Review of Prophet’s Debt by Robert Creekmore, a Dark Contemporary Fiction | $10 Giveaway, Excerpt, & Author Guest Post
A book blog tour from Goddess Fish Promotions.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and Marianne & Judy at Goddess Fish for providing me with the information for this tour.
Book Details
Prophet's Debt by Robert Creekmore Published by Cinnabar Moth Publishing LLC on 07/05/2022
Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, LGBTQplus
Format: eBook, Hardcover, Paperback
Pages: 284
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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt from Prophet’s Debt
I kissed a neighbor boy the summer before. He was sweet, but it felt odd and fake. Later that year, when my mind turned to kissing him, I felt repulsed. As I gave thought to how much physical affection would be expected of me by boys, I became terrified. I don’t want their physical advances. I would never be in love with a boy, nor do I want to try.
Tiffany and I often express our love. I always assumed I loved her as my best friend, but now there is a new, exciting dimension that I never expected. I am in love, and it has manifested itself into a physical desire I was previously unaware existed.
We continue to hold hands and kiss. We wrap our arms around each other and pull ourselves as closely as physics will allow. I want to disintegrate together, combine our atoms, drift into oblivion, and experience the infinite joy of our togetherness.
We stay intertwined longer than either of us realize.
“Tiffany!” I hear a shriek across the placid water.
It is Lesley.
I can feel Tiff’s hands begin to shake, but not like before. This time it is pure terror. We both pop up and whip our heads and torsos around simultaneously to see her no more than five yards behind us.
Excerpt provided by the author/publisher for use in this post.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Purchase Links for Prophet’s Debt
Amazon – OneLink for every country
AppleBooks/iTunes The Book Depository Blackwell’s
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Guest Post from the author
Overcoming Writing Obstacles (Describe the obstacles you faced while writing this book and the steps you took to overcome them).
I started writing Prophet’s Debt after my second stint in a psychiatric hospital. Before that, I spent several years living in a remote cabin, constructed in 1875, at the base of the Black Mountains. Initially, I began the manuscript because it had been suggested that I ‘journal’ as a form of therapy. I was dealing with some stuff from my childhood that was immensely unpleasant. Truthfully, I didn’t feel like keeping a journal, so I didn’t. The subject matter was far too personal. Instead, I choose allegory. I had already written another book as I was beginning my spiral, so I figured I could certainly do it again.
But, it turns out, there’s a huge difference between working on something that is disconnected, like my first novel, versus a deeply personal matter. The latter can be daunting. Thus, it took a greater length of time. During that period, I was not working on it daily, nor was it my primary focus. Rather, I was just getting my bearings psychologically. Often, I was compelled to flee back to the forest and subsist as a rogue human animal. Had I not been married, I may have gone this route.
When you live in pristine nature, removed from the wider world, you soon forget to miss technology. Television shows and text on a screen can never match the organic reality all around us. But the stuff I had to grapple with was internal, involving past abuse. There was no amount of chopping wood or subsistence hunting that would settle it. The law forbids me from murdering those who have severely wronged me, so to avoid lifelong consequences, I soon put those thoughts on a shelf. Instead, I built Naomi Pace. She could do all the horrible things I wanted consequence-free.
Probably the worst part of writing her story was narrating very graphic depictions of sexual abuse toward children. The horrifying descriptions were necessary for her character but that didn’t make it feel any better.
What happens to Naomi is akin to putting metal into a crucible. When the alloy comes out, it can be poured into a new mold. It’s still the same material atomically, but in a different form and often stronger. That dull lump of ingot can be transformed into a blade, then turned against the blacksmith. The angered knife resents its own creation because it never wanted to be something deadly. But now lethality is all it has.
That was me and my anger. Often, it still is. Though, I’ve sheathed the blade and opted instead to cut with a pen and keyboard.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I love my Amazon Kindle Unlimited Subscription. So many books, so little time!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About Robert Creekmore
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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My thoughts on Prophet’s Debt
I wasn’t planning to review this book, but the blurb drew me in like a moth to the flame. I was not disappointed.
Prophet’s Debt is not an easy book to read. It contains horrible people, violence, torture, white supremacy groups, religious fanatics, cults & every type of evil imaginable. But, it also has beautiful friendships, sapphic love, a mythical creature, and even humor.
You might say this book is ultimately about revenge, but I prefer to see it as hope. Hope for deliverance from evil and hope for the future.
While this might be the darkest book I have read this year, it had a profound effect on me. I knew from the start that Naomi would be a difficult protagonist to love. As the pages and chapters passed, I began to understand her better. She deserves to be happy and loved, the two things that are denied her most of her life.
If your psyche allows you to read Prophet’s Debt, I believe you will gain insight into what a person is capable of, good and bad, when pushed to the limits of their endurance.
While the epilogue does tie things up in a magnificent way, I wasn’t ready to let these characters go. I wanted to keep reading and isn’t that the true testament to a great book? Kudos to the author, Robert Creekmore, for an intense, wild ride. I can’t wait to see what he writes next.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Purchase Prophet’s Debt online from a local bookstore.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Easy Amazon Info Link
Amazon – OneLink for every country
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Giveaway!
Robert Creekmore will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Visit more stops on this Goddess Fish tour for extra chances to win!
Full Tour Schedule:
June 27: All the Ups and Downs
June 28: Fabulous and Brunette
June 29: Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews
June 29: Long and Short Reviews
June 30: Gina Rae Mitchell
July 1: Archaeolibrarian – I Dig Good Books!
July 11: Viviana MacKade
July 12: Andi’s Book Reviews
July 12: Gimme The Scoop Reviews
July 13: It’s Raining Books
July 14: The Avid Reader
July 15: Westveil Publishing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shared on:
If you would like to review books for Goddess Fish Promotions, please click the link below:
Goddess Fish Virtual Book Tour Host
[…] Gina Rae Mitchell […]
This sounds ;like a great story.
It was electrifying. If you asked if I would enjoy a book this dark & triggery, I would have said “No Way!” But, I could not put it down. I finished it at 3am!
Thanks for hosting!