The Inspiration Behind Nurse Dorothea Presents Why Coping Skills Work and What Are Some That Can Be Done Anytime and Anywhere by Michael Dow

 

The Inspiration Behind Nurse Dorothea Presents Why Coping Skills Work and What Are Some That Can Be Done Anytime and Anywhere

By Michael Dow

 

I have had a love of writing since high school.  When I was a teenager, I focused on poetry.  Later in college, I developed a love of research and summarizing information.  I found synthesizing information

exhilarating.  I joined the Air Force and experimented in writing my first book titled The Pen and Paper Diet (rebranded as The Prepper’s Diet®).  Then, I became a social worker for the Army at the local VA hospital and created multiple resource information sheets to gather resources into one place.  I then went through nursing school as a third career and the COVID pandemic happened.  My children and to transition to online learning like all kids and I was disappointed in the quality.  I thought, “What if I wrote a kid’s science book to help supplement their education and then they would have to read it since dad wrote it.”  I wrote my first kids book title Nurse Florence, Help I’m Bleeding.  It won a silver Nautilus award so I realized I might have found a niche I could thrive in.  A year after that, I started recruiting more illustrators and won a best series award for Nurse Florence® with Independent Press Award.  I was interviewed about it and was asked when I would create a mental health series for kids since I work as an inpatient psychiatric nurse.  I found the right illustrator and Lindsay Roberts and I teamed up to create Nurse Dorothea.  It is geared toward teenagers and young adults and has won Distinguished Favorite with NYC Big Book Award.  We publish a new Nurse Dorothea every 5 weeks.  The Coping Skills book is book #3.  I wrote this book to help people understand how simple coping skills are and how we can use healthy ones in everyday life.  Nurse Dorothea is a high school nurse who leads an after-school club about mental health to destigmatize mental illness.  We hope this series transforms our society as well as all societies.  Now is the time to address mental health.  Now is the time to get the help we need.  Help Civilization Reach Its Potential® is our company’s slogan and we believe this series will help us achieve this goal.

About the Author

 

Michael Stephen Dow is married to Perla in Arizona and has 3 kids.  Michael was on a path to attend medical school and then the events of September 11, 2001 occurred.  Michael became angry at the terrorists and decided to join the US Air Force.  He went through Officer Training School and then graduated specialized Navigator training to become an Electronic Warfare Officer.  Michael deployed 6 times for the Global War on Terror between 2005 and 2009 with the EC-130H Compass Call mission.  Michael medically retired in 2010 and then became an US Army contractor serving Wounded Warriors and ensuring they received all of their entitled benefits for 8 years.  Michael always had a love for science and the human body so he then used his GI bill to go through nursing school and graduated in August 2020.  Michael now works as a Registered Nurse at an inpatient psychiatric hospital.  Michael’s education is as follows: B.A. in Psychology from Auburn University in 1999, B.S. in Biology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2001, M.S. in Management from Troy University in 2010, Masters in Health Administration from the University of Phoenix in 2017, and M.S. from the University of Arizona in 2020 through its 15 month accelerated Masters Entry to the Profession of Nursing program.  Michael is the Founder and Manager of Dow Creative Enterprises, LLC.  His books have garnered the Silver Nautilus Book award in 2020 (Nurse Florence, Help I’m Bleeding) and an Award-Winning Finalist in the Religion category for the 2021 International Book Awards (A Prayer to Our Father in the Heavens: Possibly the Greatest Jewish Prayer of All Time).  Michael believes we will need the best of science and religion to successfully navigate ourselves, our civilization, through the future obstacles we will face.  More information can be found at www.DowCreativeEnterprises.com and www.NurseFlorence.org.  Nurse Florence® is a federally registered trademark by Dow Creative Enterprises.  The Nurse Florence® series seeks to promote science and health among children and to help increase the health literacy levels of our society.  With teamwork, inclusion, faith and perseverance, we can bravely face our problems and help each other reach our better selves as well as our best collective good.

Website & Social Media:

Website ➜ www.nursedorothea.com

Facebook ➜ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100095060389625

Nurse Dorothea Presents Why Coping Skills Work and What Are Some That Can Be Done Anytime and Anywhere is available at Lulu.

❤Author Interview: Thriller Author Jorg H. Trauboth: The Death of the Kremlin Czar #authorinterview

Jörg H. Trauboth, born in 1943 near Berlin, logged over two thousand flight hours as a Weapon Systems Officer Instructor in the Luftwaffe, flying PHANTOM F-4F / RF-4E and TORNADO fighter jets, and over 3000 hours in light aircraft. At the age of fifty, he left the service with the rank of Colonel in the General Staff. He received training as a Special Risk Consultant from the English Control Risk Group and served as Managing Director Germany, dealing with extortion and kidnapping cases in South America and Eastern Europe. Shortly thereafter, he founded his own consulting firm, quickly establishing an outstanding international reputation. Trauboth protected his clients with a 24-hour task force during product extortions, product recalls, kidnappings, and image crises. He was the first President of the European Crisis Management Academy in Vienna and President of the American Yankee Association.

He is known as a respected expert in the media on security-related topics. He volunteers as an emergency counselor and is a member of the Crisis Intervention Team (KIT Bonn) of the German Foreign Office. He is a private pilot, married, with two sons and three grandchildren.

In 2002, Trauboth wrote the now out of print standard work “Crisis Management for Company Threats”.

In 2016 the follow-up work was published with Jörg H. Trauboth as editor in collaboration with five authors: “Crisis Management in Companies and Public Institutions”.

Terror expert J. H. Trauboth presented his debut novel in 2015 with the Germany thriller “Three Brothers”. (Available in English). In 2019 “Operation Jerusalem” followed and in 2020 “Omega”. The trilogy is about the former elite soldier Marc Anderson and his team. With these three self-contained thrillers, Trauboth is rated by many readers as the “German Tom Clancy.” The trilogy is available as a printed edition, eBook and audio book.

His first detective novel, “Jakobs Weg” (German), followed in 2021. The highly explosive topic of “sexual abuse of children” is processed sensitively in a scenario on the Way of Saint James and at the end offers contact options for those seeking help.

In 2022, the novella “Bonjour Saint-Ex” was published (German) in which the passionate pilot Jörg H. Trauboth turns the last flight of the legend Antoine de Saint Exupéry into an exciting literary event.

Readers wanted a sequel to the Marc Anderson series. In 2023, ZarenTod – Das Ende der Präsidenten was published, a highly topical political thriller. The Russian president and new tsar, Ivan Pavlenko, suddenly shows his true face during the war in Ukraine. He wants the old Soviet Union back. The world is on the brink. The influential oligarch, Alexei Sokolov, wants to prevent Ivan’s megalomaniac plans and is planning a fundamental new beginning for Russia. To achieve this, the Russian president must be removed. But the plan goes awry. Ex-elite soldier Marc Anderson intervenes. Will Czar Ivan die? What will become of Europe? The book 8/ 2024 in English „The Death of the Kremlin Czar” is the fourth political thriller in the Marc Anderson series.

Website & Social Media:

Website ➜  https://trauboth-autor.de/english/

Twitter ➜ https://twitter.com/JorgTrauboth

Can you tell us what your book, Ring of Rosin, is about?

The Russian president and self-proclaimed new Czar, Ivan Pavlenko, is revealing his true colors in the Ukraine war—he seeks a direct conflict with NATO. Russia and the world teeter on the brink of disaster. Influential oligarch Alexei Sokolov, determined to stop Ivan’s megalomaniacal ambitions, envisions a new

beginning for Russia. But for his plan to succeed, the Russian president must die. There's just one problem: Alexei’s lover is Yulia, Ivan’s partner. Sensing betrayal, Ivan grows suspicious. While en route to Moscow, the plane carrying Alexei and Yulia is hijacked. Crisis teams in Berlin, Washington, and Kiev are drawn into the escalating drama. Fighter jets scramble, their pilots prepared to shoot the plane down if necessary. A struggle erupts in the cockpit, leaving the Boeing without a pilot. On board is former elite soldier Marc Anderson, who, together with Alexei, must attempt an emergency landing in Vilnius to save the hundred passengers. But as the clock ticks down, the question looms: will the plane land safely, and will the world finally be free of its aggressor?

Can you tell us a little about your main and supporting characters?

The book is part of the Marc Anderson thriller series. Marc, a former elite soldier in Germany’s Special Forces, now runs his own security consulting firm. Despite being only 39, his legendary missions with the SEALs have earned him a formidable reputation. He isn’t a Rambo type, but a thoughtful and sensitive character, revealing different facets of himself. In this book, he grapples with self-doubt, questioning whether he can fly a plane at all, but ultimately rises to the challenge. I’m sending him on a hero’s journey, inspired by the framework of American mythologist Joseph Campbell.

His wife, Jelke, is a reserved, somewhat fragile woman, but she steps up at a critical moment to help Marc.

Ivan Pavlenko mirrors the current Russian president as we know him from the media: short, power-obsessed, intelligent, ruthless, and deeply insecure. His vulnerability lies in his immense pride, which becomes his Achilles' heel. Like all dictators, he craves equal footing with global power players but lives in constant fear, making him a paranoid and extremely dangerous individual.

Alexei Sokolov, an oligarch and favorite of the Russian president, has grown wealthy under his protection. But since the war in Ukraine, he’s begun to doubt the president’s mental stability and plots to kill him in order to seize power with a small faction. Alexei is clever, well-read, and Western-oriented, though somewhat naive—thinking his affair with Ivan’s partner, Yulia, will go unnoticed.

Yulia, Ivan’s partner and mother of two boys, is an attractive, passionate woman who’s deeply in love with Alexei. She lives with him and her sons in Monaco, having chosen to stay with Alexei despite her fear of Ivan’s retribution. In the surprising climax, Yulia reveals unexpected inner strength.

US President George F. Summerhill is a fictional character who embodies the ideal traits of a sovereign national and world leader. Throughout the Marc Anderson series, he remains the most consistently admirable president.

Kryptos, the CIA director, is an eccentric character with a more supporting role, but crucial to the plot as he aids Alexei. The president relies heavily on Kryptos, knowing that if he fails, the presidency could unravel.

Ukrainian President Bohdan Sapronov is modeled closely after the real-life president—once an actor, now a fierce defender of his nation, completely reliant on Western support.

Similarly, German Chancellor Kai Schuster is portrayed as a weak leader with poor crisis management skills, walking a fine line to avoid provoking the Russian president.

Summary: Most of the characters are thinly veiled versions of real-world figures, with only the names changed. It’s like reading a newspaper, leaving you to wonder why the real story doesn’t end like this fictional one.

Your book is set across Europe as well as Moscow and Washington. Can you tell us why you chose these locations in particular?

The book is a political thriller set against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, which is why its action unfolds across European capitals, as well as in Moscow and Washington. The love scenes between Alexei and Yulia take place aboard an oligarch's yacht in Turkey. The yacht also houses a submarine, where Alexei and CIA Director Krypot plot an assassination of the Russian president. For my romantic readers, I’ve chosen a small, picturesque hotel in the Apennine mountains of Italy, where Yulia and Alexei share their final night of love after an emergency helicopter landing, before heading to Russia.

How long did it take you to write your book?

I initially spent six months researching and flew my small plane, a Grumman Tiger AA5B, to Kiev, Crimea, Poland, and the Baltic states. Berlin, Moscow, and Washington were already familiar to me from my professional work. Once I started writing, I was completely in the flow, and the book was completed in about four months.

What has been the most pivotal point of your writing life?

At the end of a kidnapping case, where I was advising the family of the kidnapped daughter, I was overwhelmed by the experience and decided to turn the story into a novel. The result was Three Brothers, a book that was so successful it became the start of the Marc Anderson series. And the magic of continuing the story hasn’t stopped since.

What kind of advice would you give up and coming authors?

That depends on your goal. Are you writing for yourself, your family, or the public? I write for the public, always following a plan. It's important to know the beginning and the end; don't write without direction, as the risk of losing both yourself and your reader is high. Crafting good literature is an art. Learn to write in a captivating language and master the literary tools to engage your reader from start to finish.

Be meticulous with facts. In today's Google-driven world, mistakes are never forgotten. Once you've finished your book, give it to someone you trust for feedback. Don’t hesitate to use AI to enhance your language and correct mistakes—nothing more.

Remember, when you're finally satisfied with your work, the real challenge begins:  marketing. Whether you have a publisher, buy services, or handle it on your own, know that doing it all by yourself makes achieving great success more difficult. But don't be discouraged. No one can take away the fact that you've created something truly special. Best of luck! If you have questions, I will be happy to answer: trauboth.autor@gmail.com

The Death of the Kremlin Czar is available at Amazon (U.S. edition) and Amazon (German edition).

Inside the Pages: A Hush at Midnight by Marlene M. Bell

 

Title: A Hush at Midnight
Author: Marlene M. Bell
Publisher: Ewephoric Publishing
Pages: 368
Genre: Mystery

Marlene M. Bell brings distant friends together in the rural South only to have one of them become the victim of a brutal crime of passion.

Once celebrated for her show-stopping pastries and irresistible desserts, former celebrity chef Laura Harris is now making headlines for a far darker reason.

Laura has been accused of murder.

How could this petite chef have brutally smothered the beloved small-town matriarch, World War II ferry pilot veteran, Hattie Stenburg? Hattie wasn’t just a pillar of the community; she was Laura’s confidant and mentor. The shocking twist? Hattie had made recent changes to her will, bypassing next-of kin and leaving her entire fortune and historic estate to Laura.

As Laura scrambles to clear her name, she uncovers sinister secrets lurking beneath the town’s idyllic surface. The real murderer is always one step ahead, leaving taunting clues and threatening Laura to leave Texas—or face deadly consequences. With time not a luxury, Laura must untangle the web of deceit before the killer makes her the next victim.

A Hush at Midnight is available at Amazon.

★★★★★ ORDER YOUR COPY ★★★★★

Amazon → https://www.amazon.com/Hush-Midnight-Secrets-Scandals-Recipe-ebook/dp/B0DFWW9GWF

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Stenburg, Texas – Friday evening

A killer sunset plunged toward the horizon, casting its tangerine glare on the Stenburg Estate’s green metal roof and aging bricks. Since her hasty arrival from the Los Angeles area last year, Laura Harris had sought out the renowned East Texas skyline for its towering thunderstorm clouds and the lemonade-pinks at twilight.

The colors gave her a sense of calm before the inaugural trip to see her elderly mentor and dearest pen pal, Hattie Stenburg. Laura last visited with her in California—over a decade ago.

As Laura skirted a large puddle in her Subaru and stopped along the shoulder of the roadway, she parked the car, turned off the engine, and exited the driver’s side. She breathed in air filled with pungent smells of wet pine needles and dampened leaves. Laura had passed through the April shower a few miles east of the Stenburg town limits sign. Leave it to the Stenburgs to live in a town named after themselves.

Snaggled grapevines across the road on Hattie’s property sat stoic and graying in long horizontal rows from the oil and gravel highway road to the classic red brick two-story at the top of the hill. The vines showed no signs of new growth even though T-posts held the outstretched limbs twisted within wire and sagging driplines. Gnarled stumps had been left behind from a time when the Stenburgs had added varietal grapes to their company’s wine processing vats prior to Warren Stenburg’s death nearly eight years ago—before Laura’s dad took over as the Texas corporation’s chief executive officer.

– Excerpted from A Hush at Midnight by Marlene Bell, Ewephoric Publishing, 2024. Reprinted with permission.

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 Mystery at a killing pace.

Marlene M. Bell has never met a sheep she didn’t like. As a personal touch, her fans often find these wooly creatures visiting her international romantic suspense, thriller, and cozy mystery books as characters or subject matter. 

Marlene’s multi-award-winning Annalisse series boasts numerous Best Mystery honors for all installments including the newest IP Best Regional Australia/New Zealand, and Global Gold Award for the fourth cozy mystery from down under. 

Her children's picture book, Mia and Nattie: One Great Team! written for the younger crowd, is based on true events from the Bell’s Texas sheep ranch. Suitable reading for ages 3 - 7 years and beyond, a Mom's Choice Gold Award winner, and Eric Hoffer Award Grand Prize Short List winner. 

Website & Social Media:

Website ➜ https://www.marlenembell.com 

Twitter ➜ https://twitter.com/ewephoric 

Facebook ➜  https://www.facebook.com/marlenembell 

Goodreads ➜ https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17642396.Marlene_M_Bell

Inside the Pages: Riftsiders Series by Paul DeStefano

 

 The lead couple meet each other at a support group for the possessed. They get tangled in all sorts of affairs, normal and otherworldly, facing threats from humanity, demons, monsters, bounty hunters and bigotry, all while trying to fit in. And maybe saving the world a few times along the way.

★★★★★ ORDER YOUR COPIES ★★★★★

Amazon → https://www.amazon.com/stores/Paul-A.-DeStefano/author/B09S7SY7BJ

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Unlawful Possession Book 1

“Does he talk to you?” asked Enrique.

“We communicate, but not quite in words. More like hunches and feelings. When he’s mad, I can tell.”

“Does yours talk?” Enrique asked, turning to Ebbs.

“She would love it if I listened,” Ebbs replied. “It’s more like a constant distant howling. I’ve learned to box that out. Elle’s passenger is entwined. They both exist in the same space. I’m sure you’ll meet her, too.”

“Tell us a little about yours,” Dante said, taking a slow sip of his coffee.

Enrique slumped backward in the seat, looking to the ceiling with a chuckle.

“Yes,” taunted the lilting British accent only Enrique heard. “Do tell about me.”

“Tzazin,” Enrique said. “My demon is Tzazin Auropolus. I call him Taz. He, well, he’s kind of like me in that sometimes he just doesn’t know when to shut up. When I look in reflections, I can see him. Always just over my left shoulder. Glass reflection doesn’t always work. Sometimes it does, and he insists it’s due to how natural or man-made the material is.”

“Now tell them how startlingly handsome I am,” Taz whispered.

“He looks like a man with gray sandpaper skin. And his eyes are this weird sickly off-yellow.”

“That’s not even slightly flattering,” Taz complained.

“But he’s got some sort of knowledge tap. It’s like having a running connection to Google.”

“I’m an archivist, you human nimrod. Show some respect.”

 “Oh, he’s telling me right now I should tell you he’s an archivist.”

“And when Taz pilots?” Dante asked.

“When Taz pilots, I blackout. And end up in jail. And told I can be out on probation if I come here to learn to control him.”

“You make that sound so one-sided,” Taz said with a snicker. “Who’s fingerprints were there? Certainly not mine.”

Enrique set his jaw and placed his coffee cup on the floor.

“Yo, ain’t no one told me we got a newbie.”

Enrique turned to see a young girl with dreadlocks step into the room biting into an apple and letting the juice flow down her chin.

“Enrique, the rude teen girl is my niece, Yesania,” Dante said with a slight smile and a gesture. “You bring enough for everyone?”

“You got your doughnuts,” Yesania pointed. “Not poisoning my body with more of that shit than I have to, oh sorry for the language, Father. No offense. Hey, Elle.”

Elle looked up and brushed long hair aside, smiling with a wave.

“None taken,” Ebbs said as he reached for another doughnut. “Especially since that means more for us who know what good food is.”

Yesania screechingly pulled a chair to sit directly in front of Enrique, throwing off her hoodie to the floor and pushing dreadlocks from her face. She leaned forward and stared into Enrique’s eyes.

“Go ahead. Show me who you got,” she demanded.

“Yesania,” Dante warned, putting his hand on her shoulder to ease her away.

“No, Unc,” she snapped, shrugging him off. “Show and tell. You ain’t here for some small-time imp. Show me.”

“You don’t want that.” Enrique slid his chair back.

“She wants it,” Taz said, clearly with a grin Enrique felt in the back of his mind.

“She doesn’t want that,” Enrique hissed.

“You show me yours, I’ll show you mine,” Yesania teased. “Lookie.”

The room was overwhelmed by the smell of lilacs as Yesania held out her palm and blew across it as if blowing flower petals from her hand. A sparkling yellow dust scattered from her empty hand and hung in the air in a vaguely feminine shape that bowed politely.

“Meet Cali,” Yesania announced.

Enrique reached his hand out, curious. The sparkling dust extended what would be a hand and settled on his. It felt mildly electric and warm.

“Caliosandra,” the dust shape whispered in introduction as it appeared to grow less dense.

Yesania panted as the dust form fell but vanished before it touched the floor.

“You okay?” Dante asked.

“Yeah, letting her out is tiring sometimes,” Yesania said. “Long day of practice. That’s kind of why I’m here. Can’t get completely rid of her unless I just go to sleep. She’s not the prize I originally thought.”

“She means die,” Taz said to Enrique.

“I know what she meant,” Enrique replied.

“Oh, you got a full-time talker,” Yesania smiled. “Come on, I showed you mine. You got some sort of manifest?”

“You don’t want to do that,” Enrique cautioned.

“Too scary? I can handle it.”

“Yesania, stop,” Dante said flatly.

“No, Unc, I don’t think I will. If I gotta be in this room, I want to know who’s here with me. Show me.”

“If he’s not ready, Yesania,” Ebbs added.

“I am not staying if I don’t know who’s here,” Yesania insisted.

“Reveal me,” Taz called. “It’s only fair if I make myself known.”

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Paul DeStefano has been writing professionally for tabletop gaming companies for decades and now brings his unique worldbuilding skills to his own novels. As a writing teacher and supervisor of a Recreation Therapy team at a rehabilitation center, he has unique views on classically disadvantaged populations and their need for representation and expression. After the release of the smash hit game Oathsworn: Into The Deepwood, his novels and lectures went on to explore the quirkiest aspects of human nature.

Website & Social Media:

Website ➜ www.PaulADestefano.com 

Book’s Website ➜ www.TaintedDragonInn.com

Facebook ➜ https://www.facebook.com/tainteddragoninn

❤Author Interview: Scifi Fantasy Author Michael Okon: Author of Dragged Down Deep #authorinterview

 

 

Michael Okon is an award-winning and best-selling author of multiple genres, including paranormal, thriller, horror, action/adventure, and self-help. He graduated from Long Island University with a degree in English and then later received his MBA in business and finance. Coming from a family of writers, he has storytelling in his DNA. Michael has been writing from as far back as he can remember, his inspiration being his love for films and their impact on his life. From the time he saw The Goonies, he was hooked on the idea of entertaining people through unforgettable characters.

Michael is a lifelong movie buff, a music playlist aficionado, and a sucker for self-help books. He lives on the North Shore of Long Island with his wife and children.

Website & Social Media:

Website ➜ www.michaelokon.com

Twitter ➜ https://www.x.com/IAmMichaelOkon

Instagram ➜ https://www.instagram.com/IAmMichaelOkon

Congratulations on your new book, Dragged Down Deep! What attracted you to writing about monsters?

I’m fascinated with all types of monsters, Creature From the Black Lagoon being one of my favorites. Cryptozoology has always been a field that was interesting to me. Are these creatures real? According to the field of cryptozoology, they seem to be.

Do you write in any other genres?

I write under several including paranormal, horror, mystery and self-help.

What inspired you to write Dragged Down Deep?

I was watching a creature feature marathon over a weekend a few years ago. I got to the Creature From the Black Lagoon, and I wondered why hasn’t there been an Indiana Jones type character searching for the Creature? Dragged Down Deep popped into my head and I started beating out the storyline before the credits started rolling.

Can you give us your book blurb so others can find out what your book is about?

Logan Osborne has spent his life chasing the shadows of the past.

As a child, he watched helplessly as his father was snatched from a fishing boat by what he swore was a mermaid. No one believed him then. No one believes him now.

Determined to prove that mythical creatures exist, Logan is drawn back to the small coastal town where his nightmares began after another mysterious disappearance stirs the waters.

Teaming up with his pragmatic colleague Elliot Sheppard and his fiercely loyal friend Penny Swanson, Logan dives headfirst into an adventure packed with danger and deception. As they dig deeper, the trio faces resistance at every turn—a secretive agency with its own agenda, a suspiciously unhelpful police force, and Logan’s old flame, who may know more than she’s letting on.

What they uncover is far darker and more terrifying than Logan ever imagined: the truth about his father, the secrets of Minatuck, and the horrifying reality of the Mermaid of the Hamptons.

Will Logan and his friends expose the lies that have haunted him for years, or will they be Dragged Down Deeper into the swampy, secretive underbelly of a town that guards its mysteries with deadly intent?

How can readers find out more about you and your work?

www.michaelokon.com. IAmMichaelOkon on X and Insta. I’m also all over amazon.

Where can readers buy your book?

Amazon and all other sites where books are sold.

Dragged Down Deep is available at Amazon.