Dark / Drama / Thriller

Date Published: July 28, 2023

Publisher: Troubadour Books

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“Love before Covid - A raw, philosophical dive into love’s messy reality—unflinching, dark, and unapologetically human. Unlike typical romance novels, LOVE BEFORE COVID is a dialogue-driven exploration of human flaws and ideologies, blending fiction with metaphysical inquiry. It’s not about comfort; it’s about confrontation and insight.”

Laced with dark humour, it is best described as traumatic (sur)realism. Love Before Covid takes the reader on a journey through the mind of Joe Pastorius - jazz fan, poet, and victim of horrendous sexual and emotional abuse at the hands of his mother.

The real-time dialogues between the characters that emerge from Joe’s unconscious come via arguably corrupted memories and dystopian dreams. They tell us more about Joe than he could ever know, and perhaps more about our world than you could ever imagine.

Dialogues entail an exploration of clashing perspectives and opinions, that cause reflection. Today though, our world has been infiltrated by online dialogues that tend to feel like wild unfiltered streams of human thought, raw, chaotic and often polarising and devoid of much reflection. Arguably that attitude, and lack of reflection is mirrored by the characters you will encounter. The reflection comes from the reader as the situations unfold. Your moral boundaries will without doubt be pushed to the limit.

You will meet an altruist who can’t stand up for himself, a charming but violent public intellectual, a beautiful dancer who hates fat people, a flirty and gregarious bartender who will do anything to get pregnant, a traumatised art historian who never wants to be a mother, a successful intellectual Mexican writer who is secretly disapproving of her childhood friend’s career as a pornstar, the teenage genius son of that pornstar who has sexual fantasises about his mother, a woman who is pressured into cutting off her penis and a successful therapist who has a habit of ruining people’s lives.

And yes, before you ask, some of the characters in this book eventually catch Covid 19. However, there is always hope. For Joe Pastorious, that comes in the form of the psychopath named Janet Waverley.

About the Author

During the pandemic Dr Greg Scorzo completed his first novel ‘LOVE BEFORE COVID’ as well as producing an innovative radio play based on 6 chapters from that book, also called – LOVE BEFORE COVID. available on our YouTube Channel.  and via Audioboom with links to all major podcast platforms.

Greg says, “I was interested in the challenge of writing a novel that was formally experimental, while still being easy for a mass audience to read and understand. I love the idea of a piece of philosophy that is simultaneously a work of fiction, and a philosophical thought experiment which can function like a great, twisty roller coaster of a story that asks the reader many questions. Unlike traditional philosophy and many fashionable works of literature, this book purposefully asks questions without giving answers, encouraging readers to think (and emote) for themselves.”

Since gaining his PhD in Philosophy in 2011, Greg Scorzo has aimed to find creative and original ways to take philosophical thinking outside of academia. By using modern accessible philosophical dialogue inpublic talks, podcasts and his novel Love Before Covid, Greg explores clashing perspectives and opinions that cause reflection. Based in Leicester, he was a founding member of Culture on the Offensive and runs the podcast The ‘Art of Thinking’.

Dialogues entail an exploration of clashing perspectives and opinions that cause reflection. Statements and declarations can close minds.

The ‘Art of Thinking’ with Greg Scorzo podcast is available on YouTube where he does friendly philosophical interrogation of ideas  with many interesting thinkers. Also available via Audioboom linking to all major podcast platforms.

His extended essays on Arts and Culture as well as Cultural Issues are available on this platform www.gregscorzo.com

He has a passion and extensive knowledge of film and music.

From 2017 – 2020 Greg Scorzo was active in running over 60 engaging voluntary community sessions, centred around ‘The Art of Thinking’  The focussed on  universal philosophical themes, arts and culture and cultural issues. The ethos behind these events was to encourage the use of EMPATHY, CLARITY and COURAGE in ensuing dialogues with the audience. These were organised by COTO.

He also took up invitations to partner and run sessions at other events, including the Battle of Ideas Festival at the Barbican London, the Philosophy Now conference, Leicester Comedy Festival and  DeMontfort University’s Cultural Exchanges festival. He is always interested to partner up with other like minded people.

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Enter the Giveaway

This morning, I have a historical fantasy novel in our book blitz spotlight!  Check out The Oni's Shamisen, learn about the Toki-Girl and Sparrow Boy series & author Claire Youmans!

The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow Boy Series, Book 9

Historical Fantasy, Japan, Paranormal

Date Published: April 2022

Publisher: American I Publishing

Japan, 1877. Toki-Girl Azuki revels in her new-found freedom. But now what will she do with it?

Using her patterns and the looms Western Dragon Prince Iyrtsh makes for Eastern Dragon Princess Otohime's ambitious project—resettling refugees displaced by the failed Satsuma Rebellion—anyone can make her fabulous fabric designs! But what of Azuki herself? Then the Oni, Kukanko, who is sure she's not a demon, calls on the Toki-Girl for help.

Can Azuki, Sparrow-Boy Shota, Dragon Princess Renko and Eagle-Boy Akira find a way to help the Oni? What will a blind musician accomplish using their results? How can they help Uncle Yuta and Aunt Noriko find places for newly freed mill workers with no place left to go? Or help Lady Anko and Lord Toshio defy convention and save their unlucky twins from potentially lethal superstition? What's going to happen to a very special horse?

Eastern Dragon King Ryuujin and Western Dragon Queen Rizantona contemplate the future of their species and the planet, and infant Dragon Prince Susu’s inability to keep a secret has catastrophic results.

Will Azuki and her friends find a way to help others while saving themselves, their friends, and their future? Can Azuki find a new path?

The Oni’s Shamisen is the ninth in the groundbreaking Toki-girl and Sparrow-boy series where History and fantasy and magical realism collide in this latest tale from the Meiji Era, a time and place where anything could happen and probably did!

Get the latest novel in this exhilarating series today!

Other Books in the The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy Series:

The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy, Book 1: Coming Home

The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy, Book 2: Chasing Dreams

The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy, Book 3: Together

The Toki Girl and the Sparrow-Boy, Book 4: Uncle Yuta has an Adventure

The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy, Book 5: Noriko’s Journey

The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy, Book 6: The Dragon Sisters

The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy, Book 7: The Eagle and the Sparrow

The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy, Book 8: The Shadows of War

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Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

Azuki, the girl who became a toki, laughed as she soared in the thermal. In her form as a Japanese Crested Ibis, she rode the wind. Her powerful white wings, touched with stunning peach accents, worked to carry her far above the mountainous northern Kyushu landscape.

Laughing with her, Akira, the boy who became an eagle, matched her stroke for stroke as they circled each other, dancing in the air. They were close in size, for Steller’s Sea Eagles are proud of being the largest among eagles—no matter what those Harpy Eagles might think—and the Japanese Crested Ibis isn’t much smaller.

Dancing in the air wasn’t limited to birds, Akira thought as the wind softened beneath his wings—only to those who could fly. The Western Dragon Prince Irtysh and the Eastern Dragon Princess Otohime, though divergent in form, had learned to dance together, and Otohime had first learned to do it with her younger and smaller half-sister, their friend, Renko.

But nobody did it like eagles!

“Let’s dive,” Akira cried to Azuki. She didn’t answer, but slowed to nearly stall before tipping her long black beak downward and tucking in her wings. Akira drove the air with his own muscular wings to catch her, and they spiraled downwards, twisting closely around each other, racing towards the land.

They learned this from the dragons, who rejoiced in flight as much as the birds, and were smart enough and playful enough to take any airborne idea and expand on it. They all learned from each other.

As they approached the treetops, Azuki called, “Crossover!” and they changed their courses to hurtle past each other before starting the upward curve of their next ascent. Careful to keep exact pace with each other, they curved their angles inward so they would meet at the top of their arc. Akira thought they might cross over again and descend in lazy twining circles before landing.

Suddenly, right between them, a dragon appeared.

Akira and Azuki both dodged to avoid this obstacle, who was small for a dragon, though large compared to them. He was bronze, brown and gold, and in the classic European fashion, his hide was studded with jewels. When he was a human, he looked Japanese.

“Nice flight, you two,” the dragon said.

“Susu-chan!” Azuki called. “What are you doing here? Don’t pop in like that! It’s dangerous!”

“I wasn’t in your way!” Susu objected. Youngest of the dual-natured dragons, Susu was Renko’s full brother. Otohime was his much older half-sister, child of the Eastern Dragon King Ryuujin. Irtysh was his much older half-brother, child of the Western Dragon Queen Rizantona. Susu was a child prodigy who was afraid of nothing except his fierce and royal parents, and sometimes his grown-up siblings, who could be quite fierce themselves. Renko was young like him and would usually not only let him get away with tricks but teach him new ones. She’d been a child prodigy herself.

“That’s only because we’re good,” Akira said with a mental laugh as the two big birds circled around the hovering dragon. They all spoke in mental speech, convenient for times when their physical beings or their circumstances didn’t accommodate physical, audible speech.

“You did spoil our descent, though,” Azuki added. “Isn’t it good manners for dragons to announce themselves to avoid interrupting others?” Susu looked abashed.

“I should have,” Susu said. “I’m sorry. I forgot. I guess I did come in right in the middle. Is it convenient?” That was a popular dragon greeting. Dragons frequently spontaneously appeared in each other’s presences without announcing themselves in advance, which few of them could manage all the time.

Mental speech did not always work for any- and every-one or at different distances. Dragons vanished promptly if they were told to come back later. They enjoyed spontaneity and were sometimes impulsive. Susu, formally His Royal Highness Prince Suoh-Sugaar, certainly was.

“No, but as long as you’re here,” Akira said with a grin that forgave the dragon child too much and too often, “what can we do for you?”

“Not for me, but for Brother.” In the Japanese fashion, Susu usually referred to his relatives by relationship rather than name. He did have other brothers–both his parents had other children–but when he said “Brother,” as though it were a name, he invariably meant the one he was closest to: Prince Irtysh.

“How can we serve His Royal Highness today?” Azuki asked formally. She’d had just about enough of this childish nonsense. Susu was old enough to use proper manners!

“Did you know Brother has children?” Susu swiveled to try to follow the birds’ line of sight. Birds couldn’t hover like dragons could. “Come land on me!”

Azuki and Akira glanced at each other, then swooped in to circle before landing on Susu’s broad back.

“I didn’t,” Akira said as he banked, “No.”

“I never thought about it,” Azuki admitted. “They don’t live with him.”

“They’re kind of old,” Susu told them. “Grown-ups. They all have their own caverns and their own mountains. All over the place. Galina’s mountain is north of here, really close to Hokkaido! She’s a princess, too. She’s older than me, but we like to swim together. I think I’m her uncle.” Susu frowned at this. That didn’t make sense to him emotionally, though if he worked it out, intellectually, it did. His brother’s children....

“So Prince Irtysh has children?” Akira decided to move the original conversation back on track. He positioned himself to land near where Azuki would light down. While the prince was, by rank, His Royal Highness, he preferred a lower level of formality from those among the dual-natured and humans he seemed to consider part of his social circle, if not his friends. Akira didn’t know if he would ever be able to truly claim friendship with the suave and sophisticated dragon prince, though he admired him enormously.

“Five!” Susu said. “He’s talking to them about those machines he’s building for your refugees! He wants to know how many you’ll need, so I need to get Tsuruko-san. Then she and Kichiro-san can come back with us and we can all talk about going to the Exhibition! It starts in just a few days!”

Susu was a jump ahead of everybody, as he often was, Azuki thought, though he was frequently misdirected. Tsuruko-san, the Crane-Woman, was working closely with Her Royal Highness, the Eastern Dragon Princess Otohime. Both of them joined the fully human Lady Satsuki, her very pregnant daughter, Anko-sama, and all the rest of them, in helping to resettle refugees displaced by the Satsuma Rebellion. Azuki didn't want to think about that. The Rebellion was coming to its end, and its end would be, inevitably, tragic.

“That’s where we’ll find out about the cotton spinning machine.” Akira nodded. “I want to go, too.”

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Meet the Author

Claire Youmans was captivated the first time she set foot in the Land of the Rising Sun. After many years of travel to this magical place, the retired lawyer now lives in Tokyo, exploring and writing fiction and poetry. During the Meiji Era, Japan leapt from a decaying feudalism to a modern first world power. How'd they do that? This history holds a key to understanding Japanese culture and character. Like the ocean, Japan changes only on the surface while the depths remain the same. Using folklore and fantasy, Youmans tells this story in an accessible, fun, and exciting way that reveals and explores the true nature of Japan, a culture that is unique, quirkly and one she has ultimately come to love.

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BookBuzz

Today, I have a nonfiction, religion book in our book blitz spotlight.  Check out Salvo and learn about Randy Lee Higgins, Ph.D.

Nonfiction / Religion

Date Published: July 14, 2021

Publisher: MindStir Media

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This book was written in the state of breathless Samadhi, on a cell phone. Pithy mystical aphorisms began arriving from "ourselves in the future". These future selves have survived the cataclysm we are currently undergoing and want to extend a hand to help us through the Apocalyptic labyrinth safely to the other side. This journey is not what is expected. The price of admission to the New Earth turns out to be realization of every terror we've ever imagined. Turns out, it was only ourselves we were afraid of in the first place! The final reward is the acceptance and embracing of this glorious terrifying Self. What we were looking for is what is looking for us.

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About the Author

Randy was born in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. After graduating summa cum laude from Virginia Tech and receiving a master's degree in Family Therapy, he completed his doctoral degree at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, CA. By far, most of his education was delivered by the "School of Hard Knocks." His gift is in seeing the miracle in everything, even in a tragedy -- even in the current global catastrophe. He is now back in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the house he grew up in, where he is looking forward to growing old and dying. Or not.

Today, we are joining the book tour for dating and romance book, If They Can't Kiss Right with a guest post from author Shannon Yingst!  Read as she shares insights into the inspiration for her book and learn a little about the book and the author! 

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Should you purchase an item via our links--we may receive slight compensation from an
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Read the Guest Post

Shannon Yingst is a woman with dreams far beyond her reach. Not because she isn’t ambitious, but because she is short, and her dreams are on the high shelves. On her tip toes reaching for those dusty aspirations, she hopes to achieve the daunting task of entertaining the masses with the written word. Shannon likes to write while listening to Star Wars soundtracks, stand outside while it snows, and get confused playing board games. She would love to spend her days reading on the beach with a waiter bringing her frozen margaritas and snacks as the sun moves about the sky, but for now, she will continue to work at her desk in Jersey.

If They Can’t Kiss Right: Surviving Online Dating is her latest book.

You can visit her blog or connect with her on Twitter.

 

 About the Book

 

Jason Richmond is an authoritative culture change strategist whose work over the past twenty-plus years has helped companies build strong, sustained revenue growth by empowering their employees and developing energizing office cultures. As President/CEO and Chief Culture Officer for Ideal Outcomes, Inc., he has worked closely with established Fortune 100 companies to create Leadership Development Journeys, and he has guided numerous start-ups on the path to become noted industry leaders. He has also provided thought leadership and innovative consulting services to a wide range of midsize companies.  

Jeanne Kerr is the Director of Organizational Development and Culture Consulting for Ideal Outcomes, Inc. She also has been a Senior Faculty Partner with the Human Capital Institute since 2012. With over twenty years of organizational development and talent management strategy in a variety of industries, her expertise includes culture strategy, strategic workforce planning, leadership development, team building, and assessment solutions.

CULTURE IGNITED Spotlight Book Tour Giveaway