To say I’m grateful for my growing list of Chained Birds book reviews on Amazon and Goodreads is a huge understatement. I always hoped — but didn’t know! — that everyday readers would find the book as compelling of a page-turner as my editorial reviewers have. It’s especially grand to hear from those who listened to the Chained Birds‘ audiobook,

To say that book award season has been good to Chained Birds is an understatement! I’m humbled and honored that Chained Birds has been chosen as the 2025 Gold/1st Place winner by the Feathered Quill Book Awards Program for the Debut Author category. At the time of this blog post, the finalists for this award and their other award categories

I had the pleasure of appearing on Larry Davison’s final 2024 episode of his podcast, The Artful Periscope, which just dropped on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other platforms this week. I was the first of Larry’s two interviews for his non-fiction-focused episode and was followed by best-selling author Daniel de Visé, who talked about his latest book, The Blues Brothers:

We are in the End Times. I am aware. Just because I don’t write, tweet, or engage socially about it doesn’t mean I don’t know or care. I’m just trying to preserve my mental health. To that end, I have submitted my request to Lumon Industries to be severed like Mark, Helly, Irving, and Dylan, the courageous data mining employees on

I am ecstatic to report that Chained Birds has been short-listed for CIBA’s 2024 Nellie Bly Book Awards! So naturally, I’ve done a deep dive into all things Nellie Bly … get ready for a primer. 😁 Sponsored by the Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs), this award recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre

I’m not sure which is more exciting — getting a trio of book prizes for Chained Birds or my new gorgeous cover with a shiny fresh award sticker … do I have to choose? I’ll tackle my prizes first and say I have a lot of love for BestThrillers.com, Independent Book Review, and Literary Titan. I’ve been honored with book

Like with so many worthwhile things, it really did take a village to publish and promote Chained Birds. It feels more than appropriate, in this last blog post of the year, to reflect upon my 2024 publishing whirlwind and all the folks who helped bring Chained Birds into the world and shout it from the bleachers. It was exactly one

I had the pleasure of appearing on Larry Davison’s final 2024 episode of his podcast, The Artful Periscope, which was a bittersweet finale as Larry said goodbye to his longtime sound engineer Chris DeChristofaro. For five years, Larry, whose career spans decades in radio, TV, and other podcasts, has recorded The Artful Periscope in a library sound booth on Long

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’m especially thankful and pleased to share a lovely, hometown interview I had with WriteNowPhilly.com, which posted on its website today. Drexel computer science major Tahsin Ahmed had the assignment of reading my debut, Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir, and his deep, introspective interview questions are still serving as a roadmap for my ongoing

This was a big week for me in podcasting with three shows recorded, including a really fun, birdseye view talk with Joe Dimino on his YouTube podcast FAMOUS INTERVIEWS WITH JOE DIMINO. We covered a lot of ground outside my book Chained Birds and in particular, what inspired me to become a journalist in the first place. (The interview can

This is my second shout-out this week to Ed Opperman and my appearance on his talk radio show the OPPERMAN REPORT, which appeared on a handful of radio stations (KCAA AM/FM- WWPR AM- WWNN AM/FM- WHSP AM- KYAH AM) and now has episode links on Spotify and Patreon. Ed was kind enough to invite me on his show to talk

It was my pleasure to call into an old-timey radio station and chat it up with the grandfather of true crime radio and podcasting Burl Barer on his show TRUE CRIME UNCENSORED WITH BURL BARER. And when I say old-timey, my instructions were to call in on a landline if I could manage it — sorry, Burl, I haven’t had

This week a friend shared a link to a Philadelphia Magazine story about the “Little Scandinavia” prison program in Chester … and boy, was that alert timely because I then got to mention the article and the program while appearing on THE OPPERMAN REPORT radio show with Ed Opperman. (I’ll link to that episode when it drops.) I’ve recorded half

Last week I talked with journalist and author Dan Zupansky for his TRUE MURDER podcast, and it was the longest, most in-depth interview to date on all things Chained Birds. Dan covered the entire book from start to finish and just released the almost 90-minute interview on all his platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. There was much I didn’t know about Dan

Today’s log in the promotional tour for Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir brings two firsts — a sit-down with an international journalist and a live YouTube recording. I enjoyed a 30-minute chat this morning with journalist Khudania Ajay for his daily live show KAJ Masterclass LIVE! Ajay, who’s had media roles with CNBC (India), Reuters, and PTI, brings live

I’m enjoying watching the marketing rollout this week for Chained Birds, including this 19-second Instagram reel created by Kapp Co Digital. My publisher, WildBlue Press, has just onboarded with the marketing firm, and my book is its first beneficiary. Candice Kapp, the firm’s founder and marketing specialist, has been delightful to work with and has embraced all the book’s core

Literary Titan has posted an author Q-A on their home page, which sheds light on the Lewisburg, PA, experimental prison program at the heart of Chained Birds and the safety issues I faced while writing it. Here’s a sample of the interview: What is one thing you found in your research that surprised you? I mentioned NPR and The Marshall

Episode 214 of Jim Harold’s CRIME SCENE podcast dropped today, and I’m delighted to share it with true crime fans and potential readers of Chained Birds. Jim is an experienced, top-notch interviewer, and his probing questions centered on the prison abuses and corruption I reveal in the book, as well as the failings in our criminal justice system. CRIME SCENE,

It was a busy launch day at Chained Birds HQ in Philadelphia yesterday, and I’m grateful to all my well-wishers—virtual and in-person—for making my book launch so special 🥹 Yesterday morning, my wonderful write-up from Independent Book Review went live on their site, and I’m happy to post the review’s permanent link. IBR also named Chained Birds as one of their

I’ve been waiting for publication week to post (and boast) about my glowing Midwest Book Review write-up, which just went live on the review site’s Bookwatch page. MBR Senior Reviewer D. Donovan highlights the snowball at the book’s beginning, which was the nexus that led to my involvement in a federal prison case and eventually to my book Chained Birds: