In March 2015 I visited a friend, the Argentinean journalist Sandra Crucianelli, and her husband, Gabriel, for dinner in Bahía Blanca, a coastal city about four hundred miles south of Buenos Aires. I had just moved to Argentina from Dubai, seeking to report on environmental issues. Bahía Blanca, known as the “great metropolis of the […]
Original source: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/05/28/white-bay-argentina/
On May 11 Title 42 finally expired. The public health order, issued by the Trump administration in March 2020, almost completely shut down asylum processing at our southern border; in the last three years the US has conducted approximately 2.8 million expulsions of migrants, regardless of their reasons for trying to enter the country. The […]
Original source: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/05/28/asylum-in-limbo/
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.
School is over, and summer is in full swing here. On Friday I took the grandkids to the park, and they got an ice cream. We are lying low this weekend, as I will have the Royals all day beginning Tuesday. Stay Caffeinated.
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A special thanks to Macmillan Audio
The YA Urban Fantasy audiobook tour is up….Would really love some support for this one. I also have a delightful historical fiction romance.
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Original source: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/2023/05/sunday-post-577-long-weekend.html
I Want to Be in Sales When I Grow Up! follows a young girl in school who is assigned the career of sales to write a report on and must now figure out what sales is. What was the inspiration for your story?
My daughter started selling Girl Scout when she was 6 years old. She wanted to sell the most cookies in her group so we talked about different sales strategies. We decided she would do a video “pitch” about why people should buy from her and then did a blog post about it and share it with my audience with a link to buy Girl Scout cookies. She ended up having the most sales in the entire town. The second year we took a similar approach and she was the top seller again. Around this time I was traveling every week for work and I wanted to find a way to connect with my daughter and help her understand a little more about what daddy did for a living which is Sales Training. With the Girl Scout experiences being directly related to sales we decided to write the book based on those experiences.
What were some educational aspects that were important for you to include in this children’s book?
It educates kids on key values like hard work, curiosity and helping people.
The art in this book is fantastic. What was the art collaboration process like with illustrator Juan Diaz?
I wrote the story and sent in some pictures of me and my family. Juan’s original depiction of the story was spot on and didn’t need much feedback from me. it was a simple but effective process.
What is one thing you hope children take away from your book?
That Sales is a profession they could and should be proud of if they decided to eventually pursue it as a career.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/05/28/to-connect-with-my-daughter/
Wanderlust follows a best-selling author and bachelor who buys a home on the beach where he falls in love before having his life turned upside down. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
While looking through our safe, I found long-forgotten documents giving me custody of my brother and sister-in-law’s children should the unthinkable happen. They are adults now and thankfully, the documents weren’t needed. I thought, what if a couple of young professionals were tasked with a few young children? What would happen to their dynamic before they even got to know one another?
What was your process in writing the character’s interactions to develop the bond they have?
I focus on making my characters authentic. I start with a fresh notebook for each story. Once I name a character, I describe physical attributes and make note of their positive traits and flaws. In Erica and Chase, they lacked communication skills. It was my intention, since they were so new to their relationship and when things changed, neither knew how to express it out of fear of the other’s thoughts. I’m a people watcher and often wonder what that person’s story is. This often helps me with characteristics and expressions.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Family, something neither of them wanted, yet when tragedy thrust into their lives, they embraced it despite the grief.
Loyalty, despite the shallowness of their past relationships, and the difficulties in their relationship, they remained loyal to one another.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
The Letter was recently released. The eBook is on KU and the paperback is currently available on Amazon and (Paperback) Browseabout Books.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
Disillusioned about her dating life, Erica Wilson walks into her favorite pub and encounters Chase. An enigmatic stranger who ignites in her an unexpected passion that is all-consuming. Like-minded about relationships, they agree on a friends-with-benefits relationship.
Strong, sexy, and fun. Chase is everything Erica didn’t know she wanted in a man. Love blooms and when tragedy strikes, Chase’s life is torn apart. Erica steps up to help him, uprooting her life when they are thrust into a tumultuous and strained relationship. Neither let their walls down to see what’s right in front of them.
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/05/28/should-the-unthinkable-happen/
Now and Forevermore Arabella follows a pre-teenage girl in the foster care system who discovers she was kidnapped and returns to her real family. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I just got an idea one day of wondering what would happen if a car thief realized there was a toddler in the back of car that he hastily stole. That’s quite an unexpected “bonus” to receive! What the heck would he do with that child? So I created a story where the parents momentarily leave a toddler in their parked car, due to the mother having a medical emergency, and then when the dad rushes back to get the little girl, the car and the child are both gone. It takes nine years before they find her because the thief and his accomplices ultimately abandons her out of state, dumping her in a mall. She’s mislabeled as a “foundling” and put into foster care.
What were some topics that were important for you to explore in this book and share with your child and teen readers?
I myself was caught up in a bizarre situation, as a child, where a sociopathic teacher at one of the schools I attended had a personal grudge against my mother – and proceeded to harass me for two solid years to try to get back at her. That sick teacher was later also found to have been a perpetual drug abuser, and furthermore, later there was even an allegation of her, shall we say, inappropriateness with a little boy, so I’m serious when I say she was “sociopathic” – she most definitely was a one-woman walking maniacal horror story. None of that is in this book, but it is what I thought of as I wrote it. I wanted to create a story for children and teens showing that sometimes they can find themselves pawns, all caught up in situations that are the making of totally unscrupulous adults, and which are totally not their doing or their fault. There are several reprehensible adult characters involved in Arabella’s story of being stolen with a car and then “hidden” in the foster care system, and it’s entirely a situation beyond the little girl’s control, yet there she is, having to live with the consequences of it. However, most bad situations don’t last forever, and I wanted to show that to my child readers. As a matter of fact, whenever I write a story, whether it’s for children or adults, I’m always keeping one line in mind, and that’s, “What a difference a day can make!”
What were some goals you set for yourself as a writer in this book?
I wanted to show how a child in such a chaotic situation feels from the inside out, when her world has been upended, again and again, in this instance by being sent to one foster home after another. Arabella tries, initially, to fly under the radar wherever she goes, and not get noticed, so that she isn’t sent away from a foster home yet again or so that nothing else upsetting will happen to her. She’s rather jaded about people already and she’s only twelve. Later on, when she’s about to be reunited with her wonderful family that have longed to find her for years, she’s still initially cautious of them, but they’re terrific. Then once she’s back in their embrace, she starts to come out of her self-imposed shell. She finds out her real name, her actual family, and best of all, her voice.
When will book 2 be available? Can you give us an idea of where that book will take readers?
I have a habit of working on more than one book at a time, kind of freestyle, and the Arabella sequel is one of the ones I’m still in the process of creating at the moment. I’m not sure when it will be available yet, but probably some time later this year. Arabella has quite a past to overcome and, with her family, she has a much more pleasant present to enjoy, too. I’m putting another mystery in this book for Arabella, her friends and little sister to help solve, and bringing in a hard-to-figure-out character or two from her past, as well. She lives on an island in Florida, so I can put more of the location into this one, including a mysterious boat with a surprising cargo, since the first book was more about solving what had happened to Arabella that caused her to have such a past. Florida was more incidental in the first one but it’s going to be a big part of this one. It’s going to be so much fun to write that I’m smiling already as I think about it!
Author Links: Twitter | Facebook | Website
Disillusioned about her dating life, Erica Wilson walks into her favorite pub and encounters Chase. An enigmatic stranger who ignites in her an unexpected passion that is all-consuming. Like-minded about relationships, they agree on a friends-with-benefits relationship.
Strong, sexy, and fun. Chase is everything Erica didn’t know she wanted in a man. Love blooms and when tragedy strikes, Chase’s life is torn apart. Erica steps up to help him, uprooting her life when they are thrust into a tumultuous and strained relationship. Neither let their walls down to see what’s right in front of them.
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/05/28/caught-up-in-a-bizarre-situation/
Tally and the Angel Book Two, Canada follows a girl and her guardian angel who set off on a journey to Canada to break a curse in order to save her father. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
After I had finished the first book in the Tally and the Angel series, which is set in India, I had intended Tally to go to Greece. However, I spent a week in the Yukon, husky sledding, and I just knew I had to set my story there. The idea for the curse came from a chance TV advert for a new film about a very old story. My experiences on the husky tour coupled with events that had taken place during an earlier stay in Canada in the winter, just clicked into place and contributed to Tally’s exciting adventure.
Was there a reason why you chose this location as the backdrop for your story?
I wanted the second book to be as different as possible from the first and so the sparsely inhabited, frozen wastelands of North Yukon, seemed a great choice after the hot, dusty, crowded streets of India.
Are you a fan of the Young Adult Fantasy genre? What books do you think most influenced your work?
I have always adored Tolkein’s work and also C S Lewis. These are the two writers who have influenced me the most, but I have to admit, the Harry Potter series galvanized me into action and confirmed for me that it is not necessary, nor even desirable, to ‘write down’ to children. I think this is why adults, as much as children, enjoy the Tally and the Angel series.
Will there be another story about Tally and Jophiel in the future, or are you working on a different story?
There will most certainly be more stories about Tally! I plan for them to go to Greece next (at last). Though before that I am working on the fourth book in my other series, The Amberwood Hall Ballet School series.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/05/28/tallys-exciting-adventure/
Tales from P.I.T. Crew: Case of the Wayward Son follows a paranormal detective who prefers working alone and has to assemble a team to find the missing children. Is there anything about Dr. Darell Diamonback that came from yourself or your life experiences?
Darrell is a lot like me actually, then again, so is the rest of the PIT Crew. It helps me keep their personalities in check as sometimes when you have a broad spectrum of charters, voices can get lost or even sound the same. When you break it down: Darrell represents my intellect, Charlie my youth, Jaiden my feminine side and my heart, Ed my time as a marine, my stubbornness and my dogged determination, even Stravinsky represents my common sense and reason (though Jaiden does have a place there too with her blog at the end,) and I love animals so Nicodemus and Pooky made sense to me; everyone has their roll. Having a love of biology, science, CSI, and a bit of my background over all did help add to the gritty realism I tried to keep with this book despite the paranormal aspect, because take away the fantastic portion of the book and your still left with the underlined message: As a society, we make our own monsters.
How did you come up with the idea for the antagonist in this story, and how did it change as you wrote?
I do so love antagonists. I have ever since I was a kid, and the stronger the backstory, the stronger the villain. That’s why I focused a lot on the bogyman’s backstory so much. People needed to not only understand who he was, but why he was who he was, (if that makes sense). People love a good hero, but if you can bring a strong villain to the story, I feel those are the best stories. I had a pretty good sense of who and what I wanted the bogyman to be from the beginning: a psychopath and hopefully I portrayed him that way. He was the product of abuse though, so in understanding that, hopefully readers are able to still draw a connection to him and understand him a bit more and if not empathize then maybe at least sympathize with him by the end of the book.
Will there be another story about Dr. Diamonback in the future? If so, when will it be available?
Short answer: yes. Book 2- Tales From the PIT Crew: Mystery of the Missing Heart (I hope) should be out before the end of the year and I am in the process of penning book 3 as well- Tales From the PIT Crew: Secret of the Severed Soul. I even have ideas for books 4, 5, & 6 but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
CSI forensic psychologist turned paranormal investigator for a secret government agency, Dr. Darrell Diamondback hunts down the things that go bump in the night. But after a string of mishaps, he needs a solid win. Unfortunately, he is about to get more than he bargained for, especially when his handler is insisting the lone wolf detective start building a team.
But learning how to play well with others is the least of his problems. Children are being kidnapped across the Diamond Heights District of San Francisco by a psychopathic spirit, the bogeyman himself! While this detective must find the missing children, Dr. Diamondback is about to understand how personal this case really is.
Urban legend is true crime in this detective thriller featuring the supernatural. Fans of dark, witty, and haunting adventures will relish this exploration into a world where the monsters of our own making can bite back.
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2023/05/28/we-make-our-own-monsters/