Smorgasbord Coffee Morning – Authors Dan Antion and his guest Teagan Riordain Geneviene

Delighted to introduce you to a new series for 2025 where you can not only promote your own work, but someone else’s you believe deserves a boost.

You might like to thank a blogger who has supported you over the years, or an author who you have enjoyed reading and you would like to recommend.

If you have been featured here on Smorgasbord before, you only have to send me the details of the person you wish to have coffee with. I will already have all your own information.

This is what I would like you to provide me with about your guest and yourself if you have not been promoted here before.

• Website/blog
• Amazon author page if they have one
• Goodreads
• Main social media links in full.

I will be able to get most of what I need to do a feature on them from those sites and I hope it will prove to be a lovely surprise for them and a boost for you.

What I also need from you

A short paragraph on why you have invited this particular guest to coffee.

To participate email me on sally.cronin@moyhill.com

This week Dan Antion invited Teagan Geneviene for Coffee.

There are so many reasons why I’d like to have coffee with Teagan. She’s an amazing friend. She’s a talented and imaginative writer, a supportive member of the blogging community and she has helped me in my journey as an author since before I had a firm idea for my first book

About Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene

Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene is certain that the pen is in your hand. After a life shaped by the tragedy of losing a sibling to Munchausen syndrome by proxy , along with the abuse she herself survived, Teagan took that metaphorical pen into her hand. She wrote her way to a new chapter of life with a successful career authoring and editing technical documentation. With another revision that pen took her to the next chapter, working alongside highly placed Federal executives to compose their communications. However, Teagan wasn’t finished. The pen was still in her hand. In her latest chapter she is an acclaimed multi-genre author, living in a high desert town in the Southwest of the USA. Rescue cats, the §coobies — Velma and Daphne, offer unsolicited advice on all stories, as well as the book covers Teagan designs.

This author’s stories range from paranormal to high fantasy and urban fantasy, to various steampunk (and other types of punk), to mysteries with historic settings. In addition to fiction, she has created the Author Tool Chest series of non-fiction works as resources for writers and anyone who loves language. In free time she enjoys conversations with friends, singing karaoke, and playing her piano. See her book trailer videos at Youtube.

A  small selection of books by Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene

One of the recent reviews for Real Steampunkery Tech

OlgaNM

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome inventions and inventors to make the imagination fly 

I have read many books by the author, fiction, and non-fiction, and I have followed her blog, where she shares her stories (some of her famous serials), news, and posts full of imagination and information. She writes in many different genres, always with an emphasis on fancy and whimsy; and she likes to mix genres. Her stories range from high fantasy to historical fiction, and she has always shown an eye for detail and a research interest, not only in inventions and historical events, but also in the clothing, the language, and the social mores of the era in question.

I have recently enjoyed one of her steampunk serials, and I am not the only reader fascinated by some of the real inventions and characters featured in some of the books. Therefore, I was very happy to see that she had added to her Author Tool Chest collection, this time with a book about the steam and diesel eras.

Readers who aren’t authors shouldn’t be put off by the title. Yes, the book is a great resource for people thinking of writing about those periods, but anybody interested in reading about these eras and curious about the inventions and the inventors of the time will enjoy this book and be amazed at the kind of things our ancestors would come up with. Of course, some might still be in use (with some changes), but others sound incredible and far-fetched. Who would have thought?

This small volume is written in the format of a dictionary, which facilitates finding specific information about inventors or ‘contraptions’. There is also a final section dedicated to women inventors, and I found that portion of the book particularly enlightening and fascinating, as there are so many women I had heard nothing about before reading this book and some whose contributions have been ignored, disputed or simply claimed by others until very recently. The most worrisome aspect of this is that as you read about them, you have the feeling that we are only scratching the surface, and there must be many more who haven’t been discovered yet. The author includes a longer biography of Hedy Lamarr, focused not on her acting but on her inventions and the lack of recognition she and her partner (George Antheil) got. If she had difficulty getting acknowledged, imagine what it must have been like for somebody totally unknown (although, it is true that beautiful women can get sidetracked because nobody expects them to be intelligent, as if both things couldn’t coexist in the same person).

The book includes some images, mostly of the inventors, but not many of the contraptions (one suspects that is probably due to copyright issues).

As the author explains in her note, she has not tried to include all possible information but to provide a taster and encourage readers to research the characters and the inventions they want to know more about. This text is a great way to get started and a book that will fire up readers’ imaginations and make them want to know more about those eras that have become so popular recently.

Another great book from Teagan Riordáin Geneviene, entertaining, informative, and a good resource for authors, researchers, and curious readers alike.

Read the reviews and buy the books: Amazon US – And: Amazon UK –  Follow Teagan: Goodreads – Trailers: Youtube – Bluesky: Teagan Geneviene – Twitter: @Teagangeneviene – Facebook: Teagan’s Books

About today’s host Dan Antion

Dan Antion was born outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up and attended college in the area around western Pennsylvania. Dan has written and published the popular No Facilities blog since 2011. A lifelong interest in writing became a reality after he retired from a successful 42-year-long career in information management.

Knuckleheads, published in June 2022, is the first book in the Dreamer’s Alliance Series. This story introduces the main characters in this series, in which the next two books will follow in late summer and early winter 2022.

Dan lives in Connecticut with his wife, a few pets and all the wildlife they can feed.

Books by Dan Antion

My review for Bridge to Nowhere Sally Cronin five stars Goodreads

After reading the four previous books by Dan Antion, I was keen to read the start to a new mystery series headlining one of the previous secondary characters.

I was not disappointed and immediately engaged with Rachael ‘Rascal’ Todd who rather than being cast, as an ambitious, fame seeking and rather underhand reporter, comes across as a caring, dedicated researcher, intent on finding the truth. She does benefit from the support of her editor, an old hand who has seen it all, however he gives her a great deal of freedom whilst gently pulling her back from anything too dangerous.

Corruption in high office is not uncommon, but as first hand evidence comes to light it is obvious there is something very fishy about a multi-million dollar investment project, literally going up in smoke. The web of deceit and civic irregularities lead to some interesting and sometimes dangerous situations, but Rascal is determined to clear the name of her friend who she is so invested in saving and will not be put off.

Although this is a stand alone book, it was great to see some of the other characters from the previous books and to catch up with their lives. They do provide this young reporter with a valuable source of information and support and satisfy the tying up of some loose ends..

I have no hesitation in recommending this thriller/mystery as a terrific read with great characters and interesting twists and turns. I look forward to more mysteries in the future.  

Read the reviews and buy the books: Amazon US –  And: Amazon CA –And:Amazon UK – More reviews: Goodreads – Blog: Dan Antion – Facebook: D. Antion – Twitter: @DAntion –  Instagram: Dan Antion –  Bookbub: Dan Antion – LinkedIn: Dan Antion – Youtube: Dan Antion

 

Thanks so much for dropping in today and I hope you will invite a guest to coffee and look forward to hearing from you. sally.cronin@moyhill.com.