Prophet's Debt
by Robert Creekmore
GENRE: Dark Contemporary Fiction
BLURB:
At
fourteen, Naomi Pace knows she loves her best friend, Tiffany. During
the Perseid meteor shower of summer 1993, she finds out Tiffany feels
the same, just as they’re outed.
Naomi
is sent away to a conversion program in the remote Appalachians of
North Carolina, knowing nothing of the horrors that await or the
strength they will catalyze.
Escaping
into the frigid wilderness, she forges her own destiny. Trapped in
hiding, Naomi fights to conquer fear and find her way back to
Tiffany.
Taking
bloody vengeance to end a cult that tortures and murders children
seems impossible, but so is having the guidance of a mythic creature
of strength and violence.
Those
who hurt Naomi as a girl will come to fear the woman she has become
and the path she will tread to find revenge, safety, and Tiffany.
Purchase Prophet's Debt on Smashwords, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble
Excerpt:
Moving away, Lesley says in verbal self-defense, “Wait until your father finds out.”
That lands like a tranquilizer dart on a bear. I shift from rage to fear. I’ve done something wholly unforgivable, broken another girl’s arm because she called out my sin. That’s how it will be seen regardless of how I feel about what they call “sin.” Until just now, I was having the most exciting night of my young life. I didn’t feel sin, I felt bonding. I felt the comfort of having someone I love more than anyone else physically close. For those few hours, I thought my life could be like this, but as I watch Lesley stumble away sobbing, it becomes apparent that I was wrong.
Lesley’s car makes a buzzing noise as she zooms away. Tiffany’s eyes are wide when we meet gazes.
“I’ll get the bag,” I say.
I stuff the blankets, canteen, chips, and flashlight back in, leaving the star map behind on the same spot where we had just laid.
“You broke her arm. I can’t believe you actually broke her arm,” Tiffany says, stuttering from fear.
“She was hurting you.”
“But you didn’t have to break her arm.”
“No, I didn’t. I wanted to.”
Tiffany doesn’t seem as offput by this as I expected.
“I love you,” she says.
“Same,” I reply.
I throw the backpack on and reach down to give Tiffany a hand up.
“We have to go somewhere else,” I say, as she rises to her feet.
“Where?”
“Just not here is all I know.”
Interview with Robert Creekmore
How did you become involved with the subject or theme of your book?
The first thing you have to understand about me is that I write about cults because I grew up in a cult. While there are plenty who would argue that Evangelical Christian churches aren’t, I’d gladly debate them as a knowledgeable insider any day.
Being an undiagnosed autistic person during this time gave me a level of objectivity that I don't think many of my peers had. I could never expel my disbelief, no matter how hard I tried. At eighteen, I left that behind, never to return. With it went the animosity and hatred it had burdened me with.
What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them?
Prior to 2014, I was a school teacher. However, in February of that year, I had a psychological breakdown that ended with me in a psychiatric facility for a week. Afterward, the school system saw fit to retire me early. Now at home with nothing to do, I needed an outlet. A lot of people find journaling therapeutic. It’s too personal for my taste and has never worked well for me. After my hospitalization, I began writing Prophet’s Debt as a type of self-prescribed therapy. It was never meant to be much more. But, due to dumb luck, I made a comment on a Twitter page that prompted Kisstopher from Cinnabar Moth Publishing to request the manuscript. It was rough. Upon reading it, Kisstopher offered me a development deal if I were to undertake a complete rewrite. I finished the rewrite on Christmas day, 2021.
I think expressing myself in the initial rough draft was therapeutic. But, to have it published was unexpected. My goal was met and exceeded.
What was the hardest part of writing this book?
There are extremely graphic scenes of sexual violence in the book. Those were terrible to write, and almost worse to rewrite because I had already somewhat dealt with those feelings while crafting the original manuscript.
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
I enjoyed killing the character who deserved to die in torturously creative ways.
Were there alternate endings you considered?
Nope.
Can you share some stories about people you met while researching this book?
Prophet’s Debt’s first half mostly takes place in a small community in the Appalachian mountains. When we were first married, my wife and I lived in a cabin that was built in 1875 at the base of the Black Mountains. It was very rudimentary.
The couple I rented from was warm and gracious. They were unlike the Christians I had grown up around. They genuinely cared for others, and saw Christ’s message as one of love, instead of hatred. Neither was bothered that I wasn’t a Christian myself. Each liked me for who I was just the same. They are the basis for the characters of Al and Milly, who come to Naomi’s rescue after her terrible ordeal.
What genre of books do you enjoy reading?
I adore science fiction, especially Kurt Vonnegut. In fact, my first novel was sci-fi.
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.
3 comments:
Thanks for hosting!
Sounds like a great read.
I really enjoyed the blurb and excerpt and think the book sounds good.
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