Book Reviews Archives - Author K. Williams

Periodically – Open Book Blog Hop #552

October 26, 2026 By Captain Maiel 4 Comments

Topic #552

What was/is your favorite periodical from back in the day?

Welcome back to another Open Book Blog Hop, Friend! The authors included in this ongoing learning series wish to thank you for your reading. Even more so, we appreciate that you share our writing with friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Prepare to become a regular reader.

The serial periodical holds a special place in my heart. I learned a lot from picking up and reading articles in a lot of various versions of this media. Whether it was old school People magazine, the enquirer, Life and Time, or even Zoobooks, there was a lot to check out. I was also privy to printed newspapers and televised newscasts. The information at my fingertips was as good as it could get back in the day. My grandmother kept a load of periodical media strewn across her table to check out, and shelves of interesting books.

My favorite ever periodical, however, was National Geographic. This gave me a window onto the world, but it also was like a mini museum. I’d read about new discoveries, antiquities, people and their cultures, and animals from every reach imaginable. They even drew you up into space. When I got older, that didn’t change. The more frivolous side of me sought other magazines to add to the fray, expanding the base of knowledge.

What magazines did a preteen gravitate toward? Something called 16 magazine and Seventeen. There was Tiger Beat, Teen Beat, and Bop, too. Imagine, if you will, periodicals loaded with celebs and their ridiculousness, and then fashion and make up. So vapid! But, so satisfying to a teenager. 16 and the others were a way to get posters of the people you adored from film and television (even music), while seventeen taught you all the fashionable life skills. Looking back, the latter is so cringe. It was geared toward making girls amicable young women who catered to boys. Yikes! But, that tracks as a cosmo for kids. Bunch of groomers!

Nothing wrong with being fashion focused and on trend, but trying to condition half the population to act as servant is wild! When you view this through the lens of current issues on trafficking and abuse of girls, it really leaves you cold! I always preferred the readings of National Geographic and periodicals like that. It was a lot of fun turning from 16 and Seventeen to the higher learning periodical. I felt full after reading those articles. Mentally, I felt supported and I grew from them. The other was just cheap candy–no sustenance. It would often leave you feeling depressed about yourself.

Today, I’ll still pick up National Geographic, even with the ownership change that shifted priorities within the journal, and distilling certain biases. Speaking of excellent periodicals, have you hard of Archaeology? It was a favorite of mine in my twenties. I collected them and still have a few that I have passed to my daughter. The Silver Sarcophagus of Egypt was a favorite. As a history nut, both of these magazines have given me a lot to think about and probably have fed into my writing.

Curious about the other authors’ periodical of choice? Click on their links below to find out more. Before you go, add your email to the subscription box on the top right (scroll down if you’re reading this on your phone). The hop will arrive in your inbox on Fridays without the need to search for us. Easy! See you next time!

Catch You In The Feels – Open Book Blog Hop #544

August 31, 2026 By Captain Maiel 6 Comments

Topic #544

From a writing perspective, how do you view advertisements for
products or services (on TV, in magazines, online)?

This right here may be a clue as to why I am no good at writing ads or any marketing for my work. To manipulate the feelings of others feels disingenuous. Running at the mouth with platitudes built on word salad loses confidence. While I may feel super excited about my work, I can no more manipulate another person about it than I could a stick of deodorant. Have you ever listened to the lyrics of songs in ads and wondered how the performers get into it? I could never. Worse is when that word salad of feeling attempts to appeal to your self-image!

Sometimes, an ad can be super catchy or hilarious. Of late, though, I feel like the creativity is gone. Have you ever seen the Bones Coffee, Co. ads? You’ll find them on YouTube, mostly. Sometimes, you might see a splash ad on social media. I regard them as a winning ad campaign. They’re not so much manipulating your feelings as saying, we know you like horror and we have horror themed coffee, and we believe our flavors are the best available. Their bag designs, site design, splashes, and spots are all on point. They’re themed to the hilt, and they don’t miss. The best part is, they back up their claims with great coffee.

When you can feel great about purchasing a product that appeals to you aesthetically and by quality, it’s a win. No manipulation, as you’d call it. It cuts past that to what they got and the confidence in their product. The worst is when a product attempts to catch you in your feels. And then, you’re just like what even is this?

From car ads to meal time, everyone is attempting to appeal to your lifestyle and emotions with their products. There’s little genuine sentiment behind it. Look, Birdseye, it’s just vegetables not the most meaningful moment of my life. Why are they trying to attach themselves to important moments? To your quality of parenthood or personhood? Bones doesn’t do this. While I’m sure they’d love to corner the coffee market, they’re content providing quality product to the horror and cosplay crowd. They know who their people are. Birdseye thinks that if you want to be considered the good kind of family, you’ll buy their stuff. The underwriting of elitism threads through a lot of ads.

open book blog hop, a young woman with dark hair, wearing a black top, chews on the end of a pen. She's writing something in a journal resting on a white picnic table.

The writing behind these ads goes hard for helping their customers portray a persona to others. They don’t come in saying, they match with your persona. Think of car ads and clothing, perfume and jewelry. They’re selling you image, and that they can make you popular. It’s kind of pubescent, which is something you’d probably accuse Bones of being for matching Halloween and fun flavors. How does bones avoid that trap? They meet the customer where they are at, and don’t propose to change who they are or make them over. They accept you as you are: a person who likes horror and good coffee.

I struggle with this kind of writing. While I have full faith in my work, there is a disconnect in articulating that I have this thing I think you horror nerds are gonna love. My reluctance is in having been bullied into believing doing this makes me an egotistical nuisance. Maybe it would feel different if someone else did this step for me? Having a team is a great help when trying to market anything. The quality and technique of that team will matter even more.

Instead of catching a potential customer (reader) in the feels, it’s better to show them how you align. Don’t beat it like a dead horse, either. Theming will help, because it shows what you have concisely, quickly. It’s not easy, regardless. Eventually, the feels will come with the territory, because you’ve created places and characters readers can really fall into.

In the meantime, I really hope Birdseye, Chevy, or that bra company on YouTube catch on. Platitudes aren’t a sales pitch. Talking in circles to string together feeling words is poor writing. You come off empty and elitist. Instead of seeking feelings, seek common values and compelling connection.

Hop through the other author responses on the links below to see how they feel about current advertising and the writing behind it. Before you go, add your email address to the subscription box. The hop arrives to your inbox each Friday without the need to search for us! See you next time.

Why Do You Bother To Put It On Paper? Open Book Blog Hop #544

August 31, 2026 By Captain Maiel Leave a Comment

Topic #544

“I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” – Flannery O’Connor.
Authors have many reasons to write. Why do you write what you write?

That’s a great question! The effort to put the ideas from inside my head out into the world is unmerited, essentially. Writing is often a thankless job, unless you manage to hit the moment perfectly, striking the fancy of enough readers. If they can’t find you because algorithms work to prevent it, and you can’t afford to advertise effectively, you feel you’re screaming into the whirlwind. Unfortunately, added to this is the grifter utilizing AI to produce fake manuscripts. When AI could benefit an artist to overcome the lack of capital for advertising, it is instead set against them to ensure they never can, burying their work beneath millions of bot manufactured shitty texts.

It feels so defeatist to go over this, as I examine the hurdles. However, I am at a point where I can study the problems without them touching me so deeply. It sounds trite to say that you get used to it. However, you really do! Big publishers are in the business of making money, and if they can silence the competition, they will. So don’t ever shut up!

It’s been one thing after another for writers in the past few decades: the gatekeepers, failing independent publishing, the claim no one reads anymore, the rise of influencers, and now AI. As if a lack of capital were not enough, there are all those bad actors thwarting any author’s rise. If you don’t have it or nepotism to assist, you’re going to have to strive.

How does one strive against these terrible odds?

Think of all those authors who came before you centuries ago. They had a drive to do this, and nothing was going to stop them. They published themselves, and they put their books out there regardless of getting any love back from other humans. Ovid did not ask permission or approval of a publisher. An author needs to have a reason to write, no matter what it is, that lasts against all the hurt and frustration coming their way. You can call it loving the art, but is your love strong enough? From my perspective it is something more than love, but just as fragile as pain and frustration experienced by being halted at every step damages it so thoroughly.

Is Your Love Strong Enough?

Bryan Ferry

Just one step at a time,
And closer to destiny.
I knew at a glance,
There would always be a chance for me.
With someone I could live for;
Nowhere I would rather be.

Is your love strong enough,
Like a rock in the sea?
Am I asking too much?
Is your love strong enough?

Just one beat of your heart,
And stranger than fantasy.
I knew from the start,
It had to be the place for me.
Someone that I would die for;
There’s no way I could ever leave.

Is your love strong enough,
Like a rock in the sea?
Am I asking too much?
Is your love strong enough?
Is your love strong enough?

Is your love strong enough?
Just one beat of your heart.
Is your love strong enough?

Is your love strong enough?
Just one beat…

Written by: Bryan Ferry
Album: Legend (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Released: 1986
Lyrics provided by Musixmatch

A good buttress against losing heart is to have many reasons. Don’t think for one minute having one solid reason is enough. The love that you have for writing will change over time. You’ll gather more reasons and achieve distance that makes the old ones moot for all the right reasons. We grow throughout our lives, so should our love of what we do.

For instance, I write for a multitude of reasons. You’ll find I cite cinema as a huge reason for putting me here. The great films of the 1980s, for which many are so nostalgic, (looking at you Stranger Things (2016)) inspired me to create. The blessing of growing up in that time, bookended by the 1970s and 1990s in my most formative years, certainly is a reason for why I write. Scholastic Books provided subscription services that made a home library possible. In addition, my grandmother, who retired by the time I was up and running, took me to the library and on outings when not in school. What a beautiful time to be alive.

From there, cinema has provided some epic fare. There have been books and movies pumping ideas into my head for decades. What else helped was my dislike of hanging out at parties and taking part in that whole fraternity style high school life. I remember the slight disappointment in not having that as well, but it isn’t as if I didn’t hang out with friends–going dancing, to theme parks, their houses, all the things. It was just less frequent. Therefore, I had plenty of quiet time to recharge my introvert batteries and absorb books and movies.

Being from a boring town, watching movies was a big entertainment option. Sometimes we got to theater shows and concerts. The creme de la creme, however, was getting to Disney World. For someone steeped in cinema, you might imagine what a big deal this was. Beyond that, though, Walt was a huge creative, and he showed me that spilling your brains out into tangible things was truly possible. Next to him, Jim Henson presented the importance of taking that bottomless creativity and making things that mattered, that people loved, and touch other humans. To show love through creativity.

Feeling the love through the screen on films from Disney, Ridley Scott (Legend (1985)), Henson, Spielberg, Lucas, and many others helped me piece together my puzzle. Tolkien, Jordan, Austen, Poe, Shakespeare, and so many others filled in more pieces. Family and friends added their pieces. Experiences and education still more pieces. That makes what you see before you now. 1000s of pieces complete that picture. Therefore, if I forget or can no longer see those pieces, I know there are 1000s from which to pull.

No one can take this from me. My hero list has only grown and become more diverse over time. Not a single frustration or hurt will remove my appreciation for past and present creatives who I enjoy, who make me feel, somehow, what I do actually matters. Instead, because they touched my life, I don’t count readers as fans. How do I even class those folks who read my work and enjoyed that work as fans? They feel like friends and that is how I see them.

Writing gives me friendship and connection. Irreplaceable. At some point, that may reach a point I can’t see everyone’s faces. I hope they’ll know that they matter to me, just the same. The whole point was for them to read the book and feel the joys I do with the stories I tell. Otherwise, those stories could stay wrapped up in my brain not bothering anyone.

neon sign that reads: All we have is words. All we have is worlds. Words need a reader. A writer creates worlds. — ^{Photo by Alexandra on Unsplash}

Why would you bother to write it all down?

Somehow, I had the thought that others might like to explore the ideas I had. They had me invigorated, so why wouldn’t they provide that to others? Essentially, I wanted to share that excitement I felt. My writing met with confusion from those who require others to assure them my work is worth reading. Conversely, others ready to take a chance on the adventures I pen embrace them. That is the basis of why I write–to share my stories. Like I said above, there’s no other reason to put it all on paper without that desire being strong first. It gets your pen to paper.

Aside from the desire to share that which I am excited about, I wanted to provide to others the same high I got off reading and watching films that those creators had provided for me. You know the feeling of watching a great movie or reading a great book. I am compelled to create as in kind. If people don’t come along to pick up the pen when others have passed away, where would the new stories come from? Folks may not be able to reconcile what they see in me with the reality of me, but that’s not my problem. I’m here to be a storyteller, not what they think I should be.

Unrealistic Expectations Around Publishing and Writing

During my graduate studies, I was awarded a fellowship for my social justice writing. All of my books contain explorations of social issues, such as women’s roles in society during war time/historical ages, the bold exposure of how domestic violence can destroy lives, it shows how community strives to protect its members and how that plays out in realistic ways. I even explore how folks can heal from bad experiences and that their value isn’t in arbitrarily set ideas of purity. Nobility is found in the heart, not your blood line.

A common thread you may find in my work is the message to never give up, and that things change over time. They may get worse, but they will also get better. Sometimes we have to fight for that, but the fight is worth it. Stay.

But, just like I am 1000s of pieces of my history and touchpoints, so are my books. They come from dreams and nightmares I have had, and they come from and idea to challenge myself to create something lasting. The base of it all is to give love back to a world that showed me such beauty. Yes, there is ugliness, but oh, it is so beautiful, too.

The more love we put into the world, the better things will get. Click on the links in the scroll box below to find out why the other authors write. Each of us is different and compelling in our own ways. Before you go, subscribe by dropping your email in the box on the top right. The hop will arrive Friday afternoons in your inbox without searching the web to find us. See you next time!

Don’t Do This 1 Thing – Open Book Blog Hop #543

August 24, 2026 By Captain Maiel 6 Comments

Topic #543

Name one thing that a writer should never do.

Actually, let me list a couple of top tier pieces of advice for writers. Why stop at one, when there are two really important things to keep in mind? At the risk of sounding like one of those click bait articles or videos, I really mean don’t do this one thing. The fact is, engaging in these can end your career.

Aside from not committing the plagiarism, which will get you sued and end your career, Authors should avoid responding to negative reviews. This won’t defend your honor or your credentials. It will make you look unhinged (regardless of it being warranted or not), but it will also make you feel unhinged. Why would you waste your precious energy on some ass hole? There are people who literally spend all their free time trying to wind someone up online. They enjoy it like normal people enjoy a roller coaster. Someday, their sociopathy will have a clear category and be treatable. Until then, save your time and breath.

A one star review can be really upsetting. Trust me, though, when I say that it’s part of the drive to flick someone’s nose and get off on their reaction. It is highly unlikely they even read your work. A bad review, even if backed up by comments about the text, should only be seen through the lens of how you can improve your craft. Brush aside the unhelpful and pointless snide remarks and look for anything that you can use to hone your skills. When nothing is there, write it off as a troll. Don’t get your bestie to respond. Resist running to anyone to respond on your behalf. Lastly, don’t hire folks to bump your ratings in response. Artificially blowing yourself up is just as unhelpful. You could get your work banned from publication.

Deep breaths. I feel your frustration as one who experienced it.

four round stones that say dream, courage, inspire, harmony

The next bit of advice is super important to your success, too. You may think that we writers work in a vacuum. While we do our efforts on our own, we still come together to do many of our next steps. From editing, proofing, spit-balling ideas, publishing, marketing, and the all important community, we need one another. Community being the main hub, instead of an office building, is how we get along and figure it all out. It helps us feel sane. We build real relationships with other authors, that are symbiotic and necessary.

To best maintain your relationships: don’t diminish other writers. We have each come to this art by our own means. Taking a giant dump on how that happened (traditional institutions or otherwise) doesn’t make you look smarter. Anti-intellectualism, in fact, attacks your own path. Being a writer is seen as an intellectual pursuit by bookish individuals. You came from the streets or you came from the hallowed halls, you sought out education and the betterment of your mind. Writing is a noble art! Authors are viewed as deeply insightful intellectuals.

If we dump on education institutions, we dump on the art we engage in. Don’t mistake this for legitimate criticism. Criticizing how things are taught and gatekeeping, is a necessary task. It improves access and quality. What we don’t want to do is stop others from reaching for this, too. We don’t want to shut down the drive to write. All of that will shutdown the drive to read. So not only would dumping on it cause less people to seek out writing, it’s going to lessen the pool of readers. Why would we do that to ourselves?

It’s understandable to fear going unheard. There are a lot of books out there. Undercutting other authors to improve your chances is not the way to manage your marketing. The most successful authors I have seen work with others. They’re often editors and do marketing. They love the art and want to share it with others. They celebrate all the books. In no world does being against reading and learning make a wider field in which to share your writing.

All that said, being realistic about those who are ahead of us and those coming up behind us is fair. If you’re not realistic about where you fit, how do you improve? If I thought I was the great American Novelist, I’d never do any better. What would I think I had to change? But, don’t forget, you must respect your own accomplishments, too. Diminishing yourself isn’t going to help you anymore than blowing yourself up falsely. The realism goes both ways! Holy shit! You published a book. Do you know what a huge deal that is? Only 6-7 million publish 2-3 or more times, out of a whopping 8.3 billion people in the world. (AI calculation via DDG search assistant).

Don’t cry on me now! You’re brilliant. Now, don’t mess that all up by trying to knock the sparkle off another one of us or loosing it online with idiots. You’re better than that.

Check out the tips our other authors wrote this week by clicking on their links below in the scroll box. Before you go, subscribe to the blog. The hop will arrive without fuss each Friday in your inbox. If you’re an author, this will be a great tool for figuring out all of the things you have questions on. See you next time!

Alternative Fiction and Real People in Novels – Open Book Blog Hop #539

July 27, 2026 By Captain Maiel 4 Comments

Topic #539

Have you modeled any of your characters on a real person?
How do you disguise them (if needed?)

Writing alternative history, colloquially called alt fic, can be fraught with legal pitfalls. If you don’t trip on legal issues, you could trip and break your credibility. You have to be mindful of how and why you use real individuals as characters. I advise going with long dead individuals over recent historical figures. Also, if you model a character on someone in your personal life, don’t tell them that, if you value them in your life. I’ve done both.

The Baron, Morgentus — ^{Morgentus, The Trailokya Trilogy. Is he real or made up? Ask my dreams.}

You might say, well, who cares. I’m not writing my work to coddle anyone. That’s fine. Be prepared for the fallout is all that I am really saying. Be sure you cover yourself to avoid legal suits or any other difficulties that may arise. Even when you tell someone in your life that they show up in your book, they will remain judge and jury of how you depicted them. You can’t predict how that will go, even if they are flattered by knowing this. Once they read it, you may be in the dog house there forward. Don’t be surprised. There are hundreds of authors out there who have talked about how that goes. Sitcoms have made episodes. Cinema has mentioned it. Write what you know carefully!

In my historical drama, I have included long deceased historical figures. The events of the book take place during a tumultuous historic event that changed my country forever. It still haunts us and we still have yet to grapple with all the pieces. The events that followed were touched by its ripples. Today, even, we are touched by its ripples. An important tale.

Those figures, however, don’t take too much part in the drama. They are there like set dressing. Their actions can catalyze the events throughout the story that affect the characters. In addition, I am mindful of the history and take care to portray them as accurately as possible, without getting alternative to the point of absurdity. My whole point was to immerse the characters into actual history. Thus, it’s key that I respect everything as it happened and was.

Likewise, my spy thriller follows the same formulas. This was difficult. We’re talking Nazis. How do you separate your horror, grief, and anger for what they did from maintaining the accuracy? For me, it was about portraying them accurately as not to give them one inch in which to redeem themselves. The research was taxing, in that it revealed how very human they are. However, this has prepared me for current days and watching others realize that horrible people are as nuanced as every other person. I truly wish they were just monsters with no gray areas to mask them. We’d identify them quickly and save so many from them.

Writing that dark story paved the way for how I was able to handle my dark paranormal fantasy. It taught me how to respect other cultures while carefully weaving links between them to create a fictional realm. The most difficult part was having the home world of the heroes being called Zion. As this book posits that we all hail from a parallel universe we barely remember, and parts and pieces (including language–words) comes through with us, I went through picking words that held an essence of memorability.

Well, that’s very perspective based.

Open Book Blog Hop, Blue Honor — ^{The Photo that became the cover of Blue Honor, featuring Jack.}

To choose this name, I lined up multiple terms for heaven through multiple theologies and cultures. I considered them for ease of remembering, age, and sound. There wasn’t any nefarious favoritism toward them. Absolutely, literary analysis could write for days about the meanings of place names, the clashes they may echo, and bias. To this, I would remind others, that while I use an Islamic term for Hell, which is a fantastic word, there is no support of Zionism here. Islam has a word for their hell world. I did not say hell was for Islam. Regions in Jahannam carry Greek names. Am I also saying the Greeks are bad? Maybe it is more suitable to say that, having suffered so much, they know what hell is? Likewise, having suffered so much, Judaism knows heaven. Let’s not support such division.

By the way, the commander of Walhall in Zion is based on Persian culture. Memory is unreliable. Words change ownership in the human realm. Events and the zeitgeist change how we view history and words. For instance, it’s seems to be the thing to hate on a group of people because of their governments. I’d be screwing myself if I backed such ideas. Let’s be honest, the USA isn’t doing well out there right now.

The Afterlife in Different Cultures: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism
Ark Historia

A main idea threading through the series is that we misremember a lot and thus mischaracterize things where we are now. We have developed a language apart from the home realm, so many languages over time, cherry picking things and changing their meanings. Keeping with the above example, you find that the bad guys are seeking reentry into Zion, and therefore they’re more like Zionists, trying to open that door through violence and force. On the other side, all of the peoples of the universe in which humans find themselves are trying to stop that and build peace. They want to maintain the separation, as it serves the point of the plane (our universe) existing at all.

A lot of misunderstanding, misinterpretation of texts and memories, goes on between the characters. Of course I added to this tumultuous text by basing a lot on personal experiences and individuals who have come in and out of my life. Some are composites, some are pieces, and some might be whole. The book is based on dreams I have had. Therefore, they hold a lot of symbolism or representative details.

You’ll find some real people alluded to in the work, too. I kept to references because the book is weighty enough! It deals with such serious things, like domestic violence, bigotry, and world events. Another pile of bricks would have made it so heavy. Besides, lessons learned from the historical work: you don’t need to put them there at all. Alluding for effect felt a bit lazy. Why bother? For instance, mentioning Malcolm X at the Parker House was more of a sidebar random fact that has not come up again. Could it come in a later sequel? Perhaps I have been laying the ground work. I don’t know yet. In hindsight, it just felt pointless when I started the series, so I avoided being so pointless.

ai rendering of a wwii spy from OP-DEC, Marcel in a leather jacket

As mentioned above, compositing behaviors into a character is the best way I have found to include everything that I needed. Face it, we are shaped daily into the humans we presently are by hundreds of interactions with known and unknown other individuals. To write them all in the book would be a confusing and arduous task. Instead, if it felt formative enough, the instigators get melded, packing them into fewer and fewer people. They stay or go as needed.

Take note that it is useful, if you can have a recurring character that can be that person who does the things instead of creating new flats for each. That said, once they have done their part, they often part ways. This break in connection fully symbolizes the loss of their influence. That doesn’t necessarily mean that person is gone from my real life. Death or parting, therefore, becomes (not less serious) a break from.

Remember, in the series, death is just a transition from one plane of existence into another, and the characters can move around. Going to Oblivion is the unmaking that would result in never returning, and none of the characters know for certain that that is the end for them. All they know is, a negative entity returns no more to any realm from there, that they have recognized. Unmade, perhaps they go back to Nirvana to start over? In a way, isn’t that the same as ceasing to exist, to be unmade so wholly you are not recognizable?

With that heavy thought, please click on the links below to see how the other authors answer this fantastic question. I am curious to learn how they navigate this potentially sticky situation. Don’t forget to subscribe before you go (top right). The hop will arrive every Friday to your inbox without having to hunt for us. See you next time! Thank you for stopping in and spending a moment to read my thoughts.

What was/is your favorite periodical from back in the day?

From a writing perspective, how do you view advertisements for products or services (on TV, in magazines, online)?

“I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” – Flannery O’Connor. Authors have many reasons to write. Why do you write what you write?

How does one strive against these terrible odds?

Is Your Love Strong Enough?

Bryan Ferry