Vocal Expressions

This is the first time I’m reading anything by Michael Arches. The book cover and the title immediately drew me in. So, let’s meet Athena Kazan, a former Cheyene federal prosecutor who was shot in the head when she came upon a cash exchange between Wyoming’s Attorney General and Dominique Santiago, the daughter of a drug cartel leader. Athena was maimed (wears a glass eye and walks with a limp) and is now in witness protection in Colorado because Dominique’s father has a huge bounty on her head to prevent her from testifying against his daughter.  Fast forward and Athena (now Christina Nielsen) gets embroiled in a dangerous situation. It all happened while she was waiting in line to use the bathroom at a discount gas station when Jackie, a pregnant woman slipped her an index card asking for help. Jackie was with her nurse, Mia and they both got whisked away by an armed man into a Chevy Suburban. Unable to get the feds to send help, Athena decides to follow them (I admired her spu...

Author’s Bio: Maurice is the author of five books: Businessman First, Remembering Henry G. Parks, Jr ., 1916-1989 , Capturing the Life of a Businessman Who Was African American, A Biography , 2014; From Whence We Come , 2017; Of Time and Spirit, a Tribute to My Father , 2020; Zelma's Aphorisms, Old School Wisdom, Instructive, Inspirational, Hilarious to Outrageous , 2022; and So Many Angels , 2023. His books are biographical in nature, highlighting the lives of key protagonists in his life.  He is also a character in each of his books.  His writing goals have been to remember, honor, appreciate and to pay tribute to others and also to untangle and make sense of the dysfunctions and neuroses of his life.   Prior to these writings, he worked in the public and private sectors, concluding a professional career of forty-two years.  He retired from the United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture. This agency provided federa...

Author’s Bio:  Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman, Ed.D. is a cultural curator with over 20 years of applied experience transforming places into arts and educational spaces. She is award-winning performance artist Khadijah Moon, and a multi-genre writer who is a producing playwright and filmmaker. She is currently the 2023 Poet Laureate of Prince George's County, MD. She is founder of Liberated Muse Arts Group.   She would love to have the superpower of invisibility. So, she could protect and navigate spaces to save people without capture.   Deliah Lawrence: What inspired you to write your book? Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman:  The poems in The Summoning of Black Joy were written over the past 10 years with many written during Covid-19. I perform regularly as a solo artist and part of Liberated Muse Arts Group and have performed many of the poems over the years. When I was appointed as Poet Laureate of Prince George’s County, Md, I thought it ...

This is the first time I’m reading anything by Z.L. Arkadie.   So, let’s meet the Christmases, a powerful and rich family full of secrets, lies, and deep dark secrets. Bryn Christmas invited Holly Henderson, an investigative reporter and her college roommate to write an investigative story about her family. That meant interviewing Bryn and her three brothers: Jasper, the oldest brother; Asher, Bryn’s twin brother; and Spencer, the quintessential playboy. Then there is Randolph, their elderly father who is stashed away in his sick bed…dying and the mystery of his much younger wife Amelia’s death.  The entire time Holly was at the Christmas estate, she was immersed in bickering between all the siblings, outright lust from Spencer, and sexual trysts with Jasper. She couldn’t resist Jasper and although she had a story to investigate; she couldn’t help but wonder if there was more to Jasper than being bedded by him. Holly learned quite a few things too about the Christmas men (e...