On January 24 we published Austin Gilkeson’s review of Amazon’s new Tolkien-inspired series, The Rings of Power, online. One of the pleasures of the source material, Gilkeson notes, is the “sense of a deep past that can be excavated through careful reading”—a quality that makes the spin-off show possible, yet can’t quite be replicated on […]
Original source: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/02/11/make-it-old/
The Nocturnal Devil is the third installment in the Griffin Knight series. What were some new ideas that you wanted to explore in this book that was different from the first two books?
The POV of the killer. In my head, I could see the book lover following the eyes and hearing the thoughts of the killer, without revealing their identity. I thought it would be cool to throw that curveball at my fans and have a full chapter as a journal entry from the killer, rather than just a small soliloquy/excerpt.
A theme related to time. Since I could visualize the killer, I wanted to place the setting in October; a Halloween special.
Griffin Knight’s backstory. Readers have been begging me to give it, and it was finally time to reveal his past and more about his life. I did not give this in the first novella because it was unrealistic for Griffin to sit down and have a flashback in the middle of an investigation where he is trying to catch a killer who is loose in New York City. Currently, I am revisiting Do Nothing to see if I can somehow give readers an insight into Griffin’s past without spoiling the background information given in book two, and this novella. In A Colossal Injustice, I did not reveal much about Griffin’s past due to the steep cliffhanger that I left in my first short story, Griffin suffering pain received from the Judge case, Griffin Knight being lost in thoughts about his upcoming case, and Griffin Knight reminiscing about his former partner Trenton Barnes. Now, do you understand why I did it this way?
A psychopath. The villain in Do Nothing is not crazy but has a clear motive: revenge. Likewise, the baddies in A Colossal Injustice are also not lunatics and have clear aims: freedom, greed, and power. However, in this novella, this devil is nuts.
A video camera. I added a video camera as icing on the cake.
The serial killer in this book is very compelling. Was there anything about that character that revealed itself while writing?
Yes.
What scene in the book was the most challenging but rewarding for you to write?
Chapter 9.
When and where will your book be available?
It will be published on Amazon this month.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Website
“Miguel Angel Hernandez Jr. is an award-winning published author who specializes in murder and mystery novellas. However, he loves to keep things fresh and interesting by dabbling in suspense, humor, horror, action, and even Sci-Fi.
His bestselling series, Griffin Knight centers around the adventures of renowned New York City detective Griffin Knight, a lone wolf who has a penchant for dangerous situations — even those beyond his jurisdiction.
As a writer, Hernandez aims to please. That is why, as one of his favorite pastimes, he scours the internet for reviews on his books so he can spin stories that truly resonate with his readers.
His influence goes beyond literature and taps into the world of TV, with favorites such as Perry Mason, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, Jack Reacher, Dirty Harry, Paul Kersey, and Ace Attorney.
Hernandez earned his bachelor’s degree from the University at Buffalo and likes to go to church with family, watch anime, and work out during his downtime. He is the winner of:
Literary Titan December 2022 Silver Book Award Winner
Literary Titan January 2023 Silver Book Award Winner
Winter Pencraft 2023 Seasonal Book Award Winner
Firebird 4th Quarter 2022 Book Award Winner
Feathered Quill 2023 Silver Book Award Winner
Write With Light Publications 2022 Annual Book Award Winner
Indies Today 2022 Finalist, Semi-Finalist, and Honorable Mention
Sign up to Hernandez’s mailing list to stay up-to-date on future releases and awards on his website: https://iammahjr.com“
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/02/11/i-could-visualize-the-killer/
Death’s Pale Flag by Gary Simonds is a thrilling book about the experiences of a neurosurgeon who loves his work. Ryan, the protagonist, becomes so involved with the patients that every death on his table takes a part of his heart and soul. He wants to save everyone, which leads to overworking every day and on weekends. His excessive busyness with work becomes a challenge because he starts forgetting his family.
Ryan’s work completely takes over all aspects of his life, and he begins to see ghosts or hallucinations of the people who died due to medical complications. They appear to be the patients he couldn’t save on the operating table. The doctor tries to understand the reasons within his capacity and struggles to decipher these apparitions. This further worsens his health, work, and family life. As his career becomes Ryan’s only respite and his family drifts away from him, one catastrophic event may bring him closer to taking life more seriously.
I found the writing style of this book captivating, and I enjoyed the intense details of brain surgeries in an easy-to-understand language that I could follow. It deepened my appreciation for neurosurgery and the delicate, life-saving procedure. In addition, the author did a brilliant job of expressing how remaining the life of a neurosurgeon can be and how challenging work-life balance can be to achieve, especially with a career in the medical field. Ryan’s emotional journey is captured perfectly, along with other characters in the book, and the plot development is exceptional.
The story’s progression blended well with the period, and I found the neurosurgeon’s personal and professional challenges exciting and, at times, amusing, which only made the book more enjoyable to read. This is a compelling book with a realistic plot woven into a fantasy story. Death’s Pale Flag by Gary Simonds is an excellent book, combining elements of a thriller, medical drama, comedy, and paranormal themes. It’s a worthwhile read, and I recommend it to fans of supernatural thrillers.
ASIN B003R3111E | Pages: 380
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/02/11/deaths-pale-flag/
Godsmack Part 1: The Mother Earth follows a gay businessman who becomes sick and moves to a rural farm to heal and start a new life. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The inspiration for my story was the contemporary archetypal personal healing journey that’s both mental and physical. Many of us had to learn the hard way about proper rest, nutrition, nurturing companionship, and not letting our careers “sap” our life force.
With so many interesting characters in this novel, what was your approach to writing the interactions between characters?
Likable and psychologically deep characters are the most important aspect of storytelling from my viewpoint. If the reader is to engage emotionally and stay with your story to the last page of your novel, I feel they need to relate and understand and be intrigued by the characters in both word and deed. The next level of craft for me is to thoroughly know how they feel about each other while maintaining a realistic and human moment-by-moment behavior that’s not stilted or filled with cliche dialogue. I think my acting training and work in that field has a big impact on my emphasizing all the detailed work on the characters when I sit down to write.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I personally love to examine disparate and opposite themes. I find it challenging in a good way to put varied thematic elements into a story and find hidden connections. My overall goal was to have the reader come away with a deeper understanding of life and human beings. What I chose in Godsmack was to combine death (via the central symbol of heroin) and life (via the plot milestones for the protagonist, and the story’s denouement symbolized by spiritual wisdom achieved at the close of the novel.) Hence the title: God (spirit), smack (the street name for heroin), and The Mother Earth (the mechanism for healing).
Where does the story go in the next book and where do you see it going in the future?
My next book will be a prequel to the current novel which will provide a deep backstory for the criminal gang.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/02/11/the-next-level-of-craft/
Season of the Dragon follows a cursed girl who is grappling with two souls when her father is killed by a dragon which sends her on a quest for vengeance where she becomes the hunted. What got you excited about starting this Dragos Primeri series?
The original inspiration for this story began back in 2016! Initially, I was inspired by the idea of a story with a elemental magic loosely based on my Feng Shui practice. I began talking with readers at comic-cons and book festivals about dragons and elemental magic. The world of Menauld grew out of those conversations. The main character, Quen, took a while to develop. But once I “got” her, I became excited for the possibility of the story I could tell about her—and the mysterious shadow soul within her.
Quen Santu was a character that faces a lot of obstacles. What were some sources that informed her character development?
While I don’t outline every scene for my books, I know where I want my characters to wind up at the end. For Quen, I had a premise that guided her character arc, and thus informed the conflict. The idea was this: To become our most powerful selves, we must accept the truth of what—and who—we are. That’s the “why” for writing the book, and the idea for the Quen character came from that. But an additional, and very important, idea soon developed: the bonds of family. Quen, for good reasons, questions whether she is lovable if people learn the truth about her. So that first idea—embracing the truth of who/what you are—butts up against the second story question—will people love me if I reveal my truth? That emotional question forms the spine of the story. All the fun with dragons, mages, and rogues flows from these essential questions for the main character.
What scene in the book did you have the most fun writing?
The romantic scenes are all fun to write, but the scene I enjoyed writing most is the drinking scene in the Juinar Inn. Quen’s found family is kicking back with a few drinks after a difficult day, and it was fun to imagine this group of rogue-type characters getting “pished.” I wrote a drinking song called “Song of Niyadi” that kicks off the book at the beginning. It was a blast to re-work that song into bawdy lyrics—and hella difficult as I had to stay within the rhythm of the song with the same number of syllables! But hey, that’s fun for a word nerd such as myself.
What can readers expect in book two in the Dragos Primeri series?
It’s difficult to answer without giving away the end of Season of the Dragon… I can say that book two will focus mainly on Aldewin, and readers will learn much more about this mysterious man from the north, and learn his secrets that remained at the end of book one. And as with book one, readers can expect that book two will immerse them once again in the world of Menauld—and the northern continent, Tinox. Oooh, I have such fun things planned! SotD truly is just the beginning.
Author’s Linktree: https://linktr.ee/nataliewrightauthor
“A dazzling epic fantasy kickoff that rewards and upends reader expectations.”—Editor’s Pick, BookLife Reviews
Quen wasn’t born to save the world. She was created to destroy it.
Quen Santu works for her father tanning hides, waiting for her tides to turn. Everyone she grew up with has already committed to a herdclan. But Quen was born cursed with a second, shadow soul. Sensing the oddity within, animals run from her—an untenable trait in a herding culture. On the cusp of her twentieth year, Quen is at risk of becoming pesha—no one.
Then, a dragon kills her father. The murder turns Quen’s life upside down and dashes her hope for an honorable life. As her anger grows, so does her untapped power. Fueled by a quest for vengeance, she joins a vigilante group of rogues hunting the beast. But her journey soon reveals a terrible truth: beyond the safety of her desert village, she has caught the attention of dangerous eyes. And now, she has become the hunted.
At the end of her journey, Quen’s fate will be sealed. Can Quen overcome her curse and unite her warring souls? Or will her shadow soul consume her—and everyone she loves?
The fate of her homeland—and all she loves—hangs in the balance.
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/02/11/if-i-reveal-my-truth/
The Transformation of America provides readers with a stimulating read and a sketch of growing up in pre-1960 America and contrasts those times with contemporary society. Why was this an important book for you to write?
Just before his death Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendelll Holmes talked about death tugging at his ear saying come with me. He then went on to say that there is that little finishing canter when a man has one final task to complete before death finally arrives. On my 90th birthday I decided that there was one last task I wanted to complete before death finally overtook me. And that was I wanted to write about my life in my early days and what it was like growing up in an America that the majority of the current population have no first hand knowledge of and contrast that to what life is like in America today.
There are probably thousands of books published every year and the average American cannot possibly take the time to read through many books containing hundreds of pages. In fact, many of these books probably go largely unread. For this reason I have purposely kept my book short but I am confident that I have been able to include the most essential aspects of the issues I have discussed in a clear, concise and unbiased manner. By eliminating surplus and irrelevant words the impact is much more likely to leave the reader with much to think about.
Our Country has changed greatly over the past decades and it will continue to change in future decades. I have tried to highlight in an accurate and unbiased manner the major issues facing the American people today and have attempted to provide solutions to them. Realizing that everyone who reads this book will derive their own conclusions and may or may not agree with everything I say I will simply leave it as a legacy to be judged on its merits alone.
I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
Writing this book was not difficult as writing comes easily to me and I have simply described things in what I consider to be a fair, accurate and unbiased manner. Perhaps writing the book did bring back some moments of sadness when I briefly described the relationship I had with a young Japanese woman while on leave from Korea. It was a very happy relationship and I remember our last night together before I had to return to Korea when we were both in tears. But I returned home, got married and resumed my life. About ten years ago I wrote her a letter as she had given me an address. The letter came back two months later undelivered with Japanese writing all over it. I then contacted the Japanese Embassy. They suggested I should contact the City of Tokyo which I did. I received a very nice email from a City Official telling me how impressed he was that I was still interested in this woman but saying that there was no way they could trace her and that in any event they could not give out personal information. Two days later I received a second email from this City Official telling me how sorry he was that they could not help me. He went on to tell me that his father had served on a Japanese submarine during the war and that he was still alive and not to hesitate to contact him if he could be of help in the future. As for the Japanese woman, our love affair turned out to be a case of two ships passing in the night but there will always be a place for her in my heart and I hope someday to meet up with her in the next world so we can spend eternity together.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
My purpose in writing this book was two fold. One was to provide a glimpse of what it was like growing up in the 1940s and 1950s and to show how the Country began to change during the 1960s. We went from a nation of tranquility and innocence to a nation of liberalism creating a whole spectrum of problems that have only grown worse leading to a violent and divided nation today. The second purpose of the book is to describe the major issues facing the American people today and an attempt to provide some satisfactory solutions in solving them.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from this book?
Our Country is approaching the crossroads between democracy and dictatorship. We have gone from the wishes of our forefathers for a government of the people by the people and for the people to where government is gaining more and more control over the people often ignoring the will of a majority of the people. Our Country must be governed by the will of a majority of the American people. It is up to the American people to unite and rise up to ensure that freedom, democracy and the right of individual choice will always be preserved.
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/02/11/approaching-the-crossroads/
‘Daisy Jones & The Six’ and other great books now available in paperback
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For lovers or friends: relationship advice books on Valentine’s Day
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