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The Dangers of Time Travel
Furniture Sliders follows a former intelligence officer who is pulled back in to discover what has happened to a classified project and the people working on it, which controls time, memory, and identity, and is now missing. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I have always been a fan of both film noir and espionage novels plus I have a tech background and a fascination with quantum mechanics. I wanted to write a story that felt like a 1940s Cold War spy thriller written in noir style—then break it wide open with the addition of speculative science fiction. I had a question: what if you take the characteristics of quantum mechanics such as superposition and entanglement and instead of applying them to atomic particles, you applied them to human beings? To spies? Can you be in two places at once or two timelines at the same time? Firstly, apply the ability to manipulate space and time and then take it even further by playing in panpsychism – the concept that every inanimate object can be sentient. Of course, you would have to have some form of technology to do all of this – the Mirror is exactly that inspired by the one in my hall at home. The title literally came from a box of plastic furniture sliders that were on the table at home with the box looking like a paperback book – Furniture Sliders on the spine! Sliders was a perfect description for agents moving through space and time and their organization is called the Bureau, along with the Mirror, giving the initial tongue-in-cheek furniture connection.
I found Max Calder to be an intriguing character. What was your inspiration for this character?
Max Calder is the kind of character I love; deeply broken but still pushing forward through the fog. It isn’t about a single character or character flaw but about weaving influences together. I guess Max carries echoes of Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe and Graham Greene’s morally ambiguous operatives. He isn’t polished like Bond, but weary, suspicious, and prone to moral compromise – a man affected by the machine he serves. I tried to deliberately write against cliché by grounding him in history and psychology. His gaps, duplications, and doubts reflect not only the dangers of espionage but the fragility of identity itself. Unlike many spy archetypes, Calder isn’t defined by conquest or success, but by survival, mistrust, and fear of irrelevance — hopefully making him come across as human, flawed, and complex. In many espionage novels, agents and spies are unaffected by what they do and are amazing at executing their role. In the case of Max, I wanted him to be very affected. Remorse, regret, and inner demons.
What themes were particularly important for you to explore in this book?
Primarily the consequences of messing with time and how doing so can also mess with you physically, potentially drive you insane and affect your memory while creating echoes or even doppelgangers as time threads overlap. All caused by, or underpinned by, the human-applied characteristics of quantum mechanics. It was important to explore relationships especially between protagonists and antagonists and between espionage agents and technology pitching various spy agencies against each other – even if they are supposed to have great relationships. I also wanted to introduce fictionalized real-life characters to the storyline which in this book includes Alan Turing, Hugh Sinclair and William Stephenson.
Where does the story go in the next book, and where do you see it going in the future?
There are two more books coming in the series. Angus Sliders and Cuban Sliders. Angus Sliders is planned to publish on the 15th December. One of the challenges with quantum-based technology like the Mirror is that many want to get their hands on it in many cases for various nefarious reasons. In Furniture Sliders it was the Russians and ex Nazis. In Angus Sliders, Max Calder discovers that some major occurrences in Furniture Sliders didn’t really happen and that MI6 is very involved. Even a fictionalized Kim Philby is involved as is Charles Fraser-Smith who was the inspiration for James Bond’s Q. Max Calder is more and more affected by what the Mirror can do to you. In Cuban Sliders the Russians are back in the game and so is the CIA. Through all of this the Mirror becomes even more difficult to control or destroy. The big question is – can it be destroyed at all or even stopped and who gets to control it? Are there more storylines past the initial trilogy? Yes indeed!
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The Bureau is chasing a secret called the Mirror—a project so classified that even its architects have vanished or been silenced. It’s said to control time, memory, even identity itself. As Calder tracks the Mirror’s echoes across empty safehouses and wartime graveyards, the lines between hunter and hunted begin to blur.
Artemis may be an ally. Or she may be a weapon. And Calder? He may not even be who he thinks he is.
As bodies pile up and truths unravel, Calder must navigate a world where nothing stays still—where every room slides just a few inches sideways when you’re not looking. In the end, he’ll face one impossible choice:
Burn the truth… or become it.
Heir of Flame and Shadow
Heir of Flame and Shadow picks up where Daughter of Light and Dark left off, continuing Mina’s journey through a world steeped in shadow, betrayal, and dangerous magic. At its heart, this story is about survival and self-discovery in the face of unbearable odds. Mina struggles with her cursed gift, torn between the burden it places on her and the hope it brings to others. Alongside her, a cast of allies and enemies twist the path forward, pulling her into battles that are both physical and deeply emotional. Themes of identity, family, sacrifice, and the fragile line between love and pain shape the arc of this sequel, while the backdrop of supernatural powers and dark kingdoms raises the stakes to life-or-death levels.
I enjoyed how raw the writing felt. The prose is not polished to perfection, but that roughness gave the book a pulse, like the words were breathing with Mina. The imagery is often harsh, almost jagged, and it fits the tone of the story. I found myself swept along by the energy, even when the pacing slowed. The dialogue carried weight, sometimes heavy with pain, sometimes sharp with betrayal, and occasionally softened by fleeting moments of tenderness. At times, I wanted more quiet space to sink into the characters’ hearts, but the relentless drive of the narrative made sure I was never allowed to get too comfortable. I liked that. It kept me unsettled, the way Mina herself was.
The exploration of trauma and control felt unflinching, and it stirred up emotions that weren’t easy to brush aside. There were moments when I had to pause, not because the writing faltered, but because the weight of what was happening pressed too close. That’s a rare thing for me, to feel almost winded by a book. At the same time, the bond between characters, even when fractured, reminded me of how messy and stubborn love can be. It isn’t always gentle or safe. Sometimes it’s sharp enough to draw blood. And that messy truth gave the fantasy world a raw humanity that made it believable.
I’d recommend Heir of Flame and Shadow to readers who aren’t afraid of dark themes and emotional turbulence. If you like your fantasy with teeth, if you want magic tangled with pain, and if you enjoy characters who are complicated and scarred, this book will speak to you. It’s not for someone looking for a lighthearted escape. It’s for readers who want to be rattled a little, who want to sit with shadows and still see the flicker of flame inside them.
Pages: 262 | ASIN : B0FKZJDW49
The Interchange
The Interchange imagines a future where identity, family, and power collide in a society rebuilt from catastrophe. It follows Manx Aureole Agnor, a formidable warrior and state leader, as she wrestles with her role in a rigid social order defined by “The Interchange,” a system that categorizes people not by sex but by inherent nature. Against the backdrop of political rituals, national pride, and underground resistance movements, Aureole finds herself torn between her public duty and private doubts, especially as she confronts forbidden desires for motherhood in the “Old Ways.” The story weaves battles both physical and emotional, building a world that is at once grand in scale and deeply personal.
The writing is bold, vivid, and often unflinching, painting scenes of spectacle and violence with almost cinematic flair. Yet the real tension lives in the quieter spaces, where Aureole questions her bond with her son or feels jealousy toward her brother’s easy grace. Those moments struck me harder than the boxing matches or military intrigues. At times, the prose leaned into exposition, explaining the rules and history of New America in detail, but I found myself forgiving it because the ideas were fascinating. The balance between action and introspection kept me engaged, even when I felt the narrative tugging me in too many directions at once.
Emotionally, I went back and forth. Sometimes I admired Aureole’s strength, her drive, her pride. Other times, I felt an ache for her vulnerability, her longing for something she could never fully claim. That push and pull made the book feel alive to me. The ideas here about gender, control, science, and rebellion aren’t just intellectual exercises. They play out in flesh-and-blood relationships, in a mother’s coldness, a grandmother’s pride, a child’s distance. I’ll admit, I got frustrated with the world’s rigidity, and at times even with Aureole herself, but maybe that’s the point. The book isn’t about offering comfort. It’s about showing what happens when systems try to define the deepest parts of who we are.
I’d recommend The Interchange to readers who enjoy dystopian or speculative fiction that asks hard questions rather than giving easy answers. The Interchange reminded me of the sharp social critique in The Handmaid’s Tale and the futuristic ambition of Brave New World, though it carries its own distinctive blend of raw emotion and political spectacle. If you’re drawn to stories of power, family, and identity, and you don’t mind sitting with some discomfort, this book has plenty to offer.
Pages: 238 | ASIN : B0DTZJ3SLP
The Ascent of Greed and the Audacity of Mind Stealing
The Ascent of Greed and the Audacity of Mind Stealing by Pietos Kidane follows Adam Green, a young graduate who enters the corporate world with high hopes, only to encounter greed, manipulation, and the unsettling rise of artificial intelligence. Through Adam’s eyes, we see how corporate culture feeds on deception, how AI edges toward frightening autonomy, and how society’s values collapse under the weight of unchecked ambition. It is part cautionary tale, part social critique, and part thriller. The story begins with an almost surreal outburst about AI in a New York café, then steadily escalates into explorations of job exploitation, psychological manipulation, fake news, and even mind-reading machines.
I found myself caught off guard by the rawness of the writing. At times, the prose feels unpolished, almost abrupt, yet that roughness gives the book a kind of blunt honesty. The pacing varies wildly. Some scenes linger on workplace politics while others sprint through shocking revelations about AI’s reach. It was sometimes disturbing to see how some of the characters showed no remorse in exploiting people’s fears and weaknesses. But that emotional whiplash kept me hooked. It felt like being tossed into a storm where greed is the wind and technology is the lightning.
I was fascinated by the moral questions the book raises. Do we want machines to think for us, and worse, to think about us? Can progress that tramples on dignity still be called progress? The story made me angry at the coldness of the corporations, angry at the indifference of leaders, and angry at how plausible it all felt. Yet I also admired Adam’s stubborn streak. His refusal to cave, even when threatened, gave me a spark of hope in an otherwise grim landscape. The book may not be subtle, but its ideas hit hard.
I would recommend this book to readers who want to be challenged. It is a raw and provocative story for anyone worried about where technology and greed are steering us. If you like your fiction mixed with sharp warnings about the future, and if you don’t mind rough edges in the writing, this book will make you think.
Pages: 276 | ASIN : B0DFX1F9WQ
River Talk
River Talk is a sprawling and dreamlike journey through myth, memory, and human frailty. It drifts between fables, folklore, and deeply personal reckonings with place and time. At its heart is Marchon Baptiste, a man both haunted and blessed by a heightened sense of connection to the world around him. His story, interwoven with echoes of gods distracted by their own games, high-stakes gamblers rising from the dead, and tribes living outside the reach of modernity, circles endlessly around the question of what it means to belong, or not belong, within the noise of humanity.
I enjoyed how the writing feels unpinned. Sentences sprawl and snap. They carry the same restless energy as the rivers and forests that pulse through the story. Sometimes I felt lost, like I was dropped into someone’s fever dream without a guide, and other times I felt stunned at how vividly the world cracked open. The language is raw, but that’s what gave it its weight for me. I loved how the prose could be coarse one moment, then suddenly dissolve into passages that felt more like prayers than storytelling.
The book kept circling back to this deep divide between human-made noise and natural rhythm. I felt admiration because it made me think about how little we listen, how much we dismiss in our rush to build walls of words and explanations. I can’t shake certain images: Marchon in the swamp hearing the river sing, the gods playing careless games with human lives, the silent communication of tribes who never needed words. These moments felt alive in a way I rarely get from fiction.
I’d recommend River Talk to readers who like stories that don’t walk straight lines. If you enjoy Faulkner’s twisting voices or the mythic strangeness of Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, you might find something here to savor. It isn’t a book for quick reading. It’s for anyone who’s willing to wrestle with the unsettling question of what it means to really be connected.
Pages: 222 | ASIN : B0FJR45LQK
Driven: The Founder’s Seed Book 3
Driven is the third installment in The Founder’s Seed series, continuing the riveting saga with even higher stakes and deeper revelations. The book pulls you straight into a galaxy alive with politics, betrayal, and fragile alliances. Admirals, traders, and hidden survivors of a nearly lost people clash in a world where loyalty is currency and compassion is weakness. At the heart of it all are Alira, still wrestling with her fractured self, Botha with his quiet wisdom, and Thrace carrying the burden of leadership under constant threat. The novel moves between brutal experimentation on the mysterious Iridosians, tense negotiations among rival factions, and deeply personal struggles for survival. It is a story of ambition, cruelty, resilience, and the thin thread of hope that refuses to snap.
Reading this book stirred a mix of awe and discomfort in me. The clinical coldness of Knøfa’s experiments made my stomach twist, yet I couldn’t look away. The writing is vivid, even when it’s painful, and that’s part of its power. I found myself admiring the author’s willingness to go dark, to show how curiosity can turn into obsession, and how power can warp good intentions. At the same time, the quieter moments between Alira and Botha gave me room to breathe, to feel the warmth of trust slowly taking root in frozen soil. Their scenes lingered with me, like a candlelight after the storm.
There are a lot of moving parts here. Political factions, shifting alliances, plots within plots, and it took me a while to sort through them all. But once I settled in, I found myself hooked. The author doesn’t coddle the reader. She trusts us to keep up, and I respect that. What I loved most was the emotional honesty tucked between the battles and schemes. Fear, hope, guilt, tenderness, it all feels raw and real, even in the middle of starships and alien physiology.
Driven left me both unsettled and uplifted. It’s a rewarding read. I would recommend it to readers who enjoy science fiction with grit and heart, to those who don’t shy away from moral grayness, and to anyone who loves stories that ask what survival truly costs. If you like your space operas full of high stakes but also deeply human at the core, this book will leave a mark.
Encouraging Young Minds
Galileo’s Points of Light in the Night Sky follows a pair of curious siblings and Dr. K and her magical time portal, who travel back to Renaissance Italy to meet Galileo and experience firsthand the wonder of his telescope and discoveries. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The inspiration came from my desire to make science and history feel alive for children. Galileo’s discoveries changed how we understand the universe, yet for many young readers, history can feel distant or abstract.
By introducing a magical time portal and pairing the story with two inquisitive siblings, I wanted to create a bridge between today’s readers and the past.
The setup allows children to see history not as dusty facts in a textbook but as living experiences full of curiosity, wonder, and adventure.
I enjoyed your characters, especially Dr. K. What was your favorite character to write for and why?
Dr. K was certainly the most rewarding character to write. She is both a guide and a fellow traveler, modeling how to ask questions, nurture curiosity, and balance seriousness with a sense of wonder. Through her, I was able to weave together elements of science, history, and imagination.
She is not only a mentor to the children in the story but also a representation of my own lifelong passion for encouraging young minds to explore the world around them.
What were some educational aspects that were important for you to include in this children’s book?
I wanted to emphasize both Galileo’s scientific process and the cultural context of his discoveries. Children learn not only that Galileo built a telescope and observed the moons of Jupiter, but also that these observations challenged established beliefs of the time.
The book highlights critical thinking, perseverance, and the courage to question accepted truths.
I also included a “Science Primer” at the back of the book to give readers and educators additional resources, ensuring that the story supports learning in both classrooms and homes.
Can you tell us more about what’s in store for Dr. K and the direction of the second book?
The second book, Marie Curie’s Radiant Quest, transports readers to Paris at the turn of the 20th century.
In this story, Dr. K and the siblings meet Marie Curie and learn about her groundbreaking work with radioactivity.
The narrative continues to blend adventure with science, showing not only Curie’s discoveries but also her perseverance in the face of challenges as a woman in science.
The series as a whole will continue to introduce children to great scientists across time, always with an emphasis on curiosity, resilience, and the wonder of discovery.
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In the awarding-winning Galileo’s Points of Light in the Night Sky, the first book of the captivating Dr. K’s Portal Through Time series, Jennifer, a vivacious 10-year-old, and her intellectually curious 8-year-old brother, Daniel, embark on an exceptional voyage through the annals of time. Guided by the enigmatic and brilliant scientist, Dr. K, they are transported to the heyday of Renaissance Italy, straight into the workshop of the iconic astronomer, Galileo Galilei.
As they traverse the time portal, Jennifer and Daniel experience firsthand Galileo’s groundbreaking observations of the celestial expanse through his innovative telescope. They are enlightened about the significance of questioning established norms and the audacity needed to defy the status quo. The siblings witness Galileo’s unveiling of the cosmos’s wonders and his revolutionary proposition that our Earth is not the center of the universe.
Throughout their journey, Jennifer and Daniel support Galileo in chronicling his pioneering discoveries. They confront challenges that enhance their problem-solving abilities and deepen their grasp of the scientific method. Their adventure cultivates an appreciation for the quest for knowledge and the potency of curiosity.
This enthralling tale seamlessly blends history, science, and adventure. It offers young readers a captivating, educational narrative, introducing them to the mesmerizing world of astronomy and the enduring contributions of one of history’s most illustrious scientists. The story of Jennifer and Daniel will inspire the readers to question, explore, and cherish the pursuit of knowledge, just like Galileo did. The book, while being a thrilling read, also helps foster a love for STEM disciplines in young, inquisitive minds, making it a perfect addition to any child’s reading list.
At the end of Book 1 is a QR code for the Science Primer, a comprehensive, free downloadable guide over 100 pages long, written specifically for parents and teachers. It also includes a complete Teacher’s Guide with detailed lesson plans, a glossary of terms, and an extensive list of resources such as books, videos, websites, and other online Resources for teaching about Galileo and his discoveries. The primer is designed to make science education engaging and accessible. Each of the books written for the series will feature its own tailored Science Primer. Book 1 itself also includes a glossary of terms and resources designed specifically for children ages 8-12, complementing the exciting adventures of Jennifer and Daniel.
Broken: The Founder’s Seed Book 2
When I opened Broken, I was immediately pulled into a world brimming with tension, betrayal, and the complicated weight of carrying other people’s lives inside your own head. Drema Deòraich’s story follows Alira, Galen, and Thrace as they navigate shifting identities, political intrigue, and the brutal cost of survival among human and unammi factions. The author builds a layered tale of power struggles, loyalty, and moral compromise, where every choice feels like a thread tugging at the larger web. The book is about what it means to stay whole when you are forced to fracture yourself for the sake of others.
The writing has a pace that rarely lets up, and the dialogue carries a sharpness that feels lived-in. The shifting perspectives, the sudden bursts of violence, and the moments of quiet reflection all come together to create a rhythm that feels alive. At times, the narrative voices inside Alira’s head became almost overwhelming to read, but I realized that was the point. It mirrored her chaos, her crowded sense of self. I found myself admiring how boldly Deòraich leaned into that confusion, refusing to make it easy for the reader, because life inside a fractured mind is never easy.
Beyond the writing, I was moved by the book’s ideas. Questions about identity, about whether survival justifies the blood on your hands, and about how much of yourself you can give away before there’s nothing left. I was thinking about these ideas for a long time afterwards. I felt both sorrow and admiration for Alira. Her choices often frustrated me, yet I couldn’t help but ache for her struggle. The themes of slavery and exploitation, woven into the politics of the factions, hit me hard. They were ugly and uncomfortable, and that’s exactly why they mattered. Deòraich didn’t flinch from showing cruelty, and in that honesty, the book had teeth.
Reading Broken reminded me of Frank Herbert’s Dune in the way it blends political intrigue with questions of identity and survival, but it feels more intimate and raw, pulling me closer to the characters’ inner battles. I’d recommend Broken to readers who love science fiction that challenges them. If you like tales that balance heart with grit, that mix character-driven drama with political maneuvering, this book is more than worth your time.
Pages: 420 | ASIN : B0DLTLQMQP
LITERARY TITAN 