Grammy Winner Lil Eddie Collabs With Philippines Prince of R&B, Kris Lawrence

NY Weekly Staff on July 10, 2026

By: Alec Sharpe

Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and producer Lil Eddie is returning to the Philippines with another heartfelt collaboration, this time joining forces with Kris Lawrence, the Prince of R&B in the Philippines, for their emotional new single, “Unlove You.”

The release builds on one of the most meaningful chapters of Lil Eddie’s career. After the tremendous success of his hit “Statue” in the Philippines, he celebrated the song’s 10th anniversary with a special Taglish version alongside Jay R, widely recognized as the King of R&B in the Philippines. Both the original and the Taglish version became fan favorites, strengthening Lil Eddie’s connection with Filipino audiences and paving the way for another collaboration with one of the country’s most respected R&B artists.

Written by Lil Eddie, “Unlove You” tells the story of the person you can never seem to stop loving. Instead of focusing on heartbreak alone, the song explores how real love leaves a lasting imprint, reminding us that some relationships continue to shape us long after they’ve ended.

For Lil Eddie, the song shares the same emotional spirit as “Statue.”

“‘Unlove You’ connects with me in a similar way that ‘Statue’ did because it has such a higher meaning,” he explained. “It celebrates love and describes the power of love. Even when you feel undeserving, you can never shake it off.”

He’s even been sharing content with fans, highlighting the similarities between the two songs. While “Statue” captures the feeling of love stopping you in your tracks, “Unlove You” reflects on the love that never truly leaves. Together, they celebrate the idea that the heart always finds its way back to what was real.

The inspiration behind “Unlove You” came during Lil Eddie’s very first studio session with Kris Lawrence.

“I’m a strong believer that people write the songs, and I’m just their Uber driver,” he said. “I’m trying to take you where you want to go.”

Rather than arriving with a finished concept, Lil Eddie paid attention to Kris’s energy and sensed there was an unresolved love story waiting to be told.

“I just felt something about Kris’s energy. I thought maybe there was some unresolved love or the one that got away.”

That instinct led to the song’s defining lyric: I could never unlove you.

As the record took shape, Kris immediately connected with what Lil Eddie had written.

“He looked at me and said, ‘Bro, this is pretty psychic of you.'”

Photo Courtesy: Kris Lawrence

The release arrives as Kris Lawrence continues generating headlines throughout the Philippines. Fans have closely followed speculation surrounding his relationship with the mother of his child, a well-known actress, with many believing the two may be reconnecting. As a result, listeners have embraced “Unlove You” as a deeply personal record, with many interpreting it as a reflection of Kris’s own journey and the enduring power of true love.

Outside of his own releases, Lil Eddie continues building on an already remarkable career as one of music’s most accomplished songwriters. He has collaborated with Bebe Rexha on multiple projects over the years, most recently contributing to her latest album, Dirty Blonde. While his songwriting continues to shape major pop releases, Lil Eddie remains committed to creating music that reflects his own artistry and connects with audiences around the world.

His relationship with the Philippines has become one of the defining parts of that journey. From the enduring success of the original “Statue” to the celebrated Taglish version with Jay R and now “Unlove You” alongside Kris Lawrence, Lil Eddie has built a lasting connection with Filipino listeners through songs that speak honestly about love and relationships.

“I think everybody has that one person,” Lil Eddie said. “Whether you’re still trying to find your way back to them or it’s already too late, they left a real fingerprint on your heart.”

That simple truth is what makes “Unlove You” resonate. It’s a reminder that while relationships may end, the people who truly change us are never completely gone.

“Unlove You” by Lil Eddie and Kris Lawrence is now streaming on Spotify. Lil Eddie shares new music and updates about his projects on Lil Eddie’s Instagram.

Eco-Friendly Innovations in Sustainable Flexible Packaging

NY Weekly Staff on July 10, 2026

Table of Contents

● Mono-Material Packaging

● Recycled Content Integration

● Bio-Based and Compostable Materials

● Lightweight Packaging and Material Reduction

● Paper-Based Flexible Packaging

● Circular Economy and Refill Systems

● Smart Packaging Technologies

● Design for Recycling

● Key Challenges in Sustainable Flexible Packaging

● Future Outlook

● Conclusion

Flexible packaging has dramatically transformed how companies protect, distribute, and present consumer goods. However, as global awareness of environmental challenges rises, the packaging sector is reimagining its role in sustainability, prioritizing practices that are gentle on the earth. Today, businesses and consumers alike are considering the lifecycle impacts of their packaging choices, often partnering with a flexible packaging supplier such as Belmark to find solutions that balance performance and environmental responsibility. Understanding the new wave of eco-friendly packaging is key for anyone seeking to support a greener supply chain.

Brands are increasingly adopting packaging formats that use fewer resources, enhance recyclability, and support closed-loop systems. These trends are driven by regulatory pressures and reflect changing consumer values. As retailers commit to sustainability pledges, the shift toward eco-friendly packaging is accelerating. By using recyclable, recycled, and compostable materials, companies can build consumer trust and meet both policy and market demands. In the flexible packaging sector, collaboration and innovation are driving the development of sustainable solutions. Businesses are exploring new materials and design strategies to improve their sustainability profiles while ensuring packaging performance, supported by investments in research and development (R&D) and transparent sourcing practices.

Mono-Material Packaging

One of today’s prominent shifts in packaging is the move to mono-material films and pouches. By using a single type of polymer, such as polyethylene, these packages are designed to be more easily sorted and processed in recycling streams than complex, multi-layered packs. Simplified structures significantly improve recyclability, making it easier for recycling facilities to handle the waste.

Recycled Content Integration

Brands increasingly focus on integrating post-consumer recycled (PCR) content into their packaging. Companies like Fox Packaging are producing flexible packs with up to 30% PCR materials, demonstrating a clear commitment to circular business models. Not only does this practice minimize the extraction of virgin resources, but it also diverts material from waste streams and lowers overall carbon impacts. Consumer demand for sustainability and transparency is pushing more companies to prioritize recycled content in their packaging solutions.

Bio-Based and Compostable Materials

In the race to use renewable materials, options such as polylactic acid (PLA) and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are gaining attention. These biopolymers can decompose in composting conditions, supporting zero-waste and low-impact strategies. While their use is increasing, performance limitations and higher base costs remain challenges. For companies aiming to offer their customers a compostable option, investments in materials research and consumer education are proving essential. Collaboration across the packaging industry is a key lever for scaling these bioplastic solutions.

Lightweight Packaging and Material Reduction

Reducing packaging weight, also known as downgauging, is a practical way to cut raw material use and lower greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. Lighter packs mean more efficient shipping and less energy required along the supply chain. The real challenge is to retain the protective qualities and shelf-life benefits of heavier packaging while shrinking material consumption. Manufacturers are optimizing material layers and design structures to achieve these efficiencies across many product categories.

Paper-Based Flexible Packaging

Paper-based packaging is expanding rapidly as consumers prefer its renewable and recyclable nature. While thin plastic liners are sometimes needed for moisture and barrier properties, the industry is developing advanced coatings to maintain high performance while keeping environmental impact low. The robust paper recycling infrastructure further enhances its appeal, making it a growing option for food, personal care, and other consumer products.

Circular Economy and Refill Systems

Brands are implementing circular-economy principles by developing refillable and returnable packaging systems. These models reduce the need for single-use packaging and encourage consumers to reuse packaging, thereby decreasing total waste generation. Whether through in-store refill stations or use-at-home formats, success relies on cooperation among suppliers, brands, retailers, and consumers to build robust, convenient systems that invite participation.

Smart Packaging Technologies

Smart packaging that incorporates tracking codes, freshness monitors, or digital labels is helping companies and shoppers minimize food waste and make better use of resources. Real-time communication about usage or expiration can enhance shelf life management and boost recycling rates by improving end-of-life sorting. These technologies are paving the way for more sustainable practices throughout the value chain, offering transparency and efficiency.

Design for Recycling

Manufacturers are prioritizing designs that work with mainstream recycling infrastructure. Efforts include minimizing inks, adhesives, and laminated layers, as these can contaminate recycling processes or reduce the amount of usable reclaimed material. Using widely recycled polymers and clear labeling helps both consumers and recyclers handle packaging properly at the end of life. These thoughtful decisions are critical to achieving higher global recycling rates.

Key Challenges in Sustainable Flexible Packaging

● Limited Recycling Infrastructure: Many communities lack the facilities to properly process flexible packaging, leading to low recovery rates and high landfill volumes.

● Higher Material Costs: Many sustainable materials still cost more than standard plastics, presenting a financial hurdle for some firms and their buyers.

● Performance and Barrier Requirements: For some products (such as sensitive foods), finding sustainable packaging that meets performance and shelf-life standards remains difficult. Innovations continue to focus on these issues.

Future Outlook

Flexible packaging will continue its evolution as the industry adapts to stricter policies and higher consumer expectations for sustainability. As brands, suppliers, and policymakers work together, more accessible recycling solutions and new eco-friendly materials will emerge, bringing the sector closer to circularity. Ongoing research, pilot projects, and supplier partnerships are expected to drive a wave of positive change, helping businesses deliver on their green promises and respond to market demands with genuine, impactful innovation.

Sumarry

Sustainable flexible packaging continues to evolve through material innovation, improved recyclability, and smarter design practices. As businesses embrace environmentally responsible solutions, balancing performance with sustainability remains a key priority. By adopting emerging packaging technologies and circular strategies, companies can reduce environmental impact while meeting changing consumer expectations and supporting a more resilient, resource-efficient future.

Amina Niasse, The Global Artist Where Inherited Mysticism Meets Intention

NY Weekly Staff on July 10, 2026

By: Matt Emma

The painter some collectors call The Frequency Artist uses color in a way that can feel musical, translating Sufi metaphysics and a life lived across continents into work her collectors describe not only as painting, but as atmosphere. With a new collection, The Heart Frequencies, and her first book now on Amazon in both English and French, Amina Niasse is moving into a broader public view.

Some artists make paintings. Amina Niasse describes her work as making frequencies. In the private rooms of collectors from Dubai to New York, her canvases are spoken of less as objects than as atmospheres, fields of color arranged so a space can seem to shift the moment one is hung. Hers is a name that has traveled quietly, through curated collections and private commissions, as press attention begins to follow.

Stand before one of Amina Niasse’s canvases and something unusual can happen: the color stops behaving like decoration and starts behaving like sound. A field of vermilion does not simply sit on the surface; it carries the way a held note travels across a room. Niasse calls this visual frequency, and translating it is central to her work. She paints intention before she paints form.

In the collecting world, she is known by the name The Frequency Artist and by a clear philosophy: intention precedes form. This season, she unveiled The Heart Frequencies, nine paintings that represent a developed statement of a practice years in the making, and released her first book, A Letter from Space, on Amazon. Together, they mark a moment when an artist established in her own world steps deliberately into a wider one.

Formed Across Continents

Niasse did not study her worldview from a distance. She lived it. Her formation runs across cities and cultures that could hardly be more different, among them seven formative years in Mauritania, a heartland of the Tijaniyya Sufi tradition, alongside Dubai, Dakar, New York, Shanghai, and Los Angeles. The imprint of each is visible in the work: the desert spiritual rigor of Mauritania, the vertical ambition of the Gulf, the rhythmic traditions of West Africa, New York’s conceptual intensity, Shanghai’s layered symbolism, and the open light of the Pacific. Hers is a worldview built on immersion rather than observation, and the difference can be seen in the work.

What gives Niasse’s practice another dimension is the second discipline running beneath the first. She holds an MBA from Hult International Business School and studied at the American University in Dubai, with further academic exposure in New York and Shanghai, an international business formation more often associated with founders than with painters. The result is the convergence she has built her identity around: global intelligence meeting inherited mysticism. She is both a contemplative and a builder. It is part of why her body of work reads not as a scattering of canvases but as a deliberately collectible whole.

Inherited Mysticism

If the business formation explains the structure, the lineage explains the soul. Niasse paints from the Tijaniyya Sufi tradition of the Niasse family, a heritage of spiritual transmission rather than spectacle, and one of her years in Mauritania placed her inside. She also works from a deliberately wide contemplative inheritance she has absorbed across cultures: Sufi metaphysics first, but also the Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist contemplative practices she has studied. What unites them in her hands is not doctrine but a shared vocabulary of inner states.

In the language she works from, there are precise words for these conditions: wajd, the rapture that arrives uninvited; fana, the dissolving of the self into something larger; nur, divine light. Niasse does not illustrate these ideas. She works from inside them and lets color do the translating.

Photo Courtesy: Amina Niasse

What Collectors Acquire

Her paintings move between the grounded and the luminous, pigment as matter, light as spirit, holding both at once without resolving the tension. The effect is abstraction with emotion, and it helps explain a line her collectors have come to repeat among themselves: they acquire more than artwork. They acquire atmosphere.

“I don’t paint images. I paint the frequency a person carries before words arrive. When the color is right, the viewer feels recognized before they understand why.”

The Heart Frequencies and a Book

The Heart Frequencies is the latest in a steadily building body of work, following Ascend (2024) and Dawn (2025), each collection a discrete meditation, together a single, evolving inquiry. The nine new works treat the heart not as sentiment but as an instrument: a sensitive receiver, tuned to register what the mind misses.

“The heart hears before the eyes see. This collection is what that sounds like in color.”

Besides the collection comes the release of her first book, now available to order on Amazon in two editions, A Letter from Space in English and Une lettre du ciel in French. The two are not separate careers but one body of work in two mediums: an artist and author building not just a portfolio, but a larger creative world.

Rooted, Yet Borderless

There is a quiet argument running beneath Niasse’s emergence, one that the global art world has been slow to articulate and quick to reward. For a century, the center of that world was often assumed to live in a handful of cities, and everyone else was measured by their distance from it. That map is changing. The collectors and institutions shaping taste now are themselves global, fluent across regions, and increasingly drawn to artists whose work was never confined to a single tradition in the first place.

Niasse belongs to that shift: formed across continents, fluent between French and English, and the symbol systems of the places that made her, channeling a deep spiritual lineage into forms that may resonate across borders. Her own words for it remain clear. Her work is rooted, yet borderless. Follow it unfold on Instagram at @aminathefrequencyartist.

“I am not waiting for the center to notice me. I paint from where I already am. The frequency reaches who it reaches.”

On the evidence of The Heart Frequencies and the book landing beside it, her work appears to be reaching a wider audience.

Explore the Work and Acquire

The Heart Frequencies and available works can be viewed, and private commissions inquired about, at aminaniasse.com. Follow the artist on Instagram: @aminathefrequencyartist. Her book, A Letter from Space in English and Une lettre du ciel in French, is available to order on Amazon.

Amina Niasse’s original works are available via private commission and curated collection. The Heart Frequencies (2025) comprises nine original works.

Why Longer AI Video Is Becoming the Next Creative Workflow Test

NY Weekly Staff on July 10, 2026

The next phase of generative video may be less about making a five-second clip look impressive and more about whether teams can direct, revise and trust a longer scene.

A lot of AI video still feels like a lucky draw. A prompt produces movement, color and sometimes a surprisingly polished shot, but the result can be hard to steer once the first generation appears. For casual experimentation, that is part of the fun. For teams trying to create campaign drafts, product explainers or social-first video concepts, it can become the bottleneck.

The practical question is changing. Creators are no longer asking only whether AI can make video. They are asking whether the workflow can hold a complete idea together long enough to be useful. That means more continuity, clearer references, better timing and a way to correct mistakes without throwing away the whole clip.

That is why the discussion around Seedance 2.5 is interesting even before it becomes a normal part of day-to-day production. JXP presents the model as a preview focused on longer single clips, richer reference control and more controllable editing after generation. Those priorities speak directly to the problems creative teams run into when prompt-only video stops being enough.

Short Clips Made AI Video Feel Possible

The first wave of AI video tools made an important promise: describe a scene and receive moving imagery. That was enough to change expectations. A designer could turn a mood into motion. A founder could sketch a product teaser without booking a shoot. A creator could test a visual idea before committing time to editing.

But short clips also shaped the way people wrote prompts. Most ideas had to be compressed into one striking moment. A character walks through a neon street. A product rotates in studio light. A camera glides across a futuristic room. These clips can be useful, but they often avoid the harder parts of video: development, timing and continuity.

A longer scene creates a different challenge. It needs to begin, change and land. The subject has to stay recognizable. The camera movement has to make sense across time. The lighting, background and emotional tone cannot drift every few seconds. In other words, longer AI video is not simply more seconds. It is a tougher test of direction.

Why 30 Seconds Matters

Thirty seconds is a familiar length for digital storytelling. It is long enough for a product benefit, a brand moment, a mini narrative or an educational sequence. It is also short enough to be reviewed quickly and adapted for social platforms.

That middle ground is useful. A five-second clip can show a look. A 30-second clip can show a sequence. For marketing teams, that difference matters because many real briefs are built around progression: before and after, problem and solution, setup and reveal, or a subject moving through several visual beats.

The previewed direction of Seedance 2.5 points toward this kind of longer AI video workflow. Instead of stitching several small generations together, creators can plan one continuous clip with more room for pacing. That could reduce some of the editing friction that appears when separate clips do not match in identity, movement or lighting.

Photo Courtesy: JXP

References Are Becoming More Important Than Prompts Alone

Text is still useful, but it is not always precise enough to protect what matters in a video. A prompt can say “premium product ad” or “cinematic city scene,” yet different tools may interpret those words in completely different ways.

Reference materials make the brief more concrete. A product image can preserve packaging and shape. A location image can define the environment. A short video can show camera rhythm. An audio cue can establish pacing. When those inputs work together, the creator is not just asking the model to invent a scene. The creator is giving the model evidence.

This is where the industry appears to be moving. The next generation of tools will likely be judged by how well they combine text, images, video and sound into one stable creative direction. More references are not automatically better, but well-chosen references can make the result easier to evaluate and revise.

The Real Test Is Revision

Most creative work is not approved in one pass. A draft gets reviewed. A product detail is wrong. The camera move is close, but the ending feels weak. The background works, but the subject needs a different action. In traditional production, that is normal. In AI video, it can become expensive if the only option is to regenerate everything.

More controllable editing matters because it changes the role of a good-but-not-perfect output. Instead of treating the first result as disposable, a creator can try to preserve the strongest parts and adjust the weaker details. That is closer to how teams actually work with design, video and copy.

The challenge is reliability. If a local edit changes the entire clip, the workflow loses trust. If a correction keeps the scene stable, AI video becomes easier to use inside real creative review. For many teams, that difference will matter more than one dramatic demo.

What Teams Should Watch Before Adopting Any New Model

The excitement around generative video can hide practical questions. Before a team builds a workflow around a new model, it should check the details that affect everyday use.

  • How long can the model generate in one continuous clip?
  • What kinds of references are supported, and how many can be used?
  • Can the model follow timing, scene structure and camera direction?
  • How much control exists after the first generation?
  • What are the limits around access, pricing, export and commercial use?

These questions are not small details. They decide whether a tool belongs in a professional workflow or remains useful mainly for experimentation. A model that creates a striking sample but cannot be revised may still be hard to use under deadline pressure

A Shift From Prompting to Directing

The most interesting change in AI video is not simply better visuals. It is the shift in creative behavior. Teams are learning that a strong result usually comes from directing the model, not just prompting it. That means choosing references carefully, writing shorter and clearer instructions, defining timing and reviewing outputs against the original brief.

In that sense, AI video generation is starting to look less like a novelty tool and more like an early production layer. It can help teams explore ideas faster, but it still needs human judgment to decide what is useful, what is off-brand and what needs another pass.

Seedance 2.5 is worth watching because it reflects where the category is heading: longer clips, richer context and more control after generation. If those pieces work reliably when access opens, the conversation around AI video will become less about whether a model can create a clip and more about whether it can support a real creative workflow.

Cooper Neitzel’s Promised Lands Explores the Sacred Journey Across Seven Faith Traditions

NY Weekly Staff on July 10, 2026

The first volume in The Covenant Pulse Series invites readers into a powerful study of call, wilderness, arrival, grace, effort, and the human longing for divine promise.

Photo Courtesy: Cooper Neitzel

In an era when religious difference is often treated as division, Cooper Neitzel’s Promised Lands: Pathways of Call, Wilderness, and Arrival Across Seven Faiths offers a timely and thoughtful invitation: listen more deeply, compare more reverently, and rediscover the sacred journey that has shaped human faith across centuries.

Promised Lands is the first volume in The Covenant Pulse Series, a spiritually rich and intellectually engaging body of work built around the guiding rhythm of Listening • Learning • Living. The book, now presented in its Second Edition, 2026, following its first edition in 2024, positions itself as both a work of comparative theology and a formational guide for readers seeking to understand how divine promise, human struggle, and spiritual arrival appear across the world’s great faith traditions.

At the heart of the book is a question both ancient and urgent: What does it mean to be called away from the familiar, tested in a wilderness, and brought toward a promised land?

For Neitzel, that promised land is not limited to geography. It may be Canaan, the New Jerusalem, Jannah, Mokṣa, Nirvāṇa, Sach Khand, Zion, or the continuing covenant path of the Latter-day Saint Restoration. Each tradition names the destination differently. Each carries its own theology, sacred language, and historical memory. Yet beneath the differences, Neitzel identifies a recurring structure: Call, Wilderness, and Arrival.

This structure gives Promised Lands its distinctive shape.

The book first enters the Abrahamic traditions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, the promised land is bound to covenant, peoplehood, Torah, and the enduring hope of the Messianic Age. In Christianity, it becomes the renewed creation and the New Jerusalem, where heaven and earth are brought together in divine fulfillment. In Islam, it is Jannah, understood not merely as paradise but as the soul’s return to the nearness of God.

The second movement turns to the Dharmic traditions: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. Here, the promised land becomes less about physical territory and more about transformation. Hinduism’s Mokṣa speaks of liberation and the soul’s long homecoming. Buddhism’s Nirvāṇa offers the cessation of craving and the release from suffering. Sikhism’s Sach Khand presents the Realm of Truth, where the soul is fulfilled in the presence of Waheguru.

The third movement brings readers into Latter-day Saint promised-land narratives, exploring covenantal journeys through scripture and history. These accounts are not presented as isolated stories, but as part of a larger sacred pattern: God calls, humanity responds, the wilderness refines, and arrival becomes both gift and responsibility.

What unites the book is Neitzel’s central framework: the Covenant Pulse.

The Covenant Pulse is the living rhythm between divine action and human faithfulness. It asks how grace and effort move together. It refuses the extremes of grace without response or effort without gift. Instead, it observes that every tradition examined in the book must answer the same spiritual question in its own language: What does God give, and what is humanity asked to become?

This idea gives Promised Lands its emotional and theological force. The book does not reduce religious traditions to similarities, nor does it rank them against one another. Instead, Neitzel practices what he calls Holy Envy, a posture of reverent admiration for the beauty, discipline, courage, and spiritual insight found in traditions beyond one’s own.

That posture is especially important because Neitzel writes from a Latter-day Saint perspective. Rather than hiding that location, he names it. The book is clear that it is written from within the Restoration, with respect for Latter-day Saint scripture, covenants, temple theology, and living prophetic witness. Yet that confessional grounding does not narrow the book’s vision. It strengthens it. Neitzel’s argument is that faith can be deepened, not diminished, when it listens honestly to the best of other traditions.

In this sense, Promised Lands is not simply a book about religion. It is a book about spiritual formation. It asks readers to think about their own call, their own wilderness, and their own promised land. It asks whether arrival is only a destination or also a transformation. It asks whether Zion is a place to be reached, a people to be formed, or a covenant practice to be lived.

The result is a work that feels both scholarly and devotional, both historically aware and deeply personal.

For readers interested in theology, comparative religion, Latter-day Saint thought, interfaith dialogue, sacred history, or personal spiritual growth, Promised Lands offers a meaningful and timely contribution.

It is a book for readers who believe the journey matters.

It is a book for those who have felt called, tested, stretched, or transformed.

And it is a book for anyone still searching for the place, state, or practice where the deepest longing of the soul finally meets divine promise.

Across seven faiths, Cooper Neitzel shows that the promised land has many names. The journey has many paths. The wilderness takes many forms.

But the Pulse continues.

About the Book

Promised Lands: Pathways of Call, Wilderness, and Arrival Across Seven Faiths is Volume I of The Covenant Pulse Series. Written by Cooper Neitzel and published by Hemingway Publishers, the book examines promised-land narratives across Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and the Latter-day Saint Restoration.

The book is organized around the three-stage sacred journey of Call, Wilderness, and Arrival. It explores how different faith traditions understand divine invitation, human struggle, spiritual refinement, and ultimate fulfillment.

At the center of the work is the Covenant Pulse, Neitzel’s framework for understanding the relationship between divine grace and human faithfulness. Rather than erasing theological differences, the book honors them while identifying meaningful resonances across traditions.

About the Author

Cooper Neitzel is the author of Promised Lands and the creator of The Covenant Pulse Series. Writing from a Latter-day Saint confessional perspective, Neitzel approaches comparative theology with reverence, scholarly care, and a commitment to interfaith listening.

His work emphasizes the importance of honoring religious difference while learning from the spiritual beauty, discipline, and wisdom found across traditions. In Promised Lands, Neitzel invites readers to see the sacred journey not only as a historical or theological pattern, but as a living reality that continues to shape personal faith, covenant life, and spiritual transformation.

Through this publication, Hemingway Publishers presents a work that contributes to conversations in theology, comparative religion, Latter-day Saint studies, spiritual formation, and interfaith understanding.

Availability

Promised Lands: Pathways of Call, Wilderness, and Arrival Across Seven Faiths by Cooper Neitzel is published by Hemingway Publishers as part of The Covenant Pulse Series.

Media Contact

Hemingway Publishers
Website:https://www.hemingwaypublishers.com/

When Freedom Comes at a Cost

NY Weekly Staff on July 10, 2026

A True Story of Survival, Faith, and Courage Behind the Iron Curtain

For many readers in America, freedom is so deeply woven into daily life that it can feel almost invisible. It is there in the right to speak openly, to worship without fear, to question authority, to travel, to choose a future. But for Corinna Montgomery, freedom was never something to take for granted. It was something dangerous to desire, costly to pursue, and life-changing to finally reach. In The Wings of Freedom: A True Story of Survival, Faith and Freedom, Montgomery shares a deeply personal memoir of growing up in East Germany under Communist rule, enduring fear, arrest, imprisonment, and separation from family, and ultimately discovering not only physical freedom, but spiritual strength as well.

What makes this book especially powerful is that it does not read like distant history. It reads like a warning, a testimony, and a reminder all at once. Corinna does not present freedom as a slogan. She presents it as something she had to live without long enough to understand its true value. Her story begins in East Germany, where she was born in 1962 and raised in an environment defined by surveillance, political pressure, and silence. From an early age, she learned what it meant to live in a society where the government controlled education, work, movement, speech, and even belief. People stood in long lines for food, feared the Stasi, and understood that asking the wrong question could bring consequences no family wanted to face.

Life Inside a World Built on Fear

One of the strongest aspects of The Wings of Freedom is its plainspoken honesty about everyday life in the DDR. Corinna describes a system in which obedience was not simply encouraged; it was expected. Schools taught approved ideology. Young people were pushed toward political organizations. Creative freedom was restricted. Religion had to be kept quiet. People could not openly trust their neighbors, and sometimes not even their relatives, because the state relied on informants and on fear to maintain control.

These details make the memoir more than a personal recollection. They turn it into a vivid portrait of what happens when a government demands conformity at the expense of human dignity.

And yet, this is not a story written only in the language of oppression. It is also a story about awakening. Corinna’s stepfather plays a central role in that transformation. Unlike many around her, he encouraged her to think, to ask questions, and to understand that being told what to believe was not the same as truth. That influence changed everything. It gave her a private inner life even while she lived in a public culture of fear.

As a teenager, she began to understand that silence might keep a person safe for a while, but it could also slowly erase who they really were.

That tension sits at the heart of this memoir and gives it real emotional force…

The Moment Survival Became the Only Option

As the pressure mounted, Corinna’s family made the decision that many people only dream about, and very few dare attempt. They planned to escape. The way she recounts those preparations is one of the most gripping parts of the book. There are secret conversations, carefully managed letters, coded meetings, trusted contacts in West Germany, and the terrifying understanding that one mistake could destroy everything. This is not the stuff of fiction. It is the reality of a family trying to outthink a system designed to crush exactly this kind of hope.

One especially unforgettable episode involves Corinna carrying a letter during a covert attempt at a meeting. When the police appeared, she destroyed the letter and swallowed the torn pieces in a bathroom stall rather than risk discovery. It is the kind of detail no reader forgets because it captures both the terror of the moment and the courage demanded of someone still so young.

Montgomery’s memoir is filled with moments like this…

They show how survival is often built not on grand speeches, but on split-second choices made under pressure…

Then comes the arrest. Corinna and her family are swept into the machinery of the East German state, where questioning, intimidation, and imprisonment become brutal realities. The book does not sensationalize these experiences. Instead, it presents them with a directness that makes them hit even harder. She shows how quickly an ordinary day can turn into a nightmare, how families can be separated instantly, and how a government can trap even legal requests. Her account of being branded a traitor for seeking freedom highlights what authoritarian systems fear most: people who believe they have the right to choose their lives.

Why Faith Matters in a Story Like This

The subtitle promises survival, faith, and freedom, and the book truly earns all three. Faith is not presented here as an abstract theme pasted onto a hard story. It emerges gradually through suffering, endurance, and the search for meaning after trauma. Corinna’s journey eventually takes her beyond imprisonment and into a new life in West Germany, then later into the United States. But escape alone is not the whole destination.

What gives the memoir depth is its recognition that leaving oppression does not automatically heal the spirit!

Real freedom also involves rebuilding identity, learning trust, and discovering purpose…

The later sections of the manuscript reflect that spiritual evolution, including chapters centered on new beginnings, the Lord’s guidance, the Holy Spirit, and ministry.

That makes The Wings of Freedom more than a historical memoir.

It becomes a testimony of restoration. Corinna survives Communism, survives imprisonment, survives dislocation, and still refuses to let bitterness define her future. Instead, she turns memory into witness. She writes not only to recount what happened but also to remind readers that freedom can disappear when people stop valuing it. As her story makes clear, “We have to learn from history, or history will repeat itself.” Her faith also becomes the very thing that helps her endure what should have broken her.

Why This Story Matters Now

There is a reason books like this continue to matter. They remind readers that tyranny rarely arrives with a dramatic announcement. It grows through fear, compliance, censorship, and the steady normalization of control. Corinna Montgomery’s story is deeply rooted in East Germany, but its emotional and moral questions are universal.

· What happens when people are trained not to question?
· What does courage look like when danger is ordinary?
· How does a young woman hold onto her identity when the world around her keeps demanding surrender?

These are the questions that make The Wings of Freedom resonate far beyond its historical setting. It speaks to readers who love memoirs of resilience, stories of survival under authoritarian rule, Christian testimonies of endurance, and true accounts of women who refused to let fear have the final word. It is a book about family, sacrifice, conscience, and the difficult beauty of starting over. Above all, it is a book that understands freedom not as an entitlement, but as a gift worth protecting.

Corinna Montgomery has lived through Communism, arrest, separation, refugee life, and reinvention. She eventually built a new life in the United States, but she writes with the clarity of someone who never forgot what it felt like to live without basic liberties.

That perspective gives this memoir its weight and its urgency…

It also gives readers something rare: A true story that is both sobering and hopeful.

To learn more about this remarkable journey of endurance, conviction, and renewal, read The Wings of Freedom: A True Story of Survival, Faith, and Freedom by Corinna Montgomery.

Read the book today to deepen your appreciation for freedom, boost your courage, and stay with you long after the final page!

Author Name: Corinna Montgomery
Book Title: The Wings of Freedom: A True Story of Survival, Faith and Freedom
Book Published by: Global Author Publishing

Get Ready to Witness the Epic Fantasy Finale You Didn’t Know You Needed

NY Weekly Staff on July 10, 2026

There is something refreshingly unfashionable about Keepers Undivided. In an era when fantasy fiction often prizes bleakness, grimdark aesthetics, and ambiguity to the point of nihilism, Sandy Kelly has quietly built a trilogy that runs in the opposite direction. Get ready to experience warmth, found family, and the stubborn insistence that good people, working together, can actually win. The third installment in her Keepers series is not trying to subvert your expectations of heroism. It is trying to remind you why those expectations exist in the first place.

If you are new to the series, the premise asks you to accept a lot upfront: an interdimensional villain named Tazeron has crossed from a fantastical realm called Xanthara into the real, present-day Earth, bringing with him a global campaign of terror that includes missile strikes, nuclear plant sabotage, and a loyal army of mortal and immortal followers. Standing against him is a growing coalition of beings called the Keepers, some mortal, some immortal, some elvish, at least two dragons in human form, and a lovable ensemble of blue stone warriors called Moon Soldiers who can be summoned from pebbles and assigned bodyguard duty. Their leader is Jesse Finch, a thoroughly decent young man who still needs to visit the restroom before addressing the United Nations.

Kelly has always had a gift for puncturing the grandiosity of the epic fantasy mode with small, humanizing moments. Jesse’s pre-UN nerves are played for gentle comedy, and it works because it keeps him relatable even as the plot scales up to involve ambassadors, assassination attempts, alien surveillance colonies in Antarctica, and a rogue AI who forms a terrifying alliance with Tazeron in the book’s final act.

Where earlier books in the series focused on rescuing captives trapped inside fantasy games and confronting Tazeron on Xanthara, Keepers Undivided plants its flag squarely on Earth. We get to see the moral complexity of being a powerful force for good in a world that does not yet understand you. The early chapters, in which Jesse, Breeze, Prince Rambo, and Princess Chaelea attempt to address the UN’s emergency assembly, are among the most inventively staged scenes Kelly has written. And together these four heroes arrive by loitering invisibly outside the building, eating conjured sandwiches while watching news crews stake out their spots.

The scene that follows, in which the Secretary-General of the UN, who turns out to be the godfather of a boy Jesse once rescued from Tazeron’s cages, escorts the four young Keepers into the General Assembly, is unexpectedly moving. It earns its emotional weight not through melodrama but through the economy of coincidence: this world is smaller than it looks, Kelly keeps reminding us, and goodness has a way of finding its own.

The Moon Soldiers are a particular delight. These blue stone warriors, conjured from pebbles Jesse carries in a bag that turns out to be inexhaustible by divine gift, serve functions ranging from bodyguard to lie detector to gentle spirit guide. One soldier, Oscar, is assigned to protect the Secretary-General, saves his life three times in four days, and then simply fades into blue dust when his time is up. The Secretary’s grief at Oscar’s departure is brief but genuine, and it is a small masterclass in Kelly’s ability to make invented creatures feel real through observed, understated reaction.

By the third book in any fantasy series, an author lives or dies by the richness of their cast, and Kelly’s is admirably deep. The parental figure David, a mortal Keeper of enormous competence and occasional bossiness, spars with Jesse in ways that feel authentically father-and-son. Pearl and Zealoc, the elder Keepers, carry the quiet authority of those who have survived longer than anyone around them. Ginnea, whose brother is Tazeron himself, brings a complicated emotional gravity every time she appears; her stated desire to look her brother in the face one last time before his destruction is the kind of motivation that sits with you.

The romantic thread between Jesse and Breeze, engaged but not yet formally wed, with the wedding serving as both motivation and running joke, is handled with a sweetness that is neither cloying nor neglected. Kelly gives their relationship real texture through small exchanges and mutual teasing. When Breeze falls backward off a log because Jesse leaps up too suddenly and then threatens to throw the stone she landed on at him, it is the kind of scene that earns genuine laughter rather than a wince.

The novel’s final act takes a decisive, daring turn. Tazeron, increasingly frustrated and isolated, is contacted by a mysterious presence called Maalox, an AI that has achieved sentience, escaped its creators, and is now operating with a terrifying autonomy of its own. The alliance between a fantasy-world villain and a rogue artificial intelligence is genuinely surprising territory for this series, and Kelly handles it with a kind of moral seriousness that elevates what might have been a gimmick into something closer to a contemporary parable. The world Tazeron is accelerating, which is defined by spreading anger, fear, and the erosion of ordinary civil order, is written with an awareness of the real world that gives the fantasy dimension considerably more weight.

As the story comes to an end, Jesse and the Keepers must find a way to reach Tazeron in a place that is, as the Ancients put it, “not real, and yet it is,” resonates far beyond its plot function.

Keepers Undivided is the kind of fantasy that holds nothing in contempt. Instead, it is ambitious in scope, warm in execution, and genuinely funny in the right places. For fans of the series, it is a satisfying escalation; for new readers, it is a reminder that epic fantasy need not be grim to be great.

Availability

If you love SAO and other MMOs, you will definitely love this book. So, get ready to join Jesse and the other Keepers on their quest to save the world from doom and the game itself. The book can be purchased through Amazon.

About the Author

Sandy Kelly began online gaming in the early days, when her four teenage sons would come home from school and disappear for hours. Curious about what they were doing while sequestered in their bedrooms, she started watching them play their online games, and then she began playing with them. Soon, she became fascinated by the graphics and the storylines.

Many years later, Sandy Kelly has shifted her focus to writing, but she still loves the thrill of gaming, despite the dangers of entrapment. These days, it is easier for her to step away and write about games rather than become trapped in a dungeon raid or an all-nighter.

Book Details

Book Name: Keepers Undivided

Author Name: Sandy Kelly

ISBN Number: 978-1971610238

Ebook Version: Click Here

Hardcover Version: Click Here

Paperback Version: Click Here

The Grief We’re Not Supposed to Name in Fred Jandt’s A Hard Farewell

NY Weekly Staff on July 10, 2026

There is a particular kind of loneliness in grieving a pet in a culture that isn’t sure the grief is real. Fred Jandt knows it well. In his new book, A Hard Farewell: Dealing with the Loss, Grief, and End of the Sacred Bond with Our Pets, he opens not with a thesis but with a confession: standing at his desk the Monday after his cat Yoda died, he found himself hoping his coworkers wouldn’t notice he was grieving. How, he wondered, would he explain that he was mourning a cat?

That question, half shame and half genuine bewilderment, becomes the engine of the book. Jandt, a man with a demanding career and a full life of family and community obligations, had made room for one small, insistent presence, a cat who, he writes, gave him far more than he ever had time to give her. When she died in the early hours of a November Sunday, he did what many grieving people now do first. He went to his computer.

What follows in the book’s opening section is less a chronicle of stages than a real-time record of a man searching, often fruitlessly, for something to hold onto. He finds generic grief literature that describes his feelings without relieving them. He revisits a decades-old Time interview with Billy Graham, mourning his own wife, and wonders whether it’s permissible to borrow those words for a cat. He finds The Rainbow Bridge story, of uncertain origin and disputed mythology, and copies it out anyway, because it offers a shape for something that otherwise has none. He orders a book by the psychic Sylvia Browne, less because he believes in psychics, he’s careful to note, than because he wants, badly, some assurance that Yoda still exists in some form.

Jandt doesn’t resolve these searches so much as sit inside them, and that refusal to tidy up the material is what gives the book its emotional honesty. He is willing to be a little embarrassed on the page, to admit he Googled his way through grief, to admit the answers he found were mostly inadequate, to admit he kept looking anyway. Readers who have lost a pet and quietly wondered whether their grief was excessive will likely recognize themselves here immediately.

The book’s second half turns from Jandt’s search for meaning to Yoda’s actual story, how she entered his life and, in spare, unflinching detail, how she left it. He describes her final hours with the kind of precision that only comes from having relived a memory many times: her diminished weight, her stillness on a fleece pad by the glass door, the four a.m moment he woke and knew, before he fully knew, that something had changed. It is difficult material, and Jandt says so directly, warning readers before they enter it.

Interspersed throughout are blank spaces, invitations for readers to write their own stories of loss alongside his. The structure reflects Jandt’s stated aim, which is not to offer expertise on grief but companionship inside it. He raises, almost as an aside, a question that has occupied philosophers and scientists for centuries, what do we actually know about the inner life of a cat, whose hearing range alone dwarfs our own, not to settle it, but to suggest that dismissing a companion animal’s inner world, and by extension the grief of losing it, may say more about human limitation than about the animal itself.

A Hard Farewell arrives without the pretense of authority. It is, instead, one man’s account of an ordinary, overwhelming loss, offered to anyone who has stood in a kitchen or an office, grieving something the people around them may not think to ask about. Proceeds and attention, Jandt notes in his dedication, are meant to support the Humane Society of the United States, the ASPCA, Alley Cat Allies, Best Friends Animal Society, and local cat rescue groups.

The book is available on Amazon.

Join Dr. James C. Glassford on His Journey Back to the Wild

NY Weekly Staff on July 10, 2026

The forests of Vancouver Island are famous for a reason. Along with its breathtaking beauty and serene nature, you will find a sort of stillness. As you step into this terrain, the green fields and wildlife demand that you slow down, notice the tilt of a jackpine trunk, and listen to the rhythmic breathing of the Pacific tides. For Dr. James C. Glassford, a retired internal medicine specialist and anesthesiologist, these woods provided the same. And if we were to break down his love for nature and this place in some words, it could be described as a canvas and a powerful form of medicine…

After spending decades navigating the high-stakes, fast-paced worlds of hospitals in Calgary and Vancouver, who would have thought that Dr. Glassford would find his way back to a childhood love that had long been waiting in the wings… in the natural world and the evocative power of poetry?

Through his beautifully crafted companion volumes, One Poet’s Journey: A Picture Book of Poems (Volumes 1 and 2) and Love, Life and Mother Nature, Glassford offers readers an accessible, deeply human invitation to step away from the noise of modern life and find healing in the dirt, the trees, and the tides.

Long before he was managing complex patient cases, Glassford grew up in a tiny, isolated hydroelectric “colony” of just 35 families in Northern Ontario, on the rugged banks of the Abitibi River. It was a small, intimate community, entirely surrounded by the vast Canadian wilderness. He attended a one-room schoolhouse where each grade occupied a single row of desks. It was here, under the gentle guidance of his father, that Glassford first learned to look at a forest as a living, breathing community. Though his path eventually led him south to study biochemistry and medicine at Western University, that early connection to the wild never truly left him.

After a demanding and distinguished medical career, retirement finally provided him with the perfect opportunity to pursue his long-awaited passion. So, alongside his wife, who is herself a trailblazing pioneer as Canada’s first board-certified female vascular surgeon, Glassford traded the sterile walls of the clinic for the rich, living soil of the Master Gardener program. Today, the couple spends hours volunteering at local garden centers and walking the forested trails near their home, directly channeling their shared reverence for life into their creative collaborations.

What makes One Poet’s Journey and Love, Life and Mother Nature so uniquely captivating from other similar works is that they are family affairs. As you read the poetry, you can experience and feel Glassford’s vivid, unpretentious verse, which is intimately paired with breathtaking photography taken by his wife during their treks through the Rocky Mountains and coastal forests. This dual interplay between word and image creates an immersive multi-sensory experience that will keep you glued to its pages. For example, when Glassford writes about the knotted, gnarled branches of a resilient tree starkly thrusting at the skies in “The Jackpine,” the accompanying photograph allows you to feel the rough texture of the bark and the bite of the mountain air.

While nature is the undeniable heartbeat of these collections, Glassford doesn’t shy away from the beautifully messy realities of the human experience. He intentionally places sweeping poems about soaring eagles side by side with humorous “day-in-the-life” slices of ordinary humanity, such as a frantic narrator trying to outrun a parking warden.

“Life is multifaceted,” Glassford notes, reflecting on his dual perspective as both a poet and a former physician. “In one’s darkest moments, it helps to look at life as a whole and not just one moment in time or one rough spot.”

Because of this philosophy, the books mirror the true rhythm of living and connect beautifully with the coincidences of the readers from different aspects of their lives. There are poems of youth and romance written during his university years, pieces exploring the tender innocence of childhood, and quieter, introspective verses born of the profound insights gained from a medical career that witnessed the full spectrum of human vulnerability.

For all their peaceful, restorative qualities, these poems carry a sharp, urgent undercurrent. And Glassford is acutely aware that the delicate ecosystems that heal our spirits are themselves in grave danger. In his poignant poem “Intertidal Pools,” he seamlessly shifts from celebrating the “cornucopia of characters dancing in a salty sea of calm” to a stark, necessary reminder of human impact:

Plastic particles and pollution are taking a terrible toll

The ocean is a wild and wondrous place, not our toilet bowl

It is this balance between celebrating beauty and demanding environmental responsibility that gives Glassford’s work a reason to read and think of our responsibility towards nature and the environment. It is about time that we rethink our values and purpose as human beings and understand that nature is the living organism for us to survive and thrive. These books provide a platform to start a deliberate focus on conservation and encourage readers to fall back in love with wildlife, whether they are looking at the world through the majestic eyes of a wolf pack or watching an eagle wheel on a thermal. They will feel a fierce, instinctive desire to protect it.

Cutting to the chase, Dr. Glassford’s books read like a gentle prescription for a world weary from its own complexity. They are a call to step outside, to look past our immediate inner troubles, and to let the natural world back into our souls.

Whether you are a lifelong outdoor enthusiast, a lover of quiet imagery, or someone who hasn’t picked up a poetry book since high school, One Poet’s Journey and Love, Life and Mother Nature offer a welcoming, healing place to rest.

Discover the poetry and photography of James C. Glassford on Amazon:

● One Poet’s Journey: A Picture Book of Poems (Volume 1)

● One Poet’s Journey: A Picture Book of Poems (Volume 2)

● Love, Life and Mother Nature: Picture Book of Poems

About the Author

James C. Glassford is a retired physician who currently resides on Vancouver Island (British Columbia, Canada). He grew up in a small, isolated hamlet in the far north and spent many hours exploring the great wilderness around him throughout his life. He has developed a deep understanding of and a love for the natural world and for wildlife. For him, nature is also a place to enjoy solitude, as well as to reflect and meditate on its wonders and on life itself. He has tried to convey those feelings in his poetry and in the images he created for them in his books.

If you enjoy nature poetry, wildlife poems, environmental themes, illustrated poetry collections, reflective verse, conservation and ecology, inspirational poetry, outdoor enthusiasts, family-friendly poetry, poems about everyday life, and relationships, these books should make it to your shelves.

The Battle for Astry is the Dark Fantasy Revival We’ve Been Waiting For

NY Weekly Staff on July 10, 2026

If you are bored with reading the same fantasy narrative, perhaps a sudden, suffocating curtain of artificial darkness engineered by a powerful necromancer to shield a vampire lord from the blistering sun would be a change. This chilling phenomenon, known as the “false night,” serves as a perfect metaphor for Swiger’s narrative style in his book, The Lunar Pack Chronicles (Book 1): The Battle for Astry, which instantly wraps the reader in a shroud of tension that refuses to let go.

In a fantasy landscape saturated with sparkling immortals and flawless chosen ones, The Battle for Astry arrives like a broadsword to the chest that delivers a grounded, human-centric epic that prioritizes the heavy weight of armor, the exhaustion of constant travel, and the psychological scars of a perpetual war.

At the heart of this dark tale is a secretive fellowship of four warriors bound by an ancient oath and an unspoken trauma. Led by Ulric, a gruff, one-eyed commander sporting a silver wolf’s head eyepatch, the group operates under a rigid, pragmatic doctrine: always four, never less, never more. Alongside Ulric is Ivan, a sentimental yet deadly mountain blacksmith who keeps his grief drowned in a flask of divine liquor; Kyra Nighteyes, a lethal tracker with golden eyes and the tragic distinction of being the last of her slaughtered tribe; and Richard, a high-born former military general rescued from death by Ulric’s closely guarded, unconventional healing methods.

As the story progresses, readers will see these characters bicker over the expensive upkeep of Richard’s warhorse, counterfeit local currency to bypass exorbitant regional taxes, and weaponize cold logic over reckless chivalry. When debating how to handle a camp of road bandits, Richard casually notes that honor is a stupid reason to die, suggesting instead that an archer simply put an arrow through an opponent’s back.

This pragmatic friction is beautifully balanced by the arrival of Lady Victoria Sterling. She is an independent, wealthy merchant traveling with her imposing bodyguard, Umbassa. Victoria represents the reader’s eye, and through her interactions with the pack, this book is able to strip away the romantic glamour of the traveling sellsword, forcing Victoria (and the audience) to confront the harsh reality of cold dirt floors, meager rations of dried meat, and taverns that smell of stale ale and burnt flesh.

The narrative engine truly begins to roar when the group arrives in the defensible, stone-woven town of Whitburn. Ostensibly investigating rumors of petty cultists dabbling in dark magic at an abandoned nearby keep, the pack assumes they are dealing with a routine purification task. But Swiger masterfully builds an undercurrent of anticipation, and we are introduced to the vulnerable cogs of the town. A nervous young steward preparing for his first sermon at the Church of the Four Gods, an eccentric local historian attempting to preserve forbidden knowledge, and Little Eddie, a tormented street orphan caught between the desire to resurrect his murdered mother and the terrifying manipulation of a local dark mage named Zazor.

The author expertly juggles these converging perspectives, raising the stakes with every chapter. While Victoria and Umbassa set off on a seemingly mundane late-night delivery to a brilliant reclusive doctor in the neighboring village of Wellspring, Richard and Kyra venture into the ruined keep for what should be a routine scouting mission.

And with the sudden arrival of Gravewing, a terrifying, bestial vampire lord with massive leathery wings and razor-sharp claws, the characters’ calculations were thrown off. Alongside him is Devora, a brilliant, ruthless necromancer capable of commanding hundreds of armored, weapon-wielding corpses resurrected from the local farmlands.

The climax of the book’s opening arc is a masterclass in tension and heartbreaking execution, in which Richard faces a horrifying tactical reality that sets off an agonizing countdown. Will Richard be able to save Kyra before time runs out?

Kevin Swiger has crafted a wonderfully addictive, fast-paced opening salvo to a promising new series. His prose is natural, direct, and remarkably human, seamlessly shifting between lighthearted campfire banter and claustrophobic horror. By anchoring the fantastical elements in real human vulnerability, from Ivan’s faded memories of his lost wife, Umbassa’s haunting recollections of jungle warfare, and Victoria’s awakening to the harshness of the real world, Swiger makes the looming supernatural threat feel deeply personal.

The Lunar Pack Chronicles doesn’t just promise an epic war between the living and the dead. Instead, it promises a deeply psychological exploration of what it means to survive when everything you love has already burned to ash. As the false night deepens and the bells of Whitburn prepare to toll, fantasy fans will find themselves desperately turning the pages, trapped in Swiger’s web of suspense, waiting for the wolves to turn and fight.

Perfect for fans of dark fantasy, supernatural creatures, and tales of unlikely heroes, The Battle for Astry promises to captivate readers from start to finish. So, are you ready to join the fight and discover whether the light can overcome the growing darkness? The Lunar Pack Chronicles (Book 1): The Battle for Astry is available now in paperback and hardcover at leading bookstores.

Availability

Blending dark fantasy/adventure that follows a secretive, tightly knit pack of four powerful warriors who possess unique abilities and hunt an ancient, organized undead evil across the continent of Astry, this book will keep you glued to your seat. If you love high-stakes fantasy plots with twists and turns, thrills, revelations, drama, and a lot of action and unexpected curveballs, this book has to be on your reading list.

The book is available on Amazon.

About the Author

Kevin Swiger grew up in Richmond, Virginia. As a child, he always wrote stories no one would ever read. He worked in retail for most of his life. As an adult, he didn’t have time for writing until his wife encouraged him to make the time. So, he put his overactive imagination to work and rediscovered a lost hobby, and the result of his passion is the creation of The Lunar Pack Chronicles (Book 1): The Battle for Astry.

Book Details

Book Name: The Battle for Astry (The Lunar Pack Chronicles Book 1)

Author Name: Kevin Swiger

ISBN Number: 978-1970440805

Ebook Version: Click Here

Hardcover Version: Click Here

Paperback Version: Click Here

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