Spotlight: Notes from Planet Widow by Gwen Suesse

Some stories meet readers in the middle of uncertainty rather than trying to explain it away. In Notes from Planet Widow, Gwen Suesse reflects on the experience of profound loss, identity shifts, and the quiet process of learning how to continue when life no longer feels recognizable.

Loss has a way of altering everything at once. Familiar routines become unfamiliar. Silence takes on new meaning. Even ordinary moments can feel impossible to navigate. In Notes from Planet Widow, Gwen Suesse writes from inside that reality, offering an intimate and deeply human account of grief after the sudden death of her husband.

Rather than presenting formulas or promises of healing, the book explores what it means to live through disorientation one day at a time. Through reflections shaped by loneliness, fear, anger, memory, and unexpected moments of grace, Suesse examines how grief changes not only daily life, but also identity, relationships, and a person’s understanding of themselves.

The result is a thoughtful, compassionate work for readers searching not for easy reassurance, but for honesty, recognition, and the quiet possibility of finding steadier ground again.

Excerpt

PLANET WIDOW. A desolate, hostile land. Bleak. Unfamiliar. Foreign. So far away until suddenly it was not; until, like Dorothy, picked up and deposited in Oz by a tornado, I found myself plunked down in a strange barren landscape, overwhelmed by unrecognizable terrain. I was awash in grief, heartache, and disorientation. How could I navigate this unknown land? How could I find my way forward when there was only half of me left to do that? 

All I could see was grayness, everywhere grayness, obscured with apparitions of death, visions of loss, and specters of being alone pockmarking the landscape. 

For Dorothy, there was a yellow brick road. I saw no roads of any kind or color. No way forward and no safe haven. I was consumed by desolation, loneliness, and cold fear. 

That stark, terrifying, hard landing happened years ago. In time the edges softened, the landscape came into focus, and colors reemerged. It is a strange truth that human beings are endlessly adaptable, even when we don’t want to be. We become inured to our situations in spite of ourselves. Surviving grief is as old as humankind. Life does go on. Somehow, we manage to “continue to continue,” as the Simon & Garfunkel song goes. 

Initial paralysis slowly morphed into a truce of sorts with this new terrain. Seeing no alternative, I reluctantly embarked on a messy, disorganized, nonlinear process steeped in a brew of grief, heartache, self-doubt, and gut-wrenching loneliness. This process entailed false starts, full stops, unexpected roadblocks, unforeseeable hurdles, periodic rebellions, hand-wringing insecurities, agonizing uncertainties, and all other manner of obstacles and challenges. One day followed another. Somehow life went on. 

What makes such transformation possible? Surely Grace—Grace, capital-G—that unmerited, mystical assistance that defies explanation, surely that was at work, carrying me when I could no longer carry myself, shifting my spirit when life had ebbed to its darkest moments, revealing glimmers of hope, difference, love, and possibility. 

Examples spring to mind: A friend showing up with a plastic produce bucket full of ice and a bottle of wine. Omnipresent friends—each helping in their own signature way—through phone calls or emails or sharing books or splitting wood for my wood stove. Nature stunning me with her resilience and outrageous beauty as dappled sun sparkled through the trees and onto the stream next to my favorite hiking path, reminding me of Light, Hope, and Buoyancy, hinting that despite everything, joy can still be found. Grace in plain sight alongside the grief, coaxing me inch by excruciating inch to stop staring at closed doors and turn to windows open with possibilities.

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About the Author

Gwen Suesse is a writer, certified life coach, and grief support practitioner whose work focuses on helping people navigate life after profound loss and transition. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Wagner College and a master’s degree in teaching from Harvard University, and is certified as a Martha Beck Life Coach, a Creative Grief Support Practitioner, and an administrator of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®.

Her professional background spans education, choral conducting, human resources, coaching, and leadership roles in nonprofit and community organizations. She has led workshops and delivered keynote presentations at women’s conferences and charitable events, bringing a thoughtful, experience-based perspective to topics of identity, resilience, and personal growth.

Gwen is the award-winning author of Womansong: Balance and Harmony in a Feminine Key, which explores women’s search for balance and self-realization, and Notes from Planet Widow: Finding My Way After Loss, a deeply personal reflection on rebuilding life after unexpected loss.

She lives in Tryon, North Carolina, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Find out more at her website.

Spotlight: Cocked and Boozy by Brooke Barbier

America's founding generation drank a staggering amount of alcohol by today's standards.
It influenced their politics, built and sustained their relationships, and drove the economy. Booze was not a small part of colonial society, nor covertly consumed in private spaces—it was integral to American life. 

Historians have been reluctant to discuss the influence of alcohol on the founding of the United States, but it is necessary if we want to gain a full picture of the movement—it's time to reveal the drunken side of the American Revolution.  

In Cocked and Boozy—two of Benjamin Franklin's two hundred terms for drunkenness—public historian Brooke Barbier examines the role that alcohol played in spurring, binding, and winning the American Revolution and how it shaped the nascent United States. Every chapter concludes with an eighteenth-century cocktail recipe made for modern tastes, so readers can participate in their own historic tippling.  

The intoxicating story begins in 1763 after the end of the French and Indian War and spans until 1800, with the presidential election of Thomas Jefferson. During these nearly four decades, Americans witnessed unprecedented disorder and prodigious growth, and through it all—powering it, in fact—was alcohol. Put simply, drink helped transform British subjects into Americans.

Excerpt

Without thinking about it too much, conjure up an image of Benjamin Franklin—whatever comes to mind. He may be wearing bifocals—an innovation of his—or, more likely, flying a kite in a thunderstorm. Both nod to his contributions as a scientist and inventor. An equally representative picture, however, would have Franklin holding a tankard of drink, hinting at the prominent role that alcohol played in his life and the revolutionary cause he championed. By the end of this book, that may be the image of Franklin you call up because alcohol was essential to his social and political life. 

As a young man, Franklin published a “Drinker’s Dictionary,” identifying over two hundred terms for being drunk. Cock’d and boozy are two of them, and many are similarly playful and evocative. Some of the expressions have passed us by, like crump footed, drunk as a wheel-barrow, and pidgeon ey’d, while several we still use today, including tipsey, intoxicated, and flush’d.

For decades, alcohol was integral to Franklin’s world, as it was to other iconic leaders of the founding generation. George Washington became one of the country’s largest distillers—in size and volume—and John Hancock’s taste for madeira led to one of the most memorable mobs of the American Revolution. The delegates of the First and Second Continental Congress, and those of the Constitutional Convention, built support for a common cause while drinking in taverns.

It was not just the elite white men who form the pantheon of founders today who raised a glass. Americans of all races, ages, and classes were motivated, connected, angered, and inspired by alcohol. The men, women, and children who lived through the upheaval of the American Revolution drank a staggering amount of alcohol by today’s standards. Consumption steadily rose in the eighteenth century until colonists’ annual per capita intake of hard spirits reached 3.7 gallons, which did not include the plentiful beer and cider they imbibed throughout the day. By comparison, recent studies show that, on average, Americans drink two and a half gallons of all alcohol every year.

Many historians have underreported or, worse, altogether ignored colonists’ alcohol consumption. Then, as now, there can be a stigma around drink, and especially drunkenness, but avoiding the realities of revolutionary America leaves us with an incomplete picture of the times. Such neglect implies that imbibing alcohol is all bad, that it has wholly negative consequences. It is true that drinking lowers inhibitions, hinders people from thinking clearly, and can lead to aggressive or violent behavior, like mobs and riots. Those happened during the American Revolution and had devastating consequences for many.

But it is equally true that imbibing has positive effects, including building community and trust. Cordiality and connection lead to the kind of bonding that was crucial for disparate peoples and regions trying to unify, something easier done over a shared punch bowl. Those living in the eighteenth century found drinking together useful because it broke down social or cultural barriers and made discourse easier.

We can hold both ideas about drinking in our minds at the same time. This is made easier if we recognize that the effects of alcohol on humans are themselves contradictory. Consuming alcohol can be stimulating, leading to increased good feelings and energy, but it mostly acts as a depressant by relaxing behavior and decreasing cognitive function. The founding generation grasped the inherent ambiguity of alcohol, and if we are to understand this pivotal period, we should try as well.

For alcohol was not a casual part of colonial life, nor covertly consumed in private spaces—it was fundamental to American culture and society, and it powered the economy. It was served with meals, at funerals and weddings, and at ministers’ ordinations, which usually called for a specially brewed beer. Booze was drunk inside the home, where white women or enslaved persons produced beers or ciders for family consumption. Laborers were rewarded for their work with beer, and business transactions were solidified over a glass. Women imbibed at sewing circles and during the laying-in period after childbirth. Militia training days ended in taverns with plentiful drink. Alcohol helped warm colonists from the inside out during punishing winters, and it was thought to have medicinal properties, including aiding digestion and warding off fever and chills.

During the American Revolution, specifically, alcohol built community while maintaining a hierarchical order, helped men get elected and garner support while in office, and enabled strangers to become colleagues and eventually countrymen. It broke up the monotony of soldiers’ daily experiences and helped them revel in victories, yet such intoxication ensured civilians would feel unsafe throughout the war. It spurred economic growth and was vital to American industry as white settlers pushed west. It benefited diplomatic efforts, and when the colonies became the United States, it worked to establish a governing class. In short, it drove and sustained the founding generation: the women and men who transformed from British subjects into Americans.

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About the Author

Brooke Barbier is a public historian who received her PhD in American history from Boston College. In 2013, she founded Ye Olde Tavern Tours, a popular outing that takes guests into historic sites and taverns to learn about Boston’s revolutionary and drunken history. She is the author of Boston in the American Revolution: A Town Versus an Empire and the award-winning King Hancock: The Radical Influence of a Moderate Founding Father. She is nationally recognized as an expert on the American Revolution, speaking throughout the country and contributing historic insight to diverse media outlets

Spotlight: It Came From Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo

Peter Pan meets Stephen King's It in this twisted horror retelling of a classic childhood fairy tale set during WWI.

1914, Wendy Darling works by day as a school teacher, and by night, she assists soldiers who have returned home from the Western Front. There is one mysterious patient who, despite all the care they’ve given him, is in a deep sleep, unable to wake up. One night, when he murmurs the words “Peter Pan,” Wendy is thrown back to a darker time, one that she wishes she could forget.

When one of her students goes missing, it brings back memories of when children went missing and were later found murdered in London many years ago. Wendy is convinced that Peter Pan, the entity that she believes killed those children, is back. She and her brothers had a close encounter with Peter Pan, after all. But her brothers only remember Peter Pan and Neverland as a fantasy of childhood games.

When another child goes missing and signs start to point to Wendy, Scotland Yard digs into old reports, finding that Wendy knew the names of all the children who had been killed. As Wendy tries to prove her innocence, she also has to find a way to stop Peter Pan once and for all.

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About the Author

Cynthia Pelayo is the Bram Stoker Award–winning author of Forgotten Sisters, Children of Chicago, and The Shoemaker’s Magician. In addition to writing genre-blending novels that incorporate fairy-tale, mystery, detective, crime, and horror elements, Pelayo has written numerous short stories, including the collection Lotería, and the poetry collection Crime Scene. The recipient of the 2021 International Latino Book Award, she holds a master of fine arts in writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She lives in Chicago with her family. For more information, visit www.cinapelayo.com.

Spotlight: Undying by Christy Healy

Publication date: June 9th 2026

Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Rory Ó Conchúir has always known that she was destined for war. Her deadly gifts, the unwanted inheritance of her ancestor, the Mórrígan, can only be wielded as a weapon of destruction and doom. For years, she would not allow herself to be used as such, instead choosing to live far across the sea, refusing to regret what she has left behind in order to do so…until the fateful day that she learns of the price she has paid for her peace.

Niall Ó Flannagáin, the young king of Connacht, was never meant for war — that has always been his half-sister, Rory’s, role. But now he finds himself threatened with a foreign invasion and the ruination of the realm, without her aid. In desperation, he turns to a powerful enemy as an ally, his only hope to unite the provinces against the foreign armies gathering even now to destroy the land he has sworn to protect.

Locke MacMurchada, the son of the most hated traitor in all of Éire, owes a debt that he knows he can never pay. But when the opportunity to propose a political marriage with the murderous Rory Ó Conchúir arises, he seizes the chance to protect what is left of both his people, as well as the legacy which his father ripped to shreds…so long as she doesn’t kill him first.

When the fateful day of doom at last arrives, the fates of all three royals – the cursed princess, the young king, and the traitor prince – become inextricably woven together, forcing them to face new threats and old enemies, hoping to forge a stronger Éire from the ashes of the old.

Content Warnings:

Frequent depictions of war & battle scenes

Graphic descriptions of torture & death

Loss of a family member

Discussions of grief & self-hatred

On-page death of major character

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About the Author

Christy Healy has been a book nerd ever since she was a little girl hiding under the covers with a flashlight and a dog-eared copy of Anne of Green Gables. She started writing soon after, and the obsession only grew. Now Christy weaves stories of her own into the myths and tales of the Celtic, Indo-European, and Greco-Roman worlds that she has loved for so long. When not lost in her fantasy worlds, she lives in North Carolina with her children, her dog, and her husband.

Connect:

https://christyhealy.com/

https://www.instagram.com/christyhealywrites/

https://www.tiktok.com/@christyhealywrites

https://x.com/christykhealy

https://christyhealy.substack.com/?r=1il2zo&s=w&utm_campaign=pub&utm_medium=web

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22310652.Christy_Healy

Undying Blitz

Spotlight: I'll See You in My Dreams by Larkin McPhee

I'll See You In My Dreams: A Sister's Memoir is an unforgettable portrait of sibling love as told by Larkin McPhee, a Peabody and Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker, and her dream-expert younger brother, Charles McPhee, host of the nationally syndicated radio program The Dream Doctor Show. At forty-four, Charles's life changed forever when he was diagnosed with the fatal neurodegenerative disease ALS.

Using remembered moments, dreams, emails, and excerpts from his radio show, Larkin looks back on the years with her brother, both before his diagnosis and afterward, tracing a poignant but joyful journey across time as they encourage each other's creativity and nontraditional careers. In addition to helping his radio listeners, Charles guides Larkin through her dreams and their impact on her life, helping her discover her voice as a documentary filmmaker. And in the face of insurmountable odds, Charles finds hope and beauty, ultimately showing Larkin, and all of us, how to live.

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About the Author

Peabody and Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker Larkin McPhee brings the same penetrating curiosity and emotional depth that have defined her acclaimed film career to her debut memoir I’ll See You in My Dreams: A Sister’s Memoir (June 10, Köehler Books). In the book, she shares a deeply personal story of her brother Charles McPhee, the nationally known dream expert and host of The Dream Doctor Show, whose life, work, and death from ALS left an incredible mark on his family and on the thousands of listeners who found meaning and comfort in his voice.

For more than three decades, McPhee has been one of public television’s most trusted voices - a director, producer and writer whose work has consistently illuminated the human condition across some of the most pressing subjects of our time.

Starting out at Smithsonian World and National Geographic EXPLORER, she went on to NOVA, PBS’s flagship science series, where she earned an Emmy Award for her work on the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. A graduate of Middlebury College, she later established herself as an independent filmmaker based in Minneapolis Minnesota. She won several Emmy’s for her work on Troubled Waters: A Mississippi River Story and earned the Peabody award for a PBS special on the illness of depression.

As an independent, McPhee has directed and produced a body of work spanning the full range of human experience. She is perhaps best known for her critically acclaimed NOVA special Dying to Be Thin, a pioneering exploration of eating disorders, narrated by Susan Sarandon; Depression: Out of the Shadows, a landmark ninety-minute PBS national special, and Caring for Mom & Dad, narrated by Meryl Streep, which premiered in primetime on PBS in 2015. 

Connect:

Official Website: LarkinMcPhee.com
Facebook:  /larkin.mcphee3
Instagram: @larkinmcphee

Spotlight: The Shores of Our Souls by Kathryn Brown Ramsperger

Multicultural Family Saga / Fiction

Date Published: 4-21-2026

Publisher: Ground One Press

She’s a sheltered American. He’s a Middle Eastern diplomat. Can their love lead to lasting peace overseas?

New York City, 1981. Dianna leaves her small southern town for the bright lights and rich culture of the Big Apple and a prime job at the Met. Sparks fly when she crosses paths with a charming Lebanese diplomat. A shared night of passion launches her into an exciting romance and opens her eyes to a bloody conflict far from home. But as warring factions take hold overseas, she can’t shake the feeling that her new love is hiding dark secrets.

Qasim has never known peace. When he gets the chance to bring his country’s troubles before the United Nations, he abandons his family obligations to heal his war-torn homeland. But his true mission takes a detour when he falls for a beautiful American woman. Against the urging of his closest friend and mentor, he wants to share his heart and hopes with her.

In the face of cultural barriers and mounting war, can Dianna and Qasim find the strength to stand up for their love and a lasting peace?

Excerpt

February 13, 1981, New York City

Dianna scans the bar through strobe-lit smoke. A haze casts a film on the room’s mirrored walls, hung to give the illusion of space.

“Are you sure this is where you want to be tonight?” Sophia waves her elegant hand through the smoke and lights a cigarette. She feels a pang of guilt for dragging Sophia here. Two decades older, Sophia is more fairy godmother than buddy.

“Sorry,” is all Dianna shouts over the din and shrugs. She catches her stomach sticking out ever so slightly in one of the mirrors and takes a deep breath to pull it in.

“Dianna, I’m afraid I can’t stay much longer,” Sophia says.

Doubting she has the courage to stay here alone, Dianna ponders her options. She looks up at the scum-covered ceiling and asks for inner strength. The subway will close soon, and she has no car.

Then she sees him.

He wears a European suit. An expensive watch with a black face and gold hands glints on his right wrist. Not much taller than she, but wiry, he seems at once exotic and familiar: olive skin graces distinct, proportionate features. His dark hair reminds her of her mother’s, and his graceful stance, her father’s. He moves with a purposeful gait, arms relaxed, head tilted slightly to the right. He seems part of a world she has yet to experience.

The man circles her, moving through the crowd, around chatting couples, each time drawing nearer, until he stands before her, touching her forearm. “Have you seen a woman...?” he begins.

Dianna misses the rest of his sentence because of the blaring music, his accent, and the word “woman.” He could be fibbing to make himself appear less threatening. Or maybe he has been stood up. “Look around you,” she says and laughs. “Women everywhere. What did she look like?”

He moves in closer and speaks directly into her ear so she can hear him. Dianna shivers as she catches a whiff of his cologne. Her eyes catch his. With his tailored suit and self-possessed energy, he almost fits right in. Yet his eyes betray him. This man has suffered. She knows all about pretending. She’s hooked.

Dianna gazes at the green stone with a pang of pride. She doubts this man wants to hear much about her college days or the job that put her through school. “Yes,” she replies.

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About the Author

KATHRYN BROWN RAMSPERGER is an award-winning author, editor, and creativity coach. A former National Geographic writer and researcher and humanitarian staff member for the International Red Cross, she has lived and worked in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, regions that deeply inform her storytelling. The Shores of Our Souls is a Foreword Indies finalist and a finalist in the Faulkner-Wisdom Literary Competition. She’s a recipient of the Hollins University Fiction Award.

Having firsthand experience in the places she writes about, Kathryn brings a unique authenticity to her stories, blending rich cultural details with the universal themes of love, redemption, and peace. She studied creative writing at Hollins University, and publications management at George Washington University. She currently lives in Maryland with her husband. They have two adult children, off to their own world adventures, but still parent a feisty feline. Next on their bucket list: Croatia, Portugal, or Tanzania!

Connect:

Website: https://kathrynbrownramsperger.com

Twitter: https://x.com/KathyRamsperger

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16909806.Kathryn_Brown_Ramsperger

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathyramsperger/

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kathyramsperger5