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Journeys Through Heartbreak
Tango with Ghosts follows a 72-year-old Canadian who escapes to Buenos Aires only to encounter the ghost of a poet and tango dancer, drawing him into a haunting mystery rooted in his apartment’s secrets and Argentina’s buried history. How did you research this difficult period of Argentine history?
Most of my research was done using Google; however, there are many people who had family and friends who were taken away. I did many interviews with family members and relied on their stories.
What was the most challenging aspect of writing Reginald’s emotional journey?
Reginald represents a major part of society that journeys through heartbreak and loss. Many of these people don’t recover; they live in the past and feel there is no real future, whether it is divorce, death, or depression.
If readers remember one idea from Tango with Ghosts, what would you like it to be?
Get off the comfortable chair of self-pity, acknowledge nothing will last forever, and embrace the moment.
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Buenos Aires, 2006. He came to hide. Behind him, a shattered marriage and a sold business in Vancouver. Ahead, a year of solitude in a grand, unsettling apartment on Calle Talcahuano.
He meant to write. He avoided the city’s midnight milongas, because he knew too well what lives inside the tango: the unbearable art of holding what you are bound to lose. But some impulses can’t be buried.
Then he discovers a thirty-year-old manuscript by Alejandro Vargas, a writer disappeared from this very building during the military dictatorship. Vargas’s final meditations on dance, death, and the courage to stay become a mirror.
Pulled into the slipstream of the apartment’s past, he is drawn back into the embrace, toward a woman haunted by her own secrets, and toward a truth the city has kept hidden for three decades.
Some cities bury their dead. This one dances with them.
Tango with Ghosts
Bruce R. Hampson’s Tango with Ghosts is a supernatural historical novel about Reginald Emanuel, a seventy-two-year-old Canadian who arrives in Buenos Aires hoping distance will quiet the wreckage of his marriage. Instead, his apartment on Calle Talcahuano greets him with strange music, shifting photographs, hidden messages, and the lingering presence of its former owner, the poet and tango dancer Alejandro Vargas. What begins as one man’s attempt to disappear becomes an absorbing search through a building’s secrets and Argentina’s buried history.
Tango gives the novel its language and its heartbeat. The embrace becomes a way of thinking about love, grief, mortality, and the courage required to remain present when every instinct says to retreat. Hampson clearly understands the dance from within, from the codes of the milonga to the nearly invisible exchange of weight and intention between partners. His Buenos Aires feels equally intimate: humid streets, aging cafés, wooden dance floors, rattling elevators, and an apartment that breathes, remembers, and occasionally loses patience with its tenant.
The mystery reaches beyond the apartment into Argentina’s Dirty War and the lives of those who were disappeared. Through Alejandro, his daughter Elena, the poet Miguel Santoro, and the watchful building manager Jorge, the novel explores the complicated moral inheritance left by terror. These characters carry secrets, guilt, anger, and unanswered questions, yet Hampson keeps returning to the human choices inside that history. Elena is especially compelling, both as a daughter trying to understand her father and as a woman who has made dancing an act of survival.
There’s a warm, insistent generosity at the center of Tango with Ghosts. It believes people can tell the truth after decades of silence, reconnect after years of absence, and step back onto the floor after a fall. The novel’s ghosts aren’t simply there to frighten Reginald. They ask him to witness, to feel, and finally to live. Haunting, tender, and alive with the pulse of tango, this is a novel about holding the past close without letting it stop your feet.
Pages: 216 | ASIN : B0H7YPKL87
Dominique’s Journey / A Mystical Quest Through Love, Loss and Becoming / Per Asperum in Lucem
Dominique’s Journey, by D. J. Pratt, is an ambitious historical and spiritual adventure built around one man’s search for meaning, love, and a truth he can sense long before he can fully understand it. Beginning in 16th-century Europe, Dominique Guillaume follows a path set in motion by Léonide, the mysterious woman whose brief presence changes the direction of his entire life. His travels carry him through the Holy Roman Empire, the Ottoman world, Persia, and eventually India, and Pratt gives each stage a purpose beyond changing the scenery. Dominique is constantly being reshaped by the people he meets, including lovers, friends, teachers, soldiers, mystics, and family. What starts as a physical journey gradually becomes an examination of identity, faith, connection, and the possibility that some relationships reach farther than a single lifetime.
One of the book’s most interesting choices is the amount of time it gives Dominique to change. His transformation doesn’t happen through one revelation. He learns through friendship, desire, danger, grief, religion, language, discipline, and years of occasionally frustrating spiritual practice. That gives the novel an unusually patient rhythm. The later sections at Shambhala become especially immersive as Dominique works through the Purple Lotus and its chakra-based veils under the guidance of Leela Devi. There’s a lot of Hindu, yogic, Buddhist, Sufi, and mystical terminology here, but those ideas are woven directly into Dominique’s experiences. Leela’s journal entries are also a smart addition because they let us watch Dominique’s transformation from outside his own head. More importantly, they turn what could have been a solitary enlightenment story into something more emotionally complicated as teacher and student become increasingly bound to each other.
Readers of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist will recognize some familiar territory. Both novels follow a traveler who leaves the life he knows because something deeper seems to be calling him, and both treat chance meetings, intuition, love, and apparent coincidence as parts of a larger spiritual pattern. Dominique’s Journey, though, takes that basic idea into a much larger and denser world. Pratt spends considerable time on history, competing religious traditions, sexuality, philosophy, reincarnation, and the mechanics of spiritual awakening. Dominique’s repeated idea that he’s becoming an event within the universe captures the book particularly well. The journey isn’t simply about arriving at Shambhala. It’s about watching an identity slowly become porous enough to connect with other people, other traditions, and ultimately the larger fabric of existence.
I liked the way the novel links love to transformation. Léonide motivates Dominique’s journey, Avice and others teach him different forms of intimacy and connection, and Leela eventually becomes inseparable from the spiritual culmination of his quest. By the time Dominique reaches the final veil, the book has spent decades of his life preparing for a choice between release and return, so his decision carries real thematic weight. The epilogue then reaches backward and forward through time to reshape what we thought we understood about Léonide, Dominique, and the mysterious bond connecting them. It gives the story a circular quality that suits its recurring images of threads, waterwheels, rebirth, and lives crossing across time. Dominique’s Journey is the kind of historical fantasy that wants adventure, romance, philosophy, and mysticism occupying the same space, and its strongest moments come when all four finally converge. For readers who enjoy philosophical historical fiction, the novel’s depth and layered exploration of spirituality, history, and identity will be part of its appeal.
Pages: 456 | ASIN : B0HFM6ZMT7
Recipient of the Literary Titan Book Award
Wistman’s Wood – A Tale of the Moors and Beyond
Wistman’s Wood is a mystical, idea-driven novel that begins with one man’s walk into an ancient Dartmoor oak wood and grows into a story about human consciousness, planetary responsibility, and the possibility of change. Michael Trelawny’s quiet ramble through Wistman’s Wood turns strange when he encounters a mysterious woman whose presence unsettles him and pulls him toward something far larger than local legend. The book has the feel of a spiritual quest wrapped in folklore, with the moor itself acting less like a setting and more like a living intelligence.
The strongest part of the novel is its atmosphere. The early chapters move slowly in a good way, letting the reader settle into the landscape: the granite, the twisted oaks, the stream, the old pub, the sense that Dartmoor is watching. The line “Entering the woods was almost like saying hello to an old friend” captures the book’s relationship with place beautifully. Wistman’s Wood feels ancient, protective, and not entirely knowable, which makes Michael’s growing obsession with the woman of the wood feel natural rather than forced.
As the story expands, it becomes much more than a ghostly encounter on the moors. Clair’s arrival gives Michael someone to question, challenge, and believe alongside, and their connection grounds the more cosmic elements of the plot. Through Enchantment, the novel introduces the grey mist, an ancient constraint woven into human consciousness, and the story moves into an ambitious blend of myth, environmental concern, artificial intelligence, sacred sites, and spiritual awakening. It’s a big swing, and the book clearly wants readers to think about empathy, long-term responsibility, and what humanity might become if it could get out of its own way.
What’s interesting is that the novel doesn’t treat transformation as instant perfection. Even after the solstice ritual, the world still has conflict, doubt, media noise, and people trying to understand what happened. That choice gives the final third of the book a more reflective feel. Michael’s realization that “The correction has been made. The rest is up to us” sums up the heart of the story. The mystical event matters, but the real focus is what people do afterward, in their ordinary choices and relationships.
Wistman’s Wood is a contemplative novel for readers who enjoy folklore, metaphysical fiction, and stories that ask large questions through a personal journey. It starts with mossy stones and strange laughter in an ancient wood, then opens into a vision of humanity standing at a turning point. Its voice is earnest, its concerns are deeply human, and its best moments come when the mystery of the moor and the hope for inner change meet in the same scene.
Pages: 152 | ASIN : B0GT25WNRX
Sacred Crossroads: The Path Appears When You Take The First Step
Sacred Crossroads, by Mitch Russo, is a metaphysical fantasy novel about Noble Manning, a practical hardware store owner in Cedar Springs, Massachusetts, whose carefully ordered life begins to crack open when the family store reveals itself as something far more mysterious than a small-town business. Through Noble, his daughter Sarah, Jenny Martinez, Rosa’s legacy, and the strange pull of Manning’s Hardware, the book explores grief, family inheritance, spiritual awakening, and the courage it takes to step into a larger truth.
What I liked most is that the novel treats transformation as both magical and deeply human. Noble’s resistance feels familiar. He wants numbers, ledgers, systems, and proof. Honestly, I understood him. There is comfort in shelves being labeled and life behaving itself. But the book keeps pressing against that comfort, asking what happens when the world is bigger than the tools we use to measure it. The hardware store is a smart central image because it keeps the story grounded. Hammers, keys, wood, registers, and old ledgers. Ordinary things. Then Russo lets them hum with meaning. That mix gives the book its strongest texture.
The writing leans into wonder, sometimes so much that the message comes through very clearly. This is not a quiet literary novel that hides its themes in the shadows. It wants to talk about awakening, purpose, fear, and becoming. Still, there is sincerity here, and that counts for a lot. I was especially drawn to Jenny and Rosa’s thread because their wisdom feels lived-in rather than abstract. Their story gives the novel heart and history, and it helps balance Noble’s more internal struggle with a wider sense of community and inheritance.
As spiritual or visionary fantasy, Sacred Crossroads will most appeal to readers who like fiction with an open heart and a clear sense of purpose. It’s a good fit for people drawn to stories about awakening after loss, small towns with hidden magic, family legacies, and the idea that everyday places can become thresholds. Readers who enjoy reflective, meaning-driven fiction will likely appreciate its warmth and invitation. I’d recommend it to anyone standing at a personal crossroads, especially someone who wants a novel that feels less like an escape and more like a nudge toward courage.
Pages: 218 | ASIN : B0GGNRK2TC
One Cathartic Moment
Sage of the Mountains follows a broken blacksmith who journeys into the mountains in search of a sage, hoping to get a fresh start, and discovers that the path to healing requires confronting the self he’s been trying to escape. Why did you choose to tell this story as a fable rather than a traditional self-help book?
I chose to tell this story as a fable because real change doesn’t come from information alone. It comes from lived experiences. The journey Folly takes through the mountains is a mirror of our own inner journey that we all face when we’re trying to let go of the past and find peace.
I’ve always been drawn to self-help, but I’ve noticed something: even when the advice is excellent, it often doesn’t stick. It stays in the mind, but it doesn’t change me. A story, on the other hand, goes deeper. It allows us to feel the struggle, the resistance, and the transformation.
It’s like sitting in a classroom. After a few months, most of us won’t remember the bullet points the teacher says will be on the test. But we will remember an interesting story from the teacher about the topic. That’s what I wanted to create here. Instead of telling readers what to do, I wanted them to walk the path with Folly, experience it for themselves, and hopefully carry those lessons into their own lives.
What does the mountain represent to you beyond the obvious symbolism, and do you believe everyone has a “mountain,” and if so, how do we recognize it?
The mountain isn’t just the thing we are trying to avoid. It represents who we are capable of becoming.
Everyone has a mountain to conquer, but each person’s will be different. Some are about loss, failure, or even a realization that something isn’t working anymore, while for others, it can represent striving to be the best version of themselves.
We recognize it by what we resist the most. It’s the thing we keep avoiding but know we need to face. That tension, that pull and resistance that we feel, that’s the mountain we must face.
What is the most misunderstood idea about healing that you wanted to address?
To me, it’s that we believe too much in the Hollywood ending, that one cathartic moment brings a person back to reality. It doesn’t. Healing is gradual, and relapses are ever-present.
What do you hope someone in a difficult season takes away from Folly’s story?
That what they’re going through may have some purpose, even if they can’t see it yet. Sometimes it’s just realizing how much other people truly show up when everything has fallen apart.
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A story about losing everything…and finding yourself.
After losing the life he worked so hard to build, Folly finds himself in ruins with no direction, no certainty, and no map of where to go next. Drawn by whispers of a reclusive Sage that dwells high in the mountains, he sets out on a journey that he hopes will piece him back together. What he doesn’t yet understand is that transformation demands he face the very things he has tried to outrun and question the identity he constructed to protect himself.
Sage of the Mountains is a modern inspirational fable for those standing at a crossroads. In the spirit of symbolic journeys like The Alchemist, Siddhartha and The Celestine Prophecy, it unfolds slowly—inviting reflection, stillness, and a deeper listening in a world that rarely pauses.
We all have a mountain that we must conquer in our lives, something that is holding us back from becoming who we wish to be. For readers navigating loss, doubt, or the courage to begin again, Sage of the Mountains is more than a story—it is a mirror for your own path.
Your climb begins here.
Sage of the Mountains
Sage of the Mountains is a modern inspirational fable, really a self-help story dressed in the shape of a quest. Dr. George Cluen frames it around Folly, a blacksmith whose life has been wrecked by betrayal, heartbreak, and the slow grind of pain, then sends him into the mountains in search of a sage who might help him let go and start again. The book makes its purpose plain from the start. It’s about healing, self-discovery, reframing suffering, and learning how to move forward when your mind keeps dragging you back. That mix of allegory and personal growth sits at the heart of the book, and Cluen underlines it again in the reflective material at the end, where he ties Folly’s journey to his own search for peace.
This book doesn’t hide what it wants to say, and I think that honesty gives it some real warmth. Folly’s setbacks are heavy, but they are presented in simple, readable language that keeps the story moving, and Arabello’s guidance gives the novel its emotional backbone. At times, the dialogue feels less like natural conversation and more like the delivery system for a lesson, but in this genre, that is partly the point. This isn’t a literary puzzle box. It’s a book that wants to meet a reader in pain, sit them down, and say, keep going.
I was also struck by the author’s choice to build the story as a series of encounters, trials, and reminders, almost like stations on a climb. That structure gives the book a steady rhythm and makes Folly’s growth feel incremental instead of magical. The strongest idea running through it, for me, is that change isn’t something that arrives from outside. It has to be practiced, sometimes awkwardly, through attention, gratitude, restraint, and small wins. That is familiar territory in inspirational fiction and self-help, but Cluen gives it a personal pulse by linking the fable to his own period of loss and searching. You can feel that lived experience underneath the message. Even when the symbolism is broad, it doesn’t feel empty. It feels meant.
Sage of the Mountains will work best for readers who like uplifting, faith-leaning or spiritually open personal-growth books, especially ones that use story instead of straight advice. If you’re looking for a reflective, accessible book about hurt, resilience, and finding your footing again, I think it has something genuine to offer. I would most readily recommend it to readers of inspirational fiction, allegorical healing narratives, and anyone going through a rough patch who wants a gentle nudge toward hope.
Pages: 102 | ASIN : B0FFVSPZT3
The Breaking of Time: Chronicles of the Arvynth
The Breaking of Time drops you straight into a life coming apart at the seams. Daniel Ward looks like any middle-aged dad, but he’s actually a centuries-old sorcerer who has been hiding from a ruthless order known as the Arvynth. When he freezes time to save his son from being hit by a truck, he exposes the truth he has buried for twenty years. His wife sees everything. His children sense something they should never sense. The Arvynth find him again. The quiet suburban world he built starts to crack, and those cracks spread fast. The book follows Daniel as he struggles to protect his family while the old world he fled pushes its way back into his life. It blends magic, danger, family drama, and a growing sense that every choice Daniel makes costs him something huge.
I kept rooting for Daniel even when I wanted to shake him. His voice feels worn, tired, and trying so hard to pass for normal that when he breaks, it hurts. I liked how raw the family moments felt. His wife’s shock lands hard. His son’s confusion hits even harder. The scenes where Daniel feels the Arvynth closing in gave me this tight pressure in my chest, like the danger was creeping into the room with me. The writing is clean, quick, and vivid. The magic feels physical. I could almost hear the world stop when he speaks the old words. I found myself flipping pages just to see if he could hold his family together for one more chapter.
Daniel’s past stretches back centuries, and the book keeps teasing details without giving everything away too early. I loved that slow reveal. It made me feel off balance, like the story was letting me overhear secrets not meant for me. And the Arvynth are terrifying in a quiet way, which I really enjoyed. They barely appear at first, yet their presence fills every page. I also liked how the writing shifts between intimate family tension and sweeping magic that feels ancient and dangerous. The mix kept the pace unpredictable in a way that felt alive.
I think this book would land especially well with readers who enjoy fantasy woven into ordinary life, stories about families under impossible pressure, and characters who carry heavy pasts that finally catch up to them. If you like magic that feels tactile and real, or if you enjoy emotional stakes wrapped inside supernatural danger, this book will hit the spot.
Pages: 354 | ASIN : B0G3YH6638
