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PHOENIXA: THE NEST, A Mystical Quest for the Cheng Legacy
J.J. Cheng’s Phoenixa: The Nest is an enchanting and emotionally rich journey through memory, heritage, and identity. It tells the story of Phoenixa, a spirited girl growing up in Beijing’s Cheng Courtyard during a turbulent time in China’s history. Blending myth with memory, Cheng ties the magical imagery of the Feng Huang, the Chinese phoenix, to the struggles and rebirth of her protagonist’s family. Through vivid storytelling, she bridges centuries of Chinese philosophy and Western narrative grace, crafting a novel that feels part myth, part memoir, and part historical reflection. It’s a lush, multi-layered story about roots, loss, and the unbreakable bond between generations.
Cheng’s writing is lyrical yet grounded, full of color and heart. The dialogue between Phoenixa and her grandfather glows with tenderness and wisdom, while the scenes of the Cultural Revolution sting with fear and sorrow. I found myself caught between awe and ache, drawn by the book’s rhythm like a song I didn’t want to end. Sometimes the prose wandered into philosophy, looping through abstract reflections, but even then, I stayed hooked. It wasn’t just about what happened, it was about what it meant. The ideas of reincarnation, ancestral duty, and peace after turmoil stayed with me long after I closed the last page.
There’s a personal courage in the way Cheng writes. You can feel the author wrestling with memory, with love for a homeland that both nurtured and wounded her. I admired how the author never rushed the emotions. It’s dense at times, poetic in a way that demands patience. But it rewards that patience with quiet beauty and truth. The illustrations throughout the book blend generational joy with cultural myth. The artist uses a loose, sketch-like style that is eye-catching.
I’d recommend Phoenixa: The Nest to readers who love lyrical storytelling and mythic realism. It’s perfect for those drawn to family sagas, Eastern philosophy, or stories that blur the line between dream and reality. If you enjoy books that make you feel something deep and unexpected, this one will stay with you. It’s not just a story about a girl, it’s a story about belonging, transformation, and the quiet magic of remembering who you are.
Pages: 538 | ISBN : 978-1956427059
Defy Stereotypes
Dementia Man is your memoir, sharing your story of cognitive decline, receiving the diagnosis of early-stage Alzheimer’s, and your blunt observations on a broken medical system and call for change. Why was it important for you to share your story?
I wanted to share an authentic voice—I do have Alzheimer’s—that can help others imagine living a meaningful life with this disease. Some voices and organizations promote suicide. Many individuals lose heart and fold into themselves. I want to be a model of what might be possible, defy stereotypes, and encourage us all to strive to help find a cure to this disease. Maybe, just maybe, there is something about any one of us with a diagnosis that might help find the cure just a little sooner!
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
First, if there is anyone in your family history who has had Alzheimer’s, you should find out whether you carry a genetic marker called ApoE4. It increases your risk, and finding out early allows you to pursue medications and lifestyle changes that can help.
Second, be careful. Frauds and scams abound around this disease. There is no cure. Hard stop. Many excellent U.S. government and state government resources are available on safe, effective approaches to slowing decline and getting help.
Third, I provide a list of a growing number of patient-led organizations that offer support, community, and guidance to help you and your family navigate this stage of life with dignity, purpose—and yes, even some joy.
What was the most challenging part of writing your memoir, and what was the most rewarding?
So many challenges… it’s hard to pick. Yes, the challenge of memory impairment and writing means I need some help, and I use a writing coach. It is frustrating. There is also the emotional impact of imagining the late stages. The most rewarding thing is the impact it has had on others and on myself. The responses shared with me by readers are humbling—not about my writing, but about insights gained and the hope instilled as they, or a family member, move forward.
What is one thing that you hope readers take away from Dementia Man: An Existential Journey: Choosing Life and Finding Meaning with Alzheimer’s?
The one thing is that it is possible to engage with purpose, love, and joy in life with this disease. You are NOT alone; there is a world out there of help and support. You can become the best version of yourself with Alzheimer’s that the world has ever seen. I have tried to include many resources—things I didn’t even know existed—that are available almost everywhere. Just one small example: I didn’t know that 211 existed, a phone number people can call to locate essential community services.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website | Amazon
After decades as a tireless advocate for justice and social change, Samuel A. Simon faces the most personal fight of his life: the slow, undeniable progression of cognitive decline. When the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease comes, he refuses to fade quietly.
Based on his award-winning play Dementia Man, this deeply personal memoir invites readers into Simon’s “existential journey”—a story told with candor, courage, and an unflinching look at a broken medical system. As he revisits pivotal moments from his past and navigates the daily challenges of neurocognitive disease, Simon offers an intimate portrait of a man determined to shape his own future, even as the disease seeks to define it.
Both moving and urgently important, Dementia Man is changing the conversation about Alzheimer’s in America. It’s a story of hope and defiance that challenges us all to imagine a future of dignity, connection, and purpose for the millions living with cognitive decline.
Vulnerability Is Strength
The Work In Between is a memoir sharing your experiences of losing over 100 pounds, surviving cancer multiple times, and going through a period of self-reinvention. Why was this an important book for you to write?
I kept getting asked where my book was. People assumed I had written one given my experiences. After a lot of self-reflection, therapy, and conversations, I felt I was ready to tackle a book. To be honest, I wasn’t convinced I had that interesting of a story. I wasn’t sure anyone would care. However, some conversations made it clear that it might be helpful to others, if only to show you can go through some pretty tough stuff and still be a compassionate, successful, and joyful person. So, I wrote it. The response has been overwhelmingly positive.
I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
It’s the only way I know how to be. I’m not very good at sugar coating things or only telling one side of the story (i.e., where I only look good). The hardest part was writing about when my brother Eric died. I cried when I was writing about losing all of my family, but Eric’s death was particularly difficult. Still is. I laughed a lot, too, though. I ended up remembering things I had forgotten. Good memories. Happy memories.
How has writing your memoir impacted or changed your life?
I’m happy that it’s resonated with so many people. Writing the book has made me realize I have a lot more work to do. I wrote a chapter in The Backyard Peace Project anthology and got a fantastic response to my chapter about loving ourselves harder when we stumble and fall. I think it’s a really important message to get out there, especially with all of the negativity and skewed reality from social media.
I’ve learned through my book that vulnerability is strength. Most people are tired of branded packages of unrealistic life. I think they are hungry for real, honest conversations about hard things. That’s how we grow. I was once told that I talk about things people usually keep in the shadows. That’s true. I do that because if I try to carry it all alone, it makes me sick: physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally unhealthy. We aren’t supposed to walk around with shame and guilt. Talking about it is healing, and it helps others process their experiences. Everyone has experienced hard things; sharing them helps us heal and grow.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your story?
That they are worthy just as they are and worthy of love and a good life. It doesn’t matter what the scale says, what other people tell you, or where you started in life. If you want to improve your physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual health, great. Do that. However, you are worthy of love and an amazing life no matter what.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
Witty, frank, and richly thoughtful, The Work In Between is peppered with wisdom from the author’s expertise in the field of Health Communication. Holmes brings an astute eye to the relationship between outward appearances and medical experiences as she draws from her doctoral education and years of service as a hospital executive. And yet, the complex web of stories that characterize The Work In Between extend far beyond Holmes’s own experiences. As this memoir makes clear, we carry family trauma in our bones. Until we do the inside work of facing our demons and declaring our worthiness, we cannot live the full, happy lives we were meant to live.
The Quiet Determination…
Where The Pecan Trees Grow follows a Mexican father who sets out on a challenging journey to find work in the United States only to be faced with the complications of politics, and broken promises. Where did the idea for this novel come from?
I was thinking about my own life, and how it’s rare that life unfolds the way the way we expect. I faced uncertainty, setbacks, wrong turns, and I often questioned whether I was on the right path. This book grew from that space. The idea that perseverence, family, and purpose can slowly shape a life that you are proud of.
Is there anything from your own life included in the characters in your book?
Yes, but not in a literal way. I didn’t copy people from my life, but I used familiar emotions, doubts, and moments of uncertainty that I recognize both in myself and others. The fears, the hopes, and the quiet determination… that all comes from real life.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I wanted to explore belonging, resilience, and the quiet work of building a life, especially when the path forward isn’t obvious. I also wanted to address some current themes involving immigration and the racism that unfortunately still exists in our society.
What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?
I have a few new projects that I am currently working on. There are no release dates yet, but they are coming along nicely.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
In Where The Pecan Trees Grow, one hardworking immigrant’s quiet life among the pecan orchards of California’s Central Valley shatters when the law comes crashing through his front door. What began as a desperate gamble to save his family slowly became everything he’d ever hoped for… steady work and the fragile comfort of finally belonging.
Then, a pre-dawn raid tears him away from his home and plunges him into the cold machinery of detention cells, rushed hearings, and small-town politics. Papers, promises, and the truth itself seem to matter less than someone else’s version of his story.
As courtroom battles mount and tensions rise across the orchards, he’s forced to confront one impossible question: in a country built on second chances, who truly gets one?
Taut, emotional, and impossible to put down, Where The Pecan Trees Grow is a gripping legal thriller about family, sacrifice, and the fight to hold on to the life you’ve worked for—perfect for readers who love high-stakes courtroom drama with a deeply human heart.
Coping With Inner Turmoil
The Winds of War opens with a sweeping fantasy world marked by old grudges, broken continents, and horrors that crawl out of black oceans. What was the inspiration that drove the development of the world the characters live in?
From a literary standpoint, the biggest inspirations were George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and Steven Erikson’s The Malazan Book of the Fallen. I owe so much to these titanic authors for planting the seeds in my imagination that would eventually grow into the setting and themes of The Winds of War. Beyond books, I’m a big fan of video games, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is my all-time favorite game. The grit and brooding of that game and series have undoubtedly influenced the world of The Tapestry of the Tarnished, from its characters and politics to its bestiary and scenery.
What was the chosen theme of the novel, or did it develop organically as you were writing?
I feel that choosing firm themes from the outset can lead to stiff, forced writing, and so I let themes develop organically through the course of a book. With that said, themes of oppression, religious fanaticism, and one’s journey in coping with inner turmoil are things that I feel strongly about, and I’m not surprised that all of these and more made their way into The Winds of War.
I think the story has roots in the classic fantasy genre and blends darker themes. Do you read books from that genre? What were some books or authors that you think influenced The Winds of War?
The classic fantasy roots all lead back to The Lord of the Rings. That’s a very unoriginal answer, I know, and yet I know that I would not be here today discussing my own epic fantasy story if not for Tolkien’s work. While my own books are darker and grittier than those that typically fall under the classic fantasy genre, the influence of those foundational works is irrefutable. Moreover, Tolkien was a big inspiration in showing me that an author can be more than just a writer. I designed the cover of my own book, created its world map, and drew most of the interior artwork. The confidence to embark on such an independent journey came in large part from knowing that Tolkien once did the same.
Where does the story go in the next book, and where do you see it going in the future?
I don’t want to give away too much, obviously, but the story is going to both expand and go deeper in book two. The events of the first book set up the sequel to be highly climactic, and I intend to follow through on that. There will be new characters, new locations, and new creatures, along with all that came before. There will be deeper introspection and more thought-provoking insights than anything in the first book. The mysteries of the world will continue to unravel, and the wars will rage on ever fiercer. The stakes will be higher than ever. It’s going to be awesome.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Website | Amazon
The Astaris Empire is fracturing, its realm flogged by war and fanaticism. Empress Seline and her Gold Council vie to maintain control, but what is control for a nation built on blood and lies?
In the east, the storied Rhaavi people cling to their independence, but as the ruinous First Legion of the Empire arrives at their walls, hope is decimated. Even so, Yuei, the dragonrider, and Rizu, the shadow guardian, will lay down their lives to protect their home. And Kirana, High Chieftainess of the Rhaavi, vows to lead her people through . . . no matter the cost.
Elsewhere, the prodigious Hatsun pursues an education at the fabled Great Library of the Awakened. But he quickly learns that curiosity is both a boon and a burden as his studies unveil cataclysmic secrets about the world that could change everything.
This book marks the first chapter of The Tapestry of the Tarnished. Here is a tale spanning the whole of the Ring: A circle of continents rife with war and unrest. A world colored by magics and mythical creatures. A place you will fear, yet not wish to leave.
George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire meets Steven Erikson’s The Malazan Book of the Fallen in this burgeoning epic fantasy saga.
Unique Crimes
Better Off Dead follows an amateur sleuth who gets drawn into a case that is initially ruled an accidental swimming death, but a darker theory soon surfaces. Trisha notices social awkwardness and emotional cracks as much as clues. Why was that perspective important?
Trisha is just an ordinary person. She’s not a high-flying private investigator wearing designer clothes and shoes or a whip-smart police detective. Her mother dies while she’s in high school, and her father leaves, so she has to bring up her younger sister. Trisha’s dreams of further education go down the drain when her father walks out the door. But she is determined to keep her sister out of the “system” and focused on college. Although her intellectual education stops early, her natural street smarts become highly developed. She sees what most people miss. She’s innately intuitive, and she uses that ability to ask questions that nobody else wants to. With that instinctive capacity, coupled with her pushiness, she can solve some unique crimes.
The Barlow brothers have a deeply uneasy dynamic. Were you interested in rivalry, resentment, or something subtler?
The Barlow brothers grew up and worked in exclusive, rich Marin County, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. They were always competitive. Both liked money and what it could buy them. But Andy, the dead brother, lived in a fantasy world, which translated into living beyond his means. His unrealistic goals pushed him to gamble and put his shared financial advising business with his brother, his marriage, and his athletic targets at high risk. And the risks eventually killed him. Was the remaining brother overwhelmed with grief? It certainly doesn’t seem so.
Can you tell us more about what’s in store for Trisha and the direction of the next book?
Trisha is dusting off the day’s work at the San Francisco Giants ballpark with a walk at San Quentin Beach, right around a point of land from the infamous prison. She notices a white object floating at the tideline. As she approaches, the strange ball-like object comes into focus. It’s a skull. Within the following month, more body parts wash ashore at different beaches in Marin County: the skeletal hands of a child and the skeletal feet of an adult. What does the local paper say about the remains: not much. But Trisha is riveted when she learns that all three body parts are from different people and all were female.
The working title for book five is Dead and Gone.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky | Website | Amazon
Trisha digs into the man’s history and finds fractured relationships in his family, his business and his marriage. There’s clearly more than one person who had reason to seek a deadly revenge, but would they go as far as murder?
Community Resilience
Beneath the Rings follows a veteran journalist who finds herself in the middle of an international incident when twelve athletes vanish from the Olympic Village. The premise feels disturbingly plausible. How close did you want this world to feel to our present reality?
My goal in crafting the story arc was to root it somewhat realistically. The kidnapping of the twelve athletes harkens back to the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage crisis, where the Palestinian militant group Black September carried out a terrorist attack on the Israeli team, resulting in the deaths of 11 athletes and coaches. While the premise of this recurring seems disturbingly plausible, the level of security at the Olympic Games now versus 54 years ago does require the reader to somewhat suspend disbelief. The likelihood of an attack like the one carried out in Beneath The Rings happening today is pretty slim. But, I guess you never really know, which is what builds the suspense.
Nova is a journalist rather than a spy or soldier, making her an intriguing choice for this role. What was your inspiration for this character?
Nova’s character weaves personal echoes, real-world colleagues, and legacies of trailblazing women who’ve redefined journalism. Drawing from my roots, industry friendships, and historical figures who turned adversity into ammunition, here’s what fueled her creation.
Nova’s foundation is deeply personal, honoring my Newark, New Jersey upbringing. While I grew up in the North Ward of the Brick City, Nova hails from the Weequahic neighborhood—a vibrant, middle-class Jewish enclave where family and community resilience shaped her. Running Newark’s streets became her ritual, mirroring my own experiences in that gritty city, instilling quiet fortitude. Her solitary runs defy an unmoored world.
Her parents—Judith, a sharp-witted public-school teacher, and David, a steady accountant—echo my nurturing yet expectation-filled home. My mother, Fran, was also a teacher; my father, Ted, an entrepreneur. They raised me and my sister, Jessica, with education as key. Nova attends Solomon Schechter Day School near Seton Hall Prep, which I attended. She heads to Syracuse—where my father grew up after emigrating from Italy—for journalism, but detours to law at Seton Hall, like my sister’s JD.
This pivot reflects practical pressures, but for Nova, it’s a cage. Her return to journalism after Manhattan practice draws from my friend Alan Abrahamson, who graduated from Northwestern’s Medill School before earning his law degree at UC Hastings. He spent 17 years at the Los Angeles Times. Alan sparked Nova as an independent Olympic journalist. As founder of 3 Wire Sports, he’s a beacon in Olympic coverage, blending analysis with honesty. We collaborated at NBC Olympics from 2008-2014, where I saw him peel back the Games’ layers—politics, ethics, human stories. Nova’s platform, OlymPulse, mirrors Alan’s independent voice: probing storylines mainstream outlets overlook. His influence makes her a veteran of 14 Olympics by 2040, her reporting a rebellion against gloss.
Nova’s grit—navigating harassment in Beirut or personal loss—draws from Lara Logan, the former CBS correspondent known for fearless war reporting. Logan’s 2011 assault in Egypt embodies resilience that refuses silence. Nova channels this: surviving the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, shifting from runner to reporter amid chaos, and enduring the 2017 crash that kills her parents. Logan’s confrontation of danger sharpens Nova’s hyper-vigilance, turning trauma into journalistic fuel.
Historical figures add tenacity. Nellie Bly, the 19th-century pioneer who feigned insanity to expose asylums and circled the globe in 72 days, lends Nova audacious truth-seeking. Bly’s undercover work mirrors Nova’s infiltration of Olympic shadows, risking all for revelation.
Ida Tarbell’s muckraking exposés on Standard Oil—methodical takedowns of corruption—inspire Nova’s IOC probes, showing one woman’s research can topple empires.
In sports, Helene Elliott, the veteran LA Times writer who covered the Olympics for decades, layers Nova’s ethos. Elliott’s trailblazing—including the “Miracle on Ice” plus being the first female Hockey Hall of Fame honoree—fuels Nova’s focus on the voiceless. Her moral clarity cuts through hype.
Lesley Visser, the broadcasting pioneer first to cover Super Bowl sidelines and Olympics, embodies barrier-breaking. Visser’s poise and elevation of women’s voices shape Nova’s solitary ascent in a male-dominated field, turning isolation into a superpower.
Blending these created Nova and forged her into a truth sentinel. In Beneath the Rings, she navigates terrorism and conspiracy, a testament to how personal and historical forces birth unbreakable resolve.
If Nova resonates, it’s from real warriors who’ve shaped our world—and my path.
Beneath the action, the book raises questions about vengeance, historical grievance, and moral reckoning. How conscious were you of those themes while writing?
I was quite conscious of these themes in crafting The Obsidian Hand and the group’s motivation. I did weeks of research on conflicts in the Middle East and wanted to make sure that I was rooting the group as a whole and each individual to historically accurate discords so that their disenfranchisement felt real. Some of those details are spelled out in the book, but for more in-depth backstories on the characters themselves, you can read blog posts on each on my website, booksbybattaglia.com.
I greatly enjoyed following Nova, and it feels like she has more stories to tell. Do you see this as the beginning of a series?
Most definitely!
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website | Amazon
Blaming the Victim
The Soul’s Reckoning follows a woman as she passes through the Barrier into a vivid, confusing, and emotional afterlife where she is forced to confront former relationships and truths she had avoided in life. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
After my brain injury, my relationships went into a downward spiral. I became acutely aware of the differences between communities and countries in how they handled social life with people who’d suffered catastrophic injuries or whose communication styles had changed. Some communities or countries focused on maintaining the relationship while adjusting to the challenging needs of the injured member. Others blamed the injured one and left. Yet Christianity, or the church, anyway, continually teaches that God will restore relationships.
Does that happen, I asked. I’d read the Book of Job years ago, which realistically portrays how friends mischaracterize suffering, blaming the victim. And it reveals what God thinks about all that. Several years ago, I wrote an ebook and a Psychology Today post on the Book of Job, including God’s perspective on Job’s friends. The book’s lessons remained in the back of my mind, and I married those lessons with my own and others’ experiences of relationships after brain injury.
I think too many put off trying to restore relationships, perhaps because they don’t want to confront the bad thoughts, bad words, and bad actions that had led them to abandoning their injured loved one. Then that person dies, and it’s too late. Or is it? And how do you reconcile with a dead person? That’s what I sought to answer.
Was there anything from your own life that you put into the characters in your novel?
As I was writing The Soul’s Reckoning, the character Shireen Anne popped up. It was rather surreal watching her name appear on the screen as I typed. It was like my past self, or a version of who I used to be, hopped into my story, declaring, “Here I am!” I wasn’t sure what to make of her appearance. But I couldn’t delete her. Turns out Charlotte Elisabeth, who isn’t anything like me, needed a friend and guide like Shireen Anne. She appears again in novel three.
What was one scene in the novel that you felt captured the morals and message you were trying to deliver to readers?
This is a tough question. My immediate inclination is to suggest the scene where Charlotte Elisabeth reconciles with her client. From the moment she decides that’s her next goal until she leaves.
Can you tell us where the book goes and where we’ll see the characters in the third book?
Book three of The Q’Zam’Ta Trilogy follows Revelation’s storyline from the time just before the cataclysm to just after the Book of Life. I’d originally intended to go to the end of Revelation, but there is so much to explore and unpack in those metaphorical thousand years without Satan, governments, and elites, that I realized I had to end it at the Book of Life. I’m thinking I’ll write another trilogy to cover the last part of Revelation.
In the third book, titled The Soul’s Turning, the characters leave Heaven and return to Earth, either as resurrected beings or, in Charlotte Elisabeth’s case, in a specially created new physical body. She doesn’t lose her memory of her experiences in Heaven, yet she no longer exists as an energy being.
In The Soul’s Turning, she must learn who she is.
Like so many of us, she equates her identity with her job. But in order to avoid second death, she must let go of that myth and face herself and learn and accept alien concepts in order to unearth her created identity.
And she must do all this in a far-future world that’s experienced eight degrees of warming, whose population is divided by economic systems, without governments, and with The Reigners, a Council led by Jesus that ensures no elites can rise.
As she’s becoming comfortable with what she believes about herself and the world, the Accuser-Adversary is released, and Charlotte Elisabeth faces a final, deadly challenge that requires her to grow courageous insight she’s never had before or be obliterated in a galactic Lake of Fire.
Author Links: GoodReads | Bluesky | Website
In this powerful continuation of The Q’Zam’Ta Trilogy, the afterlife is not an ending but a crucible where souls are tested, relationships are stripped bare, and choices echo with eternal consequence.
The Soul’s Reckoning leads readers into a realm where mortality and eternity meet, where faith collides with doubt, and where the love that once brought comfort now demands sacrifice. Every step forward raises questions of loyalty, forgiveness, and the courage required to face the truth of one’s soul.
This Christian novel is more than a story of belief. It is a profound exploration of family dynamics, the complexities of Christian relationships, and the enduring power of friendship.
With lyrical prose and piercing insight, Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy weaves the mystery of the afterlife with the raw struggles of human connection. The result is a moving book on the afterlife that illuminates the bonds that hold us together and the grace that can heal even the deepest wounds.
A novel for readers who seek Christian books that inspire, challenge, and linger in the heart, The Soul’s Reckoning invites you on a journey where every choice matters and redemption remains possible beyond this life.
Plunge into Charlotte Elisabeth’s reconciliation quest today.
LITERARY TITAN 