Last year, on holiday in Cornwall, I found a copy of A Private View of Stanley Spencer in a secondhand bookshop. I was only a few miles from St. Ives, the fishing village where the eccentric English painter—whose work inspired, among others, Lucian Freud—and his second wife, Patricia Preece, spent their six-week honeymoon in the […]
Original source: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2024/05/26/entwined-for-life/
“Archival research can be magical, maddening, and sobering. Finding just one mention of an enslaved person’s name or an enslaved family’s home in a record can feel monumental.”
Original source: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2024/05/25/shadow-drafting-tiya-miles/
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
We had a very rainy week, with lots of local flooding, thunderstorms and wild changes in temperatures. The kids started their summer vacation, so it’s my busy season….lol. I’ve got family visiting and we’ve taken Tuesday off, giving us a four-day weekend. Stay Caffeinated.
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A special thanks to Tor Publishing
We’ve got a small-town romance open for a book tour. All social media accounts are welcome. ARCs are available now.
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Original source: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/2024/05/sunday-post-629-picnics-a-long-weekend.html
Project Übermensch follows a Navy Sailor who loses his legs, which are restored using extraterrestrial technology, leaving him with unnatural abilities. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I’ve long been haunted and intrigued by the mercurial “facts” surrounding The Philadelphia Experiment. Urban legend or real? And if real, what happened to these men next? How did the Navy extract sailors from the bulkheads? Was the experiment alien-assisted, as suggested? On and on. Any event plagued by that much controversy, real or rumor, was fertile ground for me to explore in fiction.
Peter flees the Navy and escapes to hide in a small mountain town, where he develops a cult-like following for his mystical healing abilities. What were the driving ideals behind the character’s development throughout the story?
“Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane…No, it’s Übermensch!” Or, “Superman!”
We have long been enthralled by the idea of a super-human; Nietzsche in 1883 contemplating the Übermensch, the famed Superman comics, TV shows, and movies. The Hulk, and just about every Marvel character ever created. But the most influential ideal for me arose from the character of Jesus, maybe our first “superhuman,” and what would happen if he actually did return as just a peculiar “neighbor” in your community.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Obviously, the most important theme I wanted to explore was: How would this potential “Messiah” be embraced by modern society? As Savior, or Satan? Let’s face it, even Superman had to conceal his identity in the persona of Clark Kent and change clothes in a phone booth (oh, the good old days of phone booths). And wouldn’t a being capable of such incredible feats be deemed a trickster, or worse, the devil incarnate? We embrace science, and hold fast to the idea that the world is solid, whole and predictable. And while we might make room in our minds for a “transcendent Being” on Sunday mornings, we probably don’t want him living next door.
Will there be a follow-up novel to this story? If so, what aspects of the story will the next book cover?
Probably not. I explored the story to my satisfaction, and I can’t imagine how the story would proceed without becoming repetitious. Even so, I try not to close the door on anything.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website | Amazon
2024, in the tranquil mountain town of Kleary Creek, religious handyman, and all-around nice-guy, Orvin Littney meets his new neighbor, the mysterious Geoffrey Cannon. While walking together one morning, Orvin experiences a heart attack, and is in the throes of death when Geoffrey miraculously saves his life. Miracles such as these, Orvin soon learns, account for Geoffrey’s cult-like following in the mystical, self-help community.
But Geoffrey’s life as a spiritual healer takes a dark turn when devotees are inexplicably murdered under grisly circumstances—all young women he’d had brief affairs with. Hikers and residents turn up dead, while rumors of a monstrous creature in the woods around Kleary Creek circulate, whispers of Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti. With events growing ever more ominous, Orvin comes to believe his “savior” friend, Geoffrey, is somehow at the center of it all.
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2024/05/26/real-or-rumor/
Soccer Mastery: The little things that make a big difference helps players identify small habits in their lives that are unknowingly impacting their performance on the field and show them how to make a course correction. What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
The most important idea is the importance of creating habits that work over time. Small changes in habits can have big impacts on your soccer game over time.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be published?
There’s no plan at the moment for additional books, but a list of our books currently available can be found here.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website | Amazon
The mind thinks between 60,000 – 80,000 thoughts a day. That’s an average of 2500 – 3,300 thoughts per hour.
Yet most of those thoughts happen unconsciously and dictate your behavior.
People act based on their unconscious habits and you end up…
…biting your nails while you wait for the next epiphany
…avoiding eye contact with the people next to you on the bus
…eating junk food to reward yourself for the hard work you have done
Not all habits are bad, but a lot of them can be the reason why you are stuck in the same routine and making the same mistakes over and over again in your soccer game.
Soccer is a game of habits. It´s as simple as 1+1. The right habits create players who win. And the wrong habits get punished once your opponent intercepts the careless pass you continue to make over and over again.
Mastering your soccer game means stepping out of the hamster wheel you´ve been living in for years.
If you want to instantly level up your game, all you need to do is follow the simple formula of strategies to improve your habits you never even notice.
Being a winning soccer player requires more than kicking the ball on a green grass field. Soccer is a lifestyle and shows up in many unexpected areas of your life.
You will be speechless once you discover how you can improve your soccer skills while at work, while brushing your teeth, or while waiting for the bus.
Mastering the most popular sport in the world requires more than using muscle strength and the right technique…a lot of people are not even aware of what part of their game they need to work on.
Soccer is one of the fastest, most unpredictable, and most complex games in the world. Therefore, you have to make sure you always stay in control and think one step ahead of your opponent.
In “Soccer Mastery“, you´ll discover:
How a “happy meal“ turned into a horror meal for soccer players
The magical “hawk-eye” of soccer to prevent failure
How numbers rule the game
Which tool your coach uses to predict the game (one hint: he doesn´t need to be a soccer expert)
How to be in the right place at the right time and turn a pass into a winning goal
The most overlooked factors to help you reach the next league
Why Sergio Ramos is the Real Madrid center-back and how you can transfer this knowledge into your next game
Exactly what scouts are looking in a future World Cup player
How a mug and a toothpick can maximize your peripheral vision
And much more.
Even if you don’t plan to make it to the UEFA Champions League, you still want to be the best player on the soccer field.
If you are passionate enough about the game, you don´t want to trust your gut when it comes to the next match and you want to ensure that you are taking the right steps to move your game to the next level…
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2024/05/26/habits-that-work/
Disrupted follows a group of high school drama students who, after an earthquake shut down their school, set out to perform their production anyway and raise money for the repairs. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Many years ago, in a previous century, I was a high school drama teacher. I’ve never forgotten many of my students. I was a high school teacher during the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, and I like to imagine all kinds of scenarios and “what-ifs” in my mind. I already had imagined Sandee Mason who appeared in a series of articles for Dramatics Magazine as well as an earlier novel of mine, Talent, and I imagined what would happen if she finally got the recognition she wanted and she worried that it would disappear after something catastrophic happened to the school.
What are some things that you find interesting about the human condition that you think make for great fiction?
You never know what you might do when faced with circumstances beyond your control like the loss of a brother, a best buddy moving away, a new boy in town who makes your heart throb, or the strange way parents sometimes act. People’s motives aren’t always what they seem to be and as Atticus Finch said in To Kill a Mockingbird, “You never really know a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Loss of life, of home, of family
Courage to rise above things beyond your control
Overcoming obstacles like alcohol addiction, homelessness, and situations beyond your control
Finding your way when you feel different
Figuring out who you are
What is the next book that you are working on, and when can your fans expect it to be out?
I’ve thought about another book about Sandee Mason’s Senior Year, but right now I have an inspirational memoir on the back burner and am working on some flash pieces, plus author interviews, book reviews, and more for Writer Advice. I’m also doing a lot of thinking about a brand new story I’m not ready to share at all—but it’s a doozy, and will either be women’s fiction or memoir. Sometimes there’s a fine line between the two. Obviously, I am not on a linear track, and I can’t tell you when my next piece will be out.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website | Amazon
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2024/05/26/97127/
Helipads in Heaven follows a successful author who is given the opportunity to become a test subject for time travel and travel back in time to her childhood. What inspired the setup of your story?
Helipads in Heaven was heavily inspired by myself and my own experiences. As such, the story came from a question I would often ask myself: “If you could travel back in time and see your younger self again, what would you say and what would she think about you?” From there, I began to develop a short story based on this question, which soon became the groundwork for Helipads in Heaven.
When traveling back in time, Goose discovers that she has forgotten some memories of trauma from her childhood and must weigh the cost of helping her 10-year-old self and jeopardizing her future life. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
All of the driving ideals behind the development of Goose/Dillon were based on myself. I knew I wanted to create a character that was heavily inspired by who I was at ten years old, from her short, curly hair to the bomber jacket she would wear even when the weather was too warm. With that being said, Goose is, in many ways, not like myself. She’s much bolder than I was at ten years old, and she’s much braver. In many ways, I made both Goose and Dillon (Goose twenty years in the future, going by her real name) better versions of myself, but of course, they still had flaws and vast room for development throughout the story.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
When writing Helipads in Heaven, I knew that, at the surface, I needed to explore themes of bullying and trauma and, more specifically, how this affects both characters and people on a larger scale. For example, Dillon is thirty years old and reliving trauma she experienced when she was ten. On a deeper level, I wanted to explore childhood dreams. Every child is asked what they want to be when they grow up, but how many of them keep that dream all the way to adulthood? There are so many children with huge dreams, such as Goose, who are told they can’t achieve them, and this, in turn, negatively impacts them. I was a child who was told that my dreams were too big, and while I ended up proving those who said this to me wrong, I knew it was something that was important to cover in this story.
What is the next book that you are working on and when can your fans expect it to be out?
My next book is called Neverfar, the third book in the Neverdying series. It will be released on June 30, 2024!
Author Links: Goodreads | Instagram | TikTok | Amazon
From the teenage author of You Won’t Know Her Name, Helipads in Heaven is a deep and heartwarming adventure of time travel, childhood ambitions, and at the core, a love letter to unique children and those who dare to dream.
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2024/05/26/reliving-trauma/
In Next Stop, Boston, a young woman finds herself in the care of a temperamental rock-and-roller following her sister’s tragic death. Where did the idea for this novel come from?
The story is very loosely inspired by the old Fellini film classic La Strada. I wrote it for fun during one of the COVID surges. It encapsulates all my guilty pleasures–rock music, scandal-ridden rock star bios/memoirs, Hollywood gossip, fanfiction, and soap operas.
In addition to La Strada, the story is also inspired by other favorites, Janet Fitch’s White Oleander, Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles (my favorite novel as a teen), and the film Captain Fantastic.
The inspiration for the novel has its genesis to when I was a struggling theater actress in New York City in the early 1990s. I was called in by an off-off-Broadway theater company to participate in a play reading of a script about a young girl and a musician. I read the part of the young girl. The script was very well received, and I remember everyone commenting on how much it reminded them of La Strada. At the time, I didn’t see the movie, but later I did–several times. So, the germ of the idea began there. However, I put my own feminist spin on it because what was acceptable when the film came out in the early 1950s, doesn’t work in this modern post-MeToo era.
Was there anything from your own life that you put into the characters in your novel?
Other than my love of rock music, there is very little from my own life that I incorporated into Next Stop, Boston. I certainly don’t have any personal traits that are similar to Dez’s–that’s for sure. At least, I hope not. (I did stay one week at the Chelsea Hotel years ago, but that was in between apartments, and it wasn’t to score heroin). But I did enjoy writing him very much. It’s so much fun, even cathartic, to create a character most readers would consider to be the “villain” of the story. The thing about villains or morally ambiguous characters is they never consider themselves in that light. Not at all. They always think they’re in the right and everyone else is wrong! It’s very important to humanize them and invest them with a lot of nuance and dimension because if you don’t, you’re just going to create caricatures or stock villains with no depth or insight into their motivations.
I did base Val, the drummer who tries to help Geri, on a charming, cute drummer I briefly dated way back when. He was a sweetie, very similar to Val’s temperament and physicality. Sadly, I went on a few dates with him right before his band went on the road to promote an album and a video on MTV. Though we talked about picking up where we left off after the tour ended, I never saw him again. HA-HA. Musicians!
The only points of similarity I have with any of the characters in Next Stop, Boston would be with Geri in terms of her vulnerability, keen curiosity about the world, her sincere desire to improve herself, and her frustration at being misunderstood and dismissed by the adults around her considering her youth and neurodivergence. I’m not neurodivergent, but I was badly bullied when I was a young teen and still carry those wounds around with me as an older adult. That type of trauma can either strengthen, harden, or weaken you. I did incorporate some of that inner turmoil into Geri when I was working on her POV chapters.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
If there is any message I wanted to convey with this story is how important self-reliance is in the end. Never depend on anyone for the validation of your self-worth. Depend on yourself and draw upon your inner strength to grow and move on.
What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?
For my next novel, I am toying with an idea of a story that will take place in 1986. The story will draw a little on my crazy youth in New York City and those nutty survival jobs I took to pay the rent and buy food.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website | Amazon
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2024/05/26/inner-strength/