Prophet’s Lamentation by Robert Creekmore
Please welcome Robert Creekmore author of Prophet’s Lamentation
Robert Creekmore will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Prophet’s Lamentation
by Robert Creekmore
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GENRE: Thriller
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INTERVIEW:
- What or who inspired you to start writing?
I was always an avid reader when I was younger. I suppose that stemmed from being read to from the time I was born until I could read for myself. As I grew older, I discovered science fiction, transgressive writing, and existentialism, all of which melded well with my affinity for punk rock.
- How did you come up with ideas for your books?
I never really grew up, so my imagination didn’t wain when I crossed over into adulthood. I’ve always had an active internal dialogue, and have ideas stored up from years of introversion brought on by being autistic. Inevitably, those narratives have been expressed through my writing
- What expertise did you bring to your writing?
I grew up on a farm in rural North Carolina. Most of my childhood was spent hunting, fishing, and generally being outdoors. I lived in a remote cabin built in the 1870s for two years, growing my own food, hunting wild game, trading slaughtered chickens for beef with a cattle farmer, and occasionally working on his farm. There are a lot of depictions of survival scenarios and the use of firearms in my books. I bring intricate, realistic storylines involving both to my work because of my background.
- What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?
I’ve built stills and made moonshine.
- As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?
Prophet’s Lamentation is the second book in a trilogy. Despite this, it can be read as a standalone. I’m halfway done with the rough draft for the third installment. After that, I have a contract to write a supplemental book that tells the story of Naomi’s girlfriend, Tiffany. It follows her through the eleven years they were separated after they were outed in 1993.
- If you could be one of the characters from any of your books, who would it be and why?
I wouldn’t trade places with any of my characters. Their lives, while adventurous at times, are frightening and perilous.
- If you were the casting director for the film version of your novel, who would play your leading roles?
The entertainment industry suffers from a malignant case of nepotism. I would rather have complete unknowns work on a project based on my work. I would prefer it be shot on location in North Carolina with regional actors, not someone from California with a put-on accent that’s completely transparent to locals.
- When did you first decide to submit your work? Please tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step?
My path to becoming a published author was a bit different than most. I made a comment on another author’s Twitter post.
I said, “The moral of my book is that some motherfuckers need killing.”
The publisher, Cinnabar Moth, saw that comment and asked for the first fifty pages. I signed my first literary contract a few weeks later. Though, the rough draft needed a lot of work. I spent the next six months rewriting it. I took two weeks off, then began writing my recent release, Prophet’s Lamentation. It took me years to write the first book, but after those six months of rewriting, something in my mind switched on. I finished the rough draft of Prophet’s Lamentation in ten months.
- Do you outline your books or just start writing?
I go in with an idea that’s more of a larger picture. I widdle away what doesn’t work, and make up the stuff that’s needed to tie it all together as I go along.
- Do you have an all-time favorite book?
If I were to pick a favorite, I’d have to go with The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I find Ester Greenwood’s descent into a prison created by her own mental illness relatable to my own, even though we’re not from similar backgrounds, gender, or time period.
However, if I had to pick my all-time favorite author, it would have to be Kurt Vonnegut. I love all of his work as a whole but don’t find any singular novel quite as relatable as The Bell Jar.
- Who is your favorite actor and actress?
It’s easily Keanu Reeves. I’ve been a fan since seeing Bill and Ted as a child, then The Matrix as a teenager. I think his brand of wholesome masculinity should become the gold standard for men.
- Can you tell us a little bit about what it was like to write a series?
My advice would be to write the first novel as a one-off but place loose bits in there that most people wouldn’t even recognize until after reading the follow-ups. I did that with the first book in this series. By making it a one-off, with the potential for a series, it’s more likely to get signed. After, if all goes well, an audience will be there for the following works. If not, the story has a definitive ending.
BLURB:
Two years after Naomi murdered the serial killer and rapist Vernon Proffit, she is attempting to adjust to a quiet life with her wife, Tiffany. But Vernon’s flock is not done with her. Under new leadership, their numbers have swollen as they morphed from a single entity into a network of cultists called Apostles of the Cloven Hand.
Naomi has suppressed her abilities since killing Vernon, but she cannot ignore the voices of the young people the new flock tortures and molests. They scream for help in her dreams every night, causing her to question her own sanity.
When she uses her long-dormant abilities to stop an attempted gay-bashing, Naomi’s true identity is exposed. The cult sends an assassin to kill Naomi and her family, forcing them to flee the state while the Apostles move to take everything the family has built.
Naomi fought the cult before and won. But that was before she had her chosen family to worry about. Now, she must choose between hiding on her own to keep her family safe or fighting back to destroy the Apostles. If she hides, the Apostles will continue to victimize those near them. If she fights, her family will be at risk of the same fate they plan for Naomi.
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EXCERPT:
“Even after your enemies’ defeat, they are still with you.”
Those are Nate’s words. I hear them whenever I wake up screaming and fighting in the middle of the night. Tiffany has similar episodes.
How do you build an ordinary life when you’re not, well, ordinary? Terror and fury molded me for eleven years. That abruptly ended with the death of Vernon Proffit and his acolytes. Sure, there was a period of celebration following. After vengeance, the anger never completely subsides. Don’t interpret that as regret; some motherfuckers need killing.
What bothers me is that before I fed Vernon to the Atlantic Ocean, the screams that woke me were my own as I relived trauma.
The abilities my guide, Mara, gifted me are still intact, but I choose to shut myself off from them. However, now something new comes pulsing forth from the ground that I have no control over. I’m stirred from sleep by the horrors others are experiencing. They cry out for help, but I don’t know how to save them. Mostly, they’re abused young people. Their voices drive me mad. If I could only find them, maybe I could stop their suffering. Last night, it was a young man named Vincent. I couldn’t see where he was. I could only hear him wail in pain as he experienced abject hopelessness.
But I attempt to tarry forward.
Today, I should be happy. It’s July twentieth, two-thousand-six; my twenty-seventh birthday as Naomi Pace. Legally, as Hannah Sillman, I’m thirty-four and will turn thirty-five on Christmas day. That birthday is celebrated more ominously, as the real Hannah rests with her mother, Milly, under an old oak tree high up in the hills of Yancey County. Her father, Al, gifted me with this new life by giving me her identity for my eighteenth birthday. He was more of a father than my own, Amos, who beat me mercilessly when he found out that I was in love with Tiffany. I still am. Their hate and violence couldn’t destroy that.
I won. Why am I still so sad? Why do I disregard my own life, feeling guilty about those I couldn’t save, like Charles? He died during our escape. There was nothing I could do. I know that, logically, but I can’t convince my heart of it. It eats at me with each heartbeat, saying, ‘you could have done more.’ It does so now, at four-thirty in the morning. I’m sitting up in bed with no one to speak with. I don’t dare wake my beautiful bride, Tiffany, as she sleeps soundly next to me.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Robert Creekmore is from a rural farming community in Eastern North Carolina.
He attended North Carolina State where he studied psychology. While at university, he was active at the student radio station. There, he fell in love with punk rock and its ethos.
Robert acquired several teaching licenses in special education. He was an autism specialist in Raleigh for eight years. He then taught for four years in a small mountain community in western North Carolina.
During his time in the mountains, he lived with his wife Juliana in a remote primitive cabin built in 1875. While there, he grew most of his own food, raised chickens, worked on a cattle farm, as well as participated in subsistence hunting and fishing.
Eventually, the couple moved back to the small farming community where Robert was raised.
Robert’s first novel Afiri, is a science fiction love letter to his childhood hero Carl Sagan. It was nominated for a Manly Wade Wellman award in 2016.
Robert’s second novel is the first in a trilogy of books. Annoyed with the stereotype of the southeastern United States as a monolith of ignorance and hatred, he wanted to bring forth characters from the region who are queer and autistic. They now hold up a disinfecting light to the hatred of the region’s past and to those who still yearn for a return to ways and ideas that should have long ago perished.
Amazon buy link: https://www.amazon.com/Prophets-Lamentation-Robert-Creekmore-ebook/dp/B0BZ6MRPVW/
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE:
Robert Creekmore will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
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