Desideratum

Author Carol Van Den Hende sought solace in writing and then committed to sharing what she learned about resilience with her readers. Her novels Goodbye Orchid and Orchid Blooming are about love, personal growth, and trauma recovery.  Listen to how she drew inspiration from combat wounded veterans. Find out why her own personal love story (how she met her husband)  influenced her charact...

With a cast of many characters, telling the story from more than a dozen vantage points - Johnnie Bernhard takes readers on a journey with a widow and a sojourner in her new novel Hannah and Ariela.  Johnnie's connection to the land, the people, and the history of Texas shine through, but listen to how writing from all these different points of view challenged her and made her "put her ego in...

She comes from a long line of resilient, resourceful, and quirky Colorado women, and she loves finding obscure historical facts to write about.  But, while Randi Samuelson Brown's new novel is rooted in the past, it's action and suspense are current and contemporary.  We're talking about book one in her new series featuring a Brand Inspector in Colorado cattle country.  It's called...

Author and narrator Travis Baldree has created an escapist fantasy that  - as the first line promises -  is "for anyone who wondered where the other road led."  It's the story of a fabled artifact (a stone that promises a ring of fortune) and an Orc named Viv who is ready to change her life - ready to leave mercenary work behind and open the first coffee shop in the city of Thune.  The shop, its r...

Michelle Cox - the author of the Henrietta and Inspector Howard series - talks about how her spunky, sleuthing, sexy character Henrietta is based on a real woman. We’re talking about book 5 in the series - A Child Lost - where multiple story lines of crime and passion weave together. It’s easy to pick up the threads even if you’re new to Henrietta’s adventures. And, while there aren’t any cliff ha...

A real life, centuries old mystery surrounding the fate of Eleanor Dare and her carved stone whispered across time and gave wings to Kimberly Brock's storytelling imagination. Kimberly plants her story in 1945, and then carefully reveals its deep roots. It’s an exquisite story about being found and seen - about finding your way and feeling lost. And - wow - the truths Kimberly illuminates along th...

When was the last time you read a middle grade fiction? This week's featured author Heather Mateus Sappenfield will convince you it's time with her new novel The River Between Hearts. It’s an adventure with an almost-11 year old girl named Rill. It’s a story about friendship and compassion - and loss and longing.  You'll spend a few minutes with her main character Rill and her friend Perla in...

This week's featured story is a Pandora's box of secrets.  We are talking to author Julia Brewer Daily about how secrets reverberate through her character's stories. Her debut novel - No Names to be Given - begins in a maternity hospital in New Orleans in the late 1960’s where three young women relinquish their babies for adoption on the same day.   It’s a fiction based on truth - the maternity ho...

Welcome to Episode 50! We’re talking to author Elayne Audrey Becker about her novel Forestborn - a fantasy story about human frailty, self doubt, and the dangers of othering - all examined through a magical lens. We begin with Elayne sharing why she made her main character Rora a shapeshifter.  You will hear a scene from Chapter 1 when Rora is working as a spy for the king - tracking cases of...

In our conversation with Jeffrey Blount, we talk about foundations, race relations, thunderstorms, banana seat bicycles, and parenting. His novel The Emancipation of Evan Walls centers on the childhood of a boy in the late 1960’s who decides he wants to be somebody.  Jeffrey's characters frustrate, illuminate, foster empathy and inspire. The novel is not an audiobook yet, so I asked my friend...

James Wade’s writing washed over me. I felt and heard the rhythm and tone he gave his novel River Sing Out. You’re going to hear some of the audiobook from his narrator Roger Clark - who has voiced about a hundred audiobooks, worked in theater and film, and is perhaps best known for portraying Arthur Morgan in Rock Star Games’ Red Dead Redemption.  But first, listen to James explain why his c...

James tells a tale steeped in nature and human nature - with violence and addiction creating a ripple effect in his character's lives.  It is hard for me to articulate just how poetic his prose and his writing style is -  how he conjures something musical in his writing.  In this outtake we talk about the cycles where he found his rhythm and truth. Listen to the full episode this Fr...

Tom Young's novel Red Burning Sky is told through characters with a lot of heart.  They don't accept impossible. This little known WWII story based on the daring Operation Halyard will have you holding your breath and hearing the music of the slipstream.   Tom's answer to the question 'what's most essential to you?' was one of my favorites. The excerpt you'll hear from the Red Burning Sk...

What it feels like to be there - that's what Tom Young delivers in his historical fiction Red Burning Sky.  It is a thrilling aviation rescue story - and so much more. In this sneak peak at this week's Desideratum Podcast episode, Tom shares how a scholar of Russian Literature worked his way into this story. Hear more about the impossible that became possible in the secretive and dangerous WW...

Listen as thriller writer John Gilstrap tells us why his new heart pounding book Blue Fire has so much heart and why his storytelling often includes teenage characters. You'll hear a few minutes of the first chapter of Blue Fire's audiobook produced by Recorded Books and read by narrator Kate Forbes.  We begin with Blue Fire's real life jumping off point - the truth that there was a secure go...

This week’s peak Behind the Scenes vodcast of the #DesideratumPodcast is ready… John Gilstrap ‘s #BlueFire really got my heart racing! He puts his characters in imminent danger in a post nuclear war world he creates with gritty detail. But you should also know that this 2nd book in his #VictoriaEmersonThriller series is a story about how humanity needs civilization, community, and leadership focus...

Episode 45 of the #DesideratumPodcast features Donna Everhart and her new novel #TheSaintsOfSwallowHill The story takes us somewhere I'd never heard of - a Turpentine Camp. Donna's characters suffer - but that's the way she likes it - struggle provides a path to perseverance and growth.  Listen as Donna shares how steeped in reality this story's suffering really is. The audiobook was produced...

Listen and look behind the scenes of this weeks Desideratum Podcast Episode with Donna Everhart . We are talking about her new novel #TheSaintsOfSwallowHill - set in the Depression Era with all its suffering and hardship. Donna’s main characters try to escape their troubles - but they end up going from the frying pan into the fire. There are some near death experiences that shape them. In this Bon...

This week's featured story is The Cicada Tree by Robert Gwaltney.  It's a story about secrets and obsessions set in an oppressive southern summer.  Our conversation with Robert touches on his fascination with (not fear of) the cicada emergence that inspired the title. And, we explore his love of music, fashion, architecture, and that mixture of joy and fright he's found experiencing firs...

Behind the scenes of this week’s episode with Robert Gwaltney talking about the way his childhood reaction to Cicadas made its way into his debut novel - The Cicada Tree  - would you be afraid or fascinated? Oh - and we talk about secrets, self discovery, obsessions and disillusionment too - Hear his complete audio conversation and an excerpt from the book In the Desideratum Podcast Episode 4...

Today's episode features River Jordan's collection of short stories - 13 Southern tales gathered in a book she called Sugar Baby And Other Stories.  We talk about the Divine and it's connection to strangers. River reads for us, and tells us stories, and shares her essential truth.  You can hear more from her on the ClearStory Radio Show which she has hosted in Nashville for over 15 years.  Please...

Our featured story is from author, attorney and LGBTQ+ activist Robyn Gigl.  We are talking about Survivor's Guilt, Book 2 in Robyn's Erin McCabe legal thriller series that launches this week. Part of Robyn's writing genius is how she quietly and skillfully introduces readers to things and people around them that they might not otherwise see or understand. You will also hear about: a real per...

In her debut novel A DAY LIKE THIS, author Kelley McNeil explores intuition, memory, motherhood, science, the mystery of creativity and the magic of place. Her main character Annie is an artist who is haunted by visions and memories of things she can not explain. The novel follows Annie far from home as she tries to reconcile her memories with her reality.  Our conversation is full of wit and...

This week's Episode features author Colleen Cambridge aka Colleen Gleason. Her latest novel MURDER AT MALLOWAN HALL from Kensington Publishing Corp. is a gem for anyone who enjoys a good old fashioned English manor murder mystery.  Her heroine Phyllida Bright is self assured, knows her worth, pays attention to detail, is friends with THE Agatha Christie, and becomes a smashing good amateur sl...

You had me at chocolate... but then a crossdressing woman navigating a 1920's man's world... and a talking cockatoo who eats cacao seeds and gives clues... seriously this week's featured novel The Spanish Daughter by Lorena Hughes is just that rich! Listen as Lorena talks about strong women, wealth, family ties and a lush coastal town in her native Ecuador that really was known as the 'birthplace...