Synopsis:
How well do you really know the people you encounter every day? Award-winning author Robert Steven Goldstein’s gripping psychological thriller “Golda’s Hutch” (March 11, 2025, Deft Heft Books) explores what we hide from the world versus what we reveal, the lengths we’ll go to keep our secrets buried—and the unpredictable steps we take when our innermost lives are threatened.
Craig Schumacher is not your typical executive. With a gentle spirit and a morning ritual that includes serene meditation alongside his cherished rabbit, Golda, Craig values connection over competition. Yet, beneath his calm, polished exterior lies a secret he’s worked hard to keep hidden—one that could change everything.
Enter Byron Dorn—Craig’s employee and chaos incarnate. Crude, impulsive, and driven by envy, Byron is elated when he and his wife stumble upon information that he believes could unravel Craig’s life. But when Byron ropes another couple into his schemes, things become a lot more complicated.
Because Craig isn’t the only one with a secret. And as the stakes rise, everyone will have to decide what they’re willing to sacrifice to get what they want—and when they’re willing to walk away.
Set against the dynamic backdrop of San Francisco, this gripping psychological novel weaves a complex tapestry of deception, envy, desire, politics, and power.
“A scintillating take on marital and workplace dramas with compelling characters and devilish surprises…Goldstein’s precise, elegant prose cleverly takes its time revealing his characters’ secret desires, building suspense for fun to come…when readers are alone with each character’s thoughts, the author serves up something delicious.” —Kirkus Reviews
“All the ways we hide our secrets from each other—and from ourselves—are on display in Robert Steven Goldstein’s latest and extremely entertaining novel, Golda’s Hutch. Moving between America’s cutthroat corporate boardrooms to kink-play in San Francisco’s BDSM world to mysticism as embodied by a titular, yoga-practicing rabbit, this delicate balancing act reveals, layer by layer, a thrilling and thought-provoking exploration of human nature and the boundaries of self-discovery. Goldstein’s prose elegantly entwines psychological tension, dark humor, and an unapologetically raw examination of human desires to create an unforgettable reading experience. For fans of psychological drama and literary fiction, Golda’s Hutch is an intelligent, compelling, and at times humorous narrative that is both thought-provoking and insightful. Highly recommended.” —Madeleine Ivy, author of The Witchhammer
“Set in San Francisco, Golda’s Hutch explores the world of corporate machinations through the eyes of Craig Schumacher—an executive who puts the feelings of his employees over cold calculation and the hard-ass bottom line. Craig is also negotiating the risky shoals of his marriage to Shoshana, a professional dominatrix—while he desperately seeks a way to rechannel his penchant for sexual submission into a more sustainable lifestyle. Featuring a host of unique and well-developed characters, Golda’s Hutch gives the reader an eye-opening peek into a wide range of subjects, from the virtues of daily morning yoga practice and vegetarianism (replete with an impressive array of menu items) to the finer points of mortuary science and, of course, BDSM. A riveting page-turner that goes with white meat, red meat, or no meat at all.”
—Tom Szollosi, screenwriter for Star Trek: Voyager, Three O’Clock High, and The Incredible Hulk; author of the books The Space He Filled and The Last Master Outlaw; and professor of screenwriting at Loyola Marymount University.
Robert is the author of five novels. His first, The Swami Deheftner, about problems that ensue when ancient magic and mysticism manifest in the twenty-first century, developed a small cult following in India. His second novel, Enemy Queen, a sexual comedy of manners set in a North Carolina college town, was a finalist in the category of cross genre fiction for the International Book Awards. Robert’s third novel, Cat’s Whisker, probes the perceived rift between science and spirituality; it was longlisted for the prestigious Chanticleer International 2021 SOMERSET Book Award for Literary and Contemporary Fiction. His fourth novel, Will’s Surreal Period, about the peripatetic machinations of a dysfunctional family, was longlisted for the Chanticleer International 2022 SOMERSET Book Award for Literary and Contemporary Fiction.
Golda’s Hutch is Robert’s fifth novel. He and his wife Sandy live in San Francisco; over their thirty-six years together, they’ve shared their home with an array of dogs, cats, rabbits, turtles, and parrots, each of whom has displayed a unique personality, startling intelligence, and a profound capacity for love. Robert has practiced yoga, meditation, and vegetarianism for over fifty years. Find out more about him at his website.
Four women, each with a secret. None will return from the North Country unchanged.
North Country takes place in the year 2372, a time when Earth is recovering from floods, fires, pandemics, and war. Amidst this post-apocalyptic world, the pirate nation of Bosch is thriving—but not without its complications. The focus is on four fierce women who must navigate their way through both external dangers and their own personal demons.
Master Commander Kat Wallace, haunted by a past filled with violence, takes on a dangerous mission to the North Country in search of peace.
Carisa Morton, struggling with her failing body and independence slipping away, embarks on one last adventure before it’s too late.
Sergeant Flossie Porter hides a hidden family fortune and a deep infatuation with her commanding officer, putting everything on the line for the chance to be by her side.
Master Sergeant Diamond Miata, driven by ambition and beauty, will stop at nothing to advance her own agenda—even if it means testing her loyalty in the process.
As they trek through the barren land, each woman faces betrayal, desire, and the harsh truths of their own hearts. North Country is an exploration of strength, vulnerability, and the bonds that form between women in even the toughest circumstances.
There are many books out there about adventure. What makes yours different?
The characters. Kat Wallace is an amazing character, she is a strong woman to be sure, but she is also a bit of a mess. She screws up, makes mistakes and fails. Then she picks herself up and tries again. Her inner voice resonates with readers who find her relatable. And she’s also a pirate, and who doesn’t love pirates?
What genre do you write and why?
This is a great question, because it should be an easy answer, but for me it is not. I really had no idea the genre until my editor for my debut novel said, “Sarah, it’s set in the future–it’s science fiction.” I tried to convince him that perhaps it was historical fiction that just hadn’t happened yet, but he was having none of my shenanigans. Then I found the Women’s Fiction Writers Association and read that women’s fiction is characterized by the emotional journey of the main character. “Aha, I must write women’s fiction then!” Which I do, sorta. Honestly, it was not until North Country was published that I found a descriptor that could encompass all the aspects of my stories. I write feminist speculative fiction.
How did you do research for your book?
It depends on the book! For my series, I took up boxing to understand the nuances of fights; I took shooting lessons, and I learned (via computer simulation) how to fly a plane. For my YA book, Unfurling the Sails, I learned how to sail. For North Country, I explored Norse mythology as well as the Inuit culture in Greenland. I connected with two dear people that deal with MS on a daily basis to get their perspective. And I kept a daylight calendar up to refer to so I’d know if my characters would be functioning in the dark.
Which was the hardest character to write? The easiest?
I think Diamond was the most difficult character to write, because I knew her the least. In fact, she got a heavy re-write that expanded and deepened her character after I had reached the “all done” stage. It made her far more complex and far more interesting. Kat certainly is the easiest to write because I know her so intimately after seven books.
If your book were made into a movie, what songs would be on the soundtrack?
“Girl from the North Country” by Bob Dylan
“It’s Not Over Yet” by King & Country
“Mean” and “Mine” by Taylor Swift
“Real Friends” by Camila Cabello
“All Your Lies” by Dean Lewis
“Cold Rain and Snow” Grateful Dead
There are three New Earth projects simmering currently: another Kat Wallace adventure, a second YA Grey Shima adventure, and a second middle grade adventure featuring the boys, Kik & Mac.
Do you have another profession besides writing?
For thirty years I worked as a nurse-midwife in all the venues. I also spent time as a middle and high school teacher, both in the US and overseas.
Who is the author you most admire in your genre?
So many: Butler, LeGuin, L’Engle, Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury, Taylor, Weir, Jemisin, Mandel. My father loved science fiction, so he introduced me to so many of the foundational authors in science fiction, and I think they stayed with me. My mother was feminist before feminist was a thing. So it is no surprise I became a feminist speculative fiction author.
What song is currently playing on a loop in your head?
“Take Me to Church” by Hozier
What is the oldest item of clothing you own?
The Dead Fish skirt that was my mother’s when she was young. Lord knows I can’t fit into anymore, but I have it!
Tell us about your longest friendship.
While I have friends from high school I have reconnected with, I am pretty sure that distinction goes to my husband of almost forty-three years (known each other for 45). We met my freshman year of college and have been together ever since. He has been my best friend through all the highs and lows of life, and I can’t imagine a better partner.
Name a quirky thing you like to do.
I really, really like to hit the heavy bag. There’s something about it that is just the right combination of exercise and therapy.
Sarah Branson, an award-winning author, writes thrilling tales of action, adventure, and heart, often featuring strong female leads in sci-fi and dystopian settings. After nearly thirty years as a midwife, Sarah has channeled her experiences into stories about the strength of women in extraordinary circumstances. She believes that badass women will inherit the Earth—and that Earth will be better for it.
Honestly, authors in all stages of book publishing and promotion – and it’s actually really exciting (and sometimes surprising) to see who’s listening. We mostly get this info from our reviews and authors who write in with feedback. But we have authors who rely on our show while looking for agents and or publishers, authors who are finishing up their books and thinking ahead about releases, and then on the other end of the spectrum we have authors tuning in that feel stuck and don’t know what they’re doing wrong, or the opportunities they may be missing.
Is the show for marketing DIYers or for finding the right people to hire?
It’s applicable to both, and even authors that fall somewhere in between. Some authors seem to tune in assuming they’ll handle everything themselves, and then they realize they need more support, maybe in very specific areas. We get a lot of authors contacting us about a collaboration after listening to the show, but you’ll also see from our reviews that there are a lot of DIYers out there just looking to do all the right things.
What if I’m still writing my first book?
Take notes! There’s no such thing as being too prepared, and we’d encourage you to zero in on shows that are clearly about production choices, like editing, covers, publishing options, etc. And then the branding shows too, plan ahead for what your goals are as an author brand, because it will only lighten the load as you get closer to publishing that first book.
I’ve been publishing books for a while, can I still learn something?
Absolutely. We have plenty of shows for newbie authors, but things are constantly evolving in publishing and book marketing, and how to best connect with readers, that veteran authors need to stay on top of to ensure the upward momentum continues. We like to think our shows are also really great for authors who feel they’ve plateaued a bit and are looking for new ways to generate quality exposure.
How do you come up with ideas for the show?
We rely a lot on listener requests. We also pull a lot of ideas from the calls Penny does with prospective clients. And Amy likes to add in show topics based on the day-to-day challenges she knows AME clients are having. Publishing is complex, it’s very, very hard to know it all while also writing your next book, and working your everyday job, and giving much needed attention to family and friends, and other commitments, so we aim to be the insurance most authors need to check all the boxes along the way.
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Penny Sansevieri and Amy Cornell blend practical advice with deep industry insights, offering something for both new and experienced authors. Authors can expect honest guidance—no gimmicks, no pipe dreams—just straightforward strategies you can actually use. And because this industry can be tough, we keep it light with a bit of humor along the way. If you’re ready to level up your author career, we’ve got you covered, no detail left unaddressed.
Named Finalist in the American Fiction Awards 2024 (category Science Fiction: Cyberpunk), The Logoharp describes the extraordinary journey of a young American journalist who chooses to work as an AI-driven propagandist—aka “Reverse Journalist” who foresees and reports the future for 22nd century China. Naomi is surgically transplanted, giving her extraordinary powers of foresight and physical strength. She hears voices in her Logoharp, a universal translator of all world languages, allowing her to take the pulse of global crowds, predicting and broadcasting political and social events with deadly precision.
But Naomi also hears discordant voices coming from unidentified sources. She knows only that mysterious voices sing to her of other worlds, other freedoms. When she’s tasked with finding a flaw in a State system that balances births and deaths —a system devised by a Chinese architect, Naomi’s lover who abandoned her in youth—she experiences “unintentional contradiction.” Suppressed emotions resurface, compelling her to rebel. Her decision has unexpected consequences for the men and women she loves, for her own body, and for the global societies she’s vowed to protect.
The Logoharp
You can get The Logoharp: A Cyborg Novel of China and America in the Year 2121 at Amazon.
What genre do you write and why?
I guess I’m writing “literary” science fiction, but not the classic “alien invasion” or dystopic survivalist stuff. I write political and scientific extensions of our lives right now. Though I’m a great admirer of many classic science fiction writers—among them, Ray Bradbury, H.G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Liu Cixin, William Gibson, Ursula LeGuin, Nnedi Okorafor, and many others—generally I write, or extrapolate from current scientific and social trends and developments.
There are many books out there about dystopic futures. What makes yours different?
My novel is cross-cultural, scientific, and political. It deals with a verboten topic of family racism, the “disposal” of talent in middle and elder years, and severe media dysfunction on both sides of the Pacific.
In the novel, Naomi, despite her cyborg transformation, retains memories of her parents’ instructions about right and wrong. She attempts to find a grain of truth in a world where there is no objective reality and media becomes a blunt instrument of mass illusion. Her job is to entertain and quell rebellion in the masses. As Andrew Singer, a China expert, wrote in this review:
“The Logoharp is a story of love and horror. It is relatable and disturbing. The grave issues facing us now remain potent: AI, drugs (fentanyl), and climate catastrophe to name a few….these all converge as the novel slides down the ice.”
– Andrew Singer Talks about China.
How did you do research for your book?
In the last decades I’ve taught and reported from Beijing, Hong Kong, Taipei, Jatinangor (Indonesia) and Nairobi, studying the Chinese influence on media, human rights, and local economies. Before that, I wrote a doctorate on the impact of news photography, measuring how images affect the minds of readers and viewers. In all, I spent about 12 years researching material for this book.
Which was the hardest character to write? The easiest?
Naomi, The Logoharp’s main character, was the most challenging. In this story, she starts as a vulnerable American journalist and morphs into an AI-driven media propagandist (aka “Reverse Journalist”) for China who eventually rebels. Why would she do this? She lives in a severely weakened “Ameriguo” in the 22nd century. Betrayed by a young lover, she believes that “Mother Country” (China), the dominant global power, will ensure peace and a harmonious existence for a troubled planet. She chooses to become an elite Reverse Journalist (RJ), someone who doesn’t write about current events. Instead, she “reports the future.” Surgically transformed, she’s equipped with a “Logoharp,” a neural instrument that doubles the size of her brain, enabling her to hear government instructions but also mysterious voices from sources she can’t identify. This sets up a conflict. Her human conscience never leaves her…and then she discovers a terrible secret in Harbin, Manchuria.
The easiest character to write was Lang Fei (Chinese for “waste of space”), based on an old Chinese doctor friend. He’s eccentric, lovable, possibly a spy, who tries to help Naomi and her friend Miranda discover the truth about a broken system. But all these characters have complexities and changes of mind.
In your book you make a reference to Reverse Journalism. How did you come up with this idea?
Attempts in the past to make journalism an independent monitor of power, to adhere to facts, to get multiple sides of a story, have morphed over the last decades into an obsession with prediction, partisan agenda and “winner-loser” celebrity. You can argue that journalists, in the service of media bosses, “write the future” by cherry picking facts, leaving out others, and predicting outcomes that reinforce the powerful. It wasn’t much of an extrapolation for me to create an AI-driven journalist, Naomi, whose job for China is to report the future as though it has already happened—and then it does. RJs, in effect, do not report current events. They are co-authors and guides to political and social events that have not yet come to pass.
In your book you state, “…the connection between corrupt and inept is very strong.” Why is that?
Naomi is speaking in her own voice to two of her bosses who become torturers, Dean Cheung and Dakota Sung. Both exploit the corrupt and incompetent actors around them to hoodwink the public. As Naomi says, “You are trained to exploit any gap in knowledge among the masses, leveraging their ignorance to mask the incompetence of officials all around you…”
Do you have another profession besides writing?
I’ve been a Fulbright scholar and researcher teaching at universities and law schools in the U.S., China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Africa.
What is your next project?
A sequel to The Logoharp. Naomi’s son grows up to be a pilot and later graduates as a military psychologist, refuting every value his mother stands for. Until he crashes, survives, and discovers the power of The Gyroscope.
What is the last great book you’ve read?
A toss-up between Liu Cixin’s The Three Body Problem and Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain.
Which authors inspired you to write?
Joyce Carol Oates, Ernest Hemingway, E.B. White, Madeleine L’Engle, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Styron, Han Su Yin, Ray Bradbury, John Hersey, Emily Bronte, Jane Austen, James Baldwin, H.G. Wells.
Any hobbies? Name a quirky thing you like to do.
I play piano, swim, lift weights, hike, plant trees and speak Mandarin, French and bad Spanish wherever I can.
If there is one thing you want readers to remember about you, what would it be?
That The Logoharp was both memorable and scary. As critic Andrew Singer described it:
“Emmett’s most biting social critique is not of the bland, authoritarian system that prevails a century from now. Rather, it is reproval of the America of today that let itself go and collapsed to such a system. The siren call of this lament is strong.”
You can get The Logoharp: A Cyborg Novel of China and America in the Year 2121 at Amazon.
Arielle Emmett
Author Bio:
Arielle Emmett, Ph.D., is a writer, visual journalist and traveling scholar specializing in East Asia, science writing and human interest. She has been a Contributing Editor to Smithsonian Air & Space magazine and a Fulbright Scholar and Specialist in Kenya (2018-2019) and Indonesia (2015).
Her work has appeared in Mother Jones, The Scientist, Ms., Parents, Saturday Review, Boston Globe, Washington Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Detroit Free Press, Los Angeles Times Book Review and Globe & Mail (Canada), among others.
Arielle has taught at the International College Beijing, University of Hong Kong Media Studies Centre, Universitas Padjadjaran (West Java, Indonesia) and Strathmore University Law School (Nairobi). Her first science fiction novel, The Logoharp, about China and America a century from now, is part of a planned series on dystopian paths to utopian justice
“In Arielle Emmett’s fevered imaginings one great and ancient state is able to dominate the rest using an unbeatable secret weapon. Logoharps. Creatures able to see into the future, ensuring the state is always a step ahead. That is, until one rebels. Imagine Mona Lisa Overdrive meshed with The Wind-Up Girl. That’s the kind of sci-fi ride you’re in for with The Logoharp.”
– Kevin Sites, author of The Ocean Above Me
“The Logoharp offers a thought-provoking experience for those willing to confront unsettling truths. Some may find comfort in the familiar illusions of their own “Matrix,” while others may feel a revolutionary spark ignited within them. Ultimately, this novel serves as a mirror, reflecting each reader’s willingness to either accept the status quo or challenge it.”
– Literary Titan
“A hugely ambitious vision of a time in which America is a Chinese colony, almost anyone over 50 is sent off to die in a cozy ice-sled, and journalists are tasked with chronicling a future which then comes to pass. If you’re fascinated by technology and by glimpses of where we’ll be a hundred years from now, look to a new hero, Naomi. She’s the half-human cyborg reporter who believes in truth, foresees the future and, in desperation, rebels against it.”
–Beverly Gray (Executive Board Member, ASJA)
“In the world of The Logoharp, there is no security, not even an objective reality, only the reality created by journalism in reverse. Emmett’s’ novel creates a troubling vision of media that borders on propaganda in an AI-filled future.”
—Hamilton Bean, Ph.D., author of No More Secrets: Open Source Information and the Reshaping of US Intelligence (Praeger).
“Prepare to be swept away by an imperfect yet wildly relatable heroine. This ancient, futuristic world will make you angry, frustrated, hopeful, in love, and inspire an uprising within.”
—Grace Diida, L.L.M., Venture Capital Research
“Loved The Logoharp! It’s genuinely original, disturbing in a provocative way, occasionally funny and erotic, creative and well-paced — and I can’t get those ice sleighs out of my head! Naomi is one strange —and beguiling—heroine.”
—Laura Berman, feature writer, retired columnist, The Detroit News.
Elizabeth Tilton, a devout housewife, shares liberal ideals with her journalist husband, Theodore, and her pastor, Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, both influential reformers of the Reconstruction era. She is torn between admiration for her husband’s stand on women’s rights and resentment of his dominating ways. When Theodore justifies his extramarital affairs in terms of the “free love” doctrine that marriage should not restrict other genuine loves, she finds the courage to express her feelings for Reverend Beecher. The three partners in this triangle struggle with love, desire, jealousy, fear of public exposure, and legal battles. Once passion for her pastor undermines the moral certainties of her generation, Elizabeth enters uncharted territory. Telling the truth may cost her everything. Can a woman accustomed to following the lead of men find her own path and define her own truth?
Unruly Human Hearts
You can pre-order Unruly Human Hearts at Amazon. (January 28, 2025)
What drew you to become a professor of history?
My parents moved from New York to Hawaii when I was a teenager and I was fascinated with the multicultural society of the 50th state, including people of Hawaiian ancestry, descendants of white missionaries as well as people whose ancestors came from China or Japan to name only a few. When I entered the University of Hawaii, I was already very interested in Asian cultures, and the study of history seemed to be an ideal avenue to gaining an understanding of cultures so different from my own. I applied for an East-West Center scholarship for graduate work, which covered a year of research in India.
How did you end up teaching at the University of Puerto Rico?
My husband, who is an economist, was offered a job at the University of Puerto Rico. I had finished my course work at the University of Hawaii, but I was just starting to write my dissertation on the nationalist movement in India. After finishing my PhD, the Social Sciences Department at the University of Puerto Rico invited me to teach courses on Asia. Eventually I was offered a position as an Assistant Professor in the History Department.
Tell us more about your career as a historian and your work to highlight women’s struggles in both the United States and India.
At the University of Puerto Rico where I taught courses on both Asia and the United States with an emphasis on social history, it was a challenge to become fluent in Spanish and to interpret not only Asian culture but also American culture to my students. Although my dissertation was on the nationalist movement, my later research centered on the women’s movement in India. After receiving a Smithsonian Institute grant for research in India, I was able to complete my book on the struggle for women’s social and political rights in northeastern India titled The Women’s Movement and Colonial Politics in Bengal, 1921-1936. In addition to many academic articles on social themes in Indian history, I published a study of the impact of the gospel of love on the position of women in the United States as seen in the case of Elizabeth Tilton. I also wrote short stories exploring social conflicts set in India, the United States and Puerto Rico, mostly written from the perspectives of women and girls.
How did the views expressed by students in a graduate seminar you taught on the social history of the United States influence your decision to explore the Beecher-Tilton scandal more deeply?
At first my students didn’t seem interested in the famous 1875 trial, but once I mentioned the scandal had similarities to Bill Clinton’s impeachment for the alleged cover-up of sexual intimacies with Monica Lewinsky, they began to participate actively in the discussion. A young man pointed out that both the president and the reverend survived the scandal. Yeah, said a young woman but what about Monica and Elizabeth? My student’s suggestion that Elizabeth may have fared worse than her male lover inspired me to delve deeper into the social context of the scandal. As I immersed myself in the sources to understand the challenges Elizabeth faced because of gender inequality, I found that my own multicultural experiences, during the many years spent in Hawaii and Puerto Rico as well as the year doing research in India, were very helpful, enabling me to imagine how Elizabeth felt in an epoch with values very different from the present day.
What was the research process like to bring Elizabeth Tilton’s side of the story to life? I know that during the civil trial that she wasn’t allowed to speak, being that she was viewed as the damaged property of her husband in the case.
Many of the historical studies of the Beecher-Tilton scandal picture Elizabeth as a weak personality, a woman who gave in to both her husband and her lover and couldn’t keep her story straight. As I read more about the Victorian code of conduct for women, I felt that this version of her character was simplistic if not misogynistic. I attempted to come to grips with the challenges Elizabeth faced because of gender inequality in an article I wrote for a history journal, but I finally decided that the best way to do her justice would be to write a novel telling the story of the scandal from her perspective. Although Elizabeth was not called to the stand during the 1875 trial, there are three important primary sources that reveal her point of view: her personal letters, which her husband published in the press without her permission, her testimony at the church investigation, and the testimony of those who spoke of her at the trial. Once I decided to write a novel, I had to immerse myself once again in the historical sources. This second time, I was concentrating not only on understanding the social issues, but also submerging myself in the feelings and thoughts of Elizabeth and her two lovers, imagining scenes in which the main characters interacted.
Unruly Human Hearts is a work of fiction but based on a true story. How much of what we find in the book can be considered fact, or as fact as can be, considering the era and limited sources of coverage of events?
The novel covers the period from 1866, when Elizabeth, then in her early thirties, first developed romantic feelings for Henry until her death in 1897. There are many primary sources for the period from 1866 through the trial of 1875, including personal letters, trial records, and the press. The events and the people whose actions and personalities are revealed in these records function as the framework for my novel. However, the sources do not consistently tell the same story. The public testimony of the protagonists often provides conflicting narrations of what happened in what order, as well as conflicting interpretation of the motivations of those involved. Historians who have written books involving the Beecher-Tilton scandal also have different interpretations. As a writer of historical fiction, I had to make judgment calls. Elizabeth’s life after the 1875 trial, covered briefly in the final pages of the novel, was more difficult to envision. Although several historical sources are available, including obituaries and her letter of confession published in 1878, writing about her final years required greater creative effort.
Free love is somewhat of a key factor of the Beecher-Tilton scandal, a scandal perhaps in part because of Victoria Woodhull’s being the one to put it to print making it of greater public knowledge. Can you perhaps give our readers a little idea of what “free love” means in the context of the book and the movement at the time?
The basic idea of free love in the Reconstruction era was the freedom to choose whom to love and to express true love in a sexual relationship outside of marriage. Those who espoused free love believed that government should not interfere in matters of the heart, because the question of who loves whom cannot be legislated. Some feminist leaders supported free love because they believed that marriage and divorce laws unfavorable to women often imprisoned them in injurious abusive relationships. The radical feminist, Victoria Woodhull, denounced the hypocrisy of male leaders (including Reverend Beecher) who indulge in sexual affairs while publicly advocating conventional morality. Most supporters of free love in the nineteenth century did not advocate promiscuity; they couched their beliefs in terms of individual freedom to express true love. The concept of free love was similar in some respects to the concept of open marriage in the latter half of the twentieth century in which one’s spouse was viewed as the primary partner, but married couples were free to express love for others. Elizabeth viewed her husband, Theodore, as her primary partner, and Reverend Beecher as another love that enriched her life and deepened her love for her husband.
Each of the characters in the triangle’s relationship to free love comes from a different angle. We have the first prominent preacher in America, a newspaper editor and abolitionist, and an American suffragist. How did each reconcile the doctrine of free love with their religious beliefs and perhaps positions in society?
Reverend Beecher’s experiences as a young child, when his father instilled in him the fear of being a sinner predestined to go to hell, encouraged him to advocate replacing the Calvinist doctrine of retribution with the gospel of love. The gospel of love inspired him to preach against slavery and in favor of guiding children through love not corporal punishment. Henry’s sermons comparing God’s love with the tender care of a mother inspired Elizabeth and helped her see the feminine role as crucial not only within the family but also in building a better society. Her motivation to join the suffrage movement was the belief that women would vote to help those in need. Although the gospel of love and the concept of free love had separate origins, Henry and Elizabeth saw a connection between the two. True love of one human being for another could not be sinful. Whereas Elizabeth and Henry emphasized Love as the guiding spiritual and ethical principle, for Theodore, it was Truth. Conventional moral teachings restricting love outside of marriage led to lies and concealment that poisoned personal relations. Theodore believed that non-interference of the government in personal love lives was a necessary social reform, and thus advocated free love as well as suffrage for women and former slaves.
Elizabeth was involved in the suffrage movement, as was her husband, what did the scandal do for/to the movement?
The women’s suffrage movement was going through a difficult period in the eighteen seventies. Many suffragists had hoped that that the fifteenth amendment would include voting rights for women and former slaves, but the amendment only awarded suffrage to freedmen. The movement had to regroup and form new alliances. Initially Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, both of whom were friends of Theodore and Elizabeth, were enthused when Victoria Woodhull, a charming and charismatic young woman of working-class origins, brought new energy into the suffrage movement. However, they later realized that her advocacy of radical social issues, including free love, was alienating supporters. Victoria had a key role in the exposure of the Beecher-Tilton scandal. She denounced Beecher as an ardent supporter of free love who concealed his true beliefs so as not to endanger his career and social position. Public fascination with the role played by prominent men with progressive views on women’s rights in the Beecher-Tilton scandal, was fodder for conservatives who painted the campaign for women’s suffrage as a movement associated with dangerous radicals whose aim was to destroy the social order.
Any good book based on historical facts can and should teach you something that has some relevance to current times. How is Unruly Human Hearts relevant today?
The story of Elizabeth is relevant to concerns about individual freedom and social ethics in modern times. The emergence of creeds of sexual liberation and open marriage in the second half of the twentieth century raised questions about whether free love is liberating for women. Many women were economically dependent on men, which made it difficult for them to insist that men grant their partners the same sexual freedom that they claimed for themselves. The MeToo movement that emerged in the early twenty-first century points to the problems implicit in a sexual relationship in which one partner enjoys the advantage of power and position. Elizabeth insisted that her tie with Reverend Beecher was based on true love, but her husband saw it as a pastor taking advantage of a deeply loyal member of his flock. On the other hand, Theodore was oblivious of the power dynamic in his marriage to Elizabeth. He justified his own extramarital affairs as a legitimate expression of free love but applied the double standard to his wife. If our society continues to make progress toward gender equality, we can hope that women involved in open marriages or polyamorous relationships do not undergo the same heartbreak that Elizabeth experienced.
What is your next project about?
I am reworking a historical novel set in New York in the roaring twenties, a period in which women enjoyed new freedom to pursue romance as well as a career of their own. The heroine, a young aspiring poet, suffers violent mood swings, which make it difficult for her to comprehend the new limits of acceptable behavior for women. Aggressive psychiatric treatments compound her problems. The transition from adolescence to adulthood appears to be a maze to the young protagonist who must make her way through a looking glass world in her struggle to achieve autonomy and commitment.
You can pre-order Unruly Human Hearts at Amazon. (January 28, 2025)
Barbara Southard
Author Bio:
Barbara Southard grew up in New York, earned a PhD from the University of Hawaii, and served as professor in the History Department of the University of Puerto Rico. In addition to academic publications on women’s history, she is the author of The Pinch of the Crab, a short story collection set in Puerto Rico, exploring social conflicts of island life, mostly from the perspective of women and girls. In her debut novel Unruly Human Hearts, Barbara once again explores social conflict from the point of view of the woman involved in a different place and epoch. She has also been active in raising funds for the Shonali Choudhury Fund of the Community Foundation of Puerto Rico, helping local community organizations working to protect women from domestic violence.
Amazon Synopsis: To protect their lavish allowances, four charismatic sisters in their thirties try to seduce, cajole, and mislead their less well-off neighbor Benjamin, who their father has hired to investigate an attempt to smother him while he was in the hospital recovering from a car crash. Their feckless brother responds by threatening Benjamin with a shotgun, while their socialite mother falsely confesses to the crime. Trying to dominate everyone is their father, a wheeling, dealing, helicopter-flying entrepreneur who is afraid he might have hallucinated the smothering, even more afraid that it might have been real, and terrified that he might be losing control of his family and fortune. Desperate, he implements a devious and dastardly scheme . . .
Played out on the fashionable Connecticut shore and Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the shenanigans of the entitled rich don’t prevent Benjamin from finding the truth, and maybe even love.
Entitled
Benjamin Gould is not anyone’s idea of a private investigator, nor is he one. Then why does his wealthy, and somewhat obnoxious neighbor force him into such a role without a way out? Benjamin grew up next door to the Cantling family. Yes, an entitled family. The obnoxious neighbor Charlie Cantling’s family of a wife, four daughters and a son to be exact. And entitled fits their behaviors with perhaps the exception of Ann, the middle of the pack, and the girl Benjamin’s been in love with for forever.
Many questions come to mind while reading Entitled, the literary debut of author Leonard H. Orr. is it a mystery? A suspense? A headache for Charlie of… entitled… wealthy brats? Or is it just one big confusion-fest for our man Benjamin Gould, who works for a cyber security company, in the office, and likes it that way?
The answer, as you will likely have determined, simply by my asking the questions, is yes. To which of the above? Just, yes.
As you read the first pages of chapter one of Entitled, the actual first question that comes to mind is… Is Charlie Cantling crazy? The second questions is… is Jody Gould crazy? The first encounter we see is between Charlie and the Gould brothers, Benjamin and Jody. A helicopter versus flare gun face-off in a backyard. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?
Some of what shaped my opinion aboutEntitled:
The following comes back to those beginning questions.
Mystery- Who tried to murder Charlie Cantling, the patriarch of a wealthy family? Was it out of malice or mercy? Did it happen at all?
Headache- What will Benjamin find out when he begins asking questions of the Cantling family and which one will make the sacrifice to sleep with him to get the real reason he’s asking those questions? Will one of them try to murder him before he finds out too much?
Suspense- And what happens at the end? Who gets the gold mine and who gets the shaft? Which does our man Benjamin get? After all, he’s promised a nice paycheck for his services that will save him from selling his family home.
For me, with Entitled, it’s basically about the questions and wanting the answers.
The Book Format:
We see the story through the first person view point. Mainly through Benjamin Gould but also on occasion through Ann and her sister Melanie and even their mother Tessa. This format doesn’t really take away from the mystery aspect of the story.
What do I like about Entitled?
It’s different. The plot twist is definitely new. Did I see it coming? That ending? Yeah, no I didn’t see that coming. But should I have? You know, in a way, yes, I should have. At least part of it. I told you… headaches for Benjamin.
And I really wanted to see what happened to Benjamin. A good guy who deserves a break, something good to happen to him. And that is a sign of good writing. If you care about a character, then the writer succeeded.
What could have been better… for me?
You quickly come to know who Benjamin is as a person. Based on that impression,I felt some of his responses/reactions were out of character. Do what I personally see as odd responses impact the book and the plot? No. Not really. There are a couple that you just let go and move on. But maybe I have a problem because I really like Benjamin and that says a lot.
One other thing I thought could have been a little better was character development or maybe some added layers. Benjamin has some. But the others? I can see them wanting to come out but some just don’t make it or what does make it kind of misses for me. An example would be the only Cantling son, Theo. His layers are like a thick two layer cake, but with nothing between the layers to make it appetizing.
Ann’s character and her depth seems to come out, and comes close, but could be more. Of the Cantling sisters, Ann’s the one I would like to see more of, and maybe learn more about. It would’ve been interesting to know about Nicole, the eldest who lives in Santa Fe. Perhaps another book? Each character fulfills their role in the story so perhaps my looking for more depth in the characters is just me. But with the added development mentioned, I believe the story would have been even stronger.
Why would I recommend this book?
It’s a quick and easy read with some twists that will have you thinking of whodunit or what’s going to happen next. Even when Benjamin’s assignment is over, you still have a question. Do you get the answer? Does good triumph over evil/ego? Does it triumph completely?
Did I solve the initial mystery before the end?
Yes. The clues are right there. It was the only answer that made sense. But it might take a while to be certain.
Would I read this book a second time?
No. I don’t need to. But, I wouldn’t mind seeing Benjamin Gould take on another case. I would read that.
Leonard H. Orr has written for The Village Voice, The New York Times, and other publications. A graduate of Swarthmore College, he has also been an editor and investment manager, where he’s been a witness to the ambition and entitlement and sorrow his novel portrays.
A HUSH AT MIDNIGHT – BUILDING AN ADVANCE READER TEAM
Guest post by Author Marlene M. Bell
One area most vital to the success of an independent author is building their advance reader team. Readers who receive an advance copy of the new book prior to its release to the public online and in bookstores. The idea is something I had no clue about when I began publishing books. In a sense, the author becomes the replacement for a traditional publishing house, taking on the same responsibilities that a publisher handles after obtaining a contract from a publisher. The publisher is key in publicity on new books for the most part with less burden on the author, from what I understand. The traditionally-published author still works on publicity, but not in the same capacity as an indie writer does.
I often wondered how traditionally-published authors’ books received so many early reviews—some landing on platforms prior to the book’s release. Advance Readers and a press release to media are instrumental in getting the word out on new book releases. It wasn’t until I had published a couple of books that I realized how to work on the advance team and why a team was necessary.
It takes several independent books published and good reviews in order to gain a reader following. People who like a certain writing style and love to tell others about books are an indie author’s best friend.
The Facebook platform and book groups bring in most of my reader leads, and from there, I’ve moved into Instagram, book blog tours, and a much larger following on X, formerly Twitter. My author website, marlenembell.com has a signup area built in for those who would like to join my advance team for each book launch. I prefer to send out signed paperback copies prior to the book release as a thank you gesture to my early readers and give them something special other than eBooks.
Gaining book momentum is difficult for independent authors with so many books published every day. They number in the thousands. However, I’ve found as the number of books published grows in an author’s repertoire of work, so does the reader audience. In my case, I have a romantic suspense series with four books in it so far, a children’s book based on a true story with our bottle lamb, and my new release is a standalone mystery unrelated to the Annalisse series. A HUSH AT MIDNIGHT was needed to break some of the habits I’d fallen into by writing familiar characters. I’ve attempted to create something for many readers in different genres.
Building a loyal following begins with early notification for each new book and making your readers feel special through giveaways. I do many giveaways to gain followers and promote each new book. Readers love to spread the word about books they’ve read. An advance team is a must for every author during a time when so many reading choices are available to the public.
**Thanks so much for allowing me to talk to your readers! I hope they will check out A Hush at Midnight the next time they’d like to read a twisty mystery with interesting characters. A mystery that’s hard to uncover who the villain might be!
This tour is hosting a tour-wide giveaway of 3 books. Everyone can join in the fun by posting the entry form on their blog! The grand prize winner will also receive Wildflowers Across America by former First Lady, Ladybird Johnson, a bag of wildflower seed, and a $50 Amazon Gift Card.
A Hush at MIdnight Wow Tour Giveaway with card 2024
Marlene M. Bell has never met a sheep she didn’t like. As a personal touch for her readers, they often find these wooly creatures visiting her international romantic mysteries and children’s books as characters or subject matter.
Marlene is an accomplished artist and photographer who takes pride in entertaining fans on multiple levels with her creativity. Marlene’s award-winning Annalisse series boasts Best Mystery honors for all installments including these: IP Best Regional Australia/New Zealand, Global Award Best Mystery, and Chanticleer’s International Mystery and Mayhem shortlist for Copper Waters, the fourth mystery in the series. Her children’s picture book, Mia and Nattie: One Great Team!, written primarily for younger kids, is based on true events from the Bell’s East Texas sheep ranch. The simple text and illustrations are a touching tribute of belonging and unconditional love between a little girl and her lamb.
Attorney Kyra Gibson has a lot on her mind this Thanksgiving. She’s been working long hours on a multi-billion dollar corporate merger, her family is visiting from London, and her relationship with former police detective Tarek Collins is heating up. When she and her companions are invited by her aristocrat client to attend a formal gala at a historic mansion on Chappaquiddick, Kyra reluctantly agrees.
But Chappy is more than just a playground for the wealthy. It’s a wild, remote place cut off from civilization. When the first body is found, the occupants are worried. Was it an accident or murder? When a second guest is brutally killed and then a third, there’s no doubt and the guests fearfully turn on each other. They are locked in a house with a murderer picking them off one-by-one. Kyra, her best friend Chase Hawthorn, and Tarek must survive the night and find the killer, or one of them could be next.
Most of my plots are pulled from headlines, and then I add in the murder.
Your book is set in Martha’s Vineyard. Have you ever been there?
Yes, I’ve been visiting the island for years and this series is a sort of love letter to it. It’s one of my favorite places.
Do you have another profession besides writing?
I do. In my other much more boring life, I’m an IP lawyer, not unlike my protagonist.
What genre do you write and why?
I write mystery/thrillers. I simply prefer writing plot over emotional journeys and mystery and thriller lend themselves to plot focused stories.
Which was the hardest character to write? The easiest?
The hardest character is actually my FMC, Kyra. The book is told from her perspective and sometimes I have to remember to be in her head, to remember she’s not privy to everything I know, especially what the other characters are thinking. The easiest is a tie: between Cronkite and Ali, Kyra’s aunt. Cronkite is the epitome of “cat,” and Ali is the sister I’d want if I had one.
If you could put yourself as a character in your book, who would you be?
If I were to write myself in, I’d write myself as a victim who gets her revenge from the grave. I think I’d be a beloved, local writer who, after an ugly exchange with an unruly summer visitor at a popular Vineyard Haven diner, met a very bloody, untimely death at the hands of the unpleasant woman. As the murder investigation progresses the murderess’s world is destroyed. Obviously, I’ve never been bowled over by an aggressive tourist at The Black Dog Tavern. Nor am I petty. It’s complete fiction.
What’s the scariest thing that ever happened to you?
A few years ago, I trespassed (broke into) a deserted asylum for children. It looked like it’d been abandoned overnight. Toys were on the floors. Artwork hung on the walls. The library’s books were strewn about, beds pushed up against the walls haphazardly. The cherry on top, though, was someone had staged a huge clown doll on the roof of one of the buildings. I’ll have nightmares of that clown’s manic grin for life.
What is your favorite thing to do in the autumn?
My favorite thing to do in the autumn is tea, coffee, or a glass of wine by the fire with a book. I love a wood burning fire when it’s chilly out. It’s so comforting.
When the body of a celebrated journalist is fished from the Edgartown Harbor, the official report rules his death accidental. But why was he alone on a senator’s yacht during a nor’easter? That’s only the first question London-based lawyer Kyra Gibson has when she arrives on the idyllic island of Martha’s Vineyard to settle her estranged father’s affairs. AMAZON
The Wraith’s Return
London based lawyer Kyra Gibson returns to Martha’s Vineyard and the beach house she inherited for an extended summer holiday. Still reeling from her father’s brutal murder and the role she and the handsome detective, Tarek Collins played in uncovering it, Kyra is hopeful for some peace and quiet. But when a summer squall reveals the wreckage of the pirate ship, Keres, rich with rumored treasure, all hopes of peace are dashed. Conservationists and treasure hunters descend on the exclusive island to lay claim to the ship. When two of the salvagers are killed, Kyra and Tarek’s friend, pub owner and amateur historian, Gully Gould is arrested for murder. AMAZON
Raemi A. Ray
Author Bio:
Raemi A. Ray travels to Martha’s Vineyard and around the world inspire her stories. She lives outside Boston. When not writing or traveling she earns her keep as the personal assistant to the resident house demons, Otto and DolphLundgren.
When two visitors arrive to the boarding house in India where an American boy is coming of age during the British Raj, truths unravel, disrupting his life and challenging the family’s sense of home. A unique historical angle ideal for fans of The Poisonwood Bible and The Inheritance of Loss.
In the last years of the British Raj, an American missionary family stays on in Midnapore, India. Though the Hintons enjoy white privileges, they have never been accepted by British society and instead run a boarding house on the outskirts of town where wayward native Indians come to find relief.
Young Gene Hinton can’t get out from under the thumb of his three older brothers, and the only person he can really relate to is Arthur, his family’s Indian servant. But when Uncle Ellis, a high-ranking British judge, suddenly arrives and announces he’ll be staying indefinitely in their humble house, far from his prestigious post in Himalayan foothills, life as Gene knows it is interrupted. While his brothers are excited at the judge’s arrival, he is skeptical as to why this important man is hiding out with them in the backwaters of Bengal.
Also skeptical is Arthur. Then an Indian woman appears on their doorstep—and, after growing close to her, he learns the sinister truth about the judge. Torn between a family that has provided him shelter, work, and purpose his whole life and the escalating outrage of his countrymen, Arthur must decide where his loyalties lie—and the Hintons must decide if they can still call India home.
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Sleeping in the Sun
“Sleeping in the Sun is a novel impossible to put down. A cinematic study of imperialism and the scars it has left. An outstanding debut.”—Willy Vlautin, author of The Night Always Comes and The Motel Life
“This is at once a gripping page-turner and book to savor and admire. It will light up your imagination and endure in your mind alongside all the memories from your real life. I was sad to see it end but delighted to welcome this impressive new voice into American literature. Joanne Howard is a writer to watch.”—Valerie Laken, author of Dream House and Separate Kingdoms
Imagine you have only a brief minute to tell someone what your book is about. Can you tell us, in two sentences, what your book is about and make us want to read it?
An American boy comes of age in the last years of the British Raj. Little does he know in this turbulent time that his family’s long-standing Indian servant may have ambitions to serve himself for once—for better or worse.
Why did you need to write this story?
I would like to see more historical novels set in non-western countries. I have never seen a novel about Americans in India, so I wanted to explore what a story about that would mean. And of course, I like to think of it as a nice tribute to my grandfather.
Where is the setting for Sleeping in the Sun?
1930s Midnapore, India. Midnapore is a small city outside of Calcutta.
How did the Hinton’s purpose as Christian missionaries determine their place in the white society of British India?
As American missionaries, the Hintons occupy an unusual space in society. They are not well off, as can be seen by their humble living standards, and they aren’t particularly interested in climbing the ranks of British society. The boys are rowdy and rough around the edges, and the house is a bit out of town so they aren’t really included in social circles. The boys also go away to boarding school, which is yet another way they are considered outsiders in Midnapore. The book doesn’t show them interact with many British characters except of course for Judge Ellis, who takes an unusual liking to them.
How do the actual people of India see Christian missionaries in their society and culture during the time of Sleeping in the Sun?
It varied. In my family’s experience, they actually didn’t have much luck converting many people. Often times, if an Indian person converted on their own, they were ostracized by their community. So missionaries had more success if they converted an entire tribe or village. For this reason, my family mainly worked with indigenous tribes. In large urban areas like Calcutta, the attitude toward missionaries and white foreigners in general was less favorable. The Indian people had already pressured the Raj to move their capital out of Calcutta to New Delhi, and that anti-Raj sentiment carried over to missionaries too. However, my family was generally well liked and respected by Indian people in Midnapore, whether they were part of their church or not. Unlike the Hintons who stick to themselves through much of the novel, my family was very involved and did a lot of business with Indian people in the community.
If you were to be one character in your book, who would you choose and why?
I have a soft spot in my heart for Lee, the third Hinton brother. He acts as the voice of reason in the book. He has an easygoing, gentle demeanor and guides Gene as they try to make sense of the events that happen in the novel.
As a former history teacher and historian, I’m always interested in how an author researches to ensure the accuracy of culture and period. What was your process like?
My family is incredible at preserving everything, so I had a lot of firsthand accounts to inform me. My grandfather’s childhood diary, my great grandfather’s autobiography, and stacks of vintage photographs were of huge help, but of course it was up to me to imagine the characters in the way I wanted to and that would best serve the story. But for Arthur’s character, who is an Indian man and therefore outside my own lived experience or personal connection, I just tried to absorb as many works of Indian literature that matched his background and the time period, and two books especially inspired his character: The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian by Nirad C. Chaudhuri and Pather Panchali by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. For setting, I traveled to India in 2018 for three weeks. I got to visit the street where my family lived, their mission’s church that is still standing, and other places that appear in the novel like Howrah Station and the Maidan in Calcutta. Lastly, I had a sensitivity reader who checked for blind spots.
What will connect the reader to the story and make them want to keep reading the story?
The multicultural and international aspect of the characters I hope will appeal to a variety of readers. My favorite historical novels are very immersive and escapist, so I hope that I have also brought the time and place to life well enough. I think I have because in fact, one of my early readers really asked me if this novel was based on my own life. I said, “Do you mean did I live in India in the 1930s?” And then lastly, I think that the novel explores the different definitions of identity, belonging, and spirituality. There is no one right way to be, and the novel offers many answers that can appeal to different readers.
What did you learn about yourself by the end of the book?
Early in my MFA program, a professor said that the story will take you where it wants to go. At first I sort of laughed at that idea, because surely as the author I’m in control of everything, right? But I really did experience the story going in different directions than I intended. I would just get this spark of an idea that was totally different than the outline I had so carefully plotted. So I learned that I’m not as in control as I thought.
Many first-time authors of a book have a problem letting their work enter the world for others to read. I know I did. Did you have difficulty deciding your book was ready to publish?
Not really. Although I did work on it for at least 6 years, I think I was always aware of some kind of finish line that I would come to eventually if I just checked off all these things. Every round of editing was correcting for a different fault, whether it was eliminating passive voice or clarifying character movements, so it did always feel like I had a plan. I guess I was very objective in that sense.
Joanne Howard is an Asian American writer from California. She holds an MFA in writing from Pacific University. Her poetry received an honorable mention from Stanford University’s 2019 Paul Kalanithi Writing Award. Her fiction has been published in The Catalyst by UC Santa Barbara, The Metaworker Literary Magazine and the Marin Independent Journal and her nonfiction has been published in Another New Calligraphy and The Santa Barbara Independent. She lives in Santa Rosa, CA. Find out more at her website.
Electric with compelling action and trenchant social commentary and perfect for fans of Nikki Erlick’s The Measure, this genre-straddling work of speculative fiction examines ageism from a new and challenging perspective.
In the year 2050, the man known as Zinn is on the run from the consequences of his greatest creation: an artificial genome that wildly increases the human lifespan. His “Methuselah gene” has gone viral, and he’s being hunted by Adele, a semi-retired CIA biowarfare specialist who hopes to find a way to reverse the genome’s effects before it’s too late.
As the longevity plague spreads, populations explode, economies are upended, and intergenerational resentments boil over. Adele searches for a cure while her former lover, Dan Altman, and his wife, Marion, wealthy political operatives both, become leaders of a movement of hundred-plus-year-old “lifers” and fight to create a sanctuary for the ultra-aged in the wilds of Colorado. Meanwhile, the Altmans’ son, Nolan, thinks he has the answer to the longevity crisis: a suicide pill that kills after one year, a death wish algorithm that will influence the super-aged to take it, and his beautiful daughter, Claire, who is a spokesperson for the growing anti-lifer backlash and the head of the federal government’s new Department for Longevity Management.
Combining a hugely topical premise with a vein of social-political satire, Lifers evokes a world where society’s ingrained ageism turns lethal and the fear of death is replaced by the challenge of living on . . . and on.
Lifers
“If Ann Patchett wrote sci-fi, this is what it might look like. What does it mean to live forever? To you? To your loved ones? To your country? To the world? A great read with a thought-provoking premise, and a sure-fire conversation starter for that dinner party you’re dreading.”
-Arlene Dillon, journalist and former President of the White House Correspondents’ Association
You have only a brief moment to tell someone about your book. Can you tell us, in two sentences or less, what Lifers is about and and make us want to read it?
When a rogue scientist’s longevity gene goes viral, the boomer generation suddenly stops dying, and a multigenerational family must confront the personal, social, and political consequences of potential immortality.
Lifers blends grounded science with near-future imaginings to examine ageism and the quest for longevity in a startling new light.
Why did you need to write this story?
Like so many of us, I’m attracted to the idea of living a long and healthy life, so I’ve read fairly widely in nonfiction accounts of longevity science and its practical applications.
Two things struck me about most discussions of longevity enhancement: increased longevity tends to be viewed as a luxury product for the rich and the few; and no one discusses the economic and social stresses that a radically longer (even if healthy) lifespan would impose on individuals, on families, and on society at large.
I wrote Lifers to dramatize those unspoken implications, and to examine ageism from a different perspective in which extreme longevity becomes commonplace and there are so many super-aged individuals that they become a problem — and a force — that must be reckoned with.
Why did you choose strong females as the protagonists who move the plot of the story?
For whatever reason, perhaps having to do with the influence of my super-competent mother and my independently-minded spouse, I find that writing from a female point of view comes easily. The challenge, of course, is not to presume too much understanding of women’s unique experience, and to maintain a stance of humble empathy as a writer.
The women protagonists in Lifers are of different generations, and I wanted to use female relationships to illustrate both how conflicts happen across generational lines, and how those conflicts can be resolved through uniquely female skills.
There are multiple settings/locations in Lifers, what research did you do to create that world for the reader to immerse into?
I’m fortunate to have traveled broadly and lived in multiple urban settings, so the locations in Lifers are all drawn from real places that I know well and love, and I had to do very little research about them.
With limited resources on the planet, what would be the solutions to the problems extended life would bring and just how far do we go?
Lifers is an attempt to imagine answers to this very question, but in the novel longevity accelerates very suddenly, and I can only hope that in real life we’d have more time to adapt to the challenges of having billions more humans on the planet, and millions more people in their second century of living. Overpopulation and strains on the medical system would be the most pressing problems, with the effects cascading into personal and national finances. Economies would have to find ways of putting able-bodied super-centenarians back to productive work, and housing would have to become much more communal and less age-stratified. At some point options for living off-earth (some of which are depicted in the book) would hopefully become available. This all assumes that government remains democratic and rational, and doesn’t descend into even worse divisiveness than we’re witnessing today.
What will connect the reader to the story and make them want to keep reading the story?
The characters. No matter how interesting the premise — and I think the premise in Lifers is very compelling — it’s the connection to the characters that keeps a reader engaged. I’m proud of the cast of characters in the book, and think they’re varied and sympathetic — and realistic — enough to pull the reader along to find out what happens to each of them.
How long did it take to complete Lifers?
About a year and a half.
You’ve said you would be a ‘Lifer’, a long-lived person if you had the choice. What would you do with that time?
I would write and travel, and perhaps work on a second career in politics, to try to bring some rationality back into our civil discourse.
Did you have difficulty deciding your book was ready to publish?
Not really, though “ready” is a relative term, and there were many, many revisions. Probably 90% of my editing occurs while writing. The most significant form of revision for me is, once all or most of the book is finished, to review the scene sequence to try to improve it to make sure the reader is drawn forward in the narrative at the right pace, and that characters have been fleshed out enough. On Lifers I ended up adding quite a few chapters and scenes. But in a sense no book is ever really finished. There are still things I would change or add to it.
What is your next project idea?
I’m beginning to think about a sequel to Lifers that would take off from the book’s conclusion, where a very specific form of time travel — actually, collective memory travel — becomes possible. I want to depart from the current fabulistic trend where time travel just “is” — it’s an unexamined premise, not a plausible process (I’m thinking of The Ministry of Time and Sea of Tranquility). The whole trope of time travel has become a rather tedious cliché and needs some new life injected into it. So that’s my next mission: make time travel believable again.
Keith McWalter’s first novel, When We Were All Still Alive, was published in 2021. His essays have appeared in TheNew York Times, The New York Times Magazine, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He’s the author of two blogs, Mortal Coil and Spoiled Guest, which present his essays and travel pieces to a loyal online following. A collection of his essays, No One Else Will Tell You: Letters from a Bi-Coastal Father, won a Writer’s Digest Award for nonfiction.
Keith is a graduate of Columbia Law School and earned a BA in English Literature from Denison University. He lives with his wife, Courtney, in Granville, Ohio, and Sanibel, Florida.
Step into a vast universe teeming with life, romance, heroism, and treachery as experienced and seen through the eyes of Gayle Zimmon. ‘Zim’, a young woman successful in war but naive to the machinations of the greater universe, returns from combat to confront genetically engineered humans and discover that she was sent to war not to win but to die.
While fighting the Aldrakin, Zim learns of a prophecy foretelling that the “Starflower,” her military call sign, will bloom “in the dark of the darkest night” but never know peace. Not one to accept ancient prophecy, after securing victory, she hopes to rekindle her romance with Mac and return to the peaceful life they left on the frontier.
But she is a major player in a galaxy-spanning intrigue she barely understands. Forces alien and cybernetic hold the stakes and align on both sides. Between dodging assassins, hostile planets, deadly robots, mystical aliens, and ancient relics, she must decide whether to continue running from her prophesied destiny-or try to live up to it.
Science Fiction has unlimited possibilities for imagination and metaphor. It taps imagination well beyond other genres. It also challenges the writer to create realistic, unknown worlds.
There are many sci fi books out there. What makes yours different?
To my mind, SF is about dreaming the impossible dream. If we do that, nothing is beyond us. Much SF today is simplistic, pessimistic, and dystopian, i.e., unworthy of creative minds seeking to fly.
Which authors inspired you to write?
The old SF masters from H.G. Well to Arthur C. Clarke to Larry Niven, Phillip K. Dick, and Frank Herbert
How did you do research for your book?
I feel I’ve been researching my book all my life: wide experiences, meeting characters, reading everything, making contacts to touch base with, e.g., scientists and engineers, SF&F writers, medical techs, officers and enlisted from all the military services.
Which was the hardest character to write? The easiest?
My main character Zim was the hardest. I know and love her very much, so testing and hurting her brought me to tears a few times.
The easiest was probably Abramyan, the character I love to hate.
How are you similar to or different from your lead character?
My lead character manifests many of my daughter’s confrontational traits, my wife too, which may be why I instantly loved her. We are all in sync.
If you could put yourself as a character in your book, who would you be?
Probably Roland ‘Mac’ Mackenzie—loyal, intelligent, fearless, humble, Zim’s love from childhood.
In your book you make a reference to The Prophecy. How did you come up with this idea?
The Prophecy is central to the plot, as it was in DUNE, but here it is a much more personal and threatening experience. I have a feeling we all live prophetic lives and, like Zim, may wish to escape them.
If your book were made into a movie, what songs would be on the soundtrack?
A lot of Irish instrumentals match the mood. I listen to them when I write. Think the movie Last of the Mohicans with Daniel Day-Lewis.
In one sentence, what was the road to publishing like?
Agents want something completely original just like what they last read and with a well-established market, i.e., no risks. Originality may be a hard sell.
Where do you write?
I have a writing loft and a wide-screen station beside a picture window overlooking the Rockfish Valley. Away from my station, I may take notes but do no serious writing.
In today’s tech savvy world, most writers use a computer or laptop. Have you ever written parts of your book on paper?
I understand that pen-and-paper writing draws differently on the mind than typing on a computer. That seems to be the case with me. If I’m having a problem with a scene or character, switching to my paper tablet takes care of the problem. Usually in seconds.
What is your next project?
I promised my readers a trilogy and am almost finished with the second book, Agent of Blue Star. Beyond that, I have two first-draft novels on hold: The Looalee and Facing Nabua.
What is the last great book you’ve read?
I read a lot of nonfiction to help understand human and inhuman societies as well as technology. In SF, Edward Lerner’s book InterstellarNet Enigma had a fascinating premise about human development. A very creative, SF thriller.
I am a husband, father, storyteller, and a Christian. I’m also a writer, an intelligence analyst, and a contrarian. My wife and I live with two large dogs in a mountain chalet in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.
I hold a BA and an MA in History from George Mason and George Washington University, respectively. In 40+ years with the CIA, I worked at every level from watch office and tactical operations to sensor development and informing national policy. Re-missioned from intelligence, I’m inclined to write science fiction.
I began storytelling at scout and church camp in my youth, recounting ghost stories or local lore around the campfire. These days, my restive characters want to tell their own stories. We often quarrel. When my wife sides with them, you know who wins.
Frank and Naomi Wolff were happily married in 1908. She was a Kansas farmgirl; he was a railroad engineer. She was excited to embark upon her role as wife and mother with a hardworking man, and in their early years together they made a life in thriving Ogden, Utah. Despite Frank’s almost-constant absence for his job riding the rails, which left pretty Naomi to raise their children virtually alone, their romantic relationship begat fourteen offspring in eighteen years. Like other lower-middle-class women, Naomi’s life was consumed with caring for her brood, who became helpers as soon as they could fold a diaper—and who, by and by, were required to attend the school of hard knocks as much as public schools. Affection and struggle endured within the family, crowded into a humble house. Despite the respite of occasional family train trips across the plains, the marriage ultimately faced exceptional challenges, just before the Depression era began.
Based on a true story, A Wolff in the Family is a riveting saga of prejudice, passion, and revenge, perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds. What mysterious scandals led a father to abandon the youngest of his children—and for the elder siblings to keep their shame secret for eighty years?
“A Wolff in the Family is immediately immersive, and readers will be drawn into the hardships and small joys of the Wolff family. Falk-Allen’s vivid prose and realistic characters tell an intriguing story about social norms, gender roles, and ultimately, love. Fast and absorbing, it will keep you up long into the night.”—Michelle Cox, author of The Fallen Woman’s Daughter and the Inspector Howard series
You have only a few moments to tell someone what your book is about, in two sentences tell them what your book is about and make them want to read it?
This is a historical novel of passion, prejudice, revenge and forgiveness, based on actual scandals in my mother’s family of origin, taking place in western states in the early 1900’s.
Why did you need to write this story?
When I heard the few basic facts of the story from an aunt, my jaw dropped. I thought later in that week, this is a story that has to be told, and over several years I researched the story and the time in which it happened, and eventually began fleshing it out with conjectured scenes and conversations.
With A Wolff in the Family being so personal, were there ever moments of hesitation in what to and what not to share?
To some extent, yes, I had to pause and think how I wanted to portray some of my aunts and uncles, and how my cousins might view my interpretation of their parents. I left out some things that are controversial, partly because one aunt told me they happened to my grandmother and a cousin told me they actually happened to one of my aunts! I knew that this was a hot button issue, with some relatives insisting it couldn’t even be true, and it wasn’t germane to the essence of the story I wanted to tell. I also decided not to use the family’s real surname, but I did use many actual first names and some that were similar, so that I wouldn’t confuse myself. This was a huge family so there are a lot of names to keep straight (never fear; there’s a list of characters and what family position they have in the front of the book). There is also another family that was involved, and I changed their last name so that if any of that family reads the book, they will not feel threatened by what they might consider slander. It’s not, of course, partly because I know some of what I’ve said is factual, but also because I made up so much of it—nearly all the scenarios and conversations—so that it truly is fiction.
What will connect the reader to the story and make them want to keep reading the story?
I hope that they will sympathize with the difficulties women faced in their domestic and married lives in the early twentieth century; that they will be fond of some of the characters and want to know what transpires with them, and that they will not be expecting some of what happens and even be shocked at some people’s actions, and read on to find out how it all resolves! Additionally, I think knowing the novel is based on a true story will have readers want to follow the characters throughout the saga of about thirty years of experiences and challenges.
I’ve done and still do research into my own family ancestry and I know such research brings with it some surprises. What good surprises have you come across? (One example from my own research is that my 7th great-grandfather donated the land that Princeton and its first buildings were built on.)
Related to A Wolff in the Family, I learned that one of my aunts was somewhat of a hero to her siblings; I spoke with her about circumstances in her family of origin when she was in her 90’s and near the end of her life, and she didn’t mention the very defiant and heroic thing she did. On my dad’s side, one of my great-great-great grandfathers started a military academy in Kentucky. Although this wasn’t something I necessarily felt “puffed up” about, the fact that he had done something so prominent made it easy to find information about his/my family and what happened in their lives before and after this event. I also learned that although he was in the Confederacy in the Civil War, his sister’s husband financed the Union side! And the family still kept in touch although were on two sides of the Mason-Dixon line, both geographically and philosophically. Then, the southerners moved back to the north after the War, and they aided the slaves they formerly had held by assisting them in procuring and owning their own homes. That salved the wound of knowing my dad’s ancestors held slaves a little bit, that my ancestors did get the deeds to property set up for the former slaves, so that there could not be disputed titles. So that was good news amidst regrettable and shameful knowledge.
How long did it take to complete A Wolff in the Family?(I ask because I know when writing and researching for historical fiction and you want it to be as period accurate as possible you can fall into rabbit holes for hours learning about things that will never end up in the book.)
Ha ha! Oh yes, that is so true about researching. Gosh, I started doing the family research in the early 2000’s, but I had two other books I wanted to write, so I put off the historical research and things like census records and the details of what life was like in Utah, Wyoming, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma from 1918 through the 1940’s until about 2022. Then I delved into it full force and finished the very last final, copy edited, proofread (both of those processes several times over!) in July of 2024. So I suppose you could say it took me two and a half years to actually write it, including the detailed research. I do not write every single day, however. I have a life, and I’m a polio survivor, so I have to take care of myself and avoid fatigue as much as I can.
Did you have difficulty deciding your book was ready to publish?
Interesting question. I think most authors would work on each book until they die and have never published it if they could be supported while doing so. I’m kind of kidding, but there are always things you wish you’d added or taken out.
I found an old letter yesterday that an aunt wrote to me in 2007 which had some details in it I could have used, and I had an “oh darn” moment. But those things would have led the story in a different direction… and I’m not sure her memory was accurate any longer when she was ninety. I was also motivated by my age: I’m seventy-six, and I wanted this book to be out in the world well before I was eighty. Deadlines, promotion and marketing are not the easy part of writing a book, and can sometimes be stressful (even though much of that can also be fun), and I didn’t want to be worrying about deadlines at eighty!
By the time I got through perhaps the tenth or twelfth read-through and proofread, I accepted that it was as good as it was gonna get, and I am 99% satisfied with it! I’m sure when I am reading through it again, I’ll have those “shoulda” thoughts. It’s like a child, it will never be perfect, but it’s your best effort at guiding, and you love her for what she is. Art is allowed to have a flaw here and there; it’s created by humans. All that said, I think it’s a very good story and that it reads well. Some people have been blown away by it and I find that people who’ve read it sometimes come back to me with questions about the characters in real life. That’s one of the signs of a good book!
What has the family reaction been to your book?(Whenever I write something and I use elements of the family in it, which we all kind of do if we want to make our characters authentic, I do wonder what will happen when/if they read it.)
I can’t answer that yet! None of them have read it! And you can bet I’m a little nervous about that.
My husband has read it and he thinks it’s terrific, but it’s not about his family, of course. One of my cousins’ wives has ordered it and I know she’s anticipating getting the skinny on his father’s family, except that she does know it is just based on a true story and full of my conjecture.
My cousin had told me that he didn’t know much at all about this story when I told him the basics. He said he’d only been told that his dad didn’t like to talk about it and felt critical of his mother.
Some of the siblings sided with their father, and some with their mother. They both made controversial choices which affected the whole family! My mother kept all of it a secret and hadn’t told either myself or my sister about any of the scandals before she died. I always say she should have worked for the CIA.
So we’ll see. I may get some praise, and I may get some blowback.
What advice would you give to someone wanting to convert family history to fiction?
I found it to be easier to have a structure and set up a chronological outline based on what I knew were facts, and then fill in what I thought could have happened to substantiate the outcomes. Some people like to just start writing and see where their imagination takes them. It depends upon whether you have a lot of facts, as I did (and whether you choose to use them, since you’re writing fiction, after all) or whether you just have a snippet of a story that inspires you to create something bigger out of it.
When I was working on this book, I would ask myself, “Why would she have done this? What would she have been likely to say when he did that? What would it look like to others when this character made this choice?” As a woman, I know how I’d feel if my husband behaved the way I know my grandfather did. So I drew on my own emotional experience to some degree. I may have idealized “Naomi,” but I felt that if she had lived fifty years later, her choices would have been more acceptable to society, and conversely, my grandfather’s choices would have been considered terrible if not even illegal two generations later.
There is one vignette where my mother tied a flannel around her head to try to flatten a bump on her nose. That really happened. She had told me that a friend came by to walk to school with her, which was serendipitous, because she couldn’t get the flannel off her head! I imagined all that would have happened, including her siblings making fun of her; it was a clear image in my mind, like a movie. So if a writer can imagine how something could possibly have happened and see it as if it were happening on a screen in front of them, I think they can write up a family history piece in a creative way which turns it into fiction.
I feel that in my case, the facts were so stunning that I didn’t have to over-dramatize to make it a riveting story.
Oh, I think it’s also very important that you set things up in a way that the reader will be as surprised, inspired or motivated as you were when you heard the story. That can mean starting slow and developing the characters as I did, or using a teaser early on to make people wonder what’s going to happen. I started in the middle of the story with the first chapter, when my grandfather had just taken his youngest children to an orphanage. Then in the next chapter I tell the reader we’re going back eleven years to explain why this happened, with subsequent chapters following a straight chronology. There are lots of ways to set up a story so that you’re leading the reader toward the surprise, the humor, the inspiring point you want to make or whatever is the bundle of juiciness at the center of your story.
What is your next project idea?
After the dust settles with launching this book and I get through the whirlwind of the holidays, I want to write a series of short stories about my father’s ancestors, starting with when the four Allen brothers left Ireland in 1793 to sail to the US and start a new life here, up in Maryland. I’ve been to the home they owned, in southeastern Ireland, for two hundred years (some of the family stayed there until the early 1900’s) so I have some visual background for this story, plus I know they grew flax and that people came from around the countryside to use their mill. So that’s enough to get started. I know that this sounds suspiciously like a book, but I’m telling myself that writing a series of short stories will be less ambitious than a book! It will also be challenging to make a complete story in a shorter length, so I look forward to learning to do that.
FRANCINE FALK-ALLEN: was born in Los Angeles and has lived nearly all of her life in northern California. She had polio in 1951, and has lived her life as a disabled person making an effort to be a “normie.”
Falk-Allen was originally an art major and later completed her BA in Managerial Accounting, running her own business for over thirty years. She has always sought creative outlets, such as painting, singing, and writing. She began doing extensive family genealogy research in 1999, and has traced both her maternal and paternal ancestors back to the 1600s.
Her first book, “Not a Poster Child: Living Well with a Disability,” won gold and silver awards and was on several best books lists in 2018 and 2019, including Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2018, PopSugar and BuzzFeed, and was nominated to 25 Women Making a Difference in 2019 by Conversations Magazine.
Her second book, “No Spring Chicken: Stories and Advice from a Wild Handicapper,” received a Kirkus star, given to “books of exceptional merit” by Kirkus Reviews, and was named to Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of August 2021. “No Spring Chicken” was also a finalist in Foreword Reviews’ Indie Awards in 2021.
Her third book, “A Wolff in the Family” is a riveting early twentieth century saga set in the western United States and based on scandalous family history.
Francine spends a significant amount of time managing the effects of post-polio. She facilitates a polio survivors’ group as well as a writing group, and volunteers on her town’s Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Committee. She loves the outdoors, swimming, gardening, movies, well-written literature, being with friends and sharing British tea and a little champagne now and then. She resides in San Rafael, California, with her husband. Learn more at: https://francinefalk-allen.com
Rachel Jackson’s idyllic life takes a dramatic turn when she discovers a woman’s scarf in her politician husband’s computer bag. But in an election year, seeking answers to questions of infidelity is not an option. When her mother gives her a family heirloom, a travel trunk owned by an ancestor, she finds a distraction. As she immerses herself in its contents, she discovers a woman whose life is vastly different from her own. Or is it? Determined to dispel the notion that her ancestor Marit was insane, Rachel sets out to unveil her unknown story. In the interwoven narratives of these two women, who are bound by blood and a shared struggle, The Blue Trunk is a poignant exploration of identity, love, and unwavering strength.
Imagine you have only a brief minute to tell someone what your book is about. Can you tell us, in two sentences, what your book is about and make us want to read it?
“The Blue Trunk” follows the lives of two resilient women, separated by a century but connected by blood, as they each navigate abandonment and betrayal. This novel takes readers on a poignant exploration of identity, family drama, and love as a privileged politician’s wife uncovers what happened to her supposedly insane great-great aunt.
Why did you need to write this story?
My mother was in possession of a blue travel trunk that had been used by my great-great aunt when she immigrated from Norway to Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Marit’s name was written in perfect calligraphy on the trunk. I always loved the name so when my daughter was born, I mentioned to my mother that I planned to name her “Marit.” My mother responded with horror: “No, you can’t do that. She was insane.” While I should have been dissuaded, the insanity label only increased my interest in this woman. Years later, I joined a genealogy website to research her, but couldn’t find any information (but for her birth in Norway). It was odd because I found quite a bit of information on my great-great grandmother who had immigrated with her. I also had an autograph book Marit signed in 1889 in Blair, WI, so I knew she did indeed arrive in Wisconsin.
I then decided to research insane asylums to see if I could find any records of her. Again, I hit a dead end. I discovered while asylum populations were counted in the census, individual patients weren’t necessarily identified. In fact, I couldn’t find any archival records of the asylum I expect she would have been in residence. I also was unable to find a death certificate for her.
Then I discovered the asylum cemetery in my hometown. I spent my first 18 years living in that town and never knew of the existence of the Old Orchard Cemetery, aka the Cemetery of the unknown. The cemetery is now nestled in the middle of a subdivision, a plaque greets anyone who visits: “This cemetery is the final place for residents of the former Eau Claire County Asylum, County Home and County Poor Farm. . . As you walk among these unassuming gravestones, you will see that some only have names, no birth or death dates, and some are unknown. Many of the older gravestones memorialize persons who spent their entire adult lives in the county asylum.”
Unable to find my great-great aunt’s name, I sadly concluded that she likely spent her entire life in the asylum and is probably buried in an unknown grave.
It was then that I knew I had to write a book to reclaim Marit’s life.
With “The Blue Trunk” being so personal, were there ever moments of hesitation in what to and what not to share?
Interestingly, I didn’t hesitate when I was writing it. I guess that was because only a few trusted people in my writing group were reading my work. But as I finished and realized I was going to actually put this out into the world, I did face moments of fear (translate–terror).
I’m not certain, since this is only my first novel, but it seems to me that all writing, fiction and otherwise, is personal. Writers have a personal slant on what they are writing just as readers have a personal spin on what they read. A lot of Rachel’s story is personal to me and writing that was both healing and hard.
In some ways, I threw my ancestors under the bus for what they did to their sister, but that is what was done in those times (unfortunately). I was too young, obviously, to know Marit’s siblings, but I knew her nieces and nephews and they were a pretentious lot, filled with a desire to impress others. I expect the existence of a troubled family member (whatever her trouble might have been) was simply not acceptable. I’ve read a bit about generational trauma and I hope that writing a book about some of the things that might have been done to Marit will help stop that cycle.
What will connect the reader to the story and make them want to keep reading it?
My goal was to have some kind of tension/suspense in each chapter. I hope that the reader becomes engaged in the story as it unfolds dramatically.
I also hope they connect with the characters. Marit and Rachel are, I think, interesting in their own right and face challenges many women (and perhaps men) can relate to. Marit’s struggles keep us hanging in there cheering for her to finally find some peace. Rachel’s dilemma is one many current day women can understand–being torn between personal identity and commitments to partner and family.
There are other characters in the book I grew to love: Blake, James, Rose, and a minor character Aiden. All of them are human and each one has some quirks that make them even more human and relatable.
I’ve read that Blake became a different character than you intended. How was it letting the character dictate where he wanted to go and what he wanted to be?
I just loved what happened to Blake. I’m not entirely sure how it happened, but at some point I knew I didn’t want him to be a stereotypic toxic male. His life situation was complicated as well and he was, to a certain extent, a victim of that. I was joyful (can’t think of a better word) when I realized how I could approach him and write about his coming to terms with his identity. I loved writing the sometimes sweet interactions between him and Rachel and how she later begins to open up to a different Blake than she had previously known.
With gender identity being at the forefront of many societal issues, what steps did you take to represent the characters in the book in authentic ways?
I play a bit with gender identity throughout the book, but I identify as she/her which has been consistent my entire life. However, I am a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and I have known some of the struggles.
I thought long and hard about whether or not writing a trans character was wise. I didn’t want to appropriate someone else’s story. I ultimately decided to err on the side of taking the risk because I believe strongly that misunderstandings are prevalent when it comes to gender identity. Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that I wanted people to like, perhaps love, my character before they find that they are trans. I wanted to create some cognitive dissonance in readers so that they might be more open to revisiting preconceived notions.
In terms of research, I did some interviews to ensure that my details were accurate. I also spoke with an expert on the marginalization of less represented groups. I interviewed a trans couple who remained married after one partner transitioned. I am hopeful that I handled the issue sensitively and accurately.
Did you have difficulty deciding your book was ready to publish?
Yes, is it done yet? I’m actually a bit terrified to pick it up again because I know I’ll start re-writing it as I read.
Ultimately, the editor told me it was done. It’s good to have an outsider impose boundaries on a project.
What was your go-to escape when you needed to be reenergized during the writing process for “The Blue Trunk”?
Walk my dog. Swim laps. Bake cookies. Be in nature. All clear the clutter so I can tap into my creative self again.
What has writing “The Blue Trunk” done for you on a personal level?
I still have a bit of imposter syndrome hanging in the background. When people are impressed that I wrote a novel, I’m like “ya, well,” even though I do know it is an accomplishment.
As I mentioned before, writing Rachel’s story was healing for me. I lost my sister when I was six and never had a chance to completely resolve the issue with my mother as Rachel is able to do with Rose. The scene on the hike in Sedona was very healing for me as I wished I could have had that conversation with my mother.
I now know I can write a novel and that is exciting. I was not a good creative writer when I started, but I’ve improved (thanks to a lot of help from my writing colleagues and my teacher at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis).
I also discovered I love, love, love writing fiction. Crafting the story, creating characters, putting words on paper. I love all of it. I’m even starting to love editing!
Most of all, I am happy to have reclaimed Marit’s life. It is mostly fiction, of course, but those who read my book will now know that a century ago there was a woman named Marit Sletmo. What is your next project idea?
I have two ideas.
I plan to write about my aunt who was in the Women’s Air Corp during WWII. The WACs were amazing women and their story needs to be told.
I also want to write about Molly Brown, socialite, philanthropist, feminist, politician. She spent her adult life in Colorado, where I live, and so I am close to the many adventures she had here. She frequented the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park (The Shining), so I may have to read more Steven King and experiment with some psychological suspense.
I’ll write both. I’m just not sure which one will be first.
Ann E. Lowry’s journey into the realm of storytelling was foretold by a Sedona psychic in 2001. That prophecy became a reality two decades later when Ann discovered a family heirloom, a travel trunk from Norway, which sparked the genesis of her debut novel, “The Blue Trunk.”
A writer her entire life, Ann holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Minnesota. Her career has been dedicated to teaching and helping others navigate communication and resolve conflicts. Ann is fascinated by the dynamics of relationships, discord, and the intricacies of the human condition. Ann successfully completed the Loft Literary Center’s Novel Writing Intensive course in 2022.
Alongside her passion for fiction, she has contributed to academic journals, penned thought-provoking opinion pieces, crafted engaging content for online platforms, and provided insights on the federal management of disasters.
When Ann isn’t immersed in the world of writing, she finds solace in the pool or the lake. She cherishes playful moments with her rescue-turned-therapy dog, Loki, and also enjoys reading, golfing, and indulging in the art of cookie and bread baking. Fly fishing is her newest hobby. Most of all, she savors precious time with her family.
Ann and her spouse, Karen, and fur child, Loki, live in Timnath, Colorado, where they enjoy the beauty of nature daily. Learn more about Ann at: www.annlowry.com
How do you begin again when the past threatens to drown you?
In the throes of an unraveling marriage, New Yorker Marina Maržić returns to her native Croatian island where she helps her father with his struggling cheese factory, Sirana. Forced to confront her divided Croatian-American identity and her past as a refugee from the former Yugoslavia, Marina moves in with her parents on Pag and starts a new life working at Sirana. As she gradually settles back into a place that was once home, her life becomes inextricably intertwined with their island’s cheese. When her past with the son of a rival cheesemaker stokes further unrest on their divided island, she must find a way to save Sirana—and in the process, learn to belong on her own terms.
Exploring underlying cultural and ethnic tensions in a complex region mired in centuries of war and turmoil, The Cheesemaker’s Daughter takes us through the year before Croatia joins the European Union. On the dramatic moonscape island of Pag, we are transported to strikingly barren vistas, medieval towns, and the mesmerizing Adriatic Sea, providing a rare window into a tight-knit community with strong family ties in a corner of the world where divisions are both real and imagined. Asking questions central to identity and the meaning of home, this richly drawn story reckons with how we survive inherited and personal traumas, and what it means to heal and reinvent oneself in the face of life’s challenges.
What first interested me in reviewing The Cheesemaker’s Daughter, Kristin Vukovic’s debut novel, is the Serbian and Croatian history course I took at University back in the early 90s. Of course, I also like cheese.
What did I like?
I enjoyed exploring history from the very start as Marina drove onto the island of Pag and the Fortica fortress. She describes not only sites and structures but how the islands’ features dictated divides in the people. I especially liked how Vukovic explains things like how the structure of Sarina, the family cheese making factory, helped save the family during a time of war.
Vukovic’s visual descriptions of the island of Pag, and from the beginning, Fortica, the small fortress seen from the Pag Bridge, and other locations had me doing a search to enhance the experience further. Using Google Maps, as I crossed Pag Bridge and spotted Fortica. With technology, you at least can see the world if you can’t travel. As a historian and old building enthusiast, I couldn’t resist searching. Sensory experiences spark Marina’s memories, such as the sounds of the creaking door of Sarina and the smell of the cheese factory.
Marina’s struggles may seem an odd thing to note as a ‘like’, but I can connect with some aspects. Dealing with others’ expectations and being apart from your upbringing and culture can be tough. Vukovic understands the importance of both failures and successes in adulthood. And I believe that helps the connection to the story as well.
A book benefits from a female protagonist, particularly when she is the sought-after help, like Marina here. The help needed? Marina’s father must go through the drudgery of paperwork before Croatia enters the EU and compete with another local cheesemaker on the island. Who else to call on but his marketing daughter?
The story is not always happy, just so you are aware. You may not like every moment. But you will like the book. And it’s likely you’ll have learned something about yourself or even someone close to you and what they deal with. Sometimes you just don’t get it until someone else tells you like it is.
Kristin Vuković has written for the New York Times, BBC Travel, Travel + Leisure, Coastal Living, Virtuoso, The Magazine, Hemispheres, the Daily Beast, AFAR, Connecticut Review, and Public Books, among others. An early excerpt of her novel was longlisted for the Cosmonauts Avenue Inaugural Fiction Prize. She was named a “40 Under 40” honoree by the National Federation of Croatian Americans Cultural Foundation, and received a Zlatna Penkala (Golden Pen) award for her writing about Croatia. Kristin holds a BA in literature and writing and an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and was Editor-in-Chief of Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art. She grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota and currently resides in New York City with her husband and daughter.
Henry Manero wants to grow up. But growing up is seldom the same as moving on. In this poetic and at times philosophical coming-of-age novel, Henry must learn to navigate his inherited guilt and trauma alongside several generations of dispirited loners-among them his absent father, suffering mother, three wild cousins, and bumbling stepfather. When Henry befriends an elderly man, Josef, whose sagaciousness presents new possibilities in life, he wonders if he can escape the trappings of his small town, and of his own mind. Will Henry achieve a newfound sense of self with the help of Josef, or is Josef yet another false star in a constellation of malevolent men with which Henry is surrounded?
Combining the lyricism of Justin Torres’ We the Animals with the kaleidoscopic visions of boyhood in David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green, Matthew Daddona’s debut novel The Longitude of Grief is a tender rumination on the familial bonds that entangle and entrance us all.
Praise
“A mesmerizing read. In The Longitude of Grief, Matthew Daddona traces the complex connections among a boy, his family, and his community. This dark coming-of-age tale explores the ebb and flow of intimacies and betrayals in a small town over the course of the years. A debut rich with melancholy beauty and emotional acumen.”
–Helen Phillips, author of The Need
“A multi-generational coming-of-age story beautifully crafted with language and setting that evoke Tom Drury or Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead. The poetry pulls us in and the finely drawn array of characters keeps us glued to the page until the very end.”
—Bethany Ball, author of The Pessimists
“A lush, sweeping, intergenerational novel that fearlessly takes you into the many conflicting rooms of the human soul.”
—Simon Van Booy, bestselling author of Sipsworth
Want something that will help your really get into the mood of the book? Go to LargeHeartedBoy.com for Matthew Daddona’s playlist for his novel “The Longitude of Grief”.
Matthew Daddona is a writer and editor from New York whose fiction, poetry, and nonfiction have been published in outlets such as The New York Times, Outside, Fast Company, UPROXX, Amtrak’s The National, Guernica, Tin House, Slice Magazine, and Grammy. His debut poetry collection, House of Sound, was published by Trail to Table Press in 2020. Matthew is the recipient of an Academy of American Poets prize for poetry, was a runner-up in The Blue Earth Review’s 2017 flash fiction contest, and was longlisted in River Styx’ 2021 flash fiction contest. His debut novel, The Longitude of Grief, will be published by Wandering Aengus Press in 2024. He has received grants and fellowships from Craigardan (Elizabethtown, NY), NES (Skagaströnd, Iceland) and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts (Nebraska City, NE). He is currently working on his second novel and a collection of short stories. For EVEN MORE visit MatthewDaddon.com/about-Matthew.
It’s 1654 in Provence, France and Philippe du Chevalerie, youngest son of Guillaume and Laure, the Duke and Duchess of Chevalerie is knocked off his feet when a beauty from his past once again enters his life, just as he is about to go on a mission for his father.
Alexandra De Voix fled years ago from humiliation at the hands of a young Philippe to become the famous Lady Guide of France. Only her loyalty to her mother’s best friend, Laure, could ever bring her back into his presence.
Now the two must put their past behind them and work together to save the kingdom, but can they stay focused on their mission without someone getting hurt?
Will the Duke need to send in his heir Michel or call in from the see his middle son Serge to help?
My blurb for Taken by His Sword by Florence A. Bliss, a historical romance set in mid 17th Century France.
I must admit that I enjoy a good historical romance. I’ve read more than a hundred. Okay, I’ve read that many of the genre, but not all were ‘good’, but as long as I was entertained then they were not a waste of time.
Why I like Taken by His Sword:
I have to say that in a lot of historical romances I get frustrated by some of the cat and mouse games and the this-person-misunderstands-that-person type of thing, almost like a formulaic Hallmark Movie (yes, I even watch those). Very overplayed plot devices, but then I suppose if you read a lot, you see it a lot. Author Florence A. Bliss avoids that, although there is just enough to not let it be an easy go for Philippe, a young man people see as a typical wealthy, handsome, self-entitled, and egotistical son of a Duke. And not so easy for Alex who is an inexperienced woman of the world. Yeah, I know, ‘inexperienced’ and ‘woman of the world’ don’t seem to go together.
Philippe doesn’t come across that way during the story as it is told from his point of view as well as Alex’s. I’m not always a fan of the dual points of view from one chapter to the next, but this time it makes sense to do so.
The romance/relationship between the two protagonists is only one part of the story. The two must work together to discover who has been burning farms around Provence before it escalates and peace is lost. Philippe leads his men to join with Etienne, the Marquis du Ponce, to capture and bring the guilty to justice. The guilty that might be more powerful than Philippe thought.
Alex proves more valuable than some thought she would be. And eventually comes face to face with her most hated enemy.
Philippe proves he’s more than a pretty face who is a skilled swordsman.
What I may not have liked as much:
There is one point in the story where I think the reader is supposed to know more than they have been told. It pulled me out of the story for a moment because I had to think, “Did I miss something?” But I don’t think it takes away from the story itself.
I want to say up front the book is not laced with profanity like some can be. It’s not a bodice ripper, at least I don’t think Alex’s bodice gets ripped. If you are someone who just likes your read as if you were sitting in a pew at church, then the words you might not like appear less than 20 times in the 264 pages. If the F word is all you would count as profanity, it’s only used 3 times.
For word usage and profanity, although I don’t like using it in my own writing, there are environments, situations, and people that words are used for and by that are just real. And if you go too far the other way, then it’s fake. You can get around it, but for the F word here, it is used as an exclamation once, and it makes you blink. You’re like, “Well that got my attention. That definitely told me what that person thought at that moment.”
The other two times the F word is used, I have to say, made a point. I think the message intended by the character might only be delivered with this word.
Using words and phrases so little gives them impact when they are used. The author did this well.
What would I have wanted more or less of:
I can’t really think of anything I would want more of in this story, it was pretty complete.
You may have noticed Philippe has two older brothers, Michel and Serge. The series is called Swords of Chevalerie. Yes, ladies, the Duke and Duchess have two more sons who are single and ready to… get married?
He took her innocence…She took his honor. But when danger unhinges their world, someone will have to fall on their sword.
The lust. The betrayal. The love. Sometimes the hardest battle…is seducing your enemy.
Alexandra wants one thing: to train with her sword, never mind the outraged public. But when the achingly handsome Monsieur Philippe kisses her, she finds herself willing to give up her heart and even her blade to be with him. That is, until she learns Philippe took another woman to bed after giving Alexandra her first kiss. Shattered and humiliated, Alexandra is done with etiquette. She’s done with skirts and ruffles. And men. Now, five years later, she’s a mercenary, known for her quick wits, expert blade, and dedication to protecting the people she guides through the uncharted forests of Provence. And if, by chance, she ever sees Philippe again, she’ll have no problem knocking that seductive smile right off his goddamned face.
Philippe never forgot the tender kiss he and Alexandra shared, and he never forgave himself for acting so badly. Years later, when he finds himself tracking a mysterious band of foes, the mercenary hired to lead him is none other than the enticing girl he unwittingly destroyed. But Alexandra is a woman now, a breathtaking and dangerous woman. Though he must balance his mounting desire for her with his duty to tame the venomous nest of criminals, Philippe soon realizes that winning Alexandra’s affection will mean he must strip his pride, lay his title on the line, and fight harder than ever before. And if dodging a few of her punches means he can maybe get another taste of her, then this adventure might be more explosive than he ever expected.
Taken by His Sword
Get Taken by His Sword (Swords of Chevalerie Book 1) at Amazon.
I have a soft spot for historical romance because those were my first romance books. I like the added social constraints of historicals, but I have some ideas for contemporary and sci-fi romances as well.
Where do you get inspiration for your stories?
I’ll be walking along and suddenly BOOM–story idea. Sometimes it will come from an interaction I see between two people. An exchange I hear, a portrait, a dream. For Taken by His Sword, I had a very vivid dream of a girl holding a sword while everyone around her was wearing fancy, historical clothes. I’m an introverted people watcher so I’m constantly imagining stories involving the strangers I see. Be careful about catching my eye–I might write about you one day…
How did you do research for your book?
Since my book is historical I spent a lot of time reading about French culture, history, and sword fighting in the 1600s. The nice thing about doing a historical is that there isn’t anyone alive that can confirm or deny what I say. If I have some obscure question (did they eat at parties? What type of feather did they use for quills?) and I don’t find the answer in one or two searches, then I just invoke creative license and make it up!
How long have you been writing?
I have been writing for over 20 years! I had a few little literary stories published years ago, but other than that I was struggling to find something to write about that really resonated for me. That’s when I started with romance because I loved romance novels so much growing up.
Do you have another profession besides writing?
Yes! I am a middle school English teacher! But don’t tell my students I wrote a romance novel because they will use it against me.
In today’s tech savvy world, most writers use a computer or laptop. Have you ever written parts of your book on paper?
The first step for me is handwriting the plot in a stream of consciousness style flood in a spiral, college-ruled notebook. This gives me the basic story structure to go off of. When I get stuck on a scene, I go back to the notebook and free write until I spark an idea.
What is something you had to cut from your book that you wish you could have kept?
Oh my goodness I cut about 40 thousand words from that sucker. In the director’s cut, I explored much more of how young Alex came to live with the Duchess and then fall in love with swordfighting and Philippe. I actually think the version that got published is much tighter, but those were really hard cuts at the time!
Do you snack while writing? Favorite snack?
Just coffee. So much coffee.
Get Taken by His Sword (Swords of Chevalerie Book 1) at Amazon.
Florence A. Bliss
Author Bio:
Florence A. Bliss is an author from Las Vegas, NV who has a keen eye for writing love stories full of drama, heartache, humor, and enough seduction to light the pages on fire. With an MFA in creative writing from UNLV, Florence loves to write across genres but has found her home in romance. She lives with her fancy Italian husband and two children. Together they love to travel, explore the ghost towns around Las Vegas, road trip up and down the Pacific coast, and of course drink coffee out of tiny cups (milk for the kids). Florence is an avid people watcher and strives to understand why people do what they do, and she never tires of imagining the stories of what couples have had to overcome in order to come together.
Flat Water is the story of a man who has run about as far away as possible from what he fears the most, home. When Monty Marinnis was a teen, he lost the hero of his world, his big brother Max to a shark attack while the two were surfing. Now, as an adult and married, he must find the determination to return to his family and hometown to face that loss head-on, or else never grow up in the most important ways.
In Flat Water, author Jeremy Broyles first takes the reader on a ride from Nebraska, to the Pacific Ocean, about as far away from an ocean as you can get and still be in the United States. Along the way, as Broyles takes you closer to Monty Marinnis’ hometown on the California coast, he also brings you closer, not just in the distance but in memory, to the true reason Monty left in the first place.
Once back with his mother and sister, he discovers he’s not the only one who lost his brother that day. Max touched the lives of many people. But is Monty open enough to be sympathetic or does he decide it’s all about him?
Monty has kept the truth bottled up for years, even from his wife, Charlotte. She knows the basics but not the whole story. No one does. Not his mother. Not his little sister, Maggie. Maybe even he doesn’t know.
As the story progresses Monty recalls moments with his brother. We get to see Max through a little brother’s eyes while at the same time we as the reader can interpret those same moments from our perspective, be it our own life experiences that could be similar, or simply the view of an older age.
We get to meet other people who experienced the loss of Max Marinnis in different ways than as a little brother. We see how they responded and what they did with their lives. Did they run? Did they move on? Did they merely survive?
One thing about the story is it doesn’t always head where you think it will or even where you think it should, at least not according to what we’ve come to expect from a book or movie. But life does what life does and, if we’re lucky, we end up where we need to be to solve the problems we’ve refused to face. For some, like Monty, it’s a painful place, in more ways than one. But maybe that pain will be what helps him or could be what makes it worse.
Readers will end up with many opinions of what happens by the end of the book but it’s always good to take a step back and look at it not just through our own eyes and thoughts about what happens, but through the eyes of the characters, which is how a story is told in the first place. We need to get out of our way to see how another person copes with a situation. We’re all different and some cope in great ways, some cope by screwing up, and some cope just by living. And this book is about that, coping and facing reality. And perhaps some recovering as well. At least all of that is my interpretation.
You can find Flat Water at Amazon by clickinghere.
Jeremy BroylesAbout the author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeremy Broyles is an Arizona native, originally from the Cottonwood-Jerome-Sedona high desert. He earned his B.A. from Doane College, now University, his M.A. from Northern Arizona University, and his MFA in fiction from Wichita State University. He is a professor with nearly twenty years of experience teaching in higher education, and he currently serves as the creative writing program director at Mesa Community College where he has taught since 2017. His stories have appeared in The MacGuffin, Santa Clara Review, Rock and a Hard Place Magazine, Pigeon Review, Pembroke Magazine, Red Rock Review, BULL, Suburbia Journal, and Reckon Review amongst many others. His novella, What Becomes of Ours, was published in 2014 by ELJ Publications. His novel Flat Water–the story of siblings, surfing, and sharks and what happens when those things come together both in and out of the water–was released by Mint Hill Books, an imprint of Main Street Rag Press, in 2023. He is an aging rider of bicycles, a talentless surfer of waves, and a happily mediocre player of guitars.
In rural Iowa, 1910, Fred Schmidt faces life’s pivotal question: How should he live his life? This compelling historical fiction transports readers into aworld bursting with real and mystical characters. Teamed up with Artie Holberg, the ambitious son of a renowned horse trader, Fred embarks on an enthralling adventure-from a daring scheme in Minnesota to a treacherous escapade in pre-World War I Europe. Encounters with enigmatic figures like Count Von Drathen and the beautifully captivating Baroness Van Essen weave a tapestry of suspense, mystery, and revelation.
Journey with Fred as he navigates the intricate map of destiny, love, and intrigue. Will the mystical voice guiding him reveal the truth he seeks? Dive in to uncover the thrilling conclusion.
Dewayne Rahe brings the next generation of the family from The Last Wild to life as Fred Schimidt becomes his own man in a changing world.
Armed with a knowledge of horses and a spattering grasp of German, Fred heads for Europe to find good breeding stock for his business in America. Along the way his adventures take him in directions he wasn’t expecting and leads to meeting characters not to be believed.
What type of man does this time in Europe and America make? It’s only a few years before WWI, what is Mid American young man, here and over there?
Fred might be searching for horses, but what does he really end up discovering?
Knowledgeable and entertaining, you’ll want to check this one out as a good summer read.
Back Cover of The Search
“Rahe is a great storyteller. In the book, The Search, he intertwines the role of an individual’s fate with the challenges of their time.” – James Epstien
“Rahe is a great storyteller. In the book, The Search, he intertwines the role of an individual’s fate with the challenges of their time.” – Doris Brown
Dewayne Rahe
I am a retired large animal veterinarian having graduated from Iowa State University in May of 1970. My wife Krystal and I were married on June 18, 1970 and presently live on our farm near Dyersville, Iowa not far from the famous “Field of Dreams” movie site. Our four children and their families have followed their careers to various parts of the United States, so much of our time is spent traveling to visit them, their spouses and our ten wonderful grandchildren. Krystal and I decided to use our time during the Covid pandemic to pursue our creative interests; incorporating her art and my writing to tell the untold story of the pioneers that settled northeast Iowa. The result was our first book, “Last of the Wild”, the response to which surprised and overwhelmed us. We have just published the second in the series,”The Search”. This narrative extends the families’ story to the next generation and details their struggles as they try to establish their place in the new land. We felt it was important to tell this story and hope our readers continue to enjoy it.
In an era defined by neon lights, cassette tapes, and the birth of grunge, the music scene of the 80’s was more than just a trend-it was a revolution. This book whisks readers away to a time when music pulsed through the streets, clubs echoed with electric rhythms, and every song told a story. Journey across the State of Texas under the spell of groundbreaking artists and their iconic hits.
Meet passionate fans, ambitious musicians, and unforgettable groupies, all brought together by a shared love for rock ‘n’ roll. Experience the highs of sold-out concerts, the lows of band breakups, and the exhilaration of that first chord. As you delve deeper, discover how music was not only a form of entertainment but a way of life, a rebellion, a movement that shaped a generation.
Blending vivid storytelling with nostalgic anecdotes, this book is more than a mere recollection-it’s a tribute to a time when melodies held memories, lyrics voiced dreams, and every beat was a heartbeat of an era. Whether you’re a seasoned rocker or a new-age music enthusiast, embark on a journey that will reignite your passion for music and remind you of its timeless power to connect and inspire.
On The Road
Get On The Road: A Texas Groupie’s Memoir at Amazon.
What was your inspiration for writing On the Road?
The book is basically a memoir about my adventurous life as a young woman. I knew eventually I would write a book about being a groupie because I knew so many people would be interested in reading about people they looked up too and admired.
There are many books out there about rock music. What makes yours different?
Yes, there is. I feel my book is different simply because of the time frame it was in. The 80’s were a very exciting and vibrant time for Rock and Roll and Metal.
Do you have another profession besides writing?
I’ve been many things in my life. Antique dealer, Paranormal Investigator, Booking/Management for musicians. But by far the thing I am most proud of is being a wife to my wonderful husband and a mother to my two beautiful kids.
Do you ever get writer’s block? What helps you overcome it?
Writer’s block for me would be the cobwebs in my brain. I am 60 years old, and sometimes recalling all those memories from so long ago can be perplexing at times. But thank goodness I was good at keeping so many notes.
What is the last great book you’ve read?
I had it in my library for awhile, but Patti Smith’s memoir about her life with Robert M. She has always been an interesting person to me, and the book is very moving.
What is something you had to cut from your book that you wish you could have kept?
I actually am the one that made the cut. I think I might have sold a lot more copies if I had kept in the smut, the sex. I made the decision to leave the story dangling and let the readers’ minds fill in what they think probably happened simply to be respectful not only to my husband but the musicians in which I had relations with. We are all older, married and have different lives.
If you could go back in time, where would you go?
Oh man, I am perfectly happy right where I am. I got it all right the first time around.
Favorite travel spot?
I’m living there baby!!! Costa Rica!!! Pura Vida!!!
What is something that made you laugh recently?
My husband always makes me laugh, but recently he waters the yard (jungle) with a water hose and we live in the rainforest. DUH!
What is the strangest way you’ve become friends with someone?
Our first taxi driver in Costa Rica, named Carlos. Nicest person you could ever meet. We’ve become fast friends.
Get On The Road: A Texas Groupie’s Memoir at Amazon.
Linda Chadwick
Author Bio:
Linda Chadwick is a lifelong resident of Texas, married thirty plus years, has two grown children, and is a mom to her dog and cat fur babies. She has always had an intense love of writing and has dreamed of being a published author since she was six years old. She has always loved every facet of music. She is an avid collector of antiques and once owned her own antique shop. Her husband Doug is recently retired and they are embarking on their next adventure, moving to Costa Rica. Don’t worry, she states she has many ideas lined up for more books.
Lit World Interviews 