What does it take for a teenager to rebuild his life after losing everything? That question sits at the heart of The Pebble Champion, the multi-award-winning novel by British author Alan David Pritchard — and it anchored a moving, wide-ranging conversation when Pritchard joined Zach Feldman on The Zach Feldman Show, airing on Z Radio Live.

A novelist, playwright, poet, and screenwriter, Pritchard has earned international recognition for this deeply emotional coming-of-age story about grief, identity, and the quiet acts that keep us going.

Listen to the Exclusive Interview

A Story Born from Loss — and Hope

The Pebble Champion follows fifteen-year-old Christopher Elliot, whose world collapses when his mother is killed in a car accident. Uprooted from everything he knows, Chris is sent to live on the Isle of Wight with a father he hasn’t seen in a decade. In the interview, Pritchard discussed how he wanted to capture not just the shock of loss, but the disorienting way grief seeps into a young person’s everyday life — the sense that, as Chris puts it, his whole life is changing and there is nothing he can do to stop it.

The novel’s central image is deceptively simple: alone on Shanklin beach, Chris finds solace in skipping pebbles across the sea, imagining himself competing to become “The Pebble Champion.” Pritchard explained how this small, repeated ritual becomes a metaphor for perseverance — a way for a grieving teenager to exert control over one tiny corner of a life that has spun completely out of his hands.

An Honest Portrait of a Gay Teen Coming of Age

Beyond grief, The Pebble Champion has been widely praised as an important LGBTQ coming-of-age novel. Pritchard shared how he set out to portray the social, emotional, and romantic insecurities of a gay teenager with honesty and freshness — avoiding sensationalism and stereotypes in favor of a character readers genuinely root for. Chris’s growing friendship with Thane, a classmate whose easygoing exterior hides struggles of his own, becomes one of the novel’s most affecting threads, as both boys navigate identity, secrecy, and self-acceptance.

Reviewers have responded strongly to that sensitivity. The book has been called a spectacular coming-of-age tale and an uplifting human story that stays with readers long after the final page — and teen readers in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards summed it up in one word: self-acceptance.

A Novel That Keeps Winning Awards

During the conversation, Zach and Pritchard also discussed the remarkable award journey The Pebble Champion has taken. The novel won Best Book at the Miracle Makers International Film and Writers’ Festival (2021) and the Silver Award for Novel Writing at the LGBTQ Unbordered International Film Festival (2022), earned a B.R.A.G. Medallion, and was a finalist in competitions including the Wishing Shelf Book Awards, the IAN Book of the Year Awards (Outstanding LGBTQ Novel), the Page Turner Best Book Awards, and the Reader’s Favorite Book Awards.

The story’s life doesn’t end on the page. Pritchard’s own screenplay adaptation has won honors on the festival circuit as well — including Best Screenplay at the Chicago Feedback Film Festival, Best UK Screenplay at the Cambridge Script Awards, and a Silver Remi for Best Adapted Screenplay at WorldFest-Houston — raising the exciting possibility of Chris’s story one day reaching the screen.

The Writer Behind the Words

Pritchard is far more than a one-book author. A poet at heart, he is the author of the poetry anthology Advancing Backwards, and his plays have won awards on stage, including Genius, a winner at the Welsh Young Farmers’ Play Festival. In the interview, he reflected on how working across novels, poetry, plays, and screenplays shapes his voice — and why poetic language runs through even the most painful scenes of The Pebble Champion.

FAQ

Q: What is The Pebble Champion by Alan David Pritchard about? A: It’s a coming-of-age novel about Christopher Elliot, a fifteen-year-old who loses his mother in a car accident and moves to the Isle of Wight to live with his estranged father. He copes with grief — and comes to terms with being gay — through an imagined contest to skim pebbles farther than anyone else.

Q: Is The Pebble Champion an LGBTQ novel? A: Yes. It’s widely recognized as an important LGBTQ coming-of-age story, praised for portraying a gay teen’s experience with honesty and sensitivity rather than stereotypes.

Q: What awards has The Pebble Champion won? A: Honors include Best Book at the Miracle Makers International Film and Writers’ Festival (2021), the Silver Award at the LGBTQ Unbordered International Film Festival (2022), a B.R.A.G. Medallion, and finalist recognition from the Wishing Shelf Book Awards, IAN Book of the Year Awards, Page Turner Best Book Awards, and Reader’s Favorite Book Awards. Its screenplay adaptation has also won multiple festival awards.

Q: Who should read The Pebble Champion? A: Readers of YA and literary fiction, anyone touched by the loss of a parent, and readers looking for authentic LGBTQ coming-of-age stories. Teen readers and adults alike have found it thought-provoking, emotional, and ultimately hopeful.

Why This Conversation Matters

Stories about grief and identity matter most when they offer a way through — and The Pebble Champion does exactly that. For young readers wrestling with loss, for LGBTQ teens searching for themselves in the pages of a book, and for anyone who loves beautifully written fiction, Pritchard’s conversation with Zach Feldman is a reminder that resilience often starts with something as small as a pebble skipped across the water.

Get the Book

The Pebble Champion: A Novel

by Alan David Pritchard

"My whole life is changing, and there is nothing I can do to stop it."

For Christopher Elliot, life—as he knows it—has ended. His mother is dead, taken from him in a tragic car accident, and he's lost his best friend, gone in a moment of betrayal. Now, he's forced to move to the Isle of Wight to live with the father he hasn't seen in a decade. Everything in his life, including his thoughts and dreams, is suddenly out of his control.

His only solace is the simple act of skipping pebbles across the waters of Shanklin beach where he competes to become "The Pebble Champion," skimming stones farther than anyone else.

This beautifully written, deeply emotional novel skillfully transports readers into the imagination of a gay teen desperately trying to deal with the death of a parent – providing a powerful and poignant look at what it takes to overcome profound loss.

Captivating and uplifting, "The Pebble Champion" is one of those human stories which will stay with you long after you've turned the final page.

Buy Now
Read Reviews

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

You can also learn more about Alan David Pritchard and his work at his official website: alandavidpritchard.com/pebble-champion

Merrill A. Vaughan joins The Zach Feldman Show to discuss his powerful and deeply emotional book, Thru the Eyes of a Warrior: One Veteran’s Truth. One Nation’s Silence. For the Ones Who Didn’t Come Home—and the Ones Who Never Truly Did. A compelling blend of fiction, memoir, and poetry, the book gives long-overdue voice to the quiet grief and unseen wounds of America’s veterans.

Listen to the Exclusive Interview

A Letter That Opens Old Wounds

At the heart of the book is Jack Delaney, a Vietnam veteran who has kept his war memories buried for decades. When he receives a letter from the granddaughter of a fallen comrade, seeking answers about the grandfather she never knew, Jack is pulled back into a past he had locked away. What follows is a powerful journey through pain, brotherhood, guilt, and eventual grace.

Poetry, Memory, and Truth

Thru the Eyes of a Warrior is more than a war story. It is a tapestry of memory, told through both prose and poetry, that honors the lives of those who served and the silence they carried. Merrill A. Vaughan weaves true-to-life emotion into every chapter, giving readers an intimate look at the cost of service long after the battle ends. The poems scattered throughout echo the inner voice of Jack—and by extension, countless veterans.

Inspired by Real Experiences

Vaughan, a veteran himself, uses his own lived experience to shape a story that is as authentic as it is haunting. From the chaotic jungles of Vietnam to the still, snowy silence of New Hampshire winters, the book moves between physical landscapes and emotional ones, confronting what many have endured but few have spoken.

Purchase the Book

Thru the Eyes of a Warrior is available now at major retailers and online bookstores. [Insert purchase link here]

SEO Keywords: Merrill A. Vaughan author, Thru the Eyes of a Warrior book, Vietnam veteran stories, books about PTSD, veteran poetry, war memoirs 2025, military fiction and poetry, healing from war trauma, veteran author interviews, Zach Feldman Show military guests.

The web’s hit music station, Z Radio Live welcomes author Carlin Hertz to The Zach Feldman Show. Hertz talks about his latest book “The Uprizing.” The poetry book is about his past covid poems that he’s written. Hertz hopes that those who read it will understand him more personally on an intimate level. Hertz talks about in the book very personal details about his life and he’s excited to share it with the world. Listen to the full interview below. Read “The Uprizing” on Amazon.

The web’s hit music station, Z Radio Live welcomes Author Nicole S Brown to The Zach Feldman Show. Brown talks about her latest book, “Wet Dreams.” Brown talks about how her new poetry book goes into deep detail about her past relationships and the true life romances she had. She also hopes the book “clears her name” from rumors and issues in her life. Listen to the full interview below! Read “Wet Dreams” on Amazon.

Wet Dreams

by Nicole Brown

Wet Dreams is an eclectic mix of erotic poetry that is mild, medium, and spicy to fit everyone who has a side of them that others may not be aware of. It is a poetry journal for you and someone special to engage into an element of eroticism that is by no means plain or mundane. The rhymes will send your senses into revolutions of raunchiness to keep you entertained and desire to re-enact what is read in fantasy and in reality. Wet Dreams is for mature audiences only.

Buy Now
Read Reviews

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

The Web’s Hit Music Station welcomes C.A. Howard on The Zach Feldman Show. Howard talks about her latest book “Invite the Storm.” Howard reveals her poetry book to the world and says it’s okay to have that internal storm and to express your frustrations. Howard also talks about how she became a poet and how her journey let her to this point to produce this one of a kind book. Listen to the full interview below. Read “Invite the Storm” by, C.A. Howard on Amazon. 

The web’s hit music station welcomes Alexis Diana Knight on The Zach Feldman Show. Alexis talks about her new book “The Secrets of a Phoenix.” This poetry book is about Knight’s experiences through life. Some of the events in her life revolved around being 16 and pregnant, going through a divorce, falling in love and out of love. Knight says the poems were written all through her life and finally decided to compile them into a tell-all book. Listen to the full interview below! Read “The Secrets of a Phoenix” out now on Amazon.

The Secrets of a Phoenix

by Alexis Diana Knight

Like a phoenix she’s risen from the ashes of every challenge she’s been thrown Embraced life’s new forms, learned from every lesson she’s been shown While some may mistake her wide spread wings as delicate and weak She walks with the knowledge of her strength and resilience, no longer being meek Holding no desire to prove her new found voice She stands tall in her power if faced with the choice Though the process hasn’t hardened her, she’s become guarded, just out of reach If she trusts you enough to let you in, know this isn’t something given to each.

Buy Now
Read Reviews

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

The Web’s Hit Music Station welcomes Latisha Williams on The Zach Feldman Show. Williams talks about her new poetry book series “Poetry Lessons.” Williams released two books in the series, “Love and Romance” and “Agony and Exertion.” Williams goes into detail about how nerve-wracking it was to release the second book “Poetry Lessons: Agony & Exertion” and revealing the personal anguish when writing the poems. Listen to the full interview below.

The web’s hit music station welcomes Keerthi Varagani to the Zach Feldman Show to discuss her latest book “Unleashing Eternity.” The book features all of Keerthi Varagani’s poems that she has written over the years. “The only way I could communicate with myself was through writing.” Keerthi Varagani said to Zach. Listen to the full interview below!

Unleashing Eternity

by Keerthi Varagani

Amazon.in – Buy Unleashing Eternity book online at best prices in India on Amazon.in. Read Unleashing Eternity book reviews & author details and more at Amazon.in. Free delivery on qualified orders.

Buy Now
Read Reviews

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

The new poetry book by author Jesus Valencia is out now on Amazon. “Reflections: A journey through life” is a 62 page masterpiece on a more deeper level. Author Jesus Valencia says “it’s a transformative pilgrimage of the soul, heart, and mind. Moreover, it’s a true story of overcoming hardship and finding hope, even in the most dire of circumstances.”

Through heart felt poetic storytelling, Jesus Valencia illustrates his personal experiences spanning five decades of his lifetime, including serving his country, navigating substance abuse, and living abroad in Korea.

In Reflections: A journey through life by Jesus Valencia, you are treated to a snapshot of his life, loves, fears and all the things that make a life worth living. From verses that explore his dreams for the future, right through to the contemplation of death and how we face that most final of instants, he captures moments that go beyond simple poetry and takes you on a journey that many have experienced but which are intimate at the same time.

Read Reflections: A journey through life by author Jesus Valencia on Amazon.

#AD

Drake has finally released his long-awaited “Certified Lover Boy” album.

Drake’s long-awaited sixth studio album was released on Friday and is now available on all streaming platforms.

Also Read: Kanye West Finally Releases Donda Album

Fans of the Toronto-born singer had been waiting almost a year and a half since he unveiled the album artwork — a colorful grid of 12 pregnant woman emojis created by British artist Damien Hirst — and revealed the official release date after subtly teasing it on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”

Future, Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Giveon, 21 Savage, Lil Durk, Tems, Ty Dolla $ign, Project Pat, and Yebba – some of the artists included on the 21-track masterpiece — were unveiled via a huge billboard campaign that hit their hometowns throughout the week.

Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, and Rick Ross, all frequent collaborators, also feature on “Certified Lover Boy.”

“Champagne Poetry,” the album’s first track, samples the Beatles’ “Michelle,” while “TSU” samples the beginning of R. Kelly’s 1998 song “Half on a Baby.”

The Grammy Award-winning artist (also known as Champagne Papi and Drizzy) initially teased the new album last summer with the song “Laugh Now Cry Later,” which featured Lil Durk, and then hinted at a full-length album release in January 2021.

“Certified Lover Boy” is his first studio album since “Scorpion” in 2018.

The “Way 2 Sexy” (with Young Thug and Future) music video was released early Friday afternoon.

The over-the-top video, directed by Dave Meyers, is a jaw-dropping, eye-popping visual frenzy of playful animation and beautiful recreations of pop culture touchstones that many find attractive.

Drake returns to his roots as an actor in “Way 2 Sexy,” which opens with him reciting the refrain from Right Said Fred’s 1992 earworm “I’m Too Sexy.” The former “Degrassi: The Next Generation” star plays a 1980s workout video instructor, a bare-bellied beachcomber well past his prime, and even a swashbuckling romance novel protagonist.