Living The Next Chapter: Candid Conversations with Authors and Writers for Readers Searching for a New Read

EPISODE 628 - Nicholas Casbarro - Vitalerium, A novel was written at 36,000 feet - the narrative of Roman Matthews

Welcome to the Vitalerium Universe
A Sci-Fi Series By Nicholas Keating Casbarro
A dark, thrilling odyssey that will challenge everything you think you know about humanity’s future. Seven centuries from now, the stars are both a refuge and a battlefield, where ambition, deception, and survival collide.

Hailed as a critically acclaimed sci-fi epic, Vitalerium – Descent into the Void delivers a relentless adventure filled with political intrigue, forbidden power, and cosmic mystery. Will you uncover the secrets that lie beyond the void—or be consumed by them?

Nicholas Casbarro
Born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1990. He attended Northeastern University’s Doctor of Physical Therapy Program in Boston, class of 2013. Though he never practiced, he maintained his curiosity and love for the sciences. After college, he worked in the medical device field with a specialty in wound-healing and burn treatment. In 2021, he joined a regenerative medicine company where he would spend five days a week on a plane, traveling the country to work with burn surgeons and victims. While flying, he experienced a spark of inspiration, and decided to follow the thread. Since childhood, he had a deep love for science fiction, growing to appreciate the greats in sci-fi like Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, and many others. Nicholas used his time on countless flights to create the Vitalerium Series and its universe. The majority of the Vitalerium novel was written at 36,000 feet. He has seven books planned in the Vitalerium Series and continues to craft the narrative of Roman Matthews.

https://vitaleriumseries.com/

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EPISODE 627 - Cameron Reuben Hudson - Actor, Writer and Author - the novel series, Preter-Human Chronicles

Cameron Reuben Hudson

the founder of Hudson Media Collective™, is a uniquely multifaceted artist who is always creating new works and telling stories for future generations to remember.

Whether he's writing a new book for his upcoming novel series
"Preter-Human Chronicles"™ or exploring a new character on film,
(Watch his acting debut in J&M Productions' Reacher)

There is always something bright shining on Hudson's horizon.

You'll often find him mingling and collaborating with new artists to create meaningful stories people can relate with and look up to.

Hudson Media Collective redefines storytelling by seamlessly blending film production and book publishing under one creative house.

We are committed to crafting innovative, immersive narratives that captivate audiences across multiple mediums, pushing the boundaries of how stories are told, experienced, and remembered.

https://www.hudsonmediacollective.com/
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12364897/

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EPISODE 626 - Suzanne Parry - The Soviet Experience Through Historical Fiction, Pentagon Tour, Iron Maiden of Stockholm

Raised in a quiet rural corner of western New York State, I didn’t always want to be a writer. I was, however, always surrounded by books. Bookcases in every room. Entire walls of them. My mother was an avid reader and regular trips to the library were part of my childhood. My stepfather was a creative writing professor and words floated through the rooms and into the nooks and crannies of that pre-Civil War era farmhouse. Books weren’t my escape so much as they were part of my daily diet.

At twenty I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish and “write a book” was on it. That list included both measurable things like “learn five foreign languages” and “complete a significant athletic achievement” and less quantifiable items like “make the world a better place.” During the Cold War of my high school and college years, I very much wanted to help reduce the possibility of conflict between the US and the USSR.

I earned a bachelor’s degree at Purdue University, and then continued my Russian studies at the Pushkin Russian Language Institute in Moscow. I studied Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, received a Master’s in 1982 and started a career in public service with the US Department of Defense. My work in the Office of the Secretary of Defense focused on European security issues between NATO, Warsaw Pact, and neutral nations.

While at the Pentagon I helped negotiate the Conference on Disarmament in Europe, the first security agreement of the Gorbachev era. At the Stockholm talks as we often called the CDE, a number of my European colleagues jokingly called me the “Iron Maiden of Stockholm” in a not altogether flattering reference to British PM Margaret Thatcher, the original tough-as-nails female negotiator. The many months I spent crafting an agreement with diplomats from thirty-five nations, sitting at a table alongside NATO colleagues and opposite Soviet and Warsaw Pact counterparts, was my great honor.

After this heady time, I put most of my energy into raising a large family (requiring its own negotiating skills). Funny enough, having a family was not on that list and yet today I would say without hesitation that the most impactful (and most difficult) thing I’ve ever done is raise four children.

I lived in several countries, including the former Soviet Union, Belgium, Sweden, Singapore, and Germany. Throughout adulthood I’ve been a committed runner. I’ve completed dozens of marathons in more than twenty countries, including the fifty-six-mile Comrades Marathon in South Africa.

I eventually landed in the wonderful and welcoming city of Portland, Oregon as a single parent. There, I coached high school cross country and track at a large public high school before deciding it wasn’t too late to dust off that forty-year-old list and write a book.

I now divide my time between Portland and Washington, DC, but also travel for fun, for research, and best of all, to visit my children and grandchildren.

https://suzanneparrywrites.com/

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EPISODE 625 - Urmi Hossain - Discovering Your Identity, A Rebirth From Interracial Struggle

About the author
Introducing Urmi Hossain, a published author of "Discovering Your Identity: A Rebirth From Interracial Struggle". With an extensive finance background, she works full-time in the financial services industry and firmly believes in the adage "higher the risk, higher the return". Urmi is an avid opportunity seeker and is dedicated to continuous self-improvement and lifelong learning. During her leisure time, she enjoys reading and refining her public speaking skills, as well as advocating for women's empowerment. Urmi is not solely an author, but also an accomplished blogger, YouTuber, speaker, and mentor for young women. Her life philosophy revolves around the notion that anything is attainable if it is genuinely desired. Let's #beagogetter

Book: Discovering Your Identity: A Rebirth From Interracial Struggle
Do you ever feel like the challenges you face as a brown girl are unique to you or experienced universally? Are you living in a culture where others control your life to maintain their reputation in the community? Do you feel like you're living in a bubble, unable to share your point of view? This book tells the story of a brown girl who grew up in Italy with Bengali parents who wanted her to be the perfect and obedient Bengali girl. Through reflections and confessions, she shares her experiences growing up as a third-culture kid and the struggles many South Asian girls face.

https://www.iambrownstyle.com/author/urmi-hossain/
https://www.instagram.com/urmamio/
https://amzn.to/4fBlPkW

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EPISODE 624 - Beverly Burch - What You Don't Know - One contrary ghost, two women, three triangles

About the author
My newest book is the novel, What You Don't Know. I also have four collections of poetry and two nonfiction books. My work has won a Lambda Literary Award, a John Ciardi Prize, a Gival Poetry Prize and was a finalist for Audre Lorde Award. I live in the Bay Area with my wife and two Maine coon cats, Mac & Zadie.

Praise For What You Don’t Know
“A dazzling story, containing so much more than the width of its spine. Love is all over the place in this novel, and you don’t know which way it will turn next, and you stay glued to the page to find out. Burch reminds us that life is complex and dynamic and we really don’t know what might happen next.”

—Nina Schuyler, award-winning author of In This Ravishing World

“Dreamy and poetic, What You Don’t Know chronicles the awakening of two young women to the intertwined forces of grief and desire. Set in soul-freeing San Francisco and music-rich Nashville, this immersive novel deeply explores the hearts of its characters.”

—Lucy Jane Bledsoe, award winning author of Tell the Rest

One contrary ghost, two women, three triangles, four children: What You Don’t Know is a bisexual love story from the Music City, the Blueridge Mountains and the Bay Area.

Chloe, beautiful, whip-smart, flees a difficult childhood and sexual betrayal to the Bay Area where she falls in love with a woman. Afraid of this love, she devotes herself to making money instead. At 29 she moves to Nashville and meets Peter, a producer whose wife Angie recently died. Angie still seems to be around though, quietly coaching Chloe about Peter and helping her twin sister Rosie through grief. Rosie is devastated by the loss of Angie and dislikes Chloe immediately, that is, until she becomes intrigued by her. After Chloe marries Peter, their relationship grows close, displeasing Angie. Chloe realizes she’s in love with Rosie, creating yet another triangle. A terrible accident ensues that upends everyone’s lives again, but bringing Chloe home to her true desires.

https://www.beverlyburch.com/

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EPISODE 623 - Bonnie Moore - Buried Bones - A Maggie Anderson Mystery - When a vacation turns deadly, justice is served

About the author
Bonnie Moore is a semi-retired attorney, accountant, management consultant, and Golden Girls Network's founder.

A former senior consultant at a CPA firm in Washington, D.C., she developed financial processes and investigated improprieties in governmental organizations. Her self-help book "How to Start a Golden Girls Home," earned widespread media coverage in 2015. An avid traveler, Bonnie has explored remote corners of the world, from archaeological digs in France to a safari in South Africa.

In 2017, she retired to Utah to be near family and pursue her dream of writing, resulting in her debut novel, "Buried Bones."

Book: Buried Bones
A murder in small-town Utah, a town full of secrets, and a retired prosecutor's determination to expose the truth-can the killer's identity be revealed before a family with hidden secrets and everything to lose stop the prosecutor?

While vacationing in the mountains east of Ogden, Utah, retired prosecutor Maggie Anderson learns about the discovery of Audrey Stillman's body buried near the home she once shared with her former husband, Ben. Maggie witnesses Ben threatened by a gang of local cowboys and the town quickly blames him.

Haunted by her past failure to save another innocent man, Maggie offers Ben help and begins investigating.

As she delves into the case, Maggie uncovers ties between Audrey's murder and the influential Stevenson family, who control much of the town's political and economic life. It's discovered Audrey was pregnant when she died, and Maggie suspects the father may be the killer. But the deeper Maggie digs, the more secrets she uncovers-secrets that certain powerful people will go to great lengths to protect.

With help from the district attorney and her growing connection to her friend Robert, Maggie secretly collects DNA samples

https://www.bonniemoorebooks.com/

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EPISODE 622 - Trevor Jones and April Nia Raine - Chronicles of Kinthur - Fascinating Stories that take readers to another world

Podcast Show Notes: Chronicles of Kinthur with Trevor Jones and April Nia Raine

In this immersive episode of The Chronicles of Kinthur, authors Trevor Jones and April Nia Raine invite listeners into their world of storytelling, creativity, and partnership. Speaking from their home base in Costa Rica, the duo behind the Knights of Aragon and Pentacle series share the origins of their fantastical universe and the creative process that binds them both as collaborators and life partners.

Trevor, who began writing stories as a child and found an imaginative outlet through Dungeons and Dragons, recounts how worldbuilding slowly evolved into full-scale novels. His lifelong interest in fantasy and science fiction shaped the foundation for what would become the world of Kinthur. April discovered one of Trevor’s forgotten manuscripts and encouraged him to bring it to life again—a partnership that sparked the creation of multiple series and a growing library of stories deeply rooted in shared passion and imagination.

Their collaboration emerged naturally. What began with April adapting game notes into novel form transformed into a rhythm of co-creation—trading ideas, refining characters, and strengthening plots at matching desks facing opposite directions. The authors openly discuss the highs and lows of writing together: moments of intense synergy that yield thousands of words in a single day, and the inevitable creative tension when one critiques the other's beloved passage. Humor, mahi-mahi dinners, and mutual respect keep their creative rhythm alive.

Trevor and April describe their fantasy works as accessible yet expansive adventures that blend classical myth with fast-paced storytelling. The Knights of Aragon trilogy follows the elven ranger Elwin and her companions as they battle orcs, uncover divine prophecies, and explore the ever-expanding world of Kinthur. Meanwhile, Trevor’s Pentacle series—anchored by a reluctant, seventy-year-old vampire—explores moral conflict, immortality, and redemption in a darker vein. Upcoming releases include Quest of a Goddess, the next volume in Knights of Aragon, as well as new titles like Jekyll and Jinx, a romantic fantasy between a warlock and an elemental.

Beyond their fiction, the couple emphasizes the importance of community and reader connection. Active on BookTok, Patreon, and Facebook, they maintain close ties with fans, offering behind-the-scenes glimpses into their writing process, early story access, and design previews. Their Patreon readers receive short stories, exclusives, and even the occasional draft that may never reach publication—a true peek into the creative forge.

Trevor and April see writing as more than output; it’s conversation. They invite readers into their world with humor, humility, and a shared love of creation. Their playful banter and discipline reflect the core of their partnership—each serving as both muse and editor to the other, pushing their shared universe to greater heights.

https://kinthur.com/

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EPISODE 621 - Deborah Lee Luskin - Hunting for Your Next Great Read - Reviving Artemis - The Making of a Huntress

Deborah Lee Luskin earned a PhD in English Literature from Columbia University and expected to become an academic, not a deer hunter. She moved from New York City to Vermont for the summer in 1984, fell in love with the landscape, the community, and the new doctor in town. Forty years later, she’s still in Vermont, where she’s raised daughters, taught, and—always—wrote.

Luskin’s novel, Into the Wilderness (White River Press, 2010) a love story set against the backdrop of Vermont’s political sea-change in 1964, won the Independent Publishers Gold Medal for Regional Fiction and praise from the Vermont Library Association for its “sense of place.”

Luskin started her career in print, penning her first professional column from France while in high school. Her work has since appeared in newspapers and magazines; been broadcast on public radio; and sent into cyberspace in blogs.

Luskin spent more than thirty-five years driving all over Vermont, delivering literature-based humanities programs for the Vermont Humanities Council to parenting teens, new adult readers, educators, life-long learners, healthcare workers, and prison inmates. She has lectured widely and taught countless writing workshops. Since 2016, Luskin has been facilitating the on-going Rosefire Writing Circle, a place to write in community and with support.

Engaged in civic life, Luskin practiced restorative justice as a volunteer at the Brattleboro Community Justice Center and served as the elected Town Moderator in Newfane, Vermont.

All along, Luskin grew vegetables, kept bees, and stuck to well-marked trails through the woods. She knew how to read a text closely, slaughter chickens, and can tomatoes, but she didn’t know how to read the untracked forest that dominates the Green Mountain State. Until she was sixty, she was scared of getting lost in the woods. Then she heard a call from the universe that the deer could teach her how to read the untracked landscape. Reviving Artemis: Becoming a Huntress tells the story of how she learned to navigate through the forest of her fears and find her place in the natural world.

Finding a Place in the Natural World
Reviving Artemis is the unlikely story of a woman raised in mid-twentieth-century suburbia, then lived in New York City as a young adult, and moved to Vermont in 1984. For more than thirty years, she raised domestic livestock, kept bees, and cultivated fruits and vegetables while teaching literature and telling stories. But when she turned sixty, something shifted. Luskin was overtaken by a primal urge to step out of the garden, off the blazed trails, and into untracked forest by learning to hunt deer.

Deeply personal, lyrically told, and funny, Reviving Artemis reveals Luskin’s ambivalence about guns and her fear of entering the forest alone in the dark. She persisted, using her literary acumen to read the forest and, as thoughtfully as she hunts for words, to hunt for deer. With the stories of Artemis, goddess of the hunt, childbirth, and wild nature to inspire her, Luskin became a huntress determined to age fiercely and compelled to tell this story of finding her place in the natural world.

https://www.deborahleeluskin.com/

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EPISODE 620 - Jill MacLean - Canadian Author of a Poetry Collection, Non-fiction Historical biography, Young Reader and Young Adult Novels

Jill MacLean is the Canadian author of a poetry collection, a non-fiction historical biography, three novels for young readers, two young adult novels, and The Arrows of Mercy, historical fiction for adults set in medieval England, released in 2023. The Arrows of Fealty, a stand alone sequel to The Arrows of Mercy, will release in September 2024.

Jill MacLean’s somewhat truncated biography:
Although I was born in England in Berkshire (the county where my medieval novel, The Arrows of Mercy, is set), I left there many years ago, and happily took out Canadian citizenship in 1970.

I began writing poetry in the nineties, along with completing a Masters degree in theology, and my poetry collection was published in Manitoba in 2003. My young grandson then asked me to write him a book – and changed the direction of my life. Three middle-grade novels and two Young Adult novels followed in fairly quick succession (you can check them out under Publications).

All five novels were contemporary, four were set in Newfoundland (where my family lived for seventeen years), and four overtly dealt with bullying.

Was I in danger of falling into a literary rut?

If so, what to write next?

The hiatus was frightening; but gradually there surfaced my abiding fascination with the medieval period, and even more gradually characters began to emerge, chief among them Edmund – I know from the beginning he would be an archer. I also knew I wanted to write about war and its aftereffects, as well as plague (this was well before Covid) – and that I did not want to write about aristocrats. Edmund and his cohorts are peasants, serfs, villeins, the lowest of the low.

I read widely about rural life in mid-14th century England, my son drove me around the back lanes of Berkshire in search of the exact setting, and I started to write in 2015. The novel was initially intended for a young adult audience, but morphed into fiction for adults – I wanted no constrictions.

Because I was in love with the research, and assumed you would be too, I wrote a sprawling, unmanageable mess of a novel, and then spent years (literally) cutting it back until it was the length it needed to be.

The Arrows of Mercy was launched.

Although set in 1348, the novel’s themes of plague, PTSD and scorched-earth warfare (think Syria and Ukraine) are all-too relevant to today’s world.

https://jillmaclean.mywriting.network/about-me/

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EPISODE 619 - Alex R. Johnson - Brooklyn Motto A coming-of-age,  New York-centric, detective noir debut

ALEX R. JOHNSON
Johnson’s feature film TWO STEP premiered to critical acclaim at SXSW and went on to become a New York Times Critic’s Pick, as well as remaining 100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

His screenplay NORTHEAST KINGDOM was selected for the Black List. It was acquired by Paramount Pictures for Platinum Dunes to produce, with Johnson attached to direct.

His screenplay ANY ROUGH TIMES ARE NOW BEHIND YOU was selected by the Austin Film Society’s Artist Intensive lab. There, he spent three days working one-on-one with late director Jonathan Demme, an experience that was as inspiring as it was creatively life changing.

He also wrote the screenplay adaptation of Ernest Tidyman’s novel, BIG BUCKS, for Pascal Pictures.

His debut novel, BROOKLYN MOTTO, will be released in March of 2025.

Prior to writing and directing, Johnson was a seasoned NYC based commercial and documentary producer. He started his career at the legendary Maysles Films and then branched off to work with other directors, including producing the feature documentary I AM SECRETLY AN IMPORTANT MAN for filmmaker Pete Sillen.

Johnson's family hails from the Andes of Ecuador. A government brat, he moved frequently but was raised mostly between New York City and the suburbs of DC.

He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY..

BROOKLYN MOTTO by Alex R. Johnson
Fans of Richard Price, Charlie Huston, and Jonathan Lethem will love this coming-of-age New York-centric detective noir debut from esteemed filmmaker and screenwriter Alex R. Johnson.

New York City, 1998. New York is changing around Nico Kelly, and he can feel more coming.

A private investigator and self-proclaimed photographer, Nico is stuck in a loop of city contracts and self loathing. What little middle class there was is disappearing—long-standing factories are moving out and taking their reliable neighborhood jobs with them, and Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s police force has the streets in a stranglehold.

Nico spends his days looking for fraudsters while taking photos of municipal employees on disability claims. He spends his nights trying to get rid of the nagging feeling that his day job makes him a professional snitch—traversing dive bars, playing pinball, and fighting through the haze of hungover mornings and blurry evenings.

Pushing thirty years old and feeling split between his American and Latin heritage, between youth and adulthood, Nico finds himself at a precipice—who is he and what should he become?

When Nico witnesses and records a murder during one of his insurance fraud investigations, bodies start to turn up all around him and he’s forced into solving a mystery he didn’t ask to solve. Humorous, gritty, and real, Nico’s search for what it means to be human takes him through the deepest and darkest parts of New York City.

https://www.brooklynmotto.com/

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