THE ANGEL SCROLL Penelope Holt

Please welcome Penelope Holt author of THE ANGEL SCROLL

One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $25 Amazon/BN.com gift card.

THE ANGEL SCROLL

Penelope Holt

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GENRE:  Spiritual Romance, Mystery/Thriller

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INTERVIEW:

What is something you’ve lied about?

A prior engagement when I don’t want to accept an invitation.  Technically true since it usually means I need a date with myself to catch up.

Who is the last person you hugged?

Hard to remember because I am a chronic hugger. I hug my husband, kids, and dogs daily—whenver they’ll let me.

What are you reading now?

I usually have several books on the go, often audiobooks that I listen to on walks. Nonfiction: “Story” by Robert McKee on screenplay writing; “Alexander Hamilton” by Ron Chernow, and “Reality Is Not What it Seems”, breakthrough physics by Carlo Rovelli.

In fiction, I am rereading “Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follet, “The Women by Kristin Hannah”, and “Angle of Repose” by Wallace Stegner. And in light romance, I like Catherine Bysbee and Kerry Fisher.

How do you come up with the titles to your books?

“The Angel Scroll” is named after a missing Dead Sea Scroll which holds a prophecy that kicks off the book’s plot. An infamous and fictional apple got Herman Rosenblat into trouble when he went on the Oprah Winfrey show and claimed that while he had been in Nazi concentration camps during World War Two (true) that a young girl whom he later met and married in Brooklyn, New York (true) tossed apples over the fence of the work camp where he was imprisoned (untrue). I titled my book based on the Herman Rosenblat Holocaust love story hoax “The Apple” since an apple was at the center of the story.

“What do women want?” is a famous question. My upcoming romance novel is titled “Polly Wants a Lover” and is part of my Women who Want series.

Who represents your dream cast?

For “The Angel Scroll”, I can see Emily Blunt playing the artist and heroine Claire Lucas. Michael Fassbender would be a good Richard Markson. Helen Mirren would be a wonderful Josie McLean. Anthony Hopkins would be a great Father Karl Brandt. Jamie Doman would be a perfect Jake Lucas, Claire’s husband, and the other two painters would be Pio Marmaï as Michel Bartres, and Luca Marinelli as Anselmo.

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BLURB:

ONE ANCIENT PROPHECY, TWO HEARTBROKEN LOVERS, AND A WORLDWIDE SCAVENGER HUNT FOR THREE MIRACULOUS PAINTINGS.

After her husband’s death, New York artist Claire Lucas has baffling dreams and waking visions as she channels an enigmatic and healing painting of a holy man in India at the deathbed of a young woman. When widowed antiquarian Richard Markson announces that Claire’s canvas is one-third of three paintings prophesied by the Angel Scroll, a recently discovered Dead Sea parchment, she is pulled into an international scavenger hunt to find the stolen scroll and the paintings it predicts.

As she pursues the paintings with Richard across historic and holy sites in America, Israel, and Europe, Claire encounters a series of remarkable teachers. A Buddhist, a Benedictine monk, and a professor of early goddess worship all provide rich explanations for the artist’s compelling and perplexing psychic experiences — until she assembles the incredible triptych and deciphers its inspirational message for the modern world.

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EXCERPTS (Please choose only ONE to use with your post):

Excerpt One:

In Benares, India, the sweltering night dragged on. Moonlight slid through the bedroom window and bathed the young, Christlike figure who sat cross-legged on the floor. Only a loincloth covered his slender hips, and his long, coarse hair was coiled in a topknot on his crown. He’d been watching the young woman on the low bed for hours. She was feverish, her breathing shallow, as she squinted at him now through half- closed lids. Her husband held her hand and shot the young man a pleading look. “Please let her live. I’m a rich man. I can pay you. I can help the poor of Benares, the poor of India.”

“To thwart death is not to conquer it,” the young master said, and the husband buried his head in the bed’s embroidered cover. In a single, fluid movement, the holy man rose and stroked his host’s bent head, His long, graceful fingers raking the dark hair, slick with perfumed oil, revealing a channel of pale, moist scalp.

Beyond the bedroom, in the narrow hallway, the master found his three companions propped against a wall and dozing. He tapped the closest with a calloused foot, and one by one the sleeping men awoke. “Is she well now?” the tall one asked, stretching.

“She will be dead come dawn,” his master whispered, as the four men stepped into the dusty and deserted Indian night.

The phone rang. Claire woke up and realized her face was wet. She’d been crying again. She eyed the clock—9 a.m. She cleared her throat, picked up the phone, and tried to sound awake. “Hello?”

“You still sleeping?” Claire held the phone away from her ear to stop Deirdre Vetch’s whine from piercing her brain. “You’re coming to the gallery to talk about the painting, right? We must talk.” Deirdre’s verbal pummeling began.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Penelope Holt was born and educated in England and now lives in New York. She is a novelist, playwright, business writer, and marketing executive, whose work has been performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, York Arts Center, and New York’s American Folk Theater. In addition to writing fiction,  The Angel Scroll, and The Apple, based on the controversial Herman Rosenblat Holocaust romance, Holt is a prolific writer, editor, and co-author of non-fiction, including Business Intelligence at Work A Personal Operating System for Career Success, Singing God’s Work, the story of the Harlem Gospel Choir, and many other works. She is married with two children.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Angel-Scroll-Prophecy-Destiny-Novel-ebook/dp/B0D56KD3N5/ref=monarch_sidesheet_title

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $25 Amazon/BN.com gift card.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f5043″