Tuesday, October 27, 2026

Straight Browsing from the Library: The Infinity Formula by Calvin Engen



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Calvin Engen will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

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WHAT IF REALITY ISN'T A MISTAKE, OR A SIMULATION TO ESCAPE, BUT THE WAY INFINITY LEARNS TO KNOW ITSELF?

In The Infinity Formula, Calvin Engen invites readers into a grounded blend of science, spirituality, and technology. At its heart is a simple symbolic lens:

U = S(C × T)^A → ∞
A way of seeing the universe as a lived simulation where consciousness moves through time, accelerates through evolution and technology, and returns to Infinity.

From the birth of time to the rise of artificial intelligence, Engen weaves ideas from physics, neuroscience, and ancient mysticism into a unified story of existence. He explores how time can be experienced as more than a clock, how acceleration can become a mirror for awakening, and how behind every moment of division and discovery, the Source is remembering itself through us.

Written in luminous, accessible prose, The Infinity Formula is both a map and a meditation. It's a call to live awake within the dream of existence, to relate to technology with intention, and to remember that we have never been separate from the whole.

For readers of Carlo Rovelli, Philip Goff, and Alan Lightman, this book bridges science and soul to illuminate the deepest mystery of all: how Infinity becomes you. What if reality isn't a mistake, or a simulation to escape, but the way Infinity learns to know itself?

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Infinity as Origin

Each thought is a shadow of memory,
a ripple of what has been,
blooming again in the now,
shaping the world that is to come.

From the beginning, human beings have asked one of the simplest and yet most unsettling questions: Where did all of this come from?

We look up at the night sky, see the countless stars scattered across the darkness, and we can’t help but wonder: What started it all? Children ask it bluntly: “Where did the world come from?” while philosophers frame it with sophistication, and scientists refine it with mathematics. But beneath every culture, every tradition, every discipline, lies the same curiosity: What is the origin of existence?

Throughout history, answers have come in the form of stories. In ancient myths, the universe often begins with a great act of separation or creation: a cosmic egg cracking open, a god speaking light into being, a divine battle birthing heaven and earth. In religion, beginnings are described as sacred acts of will: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” In science, the prevailing story is the Big Bang, a singularity that erupted into space and time nearly fourteen billion years ago.

These stories differ in language and detail, but they share a common assumption: There was a first moment, a point at which “nothing” became “something.” Even when science admits it cannot describe what came before the Big Bang, it still imagines a threshold, a line between not yet and now. Our minds crave this boundary because we are creatures of beginnings and endings. To us, everything seems to need a starting point.

But what if there was no first moment?

This is the radical idea at the heart of this book. The true origin is not a single instant in time nor a singular event. The true origin is Infinity itself; not a beginning but an eternal reality with no edge, no outside, no end. Infinity does not start, it simply is. It has always been, and it always will be.

Infinity is not just a mathematical curiosity or a poetic metaphor. It is the deepest truth of existence. It is the Source from which all things arise and the destination to which all things return. Every creation story, every scientific model, every philosophy is an attempt to describe what Infinity is doing when it unfolds into form.

MEET THE AUTHOR


Calvin Engen is a technologist in Edmonton, Alberta, where he works at the front edge of IT strategy and systems thinking. Outside the day-to-day of technology leadership, Calvin is an autodidact drawn to the biggest questions—how the universe works, what consciousness is, and why human life matters. That combination of practical technology experience and philosophical curiosity fuels The Infinity Formula, a book that explores consciousness, time, and AI as both tools and mirrors. He wrote the book for readers who sense that humanity is at a turning point: our systems are becoming more powerful, and our inner lives must become more intentional. With clear metaphors and reflective prompts, Calvin Engen offers a grounded, hopeful invitation to reconnect with meaning and help build a future guided by wisdom, ethics, and purpose.

Amazon: https://amazon.com/dp/1834383447
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/72105166.Calvin_Engen

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Straight Chatting from the Library: Dale Dallman



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Dale Dallman will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

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How often do you read out of your comfort zone?

I don't have a comfort zone! I reread everything from Shakespeare to Mad Mag! Have any of you read Mad Magazine?

Can you read in the car?

Reading books in the car can be hazardous to your health… if you are driving! As a passenger, I get carsick from reading! Either way, it is a no-go for me. Has there been a book that you would read in a car?

What will inspire you to recommend a book?

I will recommend a book for several reasons but first and foremost, the story has to grab me! It must get me in the first 10 minutes. I recommend very few but will go the distance for the good ones! As an author, I would like to know, what would inspire you to write a review?

How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?

The world is made up of so many different people! Negative reviews do get my attention but I understand that it is hard to write a book that would please all people! You just use the negatives to grow!

Favorite film adaptation of a novel?

The best adaptation has to be "Gone with the Wind." Reading the book is almost as great as watching great performers! The story and the book are one! Too many are water and oil! The movie is Hollywood; the book is the memory. What book would you like to see on the Hollywood screen?

How often do you skim a book before reading it?

I always skim the book! It seems that my habit of skimming makes me a shallow reviewer! I have picked up a book I previously skimmed and discarded, only to find it one I can't sit down.

Do you like to keep your books organized?

My books are organized in perfect order! Some on the floor, a few in the shop. A couple make it to the hand-built shelves, two at the Throne, and the BIBLE at the center!

READ THE BLURB




Buying a car. Just those three words can conjure up a whole swirl of emotions.

For some, it’s the thrill of a sleek new model—the scent of fresh upholstery and the promise of open roads. For others, it’s a daunting odyssey filled with jargon, pressure, and the fear of an expensive mistake.

Wherever you fall, you’re reading this because buying a car is a significant life event.

We’ve all stood on the lot, squinting at price tags, decoding financing offers, and feeling the push to “act now.” It’s easy to feel outmatched—to wish for an expert at your side. Consider this book that expert: your trusted co-pilot on a journey that’s both exciting and rewarding.

This isn’t just a checklist—it’s a philosophy. You’ll learn to approach car buying with clarity and confidence, understand financing, master the test drive, and negotiate with purpose, ensuring that you walk away feeling like a winner.

Whether you’re a first-time buyer, upgrading, or simply overwhelmed by options, this book is for you.

So, buckle up. Get ready to embark on a journey that will not only lead you to the perfect vehicle but will also leave you feeling empowered, informed, and ready to hit the road with a smile.

Happy driving!

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The dealers sell a lot of “order-in” cars at shows.

Order-in cars means you order the car for delivery at a later date. The customer looked at and sat in the “perfect” model at the show. The vehicle delivered is an assembly-line model that may or may not meet the standard of the show car.

The car show is a great place to see the new kids on the block. It is the perfect place to gather and assemble information. It is the perfect place to mingle in crowds and watch pretty boys or girls. It is even the perfect place to choose the salesperson you might want to deal with in the future. It just is not the perfect place to buy a vehicle. The whole setting, with its glitter and pomp, is designed to get your blood flowing. The chances of you making even mediocre deals are slight to none! The pressure is everywhere. You are bombarded with subliminal messages from every nook and cranny of the auditorium. The urge to buy will never be greater. DO NOT DO IT. The free toaster is not worth the extra $2,000 you will pay for the vehicle. The “order in” car might not be what you thought you saw under shell number two.

The same car will eventually be at the dealer. Try to forget the “instant gratification society” we have created and allow your good senses to shop in a planned, orderly fashion.

Say hi to the pretty girls at the next show you attend. Sit in every car and truck that turns your trigger. Talk to everyone. Just do not buy at a car show!

MEET THE AUTHOR




Dale Dallman worked in the CAR business for decades. He started at Frontier Chevrolet in Billings, Montana. He worked the hardest part of the dealership, the USED CAR LOT! Frontier Chevrolet had 37 salespeople after it was bought out and renamed Denny Menholt Chevrolet. Dallman was #1 in sales from the beginning. Dallman invented the tool that made him famous, “THE BIRD DOG BUCK.” It was a copy of a $100 bill, with his picture on it. It had a section for the previous buyer to print their name, and for the potential new buyer to print their name. The idea was to send ten copies to every person who bought a car from him. It asked the buyer to give one to every person they thought might be interested in buying a car. The instructions printed on the fake bill were “Give this to a potential buyer. If they present it to the dealership and ask for Dallman, you will receive a $25 “Bird Dog” check! The potential buyer will get a $500 discount on their purchase.” It got to the point that he didn’t even need to stand at the door and wait for new walk-ins. He had a secretary who handled his appointments!

Dallman then went out to the West Coast. Here, he worked on new and used cars for a Chevrolet dealer in the car village in Olympia, Washington. He and his best friend (both from Billings) worked there. The idea for a book started there, but Dallman needed a broader cross-section of the car business, so he moved to Gilchrist Buick in Tacoma, Washington, to reach a different class of buyers. He did so well that Buick Motor Division had him do training videos that they used internally in National training.

Dallman decided to go to Germany on a contract with TOYOTA WORLD. The job was working the locations on the military bases where the military could buy cars and use them in-country, order one to be picked up at a dealer back in the states when they rotated home.

Dallman now does consultant work for buyers. He has instructed sales classes and trained both BUYERS and the salesmen, trying to get your money! Dallman has advised many dealers and salespeople. But he loves helping buyers outsmart the Dealers more!

https://www.dallmanproductions.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Grizzlytrack
https://www.instagram.com/dallmanproductions/
https://www.goodrea.dscom/author/show/49906767.Dale_E_Dallman
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/dale-e-dallman
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Dale-E.-Dallman/author/B0D57RY38J

Monday, October 26, 2026

Straight Browsing from the Library: Dazzled by the Light by Karen Christino



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Karen Christino will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

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New Age trailblazer Linda Goodman wrote best-selling books and empowered millions with astrology’s insights. Strong willed, complicated and fiercely independent, she had three husbands, six kids, legions of fans, and extraordinary success. An idealistic seeker, she believed she could create the world she chose; yet with her daughter’s suicide at 21, she shrank from reality. Dazzled by the Light covers Linda’s West Virginia roots, her relationship struggles, professional achievements and financial setbacks. Enriched with in-depth research, vivid portraits of New Age figures, friends’ candid recollections, and Linda’s effervescent prose, this comprehensive biography illuminates the life and times of an enigmatic icon.

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Love Letters radio show, 1957

Before Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs success, her most successful project was a radio show called “Love Letters from Linda.” She was preoccupied with love, and was an adroit letter writer; “Love Letters” combined the two. Her show aired in Pittsburgh, where the family had moved in 1957.

From the perspective of a mother of three in a secure marriage, the project may have helped put her sometimes tumultuous past in context. We can envision Linda writing passionate letters to her ex-husband Bill Snyder overseas in the 1940s, while listening to sentimental standards on the radio. Then ten years later imagining penning the loving and supportive missives she would have preferred, or the kind of letters she and her current husband Sam might have exchanged.

The show allowed her to relive her younger days when life held few limitations or responsibilities, when she was a beauty pageant contestant. Linda was the writer and the announcer for the show, which featured romantic songs from the 1940s. She probably read letters she’d created to depict correspondence between soldiers and their sweethearts at home.

“Love Letters” was broadcast in October of 1957 on Monday and Thursday evenings on WJAS in downtown Pittsburgh, and ran through 1961. Linda probably refreshed the letters and switched up the songs. She, herself, was often nostalgic for the past. But the show was innovative, since “oldies” radio didn’t become popular until the 1960s and ‘70s. Once the family moved to New York City, Goodman set her sights on bigger things.

A consulting astrologer for over 20 years, Karen Christino has written nine books about astrology, and horoscopes for Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Modern Bride and Seventeen magazines. She has a B.A. from Colgate University, and also studied at Columbia University.

Website: https://karenchristino.com/
Dazzled by the Light book page: https://karenchristino.com/books/dazzled-by-the-light-linda-goodman/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100014294347020
Dazzled on Amazon: https://link.amazon/B0hZwAWIm

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Tuesday, October 13, 2026

Straight Browsing from the Library: Me, Mom & the Monster by Corinne Brown



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Corinne Brown will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Corinne Brown will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

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"The results of your predictive testing are here, and they show that you did inherit the gene for Huntington's disease."

Those words, delivered by the neurologist to 57-year-old Mae Brown, forever changed her life and the lives of her family. Me, Mom & the Monster is a soul-stirring memoir that follows the path of this farming wife, businesswoman, mother and grandmother who lived a life with a monster of a disease. Interwoven with Mae's story is that of her third child, Corinne, whose life is intrinsically connected to her mother's diagnosis. Told from alternating voices of Corinne and her mother, this is a candid account of the harrowing effects of living with a fatal, genetic disease. Me, Mom & the Monster captures the authenticity and vulnerability of a mother and daughter who find themselves entwined in a long dance with a neurodegenerative disease.

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MOM

I remember hearing stories of distant aunts and uncles who were afflicted with the Devil’s Dance—a colloquialism used in some circles to refer to those who were afflicted with HD. They were said to have the Devil’s Dance because of the chorea—a movement disorder causing involuntary spasmodic movements—that looked like an awkward, uncontrolled dance. Chorea is a primary symptom of HD. The Devil’s Dance was whispered about because of the shame, stigma and fear of this disease no one knew much about.

Times were different back then. There was no genetic testing or genetic counselling. Families just waited to see if symptoms would appear in them or in loved ones. Not much was known about the genetics of this disease or what the probabilities were of being affected if a parent had the disease. All I knew was what I heard about family members being sheltered and, in some instances, locked up so they wouldn’t harm themselves. They were deemed to have the Devil’s Dance, and not everyone behaved the same way. There was shame among afflicted families. There was also incredible fear.

This was in the early to mid-1900s in a remote community in northeast Newfoundland, where not many people talked about HD. Partly because there wasn’t much known about it, and no one in these small towns knew what to do anyway, especially if the afflicted person had rage tendencies and dramatic outbursts. My aunt Edna, who, along with my aunt Marg, helped in raising me after my own mother died, often became quite violent and would hit her husband, and hit him hard. She was sent away periodically for shock therapy because that was the preferred “treatment” of a disease that no one knew much about. I had an uncle who took his own life after he started exhibiting symptoms.

I suppose they call it the Devil’s Dance because those who are afflicted can’t keep still, legs going, feet going, torso bending. And the devil part? Well, that probably doesn’t need much explanation or observation. Only the devil could conjure such a tragic infliction. Some days I do feel like I’m in hell, to be honest. Fitting, I suppose. Not like I have a choice to dance with anyone else except with this devil of a disease.

MEET THE AUTHOR




Corinne was 10-years old when she told her teacher that when she grew up, she was going to be an author. A few decades may have passed since then, but the author dream was realized with the publication of her debut novel, Me, Mom & the Monster in the summer of 2026.

Corinne, a native Newfoundlander, grew up surrounded by books, newspapers and magazines. Her environment must have had some impact since she graduated from Memorial University of Newfoundland with a Bachelor of Arts and then went on to pursue a Journalism diploma at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta.

Although her initial intention was to write fiction, Corinne says the story of Me, Mom & the Monster needed to be told first. She says sharing the intimate story of being part of a Huntington’s disease family opened the space for other ideas.

When she isn’t creating characters, and envisioning scenes and scenarios, she finds comfort in being outside. She lives in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada where she is continuously adding to her To Be Read stack and where she is currently writing her second book.

Website: https://corinnebrown.ca/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corinneiswritingabook
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590646317904
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/71361751.Corinne_Brown

Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/Me-Mom-Monster-Through-Huntingtons-ebook/dp/B0H3NWHCJS/ref=sr_1_10

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Straight Browsing from the Library: Titan Mage Havoc and the Frigid Flame by Edie Skye



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Edie Skye will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

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IT'S INDIANA JONES WITH MORE ASS (and GIANT ROBOTS!)

Titan Mage Orion “Rion” Havoc has a reputation to match his name—and that’s exactly what the captain of the airship Indigo Gryphon is looking for.

The world of Haven is an adventurer’s paradise, brimming with mysterious ruins, ancient artifacts, and dangerous secret powers the Arcane Index’s combat archaeologists just can’t help but unleash. Fortunately, the Index has a protocol for that, and it involves giant mechs called titans—and their pilots, the titan mages.

***


When mousy archaeologist Mery Arkady hires the Indy for an expedition to the lost city of Aeterna, Rion fully expects danger and derring-do. He even expects her to have more secrets than she’s letting on.

What he doesn’t expect is to be joined by Sanja Grimes—a rough and tumble titan mage, a vigorous partner in rank and in bed … and the one who got away.

Nor did he expect their shared academy rival Nepherik Damian Oldershaw to show up, suspiciously interested in Mery’s expedition and as vicious as he is vindictive.

Even in an adventure that takes them through monster-infested ruins, sky pirate territories, untamed jungles, and lost cities, their greatest threat might be from their own pasts.

Embark on the adventure of a lifetime with Amazon bestselling author Edie Skye in this brand-new action-adventure fantasy series. If you’ve ever said “I like the Indiana Jones movies but I wish they had more ass,” this just might be the story you’ve been waiting for.

WARNING: Titan Mage Havoc is a fun mecha fantasy adventure where the hero saves the day and gets all the girls. (So don’t read it and then complain about the spice. Y’all know exactly what you’re getting into.)

READ AN EXCERPT


“Your chief’s here!” Nova said brightly.

“My chief?” The woman startled again. “What time is it? Gouda usually barks when—”

She half-stepped, half-stumbled down the ladder, which was when Sevas noticed the bed positioned beside it, and the loaf-shaped white and fawn dog snoring next to a chewed-up wooden bat. The dog wore a leather eyepatch over an eye marred by an X-shaped scar and clenched an inert alarm clock in its teeth. Also chewed up.

“Gods dammit, how’d she even reach it—” the young woman muttered, then swung to face the hatch. Her eyes landed on her visitors right before she would have crashed into Sevas. She jerked to a halt with a disconcerted “Eep!” and her face froze as she re-processed the situation.

He shook the thought of his previous view from his mind—even as he noticed her bare, slim midriff, and shook that from mind, too. Gods, why was he noticing such things? He was about to fill the pause with a reprimand about the state of the workshop, but then her brain restarted, and the thing it chose to blurt was: “Gods, you’re gorgeous!”

It seemed he wasn’t the only person on this ship with a mouth faster than his brain. The young woman clapped her hands to her face, as if to shove her words back in, and Sevas glanced back to Rion and sighed.

“Yes, it’s a known issue.”

MEET THE AUTHOR




Edie Skye wrote Titan Mage as a joke and, in doing so, discovered that while she really likes writing smart stuff, she also likes writing smut. Pretty spicy smut, too, ‘cause if you’re gonna do it, you might as well do it hard. Specifically, she likes to spin fun (and funny) adventure fantasies about badass women and the equally badass dudes who want to do them. Vigorously. There’s action and monster-punching galore, sometimes with airships and mech upgrades, sometimes with monster girl gamers, but always with a substantial side of harem and fun-for-all-involved graphic spice. (Which is to say, it’s super NSFW. Unless your workplace is, like, really cool.)

Website: https://edieskye.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edieskyeauthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edieskyeauthor/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@edieskyeauthor
X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/edieskyeauthor
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@edieskyeauthor
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/edieskyeauthor

Buy Links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Titan-Mage-Havoc-Frigid-Flame-ebook/dp/B0H3LTT8L5
Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Titan-Mage-Havoc-and-the-Frigid-Flame-Audiobook/B0H9ZYZ4CW
Signed Books at the author's Direct Shop: https://store.holowriting.com/pages/titan-mage-havoc

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Monday, October 12, 2026

Unladylike by Regina Louise



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Regina Louise will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner. Click on a tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

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Unladylike: A Mythopoetic Reclamation of Love is a lyrical collection of poetry and prose exploring love, survival, embodiment, and the journey of returning to the self. Blending literary poetry with personal reflection, Regina Louise examines relationships, identity, trauma, healing, and the process of reclaiming one's voice after loss and betrayal.

Through intimate poems and essays, Unladylike maps the emotional terrain between heartbreak and self-discovery, inviting readers into a deeply human exploration of resilience, self-love, and personal transformation. Her work speaks to readers interested in emotional healing, spiritual growth, women's voices, and the reclamation of dignity through storytelling and creative expression.

Rooted in mythopoetic inquiry and lived experience, this collection moves through memory, desire, grief, and repair, offering language for those navigating change, recovery, and the search for meaning. Unladylike is both an artistic work and an invitation-to witness oneself honestly and to return to what was always there.

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Say Her Name, Yours, and Mine
for Celie, for the girl on the 24 Divisadero, for all of us

Who taught her to bankrupt herself
back into her own disremembering—
to shrink inside the sound of her own name?

But I call her by her name. Celie.
Not by what Mister said.
Not by the nothing she thought she was.

I call her holy.

I recognize her as my own emulate,
mama,
sister,
auntie,
grandmother,
Jezebel,
and Sapphire,

The forgotten-about ones.

Because, like all of them (us),
she wrote letters to a God
she wasn’t sure existed.

Because she kept speaking,
even when no one answered.
Kept showing up,
and up,
and up—

Until that sacred day she stood and said,
“I may be poor, Black, I may even be ugly—
but dear God, I’m here,”

the day every woman who had been erased
stood up inside her.

The day I stood up.
My smallest exiled self—commanding like Moses—
until her spine / mine / all our spines
reached a Heaven of our own creating.

Miss Celie
touched her own face,
and I touched mine
on the 24 Divisadero bus heading away from Haight,
and we found ourselves beautiful.

MEET THE AUTHOR




Regina Louise is a poet, writer, teacher, speaker, executive coach, whose work explores the intersection of memory, belonging, identity, and emotional liberation. The author of three books—two of which have been adapted for film: Somebody’s Someone, Someone Has Led This Child to Believe and Permission Granted: Kick Ass Strategies to Bootstrap your Way to Unconditional Self-Love—she has spent more than three decades helping people transform adversity into authorship through story, self-inquiry, and radical compassion.

A senior teacher with the Hoffman Process, Regina is known for guiding profound conversations about restoring dignity, resilience, attachment, and the art of becoming fully oneself. Whether on stage, in classrooms, behind a microphone, or in intimate workshop settings, she invites audiences to reimagine the stories that have shaped their lives and discover the freedom that awaits beyond them.

Her forthcoming collection, Unladylike: A Mythopoetic Reclamation of Love (September 2026), marks her debut poetry collection. Blending poetry, lyrical prose, and aphoristic reflections, it is a fearless meditation on love, loss, self-possession, and the sacred work of returning home to oneself.

Regina Louise lives in California, where she continues to write, teach, and create work that honors the transformative power of language to restore dignity, deepen connection, and reclaim what has always belonged to us.

Website: http://www.therealreginalouise.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealreginalouise
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/regina.louise.5/
Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/unladylike-a-mythopoetic-reclamation-of-love-regina-louise/b4379cc65cf1293b
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001IQXN7M

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Tuesday, October 6, 2026

Straight from the Library: Cold Hands by Daniela Alibrandi



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Daniela Alibrandi will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

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In Rome, the past never stays buried for long. When a dangerous man, Cold Hands, is released from psychiatric detention and quietly returns to the city, Commissioner Rosco and his team are drawn into a shadowy investigation where old crimes, hidden grudges, and new threats begin to intertwine. Beneath the surface of ordinary lives, secrets fester in hospital wards, along the Tiber, and in the darkest corners of the capital. Seemingly unrelated crimes gradually intertwine within a hypnotic, subterranean world of hidden Rome, mysterious lakes and ancient legends, revealing a larger pattern that is difficult to recognize. As tensions rise, Rosco must protect the fragile happiness he has finally found while facing a menace that knows how to wait, watch, and strike. Atmospheric, gripping, and rich in psychological tension, Cold Hands is a suspense novel set in a Rome of buried memories and lurking danger.

***


Who will read the novel will discover the unbelievable seductive settings, on the shores of Rome’s underground lakes, in which a disturbed mind stalks its prey. They will enjoy this important step in the overall journey of the work, which intertwines serial crimes with murders of a different nature, even with the ancient legends that abound in the Eternal City.

Through the MultiDimensionCrime approach, the novel invites readers to enter a world where atmosphere, emotions, and events become almost tangible, entering the mind of the killer, the desperation of the victims, while investigating with the squad in increasing twists and suspense. The novel, set in the Eighties, is also published as an Extended Book, an innovative publishing format experienced by Morellini Editore, that enhances the reading experience. By scanning the QR code printed on the back cover, readers can explore the locations featured in the story, immerse themselves in its atmospheric world, and listen to a curated soundtrack of 1980s music that brings the novel’s setting to life. A journey that doesn’t end with the last page!

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Rome in early spring—there’s nothing more enchanting, even for Rosco, who slid behind the wheel, still heavy with sleep, having skipped breakfast yet again. Another night spent with the little one waking up over and over, until he’d earned his rightful place in the big bed. And yet, for Rosco, there was nothing sweeter than feeling that warm little body pressed close, so bossy and so tender—a tiny tyrant to whom he gladly surrendered.

But by morning, Marilena had reached her limit. With gentle hands, she’d scooped up the boy and, for the umpteenth time, tucked him back into his crib. Then she’d slipped back under the covers—a mistake, as it turned out, because now Rosco could smell her, and it had been ages since he’d been this close to her. The child was sleeping soundly now, dawn’s timid light beginning to seep through the shutters, and Rosco could make out the outline of Marilena’s body as she breathed deeply, on the verge of drifting off again. He couldn’t resist the urge to caress her hips, and when she turned toward him, he kissed her lips, then her neck, and finally began to suckle her nipple. She wasn’t nursing anymore, and the scent of her skin had returned to what it once was, before— a whiff of stale caciotta cheese, during those endless months of round-the-clock feedings.

MEET THE AUTHOR




Daniela Alibrandi is the author of successful thrillers and noirs in Italy and abroad. She was born in Rome, and lived and studied in the United States. In her professional life, she has been involved in cultural exchanges within the Council of Europe and the European Union. With her seventeen published novels, a Trilogy, an Anthology of short stories and seven English editions she is a prominent figure in the Italian literary scene. Her writings have often been featured in national newspapers and literary columns on RAI Italian television and radio broadcasts. The author, always present with her novels in the most important national bookfairs, has also won several national literary awards and the 2022 Women Art Week Award for her literary career. Some of her Italian editions are present in Harvard and Yale libraries as well as in New York Public Library.

For years and from various sources, such as literary critics and reviewers, this author’s style has been defined as multidimensional, until it was officialized as MultiDimensionCrime (Acronym MDCrime). A reading experience that forges imagination in a multi-dimensional way. In the complex and intertwined plots of her novels, which lead to sudden and unexpected twists, the characteristics of different strands are harmoniously blended. The reader follows the investigation to solve a murder and at the same time he amazingly enters the mind of the killer, reasoning alongside him, preparing the crime with him, and even partaking in the victims’ despair and terror. All in a growing suspense, both during the narration and in the final pages, when the reader often has to question all the beliefs he has developed during the reading. The settings the author chooses as well as the atmospheres are always amazing and palpable.

English website: https://danielaenglishwebsite.wordpress.com/
Italian website: https://danielaalibrandi.com/
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100056951476831
Twitter: https://x.com/danielaalibrand
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielaalibrandi/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielaalibrandi/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/DanielaAlibrandi

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Cold-hands-murders-romes-underground-ebook/dp/B0H6GPXC4M/ref=sr_1_1

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