I Love Being Interviewed via email for Blogs

I did two blog interviews that were posted within two days of each other. What fun. One interview focused on one novel: "Rabbletown: Life in These United Christian States of Holy America." I really enjoyed that. The most telling may be this Q and A:

5) Religion is one of the most fundamental aspects of human society, yet also one of the most divisive. Did you ever worry about the controversy that can come into delving so thoroughly into religious themes? Some Christians may read your book and become offended, for example.

The religious right has offended me for decades. I think other Christians will relate and take to RABBLETOWN just fine. The recent barbaric measures in many state legislatures requiring women seeking abortions to be raped by a sonogram probe is offensive to me, and I think to many Christians. My book shows the logical outcome of the religious right's approach. In RABBLETOWN, if you are a woman and married and fertile and not pregnant, you will be artificially inseminated--art pregged. The whole Rush Limbaugh slut-debacle shows that some Christians need to face the consequences of their extreme positions.

The entire interview can be found here:

http://riftwatcher.blogspot.com/2012/03/religious-dystopia-interview-with.html

The other interview was much more general, concerning all of the now 13 works I have live. That was great fun, too. And this questioner was interested in some personal info. Perhaps the most revealing Q and A was this:

17) What’s the one thing you can’t live without?

Gin.

That interview can be found here:

http://themyesterioumuslimahshaven.blogspot.ca/

New Look at Published Works

A Match Made in Heaven

When in junior high, high school, and college, I sucked down science fiction like it was soda pop. So, when I started writing fiction it seemed natural to pursue that genre. Didn't work. Why? Trying to write it didn't grab my soul. It didn't express the me that seemed to be wanting to be exposed. But I did make a few serious efforts. A Match Made in Heaven came from an idea I had for a series: space travel and the discovery of Earth-like planets meant that whole populations could emigrate from earth and populate their own worlds. Religious and political groups, so often in conflict with other such groups, could simply leave Earth and settle on a world of their own. Rule it according to each group's own dictates. There could be a Jewish world, an Islam world (separate worlds for Shiites and Sunnis?), a Hindu world, a conservative world, a libertarian world...you pick, whatever sect or religious or political following you want. There were worlds aplenty for you to go populate and create the destiny of your particular belief.

I began with Mormonism, having always been fascinated by the story of the Golden Tablets that Joseph Smith was able to translate, which became the Book of Mormon, and then, wow, those plates just got lost!

I'll confess a bit of opportunism in publishing "A Match Made in Heaven" just now. Mitt Romney may be the GOP nominee, so interest in the Mormon faith may draw people to this story.

But I do think the lesson in "A Match Made in Heaven" goes much deeper.

I'll make it free for two days starting March 16.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_at_ep_srch?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&field-author=Randy%20Attwood#/ref=sr_pg_2?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3ARandy+Attwood&page=2&sort=relevancerank&ie=UTF8&qid=1331824385

A Match Made in Heaven

Sometimes, while sipping gin, a poem arrives

Sipping Gin

Perhaps not many years hence,

I'll be sitting on this bench,

Under the broad eaves of this garden shed,

Sipping gin.

And look up to see the ghost of my wife,

Working in the garden.

Or, perhaps, it will be she,

Working in the garden, who will look up,

To see me, sitting on this bench,

Sipping gin.

(c) 2012 Randy Attwood

Ever Lose a Novel? It's a Real Kick in the Gut.

In an earlier post I gave a tease about "A Heart to Understand," which features a half-Navajo, half-White young man who believes he is a witch and understands how to open the gates to the Holy People and receive new gifts for the Navajo.

That book is now with Stan Hattaway, who has a design company in Phoenix, and used to work here in Kansas City, where I was once one of his clients. Stan is remarkably gifted and has a sense of color that is amazing. I'm looking forward to the cover design he comes up with. This is a tough one. "A Heart to Understand" is a suspense/thriller and was one of what I hoped would be a series of books centered around the same protagonist, Philip McGuire, a burn-out foreign correspondent who after being captured by the Hezbollah and then released decides to throw in the towel and return to his college town to own and run a bar.

I had written the prequel, "Heal My Heart So I May Cry" but thought "A Heart to Understand" was the stronger of the two and with the strong Navajo presence easier to market. (In my humble opinion, I think it contains one of the best retellings in a work of fiction the Navajo creation story.)

With "Understand" wonderfully edited by Joan LeMonte, it was time to turn my attention to "Heal."

Gulp. Couldn't find it on my computer or backup systems. Not to worry. I make hard copies of everything. Gulp. Found copies of everything else, but not "Heal". Not that many places to look, and I tore through every possible storage space. Nada. There is a vast sinking of the heart when you realize something you worked on over many years is now gone. No way to reconstruct it. So much for the series. Sorry, Philip McGuire, guess you'll probably only have one existence.

Then I came across a hard drive I had forgotten about: one of those external hard drives that required its own power supply. Plugged it in, and there was "Heal". Started the printer and got words on reliable paper in my hands. Reedited it and Katy Sozaeva, who has edited works for me before, was available, and she has done a masterful job.

So I'll have the prequel ready for its cover design after we see the look that Stan comes up with for "Understand." Maybe it's time to start searching around for another title with the word "Heart" in it. I rather like ole Philip McGuire; wonder how he's been doing?