Same Bed Different Dreams, the second novel by the American writer Ed Park, opens with a question: “What is history?” A confusing thing to ask, impossibly grand, slightly ridiculous. Seemingly unanswerable—though for the rest of the novel various characters give it their best shot. “A litany of trackable moments, the realm of machines,” offers an […]
The International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank is illegal, yet this will do little to reduce the settlers’ savage violence against Palestinians or force Israelis to become conscious of it.
In another era the men at the center of Joseph O’Neill’s novels might have made good spies. His protagonists are men adrift—unmoored from their families and belonging in no one place, they move across the globe with ease, acquiring no particular loyalties and demanding no more than handsome payment. See: Hans van den Broek, the […]
During the last half-century, artists, curators, and scholar have been increasingly preoccupied with the idea of spectacle and with how to embrace, critique, or co-opt the power of works that envelop and overwhelm the viewer.
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 warmed up with a heat wave this week. Sophia is learning to play the cello. I reached a milestone this week and have lost fifty pounds. In August I managed to read/listen to 13 books. I am behind with my challenges. 120/200 on Goodreads, 83/150 on Audiobook Challenge, 10/12 on Library Challenge Stay Caffeinated.
Last Week on the Blog
Thirst for Sin by Kennedy Layne (audiobook review)
Deeper Than the Dead by Debra Webb (book review)
Buried Too Deep by Karen Rose (guest post / book review)
Drow Magic by Martha Carr (audiobook review)
This Week on the Blog
12th Annual Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon Sign Up Post (event)
The Sinner by Dannika Dark (audiobook review)
Apprentice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer (audiobook review)
The Murders in Great Diddling by Katarina Bivald (audiobook review)
New Arrivals at the Caffeinated Cafe
Marvel: What If . . . Wanda Maximoff and Peter Parker Were Siblings? by Seanan McGuire
A special thanks to Penguin Audio
Around The Blogosphere
12th Annual Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon. November 21st to December 2nd, 2024. Sign up coming September 2nd. Challenge Hosts Needed. Please email me if you are interested in hosting one of the challenges.
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An Empty House Doesn’t Sneeze follows a 15-year-old boy navigating the challenges of adolescence while the world around him is engulfed in chaos. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Because my father was killed in WWII, the war has always been an interest. At some point, the idea of somebody lighting fires during the mandatory blackouts in Seattle captured my imagination. As a former sixth-grade teacher, I understand how inadequate we are at teaching civics and history, especially to young people, hence teenage readers became my target audience.
Was there anything from your own life that you put into the characters in your novel?
The novel is set in my Seattle neighborhood, which by the way, still looks almost exactly like it did in 1943. Much of the story reflects my own lived experiences, though slightly updated to the nineteen fifties. I grew up near the “wilds” of Ravenna Park – in terrain that shaped my mind as much as my appreciation of nature. This experience cultivated my habits of listening, observing, and yielding to the whims of the natural world.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The central idea of An Empty House Doesn’t Sneeze cried out to become a mystery. It was also a vehicle to portray the homefront in a way most young readers had not been exposed to. I merely hope readers enjoy An Empty House Doesn’t Sneeze and learn a little history along the way.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
The children’s stories I noodled around with years ago are brewing on the back burner, and I’m waiting to see if they spark my interest. An Empty House Doesn’t Sneeze follows my debut novel (published in September 2023) – River’s Reach: Coming of Age Amid the Fish War – a coming-of-age adventure (for “kids” of all ages) that highlights the tensions between the Washington State Game Department and the Nisqually Indians over tribal fishing rights in the Nisqually Valley. With River’s Reach, I hoped to open minds, encouraging people to question beliefs and prejudices that might otherwise settle in for a lifetime.
An Empty House Doesn’t Sneeze renders life on the home front through the watchful eyes of 15-year-old Scotty Johannsen as WWII rages across the globe. Against the backdrop of blackouts, bomb shelters, rationing, and victory gardens, Scotty and his friends follow the rhythms of yesteryear, weaving their wartime worries through the “wilds” of Seattle’s Ravenna Park, where their imaginations run free.
Into this fragile balance a neighborhood threat emerges: Someone is lighting fires during the mandatory blackouts. Scotty, whose father is an air raid warden, is soon caught up in the firebug mystery and tries to smoke the arsonist out. When the local bully throws suspicion on Scotty’s draft-age brother, and when even his best friend’s actions don’t seem to add up, Scotty must navigate a moral and ethical thicket while treading a path toward maturity. Even as scarcity slips into every nook and cranny, An Empty House Doesn’t Sneeze celebrates a youthful spirit and hearkens to simple pleasures, where free time and family abound.
David Scott Richardson’s An Empty House Doesn’t Sneeze is a work of historical fiction set in 1943 in the Pacific Northwest. A heartwarming and playful coming-of-age adventure, this novel is suitable for MG/YA and the young at heart. It contains no gratuitous language, but there are a few slurs that are true to the historical setting and swear words-in keeping with the characters and story.
The God Fix follows a boy visiting extended family for the summer who discovers dark family secrets, causing him to question his life, faith, and morality leaving haunting impacts on his psyche. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I wanted to write a story that would explore numerous themes of interest to me and to blend character exploration with a suspenseful enough plot to keep the reader engaged. Whilst the plot and characters are entirely fictional, the book does draw on some emotional truths and aims to palpably capture numerous periods in time from the perspective of a young person, which in some ways was a cathartic experience to write.
One core idea that I initially had for the book was inspired by the 1930s Fritz Lang film ‘M’; it was the idea of the moral protagonist becoming the immoral antagonist. Whilst Matthew is to some extent an unreliable narrator (we see the world through his eyes and prejudices), I feel like this core change in character wasn’t pronounced in the final version given the extreme nature of the uncle’s behaviour; it is instead left up to the reader to draw their own conclusions, which fits more with how I want the book to be read.
What are some things that you find interesting about the human condition that you think make for great fiction?
I’ve previously written a speculative/supernatural audio drama podcast, and questions about the human condition were very much at the core of each episode. Any reflection that can challenge the way that one perceives the world is intriguing to me, as well as works that explore values, politics, and power. I think great fiction can be both speculative about worlds unknown, as well as more immediate to us if it is able to expose the intrinsic absurdity of our everyday lives.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
There were a lot of themes that felt important to me to explore in this book. Among them were questions of the limits of forgiveness, the use of religion as a justification or motivation, the value of revenge, the question of how independent our beliefs really are, and fundamentally what we believe to be right or wrong. Given that the characters have their own differing perspectives and interpretations, I think it’s fitting that so should readers, though I hope to have in some way challenged them to consider their own views. Other themes that felt important for me to explore around these were questions of alienation, longing, class difference, and addiction.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
I’m co-writing my next book with Emmelina Gateman. It will be a fun, supernatural young adult horror story called “The Dead Witch’s Song;” it will include interactive and ” Choose Your Own Adventure’” elements. Whilst it will be a very different book to this one, it will still touch on themes of morality, forgiveness, and societal progress.
Author Links: Goodreads | Website | Amazon
‘I swear to God, I’ll kill him.’
The God Fix is a dark coming-of-age story set in Greater Manchester in the early 2000s. Taking place across multiple visits to his extended family, Matt, a boy from Surrey, must grapple with the gravity of unraveling discoveries about his family, forcing him to contemplate his life, his faith, morality, revenge, and death.
Out of Body follows a teenage girl experiencing weird dreams who discovers they are not dreams but out-of-body experiences. What inspired the setup of your story?
Sometimes I dream that I’m flying, and after one particularly vivid dream, I wondered, “What if these aren’t dreams? What if my spirit actually leaves my body while I’m sleeping and goes flitting around town?” My next thought was, “What a great premise for a novel!” The idea marinated in my brain for a couple of years before I finally got around to turning it into a novel.
In many contemporary coming-of-age fiction novels, authors often add their own life experiences to the story. Are there any bits of you in this story?
Absolutely. I have vivid memories of my angsty teenage years. Unrequited love, shifting friendships, school drama—I lived it all, so it was easy for me to incorporate those elements into my story. For instance, in Out of Body, Abby has brilliant imaginary conversations with the boy she likes, but when she encounters him in person, she morphs into a tongue-tied idiot. Yep—been there, done that!
This sets up the novel to deliver some very entertaining scenes. What scene was the most fun to write?
At one point in the story, Abby’s astral travels take her to a very bizarre place, so I had to do some serious world-building. Those scenes were fun to write because I could let my imagination run wild. Since this was a made-up fantasy world, I didn’t have to worry about adhering to the laws of physics or biology. I just had to make sure everything seemed plausible in the context of the story. Constructing that world from scratch made me feel a little bit like a demigod: powerful, omnipotent, creative.
Will there be a follow-up novel to this story? If so, what aspects of the story will the next book cover?
Astral projection is a fascinating subject, one with infinite plot possibilities, so there could very well be additional books. Since finishing Out of Body I’ve been working on an unrelated project, but I do have a solid idea for a sequel. In Out of Body, Abby sets out to save her cousin after he gets lost on the astral plane. Without giving too much away, I can say that in the sequel, Abby will be the one in trouble, but it will be a different sort of trouble. Her world will be turned upside down, and she will have to go on the run as she figures out how to save herself.
Those weird dreams Abby Kendrick has been having? Turns out they aren’t dreams after all. They’re out-of-body experiences, like the ones her cousin Logan is having. At first, Abby has fun with her new ability, using it to spy on her neighborhood crush and spook a mean girl. But when Logan gets in trouble on the astral plane, the game changes and Abby must bend the rules of out-of-body travel as she journeys to a distant realm. Her mission is a perilous one, and success is not guaranteed. Can she save Logan and find her way home again? Or will the cousins be lost forever on the astral plane?
Mimi Wahlfeldt’s Forks and Knives: A Marriage at the Crossroads of Addiction and Codependency is a poignant and powerful fictional narrative rooted in real-life events. The novel offers an intimate glimpse into the turmoil of a marriage engulfed by the struggles of addiction, painting a vivid and heartrending picture of what it means to love and live in the shadow of alcoholism. The story centers on Kat Torrington, a woman who uncovers her husband Eric’s secret battle with alcoholism just as she prepares to welcome their first child. This discovery places Kat at a critical juncture—a decision point that many readers may find relatable: should she stay and fight for her marriage or walk away from it?
Wahlfeldt’s choice to tell the story through Kat’s first-person perspective is one of the novel’s most compelling elements. This narrative approach allows readers to experience the emotional depth of Kat’s journey firsthand. Her fears, hopes, and inner conflicts are laid bare, creating a raw and unfiltered portrayal of a life entwined with addiction. The narrative’s strength lies in its authenticity. Wahlfeldt does not shy away from depicting the harsh realities of addiction and its ripple effects on relationships and families. The novel delves into the cyclical nature of denial, relapse, and recovery with a stark honesty that is both challenging and enlightening.
The metaphor of “forks and knives” serves as a powerful symbol throughout the novel, representing the difficult choices Kat faces and the often sharp, painful consequences of those decisions. For readers who have faced similar struggles, Forks and Knives offers a sense of validation and shared experience.
Wahlfeldt’s Forks & Knives goes beyond mere storytelling; it offers a form of closure to those who have questioned whether they gave their all in the most challenging moments of their lives. Whether you are familiar with the battles of addiction or simply seeking a compelling, emotionally resonant read, Forks and Knives is a novel that will stay with you long after you have turned the last page.
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Same Bed Different Dreams, the second novel by the American writer Ed Park, opens with a question: “What is history?” A confusing thing to ask, impossibly grand, slightly ridiculous. Seemingly unanswerable—though for the rest of the novel various characters give it their best shot. “A litany of trackable moments, the realm of machines,” offers an […]
The International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank is illegal, yet this will do little to reduce the settlers’ savage violence against Palestinians or force Israelis to become conscious of it. 
In another era the men at the center of Joseph O’Neill’s novels might have made good spies. His protagonists are men adrift—unmoored from their families and belonging in no one place, they move across the globe with ease, acquiring no particular loyalties and demanding no more than handsome payment. See: Hans van den Broek, the […]
During the last half-century, artists, curators, and scholar have been increasingly preoccupied with the idea of spectacle and with how to embrace, critique, or co-opt the power of works that envelop and overwhelm the viewer.
Rachel Kushner’s fourth novel tells the story of a spy-for-hire who infiltrates the ranks of a radical French commune.
