The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly or for a monthly wrap up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme
Fraterfest will wrap up tomorrow night. Winchester got sick after his vaccinations and gave me a scare, but 12 hours of fasting seemed to turn things around. Our weather is crazy from record lows to highs in the 80s. This week I’ve worn everything from a coat to shorts. I am staying on top of my reviews. Now finding room for all of them on my calendar is another matter all together. I am going to try really hard to take advantage of the Kindle Unlimited I signed up for and want to read a minimum of 2 books a month from there. Today we are watching Hazel. We haven’t seen her in a week, so I am excited. Stay Caffeinated.
Last Week on the Blog
Guardian Of Chaos By Michelle Manus (audio review)
The Whisper Man By Alex North (audio review)
Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club By Roselle Lim (book review, guest post)
Travel By Bullet By John Scalzi (audio review)
Where The Drowned Girls Go By Seanan McGuire (audio review)
This Week on the Blog
Ghost 19 By Simone St. James (audio review)
Vanishing Hour By Laura Griffin (book review)
Twenty Three By Murray McDonald (audio review)
Rosemary And Rue By Seanan McGuire (audio review)
The Midnight Club By Christopher Pike (audio review)
New Arrivals at the Caffeinated Cafe
Learn more:
Deadbeat Druid by David R. Slayton
Raven Unveiled by Grace Draven
Biergarten of the Damned by Seana Kelly
The Final Girls by Mira Grant
Special thanks to Penguin Audio & Tantor Audio
Around The Blogosphere
Let’s talk bookish ➙ Do book titles matter? @Books and Dachshunds
Thankful for Books Giveaway Hop November 21-28th
#HoHoHoRAT2022 Readathon Sign Up! November 18-30th
Caffeinated PR
Open Events
I’ve got two events coming up and have ARCs and ALCs available.
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Found follows a woman who must climb out of the abyss of her grief and help solve a series of crimes before they strike too close to home. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
One of my own interesting (if not notorious) skills has been the ability to sense whether a physical object (belonging to someone else) is, in fact, lost; if it isn’t, I often find it, sometimes in the proverbial haystack. These objects are usually no more consequential than an earring, or a glove. But one day, the idea of the act of finding small things took root: what if the objects were not so inconsequential? I can’t remember the details, but I love research, and research led me to Stevi Jackson’s book about NecroSearch, an actual volunteer forensic group devoted to clearing cold cases by finding bodies via science. I love science, most especially when a human is at the wheel.
My personal histories of loss and grief connect, over space and time, to other histories of loss and grief. The loss of a child is a fraught subject for discussion—an unimaginable event until it happens. Despite our best empathetic intentions, grief of this kind can carry a whiff of contagion. I wanted to find out if there was more to Eleanor’s emotional quarantine than simple retreat—if there was anything like strength in her admission that she had failed to move on.
Safety too was another bee in my bonnet—a concept, I believe, grossly mythologized by and riddled with empty rhetoric. Safety is not the absence of occurrence. Safety lies on the other side of occurrence, or perhaps, on either side—and has, I think, something to do with community. Anyway, these were my concerns and fascinations when developing FOUND. That, and the ongoing war over body autonomy.
Eleanor Clay is a compelling character. What were some driving ideals behind her character’s development?
I didn’t know much about Eleanor when I started writing, except for her pain. That unknowing drove all the questions about what life after the death of a child might look like for her, from base survival to some sort of revival. At one stage of the manuscript, I got some criticism from a trusted source: Eleanor was too obtuse, too absent—hard to relate to, despite her tragedy. I listened to that feedback, and also saw the value of not being too on the nose with Eleanor’s development. Grief is, or can be, alienating. It’s also democratizing—everybody experiences it. Eleanor understands this, and this understanding makes her refreshingly non-judgmental. She has very little ego—not always such a good thing—and abundant, almost childlike integrity. In the end, she remains mysterious, even to herself. I love her, and feel close to her, and feel like she earns her gains in the course of the story. That said, I still don’t know everything about her.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
When my eldest was a freshman or sophomore in high school, she and I went to a presentation for an organization that sponsored short-term travels abroad for middle and high school students. While I disliked the oppressive air of hegemony about the whole “Ambassador Program,” the biggest red flag was (what seemed to me) the ridiculous repetition of the words “safe” and “safety.” How could such a thing be so glibly guaranteed, I wondered? I would rather have understood how organizers were prepared to support the children in the event of an unsafe situation. So, thematically, I wanted to explore the chasm between the promise of safety and what it is to actually feel safe in an unsafe world.
I wanted to think about the various ways we “lose” people, including ourselves, and, of course, how we may be found. In addition, I was thinking about my own autonomy, and about other people’s ability to make decisions about their bodies. I was thinking about the deep impact of family—the one we are born into as well as those we create and nourish.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
Two projects are paying rent on my desktop currently. The Olfactorist is a collection of short stories, speculative about subjects including climate change and food ethics, connected to one another through the bodies and timelines of the characters. There are funny bits, and dare I say it, a measure of whimsy. I also have a poetry collection out for submission. My first, spare change, was a finalist for the 2022 Oregon Book Awards Stafford/Hall award, much to my delight and astonishment. While spare change considers personal grief and loss, this new work, even my dreams are over the constant state of anxiety, plays with form and shape and is more focused on the bigger beauties and tragedies of our contemporary moment—and, hopefully, is also funny in bits.
I’m kicking around the idea of a sequel to FOUND. Eleanor and I may have more to say to one another.
In Irene Cooper’s Found, what compels me is the compassion among characters, their empathy for one another, and their insights into what it means to lose a child. The suspense may take me on a ride, but it’s the other passengers that keep me in the car.” Beth Alvarado, Jillian in the Borderlands
Ten years after the drowning of her daughter in the Colorado River, Eleanor Clay subsists finding corpses for Bristlecone Springs PD, until the day she finds three-year-old Lizzie—living, but left-for-dead in a culvert under the railroad tracks.
The crime unspools to a series of brutal kidnappings implicating a local megachurch, a craft beer company, and a cannabis consortium. With the help of Althea Giordano, effervescent forensic botanist for CorpsPursuit-a volunteer organization that recovers cold-case bodies-and Elan DePeña, bike cop for BSPD, Eleanor must climb out of the dark hell of her grief to end the violence before it hits too close to home.
In FOUND by Irene Cooper, characters encroach upon one another’s territories and disturb the ground. Eleanor is pushed out of her dark apartment to face the violence others read about, and sometimes, even unwittingly, perpetrate. Like Eleanor, we look for a villain, quietly suspecting trouble is closer than imagined-maybe, if we admit it, within ourselves.
Reaper follows a warrior who is sent to find a demon trying to buy weapons of the Apocalypse and raise the Four Horsemen back to life. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
My inspiration for this story was simply my Christian walk everyday. As I was writing this story, I wanted to not only tell a good story but give a realistic metaphor for my walk in Christ. This is not a hip hip hooray story where the reader knows from the beginning that good will prevail, the hero stands over the vanquished monster. No, when the reader finishes this book, the reaction should be whew! He made it. Some good guys don’t make it in this story, Jaml is not always the victor and like our daily lives, we don’t always have a great ending. Sometimes the ending is simply survival. The action is fast and intense, I hope the reader can connect with this idea that life is a struggle and sometimes winning isn’t pretty.
Jaml is a reaper whose job is to fight demons and protect the human world. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
I wanted to create a superhero but in a Christian light. This meant no aliens, rich guys or gamma rays. What better way for a Christian superhero than to be able to use Divine power? Hence the ability to tap into the power of the Reaper Angel. After using the power, he would have to rest and rely on others to watch his back. The inner conflict he has to come to grips with is that he is a monk, a religious leader which means he is tasked with saving souls. Yet, he is a trained killer. The perfect fighting machine who can draw on the powers of an Angel. Complete opposite sides of life and he is faced with this dilemma several times in the book. He is tunnel visioned in his mission and only focused on the mission. no romance here (not yet)
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
A realistic Christian walk. That is the major theme that I wanted to get across. The walk is not easy and often not pretty. There are sacrifices and failures along the way. Like most of us, we come out of these situations bruised and bloody (emotionally and sometimes physically). We don’t have a huge party, we are just grateful to come out of it. Alongside that, he is faced with racism and how people feel about an African. Another theme is how easily man is led down the wrong path by people in authority. They see the evil but refuse to call it out. Easier to just follow along. Many humans know who the demons are but would rather just fit in.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I am working on the sequel to this book. The book will be called Reaper’s Sacrifice. It will introduce new takes on monsters. Fallen Angels will play a larger role in this book and the twist at the end will be mind blowing. I am hoping to have this book out by the summer of 2023.
Author Links: Twitter | Facebook
Before there were Superpowers- There were Godpowers.
With the birth and death of Jesus Christ, the War of Hosts is complete and the Casting of the Fallen is finished. The war for mankind’s soul has shifted from Heavenly battles, to battles of men. With the coming of a new Era, Lucifer has infected the population of man with demons of all sorts. To combat these evil forces, God has charged his human warriors, Reapers, to root out and destroy the demons in order to pave the way for the first Apostles, who will cultivate the young Christianity religion.
Infused with the power of the Reaper Angel, these warriors roam across the land battling devilspawn, and restoring faith and hope during a fragile time in man’s existence. One such Reaper, Jaml, begins his mission searching for an unknown demon intent on buying the weapons of the Apocalypse to raise the Four Horsemen back to life. Jaml soon finds himself surrounded by an infestation of evil. With a battle monk, Kem, at his side and a weapon of the Apocalypse in his hands, Jaml races against time and the Fallen to recover all the weapons of the Apocalypse before the Book of Revelations is unleashed.
ZONT-2 and Beyond follows a Russian man who is trying to save the earth by building a solar shield but he needs help, and not everyone wants the project to succeed. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
It’s probably clear to most informed people that governments have not done enough, and are not doing enough, to combat climate change. Many of these folks also see the growing number of obscenely wealthy oligarchs as being pure exploiters. The book is plea for some of these wealthy, non-government leaders to step forward and use their own initiative and creativity to attempt something really good to help save humanity and our fragile planet.
I found the science in the novel to be well developed. What kind of research did you do to make sure you got it all right?
I leaned heavily on my professional experiences as a 35 year oil and gas engineer and manager, and a space exploration buff. The internet helped fill in the rest. I may not have got it right. I hope technically savvy and informed readers will point out its faults… together with suggested fixes. Because… we may indeed need to build a space-based solar umbrella to get out of the dire fix we are in!
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I wanted to give people some hope that all is not lost. We are ingenious creatures, and often all that is lacking is a passionate, capable leader to invigorate the right team and solve the most daunting of problems. I suggest that the social and geopolitical problems twenty years from now will be at least as worrisome as they are now. And… that there will be as many political problems as technical when embarking on a globe spanning and space-based mega project like this one. Toughness, broad-spectrum intelligence and perseverance will be essential for success.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
Undecided, unfortunately. Another sci-fi adventure novel to go with my eight published books.
Tales from Another Dimension is a collection of short stories centered around classic science fiction themes. What was the inspiration for this collection of short stories?
I am constantly inspired to write. But some of the biggest influences are, Asimov, Heinlein, HG Wells, Robert Silverberg, and Dan Brown. I am also a huge fan of The Twilight Zone, X-Files, Spielberg, and Doctor Who.
What were some of your inspirations as a writer?
One of the major themes throughout these 10 stories, is that of prejudice and misconceptions of people, or things that are different than ourselves. I wanted to explore prejudice and other qualities that are not attractive.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
In the case of sci-fi, we are always quick to judge aliens, robots, and other beings, yet we don’t look at ourselves.
Each story in this book explores this from different angles, and hopefully makes us re-evaluate how we look at the world.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
“With the help of an ancient alien relic, a band of heros will save the universe from the tyrannical Galactic Realm.”
The Orb is due out early next year. It will be a novella/novel, and will be part of a trilogy. It is a space opera full of fun characters, twists and space science.
Author Links: Website | Amazon
How will HG Wells react when he awakes 200 years in the future on a strange planet, faced with a terrible truth?
Two young brothers make a frightening discovery about the neighbors.
Do robots secretly want to rule us all?
A scientist goes to extremes to change the future of mankind. But is it possible to change our destiny?
Tales from another dimension is a strange and fantastical collection of ten short stories. Robbie Sheerin is inspired by classic Sci-fi, invoking nightmarish twists and turns with each story. Travel to another dimension and meet strange characters, sometimes human, and at times not so human. They will make you question the solidity of the earth and mankind. Explore prejudice, fear, imagination, kindness, empathy, and human frailty.
Justice in the Age of Judgment examines the role of media and the public amidst publicized murder trials in recent history. How much research did you undertake for this book, and how much time did it take to put it all together?
We spent several years researching the cases in this book, and as we wrote new events unfolded, including the cases of George Floyd, Kyle Rittenhouse and Ahmaud Arbery, that we felt were relevant and should be included as well
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
A central focus of the book is how the media, including social media, impact on high profile criminal cases, and how they can influence and promote quick opinions that are often different than the facts as they are presented in a court of law.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your book?
That our legal system is worth fighting for, that decisions about guilt or innocence need to be made in a court of law, not in the court of public opinion
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website
From Amanda Knox to O.J., Casey Anthony to Kyle Rittenhouse, our justice system faces scrutiny and pressure from the media and public like never before. Can the bedrock of “innocent until proven guilty” survive in what acclaimed Seattle attorney and legal analyst Anne Bremner calls the age of judgement?
When unscrupulous Italian prosecutors waged an all-out war in the media and courtroom to wrongly convict American exchange student Amanda Knox for a murder she didn’t commit, family and friends turned to renowned Seattle attorney and media legal analyst Anne Bremner to help win her freedom. The case was dubbed the “trial of the decade” and would coincide with the explosion of social media and a new era of trying cases in public as much as the courtroom. While Italian prosecutors, the press, and online lynch mobs convicted Knox in the court of public opinion, Bremner would draw upon her decades in the courtroom and in front of the camera to turn the tide with a new kind of defense in pursuit of justice.
In Justice in the Age of Judgement, Anne Bremner and Doug Bremner take us inside some of the biggest cases of recent times and offer their expert, thought-provoking insights and analysis as our legal system faces unprecedented forces fighting to tip the scales of justice their way. Why couldn’t prosecutors convict O.J. Simpson despite all of the evidence seemingly proving he killed his wife Nicole? Could a jury remain unbiased in the face of overwhelming public pressure in the trial of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd? Why was Kyle Rittenhouse exonerated after shooting three people (killing two) with an assault rifle at a violent rally despite widespread media reports seemingly proving his guilt, and national calls for his conviction?
Justice in the Age of Judgement is an unparalleled and unflinching look at the captivating cases tried on Twitter and TV, where the burden of proof and fundamental legal tenet of “innocent until proven guilty” is under assault from the court of public opinion.
Norma McCorvey is the real name of the woman many Americans now know as the Roe in
. Her story shows the ways class, religion and money shape abortion politics in the United States.
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Guardian Of Chaos By Michelle Manus (audio review)
