Blog Archives
Speaking For Those Who Do Not Feel Safe
No Ordinary Love follows several women whose stories reveal the terror and trauma of domestic abuse. Why was this an important book for you to write?
Because it’s my story—and the story of countless other women around the world. Despite how widespread intimate partner violence is, it continues to be treated as though it’s rare or private. It’s an epidemic. As long as that remains true, more stories need to be told. I was inspired by the women who spoke up before I found the strength to do the same. Now, I’m speaking for those who may not yet feel safe enough to share their truths.
I appreciated the candid nature with which you told this moving story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
The hardest part wasn’t the writing itself—I had already survived the events. In fact, the process of writing was profoundly therapeutic. What was most difficult was transitioning from that healing space into the often retraumatizing demands of publishing—critiques, edits, legal reviews, marketing, promotion. Writing gave me back my voice, my truth, my agency. But sharing it exposed me to judgment, disbelief, and the need to prove my experiences.
What was especially painful was the fact that I had to fictionalize elements of my own life story—not to protect myself, but to protect the identity of my abuser. After being silenced for over two decades, I finally found the courage to speak out. Yet, I still had to call my memoir “fictionalized” when it’s 98% truth, with only minor changes made to shield the person who harmed me. That’s harder than I can express in 100,000 words.
What is one misconception you believe many people have regarding the aftermath of domestic abuse?
That the abuse ends when you leave. It doesn’t. What I wanted to highlight most in No Ordinary Love is the aftermath—the long shadow trauma casts, the lingering triggers, and the decades it can take to fully disentangle yourself from the psychological grip of abuse. Healing is not linear. It is life-long.
What is one thing you hope your readers take away from No Ordinary Love?
I hope it inspires honest, necessary conversations—about the subtle and insidious nature of coercive control, how it undermines autonomy, the long-term psychological impact of chronic abuse, and the intersection of trauma, mental health, and systemic failure. Most of all, I want to illuminate the barriers survivors face in their search for safety, support, and validation.
No Ordinary Love
No Ordinary Love, by BB Gabriel, is a searing memoir that threads together the lives of several women grappling with the many faces of intimate partner violence. Through a braided narrative—alternating between Gabbi, Alex, Katee, and others—the book unveils the terror, trauma, and tangled aftermath of abuse while illuminating slivers of healing and resilience. This story stomps, screams, and weeps across the pages, detailing coercion, fear, childhood confusion, and adult reckoning. Told in raw vignettes and memory-soaked prose, it is not just one survivor’s story—it’s a collective mirror for far too many.
Reading No Ordinary Love shook me. There were moments I wanted to put it down and moments I couldn’t look away. The writing, often poetic and stark, pulled me close enough to feel the fear and the fresh heartbreak. Gabriel doesn’t romanticize trauma, and that’s what makes her voice trustworthy. She doesn’t craft her pain into tidy scenes or polished resolutions. Her story spills over in waves—sometimes chaotic, sometimes controlled—and always relatable. The structure, with its shifting timelines and perspectives, felt disorienting at times, but maybe that’s the point. Trauma is disorienting. This book doesn’t offer clarity; it offers truth.
I admired the way Gabriel let silence linger in her writing. Some chapters stopped short, leaving me breathless, the same way trauma interrupts a life. And yet, she also knows when to lean in—when to take us all the way through a panic attack, a memory, a phone call no one wants to make. This book isn’t just about surviving abuse. It’s about what comes after—the guilt, the longing, the ghosts that live in your muscles. And somehow, it’s also about love. Love between sisters. Love that fights back. Love that rebuilds.
I’d recommend No Ordinary Love to anyone willing to confront the brutal honesty of what abuse looks like behind closed doors—and what it takes to speak it aloud. It’s a gut punch for survivors, advocates, and even bystanders who have wondered, “Why doesn’t she just leave?” This book is for those who stayed. For those who left. And for those who still carry the weight of it all.
Pages: 381 | ASIN : B0DRZ5Z51X
The Greater Criminal
The Right Side of Wrong follows two FBI Special Agents working on a crime with ties to a multi-billion-dollar case of corporate espionage, who find themselves on a high-stakes adventure in the Bahamas. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
My last two novels, Pedaling West and Survive the Day, featured characters Special Agents Marina Butnari and Doug Hill in the Crime Thriller genre. My third novel, The Other Side of Good, also a crime-thriller, didn’t include Butnari and Hill, but I hoped I might creatively connect that book to the crime-thriller series with The Right Side of Wrong. The similar titles for the two books suggest a relationship between them, and I incorporated characters from The Other Side of Good to join Butnari and Hill in the new book.
How did you develop the idea for the antagonist in this story, and how did it change as you wrote?
Given the history of one of the main characters of the book, Teddy Jay, the “central crime” for the story needed to be something different from the one I employed in other novels (Human Trafficking). My goal was to invite readers to consider a completely different type of crime from the traditional underworld ones … with characters just as evil. Between the lines, I hoped to challenge readers to determine which of the antagonists represented the greater criminal: the hired assassin, the senior executive who hired him, or the CEO of the major company who allowed the main crime to occur. As the story unfolded, the characters started “writing themselves.”
This sets up the novel to deliver some very entertaining scenes. What scene was the most fun to write?
As a former pilot, I enjoyed writing the chapter about the flight from Cincinnati to the Bahamas. I also liked writing the short section about the “redemption” of one of the early villains (Jack Walker/Harold Stinson/Mas).
Where does the next book in the series take the characters?
Good question…and I’m not sure. While I’ve enjoyed some critical success with the “crime-thriller” genre, the byline for my website is Stories with Heart. I manage to insert heart into the crime stories, but I’d like to use some of the interesting characters of past books in a story not centered around crime or enforcement. The travel log aspects of Pedaling West were popular with many readers of that novel, and I’m considering a follow-up…like Pedaling East.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
An intruder caught trespassing on a Caribbean banana plantation leads to an emergency call to a high-ranking FBI official. Within hours, Reno-based special agents, Marina Butnari and Doug Hill, are assigned a top-secret mission originating in the Bahamas.
Yet this is no simple attempted burglary. The crime ties to a multi-billion-dollar case of corporate espionage, and the intended victim is a mysterious agency resource with an identity known to few.
From shark-infested waters to criminal-infested boardrooms, the agents take a roller-coaster ride through the depravities created by greed. They discover that in this imperfect life, sometimes the best you can do is stay on ‘The Right Side of Wrong.’
EVOLVED PUBLISHING PRESENTS a crime fiction adventure featuring beloved characters from some of the other multiple award-winning books by E. A. Coe.
The Right Side of Wrong: A Butnari and Hill Crime Thriller
The Right Side of Wrong is a sharp, high-stakes FBI thriller that kicks off with the mysterious massacre of a cargo ship crew in Baltimore and spirals into a tense web of espionage, corporate greed, and justice. We follow Teddy Jay, an ex-operative turned banana plantation owner, as he tries to uncover the powerful players behind a brutal crime tied to a pharmaceutical heist. The story spins through the Caribbean islands, FBI offices, and secret deals, while introducing gritty, memorable characters like Special Agents Marina Butnari and Doug Hill. It’s a fast, layered read, packed with tension, heart, and a touch of moral soul-searching.
What really grabbed me from the start was the pacing and how naturally E.A. Coe sets the hook. Right out of the gate, the prologue detailing the Butterfly cargo ship murders feels ripped from the headlines. There’s a gritty realism to the newspaper-style report that doesn’t feel forced; it feels downright chilling. Coe doesn’t waste time with slow build-ups; he knows readers today want to be thrown into the fire, and that’s exactly what he does. That opening scene made me genuinely uneasy, in a good way, the kind of page-turning discomfort you expect from a thriller but don’t always get.
The characters, though, are where Coe shines brightest. Teddy Jay is a brilliant lead, a guy who’s tough but full of hidden scars. I loved the little details, like him lifting fingerprints off a water glass, showing he’s never really left his shadowy past behind. But the real star for me was Samantha Jenkins, aka “No Te Metas,” whose fierce, almost mythic reputation adds such a cool, dangerous energy to the story. The moment when Harold Stinson learns what “No Te Metas” means was priceless; you could feel his stomach dropping through the page. Coe writes these tough, layered characters without making them cartoons, and that kept me caring even when the plot got wild.
In the middle chapters, the book does lean a bit more heavily on exposition, especially during the sections about the banana plantations, Tiburon Cay, and Teddy’s backstory. These slower moments contrast with the faster-paced, action-driven scenes I loved, and I did catch myself eagerly anticipating the next ambush or interrogation. That said, even the more deliberate sections added rich layers to the world, creating a lived-in atmosphere that’s often missing from quick-paced thrillers.
The Right Side of Wrong was an intense ride with just the right blend of action, mystery, and heart. I finished it in two long sittings because I had to know how it would all crash together. If you love stories where the line between right and wrong gets blurred, where good people sometimes do bad things for the right reasons, you’ll eat this one up. I’d recommend it to readers looking for a thriller that respects your intelligence while still kicking your adrenaline into overdrive.
Pages: 369 | ASIN : B0F384T422
Bottled Lightning
Bottled Lightning, by L.M. Weeks, is a gripping legal thriller that seamlessly blends cutting-edge technology, global intrigue, and relentless action. Set in the bustling, vivid streets of Tokyo, the story introduces Tornait “Torn” Sagara, an elite technology lawyer who becomes ensnared in a deadly web of corporate espionage. Torn’s client, Saya Brooks, is a brilliant inventor whose revolutionary lightning-on-demand technology could transform the world by eliminating our reliance on fossil fuels. Yet, its disruptive potential makes her a target for powerful forces willing to stop at nothing—murder included.
The novel wastes no time plunging readers into chaos. An exhilarating motorcycle ride through Tokyo turns violent as Torn and Saya come under attack, thrusting them into a ruthless fight for survival. With assassins in pursuit and conspiracies unraveling, Torn races across borders—from Japan’s neon-lit streets to Russia’s unforgiving terrain. Along the way, he battles not only external enemies but his own inner demons, all while grappling with complicated feelings for Saya. The danger mounts. The stakes rise. And Torn’s entire existence—career, relationships, and life itself—hangs by a thread.
Weeks crafts a story that moves at breakneck speed but never sacrifices depth. The novel’s premise is both timely and compelling: Saya’s groundbreaking invention collides with the dark underbelly of corporate greed and energy politics. The result is a sharp exploration of technology’s promise and the forces determined to suppress it. Saya emerges as an engaging, multidimensional character—brilliant and ambitious, yet vulnerable enough to resonate with readers. Torn, by contrast, is a fascinating study of contrasts: a flawed lawyer wrestling with duty, desire, and the weight of his past. His personal struggles—his fractured moral compass and complex relationships—infuse the narrative with emotional heft.
Weeks offers a masterful portrayal of Tokyo’s culture, the nuances of Japanese legal systems, and the intricacies of advanced technology. These elements ground the story, giving it a realism often lacking in thrillers. Equally compelling is the emotional layer underpinning Torn’s journey. His growing bond with Saya, paired with his internal conflicts, adds depth to a plot that brims with action and suspense.
Fans of thrillers that deliver high-stakes espionage, electrifying twists, and a dash of romance will find Bottled Lightning impossible to put down. The pacing is relentless, the tension unrelenting, and the narrative rich with surprises. Torn’s evolution—both as a lawyer and as a man—provides an engrossing anchor for the story’s pulse-pounding momentum. Weeks doesn’t merely deliver thrills; he offers thought-provoking commentary on technology’s transformative power and its unintended consequences. Bottled Lightning stands as a remarkable entry in the legal thriller genre. Combining dynamic action with layered characters and an intelligent premise, it’s a story that captivates, challenges, and leaves readers hungry for more. This is more than a thriller—it’s a standout experience.
Pages: 312 | ASIN : B0B31JFHH2
A Close-Knit Community Reacts
The Stanton Falls Mysteries is a short story collection centered around two police detectives who tackle three murder investigations in a small town in Connecticut. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
My inspiration came from my fascination with small-town dynamics and the complexities of crime solving. I wanted to explore how a close-knit community reacts when faced with unexpected mysteries and two detectives navigate through these challenges while maintaining the town’s tranquility.
What was your approach to writing the interactions and the developing connections between your characters?
My approach was to create authentic and relatable characters. I focused on their individual backstories and personalities, which influenced their interactions with each other. The connections between the characters were built gradually, reflecting their shared experiences in law enforcement and mutual respect as they solved mysteries together.
What is the hardest part about writing a mystery story; where you constantly have to give just enough to keep the mystery alive until the big reveal?
The hardest part is giving just enough balance between revealing clues and maintaining the suspense. It’s important to give some answers, but not enough because you’ll solve the mystery too soon.
Can readers expect to see more work from you soon? What are you currently working on?
Yes! I am currently working on book Two and book Three of The Stanton Falls Mysteries Trilogy. Book Two is called Promotion to Peril and the third and final book in the trilogy is called Undercurrents of Betrayal. I’m hoping to have both books released by the end of 2024! I’m also currently working on a new book that combines the elements of romance and science fiction. I’m also exploring the idea of self-publishing and am in the process of setting up my own self-publishing company. It has been quite a learning curve, but a wonderful experience!
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website | Amazon
Detective Dan Ross lives in picturesque Stanton Falls, Connecticut. Dedicated to his job, he lives a lonely existence until a twist of fate, a random murder, he meets the love of his life, Charlotte Wayward. Along with rookie Detective Anthony Scalari, the two of them work together to solve three complex murders in their sleepy town. With each murder, both men build a bond, as does Anthony’s fiancé, Elizabeth, with Charlotte. With a new family, Dan learns how blessed he is, as Anthony learns to balance a family life.
One For The Money
Ryan Hale’s debut novel, One For the Money, introduces readers to Blake Franklin, a former Fort Worth cop turned private investigator, in the first installment of The Blake Franklin Investigations Series. Despite failing the detective exam three times, Blake’s tenacity is undiminished. His transition from law enforcement to private investigation begins with financial backing from his uncle Lewis, setting the stage for his new career. Blake is quickly entangled in a series of cases involving a disreputable car dealer accused of scamming elderly women. His investigation reveals a sinister network of missing individuals, suspicious deaths, and menacing adversaries, escalating the danger as he digs deeper. As the situation intensifies with more lives at risk and a mounting body count, Blake’s quest to recover the stolen cars threatens to disturb a volatile criminal element.
Against a backdrop of vintage automobiles and nefarious activities, Hale crafts a narrative rich with intrigue and action. While Blake’s investigative methods sometimes appear hasty and lack refinement, reflecting his inexperience, these traits also bring a dynamic unpredictability to his character. His natural charm and commitment to justice are his greatest assets, particularly as the stakes grow and the case draws federal attention. The narrative is bolstered by a robust cast of supporting characters. Figures like the affable Sharon Longstreet and the formidable Madeline Bailey provide emotional depth and complexity to the storyline, enriching the reader’s engagement. Fans of crime fiction and thrillers with a penchant for classic cars will find much to appreciate in Hale’s novel. It offers a compelling blend of suspense, sharp plot twists, and a touch of humor that keeps the pages turning.
One For the Money is a thrilling series opener, inviting readers to follow Blake Franklin as he navigates the murky waters of private investigation. Ryan Hale skillfully combines suspense, character development, and action elements, making this an excellent read for anyone drawn to gritty, realistic crime fiction. Whether you’re a devotee of detective stories or a newcomer to the genre, Blake Franklin’s daring escapades and the vivid backdrop of this suspenseful narrative will surely capture and hold your attention.
Pages: 238 | ASIN : B0BW51BJZP
The Best and Worst Among Us
The Arsonist follows a man seeking redemption who has lost his home, career, wife, and children and seeks to change the course of his life at a new job at the world’s largest bank. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
In many ways, the inspiration for writing The Arsonist was my own life. I had been fired after a 13-year career in global finance and had pivoted to working on sustainability and climate but had struggled to make progress even though I’d come close to a few big bangs. I was soon going to lose my house, and I got the ‘last’ chance of a lifetime to work on climate for the world’s largest asset manager. It didn’t pan out, and the ways in which I was rebuffed both cold and dramatic seeded many of the plot elements and crystallized my view of how Wall Street would not only fail to solve but also capitalize on the climate crisis. There’s also a fair number of true stories in The Arsonist, like the Running with the Bulls.
What were some of the emotional and moral guidelines you followed when developing your characters?
I felt that whatever ‘side’ the character fell on, they should be complete. The best and worst among us have elements that are antithetical to their primary drivers. True to real life, these dichotomies are the sources of conflict that forge us, through our decision making. So, I tried to stay true to that where the opportunity afforded itself and to ensure that the characters stood up to the tests of reality.
As far as morality, one sage bit of wisdom I received from a long-time advisor was that the good guy can
never solve the problem by killing. It seemed nuanced to me when she said it but now, I see it as a larger truth and statement on where our storytelling may have led us awry, so I’ve tried and will try to stay true to this. To solve the problem, the protagonist must find another way then resorting to killing.
Do you think there’s a single moment in everyone’s life, maybe not as traumatic, that is life-changing?
I think there are multiple moments in life that afford us the opportunity for change and those changes can be large or small, subtle or profound, but they can all be important for our journey. For me, art and nature became a release value from pressure and stress, and they evolved into a way of living, passion, and ultimately mission to live presently and express myself through various artistic mediums. Eventually, I became more attuned to larger catalytic moments, like the death of my father, and smaller ones, like the infinite appreciation of watching a bee hover through the air drunk on pollen. Life is happening all around us, everywhere there is beauty; we just need to remember to look. This has been a profound realization that has changed me deeply and made me more satisfied, even in troubling times.
What is the next book you are working on, and when can your fans expect it to be out?
I’m working on the sequel to The Arsonist, titled The Bombmaker’s Apprentice set principally in Savannah, Georgia. With the characters that survived The Arsonist firmly established, readers can expect a more fast-paced thriller packed with political corruption, more on the unfolding climate catastrophe, and a dangerous southern dynasty with, dare I say, nuclear ambitions. This book should be out in early 2025 by my best guess.
I plan to release a companion podcast for the Cal Minor books called the Wall Street Diaries that will initially contain some satirical writing and other stories from Cal Minor’s early life. This is an entertaining way to expand the world I’ve created through Cal, and I hope to evolve it in more interactive ways, including commentary on real-world and real-time corruption, greed, and excess.
I’m also writing a book on mindfulness, movement, and music and the inspiration for my ten-year journey to the present, called now, 100 Steps to Here and Now. Readers can stay in touch with all these projects and interact with me at KenCoulson.com.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website | Amazon
When Cal Minor strikes bottom-losing his home, career, wonderful wife, and children-redemption appears at the elite Atlas Corp led by the corporate bull, Hank Henleman, who is hell-bent on monetizing the looming global climate catastrophe. An ambitious young prosecutor and the FBI have other ideas and Cal soon finds himself ensnared between them and Henleman’s protectors including the sadistic head of a shadowy paramilitary force, Arik Bane, and his drug-addled #2, John Ryker. Riding the razors edge, The Arsonist brings readers to the brink of calamity in an intriguing, contemporary, and revelatory debut corporate thriller.
LITERARY TITAN 