Blog Archives
A Strategy For Personal Awakening
Holy Parrot follows three people who form an unlikely friendship and bond while struggling with their own beliefs and dark secrets. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
The disparity of personalities creates a multi-perspective insight into a challenging set of events. The value is to show that, for any given moment, the viewer is part of the event in a way that is specific to their personal circumstance. Maria is a teen who says she is to be the mother of the new Christ. Leo is a science student who has unilateral faith in reductionist logic. Robin is a mythologist who looks for the value of collective belief in any given circumstance. Everyone is a master of their own perspective. We expand our potential for wisdom as we explore to understand events from multiple perspectives.
What were the morals you were trying to capture while creating your characters?
The morals are actually stated in the novel (spoiler alert). Love, light and life are stated to be a foundation of existence as expressed through conscious attention to the behaviours of compassion, creativity and connection. The narrative offers a strategy for personal awakening through precise moral behaviour conducted with authentic sincerity.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
There are a number of layers integrated into the story. Perhaps one to mention is that the main characters are all seeking to transcend or deal with unique personal suffering in their own way. Their support of each other is a key to the effective resolution of the challenges faced.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
The next book is called Bring Me To Life. I like to think of it as a Gothic Romance. It is a graphic novel about a (kind of) ghost who becomes inexplicably enamoured with a special woman. So much so that he seeks to return to life for her. The story is complete and the illustrations are in the process of development. I’m not sure how long that will take. Sorry…
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Was Maria lying to hide a despicable secret? Or was she birthing the leader of the new millennium? Phenomenal events unfolded as millions united, chanting one phrase – ‘Loro Santo’: Holy Parrot.
Jumping In And Out Of Reality
Freeze Frame follows a teen with PTSD who struggles to separate film and reality at times as he works through his trauma and makes new friends. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
“When quarantine started, I was living in a room with no windows. It definitely psyched me out at times, not knowing if it was light or dark, rainy or sunny. The mind can sort of wander in a place like that. I remember having these vivid daydreams after a while, and after one of them, it took me a minute or two to figure out if the daydream had actually happened. That’s when this image appeared of a boy who was constantly jumping in and out of reality. I had spent a lot of time working at a Free Mental Health Clinic in medical school, and that paired with my own mental health battles helped shape the boy’s story. Almost instantly, I knew I wanted to tell a story about a vulnerable boy overcoming trauma while highlighting key issues of youth mental illness today (social media, peer pressures, anxiety/depression).”
Will wants to be like the other teens at his high school but knows he is different and struggles to battle his mental illness while moving forward. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
“Certainly Will’s battle between passion and personal guilt drives the story and his development as a young man. When the thing that makes you happy is the same thing that’s tied to your worst memory…it can weigh heavily on your mind and how you move from the past. Ultimately, I chose to make the Coreless his saving grace because I believe it can take a village to help someone work on their own mental health. We may not be able to directly heal others who are struggling, but we can certainly offer support and love to help them get to where they wish to be. As a society, we’ve made incredible strides at de-stigmatizing mental illness, but we still have a ways to go. People often feel they must carry their burdens on their own, and my hope was through Will readers might feel more open to sharing their struggles and leaning on others for help.”
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
“In my opinion, children are the most vulnerable members of our society, a society by the way that runs at a sprint driven by social media. Children are surrounded by social pressures very few of us can even fathom. And I really don’t mean to say social media is bad. In fact, when used properly, I think it has the power to be our saving grace. But anything powerful can be destructive. I think sometimes we don’t think about just how much power a child with a phone wields, and neither do they. We don’t just need to teach children how to use these tools responsibly, but there needs to be better guidance behind the tools themselves to protect kids. Like I said, the tools aren’t bad inherently. A hammer isn’t bad. It can build a house. But it can also end a life. So that’s where the antagonist was born to combat these counterculture kids. I thought it would be really fascinating for a group of kids with today’s technology and interests to choose to make a movie in a more classic fashion. Setting their work as a competition against social media platformers just made the story more intriguing. It definitely gets meta at times, with a filmmaker losing his grip on reality and seeing films play out before his eyes. But writing the story from Will’s perspective in that way really allowed me to highlight how everyone lives out their own trauma in a unique way, and hopefully readers will see that.”
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
“I am currently working on a new children’s series that is sort of a “Magic Tree House” meets “Medicine.” More to come on this later, but each book will focus on a new bacteria or virus the way Magic Tree House focused on a new time period for each story. I’ve currently written a good portion of Book 1 with a few others outlined. It may take some time until it is available as I am finishing up medical school at the moment, but I hope for the first book to drop in the next year or two.”
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A troubled boy. A mysterious past. An ever-changing reality.
Will Horner leaves his former high school behind for a fresh start. Soon, he will find the past repeats itself. Will begins his junior year at Pinehurst Academy, a neighboring Arts School. As an introverted, avid filmmaker, it seems like the perfect fit. However, Will hasn’t made any films since the incident. Instead, he’s been living them. His world is not always what others see. When his emotions take over, Will’s reality runs in danger of suddenly shifting. When he becomes too nervous, too excited, or too scared, the world before him transforms into a new reality, a real-life film. His father forced Will to stop making movies altogether, believing them to only bring on the episodes. When a new group of friends recruits Will for a major movie project for a grand prize, Will must decide if the film is worth the risk. With the help of his new friends, he will push the boundaries of his reality and try to move on from the horrors of his past. Can he escape his past before it’s too late?
Freeze Frame explores the mind of a troubled teen filmmaker who is plagued with the horrors of his tragic past. Jump into the mind of a shy Will Horner as he meets a new group of friends who bring him into the fold. Together, the group will butt heads against the Content Crew, a group of social influencers in the school led by the notorious Rodrigo Silva, creator of a widely popular YouTube channel. The two groups will battle to win Pinehurst’s Arts Night and the attention of creators nationally.
From the first page, let life become a movie and dive into Tyler Beauchamp’s debut novel, Freeze Frame!
Kona
Melanie Parker is a 16-year-old girl who has ambitious hopes and dreams of working with and rehabilitating sea creatures, yet is tied down by her experience battling childhood cancer. Still, her love of the ocean and sea animals lands her a job at the aquarium where her mom works. Here, she meets and makes lifelong friends, including Chase, the handsome boy she takes a liking to fairly quickly, and Kona, the sweet, isolated dolphin that she forms a bond with almost immediately.
Kona is a beautiful coming-of-age story written by Erik Daniel Shien and Melissa Davis that explores love, loss, and what it means to never give up no matter what life throws your way. Shien and Davis do a wonderful job of creating a story that is both heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. It’s the type of story that readers of all ages can sit down and enjoy. It teaches about the importance of wildlife and shows what it means to be both selfless and someone who cares about the environment.
Between the stress and tension readers feel alongside Melanie due to the fear of her cancer potentially returning, and the beautiful prose, it’s a page turner that leaves readers hanging on every word. The relationships between Melanie and every character that readers encounter are beyond skin-deep and are a joy to follow; especially the bond that she’s formed with Kona. She finds herself connected to Kona through the overlapping struggles that they both face with their health situations and they become each other’s support.
Kona is an emotionally-resonant and uplifting story with the same emotional depth as John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, although not as tragic. Not only is it a sweet story that teaches important lessons, but the book also has a well-defined and inspiring narrative that makes this an enjoyable romance novel overall.
Pages: 294 | ASIN: B08DVG814X
‘Well, they’re witches, of course!’
Immortal Treasures follows a young girl with magical powers who wants nothing to do with them, till she discovers she is the one the vampires have been waiting for. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
The story started with the idea of the resurrection key, but then while discussing the concept with another author, Dorian Keys, he made a very valid point. ‘How will they know how to use this key?’
‘Well, they’re witches, of course!’
But that was not an answer that would suffice. So, I returned to him a few days later with the idea of the Timekeeper Journal, and that was when Immortal Treasures really began to form.
Olivia just wants to be a normal girl despite her family’s background with magic. Overcoming her fears, she finds inner strength and a new purpose in life. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Even though Olivia was afraid of the magic seeping through the journal, she was inevitably drawn to it and eventually drawn into it. This left her no choice but to experience the lives of the Laurent vampires and a type of magic she could never have imagined. Though she was initially reluctant, the journal entries, her grandmother’s persistence, the comfort of her cat, Cassian Laurent’s presence and, of course, the need to preserve humanity all gave her the drive she needed to break out of her shell.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
While writing Immortal Treasures, I researched the London, England area, took a brief course on medieval times and learned about the black plague or blue sickness as they had called it. I also had to explore herbs and witchcraft. Not that I didn’t create a few things along the way, but I still wanted to keep the story grounded.
Will there be a follow-up novel to this story? If so, what aspects of the story will the next book cover?
There is always a possibility for a follow-up. If enough readers are interested in the story continuing, then I will have no choice but to answer.
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When Clara Redfearn—a retired high priestess of the Eternal Flame Coven— purchases the contents of the old Stepney Castle, she has no idea what they will find. Though given the Castle’s history, being occupied by the original Vampire Sovereign, Julien Laurent, and his family, the items should draw a curious crowd to her new antique store—Immortal Treasures.
Sorting through a box of vampire artifacts, Olivia Parker —Clara’s granddaughter— unknowingly discovers an ancient Timekeeper Journal. While she is frightened by its magical pull, there’s a part of her that can’t seem to put it down.
As she cracks the spine on the ancient leather-bound tome and begins to read the first exquisitely written inscription —Julien Laurent ~ SOV— every vampire named within its pages suddenly stops. Until today, time has been frozen within the cover while it waits patiently for its chosen interpreter— Olivia.
They’ve been waiting more than a century for her. The one witch who can unlock the secrets inside the journal and the only witch capable of activating the resurrection key.
What the vampires don’t know yet is that Olivia Parker may possess the power, but she has no idea how to use it, nor does she care to learn.
Screaming But Unheard
Smuggled follows a teen girl that is abducted into child slavery and the efforts of her friend to find her and bring her back to safety. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
As an adolescent psychologist I have heard and seen all manner of child exploitation, abuse, trafficking, really all sorts of suffering of kids as modern-day slaves.
But nothing could have prepared me for the day this teen boy opened up and told me how his day starts at 4 AM in the morning, to clean up this big house, prepare breakfast for the whole family and get the younger children ready for school. I held back tears as I paid attention to every word and expression on his gaunt face. I kept my facial expression, focused, brave and impartial. One thing I have learnt whilst working with teenagers is, if you want to hear their whole heart and story, don’t frighten them by reacting just listen and be interested otherwise they stop sharing.
The boy was tall and slim. As he told me this story he sometimes sat on the chair and other times he walked about in the room. When he was silent, his eyes always appeared to be in deep thought yet blank. He said he had come from Germany and was living with this “sort of auntie”. Right there was my cue. I knew this was a case of child exploitation and modern-day slavery.
I encouraged him to report to the Safeguarding office at the college and took him there.
The next day, the kid never came back.
For the next month, I experienced Post Traumatic Signs. As I drove to work, I would look out hoping to spot him. I stopped at any kid who looked anything close to him. I was gripped with guilt and regret. Why didn’t I take him straight to the police station, or some safe shelter. This haunted me on and on until one day I said ENOUGH!
I have to write about what our teens are experiencing because every time I’m quiet and don’t bring this to the masses, a kid next door is suffering in silence….screaming but unheard. And that when I started writing the book SMUGGLED.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The signs of teen trafficking and why we as a society must have the wisdom to spot and the courage to stop.
The powerful role of teen peers in identifying and reporting these occurrences.
How teen trafficking affects all of us as a society.
What is one thing about child trafficking that you think is misrepresented in the media?
Children who have been trafficked are usually portrayed as dirty looking, unkempt, unlearned slaves trapped in houses. Most of the time, these are children living amongst our own children in schools and colleges or in other settings where we visit on a daily basis. They are bright kids who have hopes and aspirations. Kids who have been deceived or coerced with the promise of a better life that obviously turns out nasty.
Traffickers and slave masters are shown as bad aggressive people. But on the contrary to this media image, traffickers are very often regular neighbours, co-workers, business people, notable professions, even religious leaders walking with heads held high yet have skeletons in the closet, they are benefiting from exploiting kids, modern day slavery.
The worst bit is how many of us are part of it ignorantly. For example, when your cleaner is from an agency that exploits people you become part of it. When you take your car to the cheapest car wash in town run by rogue exploiters, and you have these young people swarming to clean. When your handy person sends a young lad to do your work. Most of us never ask questions even when we feel iffy.
For example, there’s this case at this salon where I frequented. The young girl at the time must have been the age of my own teen kid. Yet she was working in this salon on a school day, standing all day. I was there for hours, and I did not see that kid take a break. Needless to say I reported it because I’d rather err on the side of caution. My instincts were right. The kid was soon interviewed and taken into care – she was obviously a minor.
Here’s the uncanny thing, the community ostracised me for reporting and “ruining the kid’s prospects” This is the kind of thinking that is surely skewed I tell you.
It does take Wisdom to SPOT and courage to STOP. Because without reporting it can not be stopped and this takes a willingness to be derided even by your own neighbours.
What is one thing that you hope readers take away from Smuggled?
Child trafficking is all around us and it’s more common than we think. We all can do something to spot & stop it – if we are willing.
That’s why together with the book we offer a free workshop Wisdom to SPOT & Courage to STOP.
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Tuliana was 14 and had lived in her home country of Kenya with different people, in different places, at different times, for as long as she could remember. Then, out of the blue, she was ushered onto a plane with a group of teenagers and flown out of Kenya.
At a London airport she was separated from the group and whisked off in a car. Her experiences after this were creepy: she didn’t know where she was, or why.
Firstly, she was delivered to a home where she was grossly mistreated. Then to another where she wasn’t treated badly but she definitely didn’t belong. Finally, to another where she was treated really well – yet enslaved. In all those homes she was a slave – a modern day child slave.
Tuliana’s teen friend, Jonathan, whom she met on the plane during this Talent Trip was painfully worried. On returning to Kenya, Jonathan went to extremes to try find her – literally sacrificed his privileged life as a son of a British diplomat. He was thrown out of his family and the country and shipped back to live with his paternal grandparents in England.
Being kicked out only increased his motivation and efforts to find Tuliana. Jonathan mobilised teenagers from all over the world to join his “Operation Find Tuliana” campaign. The campaign picked momentum fast and began unsettling government systems. Teenagers were asking deep penetrating questions, demonstrating and disrupting status quo and stirred world leaders to STOP and LISTEN as teenagers demanded for ACTION not just TALK.
This campaign ignited bravery and vigilance among regular citizens who raised concerns and reported suspicious cases which led to the discovery of numerous children who were being exploited and abused up and down the country. Some children were living as full-fledged slaves, others as part times slaves – all, modern-day child slaves.
Tuliana was also unearthed having been illegally adopted in a supposedly “good family” but nevertheless a slave- the Cash cow for this family’s business.
If you are looking for psychological thriller packed full of suspense and tension that tackles the social issue of child trafficking, modern-day child slavery and abuse, told in the language of teenagers who have been victims of trafficking and those observing but can no longer stand and do nothing, then SMUGGLED is the book you want to read, plus buy one for your teen and your local library.
What’s even better is that, with this book; SMUGGLED you get a FREE TICKET to our Workshop – WISDOM to SPOT, COURAGE to STOP. (Worth over £667 BUT free for YOU with this book.)
Other Magical Dreams…
The Warlock’s Curse follows teenage twin sisters who end up in a mysterious realm where they experience adventures and discover a world they didn’t know existed. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
My debut novel all began as a dream… I sailed a white ship on a pristine sea of whispering turquoise waves. The inhabitants of this alien watery world, mystical whales, surrounded my vessel, their eerie voices lifted in song. In my book, this became the magical whales that can open interdimensional portals…to their very birthplace, the realm of Oceana.
That and just experiencing life. I never would have guessed that walking around the beautiful New England seacoast, seeing all those old houses on their flower-lined streets, would inspire me to write about the fictional New England town of Coldport…and Seacrest, the creepy Victorian mansion in my book.
Then, there were other magical dreams…
Angelica and Clara Grace may be twins but have different personalities and approaches to the situations they encounter. What were some driving ideals behind your characters’ development?
I am fascinated by twins and the fact that they may have differing temperaments and personalities. I thought this could add a lot of tension to the story. The Warlock’s Curse began with a dream in which I sailed a white ship on a pristine sea full of singing whales. In the dream, one of my best girl friends was on the ship with me. Although we are not twins, we are surely sisters of different mothers. I can be strong and brave, she is fearful of the unknown, yet smart. The twin sisters were molded from our personalities.
I love the heroine’s journey. I wanted both girls to grow and change from their experiences to the point that there would be no going back to their old selves. I especially wanted Clara, the timid and fearful twin, to come into her own in the end.
Finally, I wanted the characters to be likeable, even loveable…to the point that the reader would feel themselves in the story, walking the twins’ entire journey alongside them.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I really love the theme of the hero/heroine’s courageous journey. Facing adversaries such as the evil warlock, enables the twin sisters to mature into confident leaders and changes them, forever.
I also wanted to explore themes of good verses evil, which culminates in an epic battle near the end of the book.
I delved into themes of love as well: love of family, sisterly love, love between friends, and love of nature. One of my favorite characters in The Warlock’s Curse, is a golden creature of light, joy, and love. This magical being, known as The Bliss, takes only what he needs and always gives back. His message about loving and living in harmony with the natural world is very relevant, considering the perils that our planet’s numerous lifeforms presently face. I hope readers, both young and old, will heed his call.
Finally, I looked at themes of revenge. A great wrong has been committed against the Grace family. Though the twins don’t know where the road leads, helped by their distant grandfather and other friends, they will not stop until things are set right.
There are many themes in my story…expect a lot of conflict.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I am currently writing a book about a woman who is deeply spiritual. She seeks enlightenment and meditates a lot. This may sound boring, but she has a troublesome, yet beloved friend, a Scottie dog named Jetsun: a dog who knows himself and what he wants, a dog who is way above mundane human consciousness, a dog who is enlightened. The book will be about the lessons of love she learns with this troublesome dog. Hopefully, it will be available in two years. Like a tortoise… I am slow. So, perhaps make it three…
After that, there may be a sequel to The Warlock’s Curse. One of my last words in The Warlock’s Curse is “Perhaps,” so I could, perhaps, let myself off the hook.
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Everything turns topsy-turvy all of a sudden when discovery of an ancestor’s hidden journal with an odd key to an unknown door leads them into an entirely different realm.
The girls go on a thrilling oceanic voyage to search for mysterious whales, train with a seasoned warrior, and are befriended by a wise Master. But all is not a bouquet of lovely lilies…they are hunted by a cunning warlock and must rid themselves of The Warlock’s Curse.
LITERARY TITAN 