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Power of Forgiveness
The Raven Moonstone follows an orphaned high schooler who discovers a wizard’s journal and accidentally turns the town librarian into a goat, sending him on an adventure to find an arcane artifact to reverse his spell. I enjoyed the depth of the main character, Noah. What was your process to bring that character to life?
I wrote The Raven Moonstone, sitting cross-legged in the back of our van. It was a time for stepping outside my comfort zone. I walked away from my career in IT and decided it was time to retire. The plan was to drive the backroads of America and explore. Somewhere in Missouri, we had pulled into a free campsite, and sometime during the night, another camper arrived. In the morning, I peeked out the window to catch a glimpse of our neighbor when a young man opened the back of his SUV to let his dog out. But it wasn’t a dog, but a goat. My curiosity sparked, and I grabbed my coffee and walked over to introduce myself. The young man’s name was Noah, and he was traveling cross-country with a pet goat with no name.
My grandson is just learning to read, so I thought I’d write him a story. It had always been on my bucket list to write a book. I’d thought it’d take years, so I targeted it for when he’d be about twelve. My goal was twofold: 1) create a fun story, and hopefully he’d grow to love books as much as I do, and 2) pass on words of wisdom, as a legacy, in a way that he wouldn’t. I was speaking to him. After my character Noah showed up on the page, the book wrote itself.
What themes were particularly important for you to explore in this book?
The Raven Moonstone is a weird, funny, whimsical story of family and secrets and courage, but underneath it all, it’s a story about the undeniable power of forgiveness.
Can you tell us more about what’s in store for Noah and the direction of the second book?
The Dragon Moonstone, book 2 in Noah’s adventures, brings us to Castle Dragon, where Noah is sent to master his gifts. Noah’s magic is out of control, and his powers caught the attention of some unsavory characters. Noah is impulsive and impatient, and decides to take shortcuts during his lessons, which turns out poorly. Determined to right his wrong, he is sent on a quest, but his plans become complicated when the Dragon Moonstone goes missing. He must find it and restore the balance to the realm. Along the way, Noah meets many new characters, all with their own agenda. Typically described as a loner, Noah must rely on his friends and work together and learn to trust if he is going to solve the mystery.
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Now ominous ravens lurk in the shadows, watching his every move.
Noah is determined to reverse his magical mishaps. To do that, he must find a powerful arcane artifact—the Raven Moonstone. With the help of his friends, Sara and Jesse, he sets out to solve the mystery behind the missing heirloom.
With unexpected magic, an evil witch, and a herd of feisty goats, Noah’s journey is about to spiral wildly out of control.
Book One of The Moonstone Legacy Series
Quiet Pride
In A Long Cast, you share with readers your experiences with family and friends over five decades of surfcasting on Martha’s Vineyard. Why was this an important book for you to write?
The stories were starting to evaporate as time went on. I could feel them slipping away, and I wanted to capture them so years from now the kids would be able to simply share the book with someone they cared about and say, “It was like this.”
For the last several years, my adult daughter would keep prodding: “You should write these stories down, Dad.” And I kept deflecting it. Then, when I turned 70, I secretly decided to give it a try so I could maybe surprise them in the end. But I stalled. It was just dry, boring details at first. But when I asked my fishing friends if there was anything they would like to share for the book, it became clear that they, too, wanted documentation for their family and friends to have forever. I sensed their quiet pride and an unspoken hope, and this is what gave me the motivation I needed to get it across the finish line. I used the Dedication page to give the rationale for the book.
Is there anything else you now wish you had included in A Long Cast? A memory? An experience?
No. Not at all. But if there was a Prologue, it would contain the reactions after it came out. Everything from the successful construction company owner who said, “Only read one book my entire life. But I read this one in two days.” I gave each of the twenty-five featured fishermen a copy when it came out. One guy, looking at his copy, said to the other, “Geez. Didn’t know he (me) could write.” The other fishermen replied, “Didn’t know you could read.” The wife of a fisherman texted and explained that she always wished him well as he headed out the door for his annual fishing trip, but never figured out why he liked it so much. Now she knew, she said.
Right after the book came out, he got really ill and had to stop fishing. One day, she was reading the book outside his hospital room and started to laugh out loud. He asked her what was so funny. She read him the two paragraphs, and he laughed so hard and long that they had to settle him down. “It’s true.” He kept laughing. “It’s true. That’s Ed.” (The fisherman in the story.)
Different fishermen would reach out and tell me which story they liked best, and everyone has a different one. A younger fisherman said he bought a copy for his dad and told him it was because of the piece on The Partner. Another told me it was Retie. I think mine might be The Car. I still laugh out loud when I read it.
What advice would you give someone who is considering writing their own memoir?
Don’t make it about you. Make it about the encounters and conversations and actions of others that have been illuminating, convincing, affirming, paradoxically true, righteous, courageous, challenging, grace- filled, perplexing. Don’t report facts, and details, and accomplishments. Tell the stories of who and what has enriched the journey.
What is one thing you hope readers take away from your book?
I hope the reader can also find one or two things in the book to be true.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
In 1971, a father and son ventured out of their apartment in New Jersey to the Island of Martha’s Vineyard to try their hand at surfcasting. That trip began a life of Spring trips to the waters’ edge in search of bluefish and striped bass. Fifty years later, Mike Carotta takes readers along for thirty straight nights and days of fishing.
This is not a How To book. It does not contain the secrets to a fantastic fishing career. Rather, hard fishing has a way of revealing lessons from the shore and the people who gather there-binding together strangers in conversations and gestures, failures and successes, new learnings, and, eventually, creating old friends.
Through it all, more than fish are caught-and shared. The result is a thoughtful collection of essays on life with some notes from the trade filtered in. Join Mike on his pilgrimage back to where the distance between heaven and earth gets a little thinner and the real “keepers” of the trip go far beyond the fish on the end of the line.
“I am not a good surf fisherman. There are no helpful fishing hints here. This is a collection of recollection: stories of saltwater characters, occurrences, and conversations. Like stars in the night sky, they are best enjoyed when you get some distance from the lights of other stuff.” – Excerpt from A Long Cast
If I Had One Wish: I’d Wish That You Were Here
If I Had One Wish: I’d Wish That You Were Here, by August E. Allen, introduces us to Wynter, a snowman whose heart aches with loneliness. One quiet winter’s night, he lifts his gaze to the stars and makes a simple wish, for friends to share the snowy world around him. His wish is answered with gentle magic as a pair of cardinals and a colony of bunnies arrive, filling his days with laughter, warmth, and companionship. Though Wynter delights in this newfound joy, a quiet longing remains. He comes to understand that those he misses are never truly gone; they remain close, tucked deep within his heart, and with friends by his side, he will never be alone again.
Wynter is a character brimming with charm and relatability. His yearning for connection mirrors our own human need for belonging. The story’s closing realization, that love endures across distance and even loss, is both poignant and universal. It speaks to anyone who has felt the absence of a loved one and found comfort in the strength of family and friends.
The illustrations enrich the narrative beautifully. They capture Wynter’s solitude with quiet grace, then burst into joy and warmth as his companions gather around him. The snowy scenes evoke the enchantment of winter nights and the anticipation of the holiday season, adding layers of coziness and wonder to the tale.
If I Had One Wish: I’d Wish That You Were Here is a gentle reminder, cloaked in snowy wonder and touched with starlight. For young readers, it offers a way to understand the complexities of missing someone, whether through loss, distance, or change. For adults, Allen provides a reminder of the healing power of companionship. Heartfelt, tender, and visually delightful, If I Had One Wish is a perfect winter read for families to share.
Pages: 30 | ASIN : B0FNDJ4JQ5
An Eye for Vengeance
In the dust and blood of the frontier, one man’s world was torn apart. Jed McCallister watched his family slaughtered, his body broken, and his eye carved open so he could never look away. Left for dead, he was found by the Crow, healed by their medicine man… and cursed with the Eye for Vengeance. Beneath a leather patch, a hellish red light waits. When revealed, ghosts rise to rip the souls from their flesh, hands rise up dragging them screaming into Hell. Blackwood thinks he’s untouchable. But Jed has returned. And he has but one purpose… vengeance.
Hope of Survival
Blood on the Mountain centers on a young man navigating the expectations of his family and the pain of bullying while coming to terms with his own identity and sexuality. What was the idea, or spark, that first set off the need to write this book?
Having been raised in a religious family, unlike the main character’s experience in my book, I’ve faced my own share of bullies and name-calling. This led me to reach out to others who may be going through or have gone through a similar situation while growing up. Even though the story is fictional, I drew on research about other LGBTQ+ lives and their own battles. This was my inspiration for this.
What was one scene in the novel that you felt captured the morals and message you were trying to deliver to readers?
I would say it was the picnic scene. This scene took me a while to write. The message that I wanted to deliver was one of love, strength, and hope. Love between the two characters in the scene, the emotion and the strength of one character, experiencing the horror that was happening in front of him, the strength to fight and call for help, and the support and hope of survival.
What character did you enjoy writing for? Was there one that was more challenging to write for?
I enjoyed writing about Noah. I enjoyed writing about his challenges in his life, his survival, and finally seeing him embrace happiness with Joshua. The challenging character was Paul, his bully and tormentor. I spent hours researching the effects of someone abusing drugs and the consequences to his health.
What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?
I am working on a story that will continue over three books. Here is a synopsis of the story:
For most of his thirty-six years, Adam Keller has lived life like a shadow—quiet, invisible, and careful not to take up too much space. A gentle, gay bookstore clerk in a city that doesn’t always love people like him, Adam has spent his life surviving: his father’s rejection, a school history laced with cruelty, and a society that punished softness in boys. He doesn’t fight back. He just endures. Until the day he almost dies.
One morning walk in the park turns savage when a group of homophobic men ambush Adam and beat him within inches of his life. Left broken and bleeding, something inside him—something long buried and ancient—wakes up.
He survives. More than that…he changes.
The first book I am aiming for in Jan 2026.
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Noah Bailey is suffocating in silence.
Trapped in an oppressive home ruled by religious dogma, he’s learned to hide who he is—and what he truly wants. But everything changes when he meets Joshua Taylor, a kind, fearless stranger who sees him for who he really is. For the first time, Noah dares to dream of freedom, love… and a future that’s finally his own.
But happiness doesn’t last.
A shocking betrayal from the past resurfaces just as Joshua is left fighting for his life. As Noah clings to hope, the ghosts of his school years begin to stir—bringing threats, secrets, and a trail of lies that refuse to stay buried.
With every revelation, Noah’s world fractures.
And the deeper he digs for the truth, the more he realizes someone is watching. Someone who wants the past to stay hidden—and who will do anything to keep it that way.
Love. Betrayal. Justice.
In this gripping story of survival and self-discovery, Noah must face his darkest fears and risk everything for the one person who gave him hope.
But when trust becomes a deadly gamble…
Can he confront the truth before it destroys them both?
LITERARY TITAN 