Desideratum

This week's featured novel is the latest thriller from the imagination of author Charlie Donlea.  Twenty Years Later kept me puzzling and guessing until the very end. You will meet characters who work to uncover the truth behind a 20 year old murder case while they also confront and face things they are hiding from.  It's a story about memory, betrayal and reinvention.  Listen to a...

Author Rebecca Copeland understands the power of words - and the many meanings behind them. She explores the idea of home and identity while unwrapping a multilayered mystery in her debut novel The Kimono Tattoo.  The character she has created to walk you through this story within a story is an American woman living in Japan and working as a translator.  Listen to why Rebecca feels so co...

Our conversation with author Kim Taylor Blakemore  begins and ends with how her stories come to her - sometimes it's dark.  We talk about gothic tropes, Gettysburg Battlefield ghosts, and the drive to find the voice of a lost loved one.  There are also some big ideas about sibling relationships and mercy.  Kim uses mercy - both how we show it and how we deny it. What you will n...

Our featured story is author Kerry Anne King's new novel Other People's Things.  We talk about how the main character Nickel sparks change and creates a ripple effect of consequences in her own life and in the lives of others with her unusual compulsion to move objects that don't belong to her (it sounds like stealing - but it's not that simple).  The story plays with the concepts of fat...

This week's featured story is The Rebellious Tide by Eddy Boudel Tan.  In our conversation with Eddy, we talk about: how a ship untethered from land became the perfect setting for this story, why he paid homage to Greek mythology’s Achilles and Patroclus in the story,  and what his main character Sebastian’s reasons were for stalking instead of confronting his father. I hope you’re curious about E...

This week's featured story is Eileen Sanchez's novel Freedom Lessons.  Its timely themes of race, unity and education celebrate a 50 year anniversary this week. A US Supreme Court ruling on October 29, 1969, forced a change in the way public schools educated children. On that day, in Louisiana, as change led to conflict and upheaval, Eileen Sanchez was teaching 2nd graders in a segregated school....

This week's featured author Tracy Clark delivered a story I shivered through, feeling the Chicago winter on every page. Runner is book 4 in her Cass Raines detective series and it centers on a runaway 15 year old and the race to find her. Tracy shares why this was a winter she didn't see coming - how a delightful little thief showed up and won't ever leave - and when and where she finds her essent...

10 Days : Dee Rommel Mystery #1 is just the beginning for novelist Jule Selbo.  Her plans for Dee Rommel - the justice seeking cop who was injured on the job - include a countdown style series starting with 10 Days, then 9 Days, then 8 Days... each book's action set in that specific time frame.  Jule has worn several career hats preparing her for this work - playwright, screenwriter, and...

This week's featured story tugged at the author's imagination for 20 years.  Her character Astra Davies (Astra means star) is bright and witty, charming and unconventional.  Author Brianne Moore explains why she told this story about a young woman finding her way specifically in the 1930's, what her personal connection is to enchanting gardens, and how PBS shows shaped her as a storyteller.  You w...

This weeks featured story is from author Vanessa Riley. Her novel Island Queen is an intricately woven tale of an 18th century woman's rise from slavery to autonomy. You will hear how narrator Adjoa Andoh's performance matches and elevates the rich tapestry of Vanessa's storytelling. In our conversation with Vanessa, she shares how her technical background gives her perspective and allows her to e...

Desideratum is a Latin word meaning 'things that are desired as essential'. The Desideratum Podcast celebrates storytelling as an essential thing - the art of telling and the journey of listening. I am Theresa Bakken - an audiobook narrator. Join me and my wordsmith friends for new episodes every Friday showcasing the talents of authors and narrators. Listen to conversations with writers and scene...

The real story of The Second Mrs. Astor is told with rich detail and a romantic's touch.  When Madeleine Force fell in love she was a teenager. Who she fell in love with fascinated the press and the public. How the love ended is revealed on the very first page. But, then there is so much more to her story.  New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly & Wall Street Journal ...

Our featured story comes from freelance photographer and writer Jeannee Sacken.  In her debut novel, Behind the Lens, Sacken honors strong women. She champions their education and freedom to follow their hearts and passions.  Her characters are courageous and complicated.  She takes us to a war zone with a photographer who focuses on truth and witnesses cruelty, love, cultural beaut...

Our featured story is a harrowing tale, a heart wrenching story about a journey through compassion and cruelty.  Author Debra Thomas spent years writing the novel Luz and more years finding just the right publisher for the story - She Writes Press.  In our conversation, she shares personal insight into the life lessons about perseverance and living with regrets that she wove into the cha...

Our featured story comes from Marjorie Herrera Lewis. Marjorie is a career sports writer covering football at all levels in Texas. In fact, she was the first female sports writer to cover the Dallas Cowboys. So when, through a happy set of coincidences, she found out about another female sports enthusiast who stepped up during WWII and coached high school football in Texas,  she knew it was a...

Our featured story is from Claire Fullerton, a storyteller who visits the past and studies how it shapes us over and over again in her writing.  We talk about how being an outsider and an observer sparked her study and love for the south. She shares her unplanned writing style - you won't find it in any writing class. And, she describes her first trip to Como, Mississippi, where she set part...

Our featured story is from Frank Oliva's debut novel Walking Among the Trees.  The Psychological Thriller is a journey through secrets and past sins.  You will hear the beginning of the book as the two priests venture into the trees. And then, you will walk a little farther into the trees with the author to hear about: what he researched to get just right in the story; how the seed of th...

Inspired by a surprising find in a library, today's featured story is from author Amanda Skenandore. She is an award winning historical fiction writer and a registered nurse. Her latest novel The Second Life of Mirielle West is set one hundred years ago in America's only leper colony. We talk about The Carville Leper Home and how the patients quarantined there long ago gave Amanda perspective on t...

Our featured story comes from author Brian Malloy's new novel After Francesco.  You will hear his talented and award winning narrator Michael Crouch read an excerpt from the audiobook - a scene where the main character Kevin measures his grief not by remembering what was, but by thinking about what will never be.  You will also hear Brian explain - in his even and calming voice - how thi...

Our featured story comes from author Pamela Skjolsvik.  She always considered herself a non-fiction writer, trained to tell the truth, but then one day she discovered she likes to make things up and she's good at it.  She's written a vampire novel called Forever 51 that she says is not your daughter's vampire story. She's funnier than her last name and she's open and direct in surprising...

Today's featured story is an excerpt from the historical thriller Hunting Teddy Roosevelt. The story takes place during Roosevelt's well documented safari in Africa in 1909. Author James Ross places an assassin on the trip hired by forces who want to keep Roosevelt out of politics forever. And he creates a female journalist / explorer who travels with the safari and whose work shines a light on co...

Our featured story comes from former foreign corespondent and award winning journalist Gina Wilkinson.  Her rich and suspenseful novel, When the Apricots Bloom, was inspired by her time in Bagdad twenty years ago. The story is told through the lens of three resilient women: an artist, a diplomat’s wife, and a secretary. Their complicated friendship and shared goal to protect their families is pepp...

Our featured story is from author Meredith Stoddard who writes folklore inspired fiction.  You will hear the beginning of her Book One, The River Maiden, in her Once and Future Series. There are five books in this contemporary fantasy series - so far. Meredith says she has more story to tell. 'These characters have mountains to climb, caves to feel their way through and emotional swamps to na...

As we head into the Independence Day holiday, on today's episode Kathleen Rodgers shares her impassioned convictions about democracy and talks about the stand she found the courage to take as an author. She invited her narrator and dear friend Michelle Williams to join the conversation. They dive into high school memories about CB radio handles and the eastern New Mexico sky.  Kathleen says she ca...

This week's featured story is from a father and son writing team. You're going to hear Chapter 1 from their book Spellbound Under the Spanish Moss, A Tale of Southern Magic.  You will also hear why the 'why' is so important to them, how the magical world they've created has real world 'good truths', and what impact a real life car accident had on a fictional character.   When you are ready to hear...