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In Nova Garcia’s novel, Not That Kind of Call Girl, Julia Navarro-Nilsson balances a lot heavy responsibilities on her plate. She’s the supervisor of the Cascade City Chronicle call center, has just had her first child, and is dead set on saving her newest employee from a lifetime of abuse.
As a Mexican-American, Julia knows first-hand how difficult life can be for a minority woman, so when Carmen Cooper shows up for a job interview, Julia is determined to hire the young college student even though her story and answers to Julia’s question are sketchy. This reluctance to share her personal information intrigues Julia, but Carmen’s life turns out to be much more challenging than Julia would have ever dreamed.
Sussing out the truth behind the timid young woman’s clearly fictional story, Julia turns detective with the help of her reporter friend, Jerry. The two are dogged in their search and discover a secret so deep that it will rock Hollywood — that is, if she can juggle her new baby, her neglected husband, her sexually harassing boss, and an unending visit from her critical mother.
Julia’s detailed character makes her easy to empathize with, especially as she faces issues that many women confront in the real world.
Her biggest personal struggle is with motherhood. After the birth of Trey, Julia expects to be overwhelmed with her love and devotion to this tiny person. However, when she doesn’t feel those things — feeling almost the opposite actually — she is shocked and disappointed in herself. She has no immediate connection, instead suffering from postpartum depression.
To add to her fears of motherly inadequacy, she endures multiple bouts of mastitis — landing her in the hospital on one occasion— and she finds that maternity leave feels like a prison sentence rather than a chance to bond with Trey. She hates that she is missing work and hates that she hates that! Julia’s muddled feelings leave her frightened and uncertain, far from her sense of self pre-motherhood.
Like many women, Julia has a hard time accepting her body for what it is.
She has never been a petite size four, like her still-attractive mother, who always pressures her to conform to a different standard of beauty. Julia is tall and full-figured, a curvy, sensual woman. Post-birth, she feels “fat” and unattractive. Because she has to continue wearing her maternity pants (another very common experience), Julie feels as though she has failed again in some way. Though her adorable, loving husband Charlie still tells her she is beautiful and shows her that he continues to find her desirable, Julia has a hard time engaging in any physical contact. Her mother’s comments don’t help the situation, and with her confidence in tatters, Julia stress eats, continuing an unhealthy cycle.
Julia takes great pride in her position as call center manager for the local newspaper, but that position comes with near-constant harassment from her boss.
She cares about her employees, knows their problems, and is fighting for their jobs as the newspaper owners negotiate a sale of the business. In fact, it’s this level of concern that leads to her involvement in Carmen’s tragic life. Julia takes her job seriously and maintains high expectations for herself, but at every turn her boss Carlton Cressey epitomizes a villain to all of womankind. He makes jokes about various body parts and propositions Julia directly for sex. Even though she is a hard-working employee, likely his best, he can only see her body and face, so not only is Julia worried about her employees losing their jobs, she is also worried about losing her own if she reports him to HR.
Julia is a strong, normal woman. She’s not a superhero or a rich Country Club wife. She’s real, and many readers will identify with the problems she faces.
In 1974, Lori Lee Peters was an impressionable thirteen-year-old growing up in the suburban town of Lodi, California. The wider world—from which her parents sheltered her and her sisters—fascinated Lori. She was curious about everything, informed about little, and dependent on friends to fill gaps with the knowledge she craved.
Religion was a topic rarely discussed in her household. So when friends shared their beliefs about God as fact, Lori thought her days on Earth were numbered. She carried this news with her for decades as a deadly secret she couldn’t share with her family. Little did she know that her father—her hero—had a secret of his own.
From Chanticleer:
God, the Mafia, My Dad, and Me by Lori Lee Peters begins in the voice of a child, compelling not just for its narrative honestly, but for the fact that it might not be reliable. As the book opens, we learn that this narrator firmly believes she will be killed.
Readers can easily see through the childlike hyperbole, but that doesn’t detract from the intrigue. How did a kid come to such an extreme conclusion? Is there any seed of truth to it? These questions will hook readers from the start.
Author Peters set out to write a book about her dad. God, the Mafia, My Dad, and Me tells the true story of her father, and his fascinating work helping the FBI tackle Mafia activity in Lodi, California. Yet in the end, this is a memoir in which the compelling lead character – young Lori – overshadows her father in many ways.
In the spirit of The Glass Castle and The Burning Light of Two Stars, Antonia Deignan delivers what New York Times best-selling author Julie Cantrell calls a “a heart-shattering memoir of painful truth and soulful healing.”
As a child, Antonia perceived her father’s nighttime visits as special acts of love. On some deeper level, though, she knew what was happening wasn’t right. To escape, she began creating imaginary worlds and used dreams to transport her away from her fears. As she got older, Antonia traded those fantasies for dance—but despite her outlets she remained trapped underwater, without a lifeline to make her feel fundamentally safe.
Nanette J. Davis Ph.D. – Raging Currents: Mental Illness and Family
A surprise sink-or-swim lesson at the tender age of nine opens this gripping memoir of love, mental illness, and care giving. A swirling narrative carries readers from pre-WWII Illinois to the infamous Oregon State Mental Hospital of the 80s and forward along a harrowing chasm carved by dysfunctional parents, inhumane social systems, and driven by Dr. Nanette Davis’s powerful love for her mentally-ill sister and son. Raging Currents spans mental health therapies from sedation and isolation, to twelve-step programs, tough love, and modern neuroscience-driven treatments.
From the childhood of a strong-willed, fiercely independent, and curious girl to the roles of supportive sister, wife, and mother, Davis shares her life’s foundation, development, and endless devotion to those she loves. Expertly weaving social norms in compelling prose, Davis offers the wisdom and reflection of age through the clear-eyed recollections of a trained sociologist. Her ever-increasing understanding of compassion is the bedrock of this insightful and vulnerable telling. Raging Currents offers more than an inspiring memoir: it provides practical advice and solace for modern caregivers, friends, family, and people living with mental illness.
When Barbara Terao moves into a new home in Washington, two thousand miles from her husband in Illinois, she doesn’t know when—or if—she’ll ever live with him again. Her diagnosis of breast cancer three months later changes both of them in ways they never imagined.
In the ensuing months, Barbara’s husband and adult children show up to help her through a year of difficult treatments and surgery, and Barbara, in her Whidbey Island cottage, learns to listen to her heart and intuition. Nurtured by Douglas fir forests, the Salish Sea, and her community, she changes her life from the inside out. Her journey, she realizes, wasn’t about leaving her husband so much as finding herself. Reconfigured in body, mind, and spirit, Barbara finally has words for what she wants to say—and the strength to be a survivor.
What would you do if you received a message from a stranger telling you that your daughter, who is traveling alone in Turkey, is having some sort of mental health episode?
Dear Psychosis, is a confronting, dramatic and no-holds-barred account of a family’s experience following their daughter’s first-ever psychotic episode in Istanbul, and her later diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
To some, it may be a warning, to others a story of hope. Most of all, it shows how the love and care given by strangers and family alike paved the way for their daughter’s recovery and inspired the family to break the silence around mental illness.
On a blazing summer day in Missouri, 1956, eight-year-old Richard discovers a sparkling rock on the railroad tracks near his home—and is fascinated. In that same year, he makes another unexpected discovery—an aching, forbidden desire to be a girl. A lifetime of secrecy follows until, at the edge of a cliff in remote southern Idaho, he faces a decision—to die as a man or live as a woman.Transformations is more than a memoir of transgenderism. It reflects important crossroads we all encounter in our lives—times of self-doubt and failure, other moments of great success and joy. It is a journey all of us share, one leading to that profound question we, at some point in our lives, must ask ourselves: Who am I?
Soar a Burning Sky won the 2022 OZMA Grand Prize Award for Fantasy Fiction!
with Award-Winning Author, Steven Michael Beck
Steven Michael Beck was the OZMA Grand Prize Winner for Fantasy Fiction at the 2022 CIBAs, hosted by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference. His book, Soar A Burning Sky looks at a world linked to Earth’s, and both planets are in danger due to the harsh realities of Earth’s drastic climate change.
He is also an award winning commercial director and Visual Effects art director on films like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Abyss, and The Hunt for Red October.
We were so glad to meet Steven and Vicki back in 2023 and are delighted to present this interview.
Chanticleer: To begin with, tell us a little about yourself! How did you start writing?
Beck: Writing has always been part of the creative process for me. As a filmmaker, treatments and screenplays were, and are the preemptive language of my craft. Being able to convey characters, camera movement, narrative arcs complete evocative moments, could only be done by putting words to the page. Given I’d always had the practice, longform wasn’t much of stretch—or so I thought.
Chanticleer: Film and writing always seem to have huge overlap. We run into that a lot with Book to Screen interest at the Conference. When did you realize that, in addition to being a director, you were also an author?
Beck: Here’s the odd answer… I don’t want to be a writer. I have a story to tell, and I want to get it out before I’m no longer able to write anymore. Which isn’t the same thing as wanting to be a writer. What I’d love to be is a relieved human being, thankful we finally got a handle on climate change. I see my contribution to that resolution as being the writer on this one story.
Steven Michael Beck directing Isaiah Washington on the set of the Ghost Ship.
Chanticleer: The issues of climate change are serious, and we’re glad to see the shift in fiction to address this too. Would you say that’s the genre you focus on here?
Beck: My genre is eco-dystopian fantasy. Solving climate change, or at least putting a dent in it is an eco-dystopian fantasy. The only ones capable to do this are those destined to inherit it. Thus, I’m trying to speak to them directly.
Chanticleer: Tell us a little about your writing process. Where do you land on things like idea generation, writing, and writing rules?
Beck: Lol. Rules? There are rules? In coming up with ideas for a story, I imagine a scene, and then let it go. Before it hits the presses, I indent, and re-edit it several times in over in order to get it right. I imagine. It informs. We then edit together.
For the writing day, I write in the mornings until I’m starved. Then I break for lunch, and then edit in the afternoon. Can’t write at night, lest I take it to bed.
Where the writing magic happens!
Chanticleer: It sounds like you’re a fairly intuitive writer. When you’re not writing what are you up to?
Beck: I’m the type of person who’s constantly curious about the creative process. That said, I have a rather inflatable muse. She takes me everywhere; film, design, sculpture, writing, construction, architectural design… Wherever she goes, I follow.
Chanticleer: An inflatable muse? Oh, I hope there’s a picture that explains that! Thinking about the support of muses, what are areas in your writing that you are most confident in? What advice would you offer to writers struggling in that area?
Steven Michael Beck wrestles with his next scene as the Muse looms over him.
Beck: I’m most confident in writing dialogue. Again, I believe that’s due to all the years writing screenplays. Regarding advice… Listen to the conversations around you as you develop original voice. One informs the other.
Chanticleer: How would you say being an author affects your involvement in community?
Beck: It sorely keeps me from it. Writing is a monk’s existence—if you’re going to be good. Which means, you sequester yourself away for hours at a time, day after day, months on end. Sure, you could spend the remaining hours at some bar, Bokowski-ing it, but that’s not community.
Chanticleer: That’s unfortunate that it feels like being an author and participating in community are at odds with each other. Do you feel like there’s a way you can promote and improve literacy in your community still?
Beck: I’m a columnist in our local paper as well as being a local author. One feeds the other when it comes to community dialogue.
Chanticleer: That is so true. Thinking of people reading your column, who would you say is the perfect reader for your book?
Beck: Anyone ages 12-54 who’s concerned their world won’t be here someday. Hopefully I can convince them my work is fantasy.
Chanticleer: So often fantasy and reality intersect, which is one of the great joys of writing. As a final question, what excites you most about writing?
Beck: The sense of discovery. You never expect to find what you do when you write. It’s magical, frustrating, shocking, and complex, all at once. Which is odd when you’re writing a cookbook.
Steven and Vicky Beck at Chanticleer Authors Conference
Chanticleer: Indeed! Thank you so much for making the time for this interview!
You can sign up for the Napa Valley Register and read Beck’s column here.
Steven Michael Beck spent the last 30 years pursuing the art of storytelling through advertising, film, and television. Specializing in visual effects-oriented concepts (and their often-unique storylines), his direction has constantly reflected infatuation with animation—the notion that any object or idea either contained ‘life’, or could be conjured into such (needless to say, he had an imaginative childhood). These projects and life lessons have been nothing if not steppingstones, leading him to see the potential of a new type of storytelling through combinations of sculpture, photography, text, and found object.
Edged in Purple by John W. Feist welcomes readers to a place outside of time and space, a liminal space where characters of myth wait to return to their fated stories.
The Fold is a beautiful land, a near-utopia shepherded– literally– by Thetis and Peleus of Greek mythology. They raise the heroine of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Perdita, after her father had accused her mother of betraying him with another, the whole sad story a product of his own paranoia.
Perdita’s story is proceeding as it was written. She has already met Florizel, the man who should be the hero of her romance– when her story is intersected by another. Just as The Winter’s Tale features royal courts, doomed relationships, mistaken identities, and family murder, so too does an ancient Greek drama: the Oresteia of Aeschylus, the story of Agamemnon after the Trojan War.
Orestes, the hero of that ancient tale, joins Perdita in the fold, pulling both of them from the paved road of fate.
They fall in love. Florizel goes mad with jealousy and proves that she’s MUCH better off with Orestes– as he pursues the lovers out of The Fold and into a reality that none of them are quite prepared for.
The reality they wake up in is that of the late 19th century, among the ruling class of the teetering Austro-Hungarian Empire of the Habsburgs, not far from Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s date with destiny.
Edged in Purple begins as a whimsical combination of fantasy and mythology.
Characters such as Orestes and Perdita’s adopted mother Thetis mingle with characters from the classics of literature– not just Perdita herself but nearly all of the personae from The Winter’s Tale. Peleus implies that characters from countless other stories have passed through The Fold on their way to their own endings, whether happy or not.
This setting offers a wealth of possibilities for stories to mingle and morph, which Edged in Purple explores to excellent effect.
It turns two familiar stories into one brand new adventure, transforming The Winter’s Tale into the kind of love vs. power romantic triangle that defines such stories as The Princess Bride, with Orestes, Perdita, and Florizel taking the roles of Wesley, Buttercup and Prince Humperdinck, respectively.
However, the curtain of fantasy is pulled back and the characters must inhabit the bodies of very real historical figures. And yet still, they seek to control their own fates.
After all, they managed it once, back in The Fold.
But as fantasy transforms into historical fiction, their lives become fixed to moments in time. And as Orestes– now Franz Ferdinand– learns, the wheels of history can’t be steered as easily as a story.
The two very disparate parts of Edged in Purple are equally compelling, and while that switch from fantasy fairy tale utopia to oncoming historical tragedy could send some readers for a spin, those interested in the blending of genres will be enthralled by this mirrored tale.
For readers who do make the leap, Franz Ferdinand and Sophia’s impossible happy ever after is both compelling and heartbreaking. Recommended for readers who enjoy portal fantasy, historical fiction, and tragic romance.
Fatherhood has changed dramatically over the last century. Once limited to being a hands-off leader of the family, fathers have become a loving, supportive, involved parent that we turn to for help, advice, and sometimes the keys to the car. This Father’s Day, June 16th, we celebrate all the amazing fathers and father figures in our lives!
The Evolving Role of Fatherhood
Let’s look back at the fathers of yesterday to celebrate the great dads we have today!
Fathers from Colonial Times to the Civil War
Traditionally, fathers in the US were stoic figures who taught their boys to work and found suitable husbands for their daughters. While showing the love they had for their children at home was discouraged, soldiers from the Civil War expressed their true feelings toward their children through letters from the battlefield.
Fathers of the Progressive Age
The industrialization of the nation freed up a father’s time to spend with their children, but World War I and II forced many fathers to leave their families to fight overseas. During the turbulent times of the Great Depression that followed gender roles became more flexible, allowing fathers more time with their children while their wives worked outside the home to support their families.
Fathers After WWII
Parenting went under the microscope after WWII, with many studies focused on parental roles and their affects on children. Results found that fathers of this time participated more in the lives and development of their children than ever before, but traditional parenting stereotypes were still in place.
60’s Fathers
Cultural and political shifts impacted fatherhood tremendously in the post-WWII baby boom, but the Vietnam War stymied the movement to further expand a father’s role in the family. Time away from their families and undiagnosed PTSD issues kept many fathers from fully participating in family life.
Fatherhood by 1999
Fathers evolved rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s. Economic stability gave fathers more time to spend at home and participate in their children’s lives in new ways, setting up new expectations for their children and encouraging them to chase their dreams. Harsh discipline was traded in for guidance and encouragement to do better.
Fatherhood in the 21st Century
The gender equality movement of the 21st century has allowed fathers to push aside the old concepts of being a sole provider and disciplinarian in favor of becoming an equal co-parent alongside their significant other. Today’s dads are now involved in all activities of the home, from child rearing to grocery shopping, allowing them to be more confident, emotionally available, and playful with their children.
And then there is Vatertag in Germany
In Germany, Father’s Day always takes place 39 days after Easter Sunday which makes it happen on a Thursday. Father’s Day is also the same date as Ascension Day. Vatertag is also known as Mannertag in the east part of Germany.
Participants go for walks and treks with handcarts, wagons, wheelbarrows, bicycle trailers, and other modes of transporting beer, grills, pretzels, snacks, portable speakers, etc. Also, it is tradition to decorate the carts with birch branches. The story is that in the old days, men would take to the fields for a fruitful harvest. In true German tradition, after the prayers, celebrating with beer, mead, and ale would commence.
Hats off to all the great fathers out there on Father’s Day!
Chanticleer Celebrates Father’s Day with Inspiring, Fun, and Compelling Stories about Fatherhood!
God, the Mafia, My Dad, and Me by Lori Lee Peters begins in the voice of a child, compelling not just for its narrative honestly, but for the fact that it might not be reliable. As the book opens, we learn that this narrator firmly believes she will be killed.
Readers can easily see through the childlike hyperbole, but that doesn’t detract from the intrigue. How did a kid come to such an extreme conclusion? Is there any seed of truth to it? These questions will hook readers from the start.
Author Peters set out to write a book about her dad. God, the Mafia, My Dad, and Me tells the true story of her father, and his fascinating work helping the FBI tackle Mafia activity in Lodi, California. Yet in the end, this is a memoir in which the compelling lead character – young Lori – overshadows her father in many ways.
Based on real people and events in 1918 France, One of Four by Travis Davis begins with a young French girl, Camille, who stumbles upon a diary lying next to an unknown American soldier. He was killed among his comrades in a German ambush near the banks of the Aire River, as he tried to protect his fellow soldiers. When Camille comes of age, she leaves her hometown to seek a better life in Paris. There, she is killed after joining a German resistance group. But before her death, she tucked the soldier’s diary in her Bible and hid it in a local bookstore.
Decades later, a man by the name of Walter travels to France with his son, Alex, to whom he’d become estranged after the painful divorce from Alex’s mother. He hopes this will be a journey of healing and exploration and that their time together will revive their shaky relationship. While there, Alex purchases the Bible left by Camille many years ago. By reading the hidden diary entries of the soldier together, Alex and Walter’s relationships takes an unexpected turn.
Robert Smalls’ life should have been one for the history books.
Smalls was born a slave in Beaufort, South Carolina, in 1839. When the first shots of the Civil War were fired upon Fort Sumter, Smalls was an experienced helmsman aboard a small cargo ship plying the coastal waters of South Carolina and the neighboring states. Once the war broke out, he found himself working to support a cause that kept him, his wife, and their children locked in chattel slavery.
But in a daring escapade that fell somewhere between a raid and a rescue, Smalls planned, with the help of his fellow crew members (also slaves) aboard the CSS Planter, to abscond with the ship, its cargo of munitions taken from Fort Sumter, and bring their families. The plan was to sail the ship as though its white officers were still on board, pretending to be carrying out their orders—at least until the ship was out of the reach of Fort Sumter’s guns.
Robert Dugoni’s novel,The World Played Chessexamines the demands of society and family, through the dawning adulthood of three different men in three different eras.
Vincent Bianco, a Southern California lawyer raises his teenage daughter and high-school-senior son. He unexpectedly receives the Vietnam journal of William Goodman, with whom he had worked construction in 1979. Goodman scribbled the journal in pencil during desperate breaks in his service in Vietnam. This record describes Goodman’s harsh initiation and horrifying acclimatization to the war.
Mirroring the Marine’s rapid maturation in the jungles of southeast Asia, Bianco recalls his own privileged coming of age. He compares it with his son Beau’s coming of age in present-day 2016 and 2017.
In A Story of Whoa, Chris Corbett shows one way that parents can explain the often loud and frightening problems of the world to children, and how anyone can make a difference.
Whoa watches the news every night with his father, where tragedy, injustice, and cruelty so often take center stage. Seeing these terrible things happening on TV, Whoa decides the time has come to step up. With his father’s support, he learns every martial art he can, ready to do battle with the toughest challenges in the world!
With patience and encouragement for Whoa’s many KERPOWS!!!, his father helps him discover that fighting injustice often goes beyond physical strength.
We would like to wish all fathers, fathers-to-be, stand-in fathers, and those who possess the fathering instinct, a very Happy Father’s Day!
Thank you for joining us in celebrating the Fathers in our life!
Do you have a book with fathers that deserves to be discovered? You can always submit your book for an Editorial Review with Chanticleer!
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Have an Award Winner?
Submitting toBook Awards is a great way to get your book discovered! Anytime you advance in the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards, your name and book are promoted right here on our website, through our newsletter, and across social media. One of the best ways to engage in long tail marketing!
Thank you again to the authors who wrote these wonderful books, and to fathers and father figures around the world! You are so loved and appreciated!
Jerena Tobiasen delivers a sharp, first-rate novel in Tsarina’s Crown, first installment in TheNightingale and Sparrow Chronicles, capturing a precise panorama of Russian politics and British espionage during a delicate period in time.
The year is 1915 and Simon Temple, a young naval officer aboard the RMS Guardian— a British Royal Navy Ship— patrols the North Sea for questionable communications and marine activity. Months later, he is entrusted by the British crown to serve as a liaison on a covert mission in Petrograd, Russia. Simon is careful not to blow his cover as a young aristocrat while he is thrust into the world of international politics, the ruthless Russian Revolution, and becomes caught right in the middle of two powerful royal families.
The mission turns out to be longer than Simon anticipated, and his life quickly becomes threatened as he tries to navigate a dangerous political labyrinth, all the while hoping to unearth the spy information that his King requires of him. But as the precarious wheel of mayhem and chaos churns in Russia, Simon’s only way to survive is to escape, realizing that his wit and intelligence might not save him from the tense political atmosphere. Things become even more complicated when he is joined by two other people who hope to flee.
Told with verve and heart, the plot offers a raw and intimate portrait of events and activities bookended by the First World War.
The tension and suspense are palpable in every chapter as Simon wrestles his way out of one dangerous situation after another.
Tobiasen’s lucid writing and adept storytelling capture the culture and intricate details during one of the biggest social and political upheavals of the twentieth century. She takes us behind palace walls of both Britain and Russia, offering readers a globetrotting experience as we glimpse into the intrigues of the aristocracy amid controversy and fiery protests.
The author does a remarkable job balancing vocabulary and syntax appropriate for this period while using modern language to make her text easily graspable. The meticulous research done before writing this novel is salient in her story and keeps the chronology accurate, a worthy indication of an author in command of her genre.
Love becomes a central theme in the story, giving weight to the characters’ emotions and connections.
An element of romance sparks between Simon and Mary, allowing characters to maneuver not just external conflicts but inner ones as well, pushing them to grow as people. Simon Temple is a character to cheer on, with admirable boldness and determination. The supporting characters are memorable and well-wrought too, adeptly playing their role in moving the story forward.
Tsarina’s Crown: The Nightingale and Sparrow Chronicles is a striking start to a promising series, and one of the best espionage stories in modern historical fiction.
Radical Betrayal by Anders W. Edwardsson explores American Exceptionalism and its echoes in today’s US politics and society. It offers a perspective on the nuances of the ideology and calls for its reworking towards a more united nation.
Donald Trump’s unexpected win shocked a major segment of the USA populace in 2016, raising a big question about a complete neophyte’s victory. For some, he was a messiah to renew America’s standing. For others, he was a candidate with an unconventional campaign of blunt, rabble-rousing talk, who surprisingly took over the electoral term.
What emerged as more remarkable is that, despite not winning the popular vote, the electoral college votes secured the 2016 US president his win. It added to the debate surrounding the election and highlighted the existing political divides in the states. Radical Betrayal examines why the 2016 election played out as it did, opening with its discussion of American Exceptionalism.
American Exceptionalism is the belief in the unique global leadership of the USA. This book follows the evolution of this ideology, starting from the blend of the nation’s founding ideals of Enlightenment and Religion. It covers various historical periods and traces the idea’s development over several presidencies. This discourse presents the basis for the thesis, paving the way to answer the controversial win of the 2016 election.
Radical Betrayal covers a labyrinth of movements like isolationism and interventionism in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as the rhetoric of political leaders from George Washington and Theodore Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump.
What becomes clear is years-long tactic of harnessing American Exceptionalism to gain public support and justify policies. Not only this, the history highlights differences in how this strategy was approached, and its continued influence on shaping political takes and public views today.
The work creates an inclusive argument for why Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” resonated with many people. To establish its position, Radical Betrayal works through the many political and cultural changes in American history that have created the appeal of this slogan. Different visions of Exceptionalism across history—inclusive and exclusive, active and passive—contribute to the debate on polarizing politics. They showcase a bridge between those conforming to two forms of this ideology—the more conservative form, and the broader, less focused version.
This book invites readers to help shape the future discourse around American Exceptionalism and its influence on the US.
Pointing to Trump’s presidency and the clear divisions in American identity during the era, Radical Betrayal suggests reassessing the power of Exceptionalism in shaping these national identities. It stresses the need to bridge historical ideals and modern realities toward a unified America. This journey to understand American Exceptionalism illuminates a potential for inclusivity in the nation’s rich tapestry of communities, races, and heritages.
An analytical approach with an encouraging and didactic tone shapes the pages of this book. Idealistic and inspiring, it opens the opportunity for further enrichment with discussions on potential obstacles in the journey to political refinement and growth.
The piece propels one toward reinterpretation and rejuvenation of American ideals, unity, and progress—the essence of American Exceptionalism itself.
Lily struggles to keep her business, her son, and her home. But in Summer Thunder, first book of the Magic at Myers Beach series by Alan B. Gibson, Lily’s luck begins to turn as she connects with the enigmatic beach king Theos.
With the help of her friend and fellow business owner Greta “the Witch,” Lily tries to revitalize her fairy-themed decoration and figurine store. Her divorce from her abusive ex-husband Kelly is pending, and she must present a calm and reliable home to ensure full custody of her son Jamie. But when her kindly landlord, Ms. Coffey, passes away, she’s confronted with two options: lose her prime business location and upstairs apartment, or somehow make enough money to buy the building herself.
Enter Theos, a kitesurfing champion with adoring fans. He shows true appreciation for Lily’s fairy figurines, bringing her many more sales. But more importantly, Theos becomes deeply interested in Lily herself. Their romance begins on rocky footing, as Theos has a strange air about him and seems to vanish whenever a storm comes into town. But when he begins modelling for a new fairy figurine– aptly named Theos, the King– the two are drawn inevitably closer.
Though she succeeds at turns, Lily confronts ever-growing problems, testing her determination.
She must keep Kelly from influencing her son and jeopardizing Lily’s chance at a happy family. And as Theos becomes a more serious figure in her life, Lily will have to decide how much of a leap of faith she’s willing to take–who she’ll end up becoming.
Meanwhile, the town of Myers Beach is facing change of its own.
This story keeps a tongue-in-cheek attitude as it tackles real-world issues. Powerful national banks sweep up local institutions, bullies wield the term ‘fairy’ against boys like Jamie who don’t follow their standards of masculinity, and the lives of people like Lily risk being seriously upended for the sake of someone else’s real-estate investments. While Summer Thunder keeps a lighter tone, it doesn’t shy away from serious topics.
The two perspectives, Lily and Theos, create an engaging balance of information for the reader.
While Lily tries to shape her own life, Theos shoulders an even more dire burden–the lives of his people. As crown prince of a true fairy kingdom, Theos deals with the aftermath of their most vital resource–fairy dust–being poisoned. He must find a new source of its core components, but thankfully, he’s already noticed a few in Myers Beach.
He works to set up a home for sick fairies around the town, while courting Lily and debating when–and how–to reveal his true nature. Often, readers will see the disconnect in Theos and Lily’s understanding of the world. Neither fully knows the other, especially as Theos presents such a larger-than-life persona, giving space for conflict to grow between them. Will they be able to overcome their differences, and truly connect as themselves?
This story shines with a charming setting and lively cast of characters.
Gibson’s descriptions place readers in the cool spray of kitesurfing and the quaint boardwalk of Myers Beach. Lily lives in a town of friendships and rivalries, with vibrant and unique characters to flesh out the story around her. While the prose sometimes explains more than it should, and dramatic threads don’t always have enough time spent building tension, the characters are driven and will pull readers easily into their schemes.
For those interested in urban fantasy, beach-side romance, and the adventures of plucky local fairies, Summer Thunder will be a strong opening to the Magic at Myers Beach series.
That’s a lot of ground and a lot of books! The Other Murder was the first place category winner in the suspense/thriller category, and was awarded the Grand Prize as the Best Book among all the CLUE entries.
Kevin sat down with the Chanticleer Book Review to talk about his writing and his new novel, Double Takedown, coming out this fall!
Chanti: Thank you so much for joining us Kevin! Tell us a little about yourself and how you started writing?
Chapman: Normally I’m explaining to my lawyer colleagues that the unusual thing about me is that I’m a mystery writer on the side. For mystery readers, you might be interested to know that I’ve been an in-house attorney for a major media company for the past 29 years. I’m a labor lawyer and former chairperson of the Labor & Employment Law section of the Association of Corporate Counsel. The L&E section consists of over 7000 in-house lawyers. I led the ACC section and oversaw our educational programs and publications. I even wrote an article for the ACC magazine on a radical plan for improving how companies run their employee evaluation programs! Yeah, I’m a law nerd (and proud of it).
Chanti: We all are nerds about something! How did you develop the idea for your current novel, The Other Murder, (Winner of the CLUE Award Grand Prize this year) and what inspired you to explore the intersection of media and law enforcement?
Chapman: Because I’m a lawyer who works for a media company and writes crime thrillers, the most significant elements of my professional life all come together in The Other Murder. The story sprang from my non-original observation that pretty, affluent white girls who are missing or killed tend to dominate the news cycles. We often hear statistics about the number of murders and violent crimes in a particular city. We seldom (if ever) see significant media coverage given to a minority victim who isn’t rich and famous.
This phenomenon could be called “unconscious bias,” but is likely more a conscious choice by producers and media executives focused on getting the biggest ratings. Particularly in broadcast news, including 24-hour cable news networks, getting eyes on your story is the most important thing. The story that can be made sensationalistic and involves a victim that will garner sympathy and is relatable is the story you feature. That’s good economics, but leads to a slanted presentation of the world. I wanted to make this murder mystery a story that gets inside that culture and lets readers see all sides of the story as it unfolds.
Kevin and Sharon Chapman
Chanti: The story of The Other Murder involves two journalists and two homicide detectives. How did you approach developing these characters, and what challenges did you face in creating complex relationships between them while navigating the intricacies of the murder mystery?
Chapman: The real “leads” of this story are the two journalists. Each of them has positive and negative attributes and each makes choices that are both selfish and noble – the two being not mutually exclusive. I wanted my cable news producer to be understood in the context of her job, her bosses, and her ambitions. I wanted the print journalist to be understood as someone who could have a “better” job, but who has a calling both to journalism and to his community. Their interactions disclose their similarities and differences as well as the nature of the business in which they work. And, of course, it’s a murder story so there must be cops. Here, the cops don’t have all the information and need the help of the journalists.
The two partners have their own problems, including a recent incident that set them at odds. Through their eyes, the reader learns things the journalists don’t know and sees the way the media coverage affects the police investigation. Making the characters the focus of the story lets me tell the mystery story through interesting eyes.
I have always loved the mysteries of Sara Paretsky, whose characters are the heart and soul of her books. In the Mike Stoneman Thriller series, I had a fixed set of main characters be my narrators. They, and their minor-character companions, gave me a universe of backstories to weave into the mysteries. This stand-alone story has brand new characters for my readers to relate to and care about.
My goal, like Ms. Paretsky, is to make my readers as interested in the stories of the players as they are about the underlying “main” plot. The plot needs to hold them together, but the characters need to behave in a way that is both realistic and interesting.
Chanti: Many of your stories feature important social issues, woven into your murder mystery plots. Why do you do that, and what message do you hope readers will take away from this aspect of the story in The Other Murder?
Chapman: I always want my books to be entertaining, but I also want to make my readers think about issues that exist in the world and which often influence the stories I’m telling. Jason Dickson, Mike Stoneman’s partner, is a Black detective. He (and Mike) encounter racism inside and outside the NYPD and those issues play naturally into my plots. I try to let my readers make up their own minds about things, but also confront them with situations they need to think about.
In Fatal Infraction, for example (Mike Stoneman #4), the Black quarterback of a New York pro football team is murdered. The racially charged environment of pro football and the reaction of the community to a murder that may have been racially motivated is a big part of the plot.
In The Other Murder, the main plot involves subtle racism that permeates the media and, to some extent, the police and the city officials, who are driven by publicity (positive or negative) and public perception. When the media tells the public that a situation is a horrible tragedy and an example of a huge problem that needs to be fixed, crowds gather, memorials are created, politicians and activists make speeches. This causes the media feed on itself as it amplifies the story.
Government officials like the mayor and the police commissioner react by prioritizing that crime and devoting resources to solving it. Catching that killer matters because everyone is watching. In this story, the second murder involves a Latino boy with a history of gang membership. It garners no media attention and generates minimal police interest until cops discover that Javier Estrada’s murder may be connected to the white girl, Angelica Monroe. The immediately reported story is that Angelica was an innocent victim of urban gun violence. She becomes a saint. Javier Estrada is ignored.
Meanwhile, the two detectives on the cases are a white man and a Hispanic woman. Mariana is the only character involved in the police investigation who cares about Javier’s story. Similarly, only Paulo Richardson, the local newspaper reporter, cares about Javier’s portrayal in the press. Paulo wants to make people see the truth about Javier. Mariana wants her colleagues to see that the white girl isn’t always the victim and the Latino boy is not always the criminal. The investigation also lays bare the recent rift between Mariana and her partner, Dru Cook, arising from an incident of police brutality. Was that incident racially motivated? Dru didn’t think so. Mariana saw it differently.
In the end, once the reader has all the facts (or, at least all the different versions of the facts), the question of who is a little bit racist and where motives and biases get mixed together makes things a lot less clear cut. My hope is that the reader not only enjoys the story and cares about the characters, but that the tale makes them think a little bit about their own perceptions.
Chanti: The Other Murder challenges readers to guess what happened. How do you craft the tension in a narrative, and what techniques did you employ to keep readers engaged in solving your mystery?
Chapman: Each book has its own requirements. In Dead Winner, my stand-alone romantic mystery from 2022, the protagonist was entranced by a woman who induced him to both protect her and help her recover her lost lottery ticket. The suspense was what would happen and who was really pulling the strings. In the Mike Stoneman books, typically the mystery is who the killer is and whether/how Mike and Jason will catch them.
In The Other Murder, the mystery is what really happened. In the first draft of the story, chapter one gave the reader a view into all the events that happened leading up to and including the murders of Angelica and Javier. I realized after the first draft was done that letting the reader know what happened and then following the investigations by the police and the journalists with that knowledge was not fully satisfying as a mystery. The story was: “how are they going to figure it out?” rather than “what happened?”
So, I went back and deleted most of that first chapter and re-wrote the story so that the journalists and the police (along with the reader) are piecing together the facts, without knowing for sure who is giving them good information, which of their assumptions are correct, and what information they are missing. This allows the reader to guess where the characters have it right, and what might be wrong. Even at the end, nobody (including the reader) can be 100% sure they know the whole truth.
Chanti: The novel highlights the danger of the truth. Can you elaborate on the significance of this theme and how it plays into the challenges faced by the characters, particularly Hannah and Paulo, as they uncover disturbing facts?
Chapman: The tag line of the book was one of the first things I wrote after outlining the basic story. “Sometimes, the most dangerous thing…is the truth.” It is a common observation that humans are significantly influenced by what is called in psychology “recency bias.” Your strongest memories and emotions are attached to the things that happened most recently. It is also true in media that the first story is the one that gets imprinted in people’s memories, particularly if it sparks strong emotions. When asked whether one of two things is true, the one you heard first is the one you are more likely to believe.
One of the core messages of The Other Murder is that people need to be careful about believing the first narrative they hear. But the reality is that, once a set of facts is in your head, it is hard to push it out. This is especially true when the original narrative reinforces your personal views and political objectives. Telling people who are emotionally, financially, and politically invested in one version of a story that the story they heard and want to believe is really a false narrative – is a dangerous thing to do.
In the media world, once you have established your narrative and “hooked” your audience, it’s hard to switch gears and retain your viewers if you suddenly try to tell them that what you had been telling them is false and that there’s a new truth they should switch to. They are likely to switch – to a different news source that will reinforce their belief in the original story. That is part of the challenge facing Paulo and Hannah.
Chanti: That is so interesting! Do you find you often learn things from writing your books?
Chapman: I’m always doing research to make sure that I’m getting the facts right in my stories, which can lead me to strange places. Like into the on-board morgue on a cruise ship (of course they have one!) or into the intricacies of how the NFL players’ association collective bargaining agreement treats the bonus money paid to a player who later dies. It’s fun to figure it out, but I almost always need volunteer consultants to help me and keep me honest.
For The Other Murder, I researched the operation of a cable news network and consulted with a few experts in order to get the details and the terminology correct. I knew the print journalist world already, but merging them together with the police procedural story was a challenge and was fun for me.
In my next book, I’ve been consulting with a pharmacist friend about drug interactions and how a murderer might use easily available drugs to induce a fatal reaction if you know what other drugs your victim is already taking. Cool stuff!
Chanti: Are there any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
Chapman: Oh, yes! Leaving Easter Eggs that will amuse a few readers who get the joke or the reference is great fun. Even if it’s only my wife and I who laugh. Sometimes it’s a name, a location, or a line of dialogue.
In The Other Murder, there are several references to things from my last book (Dead Winner). There is a location where key events happened in the last book, and an object that found its way from that book into this one. There are also references to characters from the Mike Stoneman books.
In the next book, there will be references to the two detectives from The Other Murder, who work in the same homicide division as Mike and Jason. I was even able to put a reference in Mike Stoneman #3 to a character who would be the murder victim in book #4. That’s so much fun.
Chanti: With that in mind, who is the perfect reader for your book?
Chapman: Lovers of murder mysteries, police procedurals, and romantic suspense will like my books. But what’s more important to me is that my readers be thinkers. If you don’t want anything in your books that raises difficult social/political issues and doesn’t make you examine your own biases and attitudes, then my books may not be for you. I don’t mind if you don’t agree with my characters, and I won’t be offended if you decide you didn’t like my subplots, but I want readers who accept a challenge. I also love readers who like to be surprised and who think they can figure out any mystery. Think you can figure out what happened? I dare you!
Kevin G. Chapman recording his audiobook
Chanti: It’s always a joy to try and figure out the next step as a reader. And speaking of which, what are you working on now? What can we look forward to seeing next from you?
Chapman: I’m currently in the final editing stage of the next book in my Mike Stoneman thriller series, titled Double Takedown. I left off with Mike, Jason, and the other characters from the series in Las Vegas in January of 2020. I decided that I did not want to write those characters living through the COVID-19 pandemic (interviewing witnesses while wearing masks, etc.). So I wrote two stand-alone books that are not set in any particular year, including The Other Murder. Now, I’m picking up Mike and Jason in the fall of 2023 as they are preparing for a trial stemming from a murder from May of 2022 and investigating a new murder from September of 2023. This story includes a character who is a social media “influencer” and explores what happens when the police develop “tunnel vision” during an investigation. Look for Double Takedown this fall.
Kevin Chapman writes award-winning suspense/thriller/crime fiction. His books, including The Other Murder,are now available on Amazon in both hardcover and print, and as an ebook on Kindle via Amazon.com at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJN6W5NJ.
Paperbacks and hardcovers of all his books are also available through select independent bookstores and via Bookshop.org, which supports local bookstores. The audiobook version is available via CHIRP, iTunes, Googleplay, Roku, Nook (Barnes & Noble), LIBRO.FM (which also supports independent bookstores) and on Audible.
Readers can contact Kevin Chapman, see all his content, and download two free short stories and a free novella at www.KevinGChapman.com.
In Nova Garcia’s novel, Not That Kind of Call Girl, Julia Navarro-Nilsson balances a lot heavy responsibilities on her plate. She’s the supervisor of the Cascade City Chronicle call center, has just had her first child, and is dead set on saving her newest employee from a lifetime of abuse.
Steven Michael Beck was the OZMA Grand Prize Winner for Fantasy Fiction at the 2022 CIBAs, hosted by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference. His book, Soar A Burning Sky looks at a world linked to Earth’s, and both planets are in danger due to the harsh realities of Earth’s drastic climate change.
Steven Michael Beck spent the last 30 years pursuing the art of storytelling through advertising, film, and television. Specializing in visual effects-oriented concepts (and their often-unique storylines), his direction has constantly reflected infatuation with animation—the notion that any object or idea either contained ‘life’, or could be conjured into such (needless to say, he had an imaginative childhood). These projects and life lessons have been nothing if not steppingstones, leading him to see the potential of a new type of storytelling through combinations of sculpture, photography, text, and found object.
Edged in Purple by John W. Feist welcomes readers to a place outside of time and space, a liminal space where characters of myth wait to return to their fated stories.
Jerena Tobiasen delivers a sharp, first-rate novel in Tsarina’s Crown, first installment in The Nightingale and Sparrow Chronicles, capturing a precise panorama of Russian politics and British espionage during a delicate period in time.
From the 2023 Clue Division Grand Prize Winner for Suspense/Thriller for his book The Other Murder, we have a brand new Chanticleer Author Interview!
