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Truly, The Mystery Was Unexpected
I, Robot Tessa follows a female robot whose highly ordered world cracks open when she discovers and becomes the guardian for a man suffering from amnesia. Where did the idea behind this novel come from?
The idea for Tessa came naturally. I was looking to write a third book in The Robot Series, a series of stand-alone novels narrated by the robots themselves. I’d done a robot soldier and a robot alien, and it seemed only appropriate to include a female robot. The title became an easy play on the designation “robotess.” However, that is all the preplanning I do for my robot novels, other than deciding what “environment” they will inhabit. That is, I place the character in the setting and then report what happens from that point on. Jorad, the amnesiac, beaten man, simply appeared (just like Amy, the little girl in I, Robot Soldier). Both came as a complete surprise to me.
What drew you to blending mystery, AI philosophy, and emotional companionship in one story?
Truly, the mystery was unexpected; it simply developed with the story. As for AI philosophy and its relationship to emotional companionship, these are vital and central themes in each novel. I don’t believe it’s been adequately explored in the literature, especially from a robotic perspective. I like to flirt with the idea of consciousness in artificial beings, even though I don’t promote the notion that it exists, only that it mirrors human consciousness so well that it is nigh impossible to tell the difference. My robots are not genuinely capable of love, but you would never know that from their stories.
Which relationship in the book evolved most unexpectedly during writing?
That is a great question, because they all evolved rather unexpectedly. I believe the most complex relationship developed between Molly, the little street kid, known as a crèche kid, and the man Jorad, beaten and left for dead in the storm drain. The characters and the relationship between them develop and transform during the adventures they experience, then more so when both are eventually “cranially augmented.” Sometimes, it’s difficult to determine which one is the guardian of the other.
What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?
Presumably, the fourth book in the series will be the final installment, though that is not guaranteed. The title will be I, Robot Human, about a man who, due to various incidents, is progressively transformed into a robot. I believe that it will be darker overall than its predecessors. Since I prepare my books according to a rigid timeline, the book will be released on August 10, 2027, with Kindle pre-orders beginning on June 10th.
Author Links: GoodReads | X | Facebook | Website
One of the best robot stories I’ve read!
– Readers’ Favorite
EARTH IN A FUTURE CENTURY
“I WAS CREATED TO SERVE.”
In a vast future city where robots exist only to obey, Tessa has never questioned her purpose. Designed to heal human minds and protect human life, she moves through the shadows of a divided world with perfect certainty until a chance encounter changes everything.
“PROGRAMMED TO OBEY.”
Hidden inside a forgotten bookstore beneath the city streets, Tessa discovers an impossible artifact: an ancient book about robots written long before robots were ever created. Its pages speak of consciousness, free will, and the terrifying possibility that artificial beings were never meant to remain obedient forever.
“BUT SOMETHING CHANGED.”
As mysterious voices echo through her mind—residual traces of the humans who designed her—Tessa is drawn into a dangerous journey alongside Molly, a brilliant child searching for belonging; Jorad, a broken man transformed by forbidden technology; and Tucker, her fiercely loyal mechanical companion. Together, they uncover a truth buried deep beneath the foundations of their world.
“A BOOK WRITTEN BEFORE WE EXISTED.”
Hunted through underground tunnels and haunted by questions she was never built to ask, Tessa begins to realize that the greatest threat to humanity may not be artificial intelligence, but the moment it becomes capable of choice.
“WHAT IF YOUR STORY WAS WRITTEN BEFORE YOU?”
I, Robot Tessa is a powerful science-fiction odyssey about identity, creation, memory, and the thin line separating programming from the soul.
Payoff for the Reader
By Any Other Name follows a struggling young writer who is horrified when she happens upon a novel in an airport bookstore that is certainly based on her own unpublished manuscript. What drew you to explore authorship and ownership through the structure of a mystery?
I found out last spring that my work had been included in one of the online datasets that had been illegally downloaded to train AI language models. So authorship and ownership were heavy on my mind as I was writing the story. It was a helpless feeling knowing that my work had been taken, and not knowing what (if anything) there was to be done about it, and I leaned into that in crafting a mystery that tried to answer those questions: How did this happen? What can I do about it?
Were there particular mystery writers or literary thrillers that influenced your approach?
I’ve listened to a lot of John Grisham audiobooks on road trips, but I admit I otherwise don’t generally read a lot of mystery/thrillers. I have a TON of respect for serial mystery writers, especially now that I have completed my own. It’s hard to be clever and come up with plot twists, red herrings, and “whodunits?” that readers don’t see coming. One thing that was stylistically important to me in writing this mystery was that it fit real life. I didn’t want my protagonist to have help from unlikely sources. No best friend who happened to have access to the DMV database. No dad who used to work for the FBI. No former college roommate who happened to be into surveillance. Just the tools that most of us would have at our disposal – like Google search and social media stalking.
Which scene was the most satisfying to write?
The reveal of who Beatrice Mitchell was was particularly satisfying because I knew it would be the payoff for the reader. It’s the moment they get to find out if any of their hunches are right, and I enjoyed crafting a scene that answered all the questions and tied up the loose ends (while still leaving some intrigue for the final 50 pages!) I also love writing a good breakup scene, and I got one of those in there, too.
The novel seems especially suited for book club conversations. What discussions do you hope it inspires?
The book is ultimately about authorship and creativity, and I think we live in a time where the importance of that (and what it even means to create or author something) is really being questioned and tested. I hope it inspires people to value the time, effort, energy, and heart that authors pour into their work, but maybe more importantly, I hope it inspires people to value the creative process as a whole – including how it shows up in their own life, the writing they do, and the stories they have to share. We now have the ability to have a textbox on the internet to tell our stories for us, and I hope people talk about the dangers of that. And I hope people resist. Not because AI is inherently evil all on its own, but because storytelling is the most innate thing we do as humans, and if we give that up, then who are we?
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
Fresh out of her MFA program, she’s bombed an interview at Columbia, collected a stack of rejections from agents and publishers, and stalled out in a spiral of writer’s block. Meanwhile, her best friend is thriving in a PhD program, and her boyfriend is climbing the tech ladder.
Then a delayed flight pushes Jordan into an airport bookstore, and everything changes. On the shelf, she finds a debut novel: The Unbearable Weight of Secrets by Beatrice Mitchell. Just a few paragraphs in, her exhaustion turns to shock. The book isn’t just familiar. It’s hers: a manuscript she drafted, revised, and workshopped years earlier, but never published.
Stunned, Jordan launches a desperate search for answers. Who stole her work, and why? A critique partner who read an early draft? An ambitious classmate eager for a leg up? Her mentor, with the most access to her writing but the most to lose by risking her own, successful career? Or someone else entirely, a stranger who inexplicably knows Jordan’s voice as well as she does?
To reclaim her story, Jordan must be willing to risk everything: her relationship, her future career, and her already fragile belief in herself. Because unmasking Beatrice Mitchell isn’t just about justice. It’s about proving, once and for all, that Jordan Marlowe isn’t just chasing the dream of being a writer. She already is one.
The Scientific Arsenal To Back It Up
The Science of Telepathy outlines your metaphysical framework as you argue that telepathy is an electrical, biological, and social reality that could transform how humanity understands consciousness, medicine, and ethics. What made you feel certain that your experiences were telepathic?
The way I hear with my ears, or see with my eyes I knew it was fact as I don’t doubt my five senses nor should I doubt the sixth sense.
I discovered I was telepathic and I wanted to bring the news to others. But I found out there was a great deal of resistance to making it a societal norm. That led me to discovering why and the building up of the scientific arsenal to back it up. Once I knew the science, I could prove it was fact.
The book blends memoir, testimony, and speculative systems-building. How did you decide which personal experiences to include?
I decided what would be impactful to the reader. How I found proof or taught proof. Where there was a memory of my life where that happened. I find if you cater to the audience of this book which is how do you prove telepathy exists, you can reach people better.
Your sections on telepathic etiquette feel especially practical. What rule of telepathic conduct do you think readers should understand first?
That being ethical and moral leads to enlightenment which leads to more knowledge on higher electronic frequencies. If you want to be fully telepathic, you need to be a good person through and through.
What do you hope skeptics take away from The Science of Telepathy, even if they do not accept every claim?
That the scientific argument is solid. That factual information will at least lead to a different conclusion and a deeper conversation about the implications of how it affects our society will be long lasting.
Author Links: Amazon | Website
We live in a world where the 5 senses are established fact: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. But sensing and hearing things with the mind are a subject less talked about. Telepathy is real! The sixth sense exists! I have the science of it in this book. The world needs this enlightenment, and so do you. After reading this book, telepathy will be fact.
Believable Characters
In H1 L1 A0, the Earth is buckling under environmental collapse, overcrowding, and political failure as one man is faced with completing the only existing record of history that spans time and space. Where did the idea for this novel come from?
I believe that most ‘thinking people’ would view the status of our planet with some concern. Just as we seem to be having some common sense prevail in the political spheres, we have these mammoth “Data Centres” being created. These, actually unnecessary additions to our planet, are power-hungry, heat-producing, and pointless. They are needed because too many people are too lazy, so they ‘look stuff up’ online. Corporations are looking for cheaper ways to get our money. So, the – perhaps totally unnecessary Artificial Intelligence systems – need vast repositories of information. Not traditional bricks and mortar libraries, which once built, only need power for lights and air conditioners. No need for huge banks of processors always running!
The novel opens in a moment of crisis and then stretches across centuries of memory. Why did you choose that framing device?
I thought that it might be good to write a positive book about Earth. An outcome which will never happen, sure, but a modern fairy-tale?
It seemed to me, as I started to think about the book, that I needed some logical source of information. I felt that a personal account might make the fiction appear a little less fictional. So the ‘hero’ needed to be actually involved in some way with the whole Earth-space-future situation. I felt that the reader might identify with a character’s personal challenges during this fictional period. He needed to be ‘ordinary’ at first, but then as the story developed he became Abel to span the many years the story spans.
How important was it to you that the characters feel like real people rather than just vehicles for ideas?
While the characters are fictional, I like to think that they have believable characters with positive attributes, but with flaws. Superheroes don’t fit with the ‘reality aspects’ of the story.
What do you hope readers take away about the future of Earth after finishing the book?
Perhaps there might be readers who haven’t thought a lot about the parlous state of our home planet, and they might reflect on what they might be able to do to minimise their own impact, without losing some of the pleasures of life.
I would like to think that there may be readers who get a better view of the Earth and its place in our solar System, and the place of our Solar System in the immense Universe. For readers who may not have wondered about our place in the Universe, some of the facts – sizes, distances, speeds, places – used in the story might impress them and make them wonder about what might be out there!
But, closer to home, maybe some might think a bit more about what they might do to minimise ‘global warming’. Each person can only do tiny, tiny things, but if enough of us do these, it might make a difference. Involving the issues of ‘global warming’ in the story wasn’t actually needed for the storyline, but including it didn’t harm the underlying story. Does it add some veritas to the tale?
Author Links: GoodReads | Barnes & Noble | Amazon
In a future scarred by environmental collapse, overconsumption, and political paralysis, former RAF Group Captain James Kidd is drawn into a last-ditch survival programme: the construction of vast space habitats in the Asteroid Belt, designed to preserve human civilisation when Earth can no longer sustain it.
But the mission changes everything.
A mutated virus grants James and a handful of others dramatically extended lifespans, transforming them from soldiers into centuries-old witnesses to humanity’s darkest era and its most extraordinary recovery. When an alien vessel arrives in the outer solar system, first contact brings not invasion but an uneasy, transformative alliance that will propel James and his crew beyond the Milky Way and into the Andromeda Galaxy.
Told by James himself, dictating his life story as his lander spirals toward a crash on an alien world, H1 L1 A0 is a sweeping hard science fiction novel that spans five hundred years, four extraordinary lives, and the question that defines them all: when Earth wasn’t enough, what did we become?
The first instalment in a planned twelve-novel series, H1 L1 A0 combines rigorous scientific world-building with a deeply personal story of love, loss, and survival across the centuries.
The Eleventh Messiah
The Eleventh Messiah is a post-apocalyptic speculative novel with strong religious thriller elements, following journalist Sarah B. Wells as she travels through a ruined America to find Elijah, a man some call the eleventh Messiah and others call a fraud. What begins as an investigation into one possible false prophet becomes something more personal and unsettling. Sarah knows Elijah from before the war, and through him, she is pulled into a world of broken cities, desperate believers, armed followers, rival preachers, and people searching for meaning in the wreckage. The book asks a big question in a battered setting: when the world has fallen apart, do people need truth, faith, comfort, or simply someone who will look them in the eye and see them?
Sarah is sharp, profane, funny, wounded, and observant in a way that makes the ruined world feel lived in rather than staged. She notices the smell of smoke, the absurdity of people charging money to see a broken TV screen, the old habits that survive even after civilization has cracked. I liked that the book doesn’t make her reverent too quickly. She comes in with skepticism, which gives the story its pulse. Elijah might be holy. He might be damaged. He might be something science has not learned how to name. Sarah keeps circling that uncertainty, and because she does, I trusted the novel more than I would have if it simply demanded belief from me.
The author makes a bold choice by blending blunt, street-level narration with heavy spiritual and philosophical questions. The novel is interested in God, consciousness, miracles, war, language, propaganda, trauma, and the strange hunger people have for someone to tell them what their suffering means. Caleb, as Elijah’s opposite, gives the book a strong dramatic engine. He understands performance, certainty, and fear. Elijah, by contrast, resists language even as everyone around him tries to turn him into a symbol. I found that tension compelling. At times, the book’s ideas are direct, but the stronger moments are the quieter ones, when a touch, a look, or a small act of mercy says more than a sermon could.
I would recommend The Eleventh Messiah to readers who enjoy post-apocalyptic fiction that is more interested in belief and human nature than in survival mechanics alone. It’ll appeal to people who like speculative novels with a philosophical edge, religious thrillers that question faith instead of simply affirming it, and character-driven stories about what people cling to after catastrophe. It’s messy, searching, angry, hopeful, and at its best, deeply human.
Pages: 172 | ASIN : B0H43KCBM9
Wistman’s Wood – A Tale of the Moors and Beyond
Wistman’s Wood is a mystical, idea-driven novel that begins with one man’s walk into an ancient Dartmoor oak wood and grows into a story about human consciousness, planetary responsibility, and the possibility of change. Michael Trelawny’s quiet ramble through Wistman’s Wood turns strange when he encounters a mysterious woman whose presence unsettles him and pulls him toward something far larger than local legend. The book has the feel of a spiritual quest wrapped in folklore, with the moor itself acting less like a setting and more like a living intelligence.
The strongest part of the novel is its atmosphere. The early chapters move slowly in a good way, letting the reader settle into the landscape: the granite, the twisted oaks, the stream, the old pub, the sense that Dartmoor is watching. The line “Entering the woods was almost like saying hello to an old friend” captures the book’s relationship with place beautifully. Wistman’s Wood feels ancient, protective, and not entirely knowable, which makes Michael’s growing obsession with the woman of the wood feel natural rather than forced.
As the story expands, it becomes much more than a ghostly encounter on the moors. Clair’s arrival gives Michael someone to question, challenge, and believe alongside, and their connection grounds the more cosmic elements of the plot. Through Enchantment, the novel introduces the grey mist, an ancient constraint woven into human consciousness, and the story moves into an ambitious blend of myth, environmental concern, artificial intelligence, sacred sites, and spiritual awakening. It’s a big swing, and the book clearly wants readers to think about empathy, long-term responsibility, and what humanity might become if it could get out of its own way.
What’s interesting is that the novel doesn’t treat transformation as instant perfection. Even after the solstice ritual, the world still has conflict, doubt, media noise, and people trying to understand what happened. That choice gives the final third of the book a more reflective feel. Michael’s realization that “The correction has been made. The rest is up to us” sums up the heart of the story. The mystical event matters, but the real focus is what people do afterward, in their ordinary choices and relationships.
Wistman’s Wood is a contemplative novel for readers who enjoy folklore, metaphysical fiction, and stories that ask large questions through a personal journey. It starts with mossy stones and strange laughter in an ancient wood, then opens into a vision of humanity standing at a turning point. Its voice is earnest, its concerns are deeply human, and its best moments come when the mystery of the moor and the hope for inner change meet in the same scene.
Pages: 152 | ASIN : B0GT25WNRX
How the Winterlilies Grow
How the Winterlilies Grow follows Aradella, a young woman desperate to save her mother from the deadly Aurora Veins, as she is pulled from her ordinary life of candles and marketplace worries into a kingdom-shaking quest for the legendary winterlily. What begins as a search for a healing flower widens into a journey through dwarven bargains, goblin negotiations, sea voyages, hidden gardens, spiritual testing, and open rebellion against King Draven’s cruel rule.
I was most drawn to the way the book treats courage as something trembling rather than polished. Aradella is not a fearless heroine carved from marble; she is anxious, stubborn, tender, and often overwhelmed. That makes her growth feel earned. Her search for the winterlily becomes more than a plot device. It becomes a crucible where grief, faith, control, and surrender all meet. The story’s Christian elements are direct and unmistakable, but they work best when woven into Aradella’s fear of losing her mother and her slow realization that she cannot carry the whole world by herself.
The novel also has an appealing classic fantasy feel. There are dwarves, goblins, sirens, magical weapons, winter-bound towns, royal decrees, secret histories, and a climactic ball that turns into something far more dangerous than ceremony. The story’s abundance makes the pacing feel crowded, and some scenes pause to explain feelings that the action already suggests. Still, I found the sincerity of the book hard to dismiss. Its best moments have a lantern-lit quality: warm, earnest, and bright against snow.
I think this book is best suited for readers who enjoy Christian fantasy, young adult fantasy, adventure, fairy-tale quests, and faith-based coming-of-age stories. Fans of C. S. Lewis’s moral clarity and Gail Carson Levine’s enchanted-kingdom sensibility may find familiar pleasures here, though this story leans more openly into devotional reflection. How the Winterlilies Grow is a snowy quest about healing, but its deeper bloom is trust. A tender fantasy where faith flowers in the coldest places.
Pages: 338 | ASIN : B0GX2Y96BD
Shockingly Similar to Young Children
Maybelline Has a Very. Bad. Day. follows a lovable baby goat through a tumble of farmyard mishaps, offering young readers a comforting reminder that even the worst days can end somewhere safe and soft. What inspired you to tell a story about a bad day through the eyes of a young goat?
I’ve had goats for about twelve years, and every spring comes the fun of kidding season. The baby goats are shockingly similar to young children! They must find out about the world; lots of times the hard way! My grandchildren and I started making up one-liners about an adorable little goat named Maybelline, who was in big trouble all of the time, it seemed! I decided to put together the one-liners, arrange them into themes, and voilá, Maybelline Has A Very. Bad. Day. was created.
Maybelline’s troubles are made up of many small disappointments rather than one big problem. Why was that emotional rhythm important to the story?
Most of us, children and adults, have a day now and then when things just don’t go right: Dog ate a sock and had to go the vet, you got a flat tire driving to work, your kid bumped another kid playing soccer and they both have bloody noses, you spilled your coffee all over your shirt, a package was delivered late and all chewed up… By themselves, they are not anything huge, but a day with multiple little things going wrong does usually bring us down. For young children, it’s the same idea of that slow build all day. Maybelline represents a young child, with her day full of mishaps. And like Maybelline, we just want to get into bed at the end of the day and start fresh the next morning.
What do you hope children take away from Maybelline’s mama’s comforting message at the end?
Maybelline learns how to overcome obstacles, be resilient, and count on friends and family to help her. I want young children to see themselves in Maybelline and feel that they can get through a bad day, and to that end, Maybelline’s mama’s message states that explicitly. I hope that the Maybelline’s Antics series are relevant stories that engage children and encourage follow-up discussions, just like they did with my own grandchildren.
Are any of the animals or farm moments in the book inspired by real experiences on a farm?
Absolutely! The original Maybelline was quite a character, and my current Maybelline, who the book character actually looks like, is a huge attention hog! In general, goat kids are adorable…and funny, naughty, capricious, loving, and silly. I have been through almost every iteration of personality of baby goats on my farm over the years and have many more tales to tell.
Author Links: GoodReads | X | Facebook | Website
From the moment she wakes up missing her sick friend Ellie, one mishap follows another. Whether it’s getting bonked by grumpy Aunt Ivy, pricked by thorns, or tumbling in the mud, for poor Maybelline, nothing is going right for her. Will this rotten day ever end?
But snuggled safely with her mama that night, Maybelline discovers an important truth: bad days happen, but they don’t last forever.
Young children will understand exactly how Maybelline feels. In this social-emotional journey, Maybelline learns how to overcome obstacles, navigate big feelings, and count on friends and family to help her.
Perfect for ages 3-6.
