have a profound impact well beyond that point in time.
If you dig deeper into the choice of words there are hidden easter eggs – musical and literary references – that have been chosen for the influence they have had on me and how they connect into the themes in this book.
What is one thing that people point out after reading your book that surprises you?
The way it resonates with a wider range of people than I expected. Jonathan, Tegan and Lawrence are based on specific sets of lived experiences and so I thought readers would possibly strongly identify with one character and enjoy the rest of the book as an interesting story. Yet I have found that more people find it easy to see a part of themselves in each of the characters and can relate in their own way across the entire book.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
The working title is To Help One More: Stories to Serve | Stories of Connection | Stories to Release and will be part of the same universe as To Help Just One. Louise and Henry who had minor roles in the first book plus a new character Arthur will be featured. The characters discover the path to thriving from: the unhealthy company of alcohol; the consequences of bottling up emotions; the ease in which distance can be created between two people; and the personal cost that leadership can have. There will be a couple of the scenes that carry over, told from a different perspective and shed a little more light on the experiences of Jonathan, Lawrence, and Tegan.
It will be available early 2024.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Instagram | Website
Make yourself a cup of tea and gently enter a world where Tegan, Jonathan, and Lawrence navigate the ups and downs of their mental health. The paths of childhood friends, work colleagues, and exercise buddies intertwine their stories.
Their stories will look to comfort. To help just one feel a little less alone in the world, hearing someone else’s story and sharing the thoughts and emotions. Injury strips Tegan of the life that she knows. Physical pain gnaws on her psychological wellbeing, introducing her to loneliness and isolation.
Their stories will look to provide hope. To help just one see that there is a possibility of finding a path forward, as the world feels unfamiliar and uncomfortable. The urges of gambling get the better of Jonathan, as he silently suffers paying a price much greater than the money lost.
Their stories will look to heal. To help just one be able to begin making sense of the world and become open to telling their story. The volatility and pace of professional life sucks away time and space from Lawrence. Overwhelmed and shattered, he is lost in a world where his qualities are a blessing and a curse.
Each find themselves barely surviving, though where they go from there will inspire an inner strength within us all.
Nobody’s Daughter
In Nobody’s Daughter, author Rica Ramos shares a deeply personal memoir that recounts a difficult childhood marked by an unsupportive mother and the lasting impact of those experiences. Ramos navigates the intersections of past and present, illuminating the constant presence of a mother who consistently failed to provide the care and protection her children needed. The narrative delves into the author’s experiences with abuse, exploring her feelings of resentment towards not only her abusive stepfather but also her mother for neglecting to shield her children from harm.
Ramos tackles a range of sensitive subjects. However, the memoir’s primary focus extends beyond the traumatic experiences that occupy a substantial portion of the narrative. The ultimate goal becomes evident in the concluding chapters, as the author applies the healing she has undergone through therapy to nurture the newest generation of her family—her grandchild. By reflecting on her mother’s actions and consciously choosing to treat her grandchild with gentleness and love, Ramos offers solace to her inner child.
While the book contains moderately detailed accounts of sexual abuse, making it unsuitable for readers who may find such topics distressing, it is an invaluable resource for those who have experienced similar emotional detachment from a parent. The author’s journey toward healing provides a cathartic and potentially helpful perspective for individuals grappling with comparable childhood traumas.
Nobody’s Daughter is a compelling memoir that I would recommend to many who have overcome abuse or who know someone who has suffered from abuse. It is also an insightful look at the mother and daughter relationship and shows readers that their own self-worth matters over the cultural stigma of honoring their mother. Through Rica’s story, other women will find validation and strength to stand up for themselves and know their voice matters.
Pages: 187 | ASIN : B0B8H4T8MQ
It’s Not About Love: (at least not the way you think)
It’s Not About Love is a compelling self-help memoir penned by Jamie Murray, which delves into the complex topic of infidelity. The author takes the reader on a transformative journey, explaining that betrayal is not a result of insufficient love for one’s partner but rather a reflection of the unfaithful individual’s lack of self-love. Consequently, the act of betrayal is not the fault of the betrayed. This insightful book provides a fresh perspective on disloyalty, empowering readers to understand that their self-worth is independent of the actions of others.
The essence of It’s Not About Love lies in its potent and unique approach to addressing infidelity. As Jamie Murray candidly shares her personal experiences with betrayal, readers cannot help but forge a deep connection with her narrative. This comprehensive guide serves as a powerful reminder that betrayal is unrelated to love, absolving the betrayed of any blame.
Murray’s writing style is both authoritative and wry, and her book is remarkably impactful as it encourages readers to view unfaithfulness from an entirely new angle. By recognizing one’s lack of culpability in such situations, readers are guided towards a more focused and healthy life. The author emphasizes the importance of self-care and discourages allowing a partner’s actions to have a detrimental effect on one’s well-being. Murray’s firsthand experience with betrayal lends her a unique understanding of the challenges one may face in the aftermath.
This book casts a light on a subject that is often experienced in silence and isolation, and Jamie Murray’s courageous honesty in sharing her most vulnerable emotions is nothing short of admirable. Despite the arduous journey, her witty writing instills a sense of hope that brighter days lie ahead. It’s Not About Love provides an exceptional portrayal of the intricate relationship between infidelity and love.
Pages: 182 | ASIN : B0BTZ98H6W
My Thirty Shades: A Kinky Autobiography
My Thirty Shades: A Kinky Autobiography by Michael Host is not your usual erotica. Revolving around Holst’s wild sex life, the book offers multiple short chapters through which the reader can directly experience in detail the most exciting sexual encounters that Host has had throughout his life. From the beginning until the end, the book delivers what it promises to give: a compound of short stories illustrating passionate and intense scenes that will let your mischievous imagination fly. The recounts of the author’s sex life started when he was a timid teenager, curious yet lacking the confidence to approach girls and form an intimate relationship with them. As the book goes on, you see the author grow in confidence and skill.
Each chapter gets straight to the point and details a specific sexual encounter with one or multiple women. The scenes related in each of these chapters are lustful, and they are written in a way that will stimulate and excite the kinky side of the readers. The book explores various sex fantasies and materializes them on every new page. As the chapters go on, it can be noticed the experience gained by the author after each encounter. This experience is transformed into longer chapters with more eroticism and riskier explorations that will become more adventurous as time goes on. One thing the author leaves clear from the beginning: his number one goal is to give women as much pleasure as possible. He doesn’t hide his playful side from his lovers and shares all of his secrets with the readers, leaving nothing to the imagination.
My Thirty Shades: A Kinky Autobiography by Michael Host is a book that offers a different side of your usual erotica based on a single person’s real vivid experiences. As evidenced in this book, the author’s sex life has been far from limited, which has created a front-row experience of passionate lovers, forbidden encounters, fiery affairs, and a neverending intense sexual tension. This book is ideal for those that are fans of the genre and are eager to see the sexual experiences of another person from their own eyes.
Pages: 176 | ASIN : B0BLT5TYNR
Prisons Hold Many People
“Lifeline to a Soul” is an inspiring autobiography of an entrepreneur turned teacher, offering valuable lessons on resilience and determination through a unique perspective on life and success. Why was this an important book for you to write?
This book is about a real life event, my teaching experience inside a minimum-security prison. I spent over twenty years building a business and had a strong desire to teach what I had learned to others. In seven years of applying for a variety of jobs, my only offer was to teach in a prison camp. Although teaching in a prison was never my plan, since it was my only opportunity to teach, I accepted the job and am very thankful that I did.
I took the job to teach and never had any intentions of writing about the experience, but I realized that I had spent time in a place that was very unfamiliar to almost everyone, and by sharing my experience, I could take the reader through the gate with me and let them see what life inside a prison is like and also share the change in perspective I experienced towards the incarcerated and the entire correctional system.
What I learned from the experience is that prisons hold many people who could never function normally in society but they also hold many people with tremendous potential who have made only one mistake. It’s usually a really bad mistake, but many people serving prison terms have learned from their transgressions and are ready and able to move forward in life and leave the prison experience behind them. Unfortunately, when you treat everyone the same, as prisons are designed to do, you deny much needed resources to people who require them to change their lives and break free of the prison recidivism cycle. I want to share this perspective with readers in hopes that they will look at people with felonies as people who deserve a second chance.
What advice would you give to individuals who are struggling to overcome setbacks and adversity in their own lives?
Looking back on what I’ve learned in business and as a teacher, the one common denominator between those who overcome setbacks and adversity and the ones who don’t is determination. First, you’ve got to decide what it is you want to accomplish in this world and then you have to go after it with everything you’ve got. Nothing worth having comes easy and the people who refuse to quit until they get what they want are the people who succeed.
What do you hope readers will take away from your book, and what impact do you hope it will have on their understanding of life and success?
I have a relative who works as a prison guard in a maximum-security prison, and he has shared with me the times he or a coworker was attacked by an inmate, it’s a tough job. The prison system has to dehumanize its denizens in order to work properly. This makes it easy for people outside the system to adopt the same philosophy and consider every ex-offender as someone who can’t be trusted. I want the reader to realize, as I did, that people should be given second chances, despite their mistakes.
I hope that everyone who reads the book is entertained by the story, but also comes to realize that our criminal justice system discriminates against people of color, people with low income levels, and the uneducated. We are making a huge mistake by not providing the tools these people need to be successful when they are released back into society.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
Great question and I seem to be getting it a lot lately. Lifeline to a Soul is a book I never planned to write and is likely to be my first and only book. I currently have the good fortune of working with Tavares James, the founder of Lifeline Education Connection. Together, we have a program in place that will help those that have faced obstacles in their lives move forward. We focus on teaching financial literacy and the principles of entrepreneurship and are ready to bring our classes anywhere we can help people make positive changes to their lives. I plan on staying busy with this program, but maybe the writing bug will bite me again, time will tell.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | LinkedIn
After devoting half of his lifetime transforming his start-up business into a multi-million dollar industry leader, author John McLaughlin set out in a new direction: to teach what he had learned to others.
Due to a lack of teaching experience, his only job offer was to teach entrepreneurship to prisoners at a minimum-security camp in North Carolina. John gradually builds an effective program until a scandal involving prison officials blindsides his progress and threatens to bring his teaching career to an unceremonious end.
Lifeline to a Soul takes the reader inside the fence and chronicles the victories and challenges one man faced as a first-time teacher in the strange world of prison life.
Lifeline to a Soul
Lifeline to a Soul is an inspiring autobiographical account of John K. McLaughlin’s journey as an entrepreneur turned teacher. From his humble beginnings to his successful ventures in the business world, the author shares his experiences and lessons learned, culminating in his decision to become a teacher in a prison.
Through engaging prose, McLaughlin provides a vivid depiction of life in prison, sharing anecdotes about the incarcerated individuals he encountered. His unique perspective sheds light on the prison system, offering key information that many may not be aware of. He also provides insight into the harsh realities that prisoners endure, making this book a valuable resource for those interested in understanding the criminal justice system. More importantly, Lifeline to a Soul serves as a source of encouragement for anyone who has experienced setbacks, regardless of the cause. The author’s dedication to those who have broken the law and learned from their experiences sets the tone for the book, emphasizing its deeper purpose beyond simply recounting McLaughlin’s life story. The heart of the book lies in McLaughlin’s experiences as a teacher in a prison, where he imparted valuable life lessons to his students. Through their stories, he showcases the resilience and determination of those who have been able to overcome their circumstances and achieve great things.
Overall, Lifeline to a Soul is a refreshing departure from typical entrepreneurial books, offering a unique perspective on life and success. It is a must-read for anyone looking for inspiration and encouragement, regardless of their personal or professional circumstances.
Pages: 237 | ASIN: B0BX4ZVSF7
LITERARY TITAN 