A vanished scientist, a daughter unwilling to accept the official story, and an American Southwest transformed by catastrophic drought give Everything That’s Left Behind an intriguing mystery at its center. Kelly Lydick’s first novel begins with a deeply personal question—what really happened to Nichola Rodale’s father?—then sends Nichola across a desolate landscape in search of an answer that may overturn everything she believed about his death. The combination of family mystery, scientific legacy, and a drought-altered setting makes this science fiction story one to watch.

Fiction/Science Fiction

Date Published: June 28, 2026

Publisher: Sapphire Stories

When Nichola Rodale stumbles upon information suggesting her father—a renowned scientist and brilliant puzzle maker—may not have died during The Great Drought, she embarks on a perilous journey across the desolate American Southwest to discover the truth.

The mystery surrounding Nichola’s father gives this science fiction novel a particularly personal engine. He was not only a renowned scientist but a brilliant puzzle maker, a detail that adds another layer to the information Nichola uncovers and the questions she must pursue. Her search also unfolds across a desolate American Southwest after The Great Drought, placing an intimate family mystery inside a dramatically altered landscape. For readers who like speculative fiction anchored by a concrete question that must be solved, those elements create a compelling reason to follow Nichola into the unknown.

Everything That’s Left Behind belongs on the radar of science fiction readers who prefer their speculative settings tied to a personal mystery. The Great Drought and the desolate Southwest provide the larger backdrop, but Nichola’s reason for crossing that landscape is intensely specific: evidence that her scientist father may still be alive. Readers especially interested in stories involving hidden information, puzzles, family secrets, and a search for truth should find plenty here to pique their curiosity.

Kelly Lydick’s writing has appeared in Natural Awakenings, Co Yoga + Life, True Blue Spirit, American Art Collector, Western Art Collector, and many others. She has been featured on NPR’s The Writers’ Block and the Word podcast, and on iHeart radio. She is the author of the experimental Mastering the Dream, a contributing author to the anthology Dreams That Change Our Lives, and the author of Dream Incubation for Greater Self-Awareness: A Handbook. Everything That’s Left Behind is her first novel.

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At the heart of Everything That’s Left Behind is a discovery powerful enough to make Nichola question a death she had accepted as fact. That gives her journey across the drought-stricken Southwest more than physical stakes: she is following the possibility that her father’s story never ended where she was told it did. Add his identities as scientist and puzzle maker, and the novel has the ingredients for a mystery in which finding the truth may depend upon understanding what he left behind. Kelly Lydick’s move into fiction offers an intriguing premise for readers drawn to science fiction where the fate of a changed world and the unanswered questions within one family intersect.

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Artificial intelligence may be developing at technological speed, but the institutions responsible for deciding how it should be used do not move nearly as quickly. In Lifecycle of Intelligence, economist and international analyst Steve Jones approaches that mismatch as a question of governance and leadership rather than technology alone. His framework connects AI policy with economic power, democratic accountability, labour-market disruption and international competition, while proposing both a five-stage maturity model and an AI Charter for the Machine Age. The result is a book concerned not simply with what artificial intelligence can do, but with who will shape its development, who will benefit from it and what structures might keep that power accountable.

AI Governance, AI Charter, Artificial Power, AI Oligarchs, Democracy and the Future of Nations

Economic Policy, Leadership, Artificial Intelligence

Date Published: July 16, 2026

• The Big Picture - Understand the economic, geopolitical and historical forces driving the AI revolution.
• The Five-Stage AI Maturity Model - A practical framework that helps governments, organisations and nations understand where they are today and how to progress safe, responsible and human-centred AI governance.
• The AI Charter - Inspired by the Atlantic Charter, this bold vision establishes guiding principles for freedom, democracy, accountability, fairness and shared prosperity in the Machine Age.
• The Real Risks of AI - Explore the challenges of AI oligarchies, automation, job displacement, surveillance capitalism, misinformation, democratic erosion, systemic safety risks, environmental impacts and geopolitical competition.
• A Practical Roadmap for Action - Discover concrete governance models, implementation frameworks and policy recommendations that help leaders move from awareness to action.

• The AI Governance Manifesto
• The Lifecycle of Nations Maturity Model
• The Lifecycle of Intelligence Maturity Model
• The AI Charter for the Machine Age
• AI Governance Playbooks for governments, businesses and institutions
• Regulatory architecture and implementation roadmaps
• Board-level AI governance frameworks
• Labour transition and economic renewal strategies
• Metrics, checkpoints and governance tools
• International cooperation and treaty pathways

Lifecycle of Intelligence shifts the AI discussion away from a narrow contest over technical capability and toward the institutions that will have to manage its consequences. Jones treats artificial intelligence as an economic and political force capable of altering labour markets, concentrating influence and testing democratic safeguards. What distinguishes his approach is the attempt to turn those concerns into structures readers can examine: a five-stage AI maturity model, an AI Charter inspired by the Atlantic Charter, and governance playbooks aimed at governments, businesses and institutions. 

For readers following the public debate around AI, that combination provides a way to consider not only the risks being identified, but the governing principles and practical mechanisms proposed in response.

This is aimed most directly at readers whose interest in AI extends beyond new tools and technological capabilities to questions of policy, economics and institutional power. Policymakers and business leaders can approach the maturity model and governance frameworks from an implementation perspective, while economists and strategists may be more interested in Jones's treatment of automation, labour transition and the distribution of prosperity. 

The book also has a clear place for readers concerned with democratic accountability, surveillance, misinformation and the possibility that control of increasingly consequential technology could become concentrated among a relatively small number of powerful actors. Its emphasis is on governing the Machine Age rather than explaining how its underlying technology works.

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The most consequential question raised by Lifecycle of Intelligence is not how powerful AI may become, but how societies intend to exercise authority over that power as it grows. Jones places that question alongside employment, economic concentration, democratic institutions and international relations, then gives his argument a concrete shape through the maturity model, AI Charter and implementation frameworks. That makes this a policy-minded contribution to the AI conversation: one built around the premise that technological development and responsible governance cannot be treated as separate projects. 

For readers thinking about the Machine Age in terms of institutions and public choices rather than software alone, there is plenty here to examine and debate.

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Grief does not follow a single set of rules in Holes in the Somewhere. It can emerge through a mysterious wall, accompany strangers confronting a fungal pandemic, or sit beside college students preparing for the extinction of the Sun. Richard R. Brown gathers those unsettling possibilities around something considerably more personal: his own experience of grief and loss following his father’s death from cancer. The result is a collection where speculative fiction and horror provide unusual shapes for recognizably human fears, losses, and impossible decisions—and where the distance between the normal and paranormal can become disturbingly thin.

Holes in the Somewhere

by Richard R. Brown

Genre: Speculative Fiction, Horror Stories

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Holes In The Somewhere is a collection of short works, anchored by a personal memoir of the author's own experience with grief and loss after the passing of his father from cancer, by speculative fiction author Richard R. Brown.

A single mother encounters insanity in the worst possible person; an estranged parent loses his reunited family to a mysterious bathroom wall; a group of strangers come together to fight a fungal pandemic; college students prepare for the extinction of the Sun... these are a few of the challenges faced by the desperate characters in Holes In The Somewhere. The choices they make, the dilemmas they wrestle with, all have very supernatural consequences, but are felt with very human emotions.

These stories will tug at strings your heart thought were too well-hidden for anyone to know about, and cause the mind to probe the gray areas between wrong and right. Between normal and paranormal. Behind what's real and only to the side of what's unreal. A perfect mix of quick, unsettling reads, and longer, heart-wrenching escapes.

What readers are saying:

"The debut is speculative fiction in form: weird, unsettling, occasionally cosmic. But it reads less like a genre exercise than like grief that has been given permission to take unusual shapes." - Justine Castellon, Author/Reviewer

"I guarantee there is a 'gotcha' story in there for just about anybody, and if you don't find at least one that bothers you just as you're about to fall asleep, you're made of sterner stuff than I am." - Kenneth Crist, editor-in-chief, Black Petals Magazine

“These stories are weird and creepy and heart-wrenching in all the best ways. If you enjoy fiction that makes you question everything and wrecks you emotionally, this is for you!” – Valerie S., 5 star Amazon Review

Holes in the Somewhere uses speculative situations to approach emotions that are considerably less imaginary. A mysterious bathroom wall, an approaching solar catastrophe, and a fungal pandemic may belong to horror and speculative fiction, but the people facing them are still negotiating grief, fractured families, fear, responsibility, and choices without comfortable answers.

The inclusion of Brown’s personal memoir gives that approach additional context. Rather than keeping lived loss separate from the collection’s stranger stories, the book places the author’s experience following his father’s death alongside fictional characters confronting their own versions of disappearance, upheaval, and mortality. That combination makes the collection especially interesting for readers who appreciate horror that uses the impossible to examine emotions that are entirely real.

This collection should be particularly interesting to readers who prefer horror that unsettles emotionally as well as supernaturally. Its scenarios range from intimate family terror to large-scale catastrophe, allowing the stories to approach dread from different directions rather than relying on a single kind of monster or threat.

Short-fiction readers who enjoy moving between quick disturbances and longer narratives will also find that variety built into the collection. The recurring attention to grief and difficult moral territory makes it a stronger match for those who like speculative fiction that leaves uncomfortable questions behind after the immediate danger has passed.

Excerpt from ‘A Hole In The Somewhere’, a story in ‘Holes In The Somewhere’

When he hung up, he saw the answer to his problem of Tony’s dead body. He picked Tony up and wrestled him into the wall where the blurred patch was. Pieces seemed to fall off into the wall, but that just made Tony easier to handle. He just had time to change into a clean shirt and slide the gun back under the couch before there came a soft knock on his door.

Jack wiped sweat from his forehead and opened the door. Before him stood the same little girl who held his hand twenty years ago and asked him, “Why, Daddy?” about absolutely everything. Only now she had green eyes when she used to have brown eyes.

“Mommy says you’re my grandpa,” she said to him now. “Why is your door all bubbly and brown, Grandpa?”

Jack looked up and past his granddaughter at Mary, who was smiling anxiously at both of them.

“Hi, Daddy,” was all she said. It was enough.

Jack burst into tears, picked his granddaughter up in his left arm, and trotted down the steps to embrace his daughter with his right arm. They hugged for several moments before a muffled, “Why are you crying, Grandpa?” came from his shoulder.

Jack laughed, and put her down on the ground again. “I’m crying because I’m so happy to meet you!” he said.

“Oh. My name’s Emily, but you can call me Emmy. Why do you live by the train tracks, Grandpa?”

“Actually, Dad, I’m curious, too. This address came up as ‘Condemned.’ How is it that you live here?”

Jack led them inside and told them his story, forcing himself to be honest about his decisions and his reasons. Recent events disappeared from his awareness as the last twenty years enveloped him. He told them about his depression and anger from the divorce, and how losing everything seduced him into giving up everything. He hadn’t wanted to try to replace what he had lost because that would be admitting that he had lost it to begin with. After a few minutes, Emmy wanted to explore, so Jack gave a tour while he talked. It only took a minute.

In the bathroom, Mary shot him an alarmed look when she saw the cracked mirror. “Oh! It was like that when I found this place. I got a new one last month. I just forgot about hanging it up.”

“Let’s do it now, Daddy. I don’t like that crack, for some reason. It creeps me out.”

They hung the new mirror while Jack entertained them with stories from his train-hopping days. Mary leaned the cracked mirror against the wall below the new one, stood up, and proclaimed, “Much better!”

Jack and Mary returned to the main room. Mary told Jack about her short, failed marriage to Emmy’s father, her job at CyberSolutions, and her academic career. “Where is Emmy?” Jack wondered aloud.

“She was fascinated by that old mirror, so I leaned it against the wall so she could look at it.”

Jack felt a moment of unease at this, but had no ready explanation for it, so he let it go. “Are you hungry, kiddo?” he asked Mary. “I’m sure Emmy probably is. Want to go to lunch?”

“Sure, but I’m pay-“Mary was interrupted by a tremendous whipcrack coming from the bathroom.

The gun!, Jack thought, and leapt to his feet as Mary called out, “Emmy?  Emmy!” They both ran into the bathroom, only to find it empty. There was nothing to hide behind, but Mary made a close search of every corner, anyway, all the while calling her daughter’s name, “Emmy! Emmeeee!”

Richard R. Brown is a legally-blind author of speculative fiction, horror, and thrillers. He writes from experience, having lived through paranormal events, alien attacks, and cosmic horrors -- at least, in his mind and in the books he listens to. He and his Guide Dog live in the Pacific Northwest. Richard is between Guide Dogs at the moment as Edison retired last summer. Edison was at Richard's side through every story in his book. Richard has no such guidance for his current novel, but will likely have one for editing help.

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The title Holes in the Somewhere suits a collection concerned with the places where ordinary explanations stop working. Brown’s characters encounter impossible intrusions into recognizable lives, but the emotional consequences remain grounded in things people understand all too well: losing someone, recovering a relationship, confronting mortality, and wondering which choice can still be called right when every option carries a cost.

That connection between grief and the uncanny may be the collection’s most intriguing proposition. Horror can give fear a monster, a pandemic, a cosmic catastrophe, or even a hole where no hole should exist. Grief is harder to contain. Here, the strange things lurking around the edges of reality offer another way to look directly at it.

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Ginny Carmichael’s road trip begins as an act of escape, but Second Chance Highway is interested in what happens after physical distance has been created between a woman and the life that has harmed her. Traveling with her baby daughter, Ginny encounters people who offer kindness without demanding anything in return, while the road steadily carries her toward an estranged mother and wounds that cannot be left behind simply by crossing state lines. Lori Keesey’s sequel to Always Think of Me places faith, forgiveness, and restoration alongside the practical courage required to begin again, turning the highway itself into part of Ginny’s reckoning with what freedom might actually mean.

Second Chance Highway

A Sequel

Fantasy / Action & Adventure / Christian

Date Published: June 9, 2026

Publisher: Clay Bridges Publishing

Sometimes, the second chance we truly need is the one we give ourselves.

Ginny Carmichael feels trapped in her abusive relationship until an otherworldly visit ignites her determination to break free. With her baby daughter in tow, she embarks on a courageous road trip that not only takes her away from danger but also leads her to unexpected kindness, genuine connections, and profound forgiveness. 

Along the way, she meets a compassionate waitress, a spirited aunt, and ultimately her estranged mother, who may hold the key to her healing. As Ginny approaches her destination—and the truth about her worth—she discovers that escape was never the destination. Wholeness was. 

Second Chance Highway is a poignant tale of faith, friendship, and the path to restoration and redemption, and is the sequel to the award-winning Always Think of Me.

Second Chance Highway centers its story on an important distinction: getting away from danger and recovering from it are not the same thing. Ginny’s decision to leave is only the beginning. The people she encounters on the road—a waitress, an aunt, and eventually the mother from whom she has been separated—become part of a much more difficult process involving trust, forgiveness, and the rebuilding of her sense of worth.

The supernatural element also gives Ginny’s departure an unusual starting point without removing the human work that follows. Her journey still depends on choices, relationships, and a willingness to confront painful family history. Readers interested in faith-centered fiction that treats restoration as a process rather than a single dramatic moment may find that emphasis especially meaningful.

This sequel may appeal most to readers who want character-driven Christian fiction concerned with recovery, family relationships, and the difficult work of forgiving without pretending that harm never occurred. Ginny’s journey combines a literal road trip with a return to unresolved relationships, giving the story room for both outward movement and inward change.

Those who have already read Always Think of Me can continue Ginny’s story here, while readers drawn to women rebuilding their lives after controlling relationships may connect with the book’s focus on agency, motherhood, faith, and learning to accept genuine kindness after living with fear.

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The most significant distance Ginny travels in Second Chance Highway is not measured by the miles between her old life and her destination. Leaving gives her the opportunity to survive; the harder question is what she will build once she is no longer organizing every decision around fear. That distinction gives the novel a more thoughtful definition of a second chance than simply starting over somewhere new.

Ginny’s encounters along the road also suggest that restoration can arrive through unexpected people as readily as through long-awaited reconciliations. Her destination matters, but so do the moments that gradually challenge what she has learned to believe about herself. In that sense, the highway is less an escape route than the place where Ginny begins deciding what she will carry forward—and what she is finally ready to leave behind.

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