Blog Archives
Societal Annoyances
Your Children Are Boring provides a humorous and cutting examination of modern parenting. Why was this an important book for you to write?
I think like many of us, child-free or not, we’ve noticed some in society leaning towards a position where not only are children treated like little gods, and their parents the high priests, and those who choose not as selfish and sad (particularly women). I simply felt it was time to try and point this out, and perhaps address a few other articles of faith that needed an alternative view. Now I’ve stretched that religious analogy beyond breaking point, I also wanted to make people laugh, have a bit of a rant, and to explore the subject myself. Which is why it ranged from the small societal annoyances to surrogacy.
What is one piece of advice you would give to new parents?
Firstly, I’d say, there must be someone better to give you advice than me. Then if not, I’d suggest they ask yourself why you want children? I like to think most people’s reasons are relatively decent, and not self-centred. Maybe hope is more accurate. And dig deep to think what sort of parent you think you’d be and why. I think people believe there’s this mythical switch that gets flicked and you just become one, but the best parents I know, were thoroughly wonderful people in the first place.
What were some ideas that were important for you to explore in this book?
I think how having a child has seamlessly been woven into social media currency and our current penchant for identity politics. That’s something I felt was not only interesting, but important. Children being used almost as a prop, or parenthood as a badge of honour. I also find the subject of surrogacy interesting as it seems to me to be a massive blind spot morally for some. And then I wanted to expand on that wonderful George Carlin bit about children being special, with the thrust being, you all say they’re special, well they can’t be, otherwise the word loses all meaning…
What is one thing you hope readers take away from your book?
Honestly, I don’t expect anyone to agree with it all, so I hope it makes them laugh from time to time.
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Your Children Are Boring is a uniquely humorous look at our culture’s obsession with children, a world where virtually every advert has a squawking child in it, where pubs are full of wailing infants, and where every other Facebook post is tagged #ProudDad.
Why do parents themselves behave like infants? Why having a child doesn’t make you less selfish, why it’s extremely unlikely that your child is in fact, ‘special’, and why modern parenting is ruining everything, not least the kids themselves.
All the answers lie within, and it’s your duty to read it.
Yes, Your Children Are Boring will make you laugh, but it’s much more than that. Once consumed you must take its teachings into the world and fix society. Or something. Oh and if you put ‘Dad’ or ‘Mum’ in your social media bios, this book is aimed at you.
Chastity is Me
Life in the Chastity Zone follows a woman’s dashed fairytale life once her fiancé dumps her, and she’s thrown into the wild world of dating. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
My inspiration came from real-life events. My fiancé unexpectedly dumped me. Instead of being devastated, I turned lemons into lemonade and wrote about it. Few of the characters are mergers of two or more men that I’ve met in my past. I must say that I’ve met unique men who left an unforgettable impression on me. I was a senior in high school when I encountered my first adventure with a man I secretly labeled Montana Man. He was tall, dark, and handsome, and I was terrified of flying. It didn’t help that I left on a Delta flight from one of the most dangerous airports because of its topography and weather conditions. I was scared to death. I can still picture him coming up to me in the airport, his smell, his aura, everything, and then those few little words that took me off guard, “I want to sit next to you on the plane.” He was, I’d say, “what dreams are made of,” except that he was a facade—the cover was beautiful, but the inside was a seedy, tainted nightmare. And so began my adventures, which later I put on paper.
Chase is an interesting and well-developed character. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Chastity is me. I learned a long time ago that it’s worth waiting and fighting for all good things. I wanted readers to see a character who has everything thrown at her but then decides to stick to her guns and fights. In the process, she may come out bruised, but she’s stronger—a survivor.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The one lesson and theme I hope everyone will see is that you can overcome any obstacle thrown your way if you fight hard enough. And never, ever let anyone tell you that your ideas and beliefs are crazy and ridiculous because that’s what makes us all so unique and special. Marriage is extraordinary, and waiting for the right man is worth it, even if you’re a thirty-year-old virgin.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
The next book I am working on is Nothing’s As It Seems, the sequel to Life in the Chastity Zone. Readers can expect to find out what happened to Grant, Vincent, and Jacques-Pierre. They can also expect to see Chastity dive into the working force and the struggles that come with being a woman in a man’s world. There are a lot of unexpected twists and turns in the next book. Can a decision from years ago hinder Chastity’s destiny, or will her blind trust in love lead to a day of reckoning? Find out the answers and more in Nothing’s As It Seems, coming very soon.
Author Links: Facebook | Instagram | Website
Life in the Chastity Zone
![Life in the Chastity Zone (Chastity Series Book 1) by [Holly Brandon]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41eMSpzHexL.jpg)
Life in the Chastity Zone by Holly Brandon follows Chastity “Chase” Morgan, who seemingly has it all lined up in front of her: a potential career as a brilliant female structural engineer, an architect fiancé, and a life full of promise. That is, until her fiancé sends her a cryptic text putting their relationship on hold and sending everything Chase holds dear into turmoil. She learns that he’s run off to Vegas and married another man, and to top it all off, she’s saved her virginity for Grant, her now ex—and she’s a 30-year-old virgin.
Chase seems to be hit with disaster after disaster. Her PhD is denied, sending her into a spiral. But her cousin Roxie is ready to lift her up and encourage her to get back into the dating world. As she cycles through a variety of eager men who would like to show her the ropes of a physical relationship, Chase struggles to balance student teaching and a normal life. Women from her teen years show up and complicate everything as they tear Chase down, but she fights through these troubles and attempts to get her life back on track.
I loved the sense of adventure that continued throughout this story. Chase embraces spontaneity, whether it be in the form of a date with a new man or a trip to Paris. Life in the Chastity Zone carries humor throughout the entire story, and author Holly Brandon does a great job of keeping Chase’s story light and fun even as she endures through tough times.
While I enjoyed the humorous tone that many of the characters brought to the table, I thought some, like Alison or Brent, seemed to be overexaggerated. However, the addition of these dramatic characters allowed the story to feel full of life and high stakes. I would have enjoyed more genuine connection within the story but enjoyed Chase’s adventures overall and I loved the developments of her story that followed her trip to Paris.
Life in the Chastity Zone takes readers on a whirlwind ride through Chase’s life and surrounds us with larger-than-life characters who introduce her to a life full of adventure and strange experiences. If you want to feel as if you could travel the world and fall in love a hundred times, this is the perfect book for you.
Pages: 461 | ASIN: B086WV8WGY
Save Magic City
![Save Magic City by [Rocsanne Shield]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/418zWHtiTuL.jpg)
Edmund is a murderous sorcerer and knight with a long rap sheet. His latest crime gets him banished seven hundred years into the future and cursed to obey only good commands or face severe pain if his actions cause anyone suffering. Stuck in the future, he soon receives a sense of purpose and goes through a remarkable transformation when Leona and her son Leo find him in the woods. Bound to obey her every command, Edmund attempts to get her to allow him to save her collapsing town with magic but she refuses. Together with some friends, they must find realistic ways to go up against the big corporation that has left the citizens jobless and save the penniless town. All the while, Edmund and the people of Magic City are oblivious to a secret adversary lurking in the shadows, biding his time.
Rocsanne Shield’s Save Magic City is a fantasy novel brimming with intrigue and fun. Don’t be fooled by the title. Though magic and other supernatural elements like telepathy form the threads of Shield’s story, at the core of this tale are deeper themes.
For one, the author helps us recover the appreciation for our world we may have lost through familiarity. The author does this by showing us the world through the lens of one just discovering its thrills.
With shreds of humor here and there, the book reflects a child-like playfulness anyone would love. I also loved that Shield’s work is a fairly easy read. It’s great for children too because of its inspiring themes, child characters, and simple language.
The author serves up content you might consider wholesome. It’s bursting with hope, unity, and cooperation. It’s a needed glimpse into what people are capable of when they band together to tackle collective problems.
Sheild establishes a balance between the need for human effort and a little sprinkle of serendipity. No matter who we are, some factors will lead to our fortunes which we’ll have zero power over. Call those factors answered prayers, granted wishes from the universe; anything, but we can’t deny that fate conspires to bring good our way as much as it does evil too. The story felt linear at time, but then a twist would come along that I didn’t see coming and ensures the book ends on a high note.
I felt a little backstory on some of the major characters would have helped me better connect with them. I’d have loved to know who Leona was and how she came to adopt Leo.
We might be getting a sequel if the way the book ended is anything to go by. While I’ll readily curl up with anything Shield launches next, this book is sure to keep fans entertained in the mean time.
Pages: 304 | ASIN: B07CF4HQCQ
The Cardiff Giant – Book Trailer
The Cardiff Giant, set in Cooperstown, New York, has up its novelistic sleeve Puck’s profound declaration, “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” Jess Freeman, investigative reporter, arrives on the scene to look into the weird disappearance from the Farmers’ Museum of a huge human figure. He had been unearthed in the late nineteenth century near Cardiff, New York. Jess confronts locals and outsiders who all have a theory, including that the giant has been reanimated and is lurching throughout the community. They are enmeshed in self-punishing belief systems such as alien abduction, astrology, kabbalistic numerology, New Age rebirthing, and religious dogmas reduced to literal absurdities. The fast-paced action centers around episodes where they pay a sorry price for their beliefs. But skeptics don’t fare much better, susceptible as they are to mental disorders that show the faculty of reason is fragile indeed. These characters group and regroup, with romance always on their minds, and finally come to recognitions at once surprising and moving.
A Southern California Twist
Sundays at Simone’s follows a young man who gets tangled up in L.A.’s high society and weaves through a mix of intriguing characters and situations. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
As a native of Los Angeles, I’m pretty tuned into the psyche of the place. Besides, I was always fascinated by the great French salons of the 19th Century and thought it would be fun to give them a Southern California twist. Satire was the attention, but I also got wrapped up in the story of the young pianist and his loves.
Your characters were all interesting and I enjoyed how they evolved throughout the story. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Michael’s character, like any other, developed through disappointment, heartbreak, triumph, and experience.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I’m always drawn to the place of the artist in each society, so that is certainly near the top. Also, the pretensions that come with wealth and sometimes fame. Also, the ups and downs of ambition.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
The Anachronist has just been published.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
I Used Kaos
Apocalypse Blockers follows an odd group of unlikely heroes that take on a mission to prevent the apocalypse. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
Apocalypse Blockers is a culmination of several different books of mine, each character has their own book in which they already stopped an apocalypse, all very different books and different genre’s, they all have very long back story’s that are not linked, I used Kaos as a way to link them and bring them all together in one place, I don’t think you need to read the other books first but the idea being they will be better after you have read Apocalypse Blockers or Apocalypse Blockers will be better after you have read them.
I enjoyed the creativity imbued in your characters. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
I wanted to move the characters on a bit, I did not just want to throw them all together without any of them changing or growing, this would be the last time I work with any of them so I wanted to leave them all in a good place, the Running theams with Rick Tonail in every book he has been in was that he needed to stop doing everything alone and get some freinds, Bob and Karen found eachother and a new dynamic was born for them two, the good father’s and Green had their own issues that they worked through and Larry and Max finnaly got to stop being in a post- apocalyptic zombie apocalypse.
This seemed like a fun book to write. What was the funnest scene for you to write?
For me the scene were Bob and Rick first meet fathers O’Malley and O’Riley who were coaching at the over 80s wrestling championships was the funniest thing to write.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I am working on my first young adults book at the moment called, Noobs, it’s a story about two friends caught in the afterlife when a meteor takes out the kabab shop they were in, the Grim reaper makes a deal with them that they can go back if they retrieve ten keys from inside different video games, it should be finished by June.
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LITERARY TITAN 