Jay Beck has continued writing about the fascinating adventures of political consultant, Mark Young, in his next book, “Casting Stones.” Set in Greece during the 1985 elections, the historical novel pits the United States against the Soviet Union in a battle over Greece’s future political economic soul.

The novel is set in the turbulent times of airline hijackings, terror bombing and assassinations. The Soviet KGB, Greek secret police and terrorists all conspire against Mark Young as he tries to win a national election while simultaneously rescuing the most valuable ancient sculpture ever created.

Mark is torn between the turmoil in Greece and a critical situation threatening to end his relationship with his girlfriend, Vicki back in Washington, D.C. All of these diverse threads come together in an unexpected and thrilling conclusion.

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By writing fiction, I’ve try to expand on my history and the events I have observed. I still have a long way to go in tapping into all of that rich material, particularly since politics and entertainment so often go hand in hand, as I hope I have demonstrated in my work. These will be exciting areas for me to investigate and discuss while I continue to write about them. As I mentioned earlier, the third book in the trilogy concerns the interactions between the campaigns and the time of history of Ross Perot, Bill Clinton, and George Bush, a vast political world for me to plumb. I have stories to tell.

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Reading Authors Spotlight

Nikki is a young girl who loves everything about her natural hair. She loves all of the hairstyles she can do and matching with mommy and friends!

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Nailah Jones is a natural haired girl from Snellville, Georgia. After years of getting relaxers, she realized her natural hair better fit her identity and later decided to go back to her natural roots. She has now had locs for two
years and counting. Nailah thinks that it is important to let other natural girls in her community know how beautiful their natural hair is, so they never have to wonder!

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Interview

If you were given the opportunity to form a book club with your favorite authors of all time, which legends or contemporary writers would you want to become a part of the club?

Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston

How big of a part does music play in creating your “zone”?

Music is a huge part of my life and I use it to motivate myself, celebrate big moments, get me through hard times, etc. So it’s definitely part of creating my zone.

Do you need to be in a specific place or room to write, or you can just sit in the middle of a café full of people and write?

I’m pretty good at zoning the rest of the world out, so I think I can write anywhere.

Some writers create a bubble around themselves until they’re finished with their project – how true is that in your case?

This isn’t true for me. I stayed very interactive with family and friends throughout the creation of my children’s book.

Writers usually have a particular Muse, but some also have a different Muse which inspired different books – does that apply in your case?

My inspiration was all of the young black children with natural hair who deserve to feel beautiful and special.

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The Enigma Gamers – A CATS Tale (The Enigma Series Book 7)

Has today’s technology advanced to the point that the line between the real and cyber worlds has vanished? If so, will this unchecked digital landscape provide new social predators with opportunities to unleash terror and pain on unsuspecting victims, while avoiding detection from anywhere in the world? How does anyone find the culprits holding international cities, big businesses, air traffic, and even emergency systems hostage to terrifying digital ransom demands.

Julie and Juan’s cyber assassin technology services team are immersed in these outrageous cyber-crime events occurring at multiple locations around the world. The CATS team is the next generation of hunters in the find and fix contest of cyber warfare, unlike any seen to date. How will they prove that the of 21st century video game playing has evolved beyond the that simple after-school distraction for children? With Supercomputers, the adage ‘bigger toys for bigger boys’ takes on a whole new definition. These Gamers may be after far more than just points.

George, Ty, Ernesto, Mercedes, EZ, and even Juan—travel to and investigate their respective assignments where they find they are undermined by organization’s leadership unwilling to listen to reason, playing the part of victim. Tampering with automated processes, driven by today’s explosion of technology use, is only the beginning of the competitive nature of these players. Cyber bad guys always think they can’t be caught or stopped.

Award-winning authors, Breakfield and Burkey, take their fans into this grittier story of The Enigma Series to explore virtual hacking within our technology dependent world. Book 7 of the series, The Enigma Gamers, A CATS Tale, is focused on misguided technology using Julie and Juan’s talented and tenacious team of professionals committed to finding and punishing evil achievers in every corner of the real and virtual worlds.

You may find yourself trying to rewrite the ending to match how you see the world, or how it should be.

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Award-winning authors, Breakfield and Burkey, take their fans into this grittier story of The Enigma series to explore virtual hacking within our technology dependent world. In book 7 of the series, *The Enigma Gamers*,
The CATS Team, led by Julie and Juan, is committed to avenging and administering justice to evil doers in every corner of the real and virtual worlds.

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Interview – 

1. What literary pilgrimages have you gone on?

What a great question. Breakfield and Burkey began writing technical documentation many years ago. Armed with the technical expertise we delivered many technical workshops all over the world for leaders in technology.

Technical documentation is, well, boring, so we decided to take the best of our technical expertise and leverage it into completing technology-based scenarios relevant to today. The Enigma Series was born. There are ten books currently available in the series, each with a technical focal point like Identity Theft, or how AI steals our future. The first 7 in the series are in audible formats primarily narrator by our amazing voice actor Derek Shoales.

2. What is the first book that made you cry?

Collectively for Breakfield and Burkey we agreed it was Old Yeller. What’s not to make one cry with a beloved companion of a boy and all the drama this story takes the reader or audience through. Gheez, we still tear up thinking about portions of it.

This is also what we find Derek does with portions of our stories in brining emotions to high alert for humor, reflection or sadness. Our stories have a technology foundation then we layer on travel, intrigue, mystery, romance, and a dash of humor. We have found that migrating the story to audible provides a more immersive story and love it.

3. What is the most unethical practice in the publishing industry?

This is such a hard question. Organizations are in business to make money so that’s how they are constructed. The unethical doesn’t seem to come so much from the industry but rather from those bad actors who take advantage of authors who want options on book publishing. There are horror stories are as plentiful as stars in the sky.

As an example, when we started down the paths of investigating audio formats for ours, we had zero experience, as we didn’t even listen to audio books. We had some awesome guidance and then found for us the best connection was via ACX from a quality perspective. The methods for altering the rights is in the fine print, so reading all the documents is key.

4. Does writing energize or exhaust you?

Breakfield and Burkey are both energized by creating compelling stories and then sharing them. We find that offering the books in ebook, paperback, and, yes, audio formats for the first 7, number 8 The Enigma Broker is being produced with delivery in the Spring 2019. What is exhausting is some of the marketing aspects like asking for reviews from listeners and readers to share with others. We have recently earning a Crowned Heart from InD’Tale Magazine for The Enigma Stolen audio, which of course reenergizes us while we are crafting number 11, working title The Enigma A.I. Wars.

5. What are common traps for aspiring writers?

Traps, hummm. We find the common traps including thinking if we write it they will come. Nothing says just because someone wrote a book everyone will buy it. In fact we find that the 80/20 rule applies significantly for authors in that 80 percent marketing to 20 percent of generating an amazing book. Adding the layer of getting the book transformed into an audio format requires even more marketing. We love to reach out to readers/listeners, but without the reviews and feedback we are never certain who we are successfully reaching.

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Gods. War. Judgement Day. Novelist Abdur R Mohammed blends ancient myth, religious belief systems, and his deep imagination to create a fantastic new world on the pages of his fiction debut, Rise of Prophecy.

The Age of Virgo ends with an ancient Anuk prophecy looming over the world: peace ushers in prosperity; war brings annihilation. Prince Timon of Atlantis seeks the power of the Anuk star-people to conquer the world, but is challenged by the mysterious Liviana, who attempts to prevent the prophecy from unfolding. She is on a collision course with Alexius, a disgraced noble who inherits a secret from the gods. War is coming. Mortals and gods are in an epic power game in which strength, smarts, and allegiances are tested.

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Interview with Author Abdur R. Muhammed –

“Tell us a little about your book.”
It is a fictionalization of history, created from the flames of alternative-history, following the lives of six main characters, and two gods (Thoth and Persephone).
The story takes place at the end of the age of Virgo, roughly 12000 years ago.  For context purposes, two other periods are covered to paint a richer picture of the universe: before the Great-War, soon after (the beginning of Virgo), and the main timeline.
A looming prophecy details the return of the original Anuk (Visitors from the stars), who will pass judgment on humanity at the end of Virgo – Peace will bring prosperity; war brings annihilation.  The Empire of Atlantis is brewing war with the rest of the world which ensures the wrath of the Anuk.  The Characters are plotting for either outcome.

“Have you published before?”
This is my first book, although it has had two other incarnations.  The titles Chronicles of Atlantis and The Rise of Prophecy served as training wheels to get to this point.
The previous titles were immediately pulled after some lessons were learned, but the story itself of The Anuk Chronicles has remained the same.

“Are you currently working on anything else?”
I am almost finished my first draft of the second volume to The Anuk Chronicles entitled Rise of Villains.
Concurrently, I am detailing my experience with the self-publishing process, which I hope to publish at some point.  This would be a purely subjective expose into the pitfalls and triumphs I have achieved with The Anuk Chronicles series.
In addition to this, I have a concept screenplay I am working on.  Logline: Christmas is thrown into chaos when an accounting error assigns Santa to be Lucifer’s therapist.

“What is your favorite writing snack?”
That is a hard one.  I’d say a bowl of Cheetos.  Although, I have been trying to eat healthy, so celery stalks have been breaking up the crispy goodness from time to time.

“What gets you in the mood to write?”
I can tell you what gets me out of the mood to write: X-box.  I’ve been obsessed with a very popular Ubi-soft title which is providing months of gameplay.  This has been my Achilles heel for the past few months.
When I do end up in front of my fake monitor (32in LED TV), with fingers resting awkwardly on the keyboard, however, I am compelled to open the floodgates and let my imagination flow.
I would admit that once I have translated the first few images and feelings in my soul, then the anticipation to complete a chapter propels me forward; so really, the act of writing puts me in the mood to write.

“Who is your favorite character, and why?”
Another hard question.  As I complete Volume Two’s draft, Liviana is quickly becoming my favorite.  In Volume One she is a notch or two above two dimensional, maybe 2.5 dimensional.  This is done on purpose in order not to take away from the main protagonist, Alexius.  But in Volume Two however, she is demanding a fuller expression of herself.
In Rise of Prophecy, Liviana is a driven, self-confident power-house with purpose.  Nothing it seems could faze her, resembling many people whom we all know that exhibit these traits.  She is at the same time vulnerable to all the things we mortals have to deal with, and this is what seems to be flowing much easier with her, for me, than the rest.

“Favorite book of all time?”
I will have to say Dune by Frank Herbert.  This masterpiece is echoed in small ways in my story – subtle, but it’s there.  I read the novel at age nine or thereabouts.  I couldn’t grasp the totality of the universe Herbert created back then but this would ultimately lead me back to his works in my adolescent and adult years.

“I think breakfast says a lot about a person; what is your perfect breakfast?”
If I were to ignore any dieting strategy, I’d have to say pancakes, medium eggs, corn-beef hash, buttered toast (white bread, not that healthy stuff).  Then there is the untapped coffee, cream with real sugar.

“Do you have a favorite period of time that you like to write about or would like to live?”
I love the past.  Not the recent past mind you, but the ancient past.  There is so much rich culture and beliefs with a refreshing freedom that is lost it seems.  Would I like to live there?  If there was Internet, anti-biotics, quick inter-continental travel, Keurig, and baked goods…maybe there were; we’ll never know.

“Please tell us in one sentence why we should read your book!”
Why suffer Game of Thrones anxiety and withdrawals?  No that’s not it.
While academics argue about alternative history, spend some time in a world they only fantasize about.

About the Author Abdur R Mohammed is from New York City and currently lives in Virginia Beach, VA. He spent 13 years with the U.S. Navy, serving in F/A-18 fighter squadrons, and travelling the globe where his deep-seated curiosity about mythology and philosophy was further stimulated. Mohammed has degrees in Criminal Justice and Psychology. He is working on Vol. 2 of The Anuk Chronicles while polishing up the screenplay for Vol. 1.

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