Blog Tour: The Daguerreotypist by Christopher Savio

The Daguerreotypist

by Christopher Savio

About The Author:

I spent my life bouncing back and forth between Southern California and New Jersey. During my elementary school years I discovered that I have dyslexia. Therefore, I learned to read with a lot of help from my parents and eventually got good enough to read novels. With the influence of my father’s interest in horror movies and history, I read two things, Stephen King and history books. It’s no surprise my stories, have a touch of both in them.

Working with the public, including the rental car business, my father’s diner, and later evolving into a teacher of Native American history, criminology, and special education, has allowed me to draw upon experiences that reveal much about human behavior. My writing reflects many of the different personalities and settings have I’ve come to know first hand. Of course I’ve never come across a demon, witch, the devil himself or a serial killer, but the personalities and people I’ve met are represented within each one of my characters.

On a personal note, I have a family, a house and the white PVC picket fence. I graduated from college and have a dog my kids call Roscoe. (Max from The Beckoning) What’s of more interest to you is that my favorite hobby is writing, the scarier the better. If you love stories that will scare the pants off you that are priced for the 99 per centers like myself, then you have come to the right website.

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About The Book:
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Self Published at CreateSpace
Release Date: January 2013
Buy: Amazon

Blurb:

Funny thing about life is that people seldom recognize its beauty or what they have until it’s gone. In 1842 New York City, Isaiah Whitfield, a pioneer in photography (daguerreotypist) and a religious zealot, is no different. Incapable of recognizing anything but the bad in the world, he embarks upon a crusade to perfect society and to bring about the Second Coming. If he can scare people away from sin, even if he has to kill the sinners to do it, Isaiah is certain that he alone can bring about Christ’s return. That is until Satan makes him an offer he can’t refuse.

In 2012, Rachel and her fiancé occupy Isaiah’s old apartment. Rachel, outwardly happy with her life, deep down wants something more. When an undeveloped daguerreotype is found hidden in her studio’s wall it sets her life and the fate of New York City on a collision course with disaster. Rachel falls hopelessly in love with the man in the old picture, but unwittingly frees the now demonic serial killer, Isaiah Whitfield, from Hell. True to form, he immediately goes on killing sprees in two different centuries.

As Rachel finds out, loving a time traveling serial killer straight from Hell has its downsides. For Isaiah, complete blindness to the wonders of this world may have ruined him for ever. Can the power and beauty of love change a demonic serial killer? Can Rachel come to her senses before she loses her fiancé and possibly her own life in the process? In the summer of 2012, the fates of many in New York City depend upon it.

EXCERPT

Missed Opportunities

Listening to the priest on the park bench, Isaiah felt all of his emotions and hatred from his own failures come to the surface. The guilt generated from committing such heinous acts disappeared, replaced by the euphoria of finally being able to pin his failings on another. Killing the priest didn't bring him joy; it was what the priest represented. Isaiah had always been a loner. When he found God, he believed he would find joy and happiness. He thought the pain of loneliness would be erased because of his devotion. When that didn't pan out, he took the Second Great Awakening concept of perfecting society a little farther than prescribed by most. None of it worked. His crusade failed and society spurned him. The emotion that left his body with every swipe at the priest with his razor brought him ecstasy. This attack was louder and more vicious than all the others combined. The blood splattered all about and the priest's flesh fell from the bone bringing him deranged happiness. When he finished, Isaiah sat on the bench next to the bloody mess that moments ago had been a human being, smiling blankly into the night.

Regaining his sense of consciousness, Isaiah rummaged through the priest's pockets, looking for money. Snatching about ten dollars, Isaiah remained crouched in front of the bench and the priest's lifeless body. The money didn't amount to much, but at least he could pay his landlord enough rent to keep his tiny pigsty of an apartment long enough for him to return from the twenty-first century.

Getting up, Isaiah stuffed the money into his coat pocket and started walking back to his apartment, hoping he'd once again gotten away without being seen. To his dismay, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a curtain swaying in the second-story window of a house not one hundred feet away. Instantly a frantic voice boomed across the expanse of the park. He knew, if he was going to keep himself out of Hell, it was imperative he make the jump first thing in the morning. With the crying and carrying-on inside of the apartment to his right, he knew the cops would arrive shortly. He didn't have the luxury of the body being found sometime the next morning; things would be sped up this time around.

Keeping to the shadows as much as possible and switching sides of the street each time he saw someone walking toward him, Isaiah made it home with relative ease. The calm he experienced in his neighborhood at that moment would be gone early in the morning. It was a good thing that Isaiah planned to leave the nineteenth century as soon as possible. In preparation for his morning getaway, he turned up the oil lamp, checked himself in the mirror, and washed up to make sure he didn't pay his landlord covered in blood.

What he saw in the mirror would have horrified most people. For Isaiah, it was business as usual by this point. It was a wonder to him that he'd made it this far without being seen by anyone in either time period. As he cleaned his face, the person he least wanted to see in the world appeared and bounced on his bed.

"For a bed, this is a fine piece of shit. Don't you think?"

"Ya know, I liked you better as Belial Stanley. You were a little pushy then, but you were much more tolerable."

Belial sat back on the bed and rested his shoulders against the splintery wood of the wall.

"Easy now, big guy. It isn't my fault you went and killed a priest, an instrument of God sent here to help you."

Isaiah wanted to lash out at Belial. The words he spoke, however, sank in before he went off on a tirade. Isaiah stood there, flabbergasted, unable to speak for a moment.

Laughing at the look upon Isaiah's face, Belial gathered himself long enough to ask: "Remember when you asked if God could forgive anything?"

"Yes," Isaiah said.

"Most people are lucky. They realize at some point that God can forgive. He can forgive you at any time. Some people realize it immediately, and some realize it much later. Then there are schmucks like yourself who never realize it. That was your get-out-of-jail-free card, you ass. You, however, tore it up. You became angry and killed the hand that was sent here to help you out. Think about it, how many times would a priest come out at midnight and sit right next to someone for apparently no reason?"

Isaiah stood there. Anyone could have sensed the anger coming out of him.

Belial continued to grin at him.

GUEST BLOG
Christopher Savio's
10 Favorite Books

1. The Story of Submarines by George Weller

Those of you who have followed my tour probably know by now that I suffer from dyslexia. At a young age I struggled with reading and writing and took special classes to help me. The very first book I ever read on my own was The Story of Submarines. It took me a few years but I finally did it. This book will always be special. It helped me unlock a world I have grown to love.

2. Pet Cemetery by Stephen King

I love the plot and the unique twist that King gives us here in this book. What father wouldn't be tempted to bring his son back to life after such a terrible accident. King reminds us that no matter what or how horrible the tragedy in our lives, we are powerless to change it and even if we could, there are some things that should simply be left alone. Of course he does it in a way that sends shivers down your spine. That is what I love, a good message that makes you think while making you squirm.

3. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

I am a small part Native American and when I wasn't watching scary movies with my father I was playing cowboys and Indians with my friends and always demanded to be the Indian. That interest grew into me studying Native American history in my spare time since I was very young. I now teach a Native American course and have written the textbook for my class. (This will be published within the next year) Dee Brown is able to bring to life in vivid detail the horrors of one of the blackest marks on American detail. Even though I often wanted to put the book down, I found myself compelled to keep reading. Great job Mr. Brown.

4. Son of the Morning Star by Evan S Connell

Another book about Native American History that I love. Evan S. Connell weaves together the history from both sides of the story and keeps you reading. It is intelligently written and any book where Custer gets his just desserts is a good book. He is one of my least favorite characters I teach about in my Native class.

5. The Tommy Knockers by Stephen King

Who doesn't like a book about a town being taken over an alien spaceship? Besides, one of the characters in the book invents a machine she attaches to her head that writes complete best selling novels while she sleeps. How cool would that be?

6. 11/22/63 by Stephen King

If any one has read The Daguerreotypist, they would know that I love the concept of time travel. This is a bit of a departure by King as it does not contain the same type of scary elements that most of his books do. It does make one think about time travel and the butterfly effect associated with the concept while taking you back into past on very interesting journey. The love and romance may be a bit overplayed here, but overall it is a great work by one of the best author's of our time.

7. The Client by John Grisham

To me this is Stephen King with out the paranormal. John Grisham does a masterful job of blending in his talents of description with his ability to tell a story. What comes out of this is a story that is every bit as scary as something King could conjure up simply because the monsters are replaced by real people. The realism of this book, makes it one of the best and scariest books I've read. After all, paranormal creatures in our minds very often are not as scary as our fellow human beings.

8. The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

This may be the first horror book I ever read. After reading The Story of Submarines I read a lot of history books and I began to look for something else. Being that my father had a fetish for horror movies and after watching a number of them I decided to read a horror book. Not only did this book scare me and make sleep with the lights on, it sent me down the path of reading more in the genre and eventually to writing about it.

9. Thinner by Stephen King

Could retribution from a stranger get any scarier? After reading this book, I was much kinder to people I didn't know.

10. Bloom County, Tunes for Our Times by Berkeley Breathed

Although this is a graphic book of cartoons and maybe not what many would select as their favorite, this book always makes me smile. The comic strip was popular when I was in high school and helps bring back a lot of good memories. I take it out and reread every once in a while.

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