Blog Archives
To Tell a Story
Out of the Water follows a prince who doubts his worth and must uncover the secrets of his bloodline and three magical rings as a growing conflict threatens the kingdoms of earth, water, and fire. What is the most rewarding aspect of writing a series?
To tell a story. Show how, through fictitious characters, people can change, and not always for the better. Choices bare consequences. Out of the Water is an excellent example of just that. You can learn what not to do when writing characters similar to Svaryur and Drifa.
How did you develop the Einns and the rules surrounding their magical powers?
Einn in Icelandic means one. The residents in Huldar usually only have one Einn. That’s where it started, with one magical power progressing into three separate Einns. Fire, Water, and Joro (in Old Norse for earth). Fire comes from the heart, Water from the mind, and Joro from the lungs. Einns have limits.
Svaryur’s character changes significantly throughout the novel. At what point did you realize how dark his transformation would become?
When he would use his own son in Into the Fire to get what Drifa wanted.
Svaryur never really did what he wanted, only Drifa.
Can you give us a glimpse into the next installment of The Huldar Chronicles? Where will it take readers?
The final Chronicle, End of Joro, is the ending. Aron’s great- grandson, Hakon has taken the stage. He will take readers on a journey of Hope. “For when we fall we must continue to rise.”
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
Love Beyond Eros
Love Beyond Eros, the third book in Chris Neo’s The Love Secret series, is an ambitious mix of romantic drama, psychological exploration, family story, and high-stakes adventure. The novel begins with Aris missing from the remote Greek village where his relationship with Angelica has reached a painful turning point, then quickly turns his disappearance into a life-or-death crisis. From there, the story keeps expanding, bringing friends, family members, military figures, enemies, and former lovers into an increasingly elaborate chain of events. That scope fits Neo’s stated purpose for the series: he wants an emotionally driven story that explores love and relationships while keeping the plot moving quickly. What makes the book distinctive is how fully it commits to that combination. Love here isn’t simply romantic attraction. It becomes the force behind friendship, loyalty, sacrifice, jealousy, forgiveness, parenthood, and the difficult choices people make when someone they care about is in danger.
The emotional center of the novel is Aris, but the story works through a large ensemble, and several of the most interesting developments happen because other characters are forced to reconsider who they are. Angelica’s devotion to Aris becomes fierce and protective. John and Uri discover that friendship means showing up even when they’re frightened, inconvenienced, or powerless to fix the situation. Varo has one of the book’s largest arcs, moving through obsession, suspicion, buried trauma, loyalty, and a growing understanding of her own past. Granny, Zoe, Gina, Adonis, and others each contribute another variation on the book’s central question: what does loving someone actually require of you? The title gradually earns its importance because the novel keeps pushing beyond eros, or romantic desire, toward agape, family bonds, friendship, compassion, and self-sacrifice. Angelica eventually gives that idea its clearest expression when she describes a love that reaches beyond eros, tying the title directly to the emotional argument the story has been building.
Neo tells all of this in a deliberately heightened style. The book moves from a Greek village and a mysterious poisoning into military flights, international maneuvering, assassins, rescues, betrayals, martial arts confrontations, family reunions, pregnancies, old romances, and long-delayed revelations. It has the energy of a serialized adventure, with short chapters and frequent shifts in location and perspective designed to keep another complication arriving just as the previous one settles. That can make the experience feel almost breathless, but it also gives the novel its personality. Serious conversations about love and identity can sit beside broad comedy, sensual scenes, action sequences, and larger-than-life characters without the story losing its basic emotional direction. By the final chapter and epilogue, the sprawling cast has been drawn back toward family, healing, changed relationships, and the possibility of another journey, giving the ending the feeling of both a conclusion and a continuation.
I’d recommend Love Beyond Eros most strongly to readers who enjoy emotionally intense stories that combine romance with adventure, family drama, friendship, danger, and questions about why people love the way they do. It should especially appeal to readers who like big casts, dramatic reversals, passionate dialogue, Greek cultural touches, and characters whose emotional growth matters as much as the physical action surrounding them. Since this is Book Three, it will have the greatest impact on readers who already know Aris, John, Uri, Varo, Angelica, and the relationships developed earlier in The Love Secret series. The novel asks for a reader willing to enter its heightened world and care about its characters with the same intensity that they care about one another. For that reader, this is a generous, eventful finale built around a sincere idea: desire may begin a love story, but loyalty, sacrifice, forgiveness, friendship, and family are what reveal how deep love can become.
Pages: 416 | ASIN : B0CXB6NQTL
Grief and Loss
Pablo follows a beloved dog who is separated from his family and embarks on an unexpected journey home, forming an unlikely friendship and discovering the meaning of love, courage, and belonging along the way. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The inspiration for the setup of Pablo’s story was one that just hit me all at once in a flash! A good friend of mine challenged me to write something, and I had long pondered that conversation – even debating with myself on what I wanted to write. Then the idea for Pablo hit me like a lightning bolt. I literally had the entire story laid out in my head in a flash of creative sorcery. It was remarkable! As I started flushing the idea out further, and being that PABLO is a Mexican dog, I had the idea to write PABLO in English with Spanish words and phrases. So children can learn some Spanish while reading the book. Then, when my mother suddenly passed away, I was grieving and had the idea to incorporate the Five Stages of Grief into the book to help parents and educators openly discuss grief and loss with children. I thought to myself, “If I can help one child deal with what I’m dealing with right now, it will all be worth it”. The response has been amazing. The grief component is really resonating with librarians and parents alike, and I’m very thankful for that.
The story combines comedy, adventure, and moments of grief. How did you balance those very different emotional tones for young readers?
The comedic and adventure components of PABLO can naturally flow while flushing out the story. The grief component was far more challenging. I wanted to subtly weave the Five Stages of grief into the book without forcing the Five Stages down readers’ throats. I wanted to make sure I handled all the stages of grief properly, but subtly, to make sure each stage was easily accessible to children and parents/educators. The lesson plan at the back of the book encourages open discussion about grief and loss with children, and the work Missy did with us on that is invaluable. There are also further lesson plan materials on our website at www.kidstori.com
How did you and illustrator Irvin Walkes work together to develop the visual world of Pablo?
Irvin did a remarkable job with the art on PABLO. It took almost three years to complete, as every page was hand-drawn and painted. Our process was not unlike Disney films of old, with the art. I always wanted to create a 1070’s throwback feel with a modern twist, and Irvin accomplished all that and more! There was Irvin the artist, Jason (Publisher), Rob (designer), and I getting together weekly to review and work on all the art. Some panels magically worked right away, while others took years of revisions. Irvin would board the panel, and we would tweak the art tirelessly to make sure it was perfect before we advanced to color or texture. If we did not like something, even the smallest little detail, Irvin went back to the drawing board, starting the panel from scratch until we all felt it was just right. We have thousands of iterations of the different panels of art in the book.
Do you see more adventures ahead for Pablo and his family?
Well… There may just be an easter egg in PABLO setting up a sequel… See if you can find it. 🙂
OH! – And when you finish reading PABLO, don’t forget to play PABLO: The Video Game! We spent three years working on that as well, and we feel it is a wonderful complement to the book!
Out of the Water
K. Browning’s Out of the Water, the prequel to Into the Fire, is a dark fantasy novel about power, pain, loyalty, and the stories people accept about themselves. It follows Svaryur, a prince who grows up believing he’s weak and unworthy of the throne. His world is divided into three kingdoms whose people command earth, water, or fire through powers known as the Einns. As Svaryur learns more about his unusual bloodline, the political structure of Huldar, and the secrets surrounding the three magical rings, his personal struggle expands into a conflict that threatens every kingdom. The fantasy setting gives the story plenty of battles and supernatural danger, but its real center is a young man who desperately wants love to prove that his life matters.
Svaryur is an interesting protagonist because his kindness and insecurity are tangled together from the beginning. He’s mocked by his family and peers, yet he continues to care about people who hurt him. The advice he receives from Verja becomes one of the book’s central ideas: “If all you take in is weakness, then you will become weak. If you take in strength, then you will become strong.” That lesson sounds encouraging, but the novel keeps asking what strength actually means. Svaryur gradually becomes more capable and powerful, yet he also becomes increasingly willing to manipulate, threaten, and injure others. His transformation gives the book its tragic shape because readers can understand how he reaches each decision, even when those decisions become frightening.
Drifa is just as important to the story, and her relationship with Svaryur drives much of the plot. She’s clever, secretive, ambitious, and capable of using more than one Einn. She also loves Svaryur, though her love often takes the form of tests, lies, and control. Their bond begins with a childhood challenge involving a rare Dayflower and eventually develops into a partnership built around hidden powers, political goals, and their son, Soterios. The romance has an uneasy intensity because Svaryur treats Drifa as his source of courage while Drifa treats him as someone she must protect and direct. They genuinely care for each other, but their habit of keeping secrets turns that care into something unstable.
The book moves quickly through childhood, family rivalry, royal succession, war, death, and the pursuit of the three Einn rings. Its strongest scenes connect physical action with emotional consequences, such as the Bardagi between Svaryur and Leifur, Svaryur’s encounters with the other kings, and the final battle in which old friendships collapse under fear and ambition. Browning also builds a mythology involving purebloods, Sheol, Paradis, the Creator, and the destructive beast Erekki. There are many names, rules, revelations, and shifting motivations to follow, so some sections feel crowded, and the frequent changes in viewpoint can make the emotional focus jump around. Still, the central images of water, drowning, fire, flowers, and distorted reflections give the story a recognizable identity.
What stayed with me most was the way Out of the Water treats weakness as a label that can shape someone’s entire life. The opening insists that “Pain is where it all begins,” and the rest of the novel explores what people choose to build from that pain. Svaryur wants to rise above everything that has been spoken over him, but he keeps measuring his worth through love, authority, and supernatural power. By the bleak final chapters, his victories and failures have become difficult to separate. The ending leaves him suspended between survival and destruction, with only enough light to search for a way forward. It’s a dramatic, emotionally raw opening to a fantasy series, and its most compelling question is whether Svaryur can ever define strength for himself.
PABLO
Pablo, written by Mar Andersons and illustrated by Irvin Walkes, is a lively children’s adventure about a beach-town dog in Mexico whose life suddenly takes an unexpected turn. Pablo is excited about becoming a father, but a trip to a resort leads to him being mistaken for a stray, taken away, and eventually transported all the way to Seattle. From there, the story becomes a cross-country journey as Pablo tries to get back to Arianna and their new puppies. Along the way, he meets Grandma Joan, a lonely widow traveling in an RV, and their separate stories gradually come together in a way that gives the book more emotional weight than its wild opening might suggest.
The story moves quickly and has a playful sense of humor. Pablo is dramatic, expressive, and constantly reacting to whatever bizarre situation he lands in next, whether he’s wearing a pink dress, escaping through a backyard, flying toward a highway, or helping Joan change a flat tire. The rhyming text keeps the pace energetic, and the Spanish words scattered throughout the story give Pablo a distinctive voice while also introducing young readers to simple vocabulary. A Spanish-to-English glossary near the end helps readers understand words such as amor, familia, gracias, and corazón. The humor and action make the book fun to read aloud, while Pablo’s determination to get home gives all that chaos a clear purpose.
The illustrations are fantastic. Walkes uses bold colors, exaggerated expressions, dramatic perspectives, and almost cinematic scenes to make Pablo’s journey feel big. Some pages are bright and cartoonish, such as the resort scenes with the mischievous twins, while others become darker and more atmospheric when Pablo is frightened or lost. The scene with the enormous cat Buttons feels almost like a suspense movie, while later pages showing Pablo and Joan traveling down the coast become warmer and calmer. The final beach scenes are especially striking, with soft sunset colors and the whole family gathered together by the water. The pictures don’t simply repeat what the text says. They add jokes, emotion, movement, and small visual details that give readers more to notice each time through the book.
What gives Pablo its heart is the way the adventure becomes a story about family, grief, companionship, and finding your way home. Pablo spends most of the book trying to return to Arianna, while Joan is quietly trying to cope with losing her husband. Their friendship helps both of them move forward. By the time they reach Mexico, Pablo is reunited with his family, and Joan finds a new sense of connection with them as well. The book even includes a section for adults about talking to children about grief, connecting Joan’s experiences to the stages of grief shown throughout the story. Pablo packs comedy, action, Spanish vocabulary, and some tender moments into one energetic story, making it a colorful read that can entertain kids while also opening the door to conversations about love, loss, responsibility, and belonging.
Pages: 53 | ISBN : 978-1-7381704-0-1
Assumption
Assumption, by Mark Stirling, is a warm, faith-centered companion novel that follows Johnny Promise as he reflects on the people and experiences that shaped his understanding of dignity, disability, and human connection. The book opens in a nursing home, where Johnny forms an unlikely friendship with Bobby Ackerman, a resident with autism and Down syndrome who’s frequently dismissed by the people responsible for his care. Their relationship, built through coffee, cartoons, teasing, and patient attention, establishes the book’s central conviction that everyone longs to be recognized as a person.
From there, the novel widens into Johnny’s own story. After suffering a stroke at twenty, he discovers evidence that the twin sister he was told had died at birth may still be alive. His search leads him to Maura, a deaf young woman who was secretly placed in an institution because an older relative considered her defective. The mystery gives the middle of the book momentum, but the reunion and its emotional consequences are what really matter. Johnny and Maura have to build a sibling relationship as adults, introduce her to a family that believed she was dead, and figure out how love can restore something without pretending the lost years never happened.
Stirling’s storytelling feels like listening to someone recount a meaningful life over coffee. Johnny’s voice is plainspoken, funny, sentimental, and openly religious, with plenty of colorful comparisons and conversational detours. At times, he explains the lesson of a scene after the scene has already made it clear, and some antagonistic characters are drawn in broad strokes. Still, the book’s emotional directness suits its narrator. The strongest passages come from small acts of recognition: Bobby being trusted to help with an ambulance siren, Maura preparing to meet her parents, Johnny learning to live with the visible effects of his stroke, and family members adjusting their lives to make room for one another.
This book will appeal most to readers who enjoy inspirational family fiction, stories about disability and caregiving, and novels grounded in Christian faith. Healthcare workers may find Johnny’s observations about compassion, burnout, and patient dignity especially familiar. It’s also a good fit for readers who value an earnest narrator and don’t mind a story wearing its heart openly. Assumption ultimately asks readers to slow down, look beyond the easiest explanation of another person, and remain curious long enough to discover the life that first impressions conceal.
Pages: 163 | ASIN : B0H3G99WMF
The Last Pirouette: A Novel in Three Acts
Janette DeFelice’s The Last Pirouette is a psychologically charged work of contemporary women’s fiction and family drama set inside the demanding world of professional ballet. The story centers on Victoria, a former dancer who has poured her abandoned ambitions into her gifted teenage daughter, Delia. When Delia earns a prestigious opportunity in New York, what looks like a career breakthrough exposes a deeper struggle over identity, control, and the difficult boundary between devotion and possession. The novel’s theatrical structure, presented as a story in three acts, fits its preoccupation with performance, fate, and the roles people play for one another.
The mother-daughter relationship gives this ballet novel its emotional force. Victoria can be intrusive and frustrating, but DeFelice lets us see the grief, trauma, thwarted ambition, and genuine love beneath her behavior. Delia is just as carefully drawn. She loves the physical and artistic experience of dance, yet she’s unsure whether the life built around it belongs to her. That tension makes the book more than a familiar coming-of-age story. It becomes a sharp examination of how a parent’s sacrifices can turn into debts a child never agreed to repay, and how hard it can be to separate your own desires from the expectations that shaped you.
DeFelice’s background in dance is evident in the detailed descriptions of technique, rehearsal, injury, and the strange combination of pain and transcendence that ballet demands. Readers who enjoy dance fiction, psychological fiction, and mother-daughter novels will find plenty to absorb here. The recurring birds, rain, mirrors, wings, and prophetic visions give the narrative a dreamlike, sometimes surreal quality, while the alternating timelines show how unresolved experiences repeat themselves across generations. Some passages linger over physical sensation and interior thought, but that intensity suits characters who understand their lives through movement and through bodies that are constantly being trained, judged, desired, and pushed past their limits.
As the novel grows darker, its early sense of possibility becomes increasingly uneasy, and the closing act carries the momentum of a tragedy whose warning signs have been visible all along. Even so, The Last Pirouette remains deeply interested in choice, autonomy, love, and the question of whether people can stop handing their pain to the next generation. It’s an emotionally demanding literary family drama with a vivid ballet setting, complicated women, and a theatrical sensibility that makes every revelation feel as though it’s happening under stage lights. The result is unsettling, intimate, and likely to stay with readers who appreciate character-driven fiction that doesn’t look away from the damage people can do while believing they’re acting out of love.
Pages: 328 | ASIN : B0FWZX8Z64
Even Angels Wear Leather Jackets and Ride Motorcycles
J.A. McGovern’s Even Angels Wear Leather Jackets and Ride Motorcycles is an emotionally candid family drama about the people whose influence continues long after they’re gone. The story follows Peter as he learns that his beloved Uncle Eddie is dying and desperately races from Philadelphia to a New Jersey hospital. During that frantic journey, memories carry Peter through family celebrations, nights at local bars, youthful misadventures, romantic conflicts, and private conversations with the uncle who believed in his creative ambitions. These recollections build a vivid portrait of Eddie as a motorcycle-riding rebel, devoted father, loyal friend, and unexpected source of wisdom.
The book’s nonlinear structure reflects how memory often works during a crisis. A train ride, a song, a hospital corridor, or the sight of a leather jacket can send Peter into another moment from his relationship with Eddie. Some memories are funny and unruly, while others reveal Eddie guiding Peter through questions about love, prejudice, family expectations, and the uncertain path of becoming an artist. Eddie’s advice, “If you ever feel lonely pull out your pen and write. Be the guide other wanderers seek,” captures both his role in Peter’s life and the purpose behind the book itself. Peter isn’t simply remembering his uncle. He’s using storytelling to carry Eddie’s guidance forward.
McGovern gives this coming-of-age novel and family loss story much of its personality through working-class New Jersey settings, Italian American family gatherings, neighborhood bars, classic-rock songs, motorcycles, food, cigarettes, and relentless teasing. The family feels loud, imperfect, affectionate, and recognizably alive. Eddie emerges through accumulated details rather than formal descriptions, whether he’s supporting Peter after a performance, defending his relationship with Zoe, helping a stranger, or making a memorable exit on his Harley. That everyday intimacy gives the hospital and funeral scenes their emotional force because readers have spent so much time seeing what Eddie meant to the people surrounding him.
Readers familiar with Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie may recognize a similar relationship between a searching young man and an older mentor facing death. Both books explore how one person’s lessons can shape another person’s future, but McGovern’s story unfolds with the rowdy energy of family legend. Its world includes drinking, parties, racial tensions, artistic dreams, local humor, and the restless recklessness of early adulthood. Eddie’s philosophy isn’t delivered through scheduled conversations. It comes through shared meals, spontaneous drives, loud music, difficult choices, and the example of how he treats people.
The ideal audience for Even Angels Wear Leather Jackets and Ride Motorcycles includes adult readers who enjoy autobiographical fiction, family dramas, and emotional coming-of-age stories. It will speak especially strongly to anyone who’s lost an uncle, parent, mentor, or other larger-than-life family member and found that grief can preserve even the smallest memories. By the time Peter places a rose on Eddie’s casket and promises, “I will live in your memory Uncle Eddie,” the title feels fully earned. Eddie becomes the book’s leather-clad angel, roaring through Peter’s memories and reminding him to love bravely, follow his own path, and create something that might guide the next wanderer.
