Blog Archives
A Mix of Emotions
Is There Not a Cause? is a raw and unapologetic collection of poetry, songs, stories, personal reflections, and scenes of life that explore faith, pain, and personal development in a way that leaves the reader feeling raw and alive. What inspired you to write this particular collection of poems?
This collection was initially published in 2021. This re-release has over twenty-five new poems. My inspiration to write this collection came from time and experiences, loss, growth, pain, love, social climate around the world, faith, and more.
How do you approach writing about deeply personal or emotional topics?
I approach it the same way I do most of my pieces. I also do spoken word, so the majority of my poems are written from the perspective of me speaking to an audience or myself. For whatever reason, that makes it easy for me to share and or express deeply personal or emotional topics.
How did you go about organizing the poems in the book? Was there a specific flow or structure you were aiming for?
The beauty of the book is that there is no form or structure. The poems/stories/songs flow almost at its own pace, creating a mix of emotions, thoughts, concerns, and anthems.
How has this poetry book changed you as a writer, or what did you learn about yourself through writing it?
I learned how to truly lock in. This past year was a challenge in many ways. All in all, it made me a better writer, speaker, and performer. Writing this book was a great challenge in not depending so much on rhyming and rhythm. Allowing me to put greater effort into storytelling and free verse.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | X (Twitter) | Website | Amazon
Published in numerous magazines and online, esteemed poet and wordsmith Nathaniel Terrell re-releases his first collection of unapologetically raw and honest reflections. If you are someone who prefers to experience life and savor its moments – sacred, painful, and true – you will find favorites in this collection that you will return to. The works will touch your soul in the way poetry should.
IS THERE NOT A CAUSE? by Nathaniel Terrell is a collection best taken one page at a time and is a collection worth savoring and rereading. Each poem is replete with the wisdom and enlightenment gained from someone who experiences life and savor its moments. His words are sacred, painful, and true, and his works will touch your emotions and will find their way into your soul, just as good poetry should.
This re-release is a powerful debut collection containing songs, stories, personal reflections, and scenes of life, with some new poems highlighting growth and maturity. Written from the perspective of a passionate, creative black man working hard to share his voice with the world, each poem paints a vivid picture of the soul of an artist. It grapples with topics such as life and death, racism, faith, anger, social injustice, division in the nation, and getting up after failure. These poems are meant to encourage and to provoke and desire, and will take you on a journey that starts fast and hard and dives deeply into the human condition.
Contemporary culture seeks to define us and forge our identities. Things are never that black and white. The real human condition is a personal journey through pain and ignorance as we seek hope, inspiration, and enlightenment. Each poem conveys important messages about the capacity to pry open our hearts and be connected with our true nature. His warm, inspirational words will encourage and provoke you to take a journey that will start fast and dive deeper. It’s an invitation to mindful presence where the words and artistic expressions compel you to find peace with yourself and the world.
For more on Nathaniel Terrell’s works, visit him on social media at natej.story or at http://www.natejstory.com.
Flirting With Extinction: Collected Essays & Stories
Joanna Kadish’s Flirting With Extinction is a raw and unapologetic mosaic of personal essays and stories that chart a life punctuated by grief, recklessness, resilience, and searching. The book dives headfirst into heavy themes: addiction, motherhood, loss, and the fragile line between survival and surrender. With prose that veers between unfiltered vulnerability and sharp humor, Kadish offers an intimate chronicle of a woman navigating trauma through love, memory, danger, and—sometimes—wild horses.
What struck me most was Kadish’s unflinching voice. She doesn’t tidy up her pain, doesn’t soften her edges. In the preface, she talks about clawing her way back from a state of “perpetual sadness” after losing her sons to the opioid crisis—a tragedy that ripples through many of the essays with a haunting steadiness. In “Anatomy of a Firefighter,” she captures childhood pyromania and sibling chaos in the heat-scorched deserts east of Los Angeles. It’s darkly funny, but the undercurrent of danger—both literal and emotional—never lets you forget the stakes.
Kadish’s writing is pure guts and gravel in “Calamity Jane,” where she recounts a horrifying attempt to break a rodeo bronc as a young girl. The imagery is searing: the smashed teeth, the blood, the betrayal of the body. But what lingers most is her twisted pride in lasting the “full eight seconds” before being flung like a ragdoll. There’s something electric in the way she writes pain. It’s not masochism; it’s a yearning to feel, to prove, to matter. This isn’t just about animals—it’s about people, about relationships, about the wild things in ourselves that won’t be tamed no matter how gently we try.
What I liked most about the chapter Zero Evidence was how it peeled back the layers of human fragility in the face of relentless judgment. Kadish walks the tightrope between raw confession and sharp critique, especially when she recounts the moments after her son’s overdose and the unbearable silence that followed. The way she describes the hospital room, the indifferent fluorescent lights, and the cold detachment of the medical staff—it all made my chest tighten. But it’s the emotional isolation that hit hardest. She’s grieving, furious, helpless, and still somehow worried about how others might view her as a mother. Her honesty cuts deep.
This is not a gentle collection. It won’t hold your hand or let you off the hook. But Flirting With Extinction will speak to anyone who’s lived through pain and come out the other side with scars and stories. It’s for people who can’t stop looking backward even while forging ahead. I’d especially recommend it to those who’ve wrestled with addiction in their families, lovers of memoir that bleeds fiction, and women who’ve ever been called “too much” for wanting to ride the bronc instead of just watching.
Pages: 300 | ASIN : B0DJHCQ5LT
Spoiler (The Healer Chronicles Book 3)
Fresh off a chaotic battle, Colonel Walker and his band of superhuman kids, created through government-sanctioned experiments, realize that the world is in more danger than they thought. There’s a breach in the barrier separating earth from the dimension housing demons, and dark entities are slowly seeping into our world. Even worse, Ms. G, a strange but powerful woman, is bent on opening the gates between both worlds to let demons into ours. Once again, Alex the healer, Colonel Walker, and the group, with help from the Pentagon, the Vatican, and others, must stop Ms. G before she causes untold darkness to overrun the world and end the human race.
Spoiler, by Michael J. Bowler, is the third book in a gripping series that is brimming with adventure and imaginative science fiction elements. It’s a compelling coming of age story of camaraderie, exploring what is means to be human, and the evils that are lurking on the fringes of the world as we know it.
The book sounds a tad spooky, right? It is, but only when it has to be, otherwise it has an adventurous spirit overall. The author finds a great balance between the dark themes and the refreshing fantasy ones. Frankly, reading Spoiler took me back to the description of Netflix’s Stranger Things which once caught my eye: “hair-raising and heartwarming.”
There are no flowery words or complex descriptions. The writing is simple and evocative as Bowler relies on the strength of his plot and characters to keep you spellbound. It’s been a while since I read a book that had me wondering, “how have I read 100 pages already?” Spoiler reels you in with the promise of chaos, drama, and twists and delivers massively.
The author has a fantastic ability to create gripping tension. He expertly teases several possibilities and leaves a few crumbs of evidence here and there, just enough to heighten your suspicion without giving too much away too soon. I think the book moves along at a good pace. Bowler nicely builds up to the inevitable chaos and uses that buildup to connect readers with the characters before everything devolves into chaos.
Spoiler is a real page-turner and an occasional tear-jerker. If you’re looking for an exciting young adult urban fantasy story with imaginative paranormal elements then you’ll heartily enjoy The Healer Chronicles series.
Pages: 377 | ASIN: B0B2V5J6C4
I’ve Always Felt Empathetic Toward Others
Shifter has the two main characters grappling with some big moral decisions. What was the inspiration for putting them into this position?
I like stories where characters, especially teenagers, have to grapple with more than just who to ask to prom because it’s when we’re faced with serious issues of right vs wrong that we show what we’re made of and who we are inside, and most of us will face tough choices throughout our lives. As a reader, I can ask myself the same questions I pose to my characters and consider which way I might go. My hope is that other readers will do the same. I’ve also thought about the ramifications of having such a power that I could decide who lives and who dies. As pointed out in the book, would it have been moral to kill Hitler before he got very far in his bid to take over the world? Even now, with what we know of history, some people would still argue no and others would say yes.
Are there any emotions or memories from your own life that you put into your characters of Alex and Andy?
I’ve always felt very empathetic toward the pain of others, even as a child and a teen, and wanted to “cure” those people of what ailed them, so I created this character of Alex to do that for me. I just don’t like seeing people unhappy or suffering, which is one reason I could never have become a doctor. Alex’s skills with his wheelchair and his innate tenacity were based on a boy I taught in high school. Despite his wheelchair, that boy could do whatever he put his mind to, sometimes with help from his friends, but mostly by himself. For Andy, I used much of the pain I absorbed from incarcerated kids I worked with who told me horrific stories of being locked in closets for years on end or about how some despicable adult slaughtered their pets in front of them. I sought to depict how hard it might be for such a child to accept love and friendship once released from such an evil upbringing, and I hope Andy comes across as believable in the minds of the readers.
What do you think were some of the defining moments in the development of Alex and Andy’s relationship?
Neither knew of the other’s existence until shortly before they met at the conclusion of Spinner (The Healer Chronicles 1), so I tried to imagine what it would feel like to meet a twin brother I never knew I had. Given the respective backgrounds of the two boys, I felt they could relate as outcasts and that might be the beginning of a friendship and even familial ties. The small moments they shared—when Andy would learn something new from Alex, or when they were washing dishes or working out in the fitness center—these moments helped cement their relationship. Learning how to combine their power and work together defined the growing connection between them, not just because their minds were linked, but because they needed to trust each other, and that must’ve been hard.
Will the next book conclude the story of Alex and Andy or is there more to tell? When will the next book be available?
The next book will conclude this particular storyline, but I have opened enough doors to tell other tales involving these characters and hope to return to them in the future. Spoiler (The Healer Chronicles 3) releases on July 12, 2022.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
Alex’s wheelchair has never stopped him from doing what he wants, but his supernatural power to heal every human ailment known to science has put him in the crosshairs of a dangerous doomsday cult that will stop at nothing to capture him and his long-lost twin, Andy, who can shift illness from one person to another. When the boys combine their “gifts,” they unleash the power to control life and death.
Now Alex, Andy, and the others have been kidnapped by the U.S. military. On a creepy Air Force base in the remote Nevada desert, they must decide who to trust and who to fear while uncovering secrets this base wants to hide from the world. Who is the young boy with unusual abilities who’s treated like a soldier? What is hidden in an ultra-secret hangar that no one can access? And what unnatural experiments are conducted in that closed-off laboratory?
As Alex unravels these mysteries, he strives to bond with his twin, but Andy is distant and detached, trusting no one. He’s also more attracted to the dangerous power they wield than Alex would like. When misplaced faith in science ignites a hidden lust for supremacy, rescue can only come from the most unlikely source, and Alex must confront a terrible truth.
The Healer Chronicles continue…
Shifter
Twin brothers with the power of life and death – will they choose the path of good or evil? In Shifter, the second book in the Healer Chronicles, Michael J Bowler brings us back to the world of Alex and Andy and all the characters revolving around them. Having survived the events in the first thrilling book, the brothers begin to get to know each other and test the limits of what they can do together. But with secret organizations and military operations vying for control of their power, they have to make difficult choices that could save people… or leave them dead. The story takes twists and turns that make you question everything and everyone, from well-guarded fortresses and secret military labs in the desert.
Early on, we’re taken back to Andy’s horrific childhood, which explains his character to the reader and his brother Alex. The reader also gets some recaps and explanations of events in the first book, allowing those that have not read the first novel to understand this one. The author expertly balances dialogue, description, and action, creating incredible tension. A few scenes in the military lab had me literally at the edge of my seat! The author also created a rich and relatable world by adding small details between big moments.
There were plenty of everyday things that we take for granted highlighted in these extreme circumstances. For example, Alex’s experiences with his disability, not being able to reach a shirt in a closet that wasn’t made for someone in a wheelchair. Alex’s human existence gave us a closer connection to a character with incredible power. I loved so many of the characters in the novel. They were unusual heroes, abandoned or scorned by society because of who they are, mistakes from their past, or circumstances beyond their control.
There were also plenty of more important questions of ethics and morality in the choices the main characters have to make, as exemplified in the passage below: “And you would be, Alex. You two could save more lives than anyone in history.” “By killing,” Alex said, his voice barely a whisper. “How is that good?” “Because some people need to be killed so others may live.” Without giving too much away, you can see the dilemma Alex faces when he learns about how some powerful forces would want him to use his power.
However, conflict in the book doesn’t touch only upon questions of morality but also on adolescent insecurities and friendship. Many characters grapple with complex feelings of jealousy or fear of a new person joining the group and taking your place, wanting to prove their strength.
Shifter (The Healer Chronicles Book 2) is a suspenseful young adult thriller. With strong and memorable characters, non-stop action, and high tension, readers will not want to put the book down and anxiously await the conclusion of this exciting trilogy.
Pages: 372 | ASIN : B09R2K41L7
Elysium Protocol
Elysium Protocol by C.A. MacLean is the third book in the Architects of the Illusion science fiction series. Following a species-diverse team known as the “Fireseeds,” Elysium Protocol picks up the shattered pieces left over from the devastating war in book two, The Great Scourge. In a time of interstellar conflict, multiple factions, some seen, some working from the shadows, are vying for power, control, and sometimes, just plain survival. Set in a distant future, the last remnants of humanity are part of an intergalactic organization known as “The Convergence,” an alliance consisting of “quintillions” of citizens.
The Fireseeds are pitted against a vast alien force known as the “hiven,” an insect-like species bent on zealous destruction and domination. Several science fiction tropes appear here, but they are executed skillfully; which ensures longtime fans of science fiction will find something familiar yet still intriguing. There are multiple alien races present: humanoid bird-persons (Arkerians), crystal people (Altaran), bug people (hiven), and more. The story is rife with many planet names and systems, such as Everan, Serrona, Vraunlith-3, etc. I feel this might make it difficult to follow at times but adds to the depth of a world that seems full of possbilites and begs to be explored further. I would have loved to have seen a map of systems in the book to look back on because this story reaches epic fantasy levels where readers will be completely immersed in a large world.
This is a robust novel, almost as long as the two previous entries combined. There is a lot of action going on with all of the characters and races. Readers have to be fully engaged in this story to keep up with who is who and what species is what; reminding me of the breadth of George R.R. Martin novels. However, the author effectively handles the task of keeping things straight, with the central characters being well developed with strong individual personalities. The Arkerian Engami sisters, Eva and Ashy, the tragic Altaran, Caleb Braze, the modest human, Daniel Byre, and many more fill this impressive work with relatable characters and a compelling story. Despite some massive decisions, the memorable characters and gripping action bring a universe of primordial planets, advanced spacecraft, and futuristic cities to life.
Architects Of The Illusion, Part III: Elysium Protocol is an action-filled science fiction space opera with memorable characters and planets. Readers will be able to escape into the world that has been created and feel like they are in the action.
Pages: 777 | ASIN : B09NPPJL1Q
Literary Titan Book Awards January 2018
The Literary Titan Book Awards are awarded to books that have astounded and amazed us with unique writing styles, vivid worlds, complex characters, and original ideas. These books deserve extraordinary praise and we are proud to acknowledge the hard work, dedication, and imagination of these talented authors.
Gold Award Winners
![Sour Lake by [McCandless, Bruce]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51y2ODPe-hL.jpg)
![Follow Me Down by [MacKinney, Gordon]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51mpGewBYTL.jpg)
![Like Peaches and Pickles by [Pritchett, Muriel Ellis]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/512feuD%2BNAL.jpg)
![Icarus (The Noble Trilogy Book 1) by [Hulegaard, David K.]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41bbQIzwV8L._SY346_.jpg)
![A Deal With God: The Power of One: A Christian Romance by [Haden, Michael]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BzcjEufKL.jpg)
![Anam Cara: Your Soul Friend and Bridge to Enlightenment and Creativity by [Ashby, Glenville]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Y14utmKgL.jpg)
![The Woman Behind The Waterfall by [Meriel, Leonora]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51dxz9GQY3L.jpg)
![With Angel's Wings by [Collins, Stephanie A.]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51y6ZEj8%2B-L.jpg)
![I Spy with My Little Eye: A journey through the moral landscape of Britain by [Mills, Linnea]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51mv9UG0kGL._SY346_.jpg)
![Titch the Itch by [Fegan, B.C.R.]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61xZ8AWaKRL.jpg)
![The Birthday Club by [Petersen, Jack]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41-CKbWncCL.jpg)
Silver Award Winners
![Necessities (Donnie Ray Cuinn Book 4) by [Taylor, Boyd]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51CGZl66FwL._SY346_.jpg)
![The Misadventures of Ka-Ron the Knight: The "Nown" World Chronicles: Book One. by [Kirch, Donald Allen]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51-upeF%2BnbL.jpg)
![Haunted by [Nichols, Shari]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JJ8Le4BlL.jpg)
![Choose: Snakes Or Ladders: A Psychological Coming-of-Age Novel by [Forest, Sally]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41iK1Fr6buL.jpg)
![From the Heart: Stories of Love and Life by [Forest, Sally]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51B4J4TzLxL.jpg)
![Surviving Magic (The Legacy of Androva Book 6) by [Vick, Alex C]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fuc4Iv9pL.jpg)
![Away from Home by [Clairmont, Joanne]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Q871771bL.jpg)
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information and see all award winners.
LITERARY TITAN 