Horror Writer Sued By Church? Guest Post & Giveaway *Ended* of $10 Gift Card!

Horror Writer Sued By Church?

By Scott Nicholson

www.hauntedcomputer.com

My first novel The Red Church was inspired by a local legend of an actual haunted church here in the Blue Ridge Mountains, with ghost stories dating back 150 years.

I’d put together a short video on the church as a college student, and when it was time for an idea for a novel, that story stuck with me. I loosely incorporated elements of the legend, modernizing it and populating it with my own characters. Only a few details came from the actual legend, such as the church bell ringing even though its rope was long gone because a preacher supposedly hanged himself from it.

The publisher asked me for cover ideas and I sent a photo of the actual church, and the original paperback cover looks a lot like the real church. When the book was released, I probably used the local legend in some of my publicity for the book.

The church elders sent me a threatening letter after my novel was published, accusing me of “slandering” the long-dead preacher and the church:

“We…are most distressed at your recent novel supposedly based on legend and “research.” Brother [name redacted] was a holy man…With the help of his flock he built the church you slander erroneously. What kind of “research” did you do for your damaging book?”

The letter went on to mention the beloved saint died of natural causes and was buried near the church entrance out of respect. They also sent a copy to the editor of the local paper, but I don’t think it was ever published.

I know slander and libel law pretty well, and a building can’t be slandered, and neither can a dead person (except maybe in California, where laws don’t make sense and Mickey Mouse has more rights than a living person). But secretly I was thinking, “Boy, I hope they take some kind of legal action. Fox News couldn’t resist the headline ‘Church Sues Horror Writer.’ And I’d sell a million copies.”

Alas, it never came to pass. Neither did my threat to hold a book-burning to protest the publication of my own book. Life went on, and so did death, and the church is still there.

I don’t know if anyone at the church actually read the book, but the truth has never stood in the way of moral indignation. I don’t go around divulging the church’s real identity and address, because the church has been vandalized in the past because of the legends.

But I also don’t think anyone owns folk legends, or can suppress them, and a you can’t keep a good ghost down.

(The Red Church is 99 cents at Amazon and signed copies are available directly from the author for $8.95 plus shipping at http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/redchurch.htm)

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Scott Nicholson is giving away 15 percent of his ebook revenues in September! Details are at http://hauntedcomputer.blogspot.com. His other books include The Skull Ring, Speed Dating with the Dead, Drummer Boy, and nine other novels, seven story collections, and six screenplays. Look for Liquid Fear and Chronic Fear from Amazon on Dec. 20. More at Haunted Computer

I hope you'll go buy your own copy of The Red Church which is the book I'm promoting for the month of September!  

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Book Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

 Lola and the Boy Next Door

Author: Stephanie Perkins

Details: ARC, Published in Hardcover, 338 pgs.

Published: Sept. 29th, 2011 by Dutton

Reading Level: Young Adult

Source: Borrowed

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit -- more sparkly, more fun, more wild -- the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood. 
When Cricket -- a gifted inventor -- steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door. 

Sigh... is it over?  Already?!  

I wanted this book to go on forever.  I fell in love with the characters, the setting, the romance... everything.  I just loved it!  It seems like I keep getting asked if it was better then Anna and the French Kiss.  I don't know if it was or not.  I think I liked it as much though.  The thing is, in Anna I loved that it took place in Paris and that St. Clair had an accent.  In Lola I loved, I mean really really really loved Lola.  More then I loved Anna.  And I loved Cricket but maybe not more then St. Claire, but I did love his style.  Really, they are two different books that are both amazing.  Amazing amazing.  

I already mentioned I loved Lola.  I loved that she was different.  That she was herself and her personality popped off the page.  She wasn't perfect.  She made mistakes and she was a little stupid sometimes, but she's a teenager.  Teenagers make mistakes and love isn't an easy thing as a teen.  Geez, I was in love like six times as a teen.  Or at least I thought so.  But Lola's sense of style was actually something I could relate to.  I was different like her as a teen.  At least I tried my hardest!

Cricket is so stinking cute I could just squeeze him right now.  You know, if he was real.  I love that he was persistent without being persistent.  Meaning, he was there for her, she knew that but he didn't try anything.  He had an amazing personality and his kindness and thoughtfulness was just, well, HOT.    

Lola and Cricket are the main characters but Lola's two dads are pretty awesome (they are gay dads) and her family life was pretty strong through the book.  I really liked that.  And I was really able to picture it all so clearly! I liked that they were a tight knit family but they still had their problems and their own ways of dealing with things.  I think that Stephanie did a great job in making it all feel real.  

Oh, and if you're me you're missing Anna and St. Claire.  Well, don't despair!  They're there!  Anna works with Lola at the movie theater and St. Claire tags along.  And they end up having some other connections.  But basically they are friends with Lola and Cricket and make several appearances.  As cute as ever!

  EEK, this is getting long!  And really all you all need to know is this, this book is brilliant!  

Find the author:

Website

This qualifies for the Diversify Your Reading Challenge.  Go HERE to find out more.

Guest Post with Stephanie Dray and Giveaway *ENDED* of Song of the Nile

I have Stephanie Dray on again for an awesome guest post!  I love both her books, Lily of the Nile (Review) and Song of the Nile (Review).  In this post she writes about magical realism which I happen to love in her books.  We'd like you to weigh in in the comments and you're entered to win Song of the Nile!  

You Got Your Chocolate in my Peanut Butter!

(Why Historical Fiction & Fantasy Go Together)

by

Stephanie Dray

The way my heroine’s spiritual beliefs manifest themselves in my novels about Cleopatra’s daughter have been largely well-received. Written in the tradition of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of Avalon series, my work envisions a young messianic queen whose goddess communicates with her in bloody hieroglyphic messages that scroll down her arms. 

The books have been blessed with great reviews and strong sales. (Here’s where I knock on wood that the trend continues.) However, a few readers have reacted with horror to the appearance of magical realism in a story based on the true life of a historical queen like Cleopatra Selene. One reviewer even said that my publisher ought to be ashamed for allowing me to mix fantasy with historical women’s fiction. I suppose the argument is that I’ve allowed fantasy to corrupt the pureness and sanctity of history. 

Now, perhaps it’s just my background as a student of law and government that informs my beliefs, but history has never seemed all that pure or sanctified to me. We know that history is written by the victors, for example. That is true whether the victory has been on the battlefield, in an election, or in the court of public opinion. The picture that comes down to us through history--especially ancient history--is largely incomplete. Documents have been lost. Motives are murky. (Heck, even with the benefit of a 24-hour news cycle, few Americans can agree on the history that we’re making right now!)

Consequently, I’ve always viewed history as an exercise and art in perspective. It’s always a story shaped by both the beliefs of the people who lived it and the beliefs of those reading about it now. A historical world, in my opinion, has a great deal in common with a fantasy world. It is just as foreign to us, and just as mystical, even with the aid of scholars.

I chose to include a touch of fantasy in my historical fiction for a few reasons. The first is that Selene’s story of survival and triumph is so unlikely, that it almost seemed to require magic as an explanation. Moreover, when writing about a deeply religious ancient queen, it seemed like a natural choice to adopt the world view of the people she came from. 

In the ancient world, there were certainly cynics, but by and large, the people believed deeply in supernatural phenomenon. This is especially so for the Romans, who believed they could read the will of the gods in the flight of birds or from the entrails of dead animals. Magic was a real part of their lives. It played a big part in their politics. (Just a few years after my heroine’s death, the imperial family would fall into a kind of civil war after accusations that Germanicus was killed by witchcraft.) Magical realism was a way of lending authenticity to the novel.

In most respects, the story of Song of the Nile, which follows Cleopatra Selene’s life as a young queen, striving to make a place for herself in a Roman world, hues very close to actual historical events. There is also, however, a stronger surge of magical power in this book--magic that derives from the divine feminine and Selene’s goddess worship--power that she uses to survive and thrive. Of course, I’m not going to say that including magical realism in historical fiction was an easy task. Trying to weave together all the intricacies of actual history with the magic that I invented made me pull my hair out more than once. But I think the result has been a story that engages the spirit and the mind. 

I’m certainly not the only author to do it, but sometimes historical fantasy seems to be the white elephant in the room that nobody talks about. Philippa Gregory toys with it in The White Queen & The Red Queen as well as her first novel, Wideacre. Judith Tarr uses it to great effect in the Throne of Isis. Margaret George certainly seems to “go there” in Mary, Called Magdalene. More interesting, perhaps, is the trend in the fantasy genre to start incorporating history. I was very impressed by Maria Davahna Headley’s Queen of Kings, which is a story that envisions Cleopatra as a kind of ancient vampire. 

So what are your thoughts on the matter? Does historical fiction and fantasy mix or should these streams never be crossed? Are there shades of magical realism in historical fiction that you enjoy?

Bio

Stephanie graduated from Smith, a small women’s college in Massachusetts where–to the consternation of her devoted professors–she was unable to master Latin. However, her focus on Middle Eastern Studies gave her a deeper understanding of the consequences of Egypt’s ancient clash with Rome, both in terms of the still-extant tensions between East and West as well as the worldwide decline of female-oriented religion.

Before she wrote novels, Stephanie was a lawyer, a game designer, and a teacher. Now she uses the transformative power of magic realism to illuminate the stories of women in history and inspire the young women of today. She remains fascinated by all things Roman or Egyptian and has–to the consternation of her devoted husband–collected a house full of cats and ancient artifacts.

Blurb

Sorceress. Seductress. Schemer. Cleopatra’s daughter has become the emperor’s most unlikely apprentice and the one woman who can destroy his empire…

Having survived her perilous childhood as a royal captive of Rome, Selene pledged her loyalty to Augustus and swore she would become his very own Cleopatra. Now the young queen faces an uncertain destiny in a foreign land.

Forced to marry a man of the emperor’s choosing, Selene will not allow her new husband to rule in her name. She quickly establishes herself as a capable leader in her own right and as a religious icon. Beginning the hard work of building a new nation, she wins the love of her new subjects and makes herself vital to Rome by bringing forth bountiful harvests.

But it’s the magic of Isis flowing through her veins that makes her indispensable to the emperor. Against a backdrop of imperial politics and religious persecution, Cleopatra’s daughter beguiles her way to the very precipice of power. She has never forgotten her birthright, but will the price of her mother’s throne be more than she’s willing to pay?

Berkley Trade October 2011 (Trade Paperback)
# ISBN-10: 0425243044
# ISBN-13: 9780425243046

Purchase Info

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The Giveaway: *ENDED*

The author is giving away one copy of Song of the Nile.

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"So what are your thoughts on the matter? Does historical fiction and fantasy mix or should these streams never be crossed? Are there shades of magical realism in historical fiction that you enjoy?"

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