Denise Griffitts Reviews Nicole Conn's Descending Thirds

 

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Descending Thirds
by 

Nicole Conn (Goodreads Author)

Denise Griffitts's review, 2025

it was amazing

Nicole Conn has long been known for her fearless storytelling, and Descending Thirds is no exception. This novel is a haunting, intimate exploration of love, loss, longing, and ultimately, rediscovery.

The story follows two women—one a concert pianist, the other a filmmaker—whose lives intertwine in a deeply emotional and, at times, painfully raw relationship. As always, Conn writes with poetic precision, offering a lens into the vulnerability and complexity of deeply human emotions. Her characters are beautifully flawed, and their journey together is one that will linger in your heart long after the final page.

What makes Descending Thirds so powerful is Conn’s refusal to offer easy resolutions. She leans into the dissonance of relationships—how people crash together, pull apart, and sometimes find their way back, not as the people they were, but as something new. The novel is both sensual and cerebral, a symphony of emotional chords that refuse to be ignored.

This isn’t a light read—but it is an unforgettable one. If you’ve ever loved too deeply, lost too much, or longed for healing, Descending Thirds will speak to you.

New From Story Merchant Books: A Rose in Roatan

 A remote exotic island...a fragile new relationship...and a mysterious disappearance, leaving behind many questions. This journey will test her in ways she never imagined.

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

Misty is excited to be getting away from the pressures of her all-consuming corporate job to the tropical paradise of Roatan, with Peter, the man she thinks may be her perfect partner. But soon after their arrival, she discovers the stresses she left behind in the big city pales in comparison to what was awaiting them…

A seemingly innocent introduction to fellow travelers soon becomes an all-encompassing mystery after one of them, a young woman, suddenly disappears.

When Peter refuses to indulge Misty in her search for the missing woman, even becoming angry with her at times, she struggles to hide her detective work. To add to the confusion, Peter and the young man last seen with the missing woman have a secretive connection that they refuse to share with her.

Having forgotten to pack her medication, Misty is left to manage and hide her mounting anxiety from Peter, who begins to show a side of himself that leaves her wondering if she had him figured all wrong.

When the missing young woman’s sister shows up at the resort, Misty is further drawn into the strange disappearance, treading lightly through the maze of an unhelpful police force, an overbearing boyfriend, a distraught sister, and a trail that seems to be leading nowhere fast.

With the vacation reaching its end, her relationship with Peter strained to a near breaking point, and nothing making sense, Misty is struggling to understand…and then suddenly, she does.

About the authors

Georges Benay is a former international banker who is now working as a Toronto-based writer and award-winning freelance photographer. He is the author of the Nomad series, including the recently released thriller The Nomad's Premonition and a collection of short stories. His award winning pictures have been featured in several magazines and book covers.

Nancy Kolodzie resides in Toronto and works in the financial service industry. She enjoys spending time with family, friends, travelling and gardening. Nancy was inspired to tell this story, after a trip to Roatan with her life partner who, at that time, happened to be a writer without a story.

Fran Lewis' in depth review of The Messiah Matrix

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

A matrix is defined as “ A situation or surrounding substance within which something else originates, develops, or is contained.” Within the pages of this intricate novel we learn about the origins of situations in the past the have reflected themselves in the present as the author takes us back in time to 70A.D. when Flavius Josephus the Historian decided to add 100 words that would change the course of history and the perspective on the existence of one man who was and still is crucial to the Church and Christianity, Christ. Did he really exist? Why is that so many scholars, writers never make mention to actually seeing Jesus in person. Those investigating this issue found one physical reference in a document titled: Testimonium Flavianum added to an edition of his book: Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews, where he makes mention of his existence. Antiquities 18.3.3. “Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct to this day.”

According to history Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to his death. Some who became his disciples did not abandon him. Some reported that he appeared three days after he was crucified and he was the Messiah.  But, our novel begins with the murder of a Monsignor authorized we are told by the Holy Mother Church as related by his killer who seeks redemption from Father Ryan and absolution for his sins. But, no sooner does the young Priest begin speaking to him in the Confessional, this man runs out of the church and finds himself the next victim. Why was he sent? Why would the Holy Mother Church order the death of this great man and what do the final words of the killer mean?

Diving in the ancient Harbor in Israel, Emily, an archeologist and her team are diving below the surface and encounter some rough waters. Hidden below the surface in a boat that has been there for many years is a treasure that will change the course of many lives and endanger those that found it. Two of her student divers remain below the surface during this dangerous storm causing Emily to have to find out their fate. Diving, searching and finally learning the reason why their rise to the surface was delayed she decides to complete what they started. Beneath and stuck in a krater was a gold coin. But, not just any gold coin one that was enveloped in bronze by its first owner who left it there thinking he might return for it at a later date but never did. “The Augustan Aureus: never released, was sitting in the palm of her hands.” The author vividly describes the coin: the figure portrayed is wearing a crown that appears to look like thorns. His face has a beard and the thorns look like a halo of spikes differing from the coin depicted on the cover of this book. Within the coin the creator inscribed: Chi and Rho, Greek Letters. The discussion was exciting and heated between Emily and her two students as the history behind the coin is revealed, their excitement palpable and the need to protect the coin noted. Meeting a man named Luke who Emily feels might provide more answers and perhaps funding for her team to continue their research in this field.

Father Ryan relates his meeting with our late Monsignor and the fact he too was in search of answers regarding Christ and his existence. Throughout Chapter 10 he relates what he learned about the man, the many scholars who published documents back then but never mentioned seeing Jesus in person and determining how to handle the fact that the killer, an Albanian man died in his arms and whether he should report it. The chapter relates information about Herod, the slaughter of male infants and the rumor of a royal birth. It continues with his meetings with the Monsignor, his lifestyle and wondering what he might have found in the Sibyl’s cave that got him killed.

Three separate plots: two murders, a coin that could change it all and a Priest that wants to find the connection between the death of the clergyman and the secret he might have buried with him. The Messiah Matrix will hopefully answer this question, leave readers asking more of their own and hopefully enlighten everyone about the research and the history related to Jesus and his existence.

Getting to understand Father Ryan we learn just what a threat he seems to be to the Vatican when summoned to the office of the Procurator General of the Society of Jesus and we hear his tone, his threats to Ryan and the end result in being attacked, entombed when looking at the sarcophagus of St. Paul and then bumping into Emily and finding out it is the Bishop and many attached to the Jesuits that are involved. Followed, shot at, attacked and learning the name of the bishop behind it all is not even the tip of the iceberg for these two when they team up to find out what caused someone kill Oscar Isaac their beloved Monsignor. The book is replete in history and the Monsignor found a link between Jesus and Augustus, which is explained in detail. Next, the cameo of the Emperor Augustus with a crown and holding the royal Roman Scepter carved they think during the time Christ was depicted on the center of the holy cross. This cameo was said to mean that the emperor was the “earthly representative of the almighty power of God.” He was also hoping to find the coin that Emily recovered and he thought his research important for the “origins of Christianity,” dangerous to the church and the Vatican. Finding the coin that was so valuable and the events that followed alerted Ryan to why he had to fear Pimental the Procurator. But, there is much more as the man who cleaned the coin, translated the words for the one person she thought she could trust but not only stole it from her but intended to capitalize on it, realized that on the coin in Greek were the words: God and son of god embossed across from the name: Jasius Augustus.

As you read this novel many different viewpoints come to light regarding Jesus as the Son of God and the Roman Emperor Augustus thought to be the real Son of God according to the Monsignor’s research. If this is true and he is said to be  son of god then the Christian Savior should be considered even more a Son of God which explains the tension that mounts within this novel between the Christian church, the Jesuits and the conflict that Father Ryan and Emily face as they come in contact with those that are behind the events that almost took their lives and did take the lives of three others. The Antiquities of the Jews and the crown that was worn by Apollo and the evidence found in the cave and presented to them will give every reader pause for thought, reason to do the research into what is presented themselves and make your own final decision. The cult of Augustus was “reinstated by Constantine,” and revived in the present. In other words Augustus had “designated a dozen of his pontiffs as August ales, to spread the rubrics of his cult throughout the empire.” In reality what Emily and the Monsignor uncovered is from what is depicted on her coin: the bearded image of Augustus wearing the Crown of Thorns- standing for the golden spiked one worn by Apollo. In reality when they asses what they have found, rendered all of the information in the files found in the catacombs and more the end result is that Isaac surmised that : Jesus was Augustus and Ryan has been asked to continue on with his work called the Messiah Matrix.

Was Jesus a real person? From the research presented within this novel the author relates that Augustus founded Christianity. The story created by Pimental and the Bishop would change the course of history. Stating that the imperial cult of Augustus Caesar was Christianity in itself. As we hear Pimental and Emily speak and the research of the Monsignor revealed we learn what others believe to be the truth: that Jesus Christ was “ simply the imperial cult name for the deified Caesar Augustus and the Church Fathers would later spin the manufactured mythology to create a literal biblical Jesus.” When the truth as they tell it unfolds the answers reflect that a mythology emerged into religious power and housed itself with the guardians and those who related the what they thought the real version of religion. Temptations rise, lives are placed in danger as Emily and Ryan face the challenge of their lives but first they have to escape what has been planned for them by those that appear to want them to submit to their will. A final scene will make readers hold their breath as Emily and Ryan are sent head first into a boiling underground river and hope to emerge unscathed.

Characters that are quite interesting and a storyline you will have decide for yourself whether you believe or not. As you read the final chapters and hear the voices from the past of the Emperors, Virgil as he is honored and allowed to sit with the Emperor. What is truth and what did they decide to recreate and change you will have to read and hear the voices of Virgil, Augustus and those in attendance to find out. Creating a cult, which would unify the people of the empire and bring peace. A document or book that would relate the facts and events the way they had conceived them making one man the true God in the eyes of the people. When Ryan and Emily present their findings and you read the last chapter and the chart they created of the events from start to finish, you the reader will decide: Was the real Jesus the one born in a manger or was Jesus: Jesus Augustus? You decide after reading this outstanding novel whose research and an ending that will bring it all full circle.

Fran Lewis: reviewer

Inside the Creative Mind of Nicole Conn: Filmmaker, Writer, and Storyteller

 

In this inspiring interview, Nicole Conn shares insights into her creative process and her journey across filmmaking, theater, and television, highlighting the challenges and triumphs she’s experienced throughout her career. Known for her authentic storytelling and multi-faceted talents as a writer, director, and editor, Nicole offers valuable advice for aspiring creators and discusses what continues to inspire her work today. Whether you’re a filmmaker, writer, or creative enthusiast, tune in to discover how passion and perseverance shape powerful storytelling.

Listen Here!

Nicole Conn Interview: Insights into Masterful Filmmaking, Storytelling, and Creative Innovation

Nicole Conn is a visionary filmmaker, novelist, and storyteller whose emotionally charged narratives and innovative projects have resonated with audiences worldwide. With a career spanning decades, Conn has created a diverse body of critically acclaimed films, novels, and media ventures.

Her work has garnered numerous awards and widespread praise for its personal depth, artistry, and powerful storytelling. Drawing inspiration from her own life, Conn’s projects often explore themes of love, resilience, and the human spirit. She is also an accomplished author, with multiple novels and a co-authored guide for parents navigating challenging medical journeys.

Based in Los Angeles with her children, Conn continues to develop new creative projects across film and literature. Known for her fearless storytelling and unwavering dedication to authentic narratives, she remains an influential voice inspiring audiences and fellow creators alike.

Connect with Nicole Conn: Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

VANITY FAIR: Dennis Palumbo Author and Psychotherapist Comments on the Current State of Hollywood.

Clients are concerned about the progress of placing their stories. Every week we’re in touch with all the buyers, major and minor. But you should know what we’re dealing with right now:

Hollywood Therapists Meet the Moment: “If You’re Not Dispirited Right Now, You’re Dissociative”

With the entertainment industry in rough shape, everybody in LA is seeking shrinks and life coaches—or becoming shrinks and life coaches.

By Joy Press

Welcome to Hollywood–that’s not smog, it’s depression. The entertainment industry currently registers somewhere between slowdown and apocalypse on the disaster scale. For many in the business who are either unemployed or terrified that they soon will be, therapists offer support and consolation. That means they serve as a good barometer for the town’s mental health. So what’s the view from the therapist’s chair?

“It feels like the end of days,” says Dennis Palumbo, a psychotherapist with patients predominately in the entertainment industry. “I’ve been doing this for 31 years now, and I’ve never seen this level of despair among creative people in the industry,” he says. “There’s a level of depression and anxiety pretty much unparalleled.”

Read Article 

Kirkus Reviews Praise for Story Merchant Client Robin Johns Grant's Debut Novel Summer's Winter

Available on Amazon

In Grant’s debut novel, a young woman’s fascination with a Hollywood star affects her life in ways she never could have imagined.

For years, 21-year-old Jeanine DeValery has been in love with Danny Summer, a character from a book series, played in a series of films by movie star Jamie Newkirk. Jeanine, in her adolescent confusion, believes that God promised her that the actor—or the character he played—would change her ordinary Georgia life into something more romantic. When the author of the book series dies in a mysterious fire, Jeanine grieves but continues to believe in her destiny. Soon, her dream seems to be coming true, as Jeanine’s adored actor enters her life for real and seems to be falling for her. At the same time, she finds out about plans to restart the film series. But things aren’t as romantic and perfect as she had imagined: Jamie’s former girlfriend suspiciously dies, in the same house in which his mother apparently committed suicide two years before. Both women had similarly shaped burn marks on their skin. Jeanine soon finds out a host of strange things about the people involved in the film series, uncovering other mysterious deaths and battles over money and power. She also finds out that Jamie is keeping secrets about his family—but even after he’s arrested, Jeanine dedicates herself to proving his innocence. This complex story is told in lush, heated prose (“Heaven is as tangible as the taste of a juicy peach on a hot day, as easy and close as stepping out the school door and into another world at recess”), with a clear underpinning of Christian ethics (“Not once in the sleazy motel parking lot had [Jeanine] thought about what God wanted her to do”). Readers drawn to Christian fiction will find much to keep them turning pages. For secular readers, however, some of the story’s coincidences may be a bit difficult to believe.

A passionate, well-wrought mystery by a Christian novelist to watch.


Reposted from Kirkus Reviews

Robert L. Rivenbark, Jr. Reviews Vincent Atchity's Story Merchant Book Romeo's Beat

Available on Amazon

How delightful to discover in the #MeToo age, when trust between men and women—and romantic love itself—has reached its nadir in our dysfunctional culture, that it’s still possible for an American novelist to write a literary love story that celebrates the eternal bond between man and woman. That’s precisely what Vincent Atchity has achieved with Romeo’s Beat. His novel has a deceptively simple premise—until you let it enfold and lift you into regions rarely explored in contemporary fiction. The points of comparison I can think of in terms of Atchity’s style are Ernest Hemingway (particularly in A Farewell to Arms) and Anaïs Nin (particularly in her Ladders to Fire). But Atchity has his own distinct voice, well-suited to his subject matter, giving his book a rhythm and cadence that make it a prose poem of unsurpassed beauty.

I had the honor of hearing Atchity do a live reading from his novel. During the Q&A afterward, he mentioned that given his responsibilities running a psychological clinic and raising three children with his wife, he had only been able to devote sixteen minutes day to his novel, beginning in 2007. Thankfully, he persisted, and the result is exquisite.

Set in the early 1980s, an era when great rock anthems resounded from FM stations, Romeo’s Beat follows the journeys of Juliet, a beautiful young Kansas botanist possessed of a mystical bond with nature; and Colin, a young singer/lyricist/guitarist who’s postponed recording his first record album in L.A., despite a lucrative recording contract, in a quest to find something enduring in his own music.

Juliet meets Colin while she’s on a solo pilgrimage to Salamanca, Spain, the city of her philosophical hero, Miguel de Unamuno. In her strolls through Salamanca’s cobblestone streets, she returns often to the Calle de Bordodores to see Pablo Serrano’s monumental statue of Unamuno. Yards away is one of her favorite shrines to Mary. Juliet considers her own personal religions to lie “suspended in a continuum between Unamuno and the Virgin Mary.” Unamuno scribed these words: “My religion is to seek for truth in life and life in truth.” Juliet believes this, too. “Even knowing that I shall not find them while I live,” she sadly concludes.

She’s at a crossroads. Having won a scholarship to begin her doctoral studies in botany in a month, she’s also engaged to Brad, a pleasant enough young man who brings solid financial prospects, given his upscale family roots. But Brad operates on a plain of consciousness that can’t begin to approach Juliet’s capacity to blend romantic and sexual passion with mystical intimations that take her into realms of awareness lightyears beyond Brad’s conventionality. She tells herself that she loves Brad, but that affirmation has started to ring hollow. Then she meets Colin in Salamanca, during his stopover on a peripatetic journey through Europe in search of his musical voice. The thunderbolt strikes them both. Juliet is powerfully drawn to this stranger in a way wholly unacceptable to her trajectory in life, so soon to be devoted to study, teaching, and a conventional marriage.

Colin, for his part, is strongly attracted to Juliet as well, but he’s obsessed with his own search, expressed in this reflection while he samples garlic-fried Champiñones mushrooms in a Salamanca tavern: “Colin had learned to cook from his father, and had a deep appreciation for dishes that brought together fundamental elements. The smell of olive oil and garlic had won him over before he’d even realized its source. It had grabbed something inside him that was older than he was, something that was inside everyone, and that would outlast any individual. For lyrics to last, Colin thought, they had to incorporate something as fundamental as olive oil and garlic.”

What follows is an elegantly articulated dance of love that focuses on the internal journeys of the two lovers, as they gradually come to accept that their meeting is going to disrupt their lives and change them both profoundly. The pace of this change unfolds slowly—perhaps too slowly for modern readers (though the novel is a quick read at 144 pages). But despite this minor pacing issue, Atchity does a magnificent job of dramatizing how, as their relationship becomes more intimate, Juliet’s and Colin’s hearts and souls are embroidered together, giving special significance to the Calle de Bordodores (which means “embroiderers”) that Juliet visits so often. From their love grows intimacy, the birth of a daughter, and a tragedy that raises the tale to classical stature.

It’s remarkable how Atchity occupies the minds, hearts, and souls of Juliet and Colin, particularly since we live in an age where writing from the point of view of the “other”—men writing from a feminine point of view, or women writing from a male point of view—is a taboo that often reduces our literature in a way that great writers of previous ages didn’t have to contend with (imagine Shakespeare hesitating to write Romeo and Juliet because he wasn’t a woman). Atchity’s insights are those of a mature artist who’s achieved a measure of wisdom about the eternal truths of life and love. At the end of the novel, I found myself hungering for more of this gifted writer’s work. Highly recommended reading.

Congratulations to Frances Angelina! Bobble Pops Series Winner of the International Impact Book Awards!

Frances' winning title is: What is Paradise? Act 6 – The Second Twelve Days of Christmas Winter Paradise and Christmas Day. Category: Spirituality/Religion – Series Sequel

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

This book is part of her beloved Bobble Pops series, which celebrates faith, virtue, and joyful family learning. In Act 6, readers unwrap the radiant wonder of Christmas and behold the most precious gift of all—the majestic birth of King Jesus. Through heartwarming stories and vibrant illustrations, children explore the lasting beauty of virtues that shine like stars on a winter’s night. The adventure continues with cherished Paradise Animal friends who each bring a virtue to life—from Unity and Wisdom to Victory and Zeal. It’s a celebration of Christmas with heavenly purpose and paradise joy!

Where you can find Frances Angelina:

Website:  https://virtuepopsineducationandmore.study/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/VirtuePopsinEducationVirtueBooks/

Twitter:   https://x.com/VirtuepopsnEdu

LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/virtuepopsineducationvirtuebooks/

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/virtuepopsineducation/

YOUTUBE:  https://www.youtube.com/@virtuepopsineducationandmore/channels

Story Merchant E-Book Deal: Romeo's Beat by Vincent Atchity

FREE JUNE 1 - JUNE 6!

 Available on Amazon

How do you make a garden grow?
How do you find a beat that will just go on and on?
How do you find a love that lasts forever?

Juliet Sawyer, renowned botanist, tends a garden that is like none other in the Midwestern suburb where she lives. The envy of her neighbors and of landscape architects all over the world, Juliet hasn’t gotten there without learning some hard lessons—about soil and sunlight, about desire and letting go.

Colin Hogan is a musician on the verge of greatness, and a solo traveler with an imaginary companion. If only he can find the sound that will set him apart from the teeming masses who record songs without ever getting a hit. If only he can find the special someone who can make his world and work come to life.

When Juliet meets Colin, in a quiet cafe on a side street in a faraway city, neither one of them suspects how wide their worlds will become.

Romeo’s Beat is a timeless love story about a woman who is true to herself and to her beliefs about truth, about a man who is a seeker and a listener, and about the unexpected shape of the love that conquers all. It’s a story about the power of love to lead us into an unfamiliar territory of soundscapes and landscapes, the sorrows that come, the joy that endures and permeates all, love that turns the world upside down and sets it straight, love that carries us away from wrong ideas we had about ourselves and puts us in touch with the reality that makes our hearts come alive.

About Vincent Atchity

Vincent Atchity has lived in Spain, Scotland, California, New York, Kansas, and the District of Columbia. He now lives in Colorado with his wife and their three sons