Blog Archives
One Last Question Before You Go: Why You Should Interview Your Parents
Kyle Thiermann’s One Last Question Before You Go is part memoir, part field guide for emotional courage. It begins as a practical project, recording conversations with his parents before it’s too late, but evolves into a moving exploration of love, misunderstanding, and reconciliation. Thiermann opens his life with remarkable honesty, describing a childhood shaped by idealism, tension, and unconventional choices. His storytelling blurs the line between instruction and confession, reminding readers that asking questions can be both a form of preservation and an act of healing.
Thiermann’s writing balances clarity and lyricism. He recounts moments from his youth in Santa Cruz with humor and unease: surf sessions laced with danger, family debates over truth and science, and a mother whose belief in conspiracy theories fractures their bond. When he writes, “Now when my mom and I look up at the same blue sky, she sees chemtrails, where I see clouds,” the simplicity of the line reveals something profound about distance and love. It’s this honesty, direct, unsentimental, but deeply felt, that gives the book its emotional weight.
His reflections on interviewing parents are both practical and philosophical. Thiermann treats listening as a skill that requires humility and patience. His advice to start with simple questions, to let silence breathe, feels genuine and attainable. He doesn’t posture as an expert but as someone learning in real time. When he describes forcing himself to write “bad questions” until something true appears, it captures the imperfect process of reaching toward another person.
The book’s rhythm is conversational yet purposeful. Thiermann alternates between intimate family vignettes and broader reflections on communication, mortality, and forgiveness. He resists the urge to offer neat resolutions, allowing discomfort and ambiguity to remain. That restraint makes his insights resonate more deeply.
One Last Question Before You Go manages to be both instructive and profoundly human. It’s a reminder that asking hard questions is not about control or closure, it’s about connection. This is a book for readers who value sincerity over polish, who want to bridge emotional gaps with their own parents, or who simply wish to understand their family stories before time takes them. Thoughtful, unguarded, and deeply affecting, Thiermann’s work lingers long after the final page.
Pages: 156 | ASIN : B0FR8JLM98
If We’re Brave Enough
Filaments follows a professor returning to her small hometown to investigate her mother’s strange behavior that is linked to two men’s disappearances and a supernatural force connected to her family. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I always begin with setting. For this story, I immersed myself in scientific literature about bogs, and the narrative naturally grew from there. During my research, I discovered Sax-Zim Bog in Minnesota—a place that felt like the perfect backdrop for the tale to unfold. From that foundation, I shaped the characters to feel both relatable and grounded, anchoring them in the eerie beauty of the landscape.
What are some things that you find interesting about the human condition that you think make for great fiction?
Our lives run in parallel, each seemingly separate, yet deeply intertwined. We often believe ourselves to be isolated individuals, but in truth, we are threads in a vast, living ecosystem. The suffering we endure is not ours alone—it echoes and reverberates in ways we may never fully comprehend.
Filaments, I felt, was about generational trauma, addiction, and identity. What is one thing that you hope readers take away from the story?
The narratives we craft about ourselves are often the hardest to unravel. Yet becoming our true self is possible—if we’re brave enough to dismantle the facade we’ve built. It takes courage to confront the stories we’ve clung to, but in doing so, we make space for authenticity to emerge.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when can your fans expect it to be out?
I’m beyond excited about my next book! It leans a bit more into sci-fi, but the threads that define my writing style remain firmly in place. This story will spotlight female-driven narratives, unfolding within a world that breathes life into their journeys—infused with a touch of quiet horror. I’m aiming to publish next year, and I can’t wait to share it with you.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
Drawn back to her Minnesota small town, Thea begins to unravel the mystery behind her mother’s erratic behavior and two men’s disappearances. She unknowingly awakens a force that has patiently waited in the shadows for her return. With each new revelation, Thea’s accosted by her small town’s prejudice and simmering bitterness of former friends. What started out as a trip to save her mother becomes a fight for her own survival and sanity.
Eagle Scout to Killer: A Novel Based on True Events
Eagle Scout to Killer by K.S. Alan and Lorna Dare is a harrowing and unflinching account of one man’s transformation from idealistic youth to haunted veteran. Told through the voice of Kurt S. Alan, a soldier whose service in Vietnam blurs the line between heroism and survival, the book chronicles the moral and psychological toll of war. From its opening pages, where Alan recounts his covert involvement in the events surrounding the Gulf of Tonkin, the narrative establishes itself as both historical confession and personal reckoning. This is not a traditional war story; it is an exploration of how combat reshapes identity, erodes morality, and leaves wounds that no medal can redeem.
The authors write with a restrained intensity that makes the book deeply affecting. Alan’s first-person account of meeting CIA operative Coleman and orchestrating a staged naval attack feels chilling in its calm precision. When he admits, “I grew up being taught to never lie, but here I was perpetrating a lie on the U.S. Congress,” the line reverberates beyond his personal guilt; it becomes an indictment of the political machinery that demanded such deception. The prose is unsentimental yet charged with quiet anguish, capturing the conflict between duty and conscience with unsettling clarity.
What gives the book its emotional weight is not only its exposure of covert operations but its portrait of trauma. In the preface and the reflections from Alan’s VA therapist, the story is framed as part of a long process of healing. The therapist describes it as “Kurt’s effort to reclaim his soul,” and the book indeed feels like an act of reclamation. When Alan later visits the Vietnam Memorial and leaves his Special Operations coin at the wall, the gesture becomes a moment of fragile grace amid decades of inner torment. That scene encapsulates the cost of survival and the longing for absolution that haunts so many who return from war.
The combat scenes themselves are vivid, brutal, and often difficult to read. Chapters such as “The Punji Pit” and “Operation Cherry” depict the chaos of Vietnam with visceral precision. Yet the violence never feels gratuitous; it underscores the moral corrosion that the preface warns against. The narrative’s strength lies in its refusal to glorify combat or simplify the psychology of those who endured it. Alan’s voice remains grounded, disciplined, and painfully self-aware. The result is a story that feels at once deeply personal and universally human, a meditation on guilt, loyalty, and the enduring search for meaning after unimaginable loss.
Eagle Scout to Killer is not an easy book to read, but it is an essential one. It speaks to veterans who have carried their battles home with them, and to civilians who have never confronted what war truly demands of those who fight it. For readers interested in military history, moral philosophy, or psychological resilience, this book offers a rare and unsettling clarity. It is both a confession and a cautionary tale, a powerful reminder that while war may end, its echoes never do.
Pages: 264 | ISBN : 9781965390139
Brutal Disclosure
Brutal Disclosure is a gritty, emotionally raw thriller that follows Declan O’Neill, a young man from Brighton whose world collapses after the mysterious death of his brother, Sean. Fleeing the suffocating poverty, crime, and guilt of his past, Declan escapes to New York in search of reinvention. What he finds instead is a world equally unforgiving, one full of hustlers, danger, and fleeting kindnesses. The book is both a crime story and a character study, tracing Declan’s struggle to survive and make sense of loss while navigating the dark edges of human nature. Author Kevin Polin writes with cinematic detail, turning each grimy alley and smoky bar into a character of its own.
Reading it, I felt pulled into Declan’s head. His fear, his anger, and his yearning for meaning hit hard. Polin doesn’t write clean or polite sentences. His prose feels lived-in, raw, broken in places, honest to a fault. The dialogue sounds real, almost like an overheard conversation. There’s a deep sadness running through every chapter, but it’s balanced by moments of unexpected gentleness, especially in Declan’s encounters with Isabella and the people who briefly pass through his life. Polin never romanticizes suffering, and that makes the story hit even harder. The writing reminded me of early Irvine Welsh or Roddy Doyle, where every bit of grime carries weight.
It’s dark, sometimes brutal, and not every turn feels comfortable. But that’s the point. Polin’s world is painfully real, the kind of truth you don’t want to admit exists. Still, there’s something human and tender at its core. Declan’s longing to become someone better, someone whole, kept me turning the pages. I caught myself caring about him like he was a real person, stumbling through a place that doesn’t care whether he makes it or not. The pacing sometimes lags when the scenes stretch long, but Polin’s eye for detail makes even the quiet moments matter.
I’d recommend Brutal Disclosure to readers who appreciate dark, character-driven fiction, readers who liked Trainspotting or A Clockwork Orange, or anyone drawn to stories about lost souls trying to find a way out. If you want something that feels real, something that bleeds a little, this one’s worth the ride.
Pages: 280
Sharing the Lives of Free People Of Color
Miles Lassiter(circa 1777-1850) traces the remarkable journey of your ancestor, Miles Lassiter, a free African-American Quaker living in North Carolina before the Civil War, and the impact that he made in history. Why was this an important book for you to write?
There has been much written about the abolitionist support of Quakers, but it was rare for African Americans to be fully admitted to membership in a meeting. To learn that my 4th great grandfather was one of the very few, and the only one in North Carolina at the time of his death seemed significant.
What sparked your interest in genealogy led you to discover this lost portion of your family and its history?
I’ve had an interest in genealogy since childhood. I learned my paternal family story as a child from my father’s sister. However, whenever I asked my mother about her family she said she left North Carolina when she was seven and just didn’t know anything about family that might still be there. Once I moved to the Washington, DC area, I had easy access to repositories such as the National Archives and Library of Congress to begin searching for my maternal ancestors. In addition, I was able to take classes to learn how to research my family and I was introduced to my local Family Search Center (then called genealogy library) which gave me access to the vast research collection of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
It was important to share information about the lives of free people of color. It was also important to share the story of my 4th great grandfather specifically. I also wanted to show through my research story how others could research their families.
How has writing Miles Lassiter (circa 1777-1850): An Early African-American Quaker from Lassiter Mill, Randolph County, North Carolina: My Research Journey to Home impacted or changed your life?
The process of researching and writing the many early versions of the story, culminating in the published book, brought me to North Carolina to meet family I had not known, and places that held my history, a place that was my maternal home. It allowed me to become enveloped by the love of a family I almost lost completely because my mother had not grown up around them. It allowed me to take my mother back to that home after 60+ years away. And this year, it allowed me to obtain a William Pomeroy Hometown Heritage Historic Marker for Miles Lassiter.
Author Links: Goodreads | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Website | Amazon
Margo Williams had only a handful of stories and a few names her mother remembered from her childhood about her family’s home in Asheboro, North Carolina. Her research would soon help her to make contact with long lost relatives and a pilgrimage “home” with her mother in 1982. Little did she know she would discover a large loving family and a Quaker ancestor–a Black Quaker ancestor. This story follows her research journey through records and Carolina countryside as she uncovers her roots.
“This work re-affirms Margo Williams’s commitment to excellence and perfection, both as a researcher and as a historian. The reader is made part of the story, not only in place but in time. But, most importantly, she re-asserts the point that, by and large, the information is available to the researcher. All one has to do is to look for it. A job well done!” — V. L. Skinner, Jr., Fellow, Maryland Genealogical Society.
Margo Lee. Williams was born in New York. She holds an MA in Sociology and an MA in Religious Education. She developed an interest in genealogy early in life, but only after moving to Washington DC did she actively pursue family research. In the 30+ years since, she has researched and written extensively on her family. She is a well-known lecturer for the Family History Centers of the LDS Church in the Washington, DC area, a former editor of the Journal of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, and through her private research company, Personal Prologue, has developed expertise in identifying heirs for intestate probates. She is currently a National Service Officer with Vietnam Veterans of America. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland with her daughter, Turquoise Williams.
I Have to Laugh So I Don’t Cry
Adventures in Online Dating is a humorous chronicle of your plunge into the unpredictable world of online dating, sharing the good, the bad, and the utterly bizarre encounters you have had while swiping. What inspired you to share your journey into the shallow end of the pool?
Honestly? I needed to laugh about it or I’d cry! After diving into online dating, I quickly realized I wasn’t alone in experiencing the absurd, awkward, and occasionally wonderful moments that come with swiping through profiles. Every bizarre encounter felt like a story that needed to be told — not just for entertainment, but to help other women feel less alone in the chaos.
I wanted to create something that said, “Hey, this is messy, it’s weird, and sometimes it’s downright ridiculous — but you’re not crazy for trying.” If my misadventures could make someone laugh while they’re navigating their own dating journey, then every awkward coffee date was worth it.
How did you decide what stories to include and leave out in your book?
Great question! I focused on stories that highlighted the full spectrum of online dating — the hilariously bad, the surprisingly good, and everything in between. I wanted readers to see themselves in these experiences, so I chose encounters that illustrated common themes: catfishing, ghosting, first-date disasters, unexpected connections, and those moments where you question your life choices.
I left out anything that felt mean-spirited or too personal to the other person involved. The goal was to share my perspective and lessons learned, not to embarrass anyone (except maybe myself! Okay, and Steve – F*ck that guy!). If a story made me laugh out loud while writing it or taught me something valuable about dating or myself, it made the cut.
What advice do you have for women who are looking to jump into the dating pool?
Keep your sense of humor and your standards high. Online dating can be overwhelming, but remember — you’re not shopping for a discount couch; you’re looking for a genuine connection. Don’t settle just because you’re tired of swiping.
Here’s my practical advice:
● Trust your gut. If something feels off, it probably is.
● Meet in public places. Always. Safety first.
● Don’t take rejection personally. It’s not about your worth; it’s about compatibility.
● Take breaks when you need them. Dating fatigue is real.
● Laugh at the absurdity. You’ll have stories to tell, I promise.
● Know your dealbreakers. And stick to them.
Most importantly, remember that you’re already whole. You’re not looking for someone to complete you — you’re looking for someone to complement the amazing life you’re already building.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your story?
That you can laugh your way through life’s messiest moments — and come out stronger on the other side. Online dating is just one chapter in the bigger story of figuring out what you want and who you are. Whether you find love, find yourself, or just find some hilarious stories to share with friends, the journey is worth it.
I hope readers close the book feeling less alone, more empowered, and ready to embrace whatever comes next — whether that’s another swipe, another date, or the decision to take a break and focus on themselves. Life’s too short not to laugh at the chaos.
Author Links: Website | Facbook | GoodReads | X | Instagram | New York Blog | Tik Tok | SELINN FINE ART STUDIO
By S.E.Linn
Forget saving the world—she’s just trying to survive dating apps.
Join author S.E. Linn on a wild and hilarious journey through the chaotic world of online dating in her new memoir, “Adventures in Online Dating.” From the cringe-worthy encounters with a man and his cat-hair-covered adult toy, to the emotionally unavailable “Viking” with a wife and spa plans, this book is a rollercoaster ride of modern love. But amidst the laughter and relatable moments, lies a cautionary tale of the dangers of swiping right.
Meet the fearless and unapologetic main character as she navigates the treacherous waters of online dating, armed with biting wit and brutal honesty. If you’ve ever said, “there are no normal men left,” or Googled “how to exit a date without faking your death,” this book will make you feel grateful for never going on that second date.
And for those who have survived the trials of dating apps, you will feel less alone and less likely to respond to that guy holding a fish.
Amethyst
Amethyst is a hauntingly beautiful tapestry of poetry that weaves together identity, pain, rebirth, and the search for meaning. Divided into chromatic sections named after shades of purple, each representing a facet of human experience, the book feels like an odyssey through the inner worlds of selfhood and survival. It moves from loss and trauma to reclamation and transcendence, painting scenes of queerness, masculinity, intimacy, and existential ache. Every poem feels like a fragment of a larger confession, tender yet defiant, fragile yet ferociously self-aware. Author Fernando Rover Jr.’s voice is raw, rhythmic, and unapologetically human, like someone whispering truth through a cracked mirror.
Reading this book shook something in me. The language hits hard, sometimes uncomfortably close. There’s this honest grit in how Rover writes about love and pain, as if he’s bleeding on purpose to show that healing isn’t always graceful. Some lines feel like quiet prayers; others explode with profanity and rebellion. I love how he blends vulnerability with resistance, how “Problem Child” snarls right before “Father Hunger” breaks your heart. There’s a rhythm here that doesn’t care about convention. He’s not writing poetry for classrooms or critics, he’s writing to survive. And I felt that. The work feels alive in its contradictions, full of sadness and rage, yet bursting with this strange hope that we can build beauty from our bruises.
But what struck me even more was how Amethyst feels like both a mirror and a map. It asks hard questions about who we are when the world makes us feel unworthy. Sometimes it feels like a séance with the self, a way of calling lost parts of you back home. I caught myself rereading lines just to let them sting again. The collection is fearless in its queerness and in its refusal to make trauma tidy. There’s humor in the mess, too, and flashes of warmth that feel earned.
I’d recommend Amethyst to anyone who’s been cracked open by life and wants to believe that brokenness can still be beautiful. It’s for readers who crave raw emotion and unfiltered truth, who don’t mind getting lost in someone else’s chaos to find their own calm.
Pages: 67 | ASIN : B0FX9F4Y41
Blade Rider
Blade Rider is a wild ride through stars, steel, and heart. The story follows Raven Pierce, a young woman chasing her dream of becoming an Air Ranger in a universe where courage is as rare as the gemstones mined from distant planets. The book blends sci-fi adventure with coming-of-age grit. It starts on the luminous planet of Aurora and soars through trials, rivalries, and the fire of ambition. There’s high-speed action, moments of calm beauty, and a deep pulse of hope that runs through every page. What makes it shine is not only the futuristic flight scenes but the emotional gravity that keeps Raven’s journey grounded.
The writing moves like music, lyrical and cinematic, yet simple enough to feel real. Sevilla doesn’t just describe light or sound, he paints them, fills the air with them, makes you feel the hum of engines beneath your skin. The pacing is deliberate, but I didn’t mind. Those quiet chapters gave the story its soul. There’s a rhythm between tension and tenderness that feels intentional. I could sense the author’s musical roots in every scene. The prose often felt like verses from a song, full of rhythm, breath, and longing. I caught myself smiling, even tearing up, when Raven faced her doubts or looked up at the stars she was born to chase.
The ideas in this book resonated with me. It’s about finding purpose when the world tells you you can’t. It’s about identity, resilience, and the fire that keeps dreamers alive. The world-building is big but personal, the characters flawed yet fiercely human. I loved that it wasn’t just lasers and engines, it was belief and persistence. There’s something deeply nostalgic in its optimism, almost old-fashioned in the best way. It reminded me why stories about flying still make our hearts race.
I’d recommend Blade Rider to anyone who ever wanted more than what they were handed. If you like sci-fi that carries heart, or if you’ve ever stared at the night sky and wondered what’s out there, this book is for you. It’s for dreamers, for the stubborn ones who don’t give up, for those who still believe in the power of hope.
Pages: 344 | ASIN : B0FX8QJYYJ
LITERARY TITAN 