A Life Through Books

Date Published: November 25, 2025

Publisher: MindStir Media

"This novel is heartfelt, gripping, and memorable in all the best ways." —Mariel Hemingway, Bestselling Author & Oscar-Nominated Actress ★★★★★

To everyone around him, Daniel Ward is a mild-mannered accountant, devoted husband and father in a quiet New England suburb. But when his ten-year-old son chases a runaway soccer ball into the street, straight into the path of a speeding truck, Daniel does the impossible. He freezes time.

That single act of defiance exposes the secret he's buried for decades. His magic awakens the ancient order he once betrayed, the Arvynth, a brotherhood of immortal sorcerers devoted to stillness and death, determined to silence the world.

As his carefully constructed life unravels, Daniel must protect his family while evading the brotherhood that hunts him. Every second he steals from time feeds the void that seeks to consume it, threatening not only the people he loves but reality itself.

Forced to choose between sacrifice and survival, Daniel discovers the truth: sometimes the loudest act of love is defiance.

The Breaking of Time is a race against eternity, a supernatural thriller that fuses urban fantasy and family drama in a story about the noise of life, the cost of power, and one father's desperate fight to keep the world from falling silent.

“Known for his cinematic writing, strong worldbuilding, and character development, Hebert’s The Breaking of Time is an exciting start to a new series… lays a solid foundation for a much larger story…” —USA TODAY contributor

"This work will grab readers’ attention early as Hebert combines a diverse array of genres—fantasy, thriller, family road novel, and others—into a fast-paced, character-driven adventure... An exciting, tightly written tale of magic... Our verdict: Get it.” —Kirkus Reviews

"The Breaking of Time is meticulously crafted to explore themes of love, loss, redemption, and the struggle to balance personal desires with greater responsibilities." —BookLife/Publishers Weekly (EDITOR'S PICK)

"The Breaking of Time: Chronicles of the Arvynth delivers cinematic urban fantasy that bridges generations, echoing the mythic gravity and moral weight of J.R.R. Tolkien while unfolding within a sleek, contemporary world... This is prestige fantasy..." —Jesse Metcalfe, Award-Winning Actor ★★★★★

"An immersive paranormal thriller that balances the rich worldbuilding and in-depth lore characteristic of fantasy fiction with the all-too-human dramas of identity, family, and the consequences of secrecy." —Independent Book Review (STARRED review)

“If you like magic that feels tactile and real, or if you enjoy emotional stakes wrapped inside supernatural danger, this book will hit the spot.” —Literary Titan★★★★★ (Gold Winner, Literary Titan Book Award: Fiction 2026)

“A smartly plotted supernatural thriller with a strong, charismatic protagonist to root for.” —The Wishing Shelf ★★★★★

"A winning blend of the supernatural and family adventure that crackles with heart and imagination." —BestThrillers ★★★★★

About the Author

 J. J. Hebert is the #1 Amazon, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of nine books, including his acclaimed debut Unconventional and The Backwards K, which, according to Newsweek, is currently in development for film adaptation. His latest #1 bestsellers, both published in 2025, are The Breaking of Time: Chronicles of the Arvynth and The Hands-On Author: Taking Control of Your Book Marketing Journey. A lifelong New England resident, Hebert frequently weaves the region’s landscapes and atmosphere into his storytelling. He is also the award-winning CEO and Founder of MindStir Media, a leading hybrid book publisher.

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Historical Fiction

Date Published: April 1, 2026

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

Intrigued by his grave past, Father Nelson brings him into the church as an altar boy under the mentorship of Harry, an older acolyte. The priest quickly gains control over Jamie, using the boy’s complicated history and his own undisputed authority to initiate a dark turn in their relationship. Jamie falls deeper into the world of religion, and his blooming friendship with Harry becomes a needed distraction from the somber realities of the church.

Shaped by major cultural events, from the Manson murders to the moon landing, to Woodstock and the Civil Rights Movement, Jamie’s life unfolds as he navigates religion, power, and loss of innocence. A haunting coming of age story, Boy Altared explores a seismic shift into adulthood during one of the most turbulent decades in history.

 J.S. Pavoggi was born in 1957 and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, the sixth of eight children in a devout Catholic family. He attended parochial school, served as an altar boy, and came of age during the turbulence of the Vietnam War era and the cultural upheaval that followed.

After a 40-year career in public service with the United States Postal Service—where he also served as a union representative—Pavoggi experienced a life-altering heart procedure that changed the way he saw the world. What began as an impulse to write a better streaming series evolved into a powerful, fictionalized account of survival and healing.

His debut novel, Boy Altared, is a deeply personal work of historical fiction rooted in memory, silence, and resilience. Pavoggi lives in Arizona with his wife of 38 years. They have three children and four grandchildren.

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The Framework for Discovering Your Purpose, Actualizing Your Vision, and Amplifying Your Impact

Business / Leadership, Personal Development, Self-Help

Date Published: April 28, 2026

* Spark Your Purpose: Uncover what truly drives you and articulate a personal vision that provides direction and meaning.

* Actualize Your Vision: Move from idea to reality with actionable strategies that build confidence, develop essential skills, and create tangible results.

* Influence Your World: Learn to steward your resources―time, energy, and relationships―to create a lasting, positive impact and build a meaningful legacy.

Design Your Good Life is a must-read for anyone looking for a more purposeful existence. Whether you're a professional seeking balance, an innovator aiming for impact, or an individual craving meaningful change, this book is your guide to achieving the life you've always dreamed of.

About the Author

Charles is regularly being invited to advise and speak on topics including strategic clarity, creative execution, leading innovation, design-thinking, brand strategy, executive presence, and DEI. Executive leaders from brands including Toyota, Wells Fargo, Google, TOMS, NBCUniversal, WME, Caterpillar, Sequoia Capital, Vanguard Financial, ONE Campaign, (RED), Reform Alliance and many others have engaged me on various projects and endeavors. In addition to advising and speaking, he also serves as host and/or facilitator for numerous events with NY Times best-selling authors and executives from brands including Google, Twitter, MLB, Starwood, Disney, CAA, Toyota, TOMS, charity: water, United Way, World Vision, and many others.

Charles is currently developing new content around the theme “Design Your Good Life” and hopes to share insights on designing a personal and professional life that’s both fulfilling and impactful.

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A Faith-Filled Coming of Age Story About Influence, Identity, and Purpose

Date Published: April 25, 2026

She just wanted to be seen.

When eighteen-year-old Jade Zachary begins experimenting with social media, what starts as curiosity quickly turns into something bigger. Her posts gain attention. Her following grows. But the spotlight comes with a cost. Harsh comments begin piling up, accusations spread online, and strange anonymous messages start appearing in her inbox. Someone is watching her more closely than she realizes.

As the pressure of influence grows, Jade must confront questions far deeper than likes or followers.

Who is she trying to impress?

What does real influence actually look like?

Guided by her faith, her family, and trusted friends, Jade begins to discover that influence is not about popularity or clout. It is about purpose, integrity, and the responsibility that comes with having a voice.

Blending Christian fantasy, suspense, and inspirational storytelling, Influence God’s Way With Us explores the unseen spiritual principles behind identity, discernment, and influence in today’s attention-driven culture. Through Jade’s journey, readers discover powerful lessons about authenticity, humility, leadership, and staying grounded in faith in a world obsessed with approval.

The internet gave Jade a platform.

Faith will decide how she uses it.

This is not just a story about going viral.

It is a story about identity, boundaries, faith, and the courage to influence the world God’s way.

If you’ve ever questioned the pressure of social media, identity, or purpose, this story will challenge and inspire you. Get your copy today and join Jade’s journey.

 About the Author

Lola Salvador Akinwunmi is a writer, songwriter, and leadership architect with a passion for shaping people who shape the world. Drawing from years of creative and leadership work, Lola brings a rare voice to every room she enters, one that is equally at home crafting a lyric, building a leader, and telling a story that stirs the soul.

Her debut novella, Influence God's Way With Us, is the culmination of that journey. It explores what it truly means to lead with divine influence, not ego, strategy, or title, but surrender and purpose. Lola writes for the leader who knows there is something deeper available and is ready to reach for it.

She has been featured in Addicted2Success, LinkedIn, Thrive Global, Brit +Co, CEOWorld Magazine, The Good Men Project, and writes for Entrepreneur Magazine.

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Women’s Fiction

Date Published: April 14, 2026

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

Cece Belle is a high-functioning neurodivergent. She’s also a big believer in destiny, but when her soulmate Robby dumps her mid-flight to Israel, she instantly regrets ever telling him she’s on the spectrum.

Not one to dwell in misery, Cece sips some chamomile hibiscus tea to set herself straight. And with meditation and spirituality on her side, she looks to what’s next. Yet another blow hits when she is kicked out of her rabbinical studies program for “strange behavior.”

Then, she meets Joel. With his quirky demeanor and ability to say all the right things, he gives Cece the desire to begin a new relationship. There’s only one main obstacle: Cece loves living in Los Angeles, and Joel is a diehard New Yorker.

She marries him anyway, despite misgivings that extend beyond their geography. After all, this is her carefully drawn plan—marriage, then kids, then happily ever after. Sometimes though, the best-laid plans are better left in dreamland where they can’t go awry.

Cece in Wonder Land is a twisty journey down a rabbit hole of unexpected anxieties, disappointments, and more questions than answers. But where there is hope, there is life, and maybe Cece can hang on for the next bit of wonder bound to come her way.

 Born and raised in Los Angeles, Bonnie S. Priever majored in communications studies at UCLA before moving to Philadelphia. There, she attended the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, which prepared her for an assistant directorship at the Israel Levin Senior Adult Center in Venice, California.

As a way to process emotions and stay connected to her spirituality, Bonnie started writing about her experiences. In 2023, Newsweek published her personal essay about the challenges of aging. Currently, she combines her passion for writing and her love for live theater as a reviewer for CurtainUp, an online theater magazine.

Bonnie loves to travel but always looks forward to coming home to LA. She has one grown son and a backlog of great ideas. Based on a true story, Cece in Wonder Land is her first novel.

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Historical Fiction

Date Published: 04-24-2026

Publisher: Salty Books Publishing

She is assigned to Tunis where she falls in love with U.S. diplomat James Whitcomb. At the conclusion of their tours of duty, they marry. Within weeks of the wedding, he is taken captive in the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979-81.

James, held hostage in the U.S. Embassy in Teheran, endures the same demons that afflicted the real life hostages during the actual crisis 45 years ago.

Angie, biting her nails at home, endures her own demons. How can she support him? Should she join efforts to force the president into negotiating a release? Or even a rescue?

When the ordeal finally ends fourteen months later, the couple faces a new set of demons. Rebuilding their life together as they each recuperate from their own PTSDs.

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Historical Fiction Mystery Thriller

Date Published: 01-26-2026

Publisher: Bearss Lair Books

Dan Driscoll is consumed by gambling debt, cornered by bookies and loan sharks, forced to bet on one last scheme. When things turn violent and two people are shot, his best friend, Stan Neumann, swallows what he suspects. He can’t risk divulging a closely-held family secret.

Then a body washes up on the Lake Michigan shoreline, and the lake gives Dan what the bookies never would: a way out. Authorities call it an accident and list him as the drowning victim. For Dan, it’s an escape route delivered in black ink.

He becomes a ghost, an imposter, a chameleon. But lies don’t stay buried.

As America is pulled into World War II, Stan enlists, choosing duty on his terms before the draft can rewrite his life. In Pearl Harbor, one chance encounter dredges up a name he thought was long buried.

War changes everything, but it doesn’t erase unfinished business. And when the truth demands to be heard, how long can a stolen life stay buried before the past comes to collect?

 While author Mark Bearss was setting the stage for his retirement, concerned co-workers would ask, “What are you going to do when you’re not working?” He found this question rather curious. It should have been posed, “What are you going to do first?” Mark knew that if travel was involved, he had had enough of commercial flights after 28 years of teaching for the medical device industry. Mark yearned for road trips – to visit those places he only saw from 38,000 feet. Little did he know that wish journeyed down an unexpected fork in the road. He would become an author.

While conducting genealogy research, Mark discovered archived de-classified military documents that revealed the name of a U.S. Navy destroyer his father served aboard during WWII. The reason this was a poignant discovery was because, while growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, his father made no mention of this. Apart from being a U.S. Naval Reserve flight instructor, he knew his father served aboard the carrier USS ESSEX. But in what capacity? That, too, was not revealed. More discoveries materialized the further he dug. In fact, there was a lot more his father didn’t mention. This wasn’t unusual. Many WWII veterans didn’t talk about what happened back then.

Because of the pandemic, the National Archives in St. Louis was closed and rendered Lt. Bearss’ military records unavailable. Thus began a project that challenged Mark’s research endeavors for over two years and about 5,000 miles on the road. The biographical sketch was sorted from creative Internet search strings, history books, navy publications, and networking with journalists, librarians, archivists, bloggers, aviation enthusiasts, museum and historical society curators, navy veterans, relatives, and more. One online resource that was instrumental in tracking his father’s journey was the weekly newspaper published in the county where his parents grew up: The Oceana Herald. It included a Local News section where family members and organizations could submit a short blurb about a relative’s visit, a social gathering, or – where a son or husband was currently stationed.

This project culminated in 2022 with Mark’s first publication titled, Undisclosed Stories Discovered: Honoring the World War II Military Journey of Lt. Joseph Ward Bearss, USNR. When asked what was one of the highlights surrounding this story, he described the road trips to seek out and discover places where his father lived, trained and was stationed during the war. What prompted him to write this as a biography took place during a meeting with the curator of the World War II Home Front Museum on St. Simons Island, Georgia. St. Simons Naval Air Station was the site for the U.S. Naval Radar Training Station, where Lt. Bearss was trained in shipboard radar operations, enemy interception, and Fighter Direction. While the museum had ample archived materials about the facility, it had very little documented about the servicemembers who trained there.

Only 250 copies were printed. Mark went back on the road in his Class-B motorhome and personally donated those copies to family members, friends and relatives, the librarians, archivists, researchers, museums, curators, historical societies, newspapers, The American Heritage Center, VFW Posts, airport FBOs, and other assorted WWII enthusiasts in 12 states who helped in his endeavors. It was a two-fold reward. Not only did his father’s story finally become told, Mark experienced the pleasure of meeting all these wonderful people who were his resources, advisors, collaborators, and consultants. Up until that point, they were only names in an email contact list.

You’re probably asking, “How is all this relevant to Mark’s new novel, Cain’s Chameleon?” It was the research from The Oceana Herald that planted the seed for this story. While perusing its issues, Mark stumbled on two articles that piqued his curiosity. The first reported an attempted murder in a home close to his family’s summer cottage on Lake Michigan. The second reported a drowning victim that washed up on the beach right where Mark and his friends used to play. Just two more stories never divulged while growing up. He wondered, Were these two events related? Then Mark decided — he would make them related.

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