🎤Interview with Karen Charles, Author of Evan's Stormy Voyage #AuthorInterview

Karen Charles grew up in West Africa and traveled across Africa, the Middle East, Central America, and Europe. Her rich background and lifetime experiences are reflected in the depth of her writing. In her stories, she transforms real-life narratives into gripping thriller fiction. Her novels intricately weave threads of truth into a tapestry of suspense, intrigue, and riveting storytelling. She is the author of three children’s books in the “Evan’s Adventures in Africa” series, including Freeman Earns a Bike, Evan’s Gift, and Evan’s Stormy Voyage. Her three thrillers include Fateful Connections, set in the aftermath of 9/11, and Blazing Upheaval, set during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles and the Northridge earthquake. A Glimpse Too Far offers the mystery and heart-pounding suspense of a psychological thriller and is based on a true story. Karen Charles has two businesses—a global company that trains international teachers to teach American English and an Airbnb on a beautiful bay in Washington State, where she and her husband currently live.

Karen’s latest book is Evan’s Stormy Voyage.

Visit her website at www.weaveofsuspense.com.

Connect with her on X, Facebook and LinkedIn.

 

Can you tell us what your new children’s book, Evan’s Stormy Voyage, is about?

Eight-year-old Evan has never crossed an ocean before.

When his parents tell him they are leaving New York for West Africa, everything familiar slips away in a blur of crowded docks, towering cargo ships, and tearful goodbyes beneath the Statue of Liberty. Soon, Evan finds himself aboard a freighter crossing the Atlantic — a floating world of roaring engines, endless water, mysterious passengers, and adventures around every corner.

At first, the voyage feels magical. Evan explores the ship’s library, watches flying fish skim the waves, spots whales from the bridge, and celebrates his birthday on the open deck, lit by strings of lights. But the journey grows far more complicated when Evan meets Mateo, a quiet boy with secrets of his own.

As storms pound the ship and hurricane-force winds churn the sea, the boys form an unlikely friendship over puzzles, model ships, and long conversations about leaving home behind. Yet when Evan’s treasured airplane kit suddenly disappears, suspicion threatens to destroy the bond they have built.

Far from home and surrounded by the vast Atlantic, Evan must learn that courage is not about being fearless. It is choosing kindness when hurt runs deep, forgiveness when trust is broken, and compassion when someone needs it most.

Filled with unforgettable characters, breathtaking ocean scenes, and heartfelt moments of friendship, Evan’s Stormy Voyage is a rich coming-of-age adventure that celebrates empathy, resilience, and the power of human connection across cultures. Perfect for readers who love emotionally rich adventure stories, this second book in the Evan’s Adventures in Africa series invites children into a world of discovery they will never forget.

What is the main message or feeling you hope young readers take away from your book?

• Courage doesn’t mean you aren’t afraid. Evan can feel scared, uncertain, or overwhelmed and still keep going. That gives children a healthier picture of bravery: I can be afraid and still be brave.
• Storms are temporary. The voyage can become a gentle metaphor for difficult moments in childhood. When things feel chaotic or frightening, children can learn that they can make it through and eventually find calmer waters.
• Trust yourself and keep moving forward. Evan’s journey can encourage children to listen to their inner voice, make choices, and discover that they are more capable than they initially realize.
• You don’t have to face hard things alone. The story includes people who help Evan, reinforcing that asking for help isn’t a weakness — connection is part of courage.
• Adventure can come from uncertainty. The storm isn’t simply an obstacle; it changes Evan and teaches him something. Children can come away seeing challenges not just as things to escape, but as experiences through which they grow.

The feeling I’d want children to leave with:

“I can handle hard things. Even when I’m scared or don’t know what will happen next, I can keep going, ask for help, and trust that I can find my way.”

And emotionally, I’d want to leave them feeling brave, hopeful, comforted, and curious — not that storms are nothing to fear, but that they are not bigger than the child facing them.

That could become a particularly strong central message: “Every child has a stormy voyage sometimes — and every child has the courage to navigate it.”

If your book has pictures, how does your work with the illustrator function? Do you collaborate closely or see the art at the very end?

The illustrator who did the pictures for the first book in the Evan’s Adventures Series was unavailable, so, with great trepidation, I did the illustrations using AI. That is acknowledged at the front of the book.

How can parents or teachers use your book to start meaningful conversations with kids?

At the end of every book in the Evan’s Adventures in Africa series, there are questions for parents and teachers to use to start meaningful conversations with kids as well as activities. 

If your book could be turned into a movie, TV show, or video game, which format would you pick and why?

I would choose a movie because I think Evan’s journey would be beautiful to experience visually. The ocean, the storm, the uncertainty, and the moments of courage could create a really immersive experience for children. I also love the idea of watching Evan grow throughout the journey and seeing his emotions reflected in the world around him. A movie could capture both the excitement of the adventure and the story’s deeper message — that even when we face storms and feel afraid, we can find courage, keep going, and make it through.

When plotting out your books, do you outline everything first or write by the seat of your pants?

I plot out the story in an outline, which I change along the way.

If you could give one piece of advice to kids who want to write their own stories one day, what would it be?

Don’t be afraid to use your imagination! You don’t have to know the whole story when you start. Just begin, have fun, and let your characters take you on an adventure. And remember — your story is special because only you can tell it.

Where to purchase the book:

https://a.co/d/0frRfGi8

https://store.bookbaby.com/book/evans-stormy-voyage

Where to find Karen:

https://www.weaveofsuspense.com/post/coming-soon-book-two-in-the-evan-s-adventures-in-africa-series

🎤Interview with Mary Lawlor, Author of Fighter Pilot's Daughter #AuthorInterview

Mary Lawlor is author of a memoir, Fighter Pilot’s Daughter: Growing Up in the Sixties and the Cold War (Bloomsbury 2015) and two books of cultural criticism, Recalling the Wild: Naturalism and the Closing of the American West (Rutgers UP 2000) and Public Native America (Rutgers UP 2006). She studied at the American University in Paris, the University of Maryland, and New York University. She divides her time between Easton, Pennsylvania and Gaucin, Spain. Her novel, The Translators, is set in 12th century Spain and fictionalizes the experiences of Robert of Ketton, first translator of the Koran into Latin. She hopes to see it out next year. In the meantime, she has started a second novel, The Women’s Hospital, set in 18th century Spain and inspired by the life story of an Irish woman whose family moved to Cádiz, escaping English oppression in their own country.

╰┈➤ You can visit her website at https://www.marylawlor.net/.

Connect with her on social media at:

╰┈➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mary.lawlor.186/ 

 

Thank you so much for this interview, Mary. How did your family feel about having you write a book that might include them?

My parents were both gone by the time I wrote Fighter Pilot’s Daughter, and one of my older sisters had passed away. I was worried about how my other two sisters and the larger, extended family would feel about my describing intimate dynamics in the book, like my parents’ fighting or my father’s alcoholism.

But my sisters and I talked about these things, and they were supportive. Before publication, I sent them both the finished manuscript — not promising to make changes but to hear their feedback and be influenced or not by it. I know one of them has read the entire book, and she was very moved. Her response has meant the world to me.

What was it like living in military quarters and never having a ‘real’ home that stayed in the same place? Do you feel it shaped who you are today?

In some ways, it wasn’t so much of an issue, since from the time we were very young, my sisters and I were moving every two years or so. It was all we knew and all we expected. The other kids on the Army posts where we were stationed had the same experience.

But a couple of things complicated that normality. Whenever they could, my parents enrolled us in Catholic schools, off post, and we would find ourselves surrounded by kids who had known each other since kindergarten. Generally, they looked at us like we were irrelevant — at least at the beginning. Eventually we’d make friends and be invited to their homes, where we’d see the continuity and stability of their lives, in contrast to our own.

And there were the visits to see our New Jersey cousins, who lived in a lovely house in a country town where they’d been all their lives. They’d gone to the same school, had the same friends, and so forth. It was an ideal domestic scene, and I loved being there. I was envious of their world but couldn’t imagine it for myself. It was too far out of reach.

When we were young, the moves were exciting. My parents would talk about the places we were going — California! Germany! — and my sisters and I would start imaging what they would be like. We’d read about and picture ourselves in the new situation. As we got older and had close friends and boyfriends, the moves were more difficult. It was sad and painful to have to leave, and we wished very much we could stay in the same place. Then, again, the new place would be exciting and different. We’d make new friends, and the cycle would continue like that.

Moving so much and not having a home has shaped me a great deal. After leaving my parents for college, I kept moving and am still am not quite rooted, although I’m married and have a nice house in Easton, Pennsylvania. But every three months my husband and I shift off to Spain, where we have a cabin in the mountains of Andalucía. I love being in Spain and would move here if I could. We have friends and more of a history here than we do in Easton. We don’t, however, have residency in Spain, so after three months, we come back to Easton. The year is divided up like this, and it feels perfectly familiar to me.

In one of your interviews you said, “Memories of my girlhood and forgotten fears of nuclear apocalypse were running through my brain day and night.” I can’t imagine the fear. Can you elaborate on this and tell us how you coped?

Living on military posts, I think we had more of a sense of the potential for nuclear war than other children in America. Because our fathers’ jobs were to get the defense apparatus ready for that eventuality, we were made constantly aware of it. Civil-defense shelters were everywhere, and we practiced the “Duck and Cover” moves at school, huddling under our desks and hoping that would do the trick! On the posts in Heidelberg and Stuttgart, Germany, there was a lot of talk about the Fulda Gap, a point on the border between West and East Germany where it was predicted the Soviet army would flood through to do battle with the Germans and the rest of Europe. These images and warnings kept the possibility of nuclear apocalypse in our minds almost all the time.

Apart from that, our parents were practicing Catholics, and the story of St. John’s Apocalypse often came up in the post chaplain’s sermons. Apocalypse offered a ready analogue to the talk of nuclear annihilation, and the chaplain would build on it, trying to imbue in us a sense of how close the end of world might be. The terrifying judgement of the living and the dead and the assignment of eternal damnation or happiness was always upon us.

These twin discourses of apocalypse were in the air, in our dreams and produced what I’d call a habit of fear, a trained response to seeing whatever troubling situation emerges as a sign of the end of days. Or the end of something. Like now, so many people my age are seeing the current political situation in the US as signs of the end of democracy and, perhaps, of America. But on a more personal level, the habit of fear has stayed with me and been a real handicap to my self-development and to my ability to genuinely live with confidence. Fortunately, it’s an obvious enough problem that I’ve known about it for a long time and have spent a lot of time (and money!) trying to come to terms with and manage it in therapeutical contexts.

Can you tell us the name of some of the places you have traveled to when your father was an aviator and which were your favorite?

We lived in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, infamous as a cancer hot-spot for people who lived there in the 50s. Then there was Fort Rucker, in Dothan Alabama, where my father taught pilots how to fly helicopters and I got to ride in a Bell helicopter once — like being up in the air inside a giant eyeball. We rented a farm way out in the country and had a horse, cows, chickens, guinea hens to look after. That was hugely fun, although rural Alabama was a very unfamiliar place and the people there weren’t easy for us — especially for my mother — to understand. I go into Franny’s way of responding to southern culture in the book, but suffice it to say here that she was quite unhappy. Later we moved to Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, where we lived off post in a swampy development called Forestdale. There was a creek behind the house, but you had to watch out for water moccasins. I started my writing career there with a little newspaper a friend and I created, The Forestdale Gazette, in which we reported news of the neighborhood, using carbon paper for copies.

Later we moved to Fort Ord, in Monterey, California. This was really my favorite and my sisters’ too. We lived on post, but our parents enrolled us in the beautiful Carmel Mission School in Carmel, situated in an old monastery and arranged like a cloister walk around a gorgeous garden. We made friends there and loved the school, although some of the nuns were stricter than others. We stayed at Fort Ord long enough for my older sisters and me to start high school in Monterey. Then my father had orders to go to Stuttgart, so we had to say goodbye to people who had become important to us.

We crossed the Atlantic on the SS United States, an adventure in itself, which I also recount in the book. Germany opened up a whole new world. The enormous differences of language, styles of dress and manners, of what kids were allowed to do that they weren’t in the US and vice-versa, not to speak of the economic differences between them and us in those days — all these surprises were overwhelming. But it was fascinating. I scrambled to learn the German language and understand the few German friends I made. For the first couple of years we were in Stuttgart, a beautiful industrial city, and then we moved to Heidelberg, a handsome and historic university town. In both places we lived in the very closed environment of the post and didn’t get to know German people or their language or society very well. Among the military kids, my sisters and I came of age and got a taste of American teenage life that we’d never had in the States — drinking parties in the local Gasthauses that had no drinking age, and moonlit adventures in old Nazi sites. It was a strange and exotic experience which made me into a very different person than I’d been before.

Having lived through the Cold War, you know the fear of Russians invading or setting off a nuclear weapon was very real. Can you help us feel what that was like?

We were shown films in school with images of an enormous blast, followed by empty streets with trash blowing in the nuclear wind. The announcer would insist again and again that if we heard the atomic warning siren, we were to “duck and cover,” wherever we were. And we were told there might be no warning, that a blast as bright as the sun would suddenly happen, anywhere, anytime. Duck and cover movies warnings were played in schools and in the base movie theaters. Readiness warnings were issued at sports events and even in church. Repeatedly, we were told to be always alert for the warnings or the sun-bright blast itself. The message was meant to live in our psyches and be part of our thinking, our identity. We were people under threat. Nuclear holocaust was in my dreams and fueled a steady sense of fear and trepidation. From one moment to the next, you had to be ready for the world to fall apart under your feet. It was a tremendously unsettling discourse and kept all of us, I think, on edge and fearful.

I see this now in hindsight as a terrible experience for a child. Whatever the actual threat level at any given moment, ducking and covering probably wouldn’t have helped much. It only left us with a habit of fear. It probably made some of us more philosophical or religiously-minded than we might otherwise have been, given the end-of-the-world scenario we lived with all the time; but I think the more general effect was a fear, bordering on neurosis, of what could happen from one moment to the next. No wonder the late counter-culture that followed saw such an explosion of liberation and care-lessness, to counteract the intense, imposed caution of our childhood years.

In an earlier interview, you said you just wanted your mother and father to be remembered. Can you tell us what you would like people to know about them?

I think Jack and Franny were in some ways typical of their generation. Born in the 20s, they lived through the depression and came of age in the second World War. They weren’t subtle but saw things in black and white terms; and were very clear with their comments about everything from politics to homemaking. In many ways, I think they thought of themselves as opposite to the communists who they considered the enemy: communists were subtle, cagey, didn’t put their cards on the table. You couldn’t trust people like that, since what you saw wasn’t necessarily what you got.

Jack and Franny were both larger than life for me, but others outside the family responded to them as if they too saw them as striking characters. They were outspoken and definitive in their opinions. They were both loud and ready for an argument. I never heard them identify themselves as such, but they were politically independent and would size up the candidates carefully, then decide which was the better man (it was always, of course, a man). And once decided, that was it. There was little room for dialogic discussion of things, much less changing their minds.

As parents, they could be very difficult. They were strict, demanding, and kept a close eye on my sisters and I. They weren’t alone: child-rearing was like that in those days. Kids got spanked, and nobody thought it was wrong. My parents set the rules and the tone for our household, and we followed. There was no consulting us as to what we thought or hoped for or worried about.

But they were affectionate, and we knew they loved us. They hugged us a lot and always made a big deal of our birthdays. Christmas was a huge celebration with lots of good presents. And Jack and Franny were fun. Our moves across the country were always treated like adventures. The hotels, the pancake breakfasts at roadside restaurants, the sites along the routes of America — Carlsbad Caverns, Route 66, the Rocky Mountains — were part of a great expedition we were making. They inspired us with their excitement.

At a certain level, I suppose it’s simple vanity: I want them to be remembered because they meant so much to me. But they both contributed something to the world they came of age in, and they were characters of that time. I think that’s worth remembering.

What would you like future readers of your book to know?

I’d like future readers to know what life was like in the middle-to-late years of the twentieth century, particularly for the children of military families, a generally little understood component of American society. The focus of attention to US forces fighting overseas and preparing for war at home is usually on the service members themselves — all their adventures and sacrifices. I’d like readers to know more about the people who came along with them, followed in their wake — the spouses and children of the warriors. They may well not share the warrior’s priorities or even their ideology, but the children in particular are called on to be part of the picture anyway, like camp followers of all ages everywhere. I’d like people to know more about what life was like for us in our time, but I also hope readers will see how military children still experience the difficulties of moving all the time and the instability of life in warrior society. It’s an age-old portrait and one that’s little understood.

 

Parallel Universe Saga | Book Trailer

 

In Book 1, Retrieving the Future, Declan befriends an amazing humanoid robot, Lyle, on one of his parallel Earth trips and brings him home to create his idea of an ultimate AI. That’s when everything unravels!

Suddenly Declan’s coworkers and company leaders want him dead, his girlfriend Rose is in danger, and the only way to survive is to discover what his missions were really about—a secret conspiracy linking corporate greed to some of Scripture’s endtime prophecies. To discover that connection, the AI he created sends him and Rose on a parallel Earth mission together, a mission unsanctioned by the company’s Board.

╰┈➤ Book Details:

Genre: Christian Science Fiction

Sub-genre: Biblical Fiction

Language:English

Pages: 304

Paperback ISBN: 978-1734085068  

In Book 2, Resolving the Future, Declan discovers the secret to his parallel Earth visits …. and it’s not good.

This other parallel Earth lies within a time dilation field which severs his and Rose’s connection to their world. Another way to get back must be found. He discovers why his company’s Board sanctions his trips to parallel Earths and this discovery not only puts his life and that of Rose in danger, but basically everyone he has worked with at his company.

Once he and Rose return to their Earth, all has changed. Only his robot friend, Lyle, has remained unchanged. The AI he created and who sent him on his off-world mission is now in control of the company, has his boss and the Board under its sway, has no knowledge of his unsanctioned mission, and now considers Declan enemy number one. Declan now has to convince a company blinded by greed that they’ve created humanity’s executioner— and do that before there’s no future left to fight for.

╰┈➤ Book Details:

Genre: Christian Science Fiction

Sub-genre: Biblical Fiction

Language:English

Pages: 304

Paperback ISBN: ‎ 979-8992197150 

The Parallel Universe Saga (including Retrieving the Future Book 1 & Resolving the Future Book 2) is available at Amazon and the author’s website.

About the Author 

Dr. Randy C. Dockens has a fascination with science and with the Bible, holds Ph.D. degrees in both areas, and is a man not only of faith and science, but also of creativity. He believes that faith and science go hand in hand without being enemies of each other.

After completing his bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Auburn University he went on to graduate school at Auburn and completed his first doctorate degree in Pharmaceutics. He began his scientific career as a pharmacokinetic reviewer for the Food and Drug Administration and later joined a leading pharmaceutical company as a pharmacokineticist, which is a scientist who analyzes how the human body affects drugs after they have been administered (i.e, absorbed, distributed, metabolized, and excreted).

Through the years, he has worked on potential medicines within several disease areas, including cardiovascular, fibrosis, and immunoscience to seek and develop new and novel medicines in these therapy areas.

He has also had his attention on the academic study of the Bible. He earned a second doctorate in Biblical Prophecy from Louisiana Baptist University after receiving a master’s degree in Jewish Studies from the Internet Bible Institute under the tutelage of Dr. Robert Congdon.

Randy has recently retired from his pharmaceutical career and is spending even more time on his writing efforts. He has written several books that span dystopian (The Coded Message Trilogy), end-time prophecy (Stele Prophecy Pentalogy), science fiction (Erabon Prophecy Trilogy), uniquely told Bible stories (The Adversary Chronicles), speculative fiction (Cities of Light Series), and a combination of science fiction / speculative fiction (Parallel Universe Saga). All his books, while fun to read, are futuristic, filled with science to give them an authentic feel, have a science fiction feel to them, and allows one to learn some aspect of Biblical truth one may not have thought about before. This is all done in a fast-paced action format that is both entertaining and provides a fun read for his readers.

He has also written some nonfiction books as well. One is to show how all humans are connected from God’s viewpoint by looking at biblical prophecy (Why is a Gentile World Tied to a Jewish Timeline?: The Question Everyone Should Ask). This book shows how all scripture is connected and inclusive of everyone. In addition, he and his editor have written two books about writing. The first is on writing techniques themselves and is entitled Mastering the ABCs of Excellent Writing: Creating Vivid and Colorful Stories that Readers Want to Read. This book not only addresses the techniques of writing, but what makes writing unique to each author. It conveys not only how to better hone one’s craft of writing but also the brand an author wants to portray. This helps an author make their writing unique as well as captivating for his/her audience. The second is a companion book to this one entitled Mastering the ABCs of Excellent Self-Editing: Framing Your Colorful Masterpiece to Keep Readers Engaged in Your Story. This is best used in conjunction with the first one. Yet, self-editing, though intricately connected to writing, is a distinct event. The better the quality of a writer’s draft manuscript when it is delivered to one’s editor, the higher the final quality of the manuscript will be for readers, and that is extremely important.

Dr. Dockens still has creative ideas to share so stay tuned! 

Dr. Dockens’  latest books are Retrieving the Future & Resolving the Future (Books 1 & 2 in the Parallel Universe Saga Series)

Visit his website at https://www.randydockens.com.

Connect with him on social media at:

╰┈➤ X: www.x.com/RandyCDockens

╰┈➤ Facebook: www.facebook.com/Randy.C.Dockens

╰┈➤ Instagram: Randy C Dockens (@randydockens) | Instagram

╰┈➤ Goodreads: Randy C. Dockens (Author of T-H-B) | Goodreads