Elaine's Literary Salon

Welcome to Elaine's Literary Salon: Today we meet the award winning author of historical young adult fiction, Christine Kessides, who wrote her debut novel set in the WWI era about German immigrants in Pittsburgh — MAGDA, STANDING (published by Bold Story Press in June 2023). And now, under the name Christine Kessides, she has released her first children’s book, A TAIL TALE (published by Atmosphere Press on January 7, 2025).

On today's episode of Elaine's: Host Jeffery James Higgins asks Christine about her journey to become an author, why historical fiction is a passion of hers, and what inspired her to write a children's book about tails. Don't miss it! read more...

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May 2025: In "Street Whys," the newest novel by award-winning noir author Christopher Chambers, we again meet Washington, DC’s notorious detective, former street denizen Dickie Cornish, who faces off with bloodthirsty cops and the justice department. Underground detective Dickie Cornish faces a vindictive murder rap from his past if he doesn’t agree to help prove that the fentanyl ravaging the streets of DC is bankrolled by shadowy donors of a certain former president. Broke and desperate, Cornish soon finds himself on a collision course with shady public defenders and corrupt police officers, forcing him to use his street connections to flip their plan. Or die. read more...

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Today at Elaine's Literary Salon, meet Dr. Mark Bailey, who writes about the intersection between artificial intelligence, complexity, and national security. He is an Associate Professor at the National Intelligence University, where he is the Department Chair for Cyber Intelligence and Data Science, as well as the Director of the Data Science Intelligence Center.

His new book is Unknowable Minds: Philosophical Insights on AI and Autonomous Weapons.

"Imagine that in the cold heart of a secret military facility, a new form of intelligence awakens," shares Mark. "It is a synthetic mind born from intricate algorithms and complex computations, operating in ways unfathomable to its human creators. Charged with safeguarding national security, this intelligence orchestrates strategies that defy human ethics and laws of war, leaving its creators both awed and unnerved." read more...

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March 15, 2025 — Today at Elaine's Literary Salon in Alexandria, VA meet author Bill Rapp, who began his professional life as an academic, teaching European History at Iowa State University. A graduate of Notre Dame (B.A.), The University of Toronto (M.A.) and Vanderbilt (Ph. D.), Bill has always been particularly intrigued by German history, but the last 35 years working for the U. S. Government has broadened his perspective to all of Europe and much of the Middle East. His career has taken him around the world, including to Berlin as the Wall fell and Germany was reunified. Bill Rapp’s books include the mystery novels Angel in Black, A Pale Rain, Burning Altars, Berlin Breakdown, Tears of Innocence, and The Hapsburg Variation. read more...

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When does the killing of political leaders become morally justifiable? Killing the Hitlers, Stalins and Pol Pots of the world is easy to justify. Murderous tyrants need to be killed. But what if our leaders are merely idiots, or perhaps corrupt, petty tyrants who aren’t in the same league as Hitler, Stalin or Pol Pot? How much damage can we allow them to do, how many of our rights can we allow them to take away, before killing them becomes justifiable homicide? read more...

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February 15, 2025: Meet Mike Henrich is a career educator who taught a variety of subjects to a variety of learners in his Southeast Virginia hometown, in the South Pacific, and in the DC area. He has been in the classroom for over 40 years as a student and teacher and keeps pointing to the splendor and potential of education even while kids, society, and he changes.

His powerful 2023 book, Teacher Boy, is a collection of personal anecdotes from his 1980s childhood, '90s adolescence, and a teaching career that started at the turn of the millennium and continued through the pandemic. read more...

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Feb. 1, 2025 — Children's book author Karen Leggett Abouraya is the star of on Elaine's Literary Salon show.

Author Karen: A native of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, Karen grew up surrounded by writing and books: her father was a journalist and her mother a school librarian. Karen then became an award-winning broadcast journalist for more than two decades. She began reviewing and discussing children’s books on ABC WMAL Radio in Washington, DC, and reviewed children’s books and interviewed authors for the Washington Post, New York Times, the Baltimore Sun, Children’s Literature, Washington Parent, and others. read more...

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Hello and welcome to today's episode of Elaine's Literary Salon, hosted by award-winning author and restauranteur Jeffery James Higgins, we meet Jeff Markowitz, author of "The Other."

Their interview tells the tale of this important book that offers parallel narratives that touch upon several fascinating ideas, including the reach of Nazism—even in rural America—during WWII, the lasting impacts of the January 6 insurrection on today’s world, and the similarities between two time periods each burdened with an oppressive sense of dread. Don't miss it! About Jeff: Elaine's Literary Salon is the author of five mysteries, including the award-winning dark comedy, "Death and White Diamonds." read more...

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Jan. 15, 2025: Today at Elaine's Literary Salon — Writing books is a passion for attorney Timothy Trainer who for more than three decades focused on intellectual property issues in his day job. He has worked in government agencies and in the private sector and his assignments have taken him to 60 countries around the world.

"He found time to pen a few non-fiction tomes, including his first book, Customs Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights; the 15th edition was published in 2022," shares Jeffery James Higgins, host of the Elaine's Literary Salon show, in his introduction of Tim at today's event. "Thomson Reuters’ Aspatore Books published Tim’s next title in 2015, Potato Chips to Computer Chips: The War on Fake Stuff. But fiction was a genre Tim always wanted to try." read more...

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