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Open the Mind of Some Poor “Nitwit”
Revolutionary Women A Little Left of Center, weaves together your personal history with your artistic, and ideological journey, starting with your early life in Toronto to your awakening as a gay artist and the experiences that shaped your identity and worldview. Why was this an important book for you to write?
“The book, Revolutionary Women, a Little Left of Center, is meant to be a work of revolution and revolt. Rejecting stale outdated notions and inspire people to think and see things differently.”
“The old dysfunctional thinking wasn’t working and needed to be laid bare. I wanted to create humorous imagery for all people, who were craving “phycological relief” and “counter-balance,” to the endless outpouring of “agony” and “hate” from the “extreme right.” I wanted to lift up the “left” and show it too, was an important human ingredient.”
“Women, more often than not, embody the left; more subtle in tone, soft, gentle, caring, uncanny intuition, creative and intelligent. These are the same characteristics shared by artists, musicians, gay people and any intelligent free-thinking person. What’s needed is real acceptance by society at large of people who are different. The standing order from idiotic religious & xenophobic ideologies is…. “You’re different and our leaders are telling us who to hate & to join-in their agenda of taking power by suppression and annihilation of others.”
“Let’s look at it from a gay women’s point of view and learn to lean a little to the “left.”
Your book expertly blends memoir with satire, offering readers a dash of humor alongside serious topics that impact modern day women. What is one thing that you hope readers take away from your story?
“What’s happening in the United States right now, sickens and horrifies me. It is my heart felt wish to connect and ease the hearts that ache for the planet and all its living creatures.”
“The “Left” is often attacked, and certainly regarded as less important than the ideas associated with extreme masculine notions of the “Right.” The extreme right rigid binary people are stuck in their own conflict of what is right and what is wrong. Unfortunately, they’ve been misinformed.”
“So, let’s laugh in the face of the ridiculous societal norms. Lay bare the faulty logic in religious beliefs and open the mind of some poor “nitwit” saturated in bigotry and speak out for those who cannot!”
What part of the book did you have the most fun illustrating? Was there one particularly hard section?
“I had the most fun actually drawing all the illustrations. The first four illustrations really set the tone. Firstly, imagine a fantasy of women cleaning up a war scene in WOMEN DO ETHNIC CLEANSING. Or next, envision a 3,000-year-old scene, at the ancient monument STONEHENGE, where women are included in the construction and joke about a huge fear known to all mankind.”
“Thirdly, a reenactment of the famous first moon landing, with women astronauts in MOONWALK. And fourthly, I introduce the character of Mother Nature in the illustration called GOD AND MOTHER NATURE DO THE REVIEW.”
“I suppose THE PHOBE FAMILY was a particularly hard section to finish, as it took me 10 years to resolve the problem presented in THE PHOBE FAMILY and answer it in WHY MAKE IT LEGAL? In the “Phobe Family,” I wanted to hi-light the fear, isolation & denial families go through, when it turns out they have a Gay child. It’s funny but hints of dark undercurrents.”
What is the next book that you are working on, and when can your fans expect it to be out?
Work in progress.
Step into a world where sharp wit meets unapologetic truth. A collection of full color illustrations/cartoons delivers a fierce and funny feminist punch, from the absurdity of gender roles to the hypocrisy of historical myths. With a clever commentary of edgy humor, and a wink into gay culture. These pages don’t just make you laugh; they make you think. Whether poking holes in patriarchy, challenging religious relics or spotlighting modern day madness, these cartoons are radical in the best way. Some are satirical, some are heart felt and sincere. All of them are drawn with a love for justice a questioning spirit and a mischievous pen. Perfect for anyone who’s ever rolled their eyes at the status quo or laughed in its face..
Laura M. Duthie was born in Toronto. Attended the Ontario College of Art from 1976 to 1980. Studied Fine Art. Worked in Real Estate Graphics, Woodworking and Carpentry. Also worked in property management and Security. Recently retired to become a full-time artist.
About the Author:Laura M. Duthie was born in Toronto and studied Fine Art at the Ontario College of Art (1976–1980). Her diverse background spans real estate graphics, woodworking, carpentry, security, and property management. Now retired, she has returned to her true passion as a full-time artist—using her art to speak truth with humor and heart.
What Happens Next?
The Countess and the Spatula follows a disheveled noblewoman who finds solace in baking after her husband’s death until her peaceful life of flour and philosophy is upended by a melodramatic opera singer. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The Spatula of Power came first. The characters of the countess; Claudio, the Man with the Black Mustache; and Isabella of Alberthane followed.
What inspired your characters’ interactions and backstories?
Once you know the characters, their interactions follow more or less logically.
I found this novel to be a cutting piece of satire. What is one thing that you hope readers take away from your novel?
I hope readers take away the desire to read the sequel and find out what happens to the countess next.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when can your fans expect it to be out?
The sequel to THE COUNTESS AND THE SPATULA is called NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION. It’s about an inquisition that is also a soap opera.
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Skilled At Handling Lies
Angus Sliders follows Max as he struggles to remember what versions of history are real and what is made up from Mirror’s effects, causing history to fracture further, and possibly in irreparable ways. What was the inspiration that created the journey Max goes on in this book?
Max’s journey in Angus Sliders originates from a core question. What happens to a spy when his most trusted asset, his memory, fails him? The Mirror has always posed a threat because it warps time, but the greater threat is psychological. I aimed to examine how an experienced intelligence officer, skilled at handling lies, disinformation, and shifting loyalties, would react when his internal compass fails him.
The inspiration came from three connected ideas. The first is the fallibility of memory in espionage, where spies operate within constructed realities such as covers, legends, and half-truths. The second is what could be called post-war trauma. The fear of misremembering. Lastly, there’s the ethics of changing history. If altering one moment could save lives or end them, how does someone like Max resist the temptation or cope with the guilt of decisions made in unstable times?
So, his journey ultimately revolves around identity under pressure. Max becomes a man forced to navigate through multiple versions of his own past, aware that each step could deepen the cracks. The tension in Angus Sliders comes from whether he can hold onto the truth long enough to repair the present, or if the Mirror will completely overwrite him.
I find that authors sometimes ask themselves questions and let their characters answer them. Do you think this is true for your characters?
Absolutely. For me, that’s one of the engines behind the entire Sliders universe. I often start with a question I’m unsure how to answer, for example, what would it feel like to step into a version of history that remembers you differently? How much of your identity remains when memory becomes negotiable? What does loyalty mean when time itself can be rewritten? Then I stop answering as the author and begin listening to the characters.
Max and Alicia are both shaped by the worlds they navigate. Max, for example, rarely gives the easy answer; he provides the necessary one. Alicia responds with accuracy and restraint, revealing the cost of knowing more than she can admit. So yes, my questions start the conversation, but the characters finish it. That’s the value of writing in this universe: the characters live close to points of fracture such as history, memory, and time, and their answers often reveal truths I wouldn’t have reached on my own. In that sense, I’m not just writing them. I’m discovering what they’re willing to tell me.
I felt that there were a lot of great twists and turns throughout the novel. Did you plan this before writing the novel, or did the twists develop organically while writing?
The honest answer is both. I always start with a skeleton. The main plot points, structural pivots, and key revelations that the whole story depends on. In a book like Angus Sliders, where the narrative twists around time distortion and espionage, those anchors are crucial. Certain twists must happen for the story to have the right impact. But the best twists are the ones that seem inevitable in hindsight yet are surprising in the moment. They tend to happen naturally. They appear when characters react honestly to pressure. They surface when a secondary detail suddenly becomes essential. They occur when the logic of the world requires a new fracture in the timeline.
As I write, the characters often reveal parts of the story I didn’t fully see during the outline stage. Max, for example, rarely acts like someone who wants his arc to stay linear. The Mirror’s influence almost encourages unexpected angles. Alicia makes choices that challenge the neat structural plan, deepening the stakes. So, the process becomes a balance. Plan the structure and, to some degree, let the characters decide how to move through it. That’s where the twists come from. Structure supported by surprise, and surprise supported by character truth. If I’ve done it right, the reader feels both the inevitability and the shock.
Can you tell us more about what’s in store for Max Calder and the direction of the third book?
Without revealing too much, the third book pushes Max into the most dangerous territory he’s faced yet. Not because the enemies are stronger, but because the consequences of what he’s already survived finally catch up with him. Cuban Sliders, based in the Caribbean, leaves Max standing at the edge of a world where the Mirror has been dismantled, but its influence hasn’t disappeared – it’s just increased. The third book poses a more complex question: What does a man do when the past he fought to fix begins rewriting itself around him? Max has learned to navigate fractured histories. But now he must decide which version of himself he’s willing to live with. The third book will force him to confront timelines he thought he’d closed and choices that refuse to stay buried.
Max no longer knows if he’s fighting for the right side or if the right side even exists. If the first book broke Max, and the second tested him, the third questions whether he can survive the truth he’s spent his life trying to uncover.
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It’s 1948. Max Calder thought he’d escaped the Mirror’s grip. But when an encrypted MI6 radio message pulls him from the shadows, he finds himself trapped in a deeper conspiracy involving Kim Philby – one that spans timelines, and versions of himself he can no longer remember… or trust.
Partnered once again with Alicia Rayes, Calder races from Lisbon to London to Edinburgh to uncover Project Oracle, a secret MI6 experiment buried at a black site called ANGUS beneath a loch at Invershiel. There, an unstable Mirror still hums. And waiting for him is Variant 6F… a doppelgänger who might be the last warning before history fractures for good. As enemies close in and memories slip through the cracks, Calder must face the truth: the timeline isn’t broken – it’s being rewritten.
Angus Sliders is a taut, cerebral spy-fi thriller steeped in Cold War tension, noir grit, and mind-bending science fiction.
Blackstone’s Law
Blackstone’s Law follows Elijah Ramirez, a young defense lawyer in Buffalo who stumbles into the case of Antoine Blackstone, a man who has spent twelve years in prison for a murder he insists he never committed. The story jumps between Elijah’s legal battles, the corrupt legacy of Detective Ralph Silas, and the tension between Buffalo’s criminal justice system and the communities harmed by it. By the time the truth about the case cracks open, Elijah finds not only a path to freeing Antoine but also a way to find himself after years of chasing prestige instead of purpose.
Author DB Easton’s writing moves quickly and has this natural rhythm that makes even the heavier scenes easy to fall into. I found myself rooting for Elijah early on, mostly because he starts out kind of cocky and comfortable, then slowly realizes how deeply he has to dig to be the lawyer he always thought he was. The scenes with Antoine in the prison visiting room got to me. Antoine comes across smart, tired, hopeful, and angry, all at once. When he starts talking about his life before his arrest, I felt that familiar twist in my stomach that comes from hearing something unfair but completely believable. The author does a great job showing how a single crooked cop can tilt an entire system off balance and how a whole city learns to either look away or make noise.
The plot tightens in the last stretch, and I found myself flipping pages fast. The courtroom moments, the media swarming Elijah, the tension around the investigation, all of it pulls together in a way that feels cinematic without losing the human parts. Blackstone’s Law sits comfortably alongside legal thrillers like The Lincoln Lawyer and Presumed Innocent, but it feels more grounded in everyday struggle than either of those. Easton gives the courtroom tension you’d expect, yet the book carries the emotional weight and social awareness you see in novels like Just Mercy, only with a faster and more commercial pace. It also shares some of the gritty big-city texture of Richard Price’s work, though the tone is warmer and more personal. Overall, it blends the slick entertainment of popular legal fiction with the heartfelt bite of stories that deal with wrongful convictions and the communities shaped by them.
I’d recommend Blackstone’s Law to anyone who likes legal thrillers with a little heart, readers who enjoy stories about flawed people trying to do right, and anyone curious about how the justice system can bend when the wrong person gets power. It’s gripping, emotional, and surprisingly warm in all the right places.
Pages: 284 | ASIN : B0G4NT9PBB
Moving Maggie: A Midlife Moxie Novel
When I picked up Moving Maggie, a novel about a sixty-year-old woman whose life unravels all at once, I thought I knew the shape of the story I was walking into. Divorce, job loss, a sudden move to a rural town that feels both too quiet and too honest. And yes, the book gives you all of that. But what surprised me was how grounded and warm it felt. The novel follows Maggie Cartwright as she leaves her old life behind and tries, sometimes reluctantly, to build a new one in Eden. The plot slowly widens from survival mode to connection and growth, weaving in community, friendship, and a late-in-life courage that sneaks up on her. By the final chapters, where Maggie begins journaling her hopes and small victories, there’s a real sense of arrival, not just in place but in self .
Maggie’s voice is steady but bruised, and I appreciated how author Nancy Christie doesn’t rush her healing. There’s no magical “everything’s fixed” moment. Instead, the book lingers in those everyday tasks that become emotional landmines: cleaning out a house after a marriage ends, sorting through holiday decorations that no longer match your life, deciding what parts of the past are worth carrying into the future. And when new relationships enter the picture, the story doesn’t force romance at the expense of realism. Everything unfolds in a way that feels honest to a woman whose sense of identity has been upended.
I also found myself noticing the author’s choices more than usual. Christie writes with a gentle confidence, giving even simple scenes an emotional undercurrent. The supporting characters feel authentic, not decorative. And the book’s central theme, that reinvention is possible at any age, never turns into a slogan. Instead, it hangs quietly in the background as Maggie stumbles, retreats, and tries again. There’s a moment near the end where she lists the small blessings of her new life, including a child in Eden finally receiving a long-awaited kidney transplant, and it hit me how much the story celebrates resilience without preaching about it.
Moving Maggie is a good fit for readers who enjoy reflective women’s fiction with heart, sincerity, and a strong sense of community. If you like stories about starting over in midlife, rediscovering your own voice, or finding unexpected joy after loss, this one will speak to you. It’s gentle, relatable, and empowering.
Pages: 288 | ASIN : B0DH31PSHV
High School Epic
High School Epic is a coming-of-age YA novel that follows Danielle from the first days of freshman year in 1989 through the messy, funny, dramatic, and sometimes painful moments of early adolescence. The story centers on Dani’s tight bond with her two best friends, her growing fixation on a skater boy named Kevin, and the quieter, heavier ache of her dad’s disappearance two years earlier. Built around friendships, crushes, family fractures, and the small-but-big moments that mark high school, the book blends teen romance and heartfelt drama in a voice that feels both nostalgic and relevant.
I found myself slipping into Dani’s head easily. Her voice feels like sitting on someone’s bedroom floor with the lights low while she tells you everything that’s been happening. There’s a looseness to the writing that works, especially in scenes with Tiff and Kris, who bounce off each other in a kind of chaotic harmony. Their friendship is loud and weird and sometimes exhausting, which is exactly why it feels real. The author leans into those small sensory moments that stick, like the smell of Dani’s dad’s sweater or the warm buzz of walking outside with Kevin after detention, without ever feeling showy. The tone stays grounded even when the drama spikes, which kept me on Dani’s side even when she spiraled or overthought things, which she does a lot.
What surprised me most is how layered Dani’s inner world is. The school crush storyline is fun and sweet and very YA-romance, but running right underneath is this deeper thread of loss and confusion around her dad. Those moments hit in a softer way, like when she tries on his sweater in the attic or clings to old fantasies of him returning. They add weight without dragging the story down. It also made her desperation to feel wanted by Kevin and her friends hit harder. The book captures that strange ninth-grade cocktail of insecurity and longing and sudden boldness, the way you can feel childish one minute and painfully grown the next. It felt honest and familiar.
I found myself thinking that High School Epic will speak most to readers who like contemporary YA that blends romance, friendship drama, and emotional family threads. It’s especially perfect for anyone who remembers the late ’80s or early ’90s, or just loves that vibe in their coming-of-age stories. If you want something that feels like reliving freshman year through a friend who tells it all, the awkward, the funny, the embarrassing, the sweet, this book is worth reading.
Pages: 353 | ASIN : B0FVFCL3YC
Reigning Fire
Reigning Fire tells the story of Yan Xun, a princess raised in a world built on Smokeveil magic, rigid hierarchy, and brutal expectations. Her secret Emberkin, a battered phoenix named Mo, marks her as something forbidden. That secret pulls her through a tightening web of palace politics, trauma, hidden archives, deadly trials at the Weaver Academy, and a long, dangerous unraveling of the Empire’s lies about power and worth. The book grows from courtly control to a fierce personal awakening, and the shift lands with real weight.
This book stirred me more than I expected. The writing has this sharp tenderness. Some scenes were very emotional, especially the ones where Xun remembers Kai’s abuse and the way his presence lingers like a stain in her memory. Her trauma does not exist for spectacle. It exists the way real pain exists, slipping into the quiet moments and messing with breath and thought. The training scenes with Xiao in the Dream Realm felt like oxygen, and I kept rooting for Xun to take each tiny step forward. The pacing in the middle swells as secrets pile up, especially once the Forbidden Archives start giving up their ghosts. I loved how the story mixes myth with rebellion and shows how tightly institutions grip the narratives they fear most.
I also found myself pulled toward the characters orbiting Xun. Jin in particular surprised me. His protectiveness has rough edges, but it feels shaped by real loyalty. His anger at what Xun endured is raw, almost reckless, and there were moments where his emotions reached through the page and hit me right in the gut. Even Yan Yun, cold as stone and twice as sharp, grabbed my attention. Watching him justify control while hiding old wounds gave him this unsettling depth. The world feels lived in, politically messy, and morally crooked. I liked that. I liked that nothing felt clean. The prose moves between poetic and punchy, and it never gets stuck in jargon. Sometimes the pacing jumps a bit fast, but I didn’t mind because the emotional beats landed exactly where they needed to.
By the time I reached the final stretch, the story had its claws in me. The revelations about mythic Emberkin, the tension in the archives, the pressure of Xun’s unbonded status closing in, all of it came together in a way that felt both heavy and hopeful. I walked away thinking about cycles of harm, about who gets to rewrite the rules, and about how power shifts when someone finally says no. If you enjoy fantasies that balance trauma recovery with rebellion, or if you like character-driven stories full of secrets, then this book is absolutely for you.
Pages: 330 | ASIN : B0FHQ211VC
LITERARY TITAN 