Blog Archives
Global History and Politics
Jigsaw: Sonora follows a group of ideological extremists who travel back in time to WWI to alter history, and a group of temporal guardians must stop them before their plan unfolds. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Excellent question. Most of the attention given to World War I seems to center on what happened on the Western and Eastern Fronts in Europe. Outside of the Zimmerman Telegram, little attention is given to the efforts to keep the United States out of the war or keep many of their military assets occupied on the Southern Border. This book touches on that as well as the origins of the Influenza virus in that period and the attack on Wall Street, where a real one did take place in 1920.
What intrigues you about this time period enough to write such a thrilling novel in this era?
This time period influenced global history and politics for the next century, from World War II to the Cold War, to the growth of the United States’ influence, to the advance of the modern welfare state and labor movement, to the creation of modern nations and nationalist movements that are still with us today.
What was your favorite scene in this story?
The climax on the Zepplein Sonora. I do not want to spoil the climax for readers, so I will leave it there.
Can you tell us where the book goes and where we’ll see the characters in the next book?
Yes. The next book, Jigsaw: Shadow Ball is already out where our Time Traveling heroes have to save the creation of the Negro Leagues in the 1920’s and the integration of Major League Baseball in the 1940’s with Larry Doby and the Cleveland Indians. That adventure will be followed in 2026 with Jigsaw: Temporal Apocalypse, where our heroes have to stop the ultimate attempt to change reality in the post-World War I Era by disrupting events in Italy/Yugoslavia over Fiume and the Russian/Polish War.
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Renegade Novus Ordo operatives have formed Global Harmony and have launched Project Sonora, a plan to draw the United States out of World War One, start a continental war in the Americas, and unleash a genetically coded pathogen that would cause population segments to fall to the Influenza Virus.
The Temporal Guardians, led by Francesca and Noah must stop Global Harmony before the Forces of Evil can change history and destroy reality.
Under the Guise of Religion
Woman in the Abbey follows a young woman fleeing her abusive father, who finds an abandoned abbey in a haunted forest, where she finds Lucifer, who is searching for love and redemption. What intrigues you about the horror and paranormal genres that led you to write this book?
I have always been interested in the gothic genre. I have read and reread the classics: The Castle of Otranto, The Monk, Melmoth the Wanderer, Dracula, etc. What intrigues me is the mystery and the elements of the supernatural. What I find most interesting as a writer is that the genre allows me to explore the psychological and sociological aspects of the story and its characters. Unlike horror, whose sole purpose is to frighten, gothic allows for a more in-depth exploration of the psyche.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The themes that I was interested in involved issues of faith and doubt, fidelity and betrayal, and, in the case of Sister Lucretia, cruelty under the guise of religion. We have seen this misapplication of doctrine by religious zealots throughout history, going back to the Inquisition. Lucretia is the embodiment of this. One of the other themes I was interested in exploring was that of violence against women. In this case, the violence was by a woman towards other women. This issue is prevalent in our society. It needs to be exposed and dealt with because, while we may not see it in our daily lives, it is there and there are many women who are suffering.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when can your fans expect it to be out?
I am currently working on a novel that involves my Italian heritage, but which, I hope, will speak to people of all ethnicities. It involves three generations, starting with the immigrants and ending with the grandchildren of those immigrants. I am hoping to explore what it means to be an immigrant — the difficulties they face from language to cultural differences; what is means to be the children of immigrants — those in-betweeners who have to navigate both the old ways of their parents and the new ones they face on a daily basis; and what it means to be third generation where the old ways are there still, way in the background but are mostly ignored. Much of this is based on my own experience as well as on my observations of our new immigrants and their children. The book is in its early beginnings and won’t be done for perhaps 2 or 3 years. I hope, though, that it will appeal to all ethnicities, not just Italian-Americans.
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A young woman, fleeing the clutches of an abusive father, stumbles upon an abandoned abbey on the edge of a haunted forest. But what she finds there is far worse than anything she left behind.
Within the crumbling walls of the Abbey of San Pietro, ancient horrors stir. A mysterious old woman holds secrets of the past, and an unearthly being watches from the shadows—a being with the power to raise the dead and a thirst for vengeance.
Driven by damnation and bitterness, he weaves a sinister plan, using the living and the dead as his pawns. But is it love or something far more dangerous that motivates him?
In this gothic tale of love, betrayal, and unholy retribution, nothing is what it seems. Will she escape the abbey… or become part of its eternal curse?
The Reclusive Chimp
Monkey Flip follows a pair of precocious kids whose father is accused of murder, so they call in a reclusive and grumpy, yet brilliant, talking chimpanzee detective to find the real killer and clear their father’s name. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The book is set in the world of professional wrestling, and many wrestling personalities and storylines inspired the central mystery. Originally, the father was going to be a firefighter, but I love wrestling, almost as much as I love monkeys, so making him a wrestler felt natural. However, it wasn’t until CM Punk held a now-infamous press conference that the mystery truly came together. For the other themes, such as grief and overcoming loss, I drew on my own experiences, as I can be quite the reclusive chimp.
I enjoyed your characters, especially Sebastian Winthrop. What was your favorite character to write for and why?
I actually created Sebastian, the book’s chimp detective, when I was a teenager. Back then, he was Sebastian Winthrop, Millionaire Chimp, and I intended to turn him into a comic strip. Nothing came of it, but I never forgot about him. Writing Sebastian is easy because he’s just an exaggerated version of myself. I also really enjoyed writing Addie, the little girl. I tried to make her like a character in an old Bugs Bunny cartoon. Her interactions with Sebastian were always fun to write, and their love/hate relationship is the heart of the story.
How did the mystery develop for this story? Did you plan it before writing, or did it develop organically?
When I earned my MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, one of my mentors was Victoria Thompson, who wrote the Gaslight Mystery Series. Vicki was the best and taught me everything I know about plotting a mystery. Monkey Flip is my third novel, and I always start with the victim, the suspects, the suspects’ motives and secrets, and the key clues. From there, I structure a loose plot outline, where I know the beginning, the end, and about five “tent pole” scenes that have to be there. That provides the backbone, and then I still have the freedom to discover things along the way. I do a more detailed outline before each chapter, noting the characters’ motivations, obstacles, and goals.
I find a problem in well-written stories, in that I always want there to be another book to continue the story. Is there a second book planned?
Yes, a second book is in the works. This time, the story will take place at a comic book convention. Still ironing out the details, but the actual writing will commence soon. With luck, it should be out next summer.
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When Addie and Bennett Pajakowski learn that their father, the fearsome Bonecrusher Brannigan, is accused of murdering one of his fellow professional wrestlers, they seek the help of Sebastian Winthrop, the world’s greatest detective. So, imagine their surprise when they discover that the reclusive Sebastian is a talking chimp!
Monkey Flip chronicles Sebastian’s investigation into the death of Mitch Mayhem, the heavyweight champion of a local independent wrestling federation. Along the way, Sebastian teaches Addie and Bennett what it takes to be good detectives while they show him that life should be lived and not mourned. The book takes a comedic, satirical look at the fanatical world of professional wrestling and touches on such themes as grief, acceptance, and the importance of family.
Some are already calling Sebastian one of the best detectives in fiction. Others call him the best. Just don’t call him a monkey.
Revenge of the Sisters: A Tale of Retribution (Regina of Warsaw)
After reading Revenge of the Sisters, by Geri Spieler, I found myself drawn into a deeply emotional and powerfully layered story. The book follows Rose, Josie, and Dorothy, three Jewish sisters raised in a Los Angeles orphanage during the 1930s, who come together years later to plot subtle, lawful revenge against the people and institutions that wronged them during their youth. Their stories unfold in tightly woven chapters that alternate between past and present, focusing on themes of justice, resilience, and the long shadows of childhood trauma. As their adult lives intersect with those of their old enemies, the sisters slowly and strategically reclaim the power that was denied them.
Spieler’s writing has a raw, heartfelt honesty that hit me square in the chest. The dialogue feels natural, like it came from real memories. I especially loved how Spieler gave each sister her own voice. Rose, so driven and methodical; Josie, sharp-tongued and creative; Dorothy, bold and defiant with a reporter’s instinct. The writing doesn’t shy away from the harsh truths of prejudice, poverty, and injustice, but it also manages to stay warm, even tender, especially in the family scenes. The pacing is careful and deliberate. It takes its time, but I never felt bored. Each scene deepens your understanding of these women and what shaped them.
The ideas behind the book moved me even more than the plot. Spieler touches on systemic inequality, anti-Semitism, and the long-lasting sting of being overlooked. It got under my skin. There’s no cartoon villain here, just flawed people and flawed systems. What really struck me was how the sisters seek revenge not through violence or chaos, but through intelligence, patience, and a kind of poetic justice. It made me think hard about how often women, especially poor and marginalized women, are expected to just “move on” from harm, and how cathartic it can be when they don’t. I found myself rooting for them, not just because they’d been wronged, but because they deserved to win.
Revenge of the Sisters is a quiet but powerful novel that simmers with righteous anger and hard-won love. It’s perfect for readers who enjoy stories about family bonds, historical settings, and justice served cold. I’d especially recommend it to fans of character-driven fiction with heart and grit.
Pages: 276 | ASIN : B0F7K14NC2
Brick and Marrow: Death and Love in the Gutters of New York
Brick and Marrow, by Brian Hunter, is an atmospheric and character-driven novel set in the aftermath of World War II. It follows Gabriel Marshall, a weary and wounded veteran trying to find purpose and stability in the gritty sprawl of postwar New York. The book opens with Gabriel losing his factory job after a traumatic workplace accident, then spirals into a quiet yet powerful meditation on loss, guilt, identity, and the grinding weight of survival in a hostile city. As Gabe roams from one job to another, meets kind souls like Lindy the diner waitress, and is haunted by memories of war and family, a larger mystery of grisly murders unspools in the background, adding a sinister layer to this already bleak world.
The writing is lyrical and haunting, full of rich sensory details. Hunter paints a world of rust, smoke, and fading dreams with such care that you can practically smell the burnt coffee and machine oil. Gabe’s internal monologue reads like a man walking around with an open wound. I felt for him deeply, but I also found myself frustrated. He drifts, avoids confrontation, and lets the world toss him around like flotsam. Still, that might be the point. This isn’t a story about glory or redemption. It’s about damage and the quiet, sometimes unremarkable courage it takes to keep living when everything feels broken. The prose sometimes lingers in Gabe’s head, but when it hits, it hits hard.
What struck me most wasn’t just the melancholy but the tenderness hidden beneath it. The moments of connection, however fleeting, between Gabe and the people around him, especially Lindy, shine like little candles in the dark. And the city itself becomes a character: loud, dirty, dangerous, but never boring. The murder subplot simmers in the background and adds an ominous hum to everything. It’s not a twisty thriller; it’s more like a pressure building in the distance, slowly infecting the reader with dread. I appreciated that restraint. It made the violence, when it did appear, feel real and earned.
I’d recommend Brick and Marrow to readers who enjoy character-first stories with grit and soul. It’s a slow burn, sure, but it rewards patience. Fans of noir, historical fiction, or just stories about lost people trying to find their footing will find a lot to love here.
Pages: 443 | ASIN : B08R8ZD9H4
Inspired by a Dream
Harbinger follows a princess whose prophetic nightmares lead her to make a forbidden connection with an imperial rook. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
It all started with a dream I had when I was 17. I knew that I didn’t have the writing experience or life experience to do the story justice, so I sat on the idea until I was 25. When I did sit down to write, I thought that, since this was inspired by a dream, having my MFC’s conflict start in dreams seemed appropriate. Sadly, her dreams were not as enjoyable as mine.
Were you able to relate to your characters while writing them?
I did! We have all had moments of fear that we have to overcome, and I personally believe all fear is a benchmark. Something to tell us what we need to overcome. Be it to improve a skill or recover from a trauma that we experienced, that is stopping us from moving forward. Keira doesn’t have the tools to combat her fears, but she has the determination to find them. I also resonated with the imperial family; they reminded me of how my own family rallies around each other when we are in need. Their love for one another is a mirror of the love I have for my family. Then there is Cyrus’s commitment to finding the truth, which made me determined that he would get his answers because I needed them too!
How did you come up with the idea for the antagonist in this story, and how did it change as you wrote?
In the beginning, I had several possible villain choices, but it wasn’t until I wrote the Club Deviant scene that V appeared. As I wrote him, I was appalled by how callous and depraved he was but had to admit he was the perfect villain. His evolution from cunning strategist to obsessed deviate is a direct response to how many blood bonds he has had. With each bond, his need to have sex grows, and his obsession with Keira becomes twisted, as do his goals.
Can you give us a glimpse inside Book 2 of this series? Where will it take readers?
Lines will be crossed. Revelations will blow up preconceived notions of facts. And my 4 little female moiohs (children) will be hard at work influencing everyone. A little more will be revealed about the enemies from the stars, and everything will be decided by a desperate gamble. There will be some answers, but not all. The real revelations happen in book 3 (yes, it’s written).
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The return of a particular imperial rook changes the tone of her dreams, providing her with much needed relief. But this too is perplexing, for he is a rook and she an elite. The law strictly forbids a union between the two.
Yet four little female moiohs scheme to bring them together, providing the path to secure their future, a future threatened by traitors who would use the princess as a way to steal her father’s throne.
Open Your Heart
Color Me Skye follows a 12-year-old girl battling fear, grief, and a distant stepfather following the car accident that leaves her mother in a coma. Where did the idea for this story come from?
This story came partly from my own experience of losing my father, who served in the military when I was very young, and then dealing with the addition of a stepfather to our family. I would have loved to have had a book like this when I was growing up, to know that there were other kids like me experiencing the feelings I did. That’s my hope for this book, that it will reach kids who’ve lost a parent, or are dealing with a new step-parent, that they’ll see themselves in the story and learn that healing is possible and there are resources available to help them.
When creating Skye, did you have a plan for development and character traits, or did they grow organically as you were writing the story?
I wanted Skye to grow and change into someone who was more other-centered at the end than she was at the beginning. But some of the specifics, like her being unable to sit in the front seat after the accident, weren’t planned.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
People are seldom who you think they are, healing doesn’t always look like what you think it will, and it comes when you open your heart to new possibilities.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
I’m working on a middle-grade fantasy in which the main characters are fairies who must go on a quest to save their forest and insect friends from destruction by humans. I have no idea when it might get published, but I’m enjoying the journey of writing it.
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Then last year her mom married a quiet, distant guy who Skye calls Dim Tim. He doesn’t seem to be interested in having a stepdaughter. And that’s okay with Skye; she doesn’t want a stepfather, either.
But now, a car accident has left her mom in a coma. Which means she and Dim Tim are going to have to figure out how to do all the stuff her mom did. To actually talk to each other. Worst of all, one question is tearing Skye up inside: What if her mom never wakes up?
Told in free verse, with color filled words and sketches, Color Me Skye follows the emotionally charged journey of Dim Tim and Skye as they navigate their new normal. Along the way, Skye discovers a best friend who is funny, feisty, fabulous, and the perfect antidote to Skye’s troubles. For ages 9-12.
The Human Condition
Scandals is a collection of prose poems and microfiction, where the grotesque and mundane are transformed into surreal snapshots of American despair and dark humor. Were there specific influences that shaped the rhythm and tone of this collection?
I love the lyrics of David Yow, Nick Cave, Laurie Anderson, the lyrics on Nirvana’s In Utero, anything that paints the kind of stranger-than-fiction aspects of humanity. My favorite poet is Eric Paul, who was also the vocalist for Arab on Radar, The Chinese Stars, Psychic Graveyard, etc. His lyrics especially made me want to write poetry. I’m also influenced by overheard dialogue; I keep a small notebook to document things I hear every day. Then, there are more visual influences like Diane Arbus, Todd Solondz, Werner Herzog, Harmony Korine, Mary Ellen Mark, and the countless fly-on-the-wall documentaries I obsess over like Streetwise, Strongman, and Vernon, Florida. I’ve always likened poems to photographs, where I’m sorta writing what I can’t immediately shoot a photo of or document in a visual way, whether it’s in my head or right in front of me.
Scandals feels personal and raw. How much of it was drawn from your own life versus pure invention?
It’s a little bit of both. Some are fully autobiographical, some are entirely fiction, others are a blend where I might take my own experience and mix it with someone I saw on the street, then add something a friend told me when I was in 3rd grade.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this collection?
I definitely wanted it to be honest about the full spectrum of the human condition. Good people doing bad things, bad people doing good things. I’m not very interested in a kind of world without gray areas, where everything is boxed into good and evil. There are a lot of references to sitcoms to show the sometimes stark contrast between the viewer’s life and the fictional lives they’re watching on TV, where many of them are examples of the American dream that most viewers likely will not achieve in their lives. I also found it interesting how, when an actor gets arrested, ends up in the middle of a scandal, or acts out as a result of childhood trauma, many still see that person as the character they play on TV and forget they’re human/are not those characters. I imagined a kind of, “What happens when the camera is turned off/an episode is over?” world with all these sitcoms that mirrors aspects of the real world.
If Scandals had a soundtrack, what five songs would absolutely be on it?
- “Wichita Lineman” by Glen Campbell
- “Everyone I Went to High School With is Dead” by Mr. Bungle
- “Goodbye to Romance” by Ozzy Osbourne
- “Skrag Theme” by Aerial M
- “Runaway” by Del Shannon
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“Darkly comical, surreal, and at times, deeply touching.”- Sara B. (Artist)
“The tears of a clown clang against the floor like silver bullet casings. Speeding forward locked in battle with apparitions emerging from the afterburner, Alex Osman is in a league of his own.”- Gwen Hilton (author of Sent to the Silkworm House &Where the Breastplate Meets the Blade)
I’ll be honest – I jumped at the chance to blurb this book because it meant I didn’t have to wait as long to read it. Alex Osman’s work will do that to you. I needed another hit. No one else can find the absurdist wonder of dancing primates or toddlers graffitiing the KISS logo around their kindergarten.
Scandals – Alex Osman’s strongest collection of writing so far – is full of cultural references – because the morning kids show entertainers, sitcom stars, the brand names of the day are the true landscape of the Americana that Osman chooses to mine and dissect with and within his work.
Osman is a genuine surrealist and understands the comedy, the horror, the pain, the immortal and yet constantly fleeting nature within everyday pop-culture. Something that adds a strength and depth to his multi-faceted body of work is that he also sees the beauty, the brief moments of truth and bliss amid the confusing blur of the whole mess of everything that makes up life. And we should be thankful that he does. Work this brilliant and evocative should be treated like the rare jewel that it is.- Thomas Moore (author, Forever, Alone, & Your Dreams)
LITERARY TITAN 