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The Literary Hedgehog
The Literary Hedgehog takes readers on a heartwarming journey through a world that cleverly addresses stereotypes and social issues while instilling crucial life values. The story unfolds around Evie, a passionate poet, as she navigates the whimsical world of anthropomorphic animals, trying to find her place and voice. The story is imbued with lessons on kindness, acceptance, and the courage to stand up for oneself, creating a light yet thoughtful children’s book suitable for younger audiences.
What stands out immediately is the author’s ability to blend warmth with subtle yet important societal themes. The book’s protagonist, Evie, is charming and relatable, especially when she gathers her courage to submit her poetry to the City Magazine. When she speaks to Mr. Hedgehog, and he admits he nearly overlooked her work, there’s a relatable tension. This moment captures the unease many of us feel when sharing something deeply personal, making Evie’s eventual triumph feel genuine and earned. The authors make these small yet impactful scenes shine, demonstrating how even seemingly minor acts of bravery can make a big difference.
I loved the dynamic between Evie and Brayden. His support and encouragement during her moments of doubt felt genuine and uplifting. The illustrations are stunning and make the book a visual delight. Plus, the inclusion of Evie’s poems was a fantastic touch that added depth and made her journey feel even more personal.
The Literary Hedgehog is a feel-good picture book that doesn’t overcomplicate its message. It’s perfect for families looking to engage children with meaningful conversations about courage and kindness while enjoying a delightful story. If you’re a parent, teacher, or just someone who loves a heartfelt tale, this book is definitely worth picking up.
Pages: 51 | ASIN : B0DJC91CQY
We All Can Do What We Love
The Poetry Mouse follows a little mouse who daydreams of being more than a homemaker and baker; she wishes to write poetry instead. What was the inspiration for your story?
Inspiration for The Poetry Mouse is found in that part in all of us where we want to follow our dreams but may have instead listened to society, others, or our own internal voice telling us we can’t. This is about following your passion and doing what you love.
I also want to mention this is coauthored with Derek R. King, and is what we both believe to be us collaborating with our strengths. Derek wrote the poetry featured in Evie’s journal pages and I a wrote a story around his poems creating the tale.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
That it’s never too late to follow your dreams, or as my father always said to me, if you don’t try then the answer to whether you can achieve it is always going to be a ‘no.’
Derek and I are classic examples of this as we both took the opportunity to write and create together and the result is a magnificent magical synergy shared.
Is there any moral or idea that you hope readers take away from the story?
For me, the line in the movie The Edge says it all, and I’m sure I’m paraphrasing here, but I recall it as “what one man (or person) can do another can do.” This is a reminder we all can achieve anything and everything; whatever we set our minds to. For Evie this means she can be a poet. She can change careers. She can do what she loves. We all can do what we love.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
Well, for me personally, I’m in the final editing stage of ‘We Three: Search for Source,’ a supernatural novel with paranormal romance elements which is slated for publication in spring 2023.
As for my collaborations with my writing partner, Derek R. King, we are wrapping up a sequel to The Enchanted Faerie Realm with a focus on the winter fae, and a couple of our art-inspirational books are nearing completion as well. We have a couple dozen books underway and hope to release them in 2023.
Derek has a poetry book, More Red Rose in Verse, slated for January 2023 publication and several more solo projects for himself as well in 2023.
We both are excited to share more of our creations.
Julie Kusma Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website | Amazon Author Page
Derek King Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Website | Amazon Author Page
Being a mouse, she longs for the simplicity of nature. So, every day she sneaks past the woods and into the meadow where she writes her inspired words. She might even find encouragement from a friend to submit her poems.
This is Evie’s story of finding her authentic self, becoming brave enough to do what she loves, and ultimately sharing her gift with the world as The Poetry Mouse.
The Poetry Mouse
A little mouse named Evie lived in a quaint little town near the forest. This little mouse spent her days baking, mending clothes, and keeping her home neat and tidy. However, these things are not what gave her joy in life; instead, she did these things because that is what was expected of her. Evie’s real passion, which she spent hours daydreaming about, was writing poetry.
One day she heads off to the woods with her paper and pen in hand; she spots some rabbits and composes a poem about them there. From there, she writes more until she ends up at a bench talking with Brayden Fox. Now Brayden recognizes that Evie is talented and encourages her to think about what she really wants in life and focus on that, not on what other people think she should be doing with her time.
The Poetry Mouse, written by Derek R. King and Julie L. Kusma, is a beautifully written children’s story and collection of poetry intertwined together to create a whimsical book that children and adults can enjoy. The story of Evie the mouse is cute and adorable, with the watercolor images illustrating the pages. This is a story of self-discovery, breaking out of the mold that society says you must fit into. For children, it teaches them that they do not have to fit into stereotypical molds and that they can follow their passions in life and be happy. It encourages children to dream and take action to make those dreams come true.
The second half of this marvelous book is Evie the mouse’s poetry. Placed on the pages in the illustrations of her journal, it adds to the feeling that the little mouse is composing and sharing a part of her dream with readers. Each poem written about nature is filled with passion and wonder. The poem about the owl gliding through the night sky was my favorite. I can envision the downy feathers as they glide to the earth as the Owl moves across the moon’s silhouette. The poetry is organic, drawing the reader into a moment in time. They will glimpse nature in its pure form for that one breath of time. It is not often such simple poetry that can have the power to make you stop and visualize a single moment that, had it been mentioned any other way, would have been mundane. King and Kusma take the ordinary and transform it into breathtaking.
The Poetry Mouse is an astonishing children’s poetry book that will bring joy and wonder to children reading the story and looking at the beautiful artwork. Adults will find a more profound message in the story, one of following your dreams and stopping to appreciate the simple things in life. This storybook is one that readers will want to own and keep on the shelf for years to come.
Pages: 55 | ASIN : B0B69FGYMR
I Love Twist Endings
The Many Worlds of Mr. A. Skouandy follows a psychiatrist as he evaluates a patient that was dropped off and, in the process, learns the history of the patients in the sanatorium. What was the inspiration for this collection of short stories?
As my thesis for my MA.E.CW, Fic (Master of Art, English, Creative Writing, Fiction), I selected a collection of short stories instead of submitting a novel. I love to write short stories, and I love twist endings, so pulling a collection together was in my wheelhouse. I wanted and needed a theme to connect each story together. My answer was to bookend the story of Dr. Blanchard on both sides of the collection and connect the stories through the character of Aaron Skouandy and the sanatorium. Of course, the ending has a twist, which hopefully brings the reader full circle about the subject matter of each story and why it was included in my short story cycle.
I really enjoyed the short story “Silence So Deafening.” Do you have a favorite story in this collection, and why?
Silence so Deafening is a favorite of mine too, and it was placed in a contest and received publication, which was beautiful. But my favorite has to be Inseparable because my sister and I really stayed in the cabin this story is based on. I let her be the main character and kill me off. This delighted her to no end. Neither one of us has any plans to ever revisit the cabin. Ever.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The stories were centered around assignments mainly. For example, Baby Makes Three started off as a memory required for the first part of a project. My memory was about the adoption of my eldest son. The second part of this same project was to flip that memory on its head. I did just that and turned my characters into aliens and developed a plot around their baby. My professor immensely enjoyed it and commented that Science Fiction may just be my genre. I’m not sure about that. I haven’t written another Sci-Fi piece since.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I have two books in the final revision stage. The first is a collection of shorts (several previously published online). The majority unseen by the public and written after peers in the writing community asked me to please turn them into full-length stories and make them into a novel. The title is The Crooked Crone and Other Mystifications and is slated for publication this fall. The second novel, We Three: The Ipswich Chronicles, is based on the main character from the book previously mentioned, the Crone, and her sisters. The story is about how they learned they were witches and their journey to find the source of magic, and my Beta readers loved it. So excited to publish this novel, targeted for spring 2023.
Additionally, I have a couple of collaborations with my writing partner, Derek R. King, slated for this summer. First, the second volume, Amore, of our new The Lighter Half Series, which launched in February with volume one, Abracadabra. These are delightful and magical collections of poetry. Second, we have a wonderful poetry collection for children themed around faeries titled The Enchanted Faerie Realm. This children’s book is slated for publication in May of this year.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
This short story cycle is a blend of psychological suspense, horror, soft science-fiction, alternate universe, and alternate history, thematically tied together by outcomes that are unanticipated, unintentional, and always unexpected.
The Many Worlds of Mr. A. Skouandy, the title story that bookends nine tales in between, is presented in the postmodern collage style, including admission forms and patient sketches before each piece and doctor’s notes after each. The stories can be read separately, but when read sequentially, a much larger story is revealed, generating this unique psychological horror novella.
The Many Worlds of Mr. A. Skouandy
The Many Worlds of Mr. A. Skouandy & Other Stories from Oakwood Sanatorium is an assorted collection of short stories ranging from heartbreaking to horrifying. Author Julie Kusma explores loss, loneliness, grief, and a host of other mental afflictions in these winding, interconnected tales from the titular mental hospital. We follow Dr. Shepard Blanchard as he investigates the curious case of a newly admitted patient, one Mr. A. Skouandy and his mysterious knowledge of other patients in the ward. Dr. Blanchard becomes transfixed with Mr. Skouandy’s claims, and his investigation leads him on a journey through the origins of how the inhabitants of Oakwood Sanatorium came to reside there.
The main narrative takes place in the Oakwood sanatorium in the 1940s. We are not privy to Dr. Blanchard’s interviews with the patients; instead, we are treated to events in their lives that cause them to end up in Oakwood Sanatorium. The patient’s stories of loss or trauma and the resulting mental illness or psychotic break offer an interesting reflection on how the diverse characters deal with grief in their lives.
The author explores many genres: science fiction, fantasy, and horror are all represented here, while most of the stories are steeped in reality, as unsettling as it may be. The novel itself is a vehicle for some of Kusma’s works that have appeared previously. Dr. Blanchard’s prologues and handwritten notes offer a connecting thread to the stories, and it works to varying degrees. I feel some of the stories mesh well together in the setting, but others feel forced at times. “Free of Bees “and “The Writing Room” fit nicely. “Silence So Deafening” and “Baby Makes Three” have a very Twilight Zone-vibe, which works for this collection.
The Many Worlds of Mr. A. Skouandy & Other Stories from Oakwood Sanatorium is a collection of short stories collected from patients in a sanatorium, making it easy to combine elements from multiple genres. Readers who like the unusual, strange, and horrifying aspects of life will find this eclectic book a great escape from the day-to-day realities.
Pages: 172 | ASIN : B09FKCYN44
My Story Was Born
Stuck That Way and Other Quandaries is a collection of eerie short stories that tell some fantastic paranormal tales. What was the inspiration for the titular story in this collection?
The title story was inspired by a conversation I had with a former yoga teacher. We were discussing frequencies and elevating oneself to higher vibrational quality. The question, did I think ascension was the raising of one’s frequency, was asked. Fascinating question and it made me wonder if the lowering of the frequency sends one to this plane. My story was born.
My favorite story from the collection is “By Induction.” Do you have a favorite story in this book?
Something Lurking is my favorite in this collection. It is loosely based on my dog Finn and the dark woods behind my house. Sometimes he stares, frozen, out into the woods. Scary.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in your stories?
I am always finding ways to expose and explain the shadow aspect of our personality. That and perspective are always themes in my writing.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
Since publishing Stuck That Way and Other Quandaries, I have had two children’s books published: A Perfect Place for Scary Monsters to Hide with author Jill Yoder and Pigglety Pigglety Poo, illustrated by Jane Jago. In addition to these two books, I also have The Many Worlds of Mr. A. Skouandy and Other Stories from Oakwood Sanatorium, a postmodern collage-style short story cycle featuring sketches by Tanweer Dar, and the first volume in a new series of gothic poetry with poet and author Derek R. King entitled The Darker Half, Volume 13
November 12 is the release of a beautiful inspirational book based on the Japanese art of Kintsugi, written with Derek R. King entitled Honey; Words to Heal & Mend. And on November 26, the release of Volume 12 in The Darker Half Series of gothic poetry, entitled Santa’s Claws. Another two books might squeak in as well: Our Christmas: Traditions, Memories, & More, with Derek R. King and maybe, just maybe, the release of That’s Creepy, Santa! The Trilogy, which includes part one from Stuck That Way. More to come in 2021.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
STUCK THAT WAY where a boy in a parallel universe plays a forbidden game and finds himself stuck in an unfamiliar place. Link to FREE audio version provided in eBook version.
Stuck That Way and Other Quandaries
![Stuck That Way and Other Quandaries by [Julie Kusma]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fxTNNhTYL.jpg)
Stuck That Way and Other Quandaries by Julie Kusma is a collection of short stories that are delightfully unnerving. Ranging topics like beastly transformations, death curses, and demon hunters are all masterfully crafted to create raw emotion. Quick warming: These stories do have violent and disturbing scenes that I don’t think are appropriate for children.
My favorite story of the bunch is probably “By Induction”, a story about a woman who fully believes that she can curse people to their deaths by putting their name in a jar and putting that jar in her freezer. When her curse strikes again, she has a change of heart and decides to curse another. No spoilers, but it is a great short story.
Another great one is the titular story, “Stuck That Way.” A father is showing his young boy how to create a corporeal form in parts, but the mother warns against it, because she does not want him to become trapped inside a body and disappear from their plane of existence. It’s quick, unsettling, and a commentary on human life. Fantastic work.
The writing is very strong overall, and Kusma does well to develop setting and motivation for her characters before twisting the reader’s expectations and toying with the seemingly inevitable ends. She also does well by making the characters think and act very logically. It’s pretty easy to understand why the characters make their choices, even if the results are not positive. If there was a weakness in the writing, I would say that the rare moments of action are sometimes not clearly described, but these clear up quickly and efficiently.
I’ll be looking forward to more work from Kusma, and I hope that the next set of stories are just as chilling and unsettling.
Pages: 83 | ASIN: B088JT34CT
LITERARY TITAN 