Review: Evidence in Bloom (A Maggie Wright Cozy Mystery #12) by Tessa Aura

Evidence in Bloom

A Maggie Wright Cozy Mystery #12

by Tessa Aura

Published: September 18, 2026

Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Cozy Mystery, Cozy Animal Mystery

Blurb:

The body was found. The crime scene wasn't.

A body behind Maple Street Market wasn't on Maggie Wright's shopping list.

When a quiet Tuesday morning in Ashford Crossing turns deadly, Maggie and investigator Harper Rhodes discover the victim was a newcomer with more secrets than friends.

As hidden connections begin to surface, so do suspicious alibis, missing evidence, and a growing list of suspects with reasons to keep the past buried. But the deeper Maggie digs, the clearer it becomes that someone has worked hard to make the murder look like something it isn't.

With Biscuit sniffing out clues everyone else overlooks, Maggie must uncover the truth before a clever killer buries the most important evidence of all.

Because sometimes the deadliest secrets don't stay hidden... they bloom.

Goodreads ~ Amazon

My Review:

Maggie and Biscuit are out shopping when a body is found behind the Maple Street Market. Naturally, Maggie and investigator Harper Rhodes, alongside their faithful canine companion Biscuit, team up to search for clues about what happened to the poor man and what he was doing in that alleyway. Their investigation turns up some highly intriguing clues and a solid list of suspects. I found myself scratching my head and doing a little detective work of my own as I followed along!

What I found most interesting was the victim himself. He was a complete newcomer to Ashford Crossing, yet he had more secrets than friends. As hidden connections began to surface, so did a tangled web of suspicious alibis and missing evidence. Who was this man, and what was he running from? Did he go to that alley on his own, or did someone put him there to keep the past buried?

I absolutely love the Maggie Wright Cozy Mystery series. The characters are wonderful, especially Biscuit! He is always sniffing out clues, and I love how he will just stand and stare at a piece of evidence until someone finally notices him.

Evidence in Bloom grabbed my attention from the very first page and never let up. The clues were incredibly interesting, and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. I felt as if I were right there beside Maggie during the search. I can’t wait for the next book in the series!

I highly recommend Evidence in Bloom to all cozy mystery fans. Be sure to grab your copy today, along with the rest of the Maggie Wright Cozy Mystery series. While you don't need to read them in order to enjoy this one, I truly believe you are going to want to read every single book after finishing this page-turner!

Check out all the books in the Maggie Wright Cozy Mystery series I’ve read.

Fatal Check-In #1

Goodreads

Amazon

BookBub

Secrets in the Pines #2

Goodreads

Amazon

BookBub

Murder and Memories #3

Goodreads

Amazon

BookBub

Buried Truths #4

Goodreads

Amazon

BookBub

Footnotes of a Felony #5

Goodreads

Amazon

BookBub

Ledger of Lies #6

Goodreads

Amazon

BookBub

Lockets, Lies and Deadly Pearls #7

Goodreads

Amazon

BookBub

Murder Beneath the Ice #8

Goodreads

Amazon

BookBub

Dead Quiet at the Cabin #9

Goodreads

Amazon

BookBub

Security to Die For #10

Goodreads

Amazon

BookBub

Murder in the Reflection #11

Goodreads

Amazon

BookBub

Evidence in Bloom #12

Goodreads

Amazon

Connect with Tessa Aura

Website ~ Facebook ~ Instagram ~ Goodreads ~ Amazon ~ BookBub

 

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Review: Ginger Joyce and Forest Tale (Kitten Mystery Chronicles #1) by Julia Kosinskaja

Ginger Joyce and Forest Tale

Kitten Mystery Chronicles #1

by Julia Kosinskaja

Published: June 25, 2026

Publisher: Julia Kosinskaja

Genre: Animals, Cats, Children's, Fairy Tales, Legends, and Myths, Fiction

 

Blurb:

This beautifully illustrated chapter book for children aged 6–11 tells the story of a shy-hearted ginger kitten named Joyce, who lives on the edge of an enchanted forest. When his only friend — an old cat named Archie — mysteriously disappears, Joyce sets off on a magical adventure to find him, joined by unexpected and not always trustworthy companions.

On his journey through the forest, Joyce encounters riddles, hidden creatures, rivalry, and betrayal, but the most mysterious truth awaits him where he least expects it.

Along the way, he learns that courage and friendship are the strongest kinds of magic — that bravery doesn't always roar, and real strength often rises quietly from within, glowing like a whirlwind of starlight.

Perfect for young readers who love gentle fantasy, talking animals, woodland adventures, and heartwarming stories of kindness and self-discovery — the first tale in the enchanting Kitten Mystery Chronicles series.

Goodreads ~ Amazon ~ BookBub

My Review:

Ginger Joyce and Forest Tale by Julia Kosinskaja is the first book in the Kitten Mystery Chronicles and a great start to a wonderful new series. It tells the tale of a cat named Joyce whose dear friend Archie goes missing.

Joyce sets out into the magical forest to find him, meeting a variety of other animals along the way. Along the way, he meets a colorful cast of animals and faces riddles, rivalry, and unexpected betrayals.

The writing is engaging and paired with beautiful illustrations that bring the magical world to life. I couldn't stop reading until I finished the whole book—a charming story indeed!

I highly recommend Ginger Joyce and Forest Tale to children and their parents alike. It is a fantastic way for families to spend quality time reading together. Grab a copy of this enchanting story today and begin your own magical journey!

Connect with Julia Kosinskaja

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Teaser + #Giveaway: Tree Trek by Stephanie Mirocha @RABTBookTours

A Daughter's Walk Through Grief

Nature, Botany of Trees, Healing Through Nature, Grief Journey

Date Published: 05-23-2025

Publisher: Holy Cow! Press

These intimate portraits of trees are a balm that heals grief.

In this memoir, Stephanie Mirocha weaves a blend of botany, philosophy, personal reflections, and healing through nature from grief after the loss of her father. Trees provide the backdrop of friendly support she clings to as she revives her father's educational Tree Trek. She "speaks for the trees," bringing enthusiasm to the treks she leads. Each chapter focuses on the science of a different tree, connecting the reader with the beauty of nature, and the vitality that comes from listening to the guiding wisdom of one's inner voice.

Excerpt

I’d known all along my dad was volunteering for tree projects in the park, starting with invasive buckthorn shrub removal. My daughter had told me about Grandpa’s tree tags. For 15 years, I might have randomly come across one or two tagged trees on my exercise walks, probably telling my dad how much I liked what he was doing. Beyond that, I didn’t look for more information or even think about it. My work took me away on weekends, and Tree Trek was only one Saturday a year. A favorite photo my mom gave me years earlier I knew perfectly well was a Tree Trek promo taken for the neighborhood newspaper. Yet, never before had I noticed that in it, he’s wearing a pair of binoculars around his neck! In fact, I ended up using that photo for his memorial service, creating a birch bark frame to surround it. How many people are like me, needing big arrows under a spotlight before they take notice? Understandably, we’re distractedly putting energy and effort into making a living. Our focus is directed elsewhere as parents. Sometimes we’re just not paying attention.

When I started paying attention, the whole picture swung into a full and complete view. My perspective shifted. Things no longer lined up within me the way I was accustomed, and as a consequence a new picture presented itself. My heart led me to realize that I very much wanted to pick up my dad’s legacy and continue where he had left off. Like Douglas-fir, you could say I needed to place myself in a new genus, a genus I never imagined existing in previously. I no longer, however, fit in the former one. Being here now feels familiar and safe, like home. It makes me feel connected and alive. There is no going back!

Each one of us evolves as we go through the many ups and downs of life. Even in the midst of grief and loss, opportunities present themselves for listening, paying attention, taking notice and following where your own arising inner wisdom leads. As we unlock from the inside and nurture what we find there, a new purpose can reveal itself allowing us to share latent gifts we each possess within us. We may even emerge significantly changed.

The winter after my dad died, upon getting the go-ahead from the park district to revive Tree Trek, I waited for spring to arrive and the snow to melt. Then, I walked my dad’s original route using his initial map to locate trees while planning for my own, first Tree Trek. I was so excited! The Douglas-fir from my dad’s photo was the first tree I looked for when planning my route. The probability was high that it would prove to be one of his tagged trees. Great anticipation of confirming this filled me as I crested the brick stairway of the park memorial that rests nearby Douglas-fir’s hill. That monument was familiar, but then I stepped beyond into an area of the park where I had never set foot before.

About the Author

Stephanie Mirocha is a visual artist, author, Minnesota master naturalist and science communicator who grew up climbing trees and exploring the city park across from her childhood home. Her creative art expression not only takes form in her passion for writing but also translates into her career as a fine art painter. Besides creating the art for this book, she has illustrated four children’s picture books connecting children to nature. Frog in the House won the 2016 Giverny Award for a science picture book in English, and My Little Book of Bald Eagles won 1st place, Juvenile Nonfiction, in the 2010 Next Gen Indie Book Awards. She and her scientist father shared a poetic heart and a love for nature, each informing and supporting the other throughout their close relationship. Graduating from the University of Minnesota with a BA in Philosophy, Stephanie followed her free spirit and embraced the unconventional life of an artist after moving to Aitkin, a small town in north central Minnesota. This is her first written book. Her art business website is https://stephaniemirocha.com/.

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Review: The Peripheral by Daniel R. Mangru @DanielMangru

The Peripheral

by Daniel R. Mangru

Published: May 1, 2026

Publisher: Peripheral Edge Publishing

Genre: Psychological Thriller, Fiction, Psychological, Romance, Suspense, Thriller

 

Blurb:

The Void Protocol is a hybrid true crime narrative that follows investigative journalist Paul Chandranand as he returns to the ADMAX facility to interview Jasper Wolcott, a serial killer responsible for thirty seven murders that defy forensic logic. Wolcott's crime scenes are impossibly clean. Every trace is neutralized, every surface reset, and every victim removed with a level of precision that challenges the limits of forensic science. Paul is tasked with documenting Wolcott's methods for a second edition of his bestselling book, but the assignment forces him back into a psychological space he thought he had escaped.

Told through alternating case notes, interviews, journal entries, and legal disclaimers, the book unfolds as a procedural archive of Wolcott's techniques. Each chapter reveals a new layer of his system, including molecular cleaning, social camouflage, acoustic masking, thermal neutrality, and structural navigation. These methods are presented with clinical detail, but the real tension comes from Paul's growing fixation on understanding them. What begins as research becomes a personal unraveling as he tests Wolcott's theories in his own home, convinced that accuracy requires firsthand experience.

Detective Elias Thorne provides the counterpoint through his case files, documenting his pursuit of a killer who seems to erase not only evidence but presence itself. His frustration and determination ground the narrative in the reality of law enforcement, while Paul's internal notes reveal the psychological cost of studying a mind like Wolcott's.

The publisher's disclaimers, inserted after each chapter, blur the line between fiction and legal caution, reinforcing the unsettling sense that the book itself is a hazardous object. The result is a meta narrative that reads like a forensic dossier, a confession, and a psychological descent all at once.

The Void Protocol is a dark, character driven exploration of silence, erasure, and the limits of perception. It examines how information can shape identity, how observation can become complicity, and how the pursuit of truth can consume the investigator who seeks it.

Goodreads ~ Amazon ~ BookBub

My Review:

For the past two years, Jake Parnell has lived a quiet, isolated life in Sacramento, working as a specialized welder to distance himself from a past family tragedy. However, the predictable routine he has carefully constructed shatters when a sudden equipment failure causes a severe flash burn to his eyes.

As Jake undergoes a hazy physical recovery, his visual reality warps, and he begins to notice a terrible, dark shape constantly lurking in the corners of his peripheral vision. Fortunately, Jake isn't entirely alone in the face of this encroaching darkness. His loyal friend Tom and Tom's wife Marcy step in to help him, having spent the last two years desperately trying to anchor him and help him cope with his past horrors.

At its core, The Peripheral is a poignant exploration of trauma and the mechanisms the human mind uses to cope with tragedy. It delves into the agonizing process of confronting reality and truth, illustrating how we often try to push our darkest memories deep down inside just to avoid the pain we are experiencing. It is a dark, atmospheric story that becomes increasingly gripping as you try to untangle exactly what is happening to Jake.

Clocking in as an incredibly fast, punchy read that can easily be finished in a single sitting, this novella packs a heavy punch. If you are a fan of grounded, reality-bending psychological thrillers, I highly suggest picking up a copy of The Peripheral and diving into this mind-bending mystery today!

Connect with Daniel R. Mangru

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Bluesky ~ LinkedIn ~ YouTube ~ TikTok

Website ~ X/Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram

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Release Blitz + #Giveaway: Zombie Zoo by Melanie Abed @Melanie_Abed @RABTBookTours

Adventures in Tub (Felix & Ninja, Book 1)

Upper Middle Grade

Date Published: 09-15-2026

Publisher: Oculus Print

Two orphan loners. One supernatural plague. When wood-eating zombies threaten their island, mismatched investigators Felix and Ninja must combine science and instinct to save Spinachi-before they're next.

ZOMBIE ZOO is Book 1 in a five-book middle grade adventure series for readers ages 8-13, blending paranormal mystery, zombies, unlikely friendship, and STEAM-powered problem-solving.

When 13-year-old aspiring naturalist Felix Fizzystyxx discovers that orphans at Wayward Amok Orphanage are transforming into wood-eating zombies, his quiet tree-fort observations are no longer enough. Someone has deliberately unleashed a strange plague on Tub's island town of Spinachi-and they're still out there.

To find a cure, Felix must team up with Ninja, a shadow-dwelling orphan who trusts her instincts and never backs down. Intense and razor-sharp, she notices what others overlook and lives up to her name as the island's most mysterious sleuth. With their eccentric mentor Doc Brunne compromised and the town's water supply contaminated by a glowing bioluminescent substance, the two mismatched investigators must combine scientific observation with sharp intuition to stop the outbreak before their island home is devoured.

Set on the fictional island of Tub, this fast-paced, humorous adventure naturally weaves in STEAM concepts-biology, chemistry, bioluminescence, water systems, pattern recognition, and the scientific method-within an age-appropriate supernatural mystery. Themes include unlikely friendship, identity, trust across differences, courage, and finding your voice when adults won't listen.

Featuring diverse protagonists, quirky humor, spooky-but-fun scares, and strong female and male leads. ZOMBIE ZOO is ideal for reluctant readers and fans of Max Brallier's The Last Kids on Earth, B.B. Alston's Amari and the Night Brothers, and Goosebumps. Comprehensive educator resources-including discussion guides, vocabulary lists, STEAM extension activities, and printable maps-support classroom use, library programming, book clubs, and make this title ideal for cross-curricular lessons bridging ELA, STEAM, and SEL.

About the Author

Melanie Abed is a behavioral expert turned story weaver. She believes dragons are real but hiding, and finds thunderstorms equally delightful and terrifying. A tea-loving bookworm, she champions young minds and writes to help kids discover their superpowers are real.

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https://mybook.to/ZombieZoo

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Teaser: This Never Happened by Jessica Clem @jrclem @RABTBookTours

Thriller

Date Published: 11-01-2026

Publisher: Rowan Prose Publishing

When former best friends Sam and Rebecca reunite at their college reunion, they decide to repair their fractured relationship and start over.

But then Sam finds out Rebecca is dating Adam, a man she’d had an intense relationship with two years ago. She vows to keep it a secret, lest it sever their newly mended bond.

Sam soon realizes she can’t outrun her and Rebecca’s imperfect past, nor can she ignore her and Adam’s desire for one another.

As Sam struggles between loyalty and lust, she realizes that vengeance can make monsters out of all of us.

Excerpt

Prologue

Sam stared at the blood gleaming on the hardwood floor in front of her. Someone was screaming beside her, but she couldn’t focus on anything other than the blood’s impossibly bright color. It was garnet-colored and aromatic–like a splash of copper-scented wine. Its beauty and grotesqueness transfixed her, and her eyes blinked slowly and heavily as she gazed at it. Concrete-heavy shock packed her muscles and froze her in place.

Her mouth moved, but the words stuck in her throat as she stared at the corpse’s crimson neck. A knife stuck out of it, and blood smeared the black handle. Sam blinked long and slow. Adrenaline began coursing through her once again, and her muscles loosened, but shock held her mind in its sharp claws.

Her eyes finally flicked to the fallen gun on the hardwood floor. Tears gleamed in her eyes. She knew she was the one who had caused this mess. She knew she had severed her relationships and created the target now on her back.

But vengeance was in control of her body now.

Her gaze scanned the blood-spattered murderer in front of her. Sam’s heart thundered as reality slammed through her like buckshot.

This person had killed someone Sam loved.

Sam grabbed the gun and pointed it at the wide-eyed assailant.

Let justice be served.

 

About the Author

 

 Jessica Clem is the author of the thriller, This Never Happened (coming November 2026), and the horror novel In Lieu of Flowers (coming 2027), both from Rowan Prose Publishing.

Her work has appeared in The Stygian Lepus Magazine, Creation Magazine, Dark Harbor Magazine (now Macabre Magazine), Ms Magazine, Literally Stories, on the Creepy Podcast’s Patreon page, and in the horror anthologies Down with the Fallen from Franklin/Kerr Press, D is for Demons from Red Cape Publishing, and After Dark from Rowan Prose Publishing. She is a 2026 Next Step Fund grant recipient, a project made possible by the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council through a grant from the McKnight Foundation.

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https://mybook.to/ThisNeverHappened

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Book Blitz + #Giveaway: This is Halloween by Sarah Branson @XpressoTours

This is Halloween
Sarah Branson
(A Blue Spruce Hills Novella)
Publication date: September 17th 2026
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Midwife. Halloween. A Pennsylvania hill town. A ghost with an agenda. A historian with patient eyes.

Jules Lockwood, nurse-midwife and family nurse practitioner, wants two years of loan forgiveness and a one-way ticket to Australia. Her obstacle: a town that keeps finding reasons to need her.

Eli Matthews, Blue Spruce Hills town historian, is the kind of man who came back when it mattered and stayed. He brings coffee every morning without being asked.

Agnes Bell, midwife, 1856 to 1931, has been waiting in Blue Spruce Hills since her death for the right pair of hands to pass her work to. She has found them. She is not subtle about it.

On Halloween night, when the veil between past and present is at its thinnest, everything Jules came to Blue Spruce Hills to avoid arrives at once.

This Is Halloween delivers the satisfaction of a woman choosing herself and her work on her own terms, a slow-burn romance that earns every moment, and a ghost story that will make you wish you could have known Agnes Bell.

• small town romance
• ghost mentor
• found community
• slow burn
• woman finding home
• past and present collide
• reluctant to stay
• Halloween setting
• professional woman romance
• haunted by the past (literal)
• second chance at belonging

Heat level: closed door
Series: Blue Spruce Hills, Book 1 — standalone, complete story, no cliffhanger
POV: third person limited, Jules
Tense: past
Setting: small Pennsylvania town, October through May
Comp titles: The House in the Cerulean Sea; Beach Read; A Discovery of Witches
Content notes: pregnancy and birth depicted (clinical, not graphic); brief mention of historical pregnancy loss (off-page); deployment/absent spouse (minor character)

Goodreads / Amazon

—

EXCERPT:

Juliet “Jules” Lockwood had sworn exactly six times since leaving the highway and crossing the Blue Spruce Hills town line. All six had been silent. All six had been necessary.

She pulled her Subaru into the gravel lot beside the Blue Spruce Hills Community Clinic and sat there longer than necessary, hands wrapped around the steering wheel like the car might attempt escape without her. Outside, the October sky was an intense blue with a few white clouds scudding across it. A carved pumpkin grinned from the clinic’s front step. Orange lights shaped like leaves were looped around the porch railing. Just up the street, a plastic skeleton swung from a telephone pole, rotating haphazardly in the wind.

Jules stared at the skeleton. The skeleton appeared to stare back.

She opened the car door, stepped out onto the gravel, closed her eyes, and took a deep inhale. Wood smoke and baked goods, harvest-sweet with cinnamon and nutmeg. It was, Jules thought grimly, aggressively charming. She took a step and nearly collided with a man holding a cardboard tray of coffee.

“Oh! Sorry!” he said, immediately steadying both the tray and her elbow with equal care. He was tall and laid back, with dark hair that the wind had done something unrequested to and kind brown eyes, soft and patient, the sort of eyes that suggested the person behind them listened when you talked. He wore a canvas jacket the color of cedar bark and was smiling with the easy confidence of someone who had nowhere to be and was fine with that. “You must be Jules.”

She froze. This was… unfortunate. Because those eyes were going to be a problem. She recognized his type immediately, the way one would recognize a load-bearing wall, structural and quiet, that the whole room organizes itself around without anyone quite noticing. Those eyes reflected the sort of steadiness that belonged to men who stayed. She had believed that about someone once. Believed it comprehensively and inconveniently, and at considerable personal expense. Never again.

“I’m Eli Matthews,” he said, and held out the coffee tray. “Town historian and unofficial town greeter. I brought options. Decaf, regular, and one with oat milk, because the clinic called ahead and…” he paused, reconsidering his own sentence, “okay, I asked Margaret at the post office, who asked Clara at the bakery, who said she had heard that you’d mentioned oat milk to someone at the gas station in Lehighton.”

Jules stared at the tray. “That’s a significant intelligence operation for a cup of coffee.”

He smiled, a little sheepishly. “Small town. We have patterns.” He glanced at the pumpkin on the porch. “Also, it’s October. We take hospitality seriously in October.”

She reached for the oat milk coffee. Behind her, someone cleared their throat very distinctly — the throat-clearing of someone who had been waiting a respectable amount of time and was now done waiting. Jules’s hand tightened around the cup.

She recognized that sound. She knew it the way she knew a change in barometric pressure, in her teeth, at the base of her skull, in the specific cold that moved along her spine when something was present that had no business being present.

Absolutely not. I am not doing ghosts again.

She turned slowly.

Author Bio:

Award-winning feminist speculative fiction author Sarah Branson spent close to thirty years as a midwife before turning to fiction, writing tales of action, adventure, revenge, and romance rooted in the strength and resiliency of the human spirit. Her New Earth universe imagines a future where diversity of identity is simply the texture of life, with honors including the 2022 Kindle Book Award for science fiction, the 2025 Wishing Shelf Book Award Gold Medal for A Pirates' Pact, and a Foreword Indie Award Honorable Mention for For the Love of Glitter. Her two newest releases expand beyond New Earth: This Is Halloween, a cozy women's fiction novella in the Blue Spruce Hills series (September 17, 2026), and Life Ends, Love Remains: A Revolutionary Ghost Story, a literary paranormal novel set in Ridgefield, Connecticut (early October 2026). Sarah lives with her husband in Connecticut.

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GIVEAWAY!

This is Halloween Blitz

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Blurb Blitz + #Giveaway: UNLADYLIKE by Regina Louise @GoddessFish

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.

Blurb:

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.

Read an Excerpt

Teeth Jewelry

I didn’t take it lying down—
my legs spread eagle, leaking,
like a broke-back Aphrodite,
or Erzulie Freda dispossessed of her longing.

The way you uninvited me
to the wedding—
I’d planned for two months to attend.

Fresh out of a group home,
I was certain I would arrive.
I showed up at your front door.
My hair set in Jada curls—
edges swooped in,
baby hairs laid down—
two hours under a hot-ass dryer
to get them right.

Your brother answered,
fraudulence jutting from his eyes,
said you weren’t home. Yet.
What about the black and champagne
Bentley in your driveway?
Your hubcapped feet, your only wheels.
It belonged to the girl from Baldwin Hills.
Eyes same color as mine.
Her daddy was a doctor.
Yours ran a dojo.

I took my financial aid money,
got myself a crepe de chine
Norma Kamali mini dress—
on sale, sale, sale at I. Magnin.
Fishnet pantyhose.

My first manicure—
to dig desolation from beneath
my dirty fingernails,
just to look respectable.

In pointed-toe flats,

I kicked and scratched my way
through the door,
two stairs at a time.

I followed my knowing into your lair.
My right hook, a javelin.
I threw a punch at your face—
a black belt trophy, barely missed.
You were fifth degree.

My jaw dislocated instantly
from the butt of your palm.

She ran for her life.
I ran into your fury.
And then—
my skin tore
you bit my face,
my arms,
the tops of my hands,
my wrists
my neck,
my bicep,

my shoulders,
the soles of my hands.

Clad in a blusa campesina,
a peasant shirt, off-the-shoulder,
in technicolor—my flesh on parade
fresh with the imprint of your
Central, lateral incisors.
Canines.

I returned to my social work theory seminar.

I wore your teeth jewelry
like a queen.

A gypsy skirt sashayed my hips.

I wore ankle bracelets
with fake gold coins
and fabricated seashells.

Everyone heard me coming.

I returned from Spring Break
baptized in a pain so exquisite,
one might mistake it
or all of who I was.

No matter.

I got my licks in, too.
Not just for me—
but for Tina Turner.
And all the rest of us
who stayed—
wired to do so.

About 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.

Connect with Regina Louise

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Giveaway:

$25 Amazon/BN GC

Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning.

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Book Tour: The False Paradigms of Today and the Timeless Truth of Tomorrow by John Bliss @RABTBookTours

Essays on Meaning

Philosophy/Spirituality

Date Published: 10-01-2025

Publisher: Sketpika Press

Something’s missing in the world today, and maybe it’s been gone for centuries. The problem: most of us don’t have authentic beliefs or a clear path in life.

What do we believe? Whatever they told us to believe.

What do we do? Whatever other people are doing.

How many lies have we welcomed into our lives without having seriously analyzed them?

It’s the reason many of us feel empty inside—there’s nothing there but convenient mistruths, and at some level, we all know it. We then orient our lives based on these false beliefs, wasting our precious limited time among the living striving for goals that leave us ultimately unsatisfied.

The False Paradigms of Today and The Timeless Truth of Tomorrow by John Bliss takes a steak knife to these common delusions with 13 irreverent essays that rip and tear at the foundations of our collective worldview. Little is held sacred to Bliss.

The essays in Part 1: Your Understanding of Reality is More Fabricated Than You Think dispel our delusions one at a time, including:

• our mistaken belief in progress,
• our misplaced confidence in our own rational prowess,
• our loss of personal identity from group identification,
• our misplaced faith in science as a true representation of the world, and
• our morality: what it is and where exactly it comes from.

 

After carving away these restrictive untruths, Part 2: An Exploration of Truth Across Historical, Mystical, and Philosophical Dimensions introduces a deeper understanding of humanity based on history, mysticism, psychology and philosophy. Some of the topics in Part 2 include:

• how our religions became second-rate pathways to God,
• our reliance on logic and how it warps our decision-making,
• how idealism can lead to mass murder and tyranny,
• the overriding importance of history, where we’ve been, where we are going and why,
• our immaterial connection to all people living and dead—Jung’s collective unconscious, Emerson’s Over-Soul, and Varro’s Soul of the World, and finally
• the bedrock assumption that we all got wrong. Switch this out, and everything changes.

The essays are filled with stories from history, including meetings of the apostles Paul and Peter with the Emperor Nero and Simon Magus the magician, the mystical transformation of Emmanuel Swedenborg, the nineteenth century German intellectual revolution, the establishment of three French religions worshipping not God but Reason and Humanity, the abdication of the World Teacher, and the genocide of the Tibetan culture.

The book is ideal for seekers of deeper meaning, arm-chair philosophers and historians, and those disillusioned with the emptiness of contemporary thought. Discover why your view of reality may be distorted—and how by changing the one assumption on which your entire world-view is based, everything shifts.

 

Interview with John Bliss

Author of The False Paradigms of Today and the Timeless Truth of Tomorrow 

Do you have a routine or something you do to get you in the mood to write?

I like to write in the afternoons after I get my work done. I wrote on weekends too. There was always something to do. Either write new stuff, or do research, or edit. Depending on my mood, I chose one.

Do you have a special song, drink, or food you enjoy while you are writing?

No

How do you know what to write?

I feel like it was my calling to write this book. When I listen to it on audible, I am amazed that I wrote it. I don’t think I could do it again.

What does a typical writing day look like for you?

I like to write in the afternoons after I get my work done. I wrote on weekends too. There was always something to do. Either write new stuff, or do research, or edit. Depending on my mood, I chose one.

I could only write for 1 to 1.5 hours a day. Then I would get mentally exhausted and have to stop.

Several times I stopped entirely for months at a time.

It is hard to continue when you have voices asking “Who are you to write a book?” “Why would anyone want to read what you wrote?”

Do you do anything special to celebrate after writing “the end”?

No. I didn’t. I instead immediately thought about how to get people to read the book. Writing is the easy part. Marketing, if you are indy, is uncharted territory, and we are all trailblazers of a sort. Marketing it is the hard part.

How long does it take you to write a book?

I have only written one. It took 12 years of writing and 1 of editing. It contains everything I know.

What is the most difficult part of writing a book?

Overcoming the voices telling you that you are nobody, and that nobody would dare like what you wrote.

About the Author

John Bliss is a writer and thinker fixated on unraveling the mystery of our lives. He is at heart a skeptic, as very few authorities have provided answers that are believable. He distrusts groups of all kinds, as they are no smarter than individuals, who don't know half as much as they think they do. He even distrusts himself, as no human can understand reality.

Some of his major accomplishments include being kicked out of the National Honor Society and the CEO Round Table. He graduated with a bachelor's in History, and a masters degree in mechanical engineering. He founded and grew an engineering company and sold it after 25 years. And of course, he completed his book, The False Paradigms of Today and the Timeless Truth of Tomorrow, after 13 years of research, writing, and rewriting.

To this day, he continues to ask the big questions: Who are we? What’s truly important? How should we live our lives? On most days he thinks he has them figured out.

When he is not writing, he cuts wood and digs ditches. Bliss remains at large somewhere in the mountains of California.

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