Blog Archives
First Nations Culture
Luka and Little Feather follows two First Nations siblings living on a reservation who discover a wishing stone that takes them on an underwater adventure. What was the inspiration for your story?
As an educator, I see the inequities in literature and I wanted to be the change. There are very few First Nations authors and very few stories that depict First Nations characters as the heroines of the story. I wanted to write a story that highlights First Nations culture while also providing a way for children to really “imagine and dream” of what it would be like to really find a wishing stone. Kids who live in survival mode need stories like this that enable them to look beyond the world as it is.
What were some educational aspects that were important for you to include in this children’s book?
Language and culture are critical when it comes to understanding Native culture. Everything you see in the book has meaning. Their clothing, toys, posters on the walls, hair clips, etc… Every page also has a hidden message that highlights a Native cause… “We are still here,” “MMIW,” “honor the treaties” etc.. I want kids to see these hidden messages and ask… “what does that mean!?”
I am currently working on a supplemental First Nations curriculum based on the hidden messaging in the book. Teachers are starving for better and more culturally responsive ways to teach Indigenous studies, and this gives them a way that is current, fun, and less threatening.
The art in this book is fantastic. What was the art collaboration process like with illustrator Nix Doxtater
Nix is also Native and comes from the same tribe as myself. She understood how important it was to get the cultural aspects of the story right. She is a visionary and was able to capture my thoughts and ideas beautifully.
Is this the first book in the series? If so, when is the next book coming out, and what can your fans expect in the next story?
We are hoping this story becomes a series. There are SO many places they could go! I am hopeful another Luka and Little Feather book can be published by 2026!
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Amazon
While out exploring by the river, Luka finds something that will change their lives forever-a yotnʌyátku, or “magic stone.” Luka and Little Feather take it home, where they make their wish to see their beloved ocean. At first, this stone seems like just a plain old rock, but when they awake, they realize they have been transported to an underwater world of magic and amazement.
Together with their friend Whaliam, the girls explore the blue sea. The vibrant colors, new friends, food, and experiences are more than the girls could have ever asked for. However, Luka and Little Feather soon realize that even with their dream coming true, nothing is as extraordinary as the comforts of home.
Misguided Quest For Redemption
Armageddon: An Apache Story follows a demon who possesses humans and starts a reign of terror and destruction. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Bal’am, the demon, wants to redeem himself through a process by which he takes over the well of the soul of an innocent. I found the idea intriguing that a physical space in the human body houses the soul. Some believe the soul rests in the subject’s pole, the source of consciousness; others feel the soul is held in the interior body; while others place it in the heart chakra. The presence of the soul makes man a unique being. This is why man is a privileged creature who can seek forgiveness; all others of God’s creation cannot. Angels and demons cannot ask or seek forgiveness for actions that they have committed. Therefore, Armageddon is about a soulless creature’s misguided quest for redemption. It is a false quest because Bal’am does not regret his offenses. He wants revenge and not forgiveness.
The other part of my journey with this book is the cast of characters – Native American and not. The cultures of the Hopi and their religious beliefs and the reality of their Kachina spirits become true for our other protagonist Luis, a half-breed, the most dangerous of all creatures because his feet are in both worlds. That is why the Catholic faith and Southwestern Indian traditions collide. This collision of faiths, the dedication of the members of the Apache Medicine Society, and their Catholic counterparts helped me see that we can all work together to fight evil in whatever form it may take. True evil maintains a presence in our world, and we must constantly do battle with it.
Was it important for you to deliver a moral to readers, or was it circumstantial to delivering an effective novel?
Yes, one faith, one perspective does not monopolize the truth. We all hold truth in the way we look at the world. When we first meet Luis, he is a boy who has lived on a farm or really a plantation. When his stepfather dies, he has no reason to stay there. His arc from orphan to possessed televangelist to priest, and to warrior is much like the arcs of many of us. We start in one place, and by the end of our story, we are somewhere else, with many stops along the way. The same goes for Cecilia, a rough street-wise woman searching for her people, becoming a mother, serving as a slave to Bal’am, and escaping those chains to fight for her daughter and grandson. It was important for me to develop each character fully and to show how they manage under harsh, unforgiving circumstances. I wanted them to be real people, and that is why I projected each character through different life experiences.
With the rich history surrounding Apache and Hopi traditions, did you find anything in your research of this story that surprised you?
Yes, the diversity in the Hopi pantheon and how it mirrored the pantheon of angels and saints of the Catholic Church surprised me. Another one was how we place the label Apache on a people who are diverse in their makeup: Apache of Oklahoma, Fort Sill Apache, Oklahoma Jicarilla Apache, New Mexico Mescalero, New Mexico San Carlos Apache, Arizona Tonto Apache, Arizona White Mountain Apache of the Fort Apache Reservation, Arizona Yavapai-Apache, with each group have different traditions stories and beliefs. All of the different sects have similar yet different oral traditions. I wanted to paint the canvas not with just one tradition but with all of the oral traditions of this diverse group.
Where do you see your characters after the book ends?
The struggle against evil is never-ending. Not only the evil that men do but the invisible hand that pushes us to do things that otherwise we’d never consider doing. I believe Luis, Cecilia, Ed Crow, and Marian will encounter pure evil again because Bal’am isn’t dead but waiting for his opportunity to lash out against the world. I believe that Bal’am will find allies in the underworld to help him break his chains and seek vengeance against Luis, his family, and his friends. Return to Armageddon has been written but is still in the pre-publishing stage, a work in progress, so I do not want to scoop the continuing story.
Author Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Website
Apache and Hopi traditions are woven artfully throughout this novel. Bal’am finally enters Luis and begins his reign of terror and destruction. Luis is incarcerated, and through Bal’am’s deceptions and brutality, he takes over the HAND (La Mano Negra), the Mexican Mafia. He also becomes Rev. Bronco, a televangelist who uses his position to give demons the opportunity to possess the innocent. Luis’s young daughter, Raven, becomes the object of Bal’am’s design. By impregnating her, he can dwell in the well of the soul. The possessed Luis thwarts that plan, however. The demon takes over Raven, finds a mate, conceives, and incarnates as Emmanuel, who leads a life of destruction as a child and young adult. With unwavering determination, a small band of believers use Apache and Christian traditions to hunt for the incarnation of evil. Time is running out. Will they defeat the Prince of Hell?
The Erebus Tales Series
Gifts of a Dark God follow a group of friends trying to stop the colonization of Antarctica while running into some dangerous hurdles. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
See the first two books in the Erebus Tales series, Stone Fever and The Color of Greed, for more background on how a climate-changed Antarctica becomes the focal point of this story.
Which character in the novel do you feel you relate to more and why?
Every major character has a bit of me in it: Keltyn the loner nerd geologist, Joaquin the gimpy but plucky gaucho-wannabee, Luz the impetuous organizer, Fay the defender of the downtrodden, even Helmut Ganz the corporate toady, hiding a fatal character flaw.
What was your favorite scene in this story?
The horse-breeding scene in Chapter 13, though I owe a word of thanks in the conception of that scene to a similar one in Tom Wolfe’s A Man in Full.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
No further fiction planned at this time. Readers are referred to the first two books in this series, previously published by Iguana Books.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website
Meanwhile, activist Fay Del Campo, sprung from detention, vows to fight Sir Oscar Bailey’s domination of world commerce, even if it means joining forces with a shadowy group of saboteurs. Bailey’s storm trooper Helmut Ganz plots to stop her. Only one of them will survive, and Erebus, the dark mountain god, will have the final say.
Gifts of a Dark God
Keltyn and her friends’ fight for justice continues in Gifts of a Dark God by Norman Westhoff. Fay is released from jail due to the current lack of evidence, while Keltyn is scraping together legal funding by doing an interview with the sensationalist reporter, Bertram Casey. The excellent news is that insider information leads Fay to know about some critical holes in Oscar Bailey’s plan to colonize Antarctica, which could buy them some time to stop it. Will they finally be able to prevent history from repeating itself? You’ll have to read Gifts of a Dark God by Norman Westhoff to find out!
Westhoff’s writing is an intricate weaving of real-world issues into a fictional work. The author hits the ground running with Keltyn’s interview, which offers us a remarkable introspective on journalism’s corruption and artificial molding. As readers watch the interviewer try to shape the narrative around Keltyn’s story, you can see the infamous real-life interviews where the same thing has happened. And this is only one of the many instances of art imitating life so precisely in Gifts of a Dark God. The interview scene further proves Westhoff’s ability to provoke critical thought. He simply lays out the facts of a modern and past life with simplistic but gripping writing.
Another talent of Westoff’s is his character building. Throughout every book in the series, there is a strong sense of realness to the characters. The passion behind each action of the characters allows readers to sense their rage, sadness, and triumph in full force. In addition, every reader will feel the intensity of wanting to dismantle the power of the fiction villain and their real-life equivalents.
This suspenseful novel is a work of gripping perfection. Westhoff did not skip a beat when it came to all the critical points of building a story. He gives readers a compelling plot, fully-fledged main and side characters, concise writing.
Gifts of a Dark God is a riveting addition to the Erebus Tales series. This action-packed, suspenseful novel will appeal to lovers of fiction, adventure, and even science fiction.
Pages: 458 | ASIN : B09NF2D28T
Erebus Tales
Stone Fever follows a geologist exploring a defrosted Antarctica when she makes new friends and sets off to find the elusive iris stone. What was the inspiration for the setup to this exciting story?
Geography, especially maps, has always been a hobby of mine. I pictured how the effects of continuing climate change might affect human populations, forcing migration toward the poles. These two groups could lose touch with each other and evolve separately.
Keltyn is an interesting and well developed character. What were some driving ideals behind her character development?
She is a rock nerd with few social skills. She has swallowed her pride for the sake of professional advancement, yet harbors a grudge about how her people, and especially her father, have been treated by white society. When she learns that her boss may want to promote Antarctica for settlement by canadian farmers, she instinctively pictures how this will threaten the locals and hatches an ill-conceived plan to thwart her boss.
What were some themes that were important for you to focus on in this book?
First contact between different cultures; resilience in personal development; the importance of mentors; intergenerational wisdom/memory.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
Stone Fever is the first book of the Erebus Tales series. The second book, The Color of Greed, will be out in spring 2021, and the finale, Gifts of a Dark God, next fall.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
Decades to Resolve
K.B. Laugheed Author Interview
The Gift of the Seer follows Katie and Hectors journey across the continent as they learn more about each others ways. What was the inspiration for the setup to this series?
I had a fairly bad childhood, but when I was seventeen, I became captivated by Native American history, and I have never looked back. I have spent my life studying Indian history, cultures, and stories, and I even went on to get a Masters Degree in English with a specialty in Native American literature. After having read dozens and dozens of captivity stories from the 17th, 18th, & 19th centuries, I wanted to write a book to share what I learned with people who have neither the time nor energy to dig through all those old documents.
Katie and Hector are dynamic characters with an interesting relationship. What were some driving ideals behind their characters?
I see Katie and Hector as metaphorical representatives of their people. They are endlessly intrigued by one another, even as they also pose a very serious threat to each other. Because they formed a physical bond before they understood much about each other’s worlds, they created a conflict that takes them decades to resolve–which is, oddly enough, equally true of almost all young lovers who get married and have children! So one of the basic premises of the story is that relationships are hard, whether those relationships are between individuals or nations, and finding common ground is an ongoing challenge. But, oh!–meeting that challenge is definitely worth the effort!
I enjoyed the nuanced world views and philosophies in the book. What were some themes you wanted to explore in this book?
I was very intrigued by the idea of writing a story that could be read on multiple levels. If you are interested in American Indians, you can read this book to learn more about Native cultures. If you are interested in complex marital relationships, you can read this book to find out how one “odd couple” made a difficult marriage work. If you are interested in personal identity issues, you can read this book to see how someone who suffers from chronic self-doubt deals with the challenge of living up to other people’s high expectations. If you are interested in Spirituality, you can read this book to ponder the role Spirit can play in the everyday life of humans. And if you just want a fast-paced adventure story, you can read this book simply for the thrills and chills.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I was working on an intriguing manuscript three years ago, but I gave it up when I could not see how the story ended. Then my mother died, and I suddenly understood exactly how that story ended. Now that I have finally gotten The Gift of the Seer into the hands of the public, I am returning to my unfinished manuscript, and I hope to have something readable by mid-2020.
Author Links: Website | Twitter | Facebook | GoodReads
![The Gift of the Seer by [Laugheed, K.B.]](https://i0.wp.com/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51jGcqsJFGL.jpg?resize=260%2C383&ssl=1)
Katie O’Toole’s epic adventure began in The Spirit Keeper (Plume 2013) when she was rescued from a 1747 frontier massacre in Pennsylvania only to find herself chosen as the “Spirit Keeper” of a dying Indian Seer. She hesitated to accept this mysterious obligation until she fell in love with the Seer’s bodyguard, an Indian man she called Hector.
In The Gift of the Seer, Katie and Hector continue their journey across the continent, but the more Katie learns about the peculiar ways of her husband’s people, the more she dreads arriving at their destination. Will anyone believe she is the Spirit Keeper she pretends to be? Equally troubling, Katie knows the Seer expected her to prove his Vision—a Vision which foretold of infinite Invaders coming to his world—but to prove this prophecy, she must give his people the great Gift he also predicted. The only problem is that Katie has no Gift to give.
Years pass as she desperately searches for a way to fulfill her promise to the dead Seer, but when his former rival threatens to expose her as a fraud, Katie finally understands that her life and the lives of all the people in her new world hang in the balance. That’s when she knows she must give a Gift—she must—before it is too late.
The Gift of the Seer
![The Gift of the Seer by [Laugheed, K.B.]](https://i0.wp.com/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51jGcqsJFGL.jpg?resize=294%2C434&ssl=1)
When you tire of the overload of digital and technology tools within our 2019 era, K.B. Laugheed’s The Gift of the Seer will expedite time travel back with you, and this author will have you writing with a feathered quill by the end of this literary journey! Put on your cultural anthropologist boots and allow this novel to cleverly weave historical yet fantastical plot elements, interestingly complex characters, and a rugged setting that will definitely transport and immerse readers. You will face cultural nuances, norms, spiritual beliefs, worldviews, philosophies, goals, life lessons, conflicts, natural connections, romances, and myriads of adventures via an Indian perspective. Our protagonist, Katie, provides uncensored reflections and stories spanning from the years 1748-1778. Yet Katie, the book’s protagonist, is not the docile, silent, subjugated, stereotypical, domesticated wife and mother that many heroines from her time era typically portray. Instead, she is a literary and cultural badass-think Katniss from The Hunger Games -but Katie encompasses more maturity, carnal pleasures, and complexities as a woman struggling to survive among different cultures, determined to sustain her love for her husband against all odds, and abandoning the feelings of guilt and condemnation based on her feeling that she’s living a big lie!
In short, adventures, dangers, thrills, and chills will bombard you on every page. Yet instead of feeling defeated and exhausted, you will experience the triumphs and evolution, right alongside Katie, as if you were a passenger in her canoe! The book is brilliant in terms of its vivid, sensory details that paint a no-nonsense picture of life during this era. The characters also conjure feelings of fables and folk tales via the author’s unique, authentic style. At times, I noticed hints of magical realism, which further add pizazz to this riveting book. While there are so many positive qualities about this book, especially the way in which the author develops her vast array of characters and executes her dramatic dialogue, all with cultural relevance and sensitivity, I was a bit overwhelmed with the plethora of social, historical, political, cultural, marital problems and themes that she tries to address all at once. At times it was slightly too ambitious for me to keep track of all the family members, neighbors, friends, and foes. Although they are important, especially to comprehend the larger scope of the historical fiction milieu, some of the symbols were slightly perplexing and some plot events were mentioned but not fully explained.
All in all, because readers can sense the imminent danger on every page, as evident from the great use of foreshadowing and cautionary notes to build suspense throughout the text, as in “til the ocean wave of Colonists comes crashing down upon us—then we will see which of us is right,” We not only learn cultural and historical information through characters with real vulnerability and authenticity, but we also find solace in our own journeys about how to fit into this world and all its challenges! We obtain a true sense of empowerment within this challenging piece of art. Try this time travelling and cultural anthropological plight by K.B. Laugheed in The Gift of the Seer!
Pages: 308 | ASIN: B07L7FHTFC
