Blog Archives
Each Perilous and Magical Adventure
Hallows Realm follows a young girl and her companions into a mysterious, shadow-filled realm after they uncover an urgent message begging them to save its author and avert disaster. What is the most rewarding aspect of writing a series?
The most rewarding aspect of writing a series is hearing first-hand from readers how they feel a connection with a certain hero, or villain, and how excited they are to read more about their favorite characters in the next book in the series. Many readers have commented on the realistic sibling relationships and friendships, and how these relationship dynamics resonate with them. Keeping the series going allows me to expand not only the storyline, but also on a character’s growth over time and through each perilous and magical adventure.
What was your favorite magical location or creature to invent?
My favorite creature hands-down is teenage Theo aka Theo the Lion; Roe, Ori, and Tora’s older and oftentimes overbearing brother who can magic himself into a huge, powerful lion. Theo the Lion is fearless and occasionally reckless, but a hero all the same, with all the courage of a lion and the big heart of an older brother. He is a Tamer who can control the animals with his powers. He is unselfish, protective, clever, and one of my favorite characters to write about whether he is Theo the Lion, or just plain Theo.
Many characters struggle with feeling inadequate or powerless. Why did you want to explore those emotions?
Feeling inadequate or powerless is a universally understood emotion, whether you are a young child, a teenager, or an adult. These emotions can sometimes separate us from having close relationships with others. The flip side of this is what I like to explore in all my books; how these feelings can bring us together and make us stronger. It’s within these struggles that courage, trust, and relying on friends and family really takes center stage. Overcoming our insecurities and struggles is part of being alive, and this is the sweet spot where hope shines the brightest and seemingly impossible battles are won.
What continues to inspire you to expand the world of Drifters Realm?
The flawed yet curiously relatable teenage characters and the endless possibilities for adventure, mischief, teenage angst, and a bit of magic are what’s driving me to expand the world of Drifters Realm. It’s also extremely motivating when a fan reaches out to me to find out when the next book will be released. It’s a thrill and a blessing for someone like me who loves telling stories.
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As the deadly Storm Catcher Curse spreads, teenagers across the realm are transformed into spectral Outsiders and towering, sentient trees. With enchanted paintings revealing events in real time, the siblings journey through the murky Elsewhere Dismal, the tangled Entangled Forest, and the web-choked Wailing Ruins to uncover the truth—and stop Councilman Jinn, who manipulates the true Storm Catcher, his daughter Ryah.
When Ori is bitten by a cursed spider and begins to change, saving the realm becomes heartbreakingly personal. The triplets must embrace their destinies as the Vanquisher, the Restorer, and the Bold—and discover that courage, hope, and family are the most powerful magic of all.
HalLows Realm, book four of the Drifters Realm fantasy adventure series, continues the tale of survival, friendship, and family.
Daywalker: Hybrid Vampire
Daywalker: Hybrid Vampire by Len Handeland is a supernatural horror novel that blends vampire fiction, historical horror, queer romance, and paranormal adventure. The story begins in postwar Norway, where Anna Beck becomes involved with Wolfgang Von Pritzker, a former German officer hiding a deadly identity. Their son, Christian, is born a dhampir, half human and half vampire, with a thirst for blood and the rare ability to survive in daylight. By letting Anna, Christian, and Christian’s lover Kjell narrate different parts of the story, Handeland gives the novel the feel of a collection of intimate confessions.
Christian’s journey gives this vampire horror story its emotional center. Abandoned as an infant and adopted as a child, he grows up trying to understand his unusual body, control his bloodlust, and find a place where he belongs. Music becomes both an escape and a clever disguise when Christian fronts a vampire-themed rock band called The Vamps. The irony is fun: the audience sees a theatrical gimmick while Christian is quietly revealing his real nature onstage. His rise through the European rock scene also adds an unexpected show-business angle to the paranormal fiction.
The novel’s relationships are as important as its supernatural confrontations. Christian and Kjell’s romance develops from friendship and attraction into a loyal partnership, while Christian’s reunion with Anna forces both of them to face the pain of his abandonment. Wolfgang brings a colder energy to the family story, representing the predatory side of vampirism that Christian fears inheriting. These connections turn the book into more than a vampire hunter adventure. It’s also a dark family drama about identity, inherited violence, forgiveness, and the choices people make when love and survival pull them in different directions.
Handeland writes in a direct, dramatic style, with plenty of blood, sensuality, emotional declarations, and classic vampire lore. The later chapters move firmly into paranormal action as Christian discovers the full range of his powers and battles the vampires created by his father. Readers who enjoy LGBTQ+ horror, dhampir stories, gothic vampire fiction, supernatural romance, and fast-moving battles between vampires and vampire hunters will find plenty to dig into here. Daywalker: Hybrid Vampire is a bold, personal take on the genre, combining family secrets, rock-and-roll ambition, romance, and monster-hunting in one expansive story.
Pages: 223 | ASIN : B0GXMX8DM6
Paranormal Beings and Mythical Creatures
Lab Rat follows a captured teen with powers that can be forced on against his will, who is stripped of his name and turned into a numbered experiment inside a ghost-realm prison. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I pulled inspiration from many sources that sparked my imagination when I was growing up. I loved reading books by J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Madeleine L’Engle, Alexandra Bracken, Cinda Williams Chima, Christopher Paolini, Suzanne Collins, Julianna Baggott, Susan Ee, etc. as well as watching television shows and movies like X-Men, Danny Phantom, Static Shock, Teen Titans, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Blue Exorcist, Attack on Titan, Spiderman, MCU movies, and more. My sister and I were obsessed with the Sly Cooper video games when we were young, which likely added an “honor among thieves” type of influence, too. I loved fantasy and dystopian books but was drawn to shows/movies featuring characters with superhuman powers. I’m also a sucker for found family stories and fugitives on the run. Essentially, the Chronicles of Avilésor was a culmination of my favorite story elements blended into a series that crosses genres by taking place in a version of our world with ghost hunters and sci-fi weapons juxtaposed with the fantasy Ghost Realm inhabited by paranormal beings and mythical creatures.
The tenderness between prisoners feels fragile but powerful. Why does found family matter so much in this story?
Despite the threat of a society-ending war, a top-secret government agency conducting morally reprehensible experiments, and humankind trying to survive against supernatural adversaries, this is very much a character-driven story. Cato survived his torture because of the connections he forged during the darkest time of his life—not because of his powers or physical strength. Readers have seen the resilience of the lab-family’s bond throughout the other three books, but Lab Rat was an opportunity to reveal the root of their relationship and provide a new perspective of just how meaningful that bond really is.
The book treats bodily autonomy as something that can be “managed.” Why was that theme important to you?
That theme was an organic inevitability when exploring Cato’s incarceration. He’s been suffering from PTSD for almost as long as fans have known him, and Lab Rat explores the cause rather than just the effects. The Agents view Cato as sub-human and therefore deny him basic human rights, including bodily autonomy. He has very little control over any aspect of his life, which is one of the primary foundations of his lasting trauma.
What will the next book in the series be about, and when will it be published?
The Demikan will be the next installment in the series. Without giving too much away, it will directly pit the Agents against Azar’s new alliance. The lab-family will have to grapple with a new power dynamic within the group, and the two societies will clash and collide. I don’t have a publication date set yet.
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Outside his cell, a desperate rescue attempt will involve breaking into the Prison in the heart of the Ghost Realm. Azar is gathering his dark forces while Agent Kovak scrambles to create the weapon that will save humankind. Phantom Heights is in the warpath. Seven to bring the Seventh, but Eight are the key . . .
. . . They must decide what the fate of the Realms shall be.
The Unknown
Makanda centers on a crime scene investigator investigating a series of mutilated bodies dating back to 1973 in a region where local legend, cryptid folklore, and biological terror blur into nightmare. Where did the idea behind this story come from?
There exist real police reports and other supporting documents from 1973 from people who saw the Big Muddy Monster firsthand. Funnily enough, I’m acquainted with one of several people who saw the monster and were interviewed by the local Murphysboro police department (though I didn’t find that out until after I’d written my novel). I took eyewitness accounts and local legend and combined them with violence, gore, fear, suspense, and a giant dash of biology to add my own nefarious spin onto the landscape and unsuspecting folks of southern Illinois.
Giant City State Park becomes almost a character itself in the story. How did the landscape and atmosphere of southern Illinois shape the tone and direction of the novel?
Giant City State Park is a legitimate character in real life. The park is huge and beautiful. Every day, folks come from all over the world to visit the park and its gorgeous winding trails, verdant expanse, and serene landscape. The Shawnee National Forest here in southern Illinois is exceptionally large, with a varied terrain of rock formations, woods, creeks, wetlands, and flora and fauna. The park is peaceful yet dark and brooding come sundown. It’s quite atmospheric in many ways.
The idea of a local legend returning in a new form is central to Makanda. What do you hope readers take away about the relationship between myths, fear, and the unknown?
I hope that folks understand that while times change, people change, and landscapes change, our cemented fears rarely change. Sure, it can be said that myths change – which they do (that’s part of the allure of our myths and legends). But at the end of the day, those myths, fears, and the unknown rarely change in our minds. The circumstances that cause that fear may change, but the idea behind the fear remains the same. We will always be afraid of the what-ifs. We will always be afraid of the unknown. And we will always be afraid of the boogeyman in whatever form it manifests itself. Don’t believe me? Go and read IT by Stephen King. That book will change your mind.
What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?
I write all the time. Even on days that I’m physically and mentally drained, I have to write so as to offer my mind some respite from itself. I refer to the endless library of information inside my mind as my Hoard. Inside my Hoard are a plethora of folks, and the only thing they require to become real and substantial is my unwavering, incessant need to write. If I write, those folks inside my Hoard become quiet. If they’re quiet, I’m allowed a smidgeon of peace from time to time. With that said, I have enough written works to release one novel every year or two for the next two decades. However, as it currently stands, I do not yet know what book will be released next. I’ll pray to God for clarity on what comes next. But I will say that I’m leaning towards a collection of short stories based solely on southern Missouri during the summer. Whatever book comes next will be within the next year and a half to two years.
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When mutilated hikers begin turning up in Giant City State Park, crime scene investigator Janice Redfield suspects the truth is far worse than an animal attack. Decades earlier, locals whispered about the Big Muddy Monster—a towering nightmare blamed for a string of brutal deaths in 1973. Now the legend is waking up.
Born from a microscopic parasite older than history, the creature grows smarter and deadlier with every host it consumes—cricket, snake, deer, man—until it becomes a towering apex predator with a hunger for perfection. As blood floods forests, classrooms, and homes, science, obsession, and violence collide.
Makanda is a relentless descent into body horror, biological terror, and vivid brutality—where survival may demand the unthinkable, and mercy comes at the price of sanity.
Foxy Lady
Foxy Lady by Allie McCormack is a warm, character-driven paranormal romance centered on Harper O’Neill, a fox shapeshifter whose quiet life is shattered after her transformation is caught on camera during a rescue in Yosemite. Forced to leave San Francisco, Harper relocates to New York’s Hudson Valley and finds shelter within a thriving supernatural community. The novel blends shapeshifter romance, urban fantasy romance, and cozy paranormal fantasy, creating a world filled with witches, Djinn, magical innkeepers, brownies, pixies, and even a rescued jackalope.
Harper’s emotional journey gives the story its heart. She begins the book frightened, guarded, and accustomed to making herself small, but gradually becomes more confident as Katerina, Becca, and the rest of the community welcome her into their lives. The found-family theme is especially strong, and the friendships receive nearly as much attention as the central romance. Because the book spends plenty of time on shared meals, casual conversations, music, work, and everyday magical details, Harper’s new life feels lived-in rather than simply described.
Her relationship with Nathan develops with patience and tenderness. Their shared love of music gives them an immediate connection, while Nathan’s calm acceptance of Harper’s human and fox sides allows trust to grow naturally. This is a gentle magical shapeshifter romance, so much of the appeal comes from emotional safety, domestic moments, affectionate teasing, and the pleasure of watching two thoughtful people build a life together. Nathan’s bond with Jill, the jackalope in his care, also reveals his nurturing personality without relying on lengthy explanations.
The novel balances its comforting atmosphere with several outside pressures, including workplace bullying, invasive media attention, and the public debate surrounding newly revealed shapeshifters. Some sections move at an unhurried pace, particularly when the wider ensemble takes center stage, but that approach suits the book’s community-focused style. Readers who enjoy cozy paranormal romance, fox shifter romance, supernatural found-family stories, and low-angst relationships will find Foxy Lady an inviting, affectionate read with a generous amount of magic and heart.
Pages: 402 | ASIN: 1955716285
Treating Vampires As Real
Anatomy of a Vampire: Part 2, Present Day centers around the investigation of a brutal attack in the Canadian forest that leads scientists to connect the deaths to a mysterious adaptive virus. At what point did you decide you wanted to completely rethink the traditional vampire myth?
The works of Le Fanu and Stoker along with the movie adaptations had always fascinated me as a young man but I wanted to approach this genre now through a modern lens.
I had once read about uncovered vampire burials, one such individual was found with a stone slab placed in his mouth. This plus the sheer amount of undiscovered biodiversity gave me a plausible seed — what if the myth wasn’t purely imaginary but describes something real we haven’t yet classified?
That’s the premise I built the book on, treating vampires as a real, undiscovered species rather than a figment of our imagination.
The SAV virus gives the novel a strong scientific foundation. How did your interest in biology and virology influence the story?
I’ve always been drawn to biology’s edge cases, and viruses are the strangest of them. They sit in a gray area on how we define life — they carry traits of living organisms but lack others, and that only resolves once they enter a host and start replicating. That ambiguity has even led some scientists to float the idea that viruses may not have originated on Earth at all. I found that gap irresistible — a place where real science stops short and imagination can take over. SAV grew directly out of that space: as something not of this world.
Was there a supporting character who became more significant than you originally planned?
Yes, there was an emotional tie to one main character who grew as I wrote. However, I cannot reveal who the character is. The sequel will reveal this.
If you could have readers ask you one question about the novel after finishing it, what would you hope it would be?
Is there more to this than just a science fantasy novel. Is there a personal or moral message imbedded the story you are telling?
Unlike Any Other Woman
Johanna Rules follows a shifter princess who has lost her and her place in the pack but finds an intense bond with the fae king who saves her life. Where did the inspiration for this novel come from?
I have written bear shifter novels and wolf shifter novels and with Johanna her wolf would manipulate other wolves so I knew Val had to be different. I wanted something that would be the opposite so I was watching tv one day and they had a documentary about fae or fairies. It hit me then, that was what I came up with.
One of Johanna’s defining qualities is that she refuses to lose her independence, even after finding love. Why was that important to her character?
I wanted to stay true to her wolf and to her and I loved her fire and her independence. She had to keep it and I made sure she did. Val loves that about her and she is unlike any other woman.
Did you always know how Val’s relationship with Johanna would evolve, or did it develop naturally as you wrote?
Some of the beginning yes but as i wrote it changed but i loved the dynamic and the fights scenes were so fun to write. I wanted an enemies to lovers kind of book and I think i got it.
Did your ending stay true to your original outline, or did the characters lead you somewhere unexpected?
No, it was true to the end. I wanted some slight changes but not many. I did have some changes when she teased Val at the end but it was hard to leave them. They became friends that you just had to visit so yes it ended how i wanted it.
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Johanna is a wolf shifter who went too far. After fleeing the council for attempting to murder her brother’s fated mate, Shay, her desperate escape ends in a roaring river. She expects the freezing currents to take her life. Instead, she is dragged from the jaws of death by the one creature she never expected to meet: Valdoran, the ruthless King of the Fae. But survival demands an unthinkable price. The moment their eyes meet, an ancient, inescapable magic snaps into place. Johanna isn’t just his prisoner—she is his fated mate. Now held hostage deep within the cavernous, underground world of the Fae, Johanna is surrounded by deceptive magic and lethal court intrigue. Valdoran rules his subterranean kingdom with an iron fist, and he expects his wild new mate to bend to his every whim. As the fierce wolf inside her rebels against his strict commands, a scorching, dangerous passion ignites between them. Can a rogue wolf shifter break free from the caverns of the Fae, or will she be bound to the merciless king forever?
Love Underlying All The Chaos
Mean Cuisine follows a woman who signs up for culinary school and finds herself in the middle of a mystery complete with a dead chef, a psychic investigator, and black cat who can foresee danger. What do you find to be the most rewarding aspect of writing a mystery series?
I know a few things before I start writing—I know my protagonist, I know the initial problem she faces that starts the book, and I know how the book will end—at least this is what I used to say. Having gained a good bit of writing experience since, however, I’ve learned the book never ends the way I think it will, and that’s part of the fun writing a mystery. Since I don’t write from an outline each book in the series means I learn new things about my protagonist, her family, and her closest friends. I also get to meet new eccentric characters. And best of all, writing in an improvisational way I get to experience the story closer to the way a reader might.
The friendship between Beluga and Tanya gives the story so much energy. How important are friendships in shaping your mysteries?
Beluga and Tanya have been friends since they were little girls. At one point their paths diverted leading to experiences that made them who we see in the series. So, while they each learn a little about each other in the books, they also fall into their old comfortable habits through banter and one-upmanship. Friendships like that between Beluga and Tanya push a story forward, and they are great fun to write. I can hear the two in my mind going at each other, but with a deep love underlying all the chaos. Beluga has also cultivated friendships with others, and relationships with her daughter and the always elusive ME.
The cluricaun adds an especially playful supernatural layer. What inspired you to include that kind of folklore creature in the story?
Beluga is a hit-or-miss psychic, and even though her cat, Planchette, is a much better psychic, adding a supernatural entity to the mix really confounds everyone. Beluga will respond one way, Planchette might respond differently, and everyone else becomes wildcards in what they say, do, or even believe in the situation. Plus, there are some really fascinating (and frightening) supernatural beings in folklore from all over the world, so there’s plenty to explore. A cluricaun for this book seemed particularly appropriate since these creatures love to drink and tend to hang around places that have alcohol, like wine.
What can fans of The Beluga Stein Mysteries expect to see in the next installment?
In progress is Bit Players. Beluga is strapped for money from her day job as a biology professor so gets roped into directing a musical version of Romeo and Juliet at the local community theater. To make matters worse, Tanya has signed Beluga on to a dating site and has made a few dates on Beluga’s behalf. There’s murder on stage and off, and all before the curtain rises!
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A well-liked chef is found dead and it’s up to Beluga and her feline familiar, Planchette, to investigate. There’s no recipe to follow, only the hope that her erratic psychic ability will hit the spot. Is a supernatural entity stirring up trouble, or something far more dangerous?
Beluga and Planchette can’t stand the heat, but there’s no way out of this kitchen while murder is the main dish…
