A Case of Literary Serendipity: Two Writers, Two Novels – One Year Apart

Sunday, April 5, 2026, Orlando, Florida

Hello, everyone—and Happy Easter to all who celebrate! I hope your day is filled with chocolate eggs, laughter, and good company.

It’s another hot, sticky spring morning here in Central Florida. The sun is playing peekaboo behind the clouds, and the thermometer already reads 82 ° F (28 ° C). With humidity at 62% and a gentle breeze from the south-southeast at 8 MPH (13 Km/H), the heat index has climbed to a sultry 91 ° F (33 ° C). The forecast promises scattered light showers later today, and the high is aiming for 86 ° F (30 ° C). If you’re planning an Easter egg hunt, make sure your chocolate doesn’t melt—unless you like your treats extra gooey.

I’m absolutely thrilled to share some exciting news: my friend and fellow WordPress blogger, Pooja (P.J.) Gudka, has just released her debut novel—a psychological thriller titled Perfect . Published today by Wild Ink Publishing in both paperback and Kindle editions, it’s already causing a stir. I pre-ordered my copy weeks ago, and, like magic, it appeared on all my Kindle devices just after midnight. Of course, I dove right into Perfect on my Fire tablet, savoring every suspenseful page while sipping my morning coffee.

Here’s how Amazon describes the book—it’s enough to send chills down your spine:

A mother protecting her son.

A boy spiraling into darkness.

A girl who never stood a chance

Sally thinks she’s succeeded in breaking generational curses until she finds out her eldest son, James, is the prime suspect in Lily Johnson’s murder. After years of bliss, she’s forced to revisit dark family secrets she believed she had left behind. Even more unsettling is that the deeper she digs, the more she realizes that she may not know James as well as she thought.

James is certainly not the perfect son his mother believes he is. In fact, he has always felt painfully different from everyone around him- until he meets Lily Johnson. Initially, their relationship seems flawless, but soon the cracks begin to show, leaving James questioning everything- including his own sanity and just how far he’ll go to protect the girl he loves.]

After her father’s death, Lily’s mother marries Paul- a man Lily despises. And if that wasn’t devastating enough, Paul moves their family to the small town he grew up in. They thought Lily would be safer there, but little did they know that the small town holds secrets none of them could have ever imagined. Secrets some would kill to protect. And Lily finds herself in the middle of it all.

Perfect is an emotionally gripping psychological domestic thriller that explores the impact of dark family secrets and the generational trauma it leads to. It will have readers questioning how well any of us know those we love and how far we’re willing to go to protect them.

My Fire tablet tells me I’ve read about 10% of Perfect already, which isn’t too shabby for less than a day’s ownership! But before I go doling out opinions, I’ll wait until I reach the last page. If you’re curious about my verdict on P.J.’s debut novel (Wild Ink previously published her poetry collection, All the Words I Kept Inside back in summer 2024, when I called New Hampshire home), hang tight—I promise to share my thoughts as soon as I finish Perfect . Besides, suspense is half the fun, right?

Maybe it’s serendipity—or just a happy coincidence—but Pooja’s first novel dropped on the first anniversary of Reunion: Coda . Like Perfect , my novel wasn’t my first published work; it was my third, coming after Save Me the Aisle Seat: The Good, the Bad, and the Really Bad Movies: Selected Reviews by an Online Film Reviewer (2012) and Reunion: A Story (originally released in 2018, revised and reissued in 2023). Even though I’ve had to tweak and polish it more times than I care to admit, I’m genuinely proud of it. So I can easily imagine how excited—and maybe a little nervous—P.J. must feel right now.