Citywide Bytes—Cold time in the city with new anthology

Let’s face it, cities are just awesome. Whether it’s Boston, Paris, London, they have a life all their own, and sometimes, they wind up as characters in a story.

That’s the premise for our latest Citywide Bytes interview with R.B. Wood, Mike Allen and Xan van Rooyen to talk about “Winter in the City,” a collection of 18 different stories from new and veteran writers from around the world. 

As the book’s editor, R.B. goes into the book’s origins and how he found the many writers, while Mike and Xan talk about their stories and why they chose their particular cities.

The book’s going to be related on Dec. 10 through R.B.’s Ruadán Books and he shares what it means for this to be the company’s debut release.

Five By Five: Debut novel honors a grandmother’s love of nature

By Max Bowen

In her debut book, writer Adrianna Schuh blends some magic and romance in “Magic is in the Air.” The story follows Olivia Ayala, a fiercely independent Latina witch with cerebral palsy. In her small-town bakery in Addersfield, Rhode Island, Olivia crafts magical confections while raising her son and navigating life's challenges. Enter Draven James, a charming and mysterious man who stirs both the town's magic and Olivia's heart. As Olivia falls for Draven, she uncovers secrets threatening their haven and her dreams.

In this interview, Adrianna talks about what inspired her to write this book and how she created Olivia and the real-life story behind it.


I read that this is your first published novel. What inspired you to write this and how did “Magic Is In the Air” come to be your story?

I love witches. My grandma was a practicing witch and I grew up visiting Wiccan camps with her. She instilled in me a love of nature and the moon. And she taught me to believe in magic. The story is a bit of a love letter to her.

I’d like to know more about your main character, Olivia Ayala. What went into creating her?

Honestly, she's a mix of myself, my grandma, and my mom. I gave her my disability because I wanted to see more disability representation in romance. I was raised by a single mom, so Olivia has that strength and resilience. And she believes wholeheartedly in herself and the power of family. That's my grandma. I looked at all the powerhouse Mexican women in my life and channeled them into Olivia.

What do you hope readers learn or experience with Olivia’s story?

A sense of belonging. I hope they see this strong and beautiful witch and catch a glimpse of themselves. I hope she inspires readers to trust their guts and believe in themselves.

I’m a lifelong New Englander, and was intrigued that Rhode Island is the setting. Why, and how does this shape the story?

I was born and raised in the Midwest. But New England has always fascinated me. The history, the landscape, it just has this magical quality. And witches are a part of that. So it just felt so natural. To have the story set during fall in New England just made sense.

What is the magic that Olivia does? Do her abilities play a big role in the story?

She has the ability to cast spells with her words. She speaks a spell, and poof, magic. There's really a spell for almost everything. It just has to be vocalized. And it is the same for the other witches in the book. Her and her friends abilities play a very big role. It's really the centerpoint of the whole story. It was incredibly fun to write.

Lisa Diane Kastner’s protagonist finds a new family in the sequel to “Cure”’

Let’s face it, family can be a challenge. But when that family is a group of supernatural shapeshifters? Well, that’s a horse—or a wolf—of a different color.

In our newest Citywide Bytes interview, I talk with author Lisa Diane Kastner for her recently-released book, “Family Pack,” the sequel to her 2022 release, “Cure.” The book continues the story of Luna Auber, whom after her brother dies suddenly learns that she is both a shapeshifting lycanthrope and the descendent of a legendary female Viking warrior.

In “Family Pack,” Luna’s epic journey continues amidst a conflict between The Lycanthrope Society, which believe that humans and lycanthropes should exist in harmony, and The Righteous Group, which believe that lycanthropes are intended to rule over all other species.

Lisa talks about the series got its start on a dare from fellow author and New York Times bestseller Jonathan Maberry, and full disclosure, I nerd out quite a bit here. When one of the greats of the writing world dares you to do something, you just gotta!

We also go into how Luna’s progressed on her journey in this new life and the conflict that she’s about to be a part of. Lisa talks about Luna’s powers and how she adapts to this new world as well as how the character and author parallel one another.

And if anyone out there wants to make my dream of Citywide Blackout cookies happen, I’m here for it!

Citywide Bytes-Imaginarium shows us a unique musical playground

When I first heard the music of Imaginarium, my thought was “Damn, this is good,” followed quickly by “We gotta get this band on the show!” And here we are.

Band founder Anton de Bruin talks about how the group came to be as well as the musical backgrounds of the different members. 

We look at the eclectic sound, a blend of funk, jazz, and reggae and how it all comes together through the different members. The band is based in the Netherlands, and Anton shares some of the shows they’ve done and where they’d like to play next.

Opening the episode is an excerpt from “Gabobo” and wrapping things up is “Kaleidoscope.”

Five by Five: An ‘offhand comment’ leads to a string of family secrets

Francine Falk-Allen

By Max Bowen 

When Francine Falk-Allen attended a memorial service for a late uncle, she certainly didn’t expect to leave with the idea for her book, “A Wolff in the Family,” (She Writes Press, Oct. 1).

What mysterious scandals led a father to abandon his five youngest children—and for the elder siblings to keep it hidden for 80 years? In this interview, Francine talks about the initial secret that led her to do extensive research on her family, which led to a lot more that had never been spoken of! She goes into the research itself and shares a few details of what she learned….but for the full story, you’ll need to read the book!


What led you do to this research on your family?
I had attended a memorial service about 20 years ago for one of my uncles; one of my mother’s eight brothers. Afterward as I sat across from my youngest aunt in the church social hall, eating sandwiches and chatting, she said, “…when we were in the orphanage…” as an offhand comment amidst another story. I had never heard that any of the family had been in an orphanage, was absolutely stunned, and pressed her further to elaborate. I learned that my grandfather had placed some of the children there. My mother, who’d been dead eight years at that time, and was exceptionally fond of her father, had never breathed a word about the orphanage, or the surprising reasons the youngest of her siblings had wound up there. I had to know more!


How did you do the research?
I asked my aunt for as much detail as she could remember during the short time I had with her and went home and made notes. I immediately contacted my much older sister (she was 19 years older, born of my mother’s first husband). She also had not heard this story but had some other family tales and gossip I hadn’t heard, which aunts and uncles had told her or that she knew from her own early experiences. I then contacted my other two aunts and asked them what they remembered and asked cousins for what they knew, which was almost nothing.

I had known my grandfather, so I wrote up a nine-page essay on all that my family had shared about him and the orphanage story. When I later decided to write a novel based on the tale, I did a ton of research using census and genealogy records to find out who was where and when they lived with whomever, delving into not just my mother’s family but others who were involved in the story. Several of my cousins had already done a lot of genealogical research on this branch, and I had previously done extensive research (back to the 1600s) on my father’s branch, so this was revisiting a skill I had already honed.

I found a history of the orphanage, medical records of people in the story who had died, even the names of the doctors who had attended them. I also researched newspaper articles from the early 1900s and found bits naming a few of the characters, plus pricing for things they may have owned or could not have afforded, based on the salary records I found for my grandfather’s railroad engineer job.

It was really a lot of fun to find all this information, and every time I found a new detail, such as the house where my grandfather stayed when he was away on the railroad, I used the information to inform the fictitious aspects of the story alongside the parts that were factual.


This secret, is it something anyone in your family ever talked about or even hinted at?
My mother kept more than one secret. My grandfather putting his children in an orphanage is just the beginning of a set of scandals. All her siblings knew about much of this story, and some of them spoke of it to their children, but my mother never mentioned a word of any of it to me or my sister or brother. We didn’t have much contact with our aunts and uncles because we lived far away from them. As the eldest, my mother kept these things (of which she was ashamed) to herself for over 60 years, and some of her siblings also died without sharing these things with their children or even their spouses. So, the secrets and scandals may have been discussed among some, but they certainly weren’t what we talked about at holiday dinners! Some of my aunts and uncles put a different slant on the story, making it sound as if my grandfather didn’t have a choice regarding putting the kids in the orphanage, which in their final eulogies implied loftier intentions on his part.


What were the family secrets? (If this isn’t too big a spoiler)
There were about a half dozen secrets! The fact that the five youngest kids had lived in an orphanage was just the beginning. My aunt Dorothy, one of the orphans, didn’t even have all the facts straight, I learned, when I did my research. But the rest of the secrets are what make up such a good story. There are lots of twists and turns even before the orphanage event, and then, the way I made up the missing pieces, the saga comes to a boiling point, and everything gets chaotic for a while in the middle! So yes, it’s too “spoilery” to tell the other secrets.

I hope that when people read the book it will not only provide them with a juicy cinematic and familial saga but give them a sense of the time from about 1918 through the early 1940s, and how things were, especially for women, in the early 1900s. I also think a lot of people don’t know how much the railroad affected people’s lives in those days, also. Few people had automobiles in those days.

I read that this is set in the Great Depression. Does this time period help drive the story?
The Depression does come into play and does help drive the story…but not in the way one might expect. When I first told friends about hearing the orphanage story from my aunt, older friends said, “Oh, it was common that people had to give their children up to orphanages in that time, or to other friends or relatives.” So, in the beginning, I hope the reader will be thinking along those lines.

Financial difficulty, or at least a great deal of resourcefulness or creativity in making ends meet is portrayed in the story, even before the Depression. The main family was eventually comprised of a dozen children, and the household was supported on one railroad salary! There are other aspects that the reader will not be expecting, which are based upon my research into that time and where and how the characters seem to have been living. Sorry to sound secretive again, but I’d like it to be at least a bit surprising, if not jaw-dropping, to learn about even the Depression Era financial aspects of the family.

I hope I’ve been secretive but “hinty” enough that you’ll be intrigued to read “A Wolff in the Family.” Thanks for the opportunity to talk about it.

Todd Hearon returns to music with a sonic trilogy

Todd Hearon

Music has always been a part of Todd Hearon’s life and following a brief break for other creative pursuits, he’s returned with a three-part album release and in this interview, we dive right into what this is all about.

The Texas-born songwriter goes into the story behind his most recent release, “Impossible Man” and how it follows his 2021 and 2023 albums, “Border Radio” and “Yodelady.” We also talk about his musical hiatus to go to grad school in Boston and co-found The Bridge Theater Company, an independent troupe in Boston’s Theater District.

Todd shares how his poetry and other writings blend with his music, and gives us the story behind Myrtle, his 1950 Gibson J-50.

Opening the interview is an excerpt from “Guillotine” and closing things out is the song “Looking Glass,” both of which are from the new album.

Citywide Bytes—In her new book, Donna Levin explores a romanticized past

In author Donna Levin’s new book, “The Talking Stick,” we meet Hunter, who has lost…..well, just about everything. Her husband has left her for her former friend, now best enemy Angelica. She has no job, no prospects, and is unsure of what comes next.

That “next” happens while exploring a San Francisco flea market. Here, she’s sent on a journey with three other women who join her journey to reexamine pasts, explore grief, addictions, parenting, and marriages, and discover that some of their most-cherished memories are romanticized versions of the truth.

In this interview, we look at what inspired this book and introduced to Hunter and Angelica. Donna talks about the element of a Talking Stick and why it was included in the book. She shares a look at the journey Hunter’s on and the people she’ll be sharing it with and just where it’s all going.