Blog Archives
Where Magic Doesn’t Exist
Maria Vermisoglou Author Interview
The Cursed Girl follows Eva and her faithful friends as they travel across medieval Europe to save the world from the powers of darkness. What served as your inspiration as you were writing this novel?
My inspiration was books and places but mainly the book series “The Mortal Instruments” and the TV series “The Witches of East End.”
Eva is an intriguing character that I enjoyed reading about. How did you create her character and what were some aspects that were important to get right?
To talk about Eva I have to talk about the creation of the book first. I love to read. When I finish a book, I make up a story using the book I have finished. But always in my mind, I never wrote them down until now. The cursed girl was created when I had finished reading “The City of Heavenly Fire.” I was thinking what if Clary was a witch? That’s how Eva was created. In the beginning, Clary and Eva were alike but Eva developed into a fine witch. She was unsure of herself in the beginning but afterward, she developed into a self-confident person who is not afraid to break the rules in order to save the ones she loves. Later in the series, she faces some other trials but I can’t talk about it now, can I?
One of the challenges I faced was that Eva is a witch living in the human world. I had to balance the magic and living in the human world where magic doesn’t exist. I think I succeeded but that’s for the fans to decide.
I liked the world building and the magic embedded within. How did you balance Eva’s healing abilities, magic and world building to make it believable?
Almost every book I have read about witches and magic pictured a world that doesn’t exist or witches who were evil. I wanted something different, something in-between. To tell the truth, my book was created on its own so to speak. I had a partial plan but when I started to write I knew what I had to write before I knew it. It was like magic. It doesn’t make much sense but I suppose every author talks that way.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I am working on the next volume of the cursed girl. I don’t know when will it be available but you will know it through my social media.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website
![The cursed girl by [Vermisoglou, Maria]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51VV9XOmuNL.jpg)
Sixteen-year-old Eva is a witch who lived in Spain, in the year 1230. She met a boy named Jonathan who would become her whole world. Everything was normal until she was faced with challenges that will change her life forever.
As a healer, her job is to help people, but there are forces that will try to prevent that. There is a war coming and Eva and her friends must do everything they can to survive.
Can they fight their way against the dark forces that are surrounding them? Her wits and inner strength helped everyone who encircled her to survive but will she be able to survive herself?
Supernatural creatures, royal backstabbing and many more await you in this thrilling novel that will take your breath away.
How Corruption Evolved
Joe Khamisi Author Interview
Looters and Grabbers, 54 Years of Corruption and Plunder by the Elite is a detailed account of the many corruption cases throughout Kenya. Why was this an important book for you to write?
It was important for me to write this book to show Kenyans and non-Kenyans how corruption evolved from the day Kenya attained independence in 1963 to 2017, a period of 54 years stretching through four regimes. What this book shows is that corruption and bribery have a long history that goes back well before independence when the country was under British rule. The African rulers, beginning with Jomo Kenyatta, institutionalized it by engaging directly in criminal acts. They grabbed land left behind by the British instead of distributing it to the landless, encouraged relatives and cronies to engage in outright theft of other resources, and created cartels that were immune to prosecution due to their close association with the elite and the ruling class.
What do you think is a common misconception people have about corruption in Kenya?
The common misconception people have is that corruption is a state-sponsored malfeasance that ensures impunity for those in power. There is a saying that a common chicken thief is punished more severely than a person in power who commits a more heinous crime involving billions of dollars. And because corruption and bribery are rampant among the elite, the ordinary folk see no evil in participating in similar criminal acts. Thus, a policeman would do everything to extract bribes from passing motorists, and government clerks will hide files to entice payment, commonly known as “chai” or tea. One recent headline in Kenya said it all that everyone in Kenya is corrupt including grandmothers. And I agree.
The book details contemporary corruption as well and doesn’t leave one feeling as if things will get better. Do you see positive change happening for Kenya with it’s current government or is there many changes that still need to happen?
Like all previous governments, the present regime of Uhuru Kenyatta has made a myriad promises about nailing corruption. In his first 5-year term in office, not more than five government officials were jailed and those were junior officers in the civil service. The big “fish” including those in Uhuru’s own Cabinet and executive office are free despite involvement in mega corruption scandals. In recent weeks, and immediately after the release of my book, Uhuru announced some sweeping measures intended to tackle corruption including what has come to be known as “lifestyle audits” on officers – starting with himself – and changes in the way government tenders are advertised and awarded. It is too early to judge whether these measures would indeed be implemented and those found to have obtained properties illegally jailed. My own view is that that was just a PR stunt to silence corruption critics.
What do you hope readers take away from your book?
So far, the book has been positively welcomed by the majority of Kenyans who have read it. They say it was timely and informative on the genesis of corruption and on contemporary events. The irony, however, is that some “corrupt” individuals “looted” the book pdf file and began selling the file to a huge group of Whatsapp members in what was a clear violation of copyright. The action was severely criticized by writers who demanded that the looters compensate the author. A few did but that is as far as corruption has reached in Kenya.
Author Links: Website | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter
![Kenya: Looters and Grabbers: 54 Years of Corruption and Plunder by the Elite, 1963-2017 by [Khamisi, Joe]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51v-dLSWdGL.jpg)
This book is about unbridled corruption, bribery and scandalous financial skullduggery in one of Africa’s most promising countries, Kenya. It is a narrative of money-laundering, mega scandals, and international wheeler-dealing, and describes how Mafia-like lobbyists have been devouring the country’s resources with blatant impunity over four regimes since independence in 1963. It is an important resource for historians, students, researchers, social and political scientists, non-governmental organizations, development and anti-corruption agencies.
Real or Imagined
Lisa Diaz Meyer Author Interview
All Roads Destined is a collection of stories from fantasy to science fiction with links back to your first collection. What was the inspiration for this collection of stories?
As for the Outposts, I wanted to continue on since I’d left it as a cliffhanger in All Roads Home. I then felt I wanted to bring more loneliness and some addiction awareness into the equation as these subjects, real or imagined, can be sad and frightful.
I felt that this book was a bit darker than the last collection. What were some themes you wanted to capture while writing this book?
I did want to go darker, bring more science fiction in but based off subjects that make people uncomfortable. Again the addiction issue, some odd poetry. As you said in your review, the short story The Crone was your favorite. It was also mine, too. And I love when something like that can just come upon me, the imagery and the way I want it to be read.
You also included a selection of poems in the section titled The Fragments. What was your favorite poem from the collection and how did you pick which poems made it into this collection?
The poems or fragments I write in between or even during a WIP. My favorites in this book were Clocks and The Water Globe, both having to do with the passage of time.
What is your process like for writing short stories? Does it differ from longer novels?
There’s a certain pace with short stories that I prefer. I may be inspired to write a longer novel one day, just not yet.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
![All Roads Destined: A Collection of Dark Fiction and Poems by [Meyer, Lisa Diaz]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51278fxUk2L.jpg)
Destiny is what we bring to the world where the roads are stained with tears and blood, and paved in eternal stone. In Part One, the continuation of The Outpost Trilogy shifts from post apocalyptic to science fiction. Part Two, The Enduring contains five dark fiction short stories. Part Three, The Fragments include fifteen poems of urgent struggle and destination. New York author, Lisa Diaz Meyer relates to the odd, macabre & funereal. ALL ROADS DESTINED is the second of her ALL ROADS trilogy.
Feral and Gritty
Konn Lavery Author Interview
YEGman is a thrilling crime novel taking place in the underworld of Edmonton, Canada. Why did you want to set your story in this location?
I had several reasons why I wanted to have the story take place in Edmonton. I prefer to write Canada-based stories and I’ve spent a lot more time in western Canada than I have out east, so can craft stories in these locations easier. A second reason is the name YEGman itself. YEG is the airport code and a common hashtag for the city. It is easier to say than – for example – YYCman for Calgary.
I also have grown up in Edmonton and have seen the city change over the decades. It is a pretty (no offence Edmonton!) bland city when it comes to major issues. So it is a good thing. That raises the question, how can you make a tame city feral and gritty? This was an interesting challenge to me.
This story takes a uniquely gritty look at the Edmonton crime scene. What were some ideas you wanted to capture when developing this underworld?
For YEGman’s version of Edmonton, I wanted to paint a crime-infested city that has some similarities seen in superhero comics. Daredevil/Hell’s Kitchen and Batman/Gotham are examples. A city that is in dire need of help. It becomes a motivator for someone to become a vigilante when they feel the city isn’t making any progress.
The details of the drugs and music scene I wanted to make real by showing there are good people that get caught up in these dark worlds of gangs and violence. Either they feel trapped or do not know any better to get out and just try to keep their friends safe.
Where did the idea for YEGman come from and what were some book titles you considered?
YEGman actually was birthed from the album that accompanies the launch – Sounds of Society. Both YEGman and the album tell a story of someone who can’t handle the constraints of society and go off the deep end. They also share similar content in the lyrics. Originally I was working on this album in 2012.
The plot and character of YEGman came to me in the summer of 2015 when I was at a book signing in a comic store. It was a quiet period and was daydreaming about super heroes because of the increase in popularity due to the Marvel movies, DC movies, comic expos and I was in a comic store at the time. Personally I am not a huge comic book far so I asked myself – what type of superhero story would someone who doesn’t like superheroes read?
From there I drafted out the concept of the superhero YEGman. Quite quickly I decided against super powers and made him very earth-bound. This helped map out the ending as well. If he was just an average person, and didn’t have any tech toys, money or ninja training, he’s going to have a pretty difficult time being a crime fighter. After writing out the outline for the ending I reverse engineered the story – a process I do not normally do with writing.
In November of 2015 I wrote the first draft during NaNoWriMo but shelved the concept because my horror novel, Seed Me, wasn’t fully edited yet. That took a higher priority and I didn’t revisit YEGman until 2017 after doing some heavy research into police procedures and psychology. These two points of study helped craft the inner thoughts of Michael.
So overall, comic books were the inspiration and I looked at comics such as the Punisher, Sin City, The Watchmen, and Hellboy to name some.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I really need to wrap up the dark fantasy series Mental Damnation. Book three is coming out in the fall of 2018 and the fourth is in the works. I also am working on a slasher novella but it is in the early plot outline stage.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
![YEGman by [Lavery, Konn]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/516JqvYUniL.jpg)
In the darkest streets of Edmonton, crime is around every corner. The police have exhausted their resources. Citizens are in a constant state of fear. The city is in dire need of justice. Someone needs to give the felons what they deserve – skip the courts and deliver their verdict with a fist full of fury!
At least that is what Michael Bradford tells himself. He struggles with violent tendencies while personally investigating the Crystal Moths, Edmonton’s most notorious gang. His vigilante methods get caught on film and are uploaded to the web with the hashtag YEGman. These videos catch the attention of a rebellious journalism student whose aspires to cover the developing story on the city’s underground hero.
Passion for the Vampire Legend
JC Brennan Author Interview
Eternal Bloodlines follows Amanda, an average girl with a boring life when an unexpected event sends her life hurtling in a sinister direction. What was the inspiration for the setup to this thrilling novel?
I have always love vampires. However, I wanted to create a story that readers could relate to, one that was different, and Amanda is the one character who could do just that.
I felt that Amanda was a fascinating character, her later character contrasted greatly with her beginning character. What were some obstacles you felt were important to her development?
Actually, there were not any obstacles to Amanda’s development. I used much of how I felt growing up in a small town: want nothing more than to get out, get away, and have an adventure. The use of my personal insights and experiences from growing up in a small town (though none of those experiences involved a vampire, of course) made Amanda’s development almost seamless.
The bond that forms between Amanda and Mihnea is one of the things that I enjoyed about this book. What were the driving ideas behind their relationship throughout the story?
It was important that Mihnea be someone Amanda thought she knew all about from her research and her passion for the vampire legend. It was also important that when she meets the man, she believed she knew about, that he was not that person. But, he needed to be someone she empathizes with, that she can relate to. He needed to be a surprise and change everything she thought she had learned.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
My next novel is coming in July. It’s titled Shadows Fall. And though I don’t want to give too much away, Detective Levi Sterling has his handful with trying to catch a serial killer.
Author Links: Website | Amazon | GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook
A series of unexplained murders and a near-fatal accident propel a desperate woman down a dark and sinister road.
Twenty-four-year-old Amanda Holston dreams of getting a little excitement in her life. In the sleepy town of Skidway Lake that may be asking too much. One snowy morning, while walking through the woods, Amanda stumbles upon the mutilated remains of a young woman. Hours later, police uncover two more bodies. Just when things seem to be getting interesting, Amanda is in a near fatal accident, causing her sanity to come into question. She hears voices in her head and sees a dark man in her dreams. She blames the delusions on the accident. But the dark man is all too real.
The Matriarch Matrix
![The Matriarch Matrix by [Trencavel, Maxime]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51FukYVnE3L.jpg)
Buried deep within families from all walks of life around the world lies a secret. This secret is beyond the comprehension of most humans and would more than likely be rejected by the rest. Zara and Peter, two strangers with more in common than either is willing to admit, are united under the unique and all-powerful leadership of Alexander Murometz. When Zara and Peter are forced together in an effort to save mankind, the two learn much more about each other’s culture, their own weaknesses, and the value of their strengths than they would ever have believed possible. The Matriarch Matrix, by Maxime Trencavel, is the intricately woven story of our history and, to some degree, our doomed future.
The Matriarch Matrix is a unique blend of genres. Within its covers, Trencavel has managed to pull together a rich blend of historical accuracies and centuries of speculation regarding ancient alien invasions of the Earth. Furthermore, the author details each and every aspect of the characters’ religious and cultural restrictions and requirements. What makes Trencavel’s interpretation of events so different is an added layer of incredibly intuitive technological advancements juxtaposed with a glimpse into 9500 BCE. Alternating the settings and weaving the two eras together throughout the storyline, Trencavel manages to gradually explain the impact of a centuries-old affliction.
Of the various connected settings and storylines, I have to say that Zara’s kept me the most intrigued. The horrors she has endured to become a woman who is again true to her roots and a follower of her faith have left her hardened but at the same time caring and receptive to the feelings of those around her. She has built a wall around her that not many can penetrate and, when they are able, she becomes their biggest ally. Zara is a memorable character and one who is easily visualized.
The Matriarch Matrix is written in the present tense, and this choice by the author creates an especially engaging reading experience. I am a fan of the use of present tense, and Trencavel has chosen wisely here. The depth to which the characters are related and the constant shifts in time and place could lead readers down some confusing roads. The use of present tense throughout the story ties characters and eras together almost flawlessly.
As well-written as Trencavel’s work is and as intricately woven and engaging as the plot itself is, I did struggle with one particular facet of the story line. Those afflicted with sleeplessness and the burden of message-bearing dreams/nightmares must be comforted into a frame of mind which makes it easier for them to share their recollections. In order to communicate these messages, the afflicted must rely on heavy stimulation of the senses and sexual contact. The fact that this sexual stimulation was made such a vital role in recalling repressed memories temporarily changed the direction of the book from one chapter to the next. I saw the rapes and scenes of sexual slavery as a bit overdone. Much of the plot centers around this domination by oversexed beings, and the sexual overtones permeate the book.
Readers with open minds seeking mysteries steeped in culture and yearning for a complicated but readable plot will be drawn to Trencavel’s Zara and Peter and the intensity surrounding the immense task that lies before them.
Pages: 530 | ASIN: B075R2DD4Y
Where Wildfires Glow
![Where Wildfires Glow by [Katsonga, Mutch]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41K5a5gYVXL.jpg)
Discovering a young boy living in the wilderness would be an unexpected shock for anyone, just as it was for a local state trooper, but no one could have predicted the chilling truth that finding the boy would unearth. It’s this unexpected fact that evil thrives in, often striking in situations where we least expect it.
Mutch Katsonga’s latest book, Where Wildfires Glow, unexpectedly made me challenge my own personal view of the good and evil in the world. The introduction poses a series of deep, philosophical questions for the reader that I often found myself reflecting upon as I read the novel. I was skeptical at first as to whether the story would furnish me with the answers to these questions, particularly, considering that I deemed the start of the book to be slow. However, what I did not realize is that Katsonga was just setting up what was to come through his in depth descriptions of the landscape and natural world, and I found myself reliving these romantic descriptions during the climatic end. The child’s two contrasting encounters with the harsh wilderness are beautiful metaphors for the detrimental and damaging effects that abuse can have on a person.
The way in which Katsonga has narrated the story and not given the boy a identity means that as a reader, I struggled to form a connection with the character, regardless of the overwhelming compassion I felt. Whilst I thought that this made the story feel a bit empty at the beginning, I realised that this perfectly reflects the sense of detachment that evil inflicts on its’ victims. The writing is a bit unpolished with slight typos and grammatical errors which probably could have been avoided with thorough proofreading. Unfortunately the obvious mistakes often pulled my attention from the story, which was a shame at crucial moments, but this was definitely not to the point where I lost complete focus or the book was no longer enjoyable. Additionally, as the protagonist of the book is a young child, I felt that some of the words the used are too mature which I felt detracted from the authenticity.
However, the poignant moral behind the story is that evil can make us lose sight of who we are and taints our view of right and wrong. When we allow it into our lives, it will inevitably envelop us; our vision becomes tunnelled and focuses only on the negative. The cycle of abuse is unrelenting and will just keep going, manifesting in each generation, until something breaks it. Katsonga teaches us that evil cannot be fought with evil, and it is only the power of light and the power of good that can break the cycle. I believe that this book will challenge that way that every reader views negativity and the power that it can have on an individual and those around them. It made me more conscious about how my actions can affect others, and has encouraged me to make sure that I always give off a positive energy.
Pages: 160 | ASIN: B07CCJTGDB
What Anyone Can Do – Book Trailer
Most of us don’t seek advice or reach out to others for help very easily. In part, it’s because we’re conditioned to see life as an individual endeavor rather than a team sport. Or because we believe that asking for help makes us look weak or incapable. We regard self-help as by-yourself-help. News flash: no one in the history of the world has ever achieved any level of happiness or success totally by themselves.
In his 1976 book The Long Run Solution, Joe Henderson suggested that becoming truly accomplished at running (or at anything) doesn’t typically require us to perform superhuman feats. In fact, success is frequently realized by those who simply do the things anyone can do that most of us never will.
In What Anyone Can Do, with the help of Leo Bottary’s Year of the Peer podcasts guests (and playful illustrations by Ryan Foland), you’ll discover that if you surround yourself with the right people, you’ll do the things anyone can do far more often. And when you do that, you and the people around you will realize more of what you want out of business and life. It’s that simple.
The Power of Peers (2016) made a strong case for how and why formal peer groups are so effective. This book steps outside the formal peer group arena to examine all the important relationships we have in our lives (parents, teachers, spouses, mentors, children, mentees, etc.) and provides a practical approach and specific framework for harnessing their power for your benefit (and theirs). It’s what anyone can do. You’re anyone, right?
LITERARY TITAN 