Posts

“Not Only for ‘Paranormal Romance Girlies’”: A Review of Submerged (A Something in the Water Story) by Ashley Castañón

Image
  (self-published, 2025). ISBN: 979-8-9989790-2-6 First novels are a very big deal, especially when the Author’s Note at the conclusion explains that it was five years in the making. That it wasn’t always easy. That there was lots of support and assistance from family and friends and moments of tear-provoking doubt. I wrote my first novel 17 years ago. Although I’d already had four nonfiction books published, I still remember the disappointments. The struggles. The moments of tear-provoking doubt. And the celebration when the author’s copies arrived. I have written fourteen books, fiction and nonfiction, since, and each one feels like it’s the first. I briefly met Submerged ’s enthusiastic, well-spoken author several weeks ago at an indie author event in our local town square. She spent some time looking over my books, selected two, and asked if I wanted to do a trade. Knowing only a little about what she wrote—Ashley is NOT one of those authors who goes into way too much d...
Post a Comment
Read more

“The Highland Game Is Afoot”: A Review of Secrets Taken to the Grave (The Strathbairn Trilogy, Book 2) by Isobel Blackthorn

Image
   (Next Chapter, 2025). ISBN: 979-8272238542 A few months ago, I reviewed the first book in this trilogy, What Happened at the Abbey , which I enjoyed for its vivid locales, Gothic tropes, and interesting characters.   Having received the complete trilogy in a single volume, I knew that the story’s heroine, Ingrid Barker—the self-styled widow of Winchester—would return to the formidable, Usheresque mansion in Straithbairn, in the Highlands of Scotland, although I had no clue as to how or why. Her time with the owners, the McCleods, for whom she served as housekeeper in What Happened at the Abbey , was anything but pleasant, and she left under multilayered, malignant circumstances. Book two opens with the return of Ingrid and her precocious preteen daughter for the funeral of the McCleod patriarch, which launches a set of mystery boxes into motion. Ingrid, being a fan of Sherlock Holmes ( Secrets… takes place in 1893; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has just killed off the wo...
Post a Comment
Read more

“Mothers (and More!) on the Mother Road”: A Review of Aprons Away: Women’s Work on Route 66 by Cheryl Eichar Jett

Image
  “Mothers (and More!) on the Mother Road”: A Review of Aprons Away: Women’s Work on Route 66 by Cheryl Eichar Jett (Reedy Press, 2025). ISBN: 978-1-68106-634-9 Stories about America’s fabled Main Street, Route 66 (John Steinbeck’s “The mother road, the road of flight”), are legion and, in this centennial year, the new books being published are also nearly so. I have reviewed a few of them, including one edited by my friend and colleague Jim Hinckley, Route 66: 100 Years , for which Cheryl Eichar Jett wrote the (excellent) chapter on Illinois. Jett is an accomplished author, known for her writing on Illinois and for her six books for Arcadia Publishing’s popular Images of America series, and it was my recent pleasure to hear her speak in Tulsa, Oklahoma, about her latest book. Despite the endless coffee table and travel guides published in the past 36 years, which have led to a full-throttle revival of the Mother Road, little attention has been paid to minority populations, who...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review of The Firehand File, Bob van Laerhoven

Image
  (Next Chapter, 2026). ASIN: B0GGXYZVRD Over the years, I have come to expect a lot from Bob van Laerhoven’s novels and this one not only doesn’t disappoint—it might just be the best one yet. The prologue begins in Munich in April 1920 with an evocative diary entry by an unidentified author, written to a dead brother about his murdered dog; it’s barely a page. The novel repeatedly returns to excerpts from the diary, identifying the author only as a rabid antisemite who identifies with Parcival, the Grail Quests, Lohengrin, and the Spear of Destiny and who twists the words of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas to suit his warped, weaponized Weltanschauung . Chapter one opens in April 1921, when antisemitism was already ubiquitous, with lyrics from a cabaret song about cocaine. It’s a time when the “People’s Court” in the Berlin-Plötzensee prison still dispenses “justice” by beheading. A German psychiatrist eyes an exotic, “half-Chinese” woman in the sweltering heat with obvious add...
Post a Comment
Read more

“Unity in Diversity”: No Bear Is an Island, by Mawson and Mark O’Dwyer

Image
  (2026). ISBN: 978-1-7645894-0-6 No man is an island, entire of itself/Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main . —John Donne, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions , 1624 In a polarizing world, where Othering has divided and not united, where difference is a liability instead of a strength in the eyes of (far too) many (especially those in power), it’s important to teach our children (while being role models) that everyone has a unique (hi)story, set of interests and goals, hopes and dreams, and they are all of equal value. Such recognition of the worth of diversity in our social circles is a pathway to seeing we can learn from others while learning about ourselves when we step out of our comfort zone and engage with those who are different than we are. This is the beautiful and timely message of No Bear Is an Island . Strength in numbers, communion in community, and the truest truth there is—we all could use a little empathy, help, and compassion to get us t...
Post a Comment
Read more

“Film Investing 101”: A Review of Hollywood Money Traps: What Every Film Investor Needs To Know by Alexia Melocchi

Image
  (2026 Little Studio Films). ISBN: 979-8995735335 There are few businesses with the unique combination of deep mystique, risk and reward, and stuck-in-your-throat cautionary tales as the film (and television) industry. The chance for fame and riches—which motivates many industry aspirants—or simply to make a consistent living doing what you love as a Creative (which has kept me in the game as an actor, director, and screenwriter for more than 36 years) often leads to high risks and unfulfilled dreams. Just as heartbreaking as an unproduced script or career-boosting role that ultimately doesn’t happen is financial loss, which, for some, can be nothing short of devastating. Although there are myriad books written by actors, directors, writers, and producers about the vacillations and hazards of the industry (I’ve read dozens), there are few that capture the ABCs of its financial aspects in such an organized, easy to read and absorb, case-study format as Alexia Melocchi’s Holly...
Post a Comment
Read more

“Highland Gothic”: A Review of What Happened at the Abbey (The Strathbairn Trilogy, Book 1) by Isobel Blackthorn

Image
  (Next Chapter, 2025). ISBN: 979-8272238542 Five years ago, I was asked to review The Ghost of Villa Winter , the fourth book in a series written by the talented and prolific writer of thrillers, Isobel Blackthorn. I was deeply impressed by her ability to bring a locale to life, to make it an essential character in a well-crafted, page-turning mystery. Blackthorn does a great deal of research concerning the locales about which she writes (like Stephen King and Castle Rock, Maine), which draws the reader immediately and deeply into the story. What Happened at the Abbey (the first of a trilogy), although the locale, characters, and time period are far different than those of The Ghost of Villa Winter , offers the same opportunity for reader immersion through palpable atmospheres and authenticity of Time and Place. I am a fan (and writer) of thrillers, especially those with a Gothic setting and atmosphere, and the Scottish Highlands offer Blackthorn a perfect canvas and palett...
2 comments
Read more