In the February 23, 2023, issue of the Review, the journalist and critic Ursula Lindsey writes about the Arab Spring as recounted in Yasmin El-Rifae’s book Radius: A Story of Feminist Revolution. Through interviews and her own account, El-Rifae tells the story of the rise of Opantish (Operation Anti–Sexual Harassment and Assault), an organization formed in response […]
Original source: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/03/11/whose-streets-ursula-lindsey/
The Possibility of Everywhere is a story of a woman’s global journey to discover the transformative power of feminine storytelling and self-discovery. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I was fascinated thinking about the first stories young girls tell themselves about themselves—and about the impact childhood stories have on shaping our adult lives.
My opening chapter was inspired by my sketchy memories of living in Casablanca, Morocco at age six. I chose to place my protagonist, Cindy Hollingworth, at the same age living her life surrounded by the magic of Morocco while she imagines herself becoming a queen or a goddess.
I show this spunky young girl all horizons are open to her until the day circumstances create a colliding story convincing Cindy that because she is a girl, her life is destined to be one of invisibility and inferiority. In my own life I lived with the self-doubts that became embedded inside the tension-filled story Cindy moves inside of until I found my transformative story. A transformative experience that Cindy must also discover if she is to become who she is meant to be.
Cindy Hollingsworth is a compelling character. What were some driving ideals behind her character’s development?
Cindy hears her mother say she has “sand in her shoes” about the same time when her family must leave Casablanca to return to Oklahoma City. As Cindy departs, she does so carrying the spark of a desire to see and to know the whole wide world. This desire she holds while not yet realizing that what she actually seeks is to find her voice and her value.
Cindy’s wanderlust I used as a path to show the ideals that propelled young Cindy before she could understand or name the deeper seeking propelling her journey forward.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
One important theme I wanted to explore can be summed up by saying: Your story, my story and our stories matter, and how we tell our stories to ourselves and others shapes our lives and can shape the world.
A second theme explores the rise of the feminine that Cindy discovers as she listens to women’s stories and hears ancient goddess myths in places far away as well as close to home.
A related theme involves the importance of the Sacred Feminine for a deep and balanced understanding of the Divine. The theme propelled me through two decades spent writing this novel.
Thirdly, I was excited to explore the theme of “Transformational Travel” with its potential to change hearts and minds and thereby to change the world—from the inside out.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I have a chapter included in a composition of women’s stories entitled, “Midlife Awakening,” curated by best-selling author Cathy Derksen, due out in April of 2023 from Action Takers Publishing.
Since it took two decades to complete my first novel, I laughingly have said my next book would be entitled, “How to Write a Book and Transform Your Life in Twenty Years or Less”. However, since most people seek quick solutions rather than decades of searching, I have decided to write short pieces in blog posts about the themes that touch me most. This provides time for launching “Feminine Quest: Transformational Travel.”
I will facilitate travel that offers both inner and outer exploration of old stories and new possibilities. While traveling in a small group, participants are invited to leave their ordinary world to explore the extraordinary beyond everyday tasks and responsibilities. In the process, and through connection with those from other cultures—especially connection with local women and their stories— wider perspectives about the world and about our individual lives can arise.
“Feminine Quest: Transformational Travel” to India is now scheduled for late January 2024.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Website
As a college girl in Spain, Cindy encounters duende and the mysticism of Saint Teresa of Ávila. As a jet-setting Pan American stewardess she discovers the influence of Isis in Egypt. From fierce and tender Kali in Nepal, from strong voices heard beneath a mango tree in Kenya, from wild hearts met along the backroads of the USA-Cindy senses feminine power rising as a transforming balm.
Yet forces want to crush the emergence. When her boss cruelly dismantles the international women’s empowerment program Cindy creates, she searches for feminine power within herself and watches it touch her husband’s aching heart.
In The Possibility of Everywhere through adventure, love and loss, we experience how much women’s stories matter and realize that how we tell our stories to ourselves shapes our lives and the world.
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/03/11/a-transformative-experience/
The Girl in the Blue Blazer follows a determined woman who sets out to make a man pay for his past actions. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
When the #MeToo movement started in 2017, I remember seeing the hashtag everywhere. Although I had empathy for the victims, I suppressed the thoughts and memories of my own sexual assault experience. When I was a little girl, my mother’s boyfriend touched me inappropriately numerous times and at one point tried to force his member into my mouth. As I continued to see the hashtag, I added my name to the list. It was at that point, I knew I would one day write a book that shined a spotlight on this issue. Thus, five years later I began writing The Girl in the Blue Blazer.
Pamela is everything a strong female protagonist should be. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
When writing Pamela, I was driven by my own experiences and the experiences of other women who have worked for and have been taken advantage of by men in power. Additionally, I thought about people who have lost love ones at the hands of another person and that have never seen those individuals receive justice. Justice and accountability were definitely ideas that fueled my development of Pamela.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Two themes that I hope resonate with readers are Justice–Justice for the socio-economically disadvantaged that are wronged by the elite without recourse. Justice for women who are at the mercy of their powerful male bosses. And secondly, Good vs. Evil. I believe that there are evil people in the world who have no conscience. I also believe that there are good people in the world that would give their life to save another human being. I thank God that there are more of the latter in our world.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
My next book will also be suspense. Similar to the Girl in the Blue Blazer, it will contain two separate stories being told concurrently with a common theme that binds the two together. It will be released in early 2024. I want to thank readers everywhere for their interest in The Girl in the Blue Blazer. I look forward to them reading my next book.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
In 2019, Pamela Carter is determined to secure her dream internship with billionaire businessman Andrew Clifford III.
Twenty-five years ago, in 1993, Andrew is just starting out. Without any of his later fame or fortune, the party boy becomes a legitimate hero when he intervenes to save assaulted Elizabeth Westlake. Sure, she’s a waitress at a strip club, but that’s not her dream. Elizabeth is determined to write her way out of the Harlem hellhole she lives in. Maybe Andrew is the ticket? Even the best-laid plans go awry, and for Elizabeth, tragedy looms.
Pamela is impossible not to notice and she soon becomes Andrew’s prime intern. But, just as with Elizabeth, not all goes to plan. The stocks are plummeting. The company is careening. And then, Andrew himself goes missing. Will Pamela also be plunged into the tragedy that surrounds this man? Or is Pamela the one person who really knows what happened that fateful night in 1993? More than a company is at stake, as Andrew struggles for survival. But sometimes, the past is too powerful. Some secrets refuse to remain buried. Sometimes, truth kills.
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/03/11/justice-and-accountability/
“A Bad Time To Meet The Family” follows Thessa and Corlis as they navigate high society and face deceitful challenges that threaten to tear apart their friendship. What were some new ideas you wanted to explore in this book?
At the end of “A Bad Place to Be a Hero”, Thessa resolves to give up her life as a robber and settle down in New Montres. At that point, it’s a satisfying ending to her part of the story─but, in truth, this sort of thing isn’t as simple as making one decision. Someone who spent twenty years being pampered in a marble palace isn’t just going to strike out on her own and get everything right. Besides the plot about Corlis, I was most interested in exploring how her life is affected by the choices (and mistakes) she makes while finding her own place in life; how much she misses the comforts of her old home; and what it takes for her to turn her back on that world for good.
What were some challenges you felt were important to developing your characters in the story?
There are a LOT of characters to juggle in a story like this, and it’s always a delicate balancing act. On the one hand, you want to make them distinct enough so that even if their names don’t immediately stick with the reader, their personalities would be immediately recognizable. On the other hand, though, you want to avoid reducing them to broad and predictable stereotypes. My stories are about people first and foremost, so it’s important to me that they should feel like actual humans with depth and complexity.
What scene in the book did you have the most fun writing?
Without a doubt, Porla and Ladec’s debate whether “the first one” or “the second one” is better.
What can readers expect in The Bad Series Book 3?
As the stinger implies, we will be seeing some old familiar faces again. Besides that, the plot will also prominently feature certain elements of the world that have been repeatedly hinted at in the first two books.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/03/11/finding-her-own-place-in-life/
Thaddeus and the Master is the second book in the trilogy; what was the initial idea behind this story, and how did that transform as you were writing the novel?
I’ve always felt getting started somewhere new, while exciting in many ways, can also be daunting and, sometimes, anxiety-producing. So, I thought, now that my characters had achieved their goal of admission to the College of Sorcerers, what would it be like for them ‘breaking in’ to the Sorcerceral school culture – making gaffs, finding allies, taking their ‘places’ and so on.
I tried to maintain that mind-set throughout, at least to the point where, as is most often the case with new places and time, it starts to get sorted out and, therefore, becomes easier.
What was your favorite character to write for and why? Was there a scene you felt captured the character’s essence?
Asullus, the old gray Mule, has always been my favorite to write for and he’s the one I find I’m most often asked about. I’ve even had a couple of Gentle Readers wonder when the Asullus Plush Velvet Stuffed Mule will be available.
One scene where I believe his character is most truly seen is when he coaches the Apprentice kick-ball team in their match against the Seniors. He is wise, loyal to a fault, sturdy and staunch and not above slipping a hoof on the weighing scales if it will benefit his charges.
How did you handle balancing the power and use of magic in the story?
In the series, it is made clear from the start that while one can do amazing things with Sorcerous craft, there is a steep price – which turns out to be the shortening of the practitioner’s lifetime with each use. However, the Sorcerer can never know ahead of time how much of his life-force will be used up with each spell. It is entirely random and changes, even with the exact same spell and the exact same user, from time to time. This tends to provide a cautionary brake to all but the most rash of Sorcerers.
Can you tell us where the book goes and where we’ll see the characters in the next book?
We see that, joining together, the Apprentices are able to detect there is a great Evil at work in the College, and that their close bonding is the one factor that will allow them to first, identify, then, second, challenge this dark force.
The third book of the first trilogy will show how the young Apprentices and their female counter-parts are finally able to confront not only a Fallen Master but, behind him, a Daemon of the Ninth Level. No small task.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Website
The three Brother Apprentices have arrived at the College of Sorcerers only to face new challenges and tribulations set upon them by both the senior students and the Faculty.
Hindering their advancement at College are a collection of obstacles including a half-mad Centaur, a Green Goblin, the last living Father of Man, drug-seeking Sprites, sentient warrior statues, the Guardian of the Temple of Time, murderous attacks by Excelsior-Class brigands, Graecolian Slavers, the uncloaked evil of a twisted Master Sorcerer and the Pale Horse of Death.
. Can Thaddeus truly trust the mysterious Prince from far-distant Mauretesia?
. Can Thaddeus and his three friends solve the riddle of what lies behind the mirrors?
. Can Rolland prove how the College’s cook can claim to have fathered the leader of Fountaindale’s Thieve’s Guild?
. Can the Daemon’s challenge to Thaddeus be answered by his brother Apprentices?
. Can the ancient Lay of Man unravel the fate of the Father of Man?
. Can the four friends alter the dread fate prophesied by the Pale Horse?
In Louis Sauvain’s epic fantasy Book One, Thaddeus of Beewicke, the tortuous and danger-laden journey to the Sorcerer’s school is at last completed. In Book Two, Thaddeus and the Master, the young Apprentices at the College of Sorcerers learn first-hand the life-threatening risks of spell-casting, hand-to-hand combat and confrontation with hostile upperclassmen, disdainful Faculty and the deadly presence of the school’s Daemon.
Sauvain’s strength prevails creating a page-turner of strong and vigorous cast of characters.
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/03/11/the-most-rash-of-sorcerers/
Vivencias is a powerful and captivating collection of poems that truly captures the essence of human emotions. What inspires you to write poetry?
What most inspires me to write poetry is love, sensibility, and the necessity of human warmth. The ability to connect with others who have gone through what I have experienced or are currently going through it inspires me to keep writing as I wish to further understand human emotions and all the happiness, hurt and healing they bring.
“Karma” is one of my favorite poems. Do you have a poem that stands out to you personally in this collection?
“Angel Caido” is a poem that stands out to me personally because it is the culmination of falling down and having the strength to stand up again and allowing yourself to experience that rebirth.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this poetry collection?
Love, passion, betrayal, loneliness, pain, and bitterness were all themes that were important for me to explore in this collection because they were all the emotions I was feeling and wanted to release through words on paper. What was most important for me to explore in this poetry collection was bringing to light the human experience and the emotions that we all may feel but sometimes are afraid to talk about with others.
Do you plan to write and publish more works of poetry?
I am indeed planning on writing and publishing more works of poetry and continuing to explore human connection and human emotion through my own experiences.
Author Links: GoodReads | Instagram
Amor, alegría, dolor, soledad, tristeza, amargura, desengaños. Estos son algunos sentimientos que en nosotros grabados están. Es lo que resumen las vivencias del ser humano.
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/03/11/experience-that-rebirth/