David barely remembers his mother Ophelia, who left him and his father several years ago after a brief five years together. There are no images or signs of her in their house; only Gabriel’s memories of a deep and unending love. David is also haunted by repeated dreams of strange and fantastical worlds…and of long, dark and clawed hands that could tear and kill. Reality starts to blur when he and his best friend Brian are set upon by demons eerily similar to the beasts of his dreams, pulling them into an alternate world on the behest of the land’s demon queen herself…Queen Ophelia.
She is strong, benevolent, and loved by all…and she is losing a painful and emotional war that could mean the end of her and her queendom. She needs David’s help, or she could lose everything, including him.
Hi there! If you’ve come by because you’ve just picked up my new ebook Diwa & Kaffi, then you will no doubt be unsurprised that I in fact made a mixtape/playlist for the book! I’d posted this a short while ago, but I’d like to reshare this with the added commentary on each song and how they fit in with the novel itself. There’s a lot of love and hope in this mix, and I hope that it lifts you up as well.
1. The Sound of Arrows, “(Opening Titles)” 2. The Sound of Arrows, “Stay Free” These songs open the band’s Stay Free album, but in Diwa & Kaffi they would actually appear at the very end of the story — literally the very last scene — and would be used during the ‘ending credits’ montage of my imagined film version. I had the entire sequence played out in my head even before I’d gotten about halfway through writing the novel, so when I say I knew exactly how the story ended early on, I wasn’t kidding!
3. U2, “Get Out of Your Own Way” This is a universal theme of Diwa & Kaffi for every character: sometimes the core of your problems are within, and it’s up to you to find a way to solve them, or at least work past them. This was also a personal theme of mine while I was writing the novel.
4. Ra Ra Riot, “Water” This is a song that I think lends itself to the closeness of many characters in the book. Whether it’s familial, romantic or just simple adoration, there’s always the worry that others will take love the wrong way. I wanted this novel to be about love as something approachable and shapeable, and how freeing and wonderful it is to be allowed to do that.
5. Beck, “Dreams” I heard this track a lot during my Day Job hours and it became one of my favorites of his. I love the vibe of ‘nothing’s gonna tear me down’ and it fit perfectly with the themes of this novel. I can picture this being on the personal playlist of a few characters as well.
6. Elbow, “Firebrand & Angel” Elbow is one of my top favorite bands of the last twenty years and they never cease to amaze and inspire me. This song’s about a special relationship, and while I can see it being about Diwa and Kaffi, I actually see it more about Anna-Nassi and Cole; two oddballs that don’t fit the mold but have found each other.
7. Gang of Youths, “What Can I Do If the Fire Goes Out?” There are a few noisy tracks on here, and this is the kind of stuff Anna-Nassi would definitely listen to when on her own, late at night in her nestroom with headphones on and stereo loud. She’s an extremely emotionally driven character and this kind of track would definitely lift her spirits.
8. The Naked and Famous, “A Still Heart” On the other hand, I can see Kaffi listening to this kind of delicate music. He might be high-spirited especially when flying, but he’d also exude a Zen-like balance when he feels purely at peace with himself and his surroundings. Deep down, this is the kind of character he really is. I can see him thinking of Diwa when this song is on.
9. U2, “13 (There Is a Light)” This is another theme of Diwa & Kaffi: the deep and personal connections between people that go well past friendship and acquaintance. The ability to trust another person not just with their deepest emotions but with their life is certainly rare and worth protecting. You’ll see it between many of the characters in the novel.
10. Embrace, “Love Is a Basic Need” On the other hand, this is another view of that deep and personal connection: keeping and protecting that link with the person you love even though they might be so completely different from you in so many ways. Love isn’t always about finding the perfect match; it can also be about finding the needed match.
11. The Sound of Arrows, “Don’t Worry” In the movie version of this story in my head, this is the song that would play when Diwa and Kaffi are about embark on their first trip to Panooria alone. ‘Out of the nest and into the wild,’ as the mandossi saying goes. They might be nervous about doing something new and exciting for the first time, but they’re comforted by the fact that they’re doing it together.
12. Shame, “Friction” This is totally Anna-Nassi’s song. Noisy and irritable, just like the spirit within her. She can be her own worst enemy sometimes, especially when Cole’s not around.
13. Elbow, “One Day Like This” One of my all-time favorite songs, and one of the most uplifting and inspiring songs I’ve ever heard. I can be in the shittiest of moods (which I was at the time of writing the novel, nearing the end of my time with the Former Day Job) and yet I was able to find at least one thing that could lift my spirits immeasurably. This would be Diwa’s song as he learns just how important his three friends are to him.
14. GoGo Penguin, “Strid” This jazz band’s album A Humdrum Star had been getting heavy play on my PC during my writing sessions, and this one’s one of my favorite tracks from it. I’d consider it a sort of instrumental score for a tense and pivotal scene in the book when Diwa and Kaffi are faced with an unsettling situation, and all that they have to go on is instinct.
15. Eels, “There I Said It” Equally the goofiest and the most tender love song I’ve ever heard, this is totally Diwa and Kaffi’s theme. Their connection runs deep, and yet they’re still characters with embarrassing faults and mistakes and everything else. They’re not perfect, but they love each other anyway.
16. U2, “You’re the Best Thing About Me” And this would be Anna-Nassi and Cole’s theme. Their relationship is about completing and complementing each other, even though they couldn’t be more different from each other. Their connection runs deep as well, but in a very different way than our titular characters; they wouldn’t want to be with anyone else to make them happier because they’ve already found that happiness.
17. The Sound of Arrows, “Beautiful Life” This song is near the end of this mix, but this would actually be the opening theme; this sets the tone with the characters as well as with the setting. It also sets the mood of the novel: it’s not about going on a life-altering journey or a quest for honor or victory, but simply about knowing what you want and having the strength and conviction to reach for it with everything that you have. ‘Go and do what makes your heart sing,’ as the tintrite saying goes.
18. Love Tractor, “We All Loved Each Other So Much” An oldie but a goodie from 1987, it’s a wonderful indie rock instrumental jam that I love. I can hear this being played during the more uplifting moments of the novel. Even the title resonates with our four central characters: they do indeed love each other.
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Thanks again for reading and listening! I really hope you like Diwa & Kaffi!
So Diwa & Kaffi drops at the end of this week…and I’m already thinking of what I want to do next! I’m definitely feeling the positive rush that I felt when I released my previous ebooks, how having one new title out each year inspired me to keep doing what I love. Sure, taking a few years off for personal reasons was worth it (and much needed) but now that I’m back I really want to return to this schedule.
So what would I work on, you say? Would it be Theadia? Or maybe Queen Ophelia? A sequel to In My Blue World? Or something else kicking around? Or something completely new? [I mean, I do have that romcom idea as well…] Who knows? Either way, releasing this book has reminded me how much I loved self-publishing — even the hard parts like the revision and the cover layout and the formatting — I want to keep going!!
WHOOF. I spent most of Thursday afternoon prepping Diwa & Kaffi for its July 1 debut, and it took me a little longer than I expected! Formatting the manuscript itself wasn’t all that hard, though I’m clearly out of practice and had to fix a few embarrassing errors.
No, it was the cover that was the biggest pain in the butt! I’ll spare you the details other than that my photo editing apps were refusing to do what I wanted them to do. For now I’ve uploaded a slightly touched-up cover that I can deal with, but will most definitely upload a much better one when I have more time and brainspace for it.
But yeah, at this point the book is ready to go! I’m right chuffed that this book is finally about to be a reality!
In case you haven’t guessed already, I am planning a quick release of Diwa & Kaffi, preferably on 1 July to coincide with Smashwords’ annual summer sale. This gives me a little less than two weeks to a) finish the ‘temporary’ cover I’d started making the other day, and b) format the Word file to e-book form. Thankfully I can do both in that amount of time as I’m a quick worker and the novel has been completely revised, cleaned up and ready to go for a good few months now.
What inspired this surprise release? Sigur Rós, of all things. Last Thursday they’d popped onto their Instagram feed and simply said ‘oh hey we have our first new album in ten years coming out tomorrow, have fun’. On that very same day, I’d gotten an email from Smashwords about their summer sale, and realized this was a perfect time to send it out into the wild. I posted it in serialized form for my readers here a few months ago, but I felt it was far past time to share it with the rest of the world.
To be honest, I really miss the thrill of releasing e-books like this! My last one was In My Blue World in early 2019, so it’s been a four-year gap. [I’ve obviously been busy since then with writing and real life stuff, of course.] I’m looking forward to getting this one out to you in a couple of weeks! Stay tuned for updates and links!
I’ve been sitting on this novel a bit too long and I think it really needs to be released. I consider it one of my best works, and weirdly enough the only reason I’m still sitting on it is because I haven’t gotten around to researching and commissioning an artist to create what I’m seeing in my head for it. [For those curious, I’ve always pictured it in a light manga style, having the same kind of mood as one of Rumiko Takahashi’s Maison Ikkoku tankobon, featuring the two mains on the cover and the other two mains on the back. I’m thinking I may do that for a later edition.]
One thing of note: serendipitously, the curved apartment building in the picture is here in San Francisco and is the exact same building that inspired the Palm building in the novel! Did not expect that to happen when I went looking for pictures yesterday!
Either way, I’m planning on finally sending this one out into the wild VERY soon. Which means I’m back to playing around with Shutterstock’s library and PicMonkey’s platform. This is by no means the final version, of course. I need to tweak a number of things, including the color of the sky and the fonts for the title and byline.
“Rule number one in the music business: never start a band with any members of your family.
Sure, it’ll start off just fine, everyone having fun, with big dreams of success and gold records, but then you realize you’re stuck in a stinking, too-small tour bus with your siblings for the fifth year running, and your brother hates you. Next thing you know, the band implodes just as it’s reaching its highest success, your family won’t talk to you anymore, the press is having a field day ripping you to shreds, and you’ll need to start your career all over again as a solo act. If you dare to at that point.
Rule number two in the music business: rules were made to be broken.” — Thomas Lidwell
Meet the Lidwells! is the story of four siblings and two cousins who start a band as teenagers and achieve success beyond their wildest dreams. But while they consistently top the charts with their irresistibly catchy tunes, they’re also fighting their own demons: perfectionism, disenchantment, addiction, exhaustion, sexism…and figuring out how to become an adult in front of millions of fans.
** NOW AVAILABLE AT SMASHWORDS! ON SALE ALL THIS WEEK FOR ONLY $1.50! Come check it out!
[Not on Amazon yet, but the Kindle format is available at the Smashwords site.]
And don’t forget, you can also shop indie! My e-books are available at numerous independent bookstores that sell them via Kobo. Here’s a few great local Bay Area stores for starters:
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