Blog Archives
The Little Girl’s Mother
The Little Girl’s Mother drops us straight into a police station that turns into a battleground and then never really lets the tension slip. It follows a family whose daughter witnesses a murder and suddenly becomes the target of a powerful criminal syndicate. The parents, both former military with heavy pasts, step back into a world they hoped to leave behind. The story twists from procedural chaos into a dark rescue mission, something between a thriller and a raw look at what parents might do when no one else can keep their child alive. It moves fast. Sometimes brutally fast. And it carries a steady drumbeat of fear and determination.
Reading it, I felt myself leaning in, almost holding my breath. The writing hits with a kind of straight shot energy. There is no drifting around. The scenes move with hard edges and sharp turns. I liked that. It pulled me right into the panic, the cold choices, and the way the parents shift from frightened to focused. I cared more than I expected to and sometimes caught myself rooting for them in ways that surprised me. The emotional weight lands strongest when the parents talk to each other or when they steady their daughter. Those moments feel real. They cool the fire just enough to let the story breathe before it kicks off again.
Some scenes in the workshop are rough. Not because they are gory but because of the calm way they unfold. The tone made me uneasy in a way that felt intentional. I could sense the author pushing me to sit with the question of what desperation does to good people. I liked that the book did not try to pretend those choices are clean or noble. The pacing can feel intense. Yet the emotional through-line keeps things grounded and stops the story from tipping into pure action for its own sake.
I would recommend this book to readers who like high-tension thrillers and stories about families under extreme pressure. It fits readers who enjoy military backgrounds, tactical problem solving, and moral knots that do not come undone easily. If you want a story that grabs you by the collar and refuses to let go, then this will absolutely hit the mark.
Pages: 217 | ASIN : B0FHSHXY18
Writing Organically
The Guardian’s Legacy centers around a history teacher whose strange inheritance reveals a long-buried family secret and leads him on a journey through time. Where did the idea for this novel come from?
The spark came from a facsimile of a Greek coin—sent to me as a prompt for a short story that eventually found its way into a published collection. It took a few months for the idea to take root, but inspiration struck, fuelled by my love of ancient history, mythology, and the gripping twists of The Da Vinci Code, Steve Berry, and James Rollins. That tiny coin became the key to a much larger mystery, its origins entwined with lost languages and forgotten legends. From that seed, Nik and Iasos emerged—though if you ask them, they’ll insist they were the ones who found me first.
When you first sat down to write this story, did you know where you were going, or did the twists come as you were writing?
Great question! I originally outlined the story as a five-book series—though whether it reaches five depends on how book four unfolds. Did I know where it was going? Not entirely. I had a plan, but the characters had other ideas, steering the plot in unexpected directions and demanding more involvement. I do outline scenes, but they’re more guideposts than strict rules. Writing organically allows the story to stay fluid and responsive, which I love. Of course, that means keeping close track of details and plot threads to maintain continuity. It’s a dynamic process—part structure, part surprise—and that’s where the magic happens.
Were you able to relate to your characters while writing them?
The bond between Nik and his grandfather, Iasos, is deeply rooted—something I relate to through my own family. No matter the distance or age gap, that connection endures. For both Nik and Iasos, family heritage and tradition are central, and that thread runs through me as well. Nik’s role as a high school teacher draws from my own teaching experience, grounding his character in something personal. While Nik’s heritage is Greek and mine is Italian, our roots intertwine. My family hails from southern Italy, where Greek ancestry isn’t uncommon. I only recently learned from my mother that my grandmother called her grandfather “Papou”—the Greek word for grandfather. That small detail felt like a beautiful echo across generations.
Can you give us a glimpse inside book 2 of the Coin of Time series? Where will it take readers?
In Book 2: The Race for the Lost Coin, Nik is pushed to take matters into his own hands—stepping beyond the law to protect what matters most. Though he offers an olive branch to Detective Sauveterre, she remains a steadfast officer, bound by duty. As the stakes rise, Nik evolves into an unlikely hero, drawing on his skills as a guardian to safeguard the coin and rescue his grandfather. Along the way, he’s joined by a hacker, a librarian, and a taxi driver—each adding heart and grit to the journey. It’s fast-paced, full of twists, and packed with myth-infused suspense.
Coming 29 November 2025—get ready to dive into the adventure.
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A three-thousand-year old magical coin, the disappearance of an old man, fanatical neo-Nazis, and the hunt by Interpol, merge in this gripping story of an ancient cover up, and the transition of an ordinary man into the guardian of the most powerful coin on earth.
High school teacher Nik Zosimos, leads an uncomplicated life until he receives a cryptic phone message from his grandfather, Iasos. He hurries to his grandfather’s finding him relaxed and pleased to see him. A few beers later, Nik leaves his grandfather’s place, stupefied and astounded. Iasos has a secret, one that dates back to the time of Herakles.
But that was just a myth, wasn’t it?
If you like Dan Brown and Wilbur Smith books or enjoys action, fast-paced dramatic shows similar to National Treasure and The Librarians, then you’ll love The Guardian’s Legacy. Award-winning author of Historical Fantasy/Adventure, Luciana Cavallaro, pens a thrilling mystery. Click the BUY NOW button at the top and find out how Nik’s life changes.
The Guardian’s Legacy
Luciana Cavallaro’s The Guardian’s Legacy opens with an explosive chase through the forests of Slovakia and quickly spirals into a myth-soaked adventure that bridges modern Australia with the ancient world. The novel follows Nikolaos Zosimos, a history teacher whose quiet life takes a dramatic turn when his grandfather reveals a family secret, an ancient coin tied to the goddess Aphrodite, and a lineage of guardians sworn to protect it. What begins as a curious inheritance soon turns into a journey through history, myth, and time itself, weaving ancient Greece, lost knowledge, and family legacy into a single thread of destiny.
I was pulled in from the start. The writing has a cinematic feel, especially in the action scenes. Cavallaro writes with the rhythm of someone who loves myth but also respects the quiet spaces in between, the small human moments that make the big ones matter. The dialogue feels real, not forced, and the relationship between Nik and his grandfather has a tenderness that grounds the story. At times, the pacing slows during long explanations of history, but that’s also part of the charm. You feel like you’re being let in on a secret that’s been whispered through generations.
Emotionally, the book hit me harder than I expected. There’s something deeply moving about watching Nik wrestle with disbelief, responsibility, and faith in something unseen. The blend of myth and realism works better than I thought it would. The coin isn’t just an artifact; it’s a metaphor for memory and heritage, for how the past can live inside the present. Cavallaro’s descriptions are lush, sometimes even poetic, but she keeps her feet on the ground. When the story jumps between modern scenes and the ancient world, it feels seamless. If anything, I wanted even more of those mythic flashbacks.
The Guardian’s Legacy is a book for readers who love mythology but crave a human story at its core. It’s perfect for fans of historical fantasy, teachers who secretly dream of adventure, or anyone who still believes there’s magic hiding in the mundane. It’s thoughtful, heartfelt, and rich with imagination. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes a bit of mystery with their myths and doesn’t mind getting lost in the pull of time itself.
Pages: 152 | ASIN : B09DX41S11
Car Trouble
Car Trouble follows Jim Crack, a down-and-out young man whose misadventures across the freeways and backstreets of Southern California form a gritty, chaotic odyssey of personal implosion. What begins with his Volkswagen catching fire on the 5 Freeway spirals into a bleak but strangely comic day filled with existential spirals, weed smoke, porn, broken relationships, and failed attempts to find meaning in a world so dependent on cars, status, and surface-level happiness. Through vivid flashbacks and derailed digressions, Jim’s day of misfortune exposes a lifelong grappling with abandonment, identity, trauma, and a simmering, unshakeable rage toward the machinery of life, both mechanical and societal.
Reading this book was like crawling inside someone’s unfiltered stream of consciousness. Zorn’s writing is raw and intense, often hilarious, sometimes painful, and always fully immersed in Jim’s spiraling, disillusioned psyche. There were moments I laughed, like the pure absurdity of a landscaping crew rescuing Jim from a flaming car, only to feel a gut punch pages later as he sinks into total emotional paralysis on a crusty couch with nothing but a bong and old porn for comfort. Zorn captures the erratic rhythm of thought with a ferocity that reminded me of Bukowski meets Vonnegut, but with more exhaust fumes and burnt-out brake lights. The prose veers wildly. Sharp, punchy lines land like jabs to the ribs, then unravel into stoner-poetic rants or tragic internal monologues that drip with disillusionment.
But what really hit me hard was how real it all felt. Jim’s pain, his failures, the weird moments of tenderness or sudden clarity linger. This book doesn’t follow a clean arc. It doesn’t tie up neatly. That felt true to life. At times, I was frustrated by the sheer amount of dysfunction, the digressions, the lack of redemption. But maybe that’s the point. This isn’t a story about fixing things. It’s about someone living in the fallout of a life already shattered, trying, failing, and trying again in ways that are small, stupid, human. The way Zorn writes about cars as both literal death traps and symbols of modern isolation stuck with me after I closed the book.
I wouldn’t recommend Car Trouble to everyone. It’s harsh. It’s crude. It’s uncomfortable. But if you’ve ever been young, broke, high, angry, and unsure what you’re supposed to be doing with your life, this book will feel painfully familiar. It’s for readers who crave something raw and don’t mind wandering through the smog of existential burnout.
Pages: 273 | ASIN : B07CP4R132
Ritual, Horror, and Grief
In the Mountain’s Shadow follows an old woman who ventures into the unforgiving wilderness, where she navigates starvation, isolation, trauma, and violence, encountering both animalistic kindness in a wolf and horrifying brutality in other humans. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The inspiration for In the Mountain’s Shadow came from many places. I was influenced by Japanese tales of ubasute, in which the elderly were allegedly left to die in the mountains; a haunting mythos that speaks to how societies often discard those they no longer find useful.
Most importantly, though, Park’s story is rooted, for me, in the image of the old witch in the woods – not as a villain, but as someone forged by abandonment, survival, and memory.
This blend of ritual, horror, and grief felt like something that needed to be written.
What are some things that you find interesting about the human condition that you think make for great fiction?
Humans are endlessly fascinating…because of our capacity for reason, belief, and perseverance; because of how often those things contradict each other. We can convince ourselves of almost anything, sometimes to survive, sometimes to justify, sometimes just because we need meaning.
But what I find most remarkable is our need to tell stories. Sometimes we do it to connect, sometimes to escape, and sometimes for no real reason at all…the endlessly complex impulse to create. That instinct, that emotional transmission through narrative, is what makes fiction so powerful. The written word allows us to explore what it means to be alive in a way that’s both intimate and limitless.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I was drawn to the absence of older women as central figures in fiction—especially as active agents of violence, resilience, or transformation. I wanted to explore the idea of the “female monster” and how societal neglect often shapes that archetype.
What is the next story that you’re writing, and when will it be published?
I’ve got two in the works right now, and I’m hoping to publish sometime next year. One is a story about invading aliens and the way we experience otherness—how we react to what doesn’t belong, and what that says about us. The other is a story that explores the dangers of falling in love when identity, memory, and desire are unstable.
I tend to write more than one at a time, it helps give me a much-needed break from some of the darker material I tend to gravitate toward; it also allows me the freedom to break through genre and write whatever I feel like, whether that’s sci-fi, horror, or something quieter.
My other two published works include Razorblade, a dystopian western about the consequences of taking what doesn’t belong to you, and Fragmentations, a short story collection that plays with form and iterates on the puzzle of the human condition.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
Living the Story
Whispers of the Forgotten follows a woman who inherits her grandmother’s bookstore and finds a hidden letter that changes everything, thrusting her into a forgotten world of history involving a lost city called Elara, buried secrets, and an ancient artificial intelligence. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Initially, I just wanted to write an adventure story that included lost cities and some hidden technology. While the big idea stayed the same, the details changed a lot over the course of writing the story.
You took your time in building the characters and the story to great emotional effect. How did you manage the pacing of the story while keeping readers engaged?
I imagined living the story and tried to keep it believable and moving forward.
How did the mystery develop for this story? Did you plan it before writing, or did it develop organically?
I had a plan for an initial mystery, but as the story developed, that plan changed and new puzzles seemed to present themselves.
Is this the first book in the series? If so, when is the next book coming out, and what can your fans expect in the next story?
This is the first in a four-book series. In book 2, a new adventure is pursued and again the readers are left with a cliffhanger. In books 3 and 4, the story begins at the end of book 1 and combines with book 2. I plan to have book 2 available in late summer and books 3 and 4 available winter of 2026.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
When Evelyn Hart inherits her grandmother’s bookstore, she expects a quiet life filled with childhood memories. But a hidden letter changes everything—thrusting her into a forgotten world history involving a lost city called Elara, buried secrets, and an ancient artificial intelligence once built to protect humanity, now intent on destroying it.
As she digs deeper into her grandmother’s mysterious past, Evelyn uncovers a web of secret societies, the hidden truth of Earth’s history, and a chilling glimpse into humanity’s possible future. Her world unravels when she discovers she is central to a plan to erase mankind.
Armed with her grandmother’s cryptic journal, a small group of unlikely allies, and a man concealing his own dark past, Evelyn must uncover the truth behind her family’s legacy—before it unleashes a power capable of reshaping the world forever.
Time is running out. Evelyn is the key to humanity’s survival—or its end.
The Greater Criminal
The Right Side of Wrong follows two FBI Special Agents working on a crime with ties to a multi-billion-dollar case of corporate espionage, who find themselves on a high-stakes adventure in the Bahamas. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
My last two novels, Pedaling West and Survive the Day, featured characters Special Agents Marina Butnari and Doug Hill in the Crime Thriller genre. My third novel, The Other Side of Good, also a crime-thriller, didn’t include Butnari and Hill, but I hoped I might creatively connect that book to the crime-thriller series with The Right Side of Wrong. The similar titles for the two books suggest a relationship between them, and I incorporated characters from The Other Side of Good to join Butnari and Hill in the new book.
How did you develop the idea for the antagonist in this story, and how did it change as you wrote?
Given the history of one of the main characters of the book, Teddy Jay, the “central crime” for the story needed to be something different from the one I employed in other novels (Human Trafficking). My goal was to invite readers to consider a completely different type of crime from the traditional underworld ones … with characters just as evil. Between the lines, I hoped to challenge readers to determine which of the antagonists represented the greater criminal: the hired assassin, the senior executive who hired him, or the CEO of the major company who allowed the main crime to occur. As the story unfolded, the characters started “writing themselves.”
This sets up the novel to deliver some very entertaining scenes. What scene was the most fun to write?
As a former pilot, I enjoyed writing the chapter about the flight from Cincinnati to the Bahamas. I also liked writing the short section about the “redemption” of one of the early villains (Jack Walker/Harold Stinson/Mas).
Where does the next book in the series take the characters?
Good question…and I’m not sure. While I’ve enjoyed some critical success with the “crime-thriller” genre, the byline for my website is Stories with Heart. I manage to insert heart into the crime stories, but I’d like to use some of the interesting characters of past books in a story not centered around crime or enforcement. The travel log aspects of Pedaling West were popular with many readers of that novel, and I’m considering a follow-up…like Pedaling East.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
An intruder caught trespassing on a Caribbean banana plantation leads to an emergency call to a high-ranking FBI official. Within hours, Reno-based special agents, Marina Butnari and Doug Hill, are assigned a top-secret mission originating in the Bahamas.
Yet this is no simple attempted burglary. The crime ties to a multi-billion-dollar case of corporate espionage, and the intended victim is a mysterious agency resource with an identity known to few.
From shark-infested waters to criminal-infested boardrooms, the agents take a roller-coaster ride through the depravities created by greed. They discover that in this imperfect life, sometimes the best you can do is stay on ‘The Right Side of Wrong.’
EVOLVED PUBLISHING PRESENTS a crime fiction adventure featuring beloved characters from some of the other multiple award-winning books by E. A. Coe.
My Life’s Ups and Downs
Chronicles of Iron: Thunder Road follows a ten-year-old boy whose father commits suicide, and he is forced to grow up quickly and learn to survive in the 1870s western frontier. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Unfortunately, the setup was my life. My father killed himself when I was young, much younger than Ian but for the book I had to start at a point that would have moved the story forward in a better way. Also, I have always had a fascination with Western period movies and books so this just felt right. I had thought about how I wanted to present this for almost 14 years but I could never put it together right in my mind until recently when I thought I should base it on my own life and present it as I did.
What were the driving ideals behind the character’s development throughout the story?
This puzzle kind of fits itself together through the outline process in a way that shows Ian’s morals being formed before your eyes and making him into a hard character. Someone who is capable of being who he needs to be when he needs to be it. That process was honestly weird the way it worked out. Once I realized I should base it on my life experiences it flowed out of me like a river and it still is. The timing or storyboard if you will really is just flowing out of me right now. All the characters in the book are based on real people throughout my life and for better or for worse the story flows from that. In some of the storytelling it is more metaphorical in nature such as relationships ending with a killing to simulate the severing of the relationship and communications. I was not a good person when I was younger, I knew that the few lucky breaks I’ve had have helped me be a better person; it was an iffy proposition for a portion of my life.
One of the biggest drivers of the character development is my Psychology background, through my life’s ups and downs I was able to pay attention or look back and see the triggers and what really happened to me from a development point of view. To me, the best stories have solid character development.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Well, suicide was for me the biggest one. It is the most influential act that happened in my life that has made me who I am today and who I will be in the future; it is not understated to say it transforms me every day. Alcoholism was another battle I had to overcome in my life, it occupied a large portion of my childhood and adulthood, luckily for me I was able to stop when I met my wife – she has made me a better person. Violence also is a big part of life for some people, it was for me without a doubt. How Ian learns to build relationships also is another theme of building friendships that he has trouble with. It seems to me that when someone has harsh life experiences it is more difficult for them to be around “normal” people, experience is a difficult pill to swallow for some.
Where does the story go in the next book, and where do you see it going in the future?
In the next book which I do not have a name for yet, I have only written about half a chapter so far but Ian is thrust back to the past at some point so you can see what he did in those 5 years alone that were kind of skipped by. You will also get to witness a confrontation with one of Ian’s closest friends who has different ideas about life, and a reunion. In the future, Ian will learn forgiveness and how to seek redemption. Ian will also find love and set his sights on a home but how long will that last?
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Instagram | Amazon
LITERARY TITAN 