Circus Bim Bom book tour is through RABT Book Tours and includes an interview with the author. Show some love, share with a friend, follow Sarandipity’s.
Book Details
A Cold War Adventure
Historical Fiction/Cold War Fiction w/romance subplots
Date Published: 03-01-2026
Publisher: Bim Bom Books
There are no accidents in life, only opportunities wearing different clothes.”
When the first privately owned Soviet circus arrived in 1990 America as the Soviet Empire unraveled, its elite performers expected to build cultural bridges through spectacular shows. Instead, this prestigious troupe faced a perilous journey through Cold War America.
Circus director Yuri had to navigate treacherous waters where American mobsters, Soviet agents, and political forces circled like predators. Young aerialist Anton dreamed of becoming a clown against his family’s wishes, while forbidden romances and unexpected connections bloomed between Soviet performers and Americans who saw past the ideological divide. As high-stakes conspiracies threatened to tear the circus family apart, they had to choose between the authoritarian chains of home and the uncertain promise of freedom.
As The Ringmaster reminds us, “The best Soviet stories are like vodka—they burn with suffering, intoxicate with conflict, keep you stewing in reflection, and yearning for your heart’s desire.” This genre-bending tale explores whether human connection can transcend ideology—and whether storytelling can bridge the divides that separate us.
Virtual Book Tour – March 7 – May 8
March 7 – RABT Book Tours – Kick Off
March 8 – Books 1987 – Spotlight
March 9 – The Faerie Review – Spotlight
March 10 – Book Junkiez – Excerpt
March 11 – Nana’s Book Reviews – Spotlight
March 12 – Liliyana Shadowlyn – Spotlight
March 13 – Tea Time and Books – Spotlight
March 16 – My Bookmarked Reads – Excerpt
March 17 – Book Corner News and Reviews – Spotlight
March 18 – The Indie Express – Review
March 19 – The Pen Muse – Spotlight
March 20 – Sarandipity’s – Interview
March 23 – Sapphyria’s books – Excerpt
March 24 – On a Reading Bender – Review
March 25 – Crossroad Reviews – Spotlight
March 26 – Texas Book Nook – Review
March 27 – Books Blog – Spotlight
March 30 – My Reading Addiction – Interview
March 31 – ⒾⓃⓉⓇⓄⓈⓅⒺⒸⓉⒾⓋⒺ ⓅⓇⒺⓈⓈ ASTROLOGY – Spotlight
April 1 – Momma and Her Stories – Excerpt
April 2 – Defining Ways – Spotlight
April 3 – ☼ A Place In The Spotlight ☼ with M.C.V. EGAN – Spotlight
April 6 – Is History the Agreed Upon Lie – Spotlight
April 7 – A Life Through Books – Interview
April 8 – My Beauty My Books – Excerpt
April 9 – The Avid Reader – Interview
April 10 – Ogitchida Book Blog – Spotlight
April 13 – Susan’s Book World– Spotlight
April 14 – Novel News Network – Review
April 15 – Lisa’s Reading – Excerpt
April 16 – Deal Sharing Aunt – Spotlight
April 20 – More Books Please – Spotlight
April 21 – Our Town Book Reviews – Review
April 23 – Guatemala Paula Loves to Read – Excerpt
April 25 – Chapter Break – Interview
April 27 –
April 28 – Reflecting on Days Gone By – Review
April 29 –
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May 2 – Boys’ Mom Reads – Review
May 4 – Tina Donahue Books – Guest Post
May 5 – Iron Canuck Reviews – Excerpt
May 6 –
May 7 –
May 8 – Joseph @ Seattle Public Library System – Review
May 8 – RABT Reviews – Wrap Up
Author Details
Cliff Lovette is a father, storyteller, and dog lover living in Sandy Springs, Georgia. For over 40 years, he practiced entertainment law, serving as Senior Vice President at LaFace Records and representing artists including Usher and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes. His passion for bridging historical divides led him to co-produce a groundbreaking reconciliation event between descendants of Buffalo Soldiers and Lakota Native Americans. In 1990, when Bobby Liberman—road manager for the first privately owned Soviet circus touring America—became his client, Cliff discovered the true story that inspired this debut duology.
Contact Links
Website: www.bimbombookclub.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bimbombookclub/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/62679498.Cliff_Lovette
TikTok: @ringmaster606
YouTube: @TheRingmaster-n7y
Purchase Links
Author’s Edition
The Author’s Edition comes with:
• Signed bookplate
• Digital circus poster
• Charter Bim Bom Book Club Membership
• Exclusive access to “Rabbit Hole” chapters
eBook and Paperback
Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B0G4FPKNPR
Giveaway
Circus Posters / Vintage Bookplate
Author Interview
Tell us about your current release.
It’s 1990. The Berlin Wall has just fallen, but the Soviet Union hasn’t collapsed yet. It’s a hinge
moment in history.
Circus Bim Bom: A Cold War Adventure is based on a true story I learned in 1991 when the
circus’s American road manager became a client at my Atlanta entertainment law firm. A
privately owned Soviet circus—over a hundred and twenty performers, crew, and families from
the crumbling Soviet empire—arrives in America for a twenty-four-month goodwill tour,
marking Gorbachev’s first experiment in private enterprise. They hoped to build cultural bridges
through spectacular shows, but instead they face a perilous journey through Cold War America.
The narrative follows circus director Yuri as he navigates dangerous waters filled with American
mobsters, Soviet agents, and political intrigue, while young aerialist Anton dreams of becoming
a clown against his father’s wishes. Throughout the adventure, forbidden romances blossom
between Soviet performers and Americans who see beyond the ideological divide—love stories
that unfold across language barriers and against impossible odds.
At its core, the novel asks: Can human connection transcend the barriers that divide
us—ideology, language, culture? It’s genre-bending—Cold War fiction infused with satire,
romance, and thriller elements, narrated by The Ringmaster, who swears by the Russian
storytelling creed: “Don’t let truth ruin great story.”
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
I’m a storyteller in my bones. I first realized this at Tufts University in the late ’70s, spinning
fantastic yarns for friends—all made up—sounding plausible at first, then going gloriously off the
rails. The question wasn’t whether I had stories to tell. It was whether I’d ever find the right one
to put on the page.
I found it in 1991 when Bobby Liberman told me about a Soviet circus he’d road-managed across
America. The story stuck with me for three decades. I became a writer when the pandemic
removed every excuse I had left.
Have you published any previous books?
No—this is my debut novel. I took creative writing courses at Tufts, and my teachers at Friends
Academy encouraged my creative thinking early on, but I spent four decades practicing
entertainment law. As an attorney, I’d been writing my entire career—contracts, briefs, legal
memoranda—but fiction was a new venture. Circus Bim Bom is the story I’d been carrying since
It just took a pandemic and a dear friend’s insistence to finally put it on the page.
What can we expect to see from you in the future, any books on the backburner?
The immediate priority is Circus Bim Bom: The Great Escape—the second book in the
duology—which is completed and due late 2026. It picks up where Book One leaves off, and the
stakes rise considerably.
Beyond that, the characters may have more to say. I imagine fast-forwarding to around 2000,
when Russia has become a kleptocracy and mafia state. The young characters—particularly
Natalia, who would be in her mid-twenties by then—would likely become the main protagonist.
The circumstances of post-Soviet Russia would provide extraordinary drama, and the themes of
the first two books—self-identity, freedom, the consequences of choices—would take on entirely
new dimensions.
What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
Walk in the woods with London, my Goldendoodle. He’s my creative partner—most of my best
ideas arrive on our hikes when my mind is free to wander.
Beyond that, I’m a bit of an adrenaline seeker. Kayaking, motorcycle riding. I love watching
tribute bands from the ’70s—there’s something about hearing that music live that takes you
back. And honestly, since Circus Bim Bom is my debut, the line between “writing” and “not
writing” has blurred. I’ve been building an entire companion website, creating character avatars,
designing circus posters. The marketing has become its own creative endeavor—another form of
storytelling.
Did you learn anything from writing your book? What was it?
The exalted role Soviet clowns played in Russian society astonished me. They weren’t buffoons
or children’s entertainers—they were speaking clowns, with the best on par with our Chaplins,
Brandos, and De Niros. They played music, recited poetry, and delivered satirical commentary
that spoke for the masses.
The original Bim and Bom—Ivan Radunsky and his partners—were called “the most popular
entertainment in Civil War Moscow.” They mocked the Tsarist regime and later turned their wit
on the Bolsheviks. One famous skit featured Bim holding portraits of Trotsky and Lenin, asking
what he planned to do with them: “I’ll hang one and put the other against the wall.” Clowns who
pushed too far faced censorship, banishment, or worse under Stalin. They were the people’s
voice, and they sometimes paid dearly for it.
On the craft side, I learned to kill my darlings—and to love the process of killing them. Editing
became my favorite part of writing. Every revision taught me something about restraint, about
the power of what’s left unsaid.
Some writers have something playing in the background—do you, and what?
Usually classical music when I’m deep in a writing session—something without lyrics so it
doesn’t compete with the words in my head. Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff found their way
onto my playlist more often than I expected, given that I was writing about Russian characters.
The music seeped into the emotional tone of certain scenes.
When I need a break, I’ll switch to ’70s tribute bands or put on The Voice. And here’s the
thing—writing Circus Bim Bom changed my listening habits entirely. The novel has over forty-
five embedded links to period music and historical footage. I spent so much time researching
and selecting those tracks that songs like “Entrance of the Gladiators” and “Dorogoi Dlinnoyu”
(the Russian original of “Those Were the Days”) became part of my daily soundtrack. The music
in the book isn’t background—it’s part of the storytelling.
Tell us a little about yourself. Perhaps something not many people know?
Most people don’t expect a debut novelist to have co-produced a historic reconciliation event at
the National Native American Veterans Memorial.
On June 25, 2021—the 145th anniversary of the Battle of Little Bighorn—I brought the
descendants of ancestral enemies together in Washington, D.C. The National Buffalo Soldiers
Associations presented a proclamation of support for descendants of the Wounded Knee
Massacre. It was the first time descendants of these former combatants united around shared
humanitarian causes. Their ancestors fought as enemies in war; they came as brethren in peace.
I also founded a nonprofit to petition the Naming Commission to rename Fort Benning after
Lieutenant Henry Ossian Flipper—born into slavery in 1856, the first African American to
graduate from West Point in 1877, then convicted on a trumped-up charge and dismissed. It
took 117 years for a presidential pardon.
These stories share the same DNA as Circus Bim Bom: ordinary people confronting oppression,
making impossible choices, seeking reconciliation. Storytelling permeates everything I
do—including my activism.
What do you hope your writing brings to your readers?
I hope they question their biases. About history. About “enemies.” About the people they think
they know. We all belong to tribes that shape how we see the world, but individuals can choose
differently—they can reframe their loyalties, reclaim their identities, confront their prejudices.
I hope they discover the power of the butterfly effect—that one small act of kindness or courage
can ripple outward in ways they can’t predict. Perhaps they’ll find their own Karass—a tribe of
kindred spirits united by a shared mission for positive change.
And I hope they have fun. Circus Bim Bom is a wild ride filled with humor, intrigue, romance,
and circus performers. Entertainment and meaning aren’t mutually exclusive.
