Spotlight: When Women Talk Volume 3, Notes from the Future

Ever wish you could call your younger self and say, “It’s going to be okay”? 

In When Women Talk: Notes From the Future, ten incredibly diverse women look back and do just that. 

This isn’t an “I told you so” lecture; this book gathers honest, heartfelt stories from women across generations, reaching back to tell their younger selves what truly matters. From messy breakups to career wins, these stories offer a roadmap for your own journey. It’s not about quick fixes; it’s about the timeless wisdom of resilience, self-worth, and trust. You need to read this because it feels like a long coffee date with your future, much wiser best friend.

"While a single voice can make an impact, many voices can make change. We all have a purpose and a story to tell; there is someone who needs to hear it, and by showing up we can make a difference in someone’s life, career, or business." — Cathy Kuzel, curator.

"We don’t have to bring ill-emotions from an unsettling childhood event into our adulthood. And yet if we do, there is hope for renewal. After all, it takes what it takes to get us to where we are today in life. Sometimes the journey from nightfall to sunrise is not an overnight matter." — Elle Mott, co-author.

Excerpt

Elle Mott’s Chapter Contribution

“My Journey From Nightfall to Sunrise”

A year earlier, we had fit in with this crowd of kids. This year was different. It was the year we should have stayed home or perhaps done Halloween differently. At twelve years old, we were a bit too old for trick-or-treating. And yet, we pushed ahead as little kids tried to keep up. After hitting the whole neighbourhood, stuffing our bags with candy, we arrived back at my friend’s house. Her mom met us at the front door. Stretching out her arm to point in the direction of my house, she asked, “Can I give you a ride home?” Ice cubes clinked in her glass.

“No, thank you,” I said. 

“Are you sure? You really shouldn’t walk home alone.”

“Yes, I’m sure, Claudia. I’ll be fine.” With other friends, I addressed their moms respectfully with a Mrs. This mom was different in a carefree sort of way.

I had two reasons to decline her ride home. One was that she had been drinking cocktails again. When she drank, which was often, she would suddenly fall asleep. I didn’t want that to happen with me in the car. Also, I wanted seconds on candy from the houses between hers and mine.

“Okay, you be safe, and you two will see each other come tomorrow morning.”

In that moment, I paid no real mind to what she said, and as I turned my back, she seemed to wave goodbye. It was a safe neighbourhood where kids could run free, without any worries to be had. 

I didn’t see my friend the next morning. What happened next left me too ashamed to pull the covers off my head come the next day. I was allowed to stay home in a sick day from school. Sometimes the journey from nightfall to sunrise is not an overnight matter. But that’s getting ahead of my story.

I had only a short way to go, so I proceeded with my trick-or-treating, skipping houses with lights off. Street lights, too, were far and few between.

My walk took me past a few houses to reach the end of my friend’s block on Dogwood, which put me catty-corner to my street, Camellia Drive. I paused, reasoning that I could get even more candy if I took the long way home. So, I kept going and turned down the next street, Balsam Drive. I would take the alley that cut through the middle of this block to Camellia Drive. No cars drove that alley. It was a dirt path we kids took as a shortcut, and my house sat one over from that alley. I didn’t see any other kids around, and for a quick second I questioned myself as I wondered whether going the long way was the right choice.

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About the Co Author

Elle Mott writes creative nonfiction focused on resiliency, empowerment, and advocacy. She is a featured co-author in the new book, When Women Talk Volume 3 (The Connected Woman, 2026). Elle toured with WOW! earlier this year for the historical biography, "Marie Conner, A Leading Lady" (Luminare Press, 2026). She is also the author of "Out of Chaos, A Memoir" (Boyle & Dalton, 2018), and "People Helping People" (2020). Her shorter pieces are widely featured in ezines, literary journals, national news magazines, and regional collections. Elle works at the public library in downtown Cincinnati and dedicates her free time to her passion for writing. She lives in nearby northern Kentucky with two cats and several pet birds. 

Website: https://ellemottauthor.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elle-mott-author

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ellemott.author

AllAuthor: https://allauthor.com/author/ellemott

Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/ellemott

Spotlight: Ripping the Odds by CB Noy

Release Date: October 27

AVAILABLE IN KINDLE UNLIMITED

Getting kidnapped and losing my leg wasn’t part of the plan. Neither was falling for my boss, a member of the Russian Bratva.  

He saved me, in more ways than one. 

Zakhar Vlaschenko.

Six-feet, six-inches of raw masculinity. He was beautiful, built, and broody. Exactly my type. I had no idea he felt the same about me as I did him until I was lying in a hospital bed after he saved me from death’s door. 

My independence was shattered in the blink of an eye.  Being an amputee, even the simplest activities were a struggle. They called it my new normal. My new hell was more like it.

No matter how hard I tried to push him away, Zak stayed by my side. He erased all my fears with a single look, and promised me the future I always dreamed of. 

But a life with him didn’t come without danger. His enemies were ruthless. They wanted to destroy everything he cared about. 

His brothers. 

His business.

Me.

With our love on the line, I had to make a choice. Leave my heart behind, or go all in. 

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Meet C.B. Noy

C.B.Noy was born and raised in Northern Maryland and decided it was a great place to raise a family. She and her husband live ten minutes from the house she grew up in with the two youngest of their five kids. Rounding out the family are their two dogs and two cats. For nine years, she was a nurse in the ICU and then transitioned to home health nursing five years ago. She is an avid reader of romance and had an idea for a book one weekend. With the help of some seriously awesome and amazing friends, and the support of her family, she turned a dream into a reality. 

To find out about C.B. Noy’s upcoming releases and giveaways, sign up for her newsletter here

For more information on C.B. Noy and her books visit: https://www.authorcbnoy.com/

Connect with C.B. Noy: https://www.authorcbnoy.com/contact

Cover Reveal: The Forgotten Bruja by Johanny Ortega

Publication date: March 16 2027

Genres: Gothic, Horror

Freedom has always meant leaving.

For Isadora Espinal, escape was the only way to survive the life her mother tried to force upon her—a legacy built on silence, blind obedience, and a responsibility Isadora never agreed to carry. So she left Willowshade behind and built a future far beyond her mother’s reach.

Twelve years later, Altagracia Espinal is dead, and Isadora has been summoned home.

What awaits her is not an explanation but a trail of unfinished warnings, fractured family histories, and whispers that seem to seep from the walls themselves, blurring the line between guidance and manipulation. The deeper Isadora searches, the more she suspects her mother’s secrets were never meant to protect the family. They were meant to bind it.

Now the house remembers her. The land is watching her. And the inheritance Isadora once rejected may not allow her to leave a second time.

Set in late-1960s Ohio, The Forgotten Bruja is a slow-burn gothic horror novel steeped in Dominican folklore, Spanglish dread, and magical realism. It is a story of inherited obligation, buried history, queer love, and the devastating cost of deciding which parts of a legacy deserve to survive.

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About the Author

Johanny Ortega is a Dominican American author who writes across genres—blending psychological horror, literary fiction, magical realism, and thrillers that punch you right in the gut. Whether writing about haunted hills, generational trauma, or the quiet unraveling of everyday life, her stories center marginalized voices, morally complex women, and the messy truth about survival.

She is the founder of Have a Cup of Johanny, a creative platform where she blogs, podcasts, and advocates for inclusive storytelling. Her award-winning middle-grade and adult fiction has resonated with readers who crave depth, grit, and emotional honesty.

When she’s not writing, she’s raising kids in a blended military family, reading books that wreck her soul in the best way, and saying what others are afraid to.

Connect:

https://haveacupofjohanny.com/

https://www.tiktok.com/@acupofjo_hanny

https://www.instagram.com/haveacupofjohanny/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21790137.Johanny_Ortega

Spotlight: The Throwaways by Greta Kelly

Imprint: Sideways

Genre: Mystery and Suspense

Tropes: Overcoming odds

The Calloway women are notorious for three things: Olympic-level banter, an inexplicable fear of dolls, and secrets.

And one of these things is going to get them killed.

Aster Calloway only sold her grandmother’s Fabergé music box on eBay to finance her mom’s mayoral campaign. It’s not like Poppy Calloway has any real business running for office, but the only other candidate is her book-banning high school nemesis and she’s in the lead. But what Aster doesn’t realize is that selling the heirloom has toppled the house of lies her grandmother, Iris, has been living in for the past forty years.

Because hidden inside that jewel-encrusted music box was a list of names - names that protected defected KGB operative Iris, her daughter, and her granddaughter. Now the list is gone, and a creepy doll is on Poppy’s doorstep, which can only mean that the list is in play...and the three most dangerous spies in the world are on the hunt:

The one who broke Iris’s heart.

The one who gave her Poppy.

And the one who wants all the other spies, and especially those bickering Calloway women, dead.

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About the Author

Greta Kelly is the co-host of SFF Addicts Podcast and the author of The Throwaways as well as The Warrior Witch duology and The Queen of Days, fantasy books with a touch of magic, a handful of snark, and killing-spree endings. She currently lives in Wisconsin with her husband EJ, and daughters Lorelei and Nadia who are doing their level-best to take over the world. You can follow her on Instagram, X and TikTok @gretakkelly.

Connect:

Website: https://www.gretakkelly.com/

Spotlight: The Fist of Memory by Wole Talabi

A strange alien spacecraft suddenly appears in the sky in this electrifying, action-packed first contact novel set in near-future Nigeria from award-winning author Wole Talabi

A hard science-fiction novel featuring an assassin-for-hire, a witchdoctor, and an astronomer, this fast-paced thriller is perfect for fans of Arrival

When a non-communicative alien spacecraft suddenly appears in the sky, global powers are thrown into turmoil. 

But for Tope, a principled Nigerian assassin with a talent for lethality in the employ of the mysterious witchdoctor known as "Baba," it’s all just business as usual. At least until a job goes wrong, and Tope is caught in the scramble—a high stakes game of power and politics for the future that is to come. Joined by Itumeleng, a South African astronomer plagued by mysterious dreams, they must find a way to survive, navigate their complicated pasts, and come to understand how they, and all of humanity, are connected to the alien craft before it lands and the world changes forever. But it won’t be easy. There are sinister forces marshalled against them, including a strange assassin obsessed with a single memory.

The Fist Of Memory is a first contact thriller unlike any other; a meditation on the nature of reality, memory and connectedness.

Excerpt

Warri, Nigeria

Tope

Here’s the thing about killing people: I don’t like it, but I’m good at it. 

That’s why I’m perched on a dusty rooftop, ensconced in an electromagnetic reflection bubble, patiently waiting to kill Rever end Doctor Clement Osagie.

  It’s hot and the air is heavy with humidity. [Thirty- one- point- four degrees Celsius and ninety- four percent,] Ori, the augmented intelligence system embedded in my brain, tells me in a soft, neural whisper. The noon sun beams down relentlessly through blue gaps in the clouds. Puffy and white and grey- edged, they are swollen, pregnant with [a sixty- three percent probability of] precipitation. Sleek black police drones drift lazily like metal birds, specks against the clouds. Bloody spies are all over the damn country now thanks to the government subcontracting surveillance to foreign companies that use their proprietary, predictive algorithms to monitor the feeds re motely, and flag high- probability crime scenarios to local authorities for action. They think it’s clever and cost efficient. Well, perhaps it is, but they still haven’t seen me yet and they never will. 

I’ve already been here for . . . [two hours and sixteen minutes,] my rifle barrel in line with the high- arched window above the main door of the cream- colored building that serves as the headquarters of Modern Christ Ministries Church. Hopefully, I won’t have to wait much longer. I ignore the sweat that is running down my shaved head, dripping off my chin onto my elbows, wicking my wool jump suit. The sickly- sweet odor of dry sweat is starting to bloom. My skin is sticky and itches in places, but I don’t scratch. That will only make it worse. Besides, I’ve been in much worse positions in much worse conditions. What I really want is to get this over with and be gone before the downpour begins. I don’t like rain. Especially the kind we’ve been getting recently: infrequent but heavy. The kind that triggers floods of semi- biblical proportions— washing away whole villages like they are nothing but stains on the fabric of the world.

“Every living soul! Every living soul praise the Lord!” Pastor Osagie declares from inside the church. His voice is high- pitched and loud, and it carries well, becoming an electronic screech by the time it reaches me, distorted by the EM bubble— my mobile Faraday cage. He is a heavyset man, relatively tall. Well above the average for Nigerian men which is . . . [a hundred and seventy- three centimeters.] That voice, though. It’s incongruous with his appearance and personality. Reminds me of the first time I heard recordings of Mike Tyson. I’d watched holo- records of his boxing matches during my training, and he’d been such a terrifying man in his prime, but even then, he’d sounded like a whiny child.

Pastor Clement leaps into the air. He’s surprisingly agile for his age and lifestyle. He runs up from his place on the church floor to the podium, repeating his words over and over again. The choir echoes him in a call and response that inspires the seated and primed congregation to their feet in chant and dance. 

Bloody hell. 

They’ve ruined my shot. 

I grip the rifle pad tighter and adjust the focus of my scope. Tilting my head back a few centimeters to angle slightly up and to my right, I create a new path for my bullet. One that avoids the risen sheep but pierces the shepherd. The new path cuts below the rounded upper arc of the window of the new and expansive church building. Ori projects the expected trajectory as a bright yellow augmented reality line, confirms the unobstructed route for my bullet. Now I just need him to stop moving. But he keeps bouncing around and shouting. He is wearing an obscenely shiny grey suit that looks like it was sewn from polished silver with a blood- red dress shirt, sleeves tethered to each other with gold cufflinks that gleam when they catch the fluorescent light. His ridiculous, permed hair, diamond- encrusted watch and gold chain complete the look he is apparently going for. It matches his expensive fleet of vehicles parked along a wide dirt road beside the church and minded by several hefty- looking bodyguards in all black suits and knock- off designer sunglasses. Aviators. They always wear aviators. Not sure why. Don’t the members of his congregation ever question why a “man of God” needs so many gold accessories, four different types of Mercedes, a private jet, and bodyguards who used to be Niger- delta militants until the final, extended collapse of the global petroleum economy had made kidnapping ex pats and vandalizing pipelines unprofitable? Don’t they read their own Bible and what it says about rich men, heaven, camels, and the eye of a needle? I guess not. Most of the congregation seem completely ensorcelled by Clement and his promises. They dance, sing, and pray with tears running down their faces, their bodies twisting and contorting at his urging.

Watching all this, it would be so easy to believe that he has a special connection to both God and his congregation. They are synchronized, responding to his directions like a hive mind. Easy to believe, indeed. The world is a complex place full of confusion and uncertainty, Nigeria especially so. They find meaning in his simple message, his confident, charlatan charms. They want to believe in him, in their divine connection. It gives them something to tether themselves to. A sense of being part of something grander. Foolish, but understandable. We all need someone or something to anchor ourselves to. Pity they have chosen a sinking ship. One that never had any destination anyway.

Pastor Clement is nothing but a very good con artist, willing to take advantage of people’s faith and desperation. He is having affairs with several members of the church, including Enajite, the choir mistress who is standing in the front row wearing a blonde Brazilian weave she should not be able to afford and a tight white shirt that seems mildly unchristian. I collected evidence of their lurid sexual encounters along with the details of his money laundering activities for the same people who now want him dead because he’s become greedy. Very greedy.

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About the Author

Wole Talabi is an engineer, writer, and editor from Nigeria. Author of the critically acclaimed Shigidi And The Brass Head Of Obalufon which was named one of the best books of 2023 by The Washington Post. He has hopped around the planet quite a bit but right now lives in Australia. He has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards, the Caine Prize, and has won the Sidewise award for alternate history. Talabi's work has also been translated into 7 languages. His fiction has appeared in Asimov's, F&SF, Clarkesworld, and is collected in the books Incomplete Solutions (2019, Luna Press) and Convergence Problems (2024, DAW Books)

Spotlight: Legally Blind by Cathy Donald

The man she's defending killed her father. Now he's accused of another murder, and she believes he might be innocent.

For defense attorney Chelsea Turner, the past comes crashing back when she discovers that her newest client, Joel Radebe, is the man responsible for the bombing that killed her father when she was a child.

Joel was convicted, imprisoned, and eventually granted amnesty. But decades later, he's facing a new murder charge, and Chelsea finds herself in an impossible position: defending the man who caused her family's greatest loss.

Helping Joel could mean betraying her father's memory. As the investigation unfolds, she begins to question whether the man she may never forgive is actually innocent of this latest crime.

Set in South Africa, Cathy Donald's Legally Blind combines courtroom suspense and murder mystery with a deeply personal struggle between justice, revenge, and forgiveness. As Chelsea searches for the truth, she must confront the painful divide between what her heart wants and what she believes is right.

Could you fight for someone you may never be able to forgive?

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About the Author

Cathy Donald is a South African novelist and former medical doctor. After qualifying in medicine in 1984, she practiced in both rural communities and urban private practice, most recently running a women's health practice in Somerset West.

Alongside her medical career, she wrote scripts, music, and lyrics for amateur dramatic productions, particularly for schools and youth groups. She has since published multiple novels, many of them set in South Africa and centered on family, resilience, and the moral choices that shape people's lives.

Her novel The Silence of the Shadows received the Jury Prize at the Milan International Literary Awards in 2022.

Learn more at www.cathydonald.co.za