Author: Marissa DeCuir

“Weaving together humor and pathos, McGue’s tale of redemption offers
hope to anyone seeking to know and be known as they truly are.”
— Jonathan Callard, writer and teacher at the University of Pittsburgh

Michigan City, IN – Julie Ryan McGue is adopted. And she is also a twin. But because their adoption was closed, she and her sister lack both a health history and the names of their birth parents — which becomes pertinent for Julie when, at 48 years old, she finds herself facing several serious health issues. McGue’s poignant and hopeful debut memoir, “Twice a Daughter,” (May 11, 2021, She Writes Press) chronicles the complex search for her uncharted family history.

To launch the probe into her closed adoption, McGue first needs the support of her sister. The twins talk things over and make a pact: McGue will approach their adoptive parents for the adoption paperwork and investigate search options, and the sisters will split the costs involved in locating their birth relatives. But their adoptive parents aren’t happy that their daughters want to locate their birth parents — and that is only the first of many obstacles Julie will come up against as she digs into her background.

The quest for her birth relatives spans five years and involves a search agency, a private investigator, a confidential intermediary, a judge, an adoption agency, a social worker and a genealogist. By journey’s end, what began as a simple desire for a family medical history has evolved into a complicated quest — one that unearths secrets, lies and family members that are literally right next door.

McGue earnestly writes about discovering who you are and where you come from, all while trying to make sense of it all. In sharing her unconventional journey through life, which involves new family, exploration and acceptance, this heavy-hearted history considers personal identity and all the complicated and captivating moments that encapsulate one’s life.

“Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity, Family, and Belonging”
Julie Ryan McGue | May 11, 2021 | She Writes Press
Memoir | Paperback | 9781647420505 | $16.95
Ebook | 9781647420505 | $9.95 | Audiobook | 9781953865137 | $9.99

Praise for “Twice a Daughter” and Julie Ryan McGue

“ An engaging, endearing chronicle of a woman’s quest to find her origins.”
— Kirkus Reviews

“Rarely does an adoptee rights advocate and legislator have the chance to witness the results of their efforts in such a profound and personal way as in ‘Twice a Daughter.’ … Every adoptee deserves to know their identity, the first chapter of their life, and the circumstances of their birth. It is their personal story and a basic human right. Keep up the fight!”
— Sara Feigenholtz, adoptee and Illinois state senator

“Julie McGue’s quest memoir is an extraordinary account of a woman’s mid-life search for her birth parents and the medical history she and her twin sister desperately need. … I was moved by this suspenseful tale that ultimately celebrates the meaning of family in all its forms.”
— Joelle Fraser, author of “The Territory of Men” and “The Forest House”

“ An enchanting story about searching and fighting for hidden information and what it means to be adopted — to wrestle with love, pain, rejection and acceptance. … This is a must read for everyone — especially those touched by adoption.”
— Linda Fiore, Director, Adoption Center for Family Building, Chicago

“ ‘Twice a Daughter’ is not just another tale of an adoptee’s search for truth. The author’s craft and candor turn this into an inspirational story of perseverance and resiliency. … This is a story about the discoveries that searching for the truth reveals, how it sets you free and offers the gift of love.”
— Linda Joy Myers, founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers,
author of “Don’t Call Me Mother”

“Julie very eloquently conveys the range of emotions felt by an adopted person who yearns for answers and connection with biological relatives. … The reader will surely be enlightened by joining Julie on this sometimes bumpy ride.”
— Lisa Francis, LCSW, Post Adoption Services, Catholic Charities, Chicago.

“A masterful storyteller … In ‘Twice a Daughter,’ the road to genetic connection may be fraught with hidden roadblocks, but the destinations open up to the widest horizons of the heart-authenticity, courage, wholeness and compassion.”
— Diane Dewey, author of “Fixing the Fates: An Adoptee’s Story of Truth and Lies”

“Although a memoir, ‘Twice a Daughter’ is also the tale of every adoptee’s search for answers, connection, relationship, and family. It’s a must-read for all members of the adoption triad: birth parents, adoptive parents and adoptees.”
— Nancy Golden, cofounder of the Midwest Adoption Center

JULIE RYAN McGUE is an author, a domestic adoptee and an identical twin. She writes extensively about finding out who you are, where you belong and making sense of it.

Julie’s debut memoir “Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity, Family, and Belonging” (She Writes Press) comes out in May 2021. It’s the story of her five-year search for birth relatives. Her weekly blogs That Girl, This Life and her monthly column at The Beacher focus on identity, family and life’s quirky moments.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Julie received a BA from Indiana University in psychology. She earned a MM in Marketing from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business, Northwestern University. She has served multiple terms on the Board of the Midwest Adoption Center and is an active member of the American Adoption Congress.

Married for over 35 years, Julie and her husband split their time between Northwest Indiana and Sarasota, Florida. She’s the mother of four adult children and has three grandsons. If she’s not at her computer, she’s on the tennis court or out exploring with her Nikon. Julie is currently working on a collection of personal essays. For more information, visit her website, juliemcgueauthor.com.

In an interview, Julie Ryan McGue can discuss:

• Coping with feelings of abandonment and loss — initially feeling rejection by her birth parents — and how she persevered and found healing through her journey
• How using DNA is key for many adoptees to connect with lost relatives
• The various search strategies sometimes required by adoptees to locate lost family when they cannot connect by DNA
• The differences between open and closed adoptions and the “right to know” vs. “right to privacy” arguments for both
• What it’s like discovering and getting to know new siblings so late in one’s life

An Interview with Julie McGue

1. What is it like to grow up knowing you are adopted?

Being a twin and being adopted are so intertwined in my identity that it’s impossible to separate them.

My sister and I must have learned at a very early age that we were adopted because I seemed always to have known this fact. While I am grateful that I was not a “late discovery adoptee,” certain questions have preoccupied me throughout my life: Why was I adopted? Who were my birth parents? Have they ever wondered what happened to us? Will they come back for us? These inner yearnings were finally answered as a result of my adoption search and reunion.

2. How did staying with your twin throughout your life affect you?

As a result of our twindom, being adopted is a different equation for us than the typical adoptee. Yes, we’ve always been curious about the reasons for our adoption, but the rejection that is inherent in the adoption experience never seemed to slow us down — it didn’t threaten our confidence or our sense of self. Our exclusivity, our belonging to one another, was like a shield that protected us from the debilitating and searing ‘primal wound’ of adoption.

Our adoption agency, Catholic Charities, told our adoptive parents that we were fraternal twins. Throughout the course of our lives, my sister and I have always looked so similar as to confound not just strangers but family and friends, too. Because Jenny and I have been together since before we were born, our bond is strong and secure. Unbreakable. I relied on her during our adoption search and reunion and her support made navigating the complicated process that much easier.

3. When did you decide you wanted to search for your birth relatives? What kept you from searching earlier in your life?

My sister and I were happy kids. We loved our parents, and we knew we had a good situation. When we were growing up, our fear was that by expressing an interest in learning more about our adoption that our parents’ feelings would be hurt. Through my involvement with a post-adoption support group, I learned that this fear is a common reason why adoptees delay searching. Many wait until their adoptive parents are deceased before deciding to launch a search, and many adoptees delay or halt searches for fear of exposing themselves to more loss and rejection.

Adoption search and reunion is not for the faint of heart. An adoptee must have a strong support system before tackling such a tedious project, one with very uncertain outcomes. While adoptees long for answers regarding identity, family health history, and genealogy, it is the fear of damaging important relationships that holds us back. The other factor is timing. An adoptee must be in a good place with respect to marriage and family, career path and financial stability before tackling the uncertainty of an adoption search.

When I was 30 years old — and without my parents’ knowledge — I sent a letter to Catholic Charities requesting information about my adoption. This was before the Illinois adoption statutes underwent an overhaul and ultimately began to recognize an adoptee’s inherent right to information. Several weeks later, I received a form letter that stated, “Nothing can be shared at this time.” Eighteen years passed before a breast biopsy compelled me to launch a full-scale search effort.

4. What is the most astounding thing you learned about your genealogy?

Besides learning that both fraternal and identical twins run in my birth mom’s family, I was shocked to learn that we have Native American blood on both sides of our family tree. Raised a Catholic, I discovered that one of my ancestors was a Messianic Jewish rabbi. And, for someone who had previously no known family history, my pedigree now dates back to the 1700s.

I have roots in Germany, France, Canada, Scotland and Ireland. None of which I knew beforehand. While most of my birth relatives are dispersed across several Midwestern states, there are some that reside, quite literally, right next door.

5. What did you discover about your inner self and your journey after finally unearthing the details of your personal story?

Perseverance and resilience were qualities that I possessed before the search, but the degree to which I needed to test and further develop those virtues dumbfounded me. Normally a quiet, reserved and serious person, the range of emotions that the search brought out in me was often exhausting. In one day, I might cycle through anger and then joy, denial and then resignation, disappointment and then forgiveness.

I look back on this tumultuous period of my life and reflect on how it was that I made it to the other side. I didn’t realize that I had the capacity to accept so much disappointment, that I could forgive so many grievous wrongs, and that I could experience so much contentment and satisfaction. I do not regret any of my efforts or actions.

6. How did you and your sister feel after finding your birth family right next door to you after all those years?

Two words best describe finding family so close by: serendipity and synchronicity.

Once I discovered the link to neighbors, my adoptive mother’s resistance to my adoption search evaporated. It was as if an onerous plague had been vanquished overnight. The result of such a stunning and unexpected turn of events not only facilitated the blending of our families, but it shredded obvious skepticism: Who are these people? What do they want? How do we invite or incorporate them into our lives?

I am not generally a “woo-woo” type of person, but as a result of my search efforts, I believe that there is much we do not know about the machinations of the universe. We are all connected in some way and we have it in our power to discern the patterns in a complex web.

7. What do you hope readers take away from your story?

The adoption experience is complicated. Each member of the adoption triad/triangle has a unique perspective that must be heard and appreciated in order for the healing of adoption loss to occur.
For those outside the adoption triad/triangle whose lives have not been touched by adoption, it’s far too easy to judge, to make assumptions, and to accept long perpetuated myths. It is better to listen with your ears and your heart, than to offer comments on what you have not experienced.

Not all adoptees feel the same about their adoption experience: Some choose not to search, to delay their search, or to avoid thinking about or discussing their adoption. Neither choice is right nor wrong. Whatever choice is made is the right one for that person.

When considering adoption search and reunion, having a meaningful and effective support system in place is essential for navigating the process. Participating in post-adoption support helped me to accept and forgive what I could not change, and it gave me the tools to maintain and foster new and complicated relationships.

I wanted to convey the nuances of each position in the adoption triangle: the possessiveness of adoptive parents, the innate rights of birth parents to maintain their privacy or to achieve connection to their biological child, and to advocate for the adoptee’s inherent right to all information that concerns them.

Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.

Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

booksforward.com/about-us/marissa-decuir/

Action-packed sequel to the Lefty award-nominated debut keeps readers guessing

VANCOUVER, Washington, USA – In Mary Keliikoa’s Kelly Pruett Mystery series, a grieving single mother inherits her late father’s PI business, and begins tackling mysteries on her own, leading her into dangerous territory.

PI Kelly Pruett has a lot on her plate – working with clients at the detective agency, handling a difficult ex, and caring for her Deaf daughter. If motherhood taught her anything, it’s that the best things in life are never easy, so, despite recent injuries, PI Kelly Pruett is eager to get back to work.

When a mommy-to-be hires Kelly to locate her estranged dad, Kelly is thankful for the straightforward missing-persons case. But as she rummages through the trash in search of clues, she uncovers gambling debts to gangsters… and a blood-soaked severed finger. With her investigation suddenly heating up, Kelly’s hunt takes a deadly turn when her quarry is found driven off a cliff to his doom. She’ll need more than her cop boyfriend’s help to expose the truth when the mob sends her a cease-and-desist notice with an explosive ending. Can Kelly take on the mafia and make it out alive?

“Denied” (Camel Press, May 11, 2021) is the second book in the gripping Kelly Pruett mystery series. With a strong and relatable female lead, off-the-charts tension, and breathtaking twists, Mary Keliikoa’s action-packed story is one you won’t want to miss!

“Denied: Kelly Pruett Book 2”
Mary Keliikoa | May 11, 2021 | Camel Press | Mystery
Paperback | ISBN: 978-1603817837 | $15.95

Praise for the Kelly Pruett Mystery Series…

“Following up on a multi-award nominated debut mystery is no easy task, but Mary Keliikoa succeeds and then some in DENIED. In Kelly Pruett, Keliikoa has created a three dimensional private eye whose humanity and determination make you both want to root for her and ride along next to her on an investigative thrill ride. Bravo!”
– Matt Coyle, Shamus, Anthony and Lefty Award-winning author

“An entertaining detective story with a personable lead”
– Kirkus Reviews, for “Derailed”

“Winning series and debut launch… this is definitely a series to watch”
– Publishers Weekly, for “Derailed”

“DERAILED has it all: an engaging heroine, a twisty, twisted crime, and plenty of food for thought about families and their secrets. I loved this debut and can’t wait to read about Kelly Pruett’s next case”
–Kristen Lepionka, Shamus Award-winning author of the Roxane Weary mystery series

“Intelligent, tightly plotted, and satisfying. Kelly Pruett is a new PI on the scene and I’m eager for her next case”
– Dianne Freeman, Agatha and Lefty award winning author of the Countess of Harleigh mysteries, for “Derailed”

“Mary Keliikoa’s DERAILED is a humdinger of a good read. Sharp, detailed writing, a riveting plot and well-drawn characters make it practically unputdownable”
– Tracy Clark, author of “Borrowed Time”

MARY KELIIKOA is the author of the Lefty, Agatha, and Anthony award nominated PI Kelly Pruett mystery series, as well as the upcoming Misty Pines mystery series featuring Sheriff Jax Turner slated for release in September 2022. She has had mystery shorts published in Woman’s World and in the anthology Peace, Love, and Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the ’60s. She spent the first 18 years of her adult life working around lawyers. Combining her love of all things legal and books, she creates twisting mysteries where justice prevails.

At home in Washington, she enjoys spending time with her family and her fur-kids. When not at home, you can find Mary on a beach on the Big Island where she and her husband recharge. But even under the palm trees and blazing sun she’s plotting her next murder—novel that is. To learn more about Mary’s life and work, please visit: https://marykeliikoa.com/

In an interview, Mary Keliikoa can discuss:

• The inspiration behind her series’ heroine, Kelly Pruett
• Why it’s important to showcase strong women in the mystery genre
• Her writing techniques and how she plots her mysteries
• Her background as a legal secretary, and how she infuses her love of all things legal into her writing
• Whether readers can expect to see more of Kelly Pruett in the future

An Interview with Mary Keliikoa

1. What inspired you to write mystery novels starring Kelly Pruett, a female PI agent?

I am a big fan of Sue Grafton so the original idea of writing a PI novel grew from that love. But the minute that I made the decision to write a PI novel, I immediately knew her name would be Kelly Pruett, and who she would be as a person. Looking back, I can see that some of the issues she faces are things I was experiencing in my life at the time– in my 30s, raising step-kids, wanting to step out on my own in a career. So I believe part of my inspiration really was to help Kelly find her way, just as I was.

2. Praise for your first book in the Kelly Pruett series–“Derailed”–included a lot of love for Kelly Pruett as a character. Why is it important to showcase strong, relatable women as protagonists in the mystery genre?

PI novels in particular have been dominated by male characters, which is why I really wanted to showcase that a woman could handle the job. Having her not be from a law enforcement background was a conscious choice, along with her not having some of the vices that many investigators in detective novels fall victim to. She’s a mom, looking to be a role model to her Deaf daughter. She’s a woman trying to find her own place outside what society thinks she should be doing. I think we can all learn from that, and that was my goal for Kelly.

3. You have a background as a legal secretary. Did your experience working with lawyers shape your writing at all? If so, how?

I was born with a fairness thing in general, but I learned quickly things don’t always fall that
way. But that need for things to be made right, made my gravitation towards working in the legal field almost a natural. Working around lawyers in particular, I was able to see firsthand how they went about defending or prosecuting a case, their thought process, how they worked to poke holes in theories. I definitely absorbed that and find that the way I think about solving a case stems from that time in the legal field.

4. What is your writing process like? Do you need anything specific in order to plot a good mystery–a favorite drink, access to a library, something else?

When starting a new story, I play a lot with the idea before I even sit to write. I think about the
characters. The plot. The murder. Who did it. Then I sit down and I write a back cover copy
which consists of a couple of paragraphs that tie the entire book up. If I find that I’m excited
about the story at that point, then I start the first chapter. Coffee is a must for me when I’m
writing, but other than that, I just need my laptop!

5. What are your plans for the future? Can readers expect to see more from Kelly Pruett in the coming years?

I can’t imagine a day when I’m not writing stories—so storytelling will always be in my future. In fact, I recently completed a standalone mystery/suspense novel, and will be starting on another soon.

As for Kelly, Book 3 will be out in Spring of 2022. I definitely have ideas for at least two more Kelly Pruett novels, so we’ll see what happens there. The wonderful thing about writing a PI series is that as long as there is a case to be solved, Kelly will have plenty to do!

Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.

Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

booksforward.com/about-us/marissa-decuir/

Philadelphia, PA – Acclaimed author Joan He (Descendant of the Crane) is releasing her first new YA novel since her highly successful debut: a beguiling blend of intrigue, mystery, and “cli-fi” (climate science fiction), The Ones We’re Meant to Find (Roaring Brook/Macmillan, May 4, 2021). He will donate $1 to the Ocean Conservancy for every book that is pre-ordered, supporting her commitment to addressing climate change both on and off the page.

The novel opens on a world in the spasms of climate disaster. But from within the peaceful confines of an eco-city built for the world’s elite, Kasey Mizuhara has only two things on her mind: how she can use her prodigious intellect to preserve the remainder of humanity, and how she can locate the only person she’s ever felt a true connection with–her recently-vanished sister, Celia. Meanwhile, Celia has awoken marooned on an island with no knowledge of how she got there, and one memory: She has a beloved sister, Kasey, and she must find her. Elegantly weaving between the sisters’ dual perspectives, the mystery of Cee’s whereabouts–and Kasey’s plans–twists into an exhilarating and terrifying exploration of how far people will go to achieve their objectives.

A perfect balance of the melancholic beauty of Never Let Me Go and the most intriguing parts of Lost, “The Ones We’re Meant to Find” is a surprising, compelling, and even profound dive into the nature of memory, the meaning of humanity, and the bonds that we form with those we love, crafted from gorgeous prose that crawls under your skin and sticks with you long after the last page.

“The Ones We’re Meant to Find”
Joan He | May 4, 2021 | Roaring Brook/Macmillan
Hardcover | 9781250258564 | $18.99
E-book | B08BKL8BBG | $10.99

JOAN HE was born and raised in Philadelphia but still will, on occasion, lose her way. At a young age, she received classical instruction in oil painting before discovering that storytelling was her favorite form of expression. She studied Psychology and East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Pennsylvania and currently writes from a desk overlooking the Delaware River. Descendant of the Crane is her debut young adult fantasy. Her next novel, The Ones We’re Meant to Find, will be forthcoming from Macmillan on May 4th, 2021. Learn more at https://joanhewrites.com.

Follow Joan on social media:
Goodreads: Joan He | Twitter: @JoanHeWrites | Instagram: @JoanHeWrites

In an interview, Joan He can discuss:

• Why she chose climate disaster (particularly as it pertains to our oceans) as the backdrop to her novel’s events
• How she crafts game-changing narrative twists
• Why quieter, less “relatable” characters make ideal (and rarely seen) protagonists in YA
• How she developed a futuristic world that is still eerily recognizable
• Why she focused on the complex bond between sisters
• How and why she explores the nature of memory, identity, and free will in her novels

An Interview with Joan He

1. How did the early inspiration and ideas for “The Ones We’re Meant to Find” first begin to occur to you?

The inspiration came in two parts. First, I dreamed about a girl diving into the sea, clearly searching for something. As I tried to figure out what that something was, I thought back all the YA dystopians I read when I was a teen. Books such as The Hunger Games first introduced me to the trope where the older sibling saves the younger one. What if, I wondered, the girl in my dream was searching for her sister? And what if I shook things up so that the younger sibling didn’t need saving?

2. Your characters are nuanced, complex, and (at times) morally ambiguous. What traits are most important to you when developing your characters, and why?

As much as we want to believe we’re all special, I think it’s more fascinating to approach characters with this psychology finding in mind: we’re actually far more similar than we are unique. For the most part, we want the same things. To be loved for who we are. To fit in. And when put into high pressure situations, we can betray even our most tightly held values. So before firming up traits, I like to focus on actions. How much agency does a character think they have? How much are they willing to exert it? Are they actually being true to themselves when they act? Or, as in the case of Milgram’s experiment, are they flipping switches and pushing buttons because of their environment, upbringing, or some other situational factor outside of themselves?

3. “The Ones We’re Meant to Find” crafts a unique futuristic world, develops an utterly intriguing mystery, balances complex themes like the nature of memory and identity, and still manages to subvert readers’ expectations for how the story might play out. There are so many narrative elements in play here — how do you approach writing stories that are so multifaceted, but tightly woven?

To keep a story focused, I rely heavily on knowing my midpoint from the start. In fact, the best way for me to test the viability of a premise is to see if I can turn it inside out halfway through. Once I have my “tent-pole”, the rest of the pieces either have to play a role in leading up to that event, or fall out from it.

4. Do you imagine that we’ll actually reach a state of climate disaster as portrayed in the novel?

Some events in the novel are certainly exaggerated beyond what is scientific to make a statement. But as the Covid-19 pandemic has shown us, it’s really hard to get people to care about an invisible enemy that affects people unevenly. The same could be said for climate change and pollution. How many US residents, for example, are aware of the mask wearing culture in China that existed pre-pandemic due to pollution caused by China’s robust manufacturing landscape (which exists, largely, to supply many of our needs)? So while I don’t think we’ll arrive at the exact destination portrayed in the book, I do think the road to some sort of tragedy is already paved.

5. What do you want readers to take away from your novel?

I think it’s easy to say “live life to the fullest” as a throwaway, uplifting phrase. But none of us exist in a bubble; our most innocuous actions can and do affect other people. There’s no avoiding this, and the book isn’t prescriptive, but I hope it helps readers consider the complex connections between all of us, be it as individuals, siblings, or nations.

Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.

Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

booksforward.com/about-us/marissa-decuir/

Can a curse become a gift?

SEATTLE – Longtime physician and successful mystery author Susan McCormick is back with a new novel sure to enchant readers of all ages. “The Antidote” (May 5, 2021, The Wild Rose Press) is her first foray into middle grade fantasy, though readers will be left hoping it won’t be her last.

Twelve-year-old Alex Revelstoke can see disease. And not just disease — injury, illness, anything wrong with the body. A gift that comes in handy when a classmate chokes on a hot dog or when the janitor suffers a heart attack unclogging a gooey science experiment gone awry.

But Alex soon learns his new ability puts him and an unsuspecting world in peril. Throughout time, Revelstokes have waged a battle against ancient evil itself — the creator of disease. Alex has seen its darkness. He has felt its strength. He does not want to fight. But Alex is the last Revelstoke. The war has just begun.

With her unique perspective as a doctor, mother and writer, McCormick combines her knowledge of medicine and her storytelling skills to craft a one-of-a-kind adventure about disease, darkness and deception — one readers won’t be able to put down.

“The Antidote”
Susan McCormick | May 2021 | The Wild Rose Press | Middle Grade Fantasy / Historical Fiction
Paperback | 978-1-5092-3566-7 | $16.99 | Ebook | 978-1-5092-3567-4 | $4.99

SUSAN McCORMICK is a writer and doctor who lives in Seattle. She graduated from Smith College and George Washington University School of Medicine and served as a doctor for nine years in the U.S. Army before moving to the Pacific Northwest and civilian practice. In addition to “The Antidote,” she writes a cozy murder mystery series, “The Fog Ladies.” She also wrote “Granny Can’t Remember Me,” a lighthearted picture book about Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. She is married with two boys, neither of whom have any special powers. She loves giant dogs and has had St. Bernards, an English Mastiff, Earl, and two Newfoundlands, Edward and Albert. None of them had any special powers, either, except the ability to shake drool onto the ceiling. Visit her at https://susanmccormickbooks.com.

Follow Susan McCormick on social media
Facebook: @susanmccormickauthor | Twitter: @SMcCormickBooks
Instagram: @susanmccormickbooks | Bookbub: @susan-mccormick

In an interview, Susan McCormick can discuss:

• How her children’s love of Rick Riordan’s books inspired her to write a middle grade novel
• Integrating science and medicine into an adventure story to engage students and make learning fun
• Providing readers with a historical framework to understand the relationship between humans and infectious disease
• The novel’s sudden timeliness during the pandemic and how COVID-19 upended the book’s own release
• Writing across multiple genres — from cozies to fantasy to picture book — and how she incorporates her perspective as a doctor into all her work
• The amazing talents animals have at detecting disease

An interview with Susan McCormick

1. What made you decide to write a book catered toward a middle grade audience but focusing on disease and health?

When I volunteered in my oldest son’s middle school, I was struck by how much mythology the kids knew — everything there was to know and then some. They studied it in school, but they already knew it through the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan. During a science class chicken wing dissection meant to teach about tendons, muscles and bones, I realized the kids didn’t know nearly as much about the human body. As a doctor and mother, I wanted to impart an enthusiasm of the human body and a knowledge of disease and health much like the kids had for mythology. The importance of this is even greater in the era of COVID-19.

2. Did you come across anything interesting or surprising during your research while writing the book?

Something fun I learned during research for the book was the extra gifts animals have, extraordinary senses, etc., that have been harnessed to help people. For instance, dogs (and cats) have the ability to detect diseases and dangers of all kinds: cancer, low blood sugar, an impending seizure, infectious diseases, bombs, etc. In the book, the giant dog, Valentine, can detect cancer.

3. You are a very busy person! How do you find time to write?

As a doctor and a mom, time was always in short supply. In Seattle in the summer, the sun rises at 4:30 a.m., shining bright light into my bedroom and waking me up. I would write in these early morning hours on the weekends before my family woke up. My giant, black, fluffy, silent Newfoundland dog, Albert, would dutifully pad downstairs with me and lie by my side as my constant writing companion.

4. What advice do you have for budding writers?

When I was young, I wanted to be a ballerina, a doctor and a writer. All together, all at once. My ballet days ended before they began when my first performance’s curtsy took out the backdrop and crashed it to the floor. All that was left was being a doctor and a writer. The latter took me a while. Being a doctor was a straight shot: four years of medical school, three years of internal medicine residency, then fellowship, then pay back the military with a stint in the Army because they paid for medical school, and voila, doctor.

Being a writer took longer, but I’ve been plotting my stories since those ballerina days. In elementary school, I was chosen to attend a Young Authors’ Conference, with workshops and local authors. The conference was on a Saturday. I was so excited that I dreamed God allowed me to skip Friday. I woke up on Friday convinced it was Saturday, and I grew more and more desperate when my parents told me I had to go to school. I was certain I was going to miss the conference. That’s how excited I was. But, sadly, excitement isn’t enough to turn a dream into a reality. That part took sitting in a chair every day, putting my fingers on the keyboard and writing. Do the work. Show up on time, with enthusiasm. Keep it up. Persevere. Maybe if I’d done that with dancing, I’d be a ballerina today, too.

5. What do you hope readers gain from the book?

“The Antidote” is full of illnesses kids may have encountered in their life, through family, friends or media, like heart attacks, appendicitis and allergic reactions. The story also explains infectious diseases of the past, like plague, polio, smallpox, Spanish flu, measles, leprosy, etc., which kids come across in school and history and have gained crucial relevance today with COVID-19. These diseases are woven throughout the story and I hope will spark interest in learning more about the body and medicine. At heart, though, “The Antidote” is an adventure, with good vs. evil, and I want kids to just have fun.

Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.

Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

booksforward.com/about-us/marissa-decuir/

Genre-blending biography-memoir reveals two women, connected across time

Cranberry Isles, MAINE—A compelling blend of biography and memoir, “The Field House” (She Writes Press, May 4, 2021) recounts the remarkable life of writer Rachel Field from the perspective of a woman who lived in Field’s old, neglected island home in Maine, sparking a unique sisterhood across time.

Born of illustrious New England stock, Rachel Field was a National Book Award-winning novelist, a Newbery Medal-winning children’s writer, a poet, playwright, and rising Hollywood success in the early twentieth century. Her light was abruptly extinguished at the age of forty-seven, when she died at the pinnacle of her personal happiness and professional acclaim.

Fifty years later, Robin Clifford Wood stepped onto the sagging floorboards of Rachel’s long-neglected home on the rugged shores of an island in Maine and began dredging up Rachel’s history. She was determined to answer the questions that filled the house’s every crevice: Who was this vibrant, talented artist whose very name entrances those who still remember her work? Why is that work—which was widely celebrated in her lifetime—so largely forgotten today?

“A stunning and intimate portrait of a once-prized American writer and poet who deserves to be remembered” –Pulitzer Prize winner Barbara Walsh, author of August Gale: A Father and Daughter’s Journey into the Storm and Sammy in the Sky

“The Field House: A Writer’s Life Lost and Found on an Island in Maine”
Robin Clifford Wood | May 4, 2021 | She Writes Press | Biography, Memoir
Paperback | ISBN: 978-1647420451 | $16.95

“An eloquent, detailed tribute to a less well-known but inspiring author” –Kirkus Reviews

ROBIN CLIFFORD WOOD has a BA from Yale University, an MA in English from the University of Rochester, and an MFA in creative writing from the Stonecoast program at the University of Southern Maine. During twenty-five years as a full-time mom, she published local human-interest features in New Hampshire, New York, and Massachusetts and spent seven years as a regular columnist, first in Massachusetts, then for Maine’s Bangor Daily News. She began teaching college writing in 2015. Her articles have appeared in Port City Life magazine, Bangor Metro, and Solstice literary magazine, which published her powerful essay “How Do You Help Your Parents Die?” in its spring 2019 issue. Her award-winning poetry received national recognition from the 2020 Writer’s Digest Competition. Wood lives in central Maine with her husband and dogs. The Field House is her first book. For more information, visit www.robincliffordwood.com.

In an interview, Robin Clifford Wood can discuss:

• How she first came to learn about Rachel Field, and what it was like to live in Field’s house among her possessions
• Why she decided to write the first biography on Field
• What makes Field’s life and work worth remembering
• The sisterhood that connects her with Field across time and space
• How her life has been affected by her research and the writing of “The Field House”

An Interview with Robin Clifford Wood

1. How did you first come to know Rachel Field? Have you always been a fan of her work?

I only had the vaguest awareness of Rachel Field before I started spending time on Sutton Island in 1979, but I’d heard of her poem that begins, “If once you have slept on an island, you’ll never be quite the same.” That opening line proved to be true for Rachel and me both. She was still quite renowned in the Cranberry Isles region in the 80s, so her name became increasingly familiar. When we first bought the Field House in 1994, tour boats still passed by out front announcing over their PA system: “Up there to your right you’ll see the home of the famous author Rachel Field.”

Keep in mind, too, that when people move out of these island homes, they leave most things behind. There are no roads, only footpaths for carting your supplies in wheelbarrows from the ferry dock. So I was living amongst Rachel’s things – the wicker furniture she sat on, her mail up in the attic, her books on shelves, the chipped china and tin coffee pot that were old even when she arrived, her initials hand-stitched into a linen dish towel, old galley-proofs in a drawer, a map of Paris from 1920 that she must have bought on a trip to Europe. It wasn’t just the smell of spruce and sea-wind, the rhythm of tides and tolling of bell buoys, the expeditions to gather blueberries, cranberries and mushrooms, or the thick, moss-carpeted woods that we shared; I was also immersed in the same domestic space that Rachel inhabited.

2. How did you come to live in Field’s house in the Cranberry Isles, and what was the experience like for you? Do you believe fate had a part to play?

I first set foot on Sutton Island as an 18-year-old, when my college boyfriend invited me to visit his family’s summer home. I fell in love with the island’s peace and simplicity, life boiled down to just being. It was years (fourteen!) before Jonathan and I heard that Rachel’s old abandoned house was up for sale. By then we were married with four children, and the island was rooted deeply in the soil of our lives. As soon as I walked into the house, I got flutters in my belly. I felt something – excitement? anticipation? connection? I knew it was a writer’s house before I got there, but I felt that it was a writer’s house when I stood inside its walls.

As for fate – who knows? A part of me thinks Rachel Field reached out to me across time. There were so many strangely convenient coincidences that joined Rachel’s life and mine, or streamlined my path to writing about her life. But it took so long for me to get her message – another fourteen years before I started researching Rachel’s life, then ten more to finish the book. Maybe fate or Rachel’s spirit or some magic muse led me here, but whoever it was, they were extremely patient.

3. Can you tell me more about those “strangely convenient coincidences?”

Well, it seemed that every time I got discouraged or lost momentum on the project, some new source would mysteriously crop up to draw me back in. An archivist I’d met called to tell me about someone who wanted to donate his private Rachel Field collection to their library – could she share my contact information? That someone became an important mentor. Other times, whenever my life began drifting away from the project, I’d get an invitation to read Rachel’s poetry at a public event, or a question about copyrights, or an invitation to give a talk about Rachel, or a new batch of letters in the mail from a Rachel Field fan. Getting a publisher was similarly serendipitous. I’d shifted my focus to a different project, and here came the big news. Rachel was back at number one in my attentions.

Also, it was uncanny how every cache of Rachel Field material was housed somewhere that connected me to family, which streamlined my logistics. Two of my kids were at Yale when I went to study in the Yale archives. I had kids living in Washington D.C. and in Cambridge, Mass when I visited collections in those cities, so I got to combine my work with visits to my children. My mother was a Vassar alumna, so she came with me to the Vassar archives to be my research assistant for the day. My daughter’s college softball team invited all their parents to their annual spring training. The year I was in the thick of my research, their spring training was in California. That’s when I did all my California research.

One of the longest running mysteries for me was Rachel’s love life. She married late, at age 40, but her poetry from earlier years reveals an intense, passionate love affair that ended in heartbreak. An unidentified name, “Lyle,” shows up in an old Wanamaker Diary on a shelf of the Field House, written by Rachel’s mother. “Rachel and Lyle all devotion,” it reads. Who could this Lyle person be?

Years into the research, I had some down time about two weeks before I’d be driving my youngest daughter from Maine to New Orleans, where she was starting as a transfer student at Tulane University. I pulled out my notes for the first time in months and happened upon the name “Lyle Saxon,” a writer from the 1920s. Could this be Rachel’s mysterious Lyle? I tracked down Saxon’s biographer, who gasped when I told her my story. “I can’t believe you live in Rachel Field’s house,” she said. She knew all about Rachel and was sure she’d been in love with Lyle Saxon. There were thirty extraordinary letters from Rachel to Lyle, she told me, that almost convinced her to write about Rachel Field herself.

“Where are those letters?” I asked.
“In the archives at Tulane University.”
These are the things that started to convince me that something more than mere chance was at play.

4. What was your research process like for this biography?

I absolutely loved the research. First, research is like a treasure hunt, with each stop offering tantalizing new clues to lead you on. Second, I was astounded by the enthusiasm and generosity of archivists, librarians and hobbyist historians all over the country. I owe so much to the memory-keepers who boosted me along.

I started locally for an article about Rachel that would appear in Port City Life Magazine. Great Cranberry Island Historical Society had a dedicated Rachel Field and “Hitty” corner (Hitty is the doll protagonist of her Newbery winning book). That launching point led me to Hitty fans around the country who connected me to more archive sources. By the time I finished the research for that short article, I had enough material for eight articles, so I thought I’d take another year and write the full biography. Ha! Lucky I was so naïve or I might have never begun.

I ended up exploring archive collections in Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Louisiana, California, and more. A mentor I met along the way gave me one of my most important pieces of advice. I asked him, years into the work, “How do I know when I’m done with the research?” He answered, “You’re never done. You just have to start writing.”

5. “The Field House” blends biography and memoir creating a unique and more contemporary take on a traditional biography. Why did you choose this approach?

One unusual thing about this project is that I was invited to give presentations about Rachel Field years before the book came to be – not just around Maine, but in her hometown of Stockbridge, Massachusetts and at a literary conference in Tampa, Florida. At every speaking engagement, without fail, the thing that most captivated audiences was the interweaving of my life and Rachel’s, what we shared, even beyond an island house in Maine.

I was determined to make this book about Rachel, not about me, but I eventually became convinced that the best way to garner attention for Rachel’s story was to add an extra layer of storytelling. At the Iota Short Prose writer’s conference one summer, a writing prompt asked us to write a letter to someone who would never read it, so I wrote a letter to Rachel Field. That exercise blossomed into a revelation. Here was a way to dovetail my story into Rachel’s. I began composing letters to go with each chapter of the book.

6. You say that among other things, “The Field House” is a book about beauty. Will you explain this?

It becomes clear in the book that I fall in love with my biographical subject. Rachel Field, first and foremost, was a poet, with a poet’s sensibilities. She was transported by beauty, haunted by it at times, but always, always deeply moved by beauty – in a seagull’s wing underlit by the setting sun, in a turn of phrase, in the face of a dear friend. Rachel despaired of her own physical appearance – a weighty, overlarge frame and heavy masculine features. However, in her writing and her spirit, she shimmered with a beautiful, enchanting spirit. That is what I try to evoke by bringing her light back to life in this book. If we could all be infused with Rachel’s essence, the world would be a more beautiful place.

7. How has your life been affected by this project?

Where to begin? I suppose I can boil down the effect this project had on my life into two categories.

First, Rachel inspired me to push my writing further, to reach a place where I could finally call myself a writer without blushing and kicking my toe against the ground. Maybe I would have found my way here without her, but after decades of slow progress my writing accelerated with Rachel’s arrival on the scene. She was the source of my first glossy magazine success. The wish to finish her story was the impetus behind my application to an MFA program. I became an “expert” guest speaker thanks to her. My first commissioned piece – a ghost story produced by a professional theatre company – was based on her biography of Captain Samuel Hadlock, Jr. And of course, she is the source of my first published book.

Second, all the years I spent in Rachel’s company led me to a greater acceptance of my own life’s journey. Rachel and I were both drawn to writing and to motherhood. She immersed in the former and struggled to achieve the latter; I did the opposite. I sometimes felt I’d wasted my productive years not writing. Immersed in Rachel’s life, I recognized that my path, my choices, were valid ones, to be celebrated. Each of us realized our goals in our own time and fashion. In a way, our lives complement, uplift, and validate each other. She made me feel completed in a way I never had before.

Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.

Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

booksforward.com/about-us/marissa-decuir/

“Lyrical and fascinating” –Buzzfeed News

Morgantown, West Virginia– Renée Nicholson’s professional training in ballet had both moments of magnificence and moments of torment, from fittings of elaborate platter tutus to strange language barriers and unrealistic expectations of the body. In “Fierce and Delicate” (WVU Press, May 1, 2021) she looks back on the often confused and driven self she had been shaped into—always away from home, with friends who were also rivals, influenced by teachers in ways sometimes productive and at other times bordering on sadistic—and finds beauty in the small roles she performed. When, inevitably, Nicholson moved on from dancing, severed from her first love by illness, she discovered that she retained the lyricism and narrative of ballet even as she negotiated life with rheumatoid arthritis.

An intentionally fractured memoir-in-essays, “Fierce and Delicate” navigates the traditional geographies of South Florida, northern Michigan, New York City, Milwaukee, West Virginia, and also geographies of the body—long, supple limbs; knee replacements; remembered bodies and actual. It is a book about the world of professional dance and also about living with chronic disease, about being shattered yet realizing the power to assemble oneself again, in a new way.

“Fierce and Delicate: Essays on Dance and Illness”
Renée K. Nicholson | May 1, 2021 | West Virginia University Press | Nonfiction, Essays
Paperback | ISBN: 978-1-952271-01-4 | $19.95

“Remarkable… as breathtaking and beautiful as ballet itself”
– Dinty W. Moore, author of Between Panic and Desire

RENEE K. NICHOLSON splits her artistic pursuits between writing and dance with scholarship in narrative medicine. She is Associate Professor and Director of the Humanities Center at West Virginia University. She was the 2011 Emerging Writer-in-Residence at Penn State-Altoona, 2018 recipient of the Susan S. Landis Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts (WV Governor’s Arts Awards), the 2019 winner of the Outstanding Public Service Award from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences (WVU), and the 2020 Winner of the Nicholas Evans Award for Excellence in Advising (WVU). Her books include two collections of poetry, Roundabout Directions to Lincoln Center and Post Script; a memoir-in-essays, Fierce and Delicate: Essays on Dance and Illness; and the anthology Bodies of Truth: Personal Narratives on Illness, Disability, and Medicine.

In an interview, Renée K. Nicholson can discuss:

• How dance, writing, and teaching have each informed her creative life
• Her writing process, and how these essays came to be
• How she approached writing about ballet in a way that would be accessible to non-dancers, and why this is important to her
• How this memoir-in-essays may align with and diverge from readers’ assumptions about both ballet and chronic illness
• What narrative medicine is, and how it influences her understanding of chronic illness and writing

An Interview with Renée K. Nicholson

1. How has your background as a dancer influenced your approach to writing and teaching?

I have always had the “daily class” mentality from ballet when it comes to writing. That is, I find that for me the regular routine of writing is what helps me grow both technically and artistically. Dance is a progression from simpler to more complex movements, and when something isn’t working, being able to break things down into the smaller elements often helps, and I use this approach both in my own writing and teaching—teaching writing, dance, or really anything else.

2. You mentioned that when you first started writing about dance, you mostly wrote fiction. How did you transition into writing stories about your own life?

At first, I lacked confidence in my story as a dancer because I was never a famous one and because things fell apart physically early in life. I also read a lot of fiction and admired many fiction writers, such as Susan Minot and Lorrie Moore. In workshops, people would mistake my characters for a version of me. I often found that secretly funny because the characters I created were better at aspects of ballet than I was—like having great extensions. Characters might have been a kind of wish fulfillment! But as I studied and read more nonfiction, I realized I had my own story to tell. I also read an essay in Mid-American Review, “Graham Crackers” by the excellent nonfiction writer and former Martha Graham company member Renée E. D’Aoust. I fell in love with that essay and wanted to write more of my own experience because of it.

3. You write about ballet in a way that is accessible to non-dancers. How did you achieve this? Why was this an important pursuit for you?

In one of my graduate workshops, my friend Matt Ferrence wrote an excellent essay about golf. Now, I know very little about golf, and of course the piece was about way more than golf itself. It was about using golf to find a familiar place while living in a foreign country and constantly feeling out of place. I wondered if I might do something similar with dance—what might be universal in my dance experience? The tricky part is making sure that the pieces will still land with someone who does have a dance background. There had to be that element that anyone might connect with—determination, perhaps. Resilience. Dancers have these qualities, but so do lots of people working towards all kinds of pursuits. As well, I wanted to convey the sense I had as a young person of loving dance so much. Could I translate a bit of that love of the art to others, even if they weren’t dancers? That motivated a lot of writing choices.

4. Your writing also explores your experience with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). How did you approach writing about illness?

Early on, I got a lot of well-intentioned-but-ultimately-unhelpful advice about writing about my RA. It took getting knee-replacement surgery in my thirties and learning how to walk again for me to own my own illness experience. After that, I wouldn’t let people tell me how to portray it. Instead, I started to learn how important it is to have fidelity to one’s own lived experience. Knee replacement was humbling, but that same humility allowed me to start re-teaching myself things about ballet that maybe I wouldn’t understand any other way. The more that happened, the more I felt compelled to write about both dance and illness. It’s all about the body, and my imperfect body, and this journey we’re going on together.

5. Can you tell us about narrative medicine? What is it, and how did you first find yourself interested in it?

One cold evening in January 2015, a palliative care doctor called me to see if I could help one of his patients write a memoir. The patient had ALS and couldn’t pick up a pen or use a manual keyboard. I was intrigued, and met with the patient, Jamie, and started working with him. I also felt really out of my element. Google searches led me to this practice called “narrative medicine.” A way to describe narrative medicine is bringing narrative competence to clinical situations, and the founder of the discipline, Dr. Rita Charon, writes that “the care of the sick unfolds in stories.” This resonated with me as I wrote about dance and RA, and as I worked with Jamie. I would later work with various medical professionals, patients with cancer, and patients with HIV, among others. Narrative medicine gave me a way to bring expression to those who had need of it as they lived with illness. It was a way to connect the art of writing by serving others and honoring their stories and experiences.

6. Were there any resources that were particularly helpful to you when writing this collection? Where would you suggest readers go to learn more about RA, chronic illness, or narrative medicine?

When I first wrote the essays, I just wrote them without thinking much about the narrative medicine aspects. As I revised the collection, I completed a professional certificate in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University, and that experience certainly helped me shape and revise the collection. Now, you don’t have to invest the time, energy, and money into the certificate to learn more, but I would point people to Rita Charon’s book, Narrative Medicine, Honoring the Stories of Illness, and her edited collection, The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine. Another book that was particularly useful to me was Louise DeSalvo’s Writing as a Way of Healing. Reading the stories of other people who have experienced illness was very instructive to me, and during the time I finished writing and revising the pieces in my book, I also worked with Dinty W. Moore and Erin Murphy on an anthology around illness, disability, and medicine, Bodies of Truth. Those stories still inspire me, and the contributors still strike me as honest and brave.

7. Anything else you’d like to share?

If there is one thing I feel like I can share with others, it’s to write the book (or essay, story, etc.) that’s in you to write. I got much well-intentioned feedback while writing Fierce and Delicate, from agents who said I should fictionalize my experience into a novel, to instructors who wanted me to characterize my experience in melodramatic ways that didn’t feel authentic to me. I stuck to writing this book in the way that felt right to me, and captured what I wanted to say in the way I wanted to say it. Whether you write your experience for future generations of your family to read or because you want to publish a book, tell your story in your voice, in your way. Writers often talk about finding their voice, and I suppose I believe in discovering that true, authentic voice, and our ability to find and open spaces for our stories.

Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.

Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

booksforward.com/about-us/marissa-decuir/

Nadiez Bahi investigates the space between science and religion

In his new novel, author Nadiez Bahi asks an age-old question: Does God exist? Releasing on April 27, 2021, “Rethink God” explores the histories of religion and scientific understandings of human existence in a realistic but fictional narrative that Foreword Clarion Reviews says will “inspire personal and social change at the deepest levels.”

Does God exist? This is probably the most complex question anyone can seek an answer to. What makes it even harder to reach an answer are the traps that we typically fall into in our attempts to do so. One common trap is linking religion to God as two sides of the same coin and using this link to prove or disprove the existence of God. Another trap is overestimating the ability of science and philosophy to provide a solid answer for the question. Unfortunately, most books and debates on the topic of God today fall so easily in these traps and many more. Mostly because they are rooted from, motivated and driven by an agenda that seeks to prove one claimed righteous position on the topic.

“Rethink God” is a very different book. It doesn’t force one opinion or show one side of the argument like most other books do. Instead, it presents novel points of view on the most prominent subjects of debate on the topic of God. It unveils major fallacies of both agenda-driven atheism and religious enthusiasm. More importantly, it provides an original, unprejudiced approach to help each person reach their own answer for the big question. And that is what any person really needs to get there.

About the Author

Nadiez Bahi is the pseudonym of the author whose life’s work is “Rethink God,” a novel releasing on April 27, 2021. For years, he researched science, philosophy, consciousness and religion seeking wisdom and answers on the topic of God. Bahi chooses to keep his identity private as the book’s content is not acceptable in the part of the world that he lives in.

In an interview, NADIEZ BAHI can discuss:

• His cultural and religious background as well as why he strongly believes that it’s imperative for people to draw their own conclusions about the existence of God
• The extensive research that went into writing “Rethink God”
• Why he decided to lay the book out in a series of text message conversations
• Investigating the philosophical argument that questions the co-existence of evil with an omnibenevolent, omniscient and omnipotent God
• Exploring the search for a creator through the universe’s different stages starting from the big bang to the formation of galaxies, stars and habitable planets

An Interview with Nadiez Bahi

1. Your book addresses the question: “Does God exist?” –– what inspired you to ask and seek answers for this question? Was there a moment in your life that made you want to investigate this more?

I was born and raised in a modern Muslim family. My parents taught us the basics of religion but were always against extremism and blindfolded submission to religious leaders. I was very curious about God for as long as I can remember. In my first week in school, I made friends with a Christian. I started asking him about what that meant to be one, and I just wouldn’t stop. By the weekend, he had given me books to read about Christianity. My parents weren’t very thrilled about it. I remember many times in my childhood asking my dad questions about God until he would state that some matters are simply unexplainable. However, these deeper thoughts faded away in the years that followed.

In 2006, “The Da Vinci Code” had exploded in certain social circles in my country. It wasn’t uncommon to find two people with that very same book in a tiny café. For people who had no interest in any existential questions at the time, its impact was gigantic. The possibility that some cornerstones of the most widely spread religion on earth have been completely altered throughout history left us in shock, regardless of whether this was true or not. Having the gift of the internet at hand, we rushed to search for fallacies, conspiracy theories, holes in religions and eventually in the idea of the existence of God. That was the first time in my life I started questioning many notions that I took for granted before.

After a couple months of reading, I decided to abandon the topic altogether. I realized the research needed much more attention than I could dedicate at the time. I had more critical missions at hand, building a career and deciding which direction I wanted to take in life in. Years passed. In 2013, a personal incident happened to me that made answering this question my first priority in life. I felt like I couldn’t move another inch without finding my answer. I call this condition “intolerable questioning.” I started reading everything on the topic of God that I could get my hands on. The more I read the further I got from reaching an answer, and the more clearly I saw that there were the two camps fighting a war against each other on pages of books I read; the camp of atheism and the camp of religion. Not only did that experience leave me not wanting to join one side, it made me despise the wickedness both camps adopt to win the war, corrupting many facts, blurring many truths that could lead someone like me to reach an answer. That was the time I decided I want to investigate the topic much deeper, from a whole new point of view, that is so far from the toxic war fought between the two camps.

2. Has writing this book changed your perspective on and relationship to God/religion?

Of course it did. Unlike most writers who take interest in this topic, I didn’t start the book with a solid answer that I seek to prove. I had a very clear idea about what is wrong with most of the material available on the topic today. If I am to put it in one word, it would be “rigidness.” Imagine how open or objective one is while writing a book when he or she chooses a title stating that “God exists” or “God doesn’t exist” before writing the first page.

So, when I started writing the book, I tried as much as I could to suppress my personal views on the topic at the time and focus on laying the foundation for answering the question, without knowing where this journey was going to take me. This actually made the book-writing journey extremely interesting. I think it’ll be quite effortless for the readers to sense the evolution of my ideas as they flip through the pages of the book. With regards to my personal take on spirituality, I can say that I definitely landed at a very different place than when I started the book. Strangely enough, I’ve become more accepting to other views, as it became clear to me that the approach to answer the God question is quite individual and personal. This is exactly why I prefer to stay silent on my relation to God/religion now, because what I am sure of is that it’s my own, not meant to be everyone’s, and more importantly it’s subject to change until the beating muscle pushing blood through my arteries seizes to do so.

3. Do you believe that science and philosophy prove or disprove God?

The key point here is to know which God is in question. Is he God of the Abrahamic religions or other religions, or a God who sent no religions but is open to communicate with us if we reach out to him, or merely the creator of the universe and life? To answer this question, we have to completely distinguish between the creator God and the spiritual God.

The creator God is one that can be responsible for the creation of our physical reality and everything in it. For example, in the simulation hypothesis, the creator God can be a software programmer who wrote this Matrix movielike simulation we are living in. The spiritual God is one that many people believe in and claim to connect with in a way or another. Yet this God and this connection do not exist in the physical realm.

Science can provide deep insights when attempting to answer the question of whether there is a need for the creator God. Could the Big Bang, the creation of stars, galaxies and planets, the birth of life and its evolution occur through a sequence of natural events that require no creator or not? Most of the book is dedicated to answering this question. However, this answer offers no information at all about the spiritual God, simply because the spiritual God lies out of the physical world that science deals with.

Philosophy, on the other hand, deals with the spiritual God more than the creator God, mostly based on his description from religions’ scriptures, which are of little value once one separates God from religion. So, in terms of answering the overall question about God in both capacities (creator and spiritual), science and philosophy can provide some insights, yet lay very far from providing a concrete answer.

4. While writing this book and traveling, you took the time to speak with a variety of people about spirituality. Why were these conversations so important to you and your research for the book? What was your most memorable experience from those conversations? Did particular discussions stay with you more than others?

Conversations have a certain privilege that no book, article or a documentary can offer, that is going with the flow. In an interview, the questions are pre-set to get certain information out of the interviewee. In a random conversation between two people, there is room to dance from one angle to another, dig deep into one aspect and avoid going into another, and so on. On a topic as sensitive and deep as the existence of God, it’s a brilliant experience to have a person express his views to a stranger without expectations, ego or judgement.

The most memorable conversation I had on that journey was on top of a mountain in Nepal. I was heading to a Buddhist monastery on a mountain in Katmandu. It’s not really a touristic spot. I asked the locals about the way to get there and started the hike following the trail up. After a few hours, I came to a point where the trail split. With no map at hand or any person to ask, I followed my intuition and chose one of the two paths ahead. Little did I know, it was the wrong one. I realized that after a few more hours of hiking as I was supposed to have reached my destination. I started getting very tired, hungry, and cold from the altitude, and I wasn’t prepared to spend the night. The sense in me told me I had to head down to catch the night in the city. When I reached the point where the trail split, I just couldn’t go home. I took the other trail, and kept following it until it finally led me to the monastery I was hoping to reach many hours before. There, I met a monk who was originally from Switzerland. The shocking part is it felt as if I was talking to myself visiting from the future. When we started talking, it turned out that a few years before he was doing exactly the same job I was doing at the time, felt the same pressure I felt, and had the same questioning I had. He told me about his experience in exploring spirituality, and how life was for him at that moment. That conversation, as we both gazed into the horizon from the mountain, had no aim but human companionship at the time. Yet, years later, it led me in the direction of some of the key aspects of my book.

5. Who will “Rethink God” resonate with?

I think my book will resonate very well with an intellect who’s in the phase of “intolerable questioning.” As in my story, this is the phase when one feels it’s a life necessity to reach an answer about this topic. This will provide the openness and dedication needed to read 310 pages of heavy weight philosophical and scientific theory!

When I started talking to people who researched the topic, then asked them about the books they read, something became quite clear. People are not quite objective when it comes to their beliefs about this topic, and most people will choose a book that confirms the direction of their beliefs rather than one that challenges them. So, as “Rethink God” questions many aspects of both atheism and religion, it’s not meant to please the masses. Yet, for someone who’s starting his or her quest, or for someone who’s truly open to change their position, the book could be life-changing.

6. How would you approach sharing your book with a non-religious person? What will they get out of it?

It depends on two things; where they are in the realm of spirituality and what the person is seeking to get out of the book. A non-religious person could be agnostic or a deist. Also, one person could be reading the book looking for answers to questions that are making him or her uncomfortable about where they are now. Yet, another can attempt to read it with absolutely no intent to change his direction by a nano-degree. For a non-religious person who is open to change, the book will open doors to an idea of spirituality that is not related to or confined by religion. For the ones who are not, it will offer them a lot of insights and knowledge about the position they’ve taken, since the conversations offer both sides of each argument.

7. Tell us about the two protagonists in your book, Christian and Sherif.

Sherif is a well-travelled modern day successful professional. Like many with such profile, he started questioning his religion and ended up being atheist. He tries to enjoy life to the fullest, but sometimes he feels a little lonely about not sharing this life with someone. He finds a new type of friend in Christian, whose intellect, analytical and conversational abilities amuse Sherif who misses having such deep discussions with the lifestyle he leads.

Christian is a very rich, powerful and mysterious person. He starts to realize at an old age that he might’ve parked emotions for too long to chase after building his success. Bit by bit, he opens up to Sherif and confides in him as a son. Christian is an agnostic since a young age and never cared much to investigate the topic of God. However, we meet him in the book on the first night of his life when he decides he needs to seek an answer for the God question.

Just like it sometimes happens in real life, they happened to cross each other’s paths at a moment when each of them needed the other more than they realized at the time. As events unfold throughout the book, they both end up playing key roles in each other’s lives.

8. One of the unique things about this book is the format. Why did you lay the book out in a series of text messages between Christian and Sherif?

I started writing in a typical non-fiction book format suitable for this genre. A few months into it, it started feeling wrong. I wasn’t able to deliver the messages as I wanted to. Until one night, after a long “debate” with an old friend on the same topic, it hit me; I need two voices. As I started writing more, the issues with my initial attempts became quite clear. One of the common themes of the books on the topic is the one-way flow of information coming from the angle of proving and confirming the point of view that the writer wants every reader to adopt. Most writers of the genre typically refer to opposing opinion only to highlight its fallouts, then hammer on them until they bleed.

However, “Rethink God” doesn’t opt for one side of debate on the existence of God as other books do. So, having two intellectual individuals debate each argument offers a much deeper understanding of the arguments and a much broader spectrum of possibilities. It allows for nested levels of objections around each discussion that a single voice can’t offer. Why text messages? It couldn’t be a narrated conversation as they had to exchange a lot of information and take time to look for more when needed. Also, choosing online messaging as the platform of communication for two frequent travelers who originally lived in different countries offers a level of flexibility you can’t achieve with face to face or even phone conversations.

9. In exploring different theories about God and religion, were you surprised by any of the stories that you found?

So many times! From the Big Bang to the creation of life, to evolution, to many aspects of our everyday life today. I think the biggest surprises involved the misconceptions around the workings of evolution, and around the mysteries of consciousness.

The outcomes of some known scientific facts were surprisingly interesting when looked at in a different way. For example, you and I are made of stardust and we possess superpowers. All elements heavier than hydrogen in our bodies were formed in stars by fusion or supernova. So we are literally made of stardust. The word “supernatural” means something that is beyond the natural world, which is the physical world we know. For example, Superman has supernatural powers because he flies against Earth’s gravity without an engine that overcomes this force. It was quite surprising to realize that, based on the binding problem, every human being alive is a Superman or Superwoman. Our conscious experience happens at a speed that our physical laws on the speed and working of neurons can explain no better than Superman’s flying routine.

One of the most surprising moments through writing the whole book didn’t come from a scientific theory. It happened when I found out that the conclusion I reached after years of research about how a person can find his or her answer for the question of God was already known since ancient times. It was even written on ancient Egyptian and Greek temples with absolute clarity thousands of years ago.

10. Your book investigates a wide variety of issues within religious beliefs, and what roles religion should and shouldn’t play. Can you elaborate on this?

Across the ages, religion has played different roles in the social, political and economic arenas in the lives of different peoples. Like all forms of power, it was abused, from extending the godly authority to kings and priests in ancient times to warfare and even wealth collection. Today in many parts of the world, religion still plays similar roles to use and manipulate the less fortunate. Even today religion is being used to divide people and rage violence between them. All this dies with one simple idea; religion’s main role of providing the person with his or her private channel for communication with the being they believe in.

11. How can a person reach their own answer about the question of God?

Each person can reach their own answer, yet not each person will. The purpose of “Rethink God” is not to promote agnosticism, or tell people that the question can’t be answered. The answer is not universal as other authors suggest. There will never be one right answer till the end of time. Neither believers nor atheists will seize to exist till the end of time. My book’s purpose is to show the limitations of the common means of answering the question through hundreds of pages of research, then propose the alternative way of reaching the answer. The beauty of that path is that the person who reaches his or her answer, whatever it is, will understand it’s their own right answer, not everyone’s right answer. They will understand it’s personal, not universal.

Praise for “Rethink God”

“With its thought-provoking and civil exploration of the God question, the narrative brings seekers and thinkers of all stripes three enlightening gifts: a clear and logical process, detached from religion, to guide spiritual exploration; identification and explanation of the correct tools to be used in the search (neither science nor philosophy, both brain-based tools, are up to the task); and a vision of a future in which such exploration will inspire personal and social change at the deepest levels.”
–– Foreword Clarion Reviews

“It is a complex work with a long and well thought out reasoning; the work focuses on the central question as to whether God exists or not. As we strive to answer this question for ourselves, the author explores ideas from science, philosophy, and atheist reasoning, and puts these alongside ideas of extreme religious enthusiasm and the search for definitive proof. What results is an informative and critical look at both extremes of thought on the existence of God, and one which allows us as a reader to find our own path amongst the myriad of ideas and search for our own truth. Author Nadiez Bahi offers a work that is truly like nothing I have ever read on the topic of religion, faith, and God.”
–– Readers’ Favorite Book Reviews

Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.

Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

booksforward.com/about-us/marissa-decuir/

‘One Must Tells the Bees’ reveals American history as it’s never been told

Naples, FL — Author J. Lawrence Matthews invites readers on a remarkable journey with a precocious young chemist named Holmes from the streets of London to Washington D.C. in the last year of the Civil War. This vivid, previously untold story takes place during a crucial period in history that Americans are once again seeking to understand—and may now see through the keen eyes of Sherlock Holmes, thanks to One Must Tell The Bees: The Final Education of Sherlock Holmes, (May 22, 2021, East Dean Press).

It begins in 1918 in the English countryside where the world’s greatest detective has retired to tend his bees and write his memoirs — memoirs that reveal the full story of his journey to America, first as a junior chemist at the DuPont gunpowder works in Wilmington, then as a companion for young Tad Lincoln on what turns out to be the evening of President Lincoln’s assassination — and finally as an unsung participant in the electrifying manhunt for the assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

It is Holmes’s very first case. But, as One Must Tell The Bees reveals, it is nothing like his final education …

“Sherlock Holmes in America? An idea as immersive as it is plausible, in Matthews’ skillful hands. This is a compelling, transporting feat of imagination.” — Jonathan Stone, bestselling author of Moving Day

“Holmes fans will enjoy this tale’s admirable verisimilitude and bracing storytelling.” — Kirkus Reviews

“WHAT A STORY!!! One Must Tell the Bees charms you out of your world and into an irresistible adventure when Sherlock Holmes steps onto American soil, into the White House of Abraham Lincoln and, yes, joins the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth! Holmes’s wit and Lincoln’s genius shine through, and the colorful characters, plot surprises, and wonderful historical details so completely immerse you that by the last page you’ll be happier and a whole lot wiser.” — Layng Martine Jr., Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer and author of Permission to Fly

More about J. Lawrence Matthews

J. Lawrence Matthews has been researching the events depicted in “One Must Tell the Bees: The Remarkable Life, and Death, of Sherlock Holmes” for over thirty years. He is an expert on the language and construction of the fifty six original Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and a scholar of the American Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln — the combination of which has created this revelatory new book. Readers interested in the history behind the story and contact information will find it at jlawrencematthews.com.

In an interview, J. Lawrence Matthews can discuss:

• What Sherlock Holmes might have to say about the reassessment taking place in America of the heroes and legends of our past
• What an amateur scholar can bring to historical research
• How an amateur historian come up with a new thesis about the motivation behind Abraham
• Lincoln’s stewardship of America during the Civil War
• Writing an intriguing novel about history and characters widely known and discussed, but making sure it doesn’t read like fan fiction

An Interview with J. Lawrence Matthews

1. What is it about Sherlock Holmes that originally captured your attention and inspired years of research?

When I graduated from reading Hardy Boy mysteries as a kid, the flawed genius of Sherlock Holmes came as a complete revelation — the cocaine bottle was something you didn’t see Frank and Joe Hardy messing with! That opened this messy adult world to me, and of course Holmes’s voice came across so distinctly, and the plots moved along so effortlessly, that it was as if Conan Doyle just sat down by the fire with his pipe and started telling a ripping good yarn, and I’ve been reading them ever since. To this day, I’d maintain a handful of the Holmes titles are among the best short stories ever written, Hemingway included. The straw that stirs the drink, in my view, is the pair’s friendship: Watson dulls Holmes’s brilliance and makes him easier to tolerate. Don’t we all want to possess that kind of insightful, rational intelligence — and yet, as adults, don’t we also see the dark side to that kind of focused, monomaniacal lifestyle? It’s good vs evil in a timeless Victorian setting, and it never grows old.

2. What made you decide to focus on Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation?

I’ve been a student of the Civil War for decades, ever since I read a book on Lincoln and mentioned to my wife that even after four years of college I knew nothing about the Civil War. Couldn’t even say which Jackson — Andrew or Stonewall — was the Confederate general and which the American president! So she bought me a book on the war and I began reading, and I’ve been reading about it, and visiting the battlefields, ever since, trying to grasp what it was all about. And what it was about, at first, for the North anyway, was restoring the Union even if that meant slavery in the South remained intact. The Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863 changed everything, however, because it freed slaves wherever Northern troops won a victory. America could no longer go backwards: with every victory of Northern troops came freedom for slaves in that region of the South. That’s quite a profound thing, and quite underappreciated today. I have long felt its impact should be less misunderstood, and Sherlock was an excellent vehicle to do that.

3. Walk us through your research and writing process for stories based during a time you didn’t live through.

I’ve been effectively doing “research” for 30 years as a student of the Civil War, so I wrote the story of Holmes in America straight through — from his arrival near the time of Lincoln’s reelection to the manhunt for Booth — with a little help from Wikipedia to get dates right. Then I went deep into many of my old books, plus many new ones, in order to make certain the action matched the history. After all, why should anyone care what Sherlock Holmes learns in America in 1865 if I’ve made up the history of that period? AndCivil War “buffs” in particular are notoriously picky — as am I! Meanwhile, I visited all the key sites, including the old DuPont gunpowder works (now the Hagley Museum in Wilmington), Ford’s Theater, Petersburg and Richmond, the major battlefields and of course Booth’s escape route through Maryland (many times). As the story came together, I triple-checked dates and events, all the while compressing the action, because Booth was on the run for 12 days, with 5 of those days spent hiding in a pine thicket, and I didn’t want to lose the reader by describing every minute of days when nothing happened — while staying true to the timeline.

4. Can you explain how you keep your writing realistic but also fun and fictitious.

It starts with the voice. Sherlock Holmes has a distinctive voice — very different from Dr. Watson, who narrates half of my book — and Holmes’s is a wonderful voice to write with, because it is didactic and precise, not flowery or Victorian, but with a keen sense of humor. Watson’s voice is fun to write, too — stuffy, more conventional, but with a great sense of story. So long as I kept those voices in my head the action stayed lively and true (something I learned the hard way when, after completing the book for the first time, my inner English student took over and I spent a good three months trying to pare down the number of pages until I realized everything I’d re-written was worse, and quite boring. When I brought back Holmes’s chatty, precise voice, and Watson’s more formal but evocative tone, the story came back.

5. What are you working on now?

Sherlock Holmes and the Great Game, which answers the question of what Holmes was doing during the three years he was presumed dead following his struggle with Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls in 1891. All we are told in the original stories is that he journeyed incognito to Florence, then Tibet (where he paid a visit to the Dalai Lama), then Mecca and Sudan before making his way to France and finally returning to London. That’s quite an itinerary, don’t you think? It suggests a spiritual journey as well as a physical one, and I’ve always felt it merited unearthing the true story of those travels (what did Sherlock Holmes discuss with the Dalai Lama???) As it happens, they occurred during a period when the Tsar was attempting to extend Russian influence south into Tibet, which of course Great Britain viewed as a direct threat to the Crown’s hold on India — a diplomatic chess match known as “the Great Game.” Hence, Sherlock Holmes and the Great Game.

Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.

Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

booksforward.com/about-us/marissa-decuir/

Greater Manchester, ENGLAND – She is bound to serve. He is meant to kill. Survival is their prison. Choice is their weapon. Ana Lal Din showcases her storytelling skills in her young adult debut, weaving together a harrowing narrative that examines humankind at its darkest and brightest. Set in a colonised Indo-Persian world and inspired by Pre-Islamic Arabian mythology, “The Descent of the Drowned” (March 15, 2021, White Tigress Press) weaves together tales of power, identity, redemption, and what it takes to hold on to one’s humanity in the face of devastation.

As the sacred slave of a goddess, Roma is of a lower caste that serves patrons to sustain the balance between gods and men. What she wants is her freedom, but deserters are hunted and hanged, and Roma only knows how to survive in her village where women are vessels without a voice. When her younger brother is condemned to the same wretched fate as hers, Roma must choose between silence and rebellion.

Leviathan is the bastard son of an immortal tyrant. Raised in a military city where everyone knows of his blood relation to the persecuted clans, Leviathan is considered casteless. Lowest of the low. Graduating as one of the deadliest soldiers, he executes in his father’s name, displaying his worth. When he faces judgement from his mother’s people — the clans — Leviathan must confront his demons and forge his own path, if he ever hopes to reclaim his soul.

But in the struggle to protect the people they love and rebuild their identities, Roma’s and Leviathan’s destinies interlock as the tyrant hunts an ancient treasure that will doom humankind should it come into his possession — a living treasure to which Roma and Leviathan are the ultimate key.

“The Descent of the Drowned”
Ana Lal Din | March 15, 2021 | White Tigress Press | YA/Crossover Indo-Persian Fantasy
Hardcover | 978-1-8380465-0-7 | $25.99
Paperback | 978-1-8380465-1-4 | $17.99
EBook | 978-1-8380465-2-1 | $9.99

Ana Lal Din is an #ownvoices author who was born in a Danish southwestern city and raised in a small town outside Copenhagen. Passionate about culture, language, religion and social justice issues, Ana’s story worlds are usually full of all four.

What drives her as a writer is developing characters that are psychologically and emotionally complex, reflecting human nature at its darkest and brightest — and everything in between. Since Ana is a Danish-Pakistani Muslim with Indian heritage, she often explores the intricacies of a multicultural identity through her characters. “The Descent of the Drowned” is her debut novel. For more info, visit laldinana.net.

In an interview, Ana Lal Din can discuss:

• Being a debut author during an unprecedented time in not just the publishing world but entire world
• Her experiences being an #ownvoices author from a multicultural background with a personality disorder
• Coming from a South Asian culture where women have less value than men and there is a caste system
• Her influences from Pre-Islamic Arabian society, religion, and mythology
• World-building in both fantasy and YA literature

An Interview with Ana Lal Din

1. How did you convey your own struggles with cultural identity through the two protagonists in the book?

Leviathan struggles with a physical sense of belonging in that the higher caste won’t accept him and neither will the clans. Roma struggles with a spiritual sense of belonging in that she feels disconnected from the belief system she has been raised with. Both characters have had society shape and force an identity on them that doesn’t harmonise with their nature, so they’re conflicted and rootless and have to dismantle their imposed identities, reconstruct them on their own terms, and carve out a place for themselves in the world — something that I feel I have had to do as well.

2. How did you handle the identity crisis that came from being raised in three different cultures (Danish, Pakistani-Indian, Islamic)?

I didn’t handle it. I grew up confused, frustrated, conflicted. I still am. I think most people, if not all, experience an identity crisis at some point in their lives. Mine also came from the fact that I was the youngest child of immigrant parents from an Indian-Pakistani and Muslim background. Choosing to be Muslim over Danish, Pakistani or Indian, eased some of that frustration, but nothing has been resolved. I’m still attempting to understand who I am. I’m still sorting through the cultural baggage to uncover the things that hold value to me and discard those that don’t. It’s a process. A long, unstable process.

3. How did you explore the theme of humanity versus depravity throughout the book?

Through the characters’ experiences, circumstances and choices. Some of the characters in the novel abandon human decency and become beasts. Others attempt to hold on to their humanity even in the darkest of times. I have tried to illustrate what happens when one crosses the line between humanity and depravity. When one chooses to oppress, violate, annihilate. And, also, when one chooses mercy, compassion and redemption.

4. How do humans become a product of their social and cultural heritage?

Social and cultural heritage is the behaviour, values, social status and belief system which we inherit from our environment (i.e. the people who raise us and the milieu wherein we are raised). We become a product of this heritage when we’re brought up in a particular environment with a particular belief system and uphold/follow that system with or without question.

5. What inspired you to start writing?

Stories. When I was a child, my older sisters would read the Arabian Nights and Danish fairy tales to me. I became so absorbed in the stories that I would enact them. If I didn’t like something, I changed the narrative or content. I discovered the power of words. That they can enlighten, manipulate, inspire, enrage. With this understanding, I wanted to use my own words to write something that might matter beyond just the entertainment value.

6. How did you portray the current issues, catastrophes, and sufferings of the voiceless within this fantasy world?

I have woven previous and current social, cultural and political issues into the setting. Things such as caste system, rape culture, ethnic cleansing/genocide, colonisation and war crimes are all familiar aspects of our world. I have explored those issues (and others) through the characters’ circumstances and personal experiences in the novel.

7. What is the connection between your background, the #ownvoices elements and the issues that are represented in the book?

Like most of the characters in the novel, I come from a multicultural background, and I have struggled to break out of the social and cultural heritage that shaped the world wherein I was raised. Moreover, I’m a woman with a mental illness, which made it harder for me in a culture where women are already considered a burden without much value, so a mental illness on top of that was like the final nail in the coffin. Caste is also a reality in my culture. The perception/oppression of women, multicultural identity, mental illness, social and cultural heritage, and caste system are subjects I have explored or engaged with throughout the novel.

8. What are some of the sources that have inspired the story world in your book?

I have attempted to build a colonised Indo-Persian world and drawn inspiration from pre-Islamic Arabian mythology, Islam, and the social, cultural, religious, and political history of South Asia, West Asia, the Middle East, ancient Arabia and other places over time. Most of the incidents in the novel are authentic cases from our own world in some shape or form.

9. What do you hope readers gain from your book?

I want to spread awareness. It reminds us that we as human beings have a responsibility toward each other. To know, to understand, to listen and to help. I want to provoke thought, and I want readers to feel. Whether that feeling is anger, discomfort, compassion, hope, curiosity or a conflicting combination of all. If I can encourage even one person to research about any of the issues, I would feel that I have achieved something valuable with this novel. That I have succeeded.

Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.

Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

booksforward.com/about-us/marissa-decuir/

“Our differences are what unite us. No two of us are the same.”

NASHVILLE – All people are beautiful, and it’s our differences that ultimately unite us. It’s this lesson that author Vincent Kelly constructs in “All People Are Beautiful” (April 2, 2021, Greater You Books), a beautifully illustrated children’s book promoting excitement for love across all boundaries — and demonstrating that diversity is more than just the color of our skin.

Early readers will learn that all people, cultures and languages are beautiful, and so is celebrating those differences. There’s no better way to talk about diversity and acceptance than with bright colors, fun artwork and interactive ways children can engage while they read. Readers will learn words in new languages, discover new hobbies, different countries’ native garments, and so much more.

The book also includes additional activities children can take part in, inspiring them to use their imaginations to craft characters and flags of their own. And there’s an additional free fun activity resource that can be utilized in the classroom or at home. With translations in seven languages — and more to come — “All People are Beautiful” is an excellent addition to every early reader’s bookshelf.

“All People Are Beautiful”
Vincent Kelly | April 2, 2021
Greater You Books | Children’s
Available editions: Hardcover 978-1-7359504-0-2 | $23.95
Paperback | 978-7359504-1-9 | $19.99
Ebook | 978-7359504-1-9 | $9.99

Vincent Kelly is a human resources leader, husband and father. He is based in the entertaining city of Nashville, Tennessee with his wife and two sons. He loves writing stories that are filled with fun, color, life lessons, and that focus on promoting positive behavior and early learning in children. “The Awesome Things I Love” is his debut children’s book. There are more works to follow as he seeks to pen books that children all over the world will grow to love. For more information, visit his website, https://vincentmkelly.com/.

Follow the author on social media:
Facebook: @AuthorVincentKelly | Twitter: @vincent_author | Instagram: @greateryoubooks

In an interview, Vincent Kelly can discuss:

• How his career in human resources has afforded him the opportunity to work with people from across the world
• His deep awareness, appreciation and love for diversity and people from all backgrounds
• The importance of representation and teaching children the value of diversity early
• Normalizing conversations around diversity with children
• His decision to have the book in seven languages, with more to follow
• The activities that accompany the book and how children can utilize them

An interview with Vincent Kelly

1. What inspired you to write this book?

I wanted to weigh in on the conversation of diversity. 2020 had lots of events that affected the diversity space and generated responses from the entire globe. We elected the first African-American, Asian-American and woman as vice president of the United States — which is exciting — but we also had issues around racial injustice. The conversation of diversity never gets old and can never be talked about too early. I wanted to do something to highlight the beauty of our differences with the intention of showing how they unite us. My thought was, “Who better to influence than our children — tomorrow’s presidents, doctors, teachers, politicians, pastors, policemen, and lawyers!”

2. What is the book’s message, and why is that message so timely now?

The message is to evangelize that everyone is beautiful regardless of what you look like, where you’re from, your culture, your hobbies or anything else that makes you different. Our differences are what unite us, not divide us. This is how we normalize the conversation with children around diversity and differences. This is where acceptance, appreciation and respect for those differences begins.

3. Diversity is reality. Why do you think it’s important for children to learn about representation early?

I truly believe diversity is reality and that children need to know that our differences are what unite us, not divide us. I think this message is so important for kids to be exposed to until it becomes unconsciously integrated — until it becomes a truth they know deep down!

4. How many different languages and translations will the book be available in? Why did you decide to make it available in so many languages?

“All People Are Beautiful” will be available in seven languages: English, Spanish Portuguese, French, Dutch, Swahili and Chinese. I believe the message is really a movement is one that children everywhere can relate to regardless of your country. I want as many children as possible to have access to this book.

Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.

Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

booksforward.com/about-us/marissa-decuir/