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Darkness and Light Intertwined: Book 3 of the Agent Orange Trilogy
In 1954, against the haunting backdrop of war-torn Vietnam, Chi Anh Ong faces the heart-wrenching separation from her baby daughter Linh, who is, unbeknownst to her, taken to an orphanage by her father. Abandoned by Linh’s father, a foreign soldier, Chi is cornered by circumstance and grief. Yet, in a fervent pursuit of revenge, she joins the Viet Cong, targeting American soldiers.
As the years pass, Linh begins to lose herself. Her struggle for survival pushes her into the shadows of prostitution. A chance encounter with an American soldier offers her a shimmering ray of hope and the possibility of a new life in the US. But can one ever fully escape the past?
Darkness and Light Intertwined, by Kaylon Bruner Tran, is a poignant historical fiction novel, featuring a cast of characters caught in the brutal jaws of war yet yearning for redemption. The desperation Chi feels in her search for Linh is palpable, while Linh’s own journey illustrates the depths one might go to for survival.
Kaylon Bruner Tran strikes deep emotional chords, rendering a tale of individuals seeking healing from the scars of war. Each character’s internal struggle prompts readers to grapple with the intricate moral implications of their own choices.
Darkness and Light Intertwined underscores the moral conundrums faced by those in conflict zones. Amidst the chaos of the Vietnam War, each character yearns for a glimmer of light–a semblance of normalcy. Darkness and Light Intertwined is more than just a book; it’s an introspective journey, prompting reflections on the gripping emotional trials born out of real-life adversities. Highly recommended for those seeking a deep, thoughtful read.
Pages: 364 | ASIN : B0BGJSVWW5
Misguided Quest For Redemption
Armageddon: An Apache Story follows a demon who possesses humans and starts a reign of terror and destruction. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Bal’am, the demon, wants to redeem himself through a process by which he takes over the well of the soul of an innocent. I found the idea intriguing that a physical space in the human body houses the soul. Some believe the soul rests in the subject’s pole, the source of consciousness; others feel the soul is held in the interior body; while others place it in the heart chakra. The presence of the soul makes man a unique being. This is why man is a privileged creature who can seek forgiveness; all others of God’s creation cannot. Angels and demons cannot ask or seek forgiveness for actions that they have committed. Therefore, Armageddon is about a soulless creature’s misguided quest for redemption. It is a false quest because Bal’am does not regret his offenses. He wants revenge and not forgiveness.
The other part of my journey with this book is the cast of characters – Native American and not. The cultures of the Hopi and their religious beliefs and the reality of their Kachina spirits become true for our other protagonist Luis, a half-breed, the most dangerous of all creatures because his feet are in both worlds. That is why the Catholic faith and Southwestern Indian traditions collide. This collision of faiths, the dedication of the members of the Apache Medicine Society, and their Catholic counterparts helped me see that we can all work together to fight evil in whatever form it may take. True evil maintains a presence in our world, and we must constantly do battle with it.
Was it important for you to deliver a moral to readers, or was it circumstantial to delivering an effective novel?
Yes, one faith, one perspective does not monopolize the truth. We all hold truth in the way we look at the world. When we first meet Luis, he is a boy who has lived on a farm or really a plantation. When his stepfather dies, he has no reason to stay there. His arc from orphan to possessed televangelist to priest, and to warrior is much like the arcs of many of us. We start in one place, and by the end of our story, we are somewhere else, with many stops along the way. The same goes for Cecilia, a rough street-wise woman searching for her people, becoming a mother, serving as a slave to Bal’am, and escaping those chains to fight for her daughter and grandson. It was important for me to develop each character fully and to show how they manage under harsh, unforgiving circumstances. I wanted them to be real people, and that is why I projected each character through different life experiences.
With the rich history surrounding Apache and Hopi traditions, did you find anything in your research of this story that surprised you?
Yes, the diversity in the Hopi pantheon and how it mirrored the pantheon of angels and saints of the Catholic Church surprised me. Another one was how we place the label Apache on a people who are diverse in their makeup: Apache of Oklahoma, Fort Sill Apache, Oklahoma Jicarilla Apache, New Mexico Mescalero, New Mexico San Carlos Apache, Arizona Tonto Apache, Arizona White Mountain Apache of the Fort Apache Reservation, Arizona Yavapai-Apache, with each group have different traditions stories and beliefs. All of the different sects have similar yet different oral traditions. I wanted to paint the canvas not with just one tradition but with all of the oral traditions of this diverse group.
Where do you see your characters after the book ends?
The struggle against evil is never-ending. Not only the evil that men do but the invisible hand that pushes us to do things that otherwise we’d never consider doing. I believe Luis, Cecilia, Ed Crow, and Marian will encounter pure evil again because Bal’am isn’t dead but waiting for his opportunity to lash out against the world. I believe that Bal’am will find allies in the underworld to help him break his chains and seek vengeance against Luis, his family, and his friends. Return to Armageddon has been written but is still in the pre-publishing stage, a work in progress, so I do not want to scoop the continuing story.
Author Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Website
Apache and Hopi traditions are woven artfully throughout this novel. Bal’am finally enters Luis and begins his reign of terror and destruction. Luis is incarcerated, and through Bal’am’s deceptions and brutality, he takes over the HAND (La Mano Negra), the Mexican Mafia. He also becomes Rev. Bronco, a televangelist who uses his position to give demons the opportunity to possess the innocent. Luis’s young daughter, Raven, becomes the object of Bal’am’s design. By impregnating her, he can dwell in the well of the soul. The possessed Luis thwarts that plan, however. The demon takes over Raven, finds a mate, conceives, and incarnates as Emmanuel, who leads a life of destruction as a child and young adult. With unwavering determination, a small band of believers use Apache and Christian traditions to hunt for the incarnation of evil. Time is running out. Will they defeat the Prince of Hell?
Doubt, Desperation, Loneliness
LIT follows the journey of a group of individuals, led by the anxious Ellie, as they confront their deepest fears and traumas through therapy, mysterious realms, and the pursuit of resilience, all while shadowed by an uncanny creature. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Firstly, it came at a very fundamental level, during an unsettling dream I had many years ago. Secondly, it is inspired by experience with very real emotions and situations. Doubt, desperation, loneliness, and fear can produce very strong negative emotions in a person. As a response, we will often cause damage as a response. LIT asks the question, if your anger could inflict a tangible, undeniable suffering to others, would you still be so keen to use it against them? The consequences of your anger are vile. Would you fight against or embrace that? We all know people who have done both and there are consequences for both actions. I tried to create three main protagonists and follow their story and then…slam them together.
I wish I could say I carry the archetypal angst of a horror writer but the truth is, I am actually a very happy person! However, we have all had our challenges, and I am no stranger to negative emotions.
What inspired you to create the character of Ellie, and how did you approach depicting her complex emotions and anxieties so vividly?
Ellie, the character is inspired by my daughter during her teenage-angst years. Internally there are a few similarities but overall, Ellie quickly became her own person in the story. It’s one of the greatest joys of writing. Create a person and they actually grow so knowable to you. Whether it be Ellie, Josh, or Sam, I think my passion for creating characters that people can really relate to shows through in my writing. I enjoy it and it’s hard to explain but after a time, they actually start writing themselves. You know them so well. I know these characters, I know how they think, how they act, and what they say. I guide them towards being fully realised, uncontrived, and as organic as they can be.
The creature that tails Ellie is an intriguing element in the plot. Can you elaborate on the symbolism of this creature and its connection to the overarching themes of the book?
It is uniquely nefarious (no plot spoilers!) In creating the main protagonists, I also had to consider which form their particular antagonist would take. Within LIT, in a strange and twisted way, the monster has to complement their human. These creatures plot and play with their minds in the most subjectively effective form they can. Ellie in particular lives life as if holding the gate closed on the most depraved of the affliction. An obligation she reluctantly embraces but wholeheartedly meets, but she knows and has seen what it can do.
What is the next book you are working on and when will it be available?
I completed the sequel to LIT, ASCENT and it was released March of 2023 whilst I was in Rome. I had a short time off before I started the third book which is still in progress now, hopefully to be released at the end of the year. Instagram features multiple updates and some fun vids on me doing my thing.
Author Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Website
“You do want me to go Niles, believe me you really do want me to go. Staying here would be so bad, so bad for you. You don’t understand the danger, you can’t understand and I can’t stay here. . . I’m sorry.”
Evil and merciless, Leviathans attach to souls of the damaged among us. They feed off the emotions of these “Conduits” but are always waiting. Anger can identify a target, light one for an eternity of pain. Once LIT, there is no way out.
Three Conduits face their ever present monster that inflicts their life with terror and loss. Friendships can be forged and alliances can be made. The event of the Circle is approaching when Conduit becomes the hunted by their own grotesque nightmare. Now something else is uprising. There are others in the world who hunt their own.
Overcoming Adversity
Mangrove Sands–The Enchanted Sea World: The Epic Journey follows five children with challenges who are brought together to go on an undersea adventure together. What was the inspiration for your story?
My inspiration for The Epic Journey came to me when I discovered I was going to be a first-time grandma. I wrote this book for my beautiful Australian grandson who has a Swedish heritage.
All the characters in this magical story are engaging and interesting. What was your favorite character to write for and why? Was there a scene you felt captured the character’s essence?
Every new character added to each book is interesting in their own unique way. Saige is a Swedish girl who struggles accepting her leg was amputated. My favourite scene would be when Saige has built her confidence with support from the Enchanted Seaworld and friends and overcomes her fears and declares she no longer needs her magical leg.
What were some educational aspects that were important for you to include in this children’s book?
There were several important educational aspects in this book such as environment and overcoming adversity. However, the most important for me was for children to be open to learn and respect other cultures.
I hope the series continues in other books. If so, where will the story take readers?
I am currently at the tail end of writing my fourth book of the series taking the readers and characters to the origins of the Enchanted Seaworld, a world in a fourth dimension.
Author Links: Facebook | Amazon
A young Swedish girl has recently had her leg amputated. She struggles to accept the loss of her leg and has no interest in making new friends or attempting to walk until she meets her Enchanted Sea World friends and her life is changed forever. She starts doing things she never thought possible. She shows her friends how to make Dala horses, bake Swedish buns, and join in traditional Swedish celebrations.
Mangrove Sands–The Enchanted Sea World: The Epic Journey is full of magical adventures in the Enchanted Sea World including surviving a cyclone, a pandemic, and the realm of horrors. Magical spoons, a magical sea god, a wedding, and a death will keep young minds curious and captivated.
This book is full of fun, adventure, and many magical moments. It aims to provide hope and inspiration to children around the globe and encourages children to embrace, respect, and learn about other cultures and languages. It further encourages children to exercise humility, love, and understanding to all.
Blooded
In the final installment of the Lisen of Solsta trilogy, Blooded by D. Hart St. Martin takes us on a gruesome journey as we learn how Lisen as Empir of Garla will affect the future of the Garlan people. After ascending to the throne, Lisen must make major decisions while facing her own physical and mental battles alone, especially when she’s captured by rebel Thristans for a period of time. On the verge of a devastating war, Lisen and the holders of Garla face the bloodthirsty Thristans in a battle that reveals the truth of the hermit’s prophecy and whether peace can ever truly arise between the two nations.
In Blooded, the concluding piece of the Lisen of Solsta series, Lisen becomes Empir Ariannas—without Korin at her side, though, she struggles with this new sense of authority. As a result, Nalin becomes a vital figure who assists Lisen with developing the knowledge and skills needed to rule over Garla, and he becomes even more important when Lisen is captured by rebel Thristans. Blooded also follows Korin’s return to his homeland, Thristas, and he experiences his own dilemmas, as he realizes his connection to Lisen is much deeper than he originally thought—in this world, where gender norms are shattered, men or women can carry a child, and Korin is carrying his and Lisen’s baby (unknown to Lisen).
Hart St. Martin’s impressive fantasy world construction throughout the entire Lisen of Solsta series kept me so absorbed in the story that I couldn’t put this last book down—I had to know how the series ended because I felt genuinely invested in these carefully-constructed characters. For example, along with everyone else in Garla and Thrista, Lisen resembles a human, but she has a flat chest, a furry belly, and a marsupial-like pouch. In Blooded, we learn more about the “unpouching” or birthing process in this world by witnessing two important “outcomings” or births. St. Martin makes these moments suspenseful and full of emotion by showing two birthing events from different perspectives.
While Korin is raising his and Lisen’s child in Thristas, Lisen faces her own mental struggles when she realizes that the Thristans are planning to go to war with Garla. This climactic moment in the plot, where Lisen and her Council devise a plan for war, showcases the dynamic development of both Nalin’s and Lisen’s characters throughout the series.
During Lisen’s abduction by the rebels, Nalin becomes a strong-minded, confident leader, commanding Lisen’s Council to make major decisions in Lisen’s absence. On the other hand, Lisen sets aside her typical sarcastic, sassy attitude and at times she reveals her emotional turmoil a bit more, as she feels overwhelmed by death piling up around her and the possibility of war. Bala, a significant character from Tainted, becomes instrumental to the plot of Blooded once she’s granted a spot on Lisen’s private Council—when the Garlans go to war, Bala shows her true colors as an assertive leader for her troops.
It’s rare to find a series of books that keeps your interest until the very end, and the end of Blooded and the Lisen of Solsta series left me feeling a great sense of closure. With characters that felt so real within a uniquely constructed fantasy world, this series captures the best aspects of the fantasy genre while also pushing the genre’s boundaries through constructing a gender non-conforming world.
Pages: 420 | ASIN: B00R8K8XXQ
Defiance on Indian Creek
Defiance on Indian Creek is a quiet, but enthralling read by Phyllis A. Still. We follow a smart, courageous thirteen-year-old girl, Mary on the frontier in West Virginia on the eve of the Revolutionary war. Her father comes home with news that disrupts Mary’s world; talk of loyalty to the unfair King and moving to far off Kentucky. The relationship with her father is stretched as she finds him mired in plots and implications of possibly being a traitor or even a spy. Mary is forced of her own loyalties to her father, family and country as the weeks go on until she is asked to make an impossible choice.
Overall, Still has clearly done her research in this fine YA novel. In the tradition of historical fiction before it, Defiance on Indian Creek takes a quiet frontier family and throws them in the forefront against an increasingly dangerous time. Reading these pages gave me the feeling I was actually there in the reeds of Indian Creek alongside Mary and her Papa. The maps included at the front of the book were helpful in understanding the setting and getting even more of a feel of what this era felt to those early colonists.
It isn’t often such a tale is spun on the frontier, but also invokes the greater happenings on the east coast. Mary is a fun protagonist to follow as the story progresses, because Still is able to give the reader the feeling of anguish from the girl and her struggles over choosing to place trust in her father and the lack thereof.
Being a YA novel the story itself is pretty straightforward and does not beat around the bush when it comes to finding out certain things. Mary herself seems to grasp things beyond her years, but her parents are not the usual inept adults that are so often present in YA novels. And being a young girl, who genuinely wants her father to be okay and her family to be safe, the reader can only root for her.
There are few books that I could remember for the relationships it creates between characters, but Still has managed to make the daughter-father relationship in this book a special one. Especially, since the tension between them is so palpable as the book goes on.
If there is any criticism for the book that can be offered it would be for something that is almost uncontrollable. It concerns the background conflict between the Colonies and the Crown. This is what gives historical fiction its flavor, but it does overshadow the very personal, family struggle between Mary and her father. This is the only real issue with the storyline, beyond this Defiance on Indian Creek will be a pleasurable read to any person who enjoys YA and a painstakingly researched historical fiction.
Pages: 212 | ASIN: B01HBV3VOW
LITERARY TITAN 