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Tough Questions
Of Saints and Rivers follows the McClellan family across multiple generations, told through the eyes of the youngest son, who embarks on a relentless quest for purpose and healing that sends him far from home and back again. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
A number of real-life family incidents shaped portions of the novel. My great-grandfather witnessed the killing of his family by Indians as a boy before serving as a Texas Ranger, deputy U.S. Marshal, riding the Western Cattle Trail, and homesteading on the Canadian River in western Oklahoma. A daughter was banned from the family for marrying someone from outside the church. The family land was lost during the Depression. As a young man, my grandfather served prison time for hitting and killing a pedestrian while driving when intoxicated.
For many years, I had a troubled relationship with my father, a decorated naval dive-bomber pilot, who once hit me hard in the face for arguing when I was young. My last words to him as he died were that I loved him. I seriously considered the ministry before changing my mind over troubling theological issues. War took a heavy toll on my family. As for early romantic misadventures, I’ll just say that—among my brothers, myself, and others—our family has seen its share.
While a degree of creative license was taken for the sake of story, much of Jordan’s journey was borrowed from my family’s history, and many of his personal reflections mirror my own. To paraphrase the writer, Wallace Stegner: sometimes truth is best told as fiction.
What were some of the trials that you felt were important to highlight Jordan’s development?
At the story’s core is his conflict with a celebrated father, as both men grapple with their pasts and Jordan struggles with the shadow of his older brother. Among his trials is a tragic family accident that leads to alcohol as a means of coping with guilt. Another is youthful desire that culminates in a forbidden love with a married woman—and, in its wake, more alcohol and even greater tragedy—followed by the unthinkable. The novel is, in many ways, a forty-year coming-of-age story of a gifted-but-troubled son’s ongoing struggle with guilt, moral dilemmas, religious doubt, and his search for meaning, atonement, healing, and love.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Aside from the above-mentioned parental conflict, addiction, and religious doubt, I wanted to address prejudice (both racial and gender-related), marital abuse, grief, forgiveness, the role of chance in our lives, and how love and loss so often travel together. I wanted also to ask some tough questions of God and ourselves.
What is the next book you’re working on, and when can we expect it to be available?
I consider myself to be primarily a magazine writer of historical articles. Of Saints and Rivers is my first novel. What began as a simple wish to leave behind, for my family, something of our family roots and what I felt, loved, and believed grew somehow into a book. While I have some ideas for another, at this point they’re still just ideas. I prefer to see how readers like this one before saying more. Thank you so much for your thoughtful interest.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
From the wild frontier days of the late 1800s to the post-war reckoning of the 1950s, Of Saints and Rivers follows three generations of the McClellan family through the eyes of the youngest son. Growing up in the shadow of his celebrated father and brother, Jordan is more into books than farmwork or sports. But when tragedy strikes, guilt drives him spiraling down a path with dire consequences.
His relentless search for meaning and atonement sends him far from home to places as far ranging as the Caribbean, a small Mexican village, and seminary. Yet, no matter how far he runs, the shadows follow. As Jordan grapples with his past and its impact on those he loves, he discovers a new understanding of his father and himself.
Perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah and William Kent Krueger, Of Saints and Rivers is a sweeping historical saga of faith, doubt, resilience, and the unbreakable ties of family.
With His Words I’m Not Alone
With His Words I’m Not Alone is an intimate and emotional novel that weaves a coming-of-age journey with raw vulnerability, queer identity, and the turbulence of modern relationships. Lucas Ryker introduces us to a protagonist searching for connection and healing, wrapped in layers of poetic language and introspection. The narrative takes us through chapters of discovery, trauma, affection, and longing. Along the way, we meet characters who feel real in their confusion, hope, and complicated love. The story isn’t told in a linear fashion, and its structure mirrors the chaos and beauty of memory and personal growth.
Reading this book felt like peering into someone’s private journal. The language is unconventional, fragmented at times, stream-of-consciousness at others. At first, I found this style jarring. Sentences don’t always follow the rules. Words tumble together like thoughts in a storm. But then it clicked. Ryker is more interested in feelings than form. It’s messy because life is messy. The story’s most powerful moments come in hushed lines or sudden bursts of intensity, the way emotion really hits. It made me feel caught off guard, and honestly, that vulnerability resonated with me.
Some parts of the book moved a little slower, and now and then the dialogue leaned toward the dramatic. A few characters felt more like glimpses or impressions than fully fleshed-out people. That might make some readers pause. But for me, even moments of uncertainty felt intentional, like part of the emotional rhythm. I may not have always known where the story was headed, but it always felt deeply personal and true.
This book is intense. It asks you to let go of convention. But if you’ve ever felt alone, if you’ve ever wanted someone’s words to fill the silence in your chest, this book might speak to you. It’s for readers who care less about plot and more about emotional resonance. It’s for queer folks looking for something that doesn’t smooth out the rough edges. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to feel something deep and human, even if it hurts a little.
Pages: 345
Boy of Heaven
Boy of Heaven, by Morris Hoffman, tells the story of an orphan boy in 17th-century Milan who discovers a fading mural, Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, hidden in what has become the stables of a Dominican priory. As the boy labors among horses, he has named after constellations; he alone sees the painting’s slow return to clarity. What unfolds is a lyrical meditation on suffering, faith, grief, and vision. Hoffman’s novel blends historical fiction with a mystical edge, threading deep emotion through a richly imagined world.
Reading this book pulled something quiet but insistent from me. Hoffman’s writing is unusual, almost liturgical in rhythm. It doesn’t always make for an easy read, but it makes for a rewarding one. There were passages I reread just to feel them again. The boy’s interior world is raw and lonely, but never melodramatic. There’s very little action in the conventional sense. Instead, the story unfolds through daily labor, small kindnesses, and sacred echoes. And yet, I found myself emotionally swept up in the boy’s grief for a horse, his awe at a fresco, his quiet yearning to be seen.
I feel the book drifts at times. There were sections where the pace slowed, where there were long descriptions of the priory or repeated imagery. Everything is so reverent. Still, what the book lacks in momentum, it makes up for in heart. The blend of the sacred and the mundane, the way the horses become mythic, the mystery of the fresco, that’s where it shines. It doesn’t explain itself, and that made it feel more honest and more relatable.
Boy of Heaven isn’t just about art or faith or even memory. It’s about seeing what others miss and holding on to what shouldn’t be forgotten. It’s a quiet book, but it left a loud feeling. I’d recommend it to anyone who loves poetic writing, historical fiction with a spiritual bend, or stories where nothing much happens on the outside but everything changes on the inside. This is not a book to speed through. It’s one to sit with, one to cherish in silence.
Pages: 90 | ASIN : B0F7C4BSRP
Color Me Skye
Color Me Skye follows twelve-year-old Skye as she navigates the aftermath of a terrifying car accident that leaves her mother in a coma. Stuck with her emotionally distant stepfather, Dim Tim, Skye battles fear, loneliness, guilt, and grief all while slowly learning to open her heart again. Through days spent at a hospital daycare called the “Fun-ny Bone,” she meets Star, a larger-than-life friend who helps Skye rediscover joy, hope, and strength in unexpected ways.
The writing is lyrical but raw. Adams paints Skye’s emotions with texture and depth, layering them like strokes on a canvas. It doesn’t pull punches. The pacing is fast, the chapters short and sharp, often written in free verse that mirrors the chaos and swirl of grief. Skye’s voice is crystal clear, funny, moody, honest, and incredibly relatable. There were pages that made me laugh and others that cracked my heart wide open. What moved me most, though, was how the story treated pain not as something to run from but something to live through. And how beautifully it shows that healing doesn’t always look like you think it will.
I also really appreciated how the book handles relationships. Skye and Dim Tim’s dynamic is awkward and strained at first, which feels true. He’s no superhero. But he tries. That matters. Watching them slowly fumble toward understanding was as satisfying as it was believable. And Star? What a sparkplug. She bursts into the story like a firework and stays lit the whole time. I wanted to bottle her energy. Their friendship gave the story warmth and color just when it needed it most.
If you’ve ever lost someone or felt like your world was tilting sideways and couldn’t seem to right itself, this book will feel like a soft place to land. It’s ideal for middle-grade readers and anyone who’s dealt with grief, change, or feeling like the odd one out. I’d recommend it to parents, teachers, and counselors, too. It’s the kind of story that starts conversations.
Pages: 184 | ASIN : B0FBKYS69R
Terra Nova
Jessahme Wren’s TERRA NOVA is a beautifully imagined and emotionally charged story about a father and daughter navigating life across planets, love, grief, and the sheer grit it takes to survive the unknown. At its core, it’s a tale of devotion. Sev, a whip-smart teen growing into herself, and her father, Phoenix, a loving and resilient man with a painful past, live on a world called Dobani. Their peaceful life is upended when Phoenix becomes gravely ill, and Sev must make an impossible decision to try and save him. What follows is a journey across stars to the snowy, distant planet of Ocarro, where medicine is cutting-edge but answers are scarce. Alongside them is Pearla, Phoenix’s partner, and Sev’s steadying force, as they face medical mysteries, bureaucratic red tape, and the shadows of old trauma.
Wren writes with an intensity that sneaks up on you. Her pacing is smooth and measured, letting the emotion build naturally. The world-building is sharp without being showy. Every planet feels lived in, not just imagined. What stood out most to me was the tenderness between Sev and Phoenix. Their relationship isn’t perfect, but it’s thick with love and care. Wren doesn’t rush the drama or the science fiction, she lets her characters breathe. And in those breaths, the humanity shines. I found myself rooting for Sev not because she was heroic in the usual way, but because she felt real. Smart, a little stubborn, and so brave.
The emotional punches land hard. Watching Phoenix deteriorate is gutting, especially because he’s portrayed so vividly in the beginning. I did wish, at moments, that the story pulled back a little to explore more of the broader universe. The political backdrop and the mystery of Terra Firma are ripe for digging into, but they take a backseat to the personal arc. That isn’t a flaw exactly, just a choice that trades scale for intimacy. And maybe that’s what this book is really about: not saving the galaxy, but saving the person you love most. That trade-off feels worth it.
TERRA NOVA is a warm but gut-wrenching story. It’s a sci-fi story for anyone who’s loved someone through illness, who’s had to grow up too fast, or who just needs a reminder that love is its own kind of gravity. I’d recommend it to fans of Becky Chambers, Martha Wells, or even folks who normally steer clear of sci-fi but love a strong emotional hook.
Pages: 234 | ASIN : B0FD48SQJS
Facing the Evil in Our Own Hearts
Spider Seeds follows a successful author who finds what seems like the perfect houseplant to add to her new home; however, she never suspects the deadly secret that lies within its foliage. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The idea for Spider Seeds began with a nightmare I had around 2015. In this dream, I watched a garden where plants were growing in time-lapse speed. Instead of flowers, the bulbs sprouted spiders. I woke up both awed and creeped out, thinking, “I need a plot to hang this concept on!”
Two short stories cast their shadows over this work: Prey by Richard Matheson and Battleground by Stephen King. So, instead of a Zuni Fetish Doll or a box of plastic army men, I chose one of those haunting spider seeds from my dream to wreak havoc in someone’s condo.” — from the Author’s Note to Spider Seeds.
Madison is a fascinating character with considerable depth. What scene was the most interesting to write for that character?
Thank you—I really enjoy writing about her. I have especially fond memories of living in Victoria, British Columbia, and I sometimes miss it, so writing Chapter One was particularly meaningful. In that scene, Maddy walks through James Bay, past the Inner Harbour, along Government Street, and finally into Fan Tan Alley. Experiencing the city again through her eyes made the scene especially vivid and personal. More than that, it was in writing that chapter that Maddy truly came to life for me. By the end of it, I understood what she wanted out of life—and how her desires would shape not only her objectives in each scene but also the tactics she’d use to pursue them.
I felt that Spider Seeds delivers the drama so well that it flirts with the grimdark genre. Was it your intention to give the story a darker tone?
That’s an interesting question. Collins Dictionary defines Grimdark as “a genre of fantasy fiction that portrays amoral or morally ambiguous characters engaged in violent struggles in dystopian environments.” I didn’t set out to write Spider Seeds in that genre, but I can understand why it might feel that way. The story confronts dark themes and emotional intensity, but its core is not about moral ambiguity or despair—it’s about facing the evil in our own hearts and choosing to overcome it.
My influences come more from the Romantic and Victorian periods of English literature. Writers like William Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley gave me permission, so to speak, to write emotionally, drawing from my memories of Victoria, BC. In his Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth’s idea of poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings… recollected in tranquility” spoke to me and inspired me in how I wrote about Maddy’s quiet moments, such as her walks through downtown Victoria or along Dallas Road. These scenes are rooted in that Romantic sensibility.
Spider Seeds also draws from the Gothic, a branch of Romanticism that explores how the past haunts the present—think Dracula, where ancient evil intrudes on modern London, or The Castle of Otranto, where young Isabella flees to a church after her father-in-law, an old man, attempts to marry her following his son’s death. Maddy’s trauma from her youth resurfaces in many ways. The story includes other Gothic elements as well: the atmospheric presence of Victoria’s heritage buildings, the Janicker women’s mysterious legacy of guarding an ancient spider in plant form, the consequences of dismissing old rituals as mere superstition, and the idea of psychological inheritance passed through pain rather than blood.
There’s also a quiet thread of Victorian sensibility reflected in the moral, spiritual, and social questions that shape Maddy’s inner world. That’s why her cat is named George, after George Eliot, and why Wuthering Heights appears in the prologue. These literary traditions don’t define the story, but they’ve certainly helped shape it. Spider Seeds may carry a darker tone at times, but it’s a story that I hope is told with hope, emotional honesty, and a clear moral framework.
I didn’t write Spider Seeds to revel in the darkness but to walk steadily toward the light.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when can your fans expect it to be out?
I’m currently working on the sequel to Spider Seeds, which is tentatively scheduled for release in fall 2025. Interestingly, the review from Literary Titan said, “I felt that a few narrative beats, like the mythos surrounding the plant and the shop’s family legacy, felt rushed. I wanted just a little more from the ending.” That feedback didn’t surprise me—in fact, I’d already begun expanding on those very elements in two companion books.
The first is a prequel titled She Who Hunts: The Tale of T’lejhánka, a 66-page illustrated chapbook that reads like a dark fairy tale. It explores the ancient origins of the mysterious plant from Spider Seeds, providing a closer look into its mythos and symbolic meaning. You can find it on Amazon here: https://a.co/d/bYyEkWp
The upcoming sequel (title to be revealed in spring or summer 2025) will dive even further into the Janicker women’s legacy and their role as custodians of the plant. Readers will uncover where the T’lejhánka came from, why it crossed into our world, and how Maddy might play a role in returning it to the realm it belongs to—if she can survive the journey.
If you’d like to be the first to know about cover reveals, release dates, exclusive previews, and behind-the-scenes notes from the world of Spider Seeds and more, I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter here: https://mailchi.mp/4e8d9fccd0a6/thank-you
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website | Amazon
When Madison Perth adds what seems like the perfect houseplant to her new home, she never suspects the deadly secret that lies within its foliage: a vicious spider, hungry for human prey. Now, trapped in her beachfront condo, Madison must fight for survival as the relentless terror closes in.
Spider Seeds delivers heart-pounding suspense and claustrophobic tension that will leave you breathless. If you loved A Quiet Place or Love and Monsters, this gripping thriller will keep you turning pages.
Prepare for the deadly harvest of… SPIDER SEEDS.
Echoes We Leave: Book 1: The Collective
In Echoes We Leave: Book 1: The Collective, Leah Scudder offers an immersive plunge into a futuristic dystopia where a sophisticated neural network, Synexis, intricately binds humanity into a seemingly harmonious collective. Beneath this flawless integration, however, pulses an unsettling signal, intentional, enigmatic, and quietly invasive, that disrupts the very essence of autonomy and identity. Scudder adeptly follows a handful of scientists, particularly Livia Arden, as they grapple with this anomalous entity and uncover deeper truths about survival, adaptation, and sacrifice in a carefully regulated world.
Scudder’s writing pulls no punches; it’s gripping, vivid, and profoundly unsettling. Her narrative dances elegantly between moments of high-octane tension and poignant introspection. Each sentence, stripped of cumbersome jargon, cuts directly to the emotional heart, resonating with a genuine sense of urgency and dread.
I found myself invested in the characters’ fates, particularly Livia, whose struggles against conformity and control echo deep human anxieties about autonomy in a connected age. The descriptive prose vividly captures the bleak grandeur of the book’s setting, especially the juxtaposition of technological precision against the underlying, creeping menace, giving me chills.
While the atmosphere and prose captivate, moments of suspense sometimes unfold slowly, building up carefully but then resolving quickly. This rhythm created a sense of emotional tension that was occasionally satisfying. Although the philosophical exploration of unity versus individuality was genuinely compelling, I feel the shifts between detailed technological intrigue and intimate personal drama occasionally made the narrative feel a bit less cohesive.
The Collective shines as an astute examination of humanity’s fragile balance between collective security and individual freedom. This book is particularly suited for readers who crave thought-provoking dystopian fiction rich with emotional depth and social critique. Fans of speculative narratives like Orwell’s 1984 or Huxley’s Brave New World will find Scudder’s exploration of autonomy and connection particularly resonant. It’s a gripping read that not only thrills but also invites reflection on our current trajectory toward digital interdependence.
Pages: 397 | ASIN : B0F8MFJBBS
The Philly Phenoms
The Philly Phenoms is a heartfelt coming-of-age novel centered around Lee Lomax, a golf-obsessed fifth grader who leads his neighborhood friends in forming a makeshift golf tour on their elementary school grounds. What starts as a fun summer pastime quickly morphs into a deeper tale about friendship, family, courage, and grief. Through the eyes of Lee, we watch these kids battle broken windows, dig for softballs in overgrown woods, and wrestle with real-life events like 9/11 and a parent’s failing health. Author Nate Oxman captures all the chaotic beauty of growing up with humor and a whole lot of heart.
What really grabbed me about this book was how natural and funny the writing felt. Oxman writes the way kids actually think and speak, with a little bit of mischief and a lot of imagination. I felt like I was back on my own elementary school playground, sweating through a July afternoon and getting in just the right amount of trouble. The characters weren’t polished or perfect, which made them feel real. Latterman made me laugh, even while I was shaking my head at him. Lee’s voice is smart, tender, and stubborn in the best way. I found myself rooting for him, not just to sink his putts, but to figure out the messiness of life, even when it gets heavy.
The emotional core of the story hits hard, especially as Lee confronts his mother’s illness. Oxman handles grief in a way that’s quiet and gutting at the same time. There’s a chapter late in the book that completely broke me. The writing didn’t beg for sympathy; it just told the truth. That’s the power of this book. One minute you’re laughing about a kid trying to sneak a golf ball out of a broken school window, and the next, you’re blinking back tears as Lee tries to hold his world together. The pacing slows a little in the middle, and sometimes the golf lingo slowed me down, but overall, the story never lost me.
I’d recommend The Philly Phenoms to anyone who loves a good story about growing up, especially if you’ve got a soft spot for golf, tight-knit neighborhoods, or father-son bonds. It’s perfect for middle schoolers, parents reading with their kids, or adults looking to revisit the simpler, more complicated days of being a kid. If you’ve ever had a summer you didn’t want to end, this book will take you right back.
Pages: 272 | ASIN : B0F7NSDD78
LITERARY TITAN 