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Books and Brews: the place where beer and literature meet!

Jake Needham is an American lawyer who became a screen and television writer through a series of coincidences too ridiculous for anyone to believe. When he realized how little he actually liked movies and television, he started writing crime novels.

Jake has lived in Asia and Australia since 1980, first in Sydney, then in Hong Kong, and from 1992, in Bangkok. He and his wife, an Oxford graduate and prematurely retired concert pianist, have been married for thirty-two years and have two adult sons. Jake has published seventeen novels that have collectively sold over a million copies. You see? The great tradition of the American expat novelist isn’t entirely dead yet.

We talked among other things about cultural differences.

00:00 START
05:30 Drink 1: Mango Cinnamon Margarita
08:11 Reading 1: Charlie and the Dogs
13:48 From law to writing for film & TV
24:27 Character-driven fiction
25:05 Drink 2: Singapore Sling
28:24 Reading 2: A Hot Day in Singapore
33:31 Misbehaving Characters: Plotting and Pantsing
41:20 Cultural differences and life in Singapore 
44:40 Drink 3: The Zombie
48:18 Reading 3: Charlie Trust
56:16 Living next door to Farrah Fawcett
58:01 Law, the legal system, and justice
 
Visit our PATREON for our extended AFTER HOURS with Ashley and Andrea
Www.booksandbrews.net
www.lauravosika.com
www.gabrielshornpress.com
www.glenmirrilfarms.wordpress.com
Www.jakeneedhamnovels.com
 ~ ~
If you enjoy our interviews or have benefitted from them, we invite you to help us continue our work. It takes a great deal of time and money to produce Books and Brews. We’ve been doing interviews since January 2017 as a free service to authors. We continue to promote those authors on our social media for years after their interviews. Subscribing, following, liking, commenting and sharing all help us to keep doing what we do.

A $5 tip helps us pay for our many expenses: Libsyn hosting, web hosting, Google meets, providing the drinks for the interview and the many hours of preparation and editing that go into each episode.

Patreon: patreon.com/BooksandBrewswithLauraVosika

 Tip Jar: paypal.me/booksandbrewsMN * Books and Brews products:
https://www.zazzle.com/store/books_an… (more to come)
Sponsor an episode to promote your product or service: contact us booksandbrewslive@gmail.com

COMING NEXT MONTH: 
Kristie Wolf, thrillers

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Gabriel’s Horn is accepting submissions for its anthology NEW THEMES: CHILDREN
 See Laura’s interview at Central Valley Talk
Our theme music is from www.bensound.com.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to get notifications of all our new videos. We have now interviewed more than 115 authors! Would you like to be featured? Leave a comment.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Books and Brews: the place where beer and literature meet!

Ashley Fontainne writes in multiple genres ranging from mystery/thrillers to suspenseful paranormal to dark comedy. The recipient of numerous awards for her gritty, no-holds barred style of writing, her stories will captivate and pull you inside the lives of her characters and intricate plot lines.

Award-winning audiobook narrator/VO actor, Andrea Emmes, started her performance journey in musical theater. She’s enjoyed an eclectic career as a singer, dancer, Vegas Headliner, magician’s assistant, recording artist, and videogame designer.

She steps into writing for the first time with their co-authored paranormal and psychological thriller, ETERNAL BEAUTY.

We talked about masks (psychological, not covid), childhood trauma, plastic surgery…and Aquanet wiggling into tight pants in the 80! (And more!) 

00:00 START
06:26 Drink 1: The Exorcist
09:35 Reading 1: Bridget
16:17 Technology & Truth: how much of what we see isn’t real? 
23:45 Ashley’s most meaningful book 
25:51 Drink 2: Witch’s Brew
30:30 Reading 2: Claire
37:29 Abused children, trauma & the brain 
39:03 Claire & plastic surgery 
44:25 Drink 3: The Bulge in My Pants
46:58 Reading 3: Barbara
52:35 Why the story is set in the near future
55:14 Women & other women; women & men & love & sex 
 
Visit our PATREON for our extended AFTER HOURS with Ashley and Andrea
Www.booksandbrews.net
www.lauravosika.com
www.gabrielshornpress.com
www.glenmirrilfarms.wordpress.com
Www.ashleyfontainne.net
Www.andreaemmes.com

GET THE BOOK: https://bit.ly/42AqEF3

AUDIO: https://www.audible.com/pd/Eternal-Beauty-Audiobook/B0FV4W68M5

~ ~ ~

• If you enjoy our interviews or have benefitted from them, we invite you to help us continue our work. It takes a great deal of time and money to produce Books and Brews. We’ve been doing interviews since January 2017 as a free service to authors. We continue to promote those authors on our social media for years after their interviews. Subscribing, following, liking, commenting and sharing all help us to keep doing what we do.
• A $5 tip helps us pay for our many expenses: Libsyn hosting, web hosting, Google meets, providing the drinks for the interview and the many hours of preparation and editing that go into each episode.
• Patreon: patreon.com/BooksandBrewswithLauraVosika
• Tip Jar: paypal.me/booksandbrewsMN 
• Books and Brews products:
  https://www.zazzle.com/store/books_an… (more to come)
• Sponsor an episode to promote your product or service: contact us booksandbrewslive@gmail.com

COMING NEXT MONTH:

Jake Needham, counter-terrorism and action thriller

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Gabriel’s Horn is accepting submissions for its anthology NEW THEMES: CHILDREN
See Laura’s interview at Central Valley Talk

Our theme music is from www.bensound.com.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to get notifications of all our new videos. We have now interviewed more than 115 authors! Would you like to be featured? Leave a comment.

If you liked this episode, you might also like these Books and Brews episodes:

• UFOs in Northern Land with Dona Masi
• Paranormal with Jeff LaFerney
• Paranormal Thriller with Magician Bob Miller

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Books and Brews: the place where beer and literature meet!

Róbert Geréb is a boundary-pushing author and accomplished AI developer. As co-author of Jack the Ripper’s Assassins—the cornerstone of The Dighton Chronicles, built on multigenerational oral history from a Romani-Viking lineage—he melds immersive storytelling with rigorous historical research.

He also penned two nonfiction guides through Aspect Books: EASY MILLIONAIRE MATH, a practical blueprint for building scalable, passive-income businesses; and Declutter Your Life, Enrich Your Soul, an emotionally holistic program for simplifying your surroundings, finances, and relationships for deeper personal growth. 

We had a great talk about the book he co-authored with the Dighton family, telling the story handed down to them of their ancestors Caroline and Andrew Dighton who knew Jack the Ripper personally–and name who he was.

00:00 START
09:35 Drink 1: the Ripper’s Fog
13:38 Reading 1: Game Shooting with Prince Albert Victor
20:20 How a Transylvanian got involved with an English Romani family’s history
24:50 What did you know about Jack the Ripper before meeting the Dightons?
26:16 Drink 2: Mary’s Last Night
29:41 Reading 2: When Caroline First Met the Prince
36:03 Some stories are too strange to be anything but true
40:38 Why he let her live
42:44 Drink 3: Autumn Ripper
45:53 Reading 3: What Started it All
52:13 Other theories on who Jack the Ripper was
55:15 Why do some stories capture our imagination for centuries?
 
Visit our PATREON for our extended AFTER HOURS with Robert Gereb and other authors

LINKS:

Https://jacktherippersassassins.com

www.booksandbrews.net

www.lauravosika.com

www.gabrielshornpress.com

www.glenmirrilfarms.wordpress.com

 ~ ~

If you enjoy our interviews or have benefitted from them, we invite you to help us continue our work. It takes a great deal of time and money to produce Books and Brews. We’ve been doing interviews since January 2017 as a free service to authors. We continue to promote those authors on our social media for years after their interviews. Subscribing, following, liking, commenting and sharing all help us to keep doing what we do.

• A $5 tip helps us pay for our many expenses: Libsyn hosting, web hosting, Google meets, providing the drinks for the interview and the many hours of preparation and editing that go into each episode.
• Patreon: patreon.com/BooksandBrewswithLauraVosika
• Tip Jar: paypal.me/booksandbrewsMN
• Books and Brews products:
  https://www.zazzle.com/store/books_an… (more to come)
• Sponsor an episode to promote your product or service: contact us booksandbrewslive@gmail.com

COMING NEXT MONTH:

Ashley Fontaine and Andrea Emmes, supernatural thriller

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Gabriel’s Horn is accepting submissions for its anthology NEW THEMES: CHILDREN
 See Laura’s interview at Central Valley Talk

Our theme music is from www.bensound.com.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to get notifications of all our new videos. We have now interviewed more than 115 authors! Would you like to be featured? Leave a comment.

If you liked this episode, you might also like these Books and Brews episodes:

• Vampires & Haunts with Peter Andrew Sacco
• Family Secrets with Hiram Johnson
• Sympathetic Monsters and Appalachian Lore with Clay Gilbert

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Books and Brews: the place where beer and literature meet!

Hiram Johnson is retired law enforcement officer, currently teaching criminal justice as an adjunct, a father, author and creator. His book Reason to Fight: a search or truth is a surprising tale of a family mystery.

We talked about the event that landed his grandmother in prison for murder, prison conditions for women in the 1920s, his search for his shrouded family history and the connection he developed with a previously unknown relative in the search for his grandfather’s identity.

Find Hiram’s books at Xulonpress.com 

00:00 START
06:26 Drink 1: the Blank Slate
8:14 Reading 1: Asking Daddy for the Truth
12:41 A quest leads to murder and miscegenation,
20:56 Creative non-fiction: fact vs conjecture
26:07 Drink 2: the Pot of Gold
28:50 Reading 2: My Mother Bernice
33:30 the need to know our family history
37:20 Did Fred’s father ever know the truth?
39:31 Drink 3: The Last Word
42:55 Reading 3: What Started it All
47:50 Convicted…for self-defense?
51:30 How Bernice faced the injustice
 
Visit our PATREON for our extended AFTER HOURS with Hiram Johnson

LINKS

Www.xulonpress.com
www.lauravosika.com
www.gabrielshornpress.com
www.booksandbrews.net

IF YOU ENJOY OUR INTERVIEWS…

…or have benefitted from them, we invite you to help us continue our work. It takes a great deal of time and money to produce Books and Brews. We’ve been doing interviews since January 2017 as a free service to authors. We continue to promote those authors on our social media for years after their interviews.

• Subscribing, following, liking, commenting and sharing all help us to keep doing what we do.
• A $5 tip helps us pay for our many expenses: Libsyn hosting, web hosting, Google meets, providing the drinks for the interview and the many hours of preparation and editing that go into each episode.
• Patreon: patreon.com/BooksandBrewswithLauraVosika
• Tip Jar: paypal.me/booksandbrewsMN
• Books and Brews products:
  https://www.zazzle.com/store/books_an… (more to come)
• Sponsor an episode to promote your product or service: contact us booksandbrewslive@gmail.com

COMING NEXT MONTH: 
Sam Ritchie…if walls could talk! To her, they do!

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Gabriel’s Horn is accepting submissions for its anthology NEW THEMES: CHILDREN
 See Laura’s interview at Central Valley Talk on YouTube

Our theme music is from www.bensound.com.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to get notifications of all our new videos. We have now interviewed 115 authors! Would you like to be featured? Leave a comment.

If you liked this episode, you might also like these Books and Brews episodes:

• From Nomad to Ph.D. with Michael C. Keith
• Back to WWII with Beryl Blue and Janet Raye Stevens
• Alien Abduction & Family Secrets with Stephanie Sanders-Jacob

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Dona Masi is a writer and editor whose short fiction and articles are used in reading and writing assessments throughout the United States.
Her articles on several subjects have appeared in several newspapers. She is also a playwright, and two of her plays were performed at the Provincetown Theater Company.

In her writing she loves bringing relatable characters to life and depicting them in all their heroic and flawed humanity. Her debut novel, The Taking, was inspired by her interest in UFO folklore and reports of alien encounters. She lives with her husband in Dover, New Hampshire.

00:00 START
03:54 Drink 1: The Iron Stove
07:19 Reading 1: John is Late from Work as 7-Year-Old Vera Waits
13:45 What inspired Dona’s interest in UFOs
14:20 Dona’s personal experience
23:24 Physical evidence of UFO experiences
26:47 Drink 2: The Hockey Puck
29:53 Reading 2: RJ Playing Hockey on the Lake
32:26 ALL…THAT…SNOW! Reactions from other parts of the country?
39:38 Inspiration for the novel & psychology of alien abductees
41:13 Drink 3: The Artist’s Shack
42:54 Reading 3: Peter’s Choice
47:48 Endings with no clear answer
51:27 Different types of aliens

Visit our PATREON for AFTER HOURS with many of our authors
www.donamasi.com
www.lauravosika.com
www.gabrielshornpress.com
www.booksandbrews.net
~ ~

If you enjoy our interviews or have benefited from them, we invite you to help us continue our work. It takes a great deal of time and money to produce Books and Brews. We’ve been doing interviews since January 2017 as a free service to authors. We continue to promote those authors on our social media for years after their interviews. Subscribing, following, liking, commenting and sharing all help us to keep doing what we do.

A $5 tip helps us pay for our many expenses: Libsyn hosting, web hosting, Google meets, providing the drinks for the interview and the many hours of preparation and editing that go into each episode.
Patreon: patreon.com/BooksandBrewswithLauraVosika
Tip Jar: paypal.me/booksandbrewsMN * Books and Brews products:
https://www.zazzle.com/store/books_an… (more to come)
Sponsor an episode to promote your product or service: contact us booksandbrewslive@gmail.com

COMING NEXT MONTH:

Hiram Johnson tells the story of is grandmother, sentenced almost 100 years ago, for murdering another woman—why she did it, life in a women’s prison in Mississippi, and the impact for generations to come.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Gabriel’s Horn is accepting submissions for its anthology NEW THEMES: CHILDREN.
See Laura’s interview at Central Valley Talk
See Laura’s interview with Rob & Joan Carter at INDIE NOVEL SOURCE

Our theme music is from www.bensound.com.

If you liked this episode, you might also like these Books and Brews episodes:

• PTL Perrin’s Futuristic YA Novels
• Sci-fi & AI with Michael Colon
• Alien Abduction & Family Secrets with Stephanie Sanders-Jacob

Yes, I really should spell it LITE as in LITE beer. But I didn’t and I’m not changing it now. Since 2019, we’ve been doing our full podcast interviews with authors once a month. But there are lots of authors out there. So we’ve started Books & Brews Light in which Laura interviews authors one on one, with a greater focus on the interview rather than on pairing drinks, and one reading instead of three. This also allows us to do more of the interview segment.

We have now interviewed about 40 authors on our LIGHT version of the program. These interviews go up only at YouTube. Subscribe (it’s free!) to help us out and meet a great variety of interesting authors.

We’ve talked with a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction authors, starting with Alani Bankhead, spy hunter and Ben Stimpson on Folklore. We’ve talked with authors about finance, autism, micro-preemies, succeeding in business, helping kids excel in school, historical fiction, dogs, American history, world travel, sailing, hiking, overcoming life’s trials, raising boys, sci-fi, poetry, fantasy, end times, superheroes, and more.

We’ve talked with authors from the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Stop by our channel and look for Books & Brews Light.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Books & Brews: the place where beer & literature meet

Bill McCormick is an award-winning and critically acclaimed author of several novels, graphic novels, and comic book series, and has appeared in numerous anthologies. He began writing professionally in 1986 for the Chicago Rocker Magazine in conjunction with his radio show on Z-95 (ABC-FM) and went on to write for several other magazines and blogs. He wrote a twisted news & science blog at WorldNewsCenter.org. It provided source material for his weekly radio show on WBIG 1280 AM, FOX!, which aired for 12 years.

We talked about domestic scenes in sci-fi, PTSD, creating chimeras (in fiction and in reality!) and much more. Check out the cocktails Chris created to go with Bill’s readings.

00:00 START
05:32 Drink 1: Blighter Bob
7:41 Reading 1: Opening Up About War
15:05 Creating Chimeras
18:58 Talking about PTSD
22:31 Drink 2: The Lone Tree
25:48 Reading 2: Goptri of the Mists
31:08 Choosing Names in Sci-Fi
37:13 Living with No Regrets
42:32 Drink 3: The Bosom Caresser
45:19 Reading 3: The Writer’s Stuff: Let’s Get the Writer!
50:36 An exception to allow PG-13

Visit our PATREON for our extended AFTER HOURS with Bill McSciFi McCormick

LINKS

sww.billmcscifi.com
www.lauravosika.com
www.gabrielshornpress.com
www.booksandbrews.net
~ ~

Help us stay online

If you enjoy our interviews or have benefitted from them, we invite you to help us continue our work. It takes a great deal of time and money to produce Books and Brews. We’ve been doing interviews since January 2017 as a free service to authors. We continue to promote those authors on our social media for years after their interviews. Subscribing, following, liking, commenting and sharing all help us to keep doing what we do.
A $5 tip helps us pay for our many expenses: Libsyn hosting, web hosting, Google meets, providing the drinks for the interview and the many hours of preparation and editing that go into each episode.
Patreon: patreon.com/BooksandBrewswithLauraVosika
Tip Jar: paypal.me/booksandbrewsMN * Books and Brews products:
https://www.zazzle.com/store/books_an… (more to come)
Sponsor an episode to promote your product or service: contact us booksandbrewslive@gmail.com

COMING NEXT MONTH?

Dona Masi, fiction on UFO abduction

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Gabriel’s Horn is accepting submissions for its anthology NEW THEMES: CHILDREN
See Laura’s interviews at Central Valley Talk, Sonhood Coaching

Our theme music is from www.bensound.com.

If you liked this episode, you might also like these Books and Brews episodes:

• PTL Perrin’s Futuristic YA Novels
• Sci-fi & AI with Michael Colon
• Alien Abduction & Family Secrets with Stephanie Sanders-Jacob

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Books and Brews: the place where beer and literature meet!
Michael Modzelewski (Mojo-less-key) grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of a famous NFL football player with the Cleveland Browns, Ed “Big Mo” Modzelewski. Michael graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English Literature. He is the author of five books, including INSIDE PASSAGE, about a two year stay on a wilderness island in the Inside Passage to Alaska. After living “date-less” on the wild island, Michael was chosen a “Bachelor of the Month” by Cosmopolitan Magazine. Mr. November received 5,000 letters from women around the world, dated many, and that’s how he met an amazing wife. His resultant book: WILD LIFE: THE MISS—ADVENTURES OF A COSMO BACHELOR twice landed him as a featured guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show. “Mojo’s” latest book, his first novel, A LONG WAY HOME, set in Namibia, southern Africa, is about a famous, lost Hollywood actor who learns the meaning of life from a native African girl.

00:00 START
11:55 Drink 1: Killer Whale
13:33 Reading 1: Encounter with an Orca
18:29 Senses in nature and blackberries with a black bear
25:52 We attract what we are
26:34 Drink 2: Cosmopolitan
30:00 Reading 2: Mr. November
36:40 Oprah and picking Paula out of thousands
39:26 The impact of a very successful father on kids
35:03 Philosophy and Sci-fi
46:24 Drink 3: Savannah Sunset
50:25 Reading 3: A Long Way Home
52:32 Africa and the Baobab tree
55:28 Why Alaska and Africa: using our instincts

Visit our PATREON for our extended AFTER HOURS with Michael Modzewelski
Https://www.michaelmodzelewski.com
www.lauravosika.com
www.gabrielshornpress.com
www.booksandbrews.net

~ ~

If you enjoy our interviews or have benefited from them, we invite you to help us continue our work. It takes a great deal of time and money to produce Books and Brews. We’ve been doing interviews since January 2017 as a free service to authors. We continue to promote those authors on our social media for years after their interviews. Subscribing, following, liking, commenting and sharing all help us to keep doing what we do.
A $5 tip helps us pay for our many expenses: Libsyn hosting, web hosting, Google meets, providing the drinks for the interview and the many hours of preparation and editing that go into each episode.
Patreon: patreon.com/BooksandBrewswithLauraVosika
Tip Jar: paypal.me/booksandbrewsMN * Books and Brews products:
https://www.zazzle.com/store/books_an… (more to come)
Sponsor an episode to promote your product or service: contact us booksandbrewslive@gmail.com
COMING NEXT MONTH:
Clay Gilbert, sci-fi and more
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Gabriel’s Horn is accepting submissions for its anthology NEW THEMES: CHILDREN
See Laura’s interview at Central Valley Talk
See Laura’s interview with Rob & Joan Carter at INDIE NOVEL SOURCE
Our theme music is from www.bensound.com.

BLURBS
In our full podcast, Laura and Chris had a great talk with Michael Modzeweski about the wilds of Alaska and Africa, his life in the wilderness, becoming Mr. November and more.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Books and Brews: where beer and literature meet!

John Graham shipped out on a freighter when he was 16, hitchhiked through the Algerian Revolution at 19 and was on the team that made the first ascent of Denali’s North Wall at 20, a climb so dangerous it’s never been repeated. He hitchhiked around the world at 22, working as a correspondent in every war he came across. A US Foreign Service Officer for 15 years, he was in the middle of the 1969 revolution in Libya and the war in Vietnam. As a global peace builder, post Foreign Service, he contributed to peace efforts in Israel and Palestine.

For the last 42 years he’s been a leader of the Giraffe Heroes Project, a global movement inspiring people to stick their necks out to solve public problems and giving them tools to succeed (giraffe.org). His speeches, blogs, podcasts and interviews have a global audience. 

In our interview, we talked about John’s adventures around the globe, being a thrill seeker, his realization of his need to change, and more.

00:00 START
03:43 Drink 1: The Shipwreck
05:13 Reading 1: Cruise Ship Down!
11:25 The Coast Guard’s most important rescue ever–and John was there!
14:35 From selfish to selfless
19:15 Helping to end apartheid
22:46 Castro’s man and plans on a napkin
33:20 Drink 3: Honey Lemon Spritz
36:19 Reading 3: A Healing Miracle
48:22 “Most significant risks challenge the soul.”
49:52 Seeking meaning in our lives
 
Visit our PATREON for our extended AFTER HOURS with John Graham

www.johngraham.org

www.lauravosika.com

www.gabrielshornpress.com

www.booksandbrews.net

SEE OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL FOR BOOKS AND BREWS LIGHT: 

www.youtube.com/@booksandbrews 

 ~ ~

If you enjoy our interviews or have benefitted from them, we invite you to help us continue our work. It takes a great deal of time and money to produce Books and Brews. We’ve been doing interviews since January 2017 as a free service to authors. We continue to promote those authors on our social media for years after their interviews. Subscribing, following, liking, commenting and sharing all help us to keep doing what we do.
A $5 tip helps us pay for our many expenses: Libsyn hosting, web hosting, Google meets, providing the drinks for the interview and the many hours of preparation and editing that go into each episode.
Patreon: www.patreon.com/BooksandBrewswithLauraVosika
 Tip Jar: paypal.me/booksandbrewsMN *

Books and Brews products:
https://www.zazzle.com/store/books_an… (more to come)
Sponsor an episode to promote your product or service: contact us booksandbrewslive@gmail.com

COMING NEXT MONTH: 
We have a surprise gest for January 2025

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Gabriel’s Horn is accepting submissions for its anthology NEW THEME: CHILDREN.
See Laura’s interview at Central Valley Talk: https://youtu.be/ZKdeLPPgdys?si=wqPHZsAxYqgzjKcV

Our theme music is from www.bensound.com.

If you liked this episode you might also like:

• The Life of a Spy Hunter with Alani Bankhead
• Vampires and Haunts with Peter Andrew Sacco
• Fitness and World Travel with Kathy Murray