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Literary Titan Silver Book Awards
Celebrating the brilliance of outstanding authors who have captivated us with their skillful prose, engaging narratives, and compelling real and imagined characters. We recognize books that stand out for their innovative storytelling and insightful exploration of truth and fiction. Join us in honoring the dedication and skill of these remarkable authors as we celebrate the diverse and rich worlds they’ve brought to life, whether through the realm of imagination or the lens of reality.
Award Recipients
Losing Mom by Peggy Ottman
This Is For MY Glory: A Story of Fatherlessness, Failure, Grace, and Redemption
Toil and Trouble by Brian Starr
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
Etched Into the Magic User’s Flesh
Bathed in Ink and Blood follows two threads: the Butcher of Greenlake’s desire for revenge, and twin siblings, as they undergo the Test that reveals their signamantic abilities. What was the inspiration that drove the development of the world the characters live in?Â
A large inspiration for me was Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn and its magic system. I had an idea for a hard magic system built around symbols etched into the magic user’s flesh and took that idea into Dave Wolverton’s Advanced Story Puzzle course, and Bathed in Ink and Blood was born. A caste system grew around the magic system, one that would lend itself well to the darker world I was attempting to craft. Then, I dove into how this magic system would impact the world as whole, and found myself asking a variety of questions. How could the magic users be used for benefit or detriment? How would technological advancement be different with the presence of this magic? This basically a long way of saying, Signamancy was born and the world grew around it.
I felt that your novel delivers the drama so well that it flirts with the grimdark genre. Was it your intention to give the story a darker tone?
I always planned for Bathed in Ink and Blood to be darker. I wanted to explore if a character was pushed too far, what they would do in response. You can call it a spectrum, each of the characters, Brist, Dacre, and Raya, are at different spots at the start of the novel, and move across that spectrum throughout it. For example, with Brist, easily the most morally gray character in the story, he’s on the far side of the spectrum. His objective is all that matters, no action too brutal if it takes him a step closer to his goal. Having a character like that, the darker tone seemed the only choice. Then you are provided the opportunity to push your other characters and explore questions like “What is too far?” or “What will I lose if I do this?”.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The main themes I explored were revenge, coming of age, found family, and belonging/acceptance. Of course, there are other themes, but there were the big four, each one mainly applied to one of the three POV characters. Brist’s main theme was revenge and that is what he becomes, it is his singular focus and he blocks everything else out. With Dacre it is coming of age and found family; we have a teenager with a new found power that destroys his family. He has to navigate a new power and finds himself with Brist and his team. What starts as a need, turns into a family. For Raya it is belonging/acceptance. She wants her father’s approval, but to him, her only use is to form a relationship with a former king through a marriage, a marriage she does not want.
What will your next novel be about, and what will the whole series encompass?
My next novel will be the sequel to Bathed in Ink and Blood and will start directly after the events of the first novel. Readers will find certain characters on a similar path they were previously on, while other characters start new ones. The main theme that will be explored in the sequel will be “war”. The series, Ink, Brand, and Knife, is a planned trilogy and will include at least two novellas, one of which I’m actively working on, before I move to the sequel.
Author Links:Â GoodReads | Facebook |Â Website | Instagram
Signamancy opens a world of possibilities for a low-born teen. However, a power that gives can also take away. Dacre Caeinn finds himself in the company of the Butcher of Greenlake. Will the most wanted man in Camoria help Dacre save the one he loves most or will he be another victim buried in the Butcher’s trail of revenge?
The life of the standard noblewoman was one Raya Adan never wanted despite her father’s insistence. Now, she finds herself betrothed and the idea of being shipped across the sea as little more than a commodity does not sit well with her. To gain her father’s approval and show her worth as more than a bargaining chip, she dives into the investigation of recent attacks on the family’s ventures. However, not all is as it seems and Raya slowly unravels truths that will upend the world she knows.
It Became Much Darker
Dark Threads tells three haunting dark-fantasy stories where desperate survivors endure brutal magic and impossible choices in worlds crumbling under their own shadows. What sparked the initial idea for Dark Threads, and did one story come first?
The Breath Borrower was the first dark-fantasy story I’d ever written. I wrote it specifically for the Writers of the Future contest about five years ago. When I first had the idea, I don’t think it was dark, per se, but as the story developed, the weight of it grew, and it became much darker.
It received a Silver Honorable Mention in the contest, and I really loved the story, but after trying for a few years to get it published—and receiving a few quite nice rejection letters—I decided to share it with readers on my own. The other two stories in this volume had also received HM’s in the contest, and since they were also rather grim and dark, I thought they’d work well together.

I plan to continue the series, since I enjoy dwelling dark occasionally, but their release may be erratic since I write across multiple genres, and these types of stories can be emotionally intense to create.
The magic systems are uniquely brutal. How did you approach designing magic that feels both inventive and emotionally costly?
I think because of the depth of magic involved in these stories, the giving or receiving of something from inside the characters themselves, it made the cost automatically become greater and more intimate. Very personal. And because of that, it became a choice for each character. Risking their own life for others. Even in the case of Vapors of Misuse, the twins are seeking revenge, but also an end to the misery their lives are a part of, either for each other, or for the community after they’re gone.
Your characters often operate in moral gray zones. How do you balance empathy with their harsher decisions?
Once I started coming up with the ideas, the characters themselves took over. That often happens in my writing. They flesh themselves out. They become very real, and real people often have far more gray in them than edging toward black or white. And the gray is interesting to explore.
It goes back to the choice thing. Under “normal” circumstances, the main characters would be ordinary people, but I’ve thrown them into some type of chaos, and they have to react while trying to still keep part of themselves…well, themselves.
The endings are powerful but intentionally not tidy. How do you know when a story with this much darkness has reached its conclusion?
Life isn’t very tidy. A lot of my short stories feel like vignettes of the character’s life to me. You know things were happening before this moment, which are sometimes alluded to, giving the reader more background, but you also get the feeling something else will probably come after the story, though perhaps not with the central character.
The vignette ends at a pause, like the end of an exhale. The flow of that particular moment narrows until you break away. It’s not always a clean break. Something might not be fully resolved. It’s a bit like ending on a discordant note in music. It might leave you feeling a little disturbed, but glad it’s fading away at the same time.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website | Instagram
In this collection of haunting dark fantasy tales, mortals and spirits alike wrestle with destiny, sacrifice, and the cost of power.
In The Breath Borrower, a sacred thief of breath must choose between duty and mercy in a city where life and death hang on a whisper.
The Withering follows a lone scholar through the dream-infested Underland, seeking a cure for a dying world—even as her own body fades.
And in Vapors of Misuse, a cursed twin races against time to use forbidden magic against a ruthless tyrant—before he is consumed by the very power he wields.
These are not stories of easy victories or neat endings. They are stories of survival, of sacrifice, and of what lingers when hope is gone.
Quests & Queries
Quests & Queries follows Query, a young Devil leaving her home in Hell for the Dalton Adventuring Academy for Monsters. The story blends coming-of-age nerves, queer self-discovery, explicit desire, and creeping supernatural dread as Query wrestles with a seductive aura she can’t control and a nightmare creature that seems to have followed her into the mortal world. The book mixes cozy moments, raw vulnerability, messy hookups, strange magic, and a big, warm cast of monsters who fill every scene with energy and charm.
I was pulled in by the tone most of all. The writing swings between funny, tender, anxious, and sensual. It feels alive in a way that made me grin one moment and wince the next. The voice is confident and conversational. It jumps from casual jokes to heavy emotional beats without losing its footing. Some scenes ran hot enough to fog up my glasses, and others punched me right in the gut. I liked how boldly it sat with uncomfortable feelings, especially Query’s mix of shame, desire, and fear. The pacing is quick most of the time. I enjoyed being tossed around by it.
Query’s aura, which makes nearly everyone want her, could have stayed a simple erotic device. Instead, it carries weight. It shapes her loneliness, her guilt, her longing for connection that isn’t warped by magic. The book leans into that ache, and it made me care about her. I also felt something real in the way the academy welcomes her with open arms and sudden chaos. The crush of new people, the confusing attention, the tiny disasters piling up. It reminded me of how starting college feels. Big and scary and exciting. The worldbuilding is vibrant and wild, but the emotional heart is surprisingly grounded.
By the last pages, I realized how much the book aims to blend comfort with danger. Cute friendships sit right next to unsettling hauntings. Steamy encounters overlap with moments of deep insecurity. It’s a mix that works.
I’d recommend Quests & Queries to readers who enjoy queer fantasy with spice, humor, and a lot of emotional honesty. It’s perfect for anyone who likes character-driven stories packed with magic and heat and who doesn’t mind things getting messy. If you want a book that feels playful and cozy and sometimes downright chaotic, this one will hit the spot.
Pages: 337 | ASIN : B0G1D4BHNY
The Winds of War
The Winds of War opens with a sweeping fantasy world marked by old grudges, broken continents, and horrors that crawl out of black oceans. It follows several threads at once. A historian condemned to a gruesome fate. A chieftainess defends her people as a hostile empire closes in. A dragonrider racing against time. A soldier wrestling with his worth. Their stories twist through war, myth, and rising dread, and the early passages make clear that the world is on the edge of something catastrophic. The tone is harsh, grim, sometimes tender, and always huge in scope.
As I read, I kept stopping just to feel the weight of the writing. The author paints with bold strokes. The violence is raw, and the quiet moments hit even harder because of it. I found myself getting swept up in the grit of the battles and the soft warmth of family scenes. I loved how the prose moved, sometimes sharp, sometimes lyrical, always sure of itself. The intensity kept ramping up, which actually left me excited for the next wild twist.
I loved the ideas this story explores. The way faith is twisted into cruelty. The way people cling to hope even when the ocean itself seems hungry for them. The book digs into power, sacrifice, and the awful choices leaders face. I kept thinking about how everyone tries to do right in their own way. Even when those ways collide. The ambition of the story and the world thrilled me. It felt like standing in the wind of something huge.
I would recommend The Winds of War to readers who enjoy dark fantasy with heart. Folks who like big worlds, messy heroes, and stories that don’t hold your hand. It reminded me of the sweeping grit of A Song of Ice and Fire and the wild, creature-soaked tension of The Witcher books, only this story hits with its own sharper bite and a faster heartbeat.
Pages: 526 | ASIN : B0F9SCV4CJ
The Manglers of Carraig
The Manglers of Carraig drops readers straight into a city split by wealth, fear, and the eerie green glow of warding gems. It follows Conell Byrne, a boy fighting to keep his family alive in a world where monsters stalk the night and the rich hoard their safety behind iron fences. His desperate attempts to protect his sister and his mother collide with the power games of men like Garban the loan shark, and the story pulls that thread tighter as the dangers grow. Alongside this grim struggle is Riona, a jeweler whose bold designs using mangler claws spark outrage among the elite. Their stories move on separate tracks at first, one soaked in survival and the other in ambition, yet both expose the city’s deep fractures and the unseen costs of living in Carraig.
I found the writing fast and punchy. Scenes land quickly and hard. I especially liked how the book lets moments breathe right before everything goes sideways. Conell racing through dark streets with only gemlight to save him had me clenching my jaw. The author leans into sensory details that linger and refuses to clean things up for comfort. I felt the grit of the lower districts and the cold shine of North Hill. I felt Conell’s panic when he returned home and found the door broken open and the ominous quiet inside. The emotional hits come simply and directly, which makes them incredibly impactful.
The worldbuilding grabbed me, too. I appreciated how the author mixes small human choices with the big looming terror of the manglers. It all feels grounded even when the story dips into the grotesque. Riona’s chapters were a surprise. They twist into subtle power struggles and hidden desire. Her jewelry made of claws could have been a cheap gimmick, but it ends up saying something about the people of Carraig and what they choose to look away from. I enjoyed how these two storylines sit far apart but rhyme in the way everyone is just trying to survive something, even if the monsters look different.
By the end, I felt a strange mix of sadness and curiosity about where the story might go next. I would recommend The Manglers of Carraig to readers who enjoy dark fantasy with heart, quick pacing, and a world that feels alive even in its ugliness. If you like stories about people pushed to the edge and forced to make impossible choices, this one will stick with you.
Pages: 188 | ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0FX3WVJ1C
Bathed in Ink and Blood
Bathed in Ink and Blood opens as a dark, magic-laced fantasy that follows two threads: Noddum’s brutal clash with Brist, the infamous Butcher of Greenlake, and the quieter, more intimate story of twins Dacre and Esmee as they undergo the Test that reveals their signamantic abilities. Right away, the book establishes itself as epic fantasy with grimdark edges, mixing the political tension of a kingdom cracking at the seams with the personal stakes of people trying to survive systems that see them as tools or threats.
Reading it felt like slipping into a world that’s heavy with history. The magic system built around ink, brands, and carved symbols is vivid and tactile. I found myself leaning in during sections, partly because the author writes pain and power in a way that’s blunt but also strangely tender. The early chapters around Dacre and Esmee hit me hardest. Their innocence, their hope, and then the slow realization that their mother may have just sold them made my stomach drop. Author Robert Laymon doesn’t rush those moments. He lets them sit, lets them ache. It works.
On the other side of the story, Brist’s chapters are sharp and unsettling. He’s haunted, vengeful, messy, and written in a way that made me feel both wary of him and weirdly sympathetic. His scenes drip with tension. Even when he’s still, the writing hums. I appreciated how the author doesn’t treat violence like spectacle. It’s brutal, sure, but it’s also shaped by emotion, regret, and purpose. The dynamic between Brist and the people around him feels lived-in, like a group stitched together by survival rather than trust. It adds weight to the plot and makes his arc more interesting than a simple revenge story.
Raya is an interesting character because she starts out feeling overlooked in a family obsessed with power, but she slowly shows how strong and capable she is. We see flashes of her compassion, like when she notices how her father mistreats the servants, and those moments make it clear she’s nothing like the rest of the Adans. I think Raya is a standout character whose quiet resilience, empathy, and determination make her compelling.
By the time the two storylines start bending toward each other, the world feels wide and dangerous. The writing style helps with that. It’s clear but atmospheric, not bogged down by jargon, and the pacing keeps you moving. Some chapters are quiet and reflective. Others are teeth-clenching. The mix makes the book feel grounded, even when the magic flares bright.
If you like fantasy that leans dark but stays character-driven, with a magic system that feels both fresh and gritty, this will likely hit the spot. Fans of grimdark, epic fantasy, and stories that explore power, loyalty, and the price of survival will probably enjoy Bathed in Ink and Blood the most.
Pages: 439 | ASIN : B0FLRP6TYX
Literary Titan Book Award: Fiction
The Literary Titan Book Award honors books that exhibit exceptional storytelling and creativity. This award celebrates novelists who craft compelling narratives, create memorable characters, and weave stories that captivate readers. The recipients are writers who excel in their ability to blend imagination with literary skill, creating worlds that enchant and narratives that linger long after the final page is turned.
Award Recipients
Talthybius by Jessie Holder Tourtellotte and Nathaniel Howard
Golem Mine by Donald Schwartz
A Trail in the Woods by Mallory O’Connor
Messenger of the Reaper Part 2 by Jimmy Straley
Missing in Lincoln Park by Staci Andrea
Medusa: Or, Men Entombed in Winter by Kyle Farnworth
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
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