Prophet's Lamentation
by Robert Creekmore
GENRE: Thriller
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.
Interview with Robert Creekmore
How many books have you written and which is your favorite?
I’ve written three novels, two of which have been published. I’m a little past halfway done with my fourth, which will become my third published work. Picking a favorite is difficult. I’d have to go with my more recent release, Prophet’s Lamentation, because it finds our protagonist, Naomi Pace, at full strength, with single-minded determination, and zero regrets.
If you’re planning a sequel, can you share a tiny bit about your plans for it?
Prophet’s Lamentation is actually a stand-alone sequel to last year’s release, Prophet’s Debt. The final book of the trilogy will hit bookshelves next summer.
Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
I’m working on a series of five novels right now. All of them exist within the same universe.
How did you come up with the title for your book?
I didn’t. My wife did.
How long did it take you to write this book?
I finished the rough draft in ten months.
What does the title mean?
In Prophet’s Lamentation, Naomi fights against a death cult. Essentially, the title is about making their leader suffer for his crimes.
What did you learn when writing the book?
I learned that, in Japan, they make gin with a completely different selection of herbs and that it makes a really good dry martini, especially with an orange peel twist. I drank a lot of them while writing this novel. Thank you, House of Suntory!
What surprised you the most?
I reckon I’m surprised that I wrote a novel, rewrote it, and had it ready for publication in one year. It looks like I’m on my way to pulling it off again.
Have you ever killed off a character your readers loved?
Not in this novel. But, in my last, I killed off a teenage boy who has become beloved among my fans. I completely understand. Charles was a pure soul.
What do you do to get inside your character’s heads?
Nothing. They’re there all the time, regardless. Writing it down lets y’all share in my fun delusions.
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.
8 comments:
Sounds like a good book.
Thanks for hosting today!
Who influenced you to be a writer?
Looks like a good read.
this is a good excerpt. thanks for sharing the interview with the author
This sounds like a great book.
What a great cover.
Great excerpt.
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