Doing One Of Those Book Signing Things

My books have now been placed in several independent bookstores in the KC area and March 7 I'll be doing a book signing at one of them, Prospero's Parkside in Blue Springs, MO. It's just east of Kansas City. The store owner, Eve Brackenbury, a poetess, pulled images from my Facebook page and did a really cool image to advertise the signing and used that image as the store's current facebook cover.

Here's the image. I'm looking forward to this evening. She also serves wine! So if you know anyone in the area, please alert them. I may bring a few liquid reinforcements myself because, to tell the truth, I'm scare as hell about the whole thing.

And I've been invited to Lawrence, KS to be interviewed on an internet radio program. Details to follow...

Nice recent reviews:

For Crazy About You

I found this story so captivating that I couldn't stop reading once I started, I happen to work at the state hospital depicted in this story and it is incredible fact or fiction, the detail that was written I could see everything he wrote so I was able to follow it with such ease and enjoyed it very much. A very believable story that seemed so familiar. I have recommended this to everyone that I know. I only found one issue with the story and that was, that it wasn't longer......Thanks Randy for such an absolutely amazing read!!!

For Heart Chants

Very intriguing story with a fascinating story line, and interesting subject matter as well, with the Navajo culture and mysticism factoring in to the plot. Heart wrenching history of the Navajo people revealed in the story. Suspenseful, fast paced, unique. Loved it, highly recommended.

For Rabbletown: Life in These United Christian States of Holy America

Once I got past the first few pages, I couldn't put this book down. It's actually a short novel but the story held my interest. The story is of an America where the government and society have been restructured along dogmatic lines that suggest christian dominionism, a nightmare christian theocracy at its height during the late 21st century. By the end of the book, I was disappointed that there was not a second book that picks up where the first leaves off. Can we hope for a Book II, Mr. Attwood?

For Tortured Truths

Tortured Truths by Randy Attwood is a suspense thriller starring Phillip McGuire a journalist who has recently escaped the claws of his middle eastern torturers. In bad shape both physically and mentally he pursues a simpler life and leaves his journalism background behind although not completely. He returns to his hometown in an effort to heal and live a simpler life, getting back in touch with old friends and opening a bar. He soon finds a mystery that needs resolving as people begin turning up dead.

The plot thickens and excitement ascends to a shreaking climax with every word in this thriller. Gruesome and colorful text flows into a string of scenes that coalesce inside the reader's mind with each turn of the page.Character's are vividly displayed through dialogue and narrative giving the reader a sense of being in the thick of the action.

A well written and most definitely stinging suspense thriller that is a must read!

The 41st Sermon Up for a Vote of Confidence

The 41st Sermon is one of  nine books first offered by bookkus for reviewers to read, review, and vote on if bookkus should publish it. Entry portal here, I hope.

We are seeing many different publishing efforts in this epublishing age. This is one that I guess you would call crowd-deciding. I suppose it means I should go out there and ask friends, family etc. to vote for my book. Consider yourself asked.

Actually, if it gets you interested in the book, that's what is important to me. I've just done a major re-edit of the manuscript before sending it off for professional editing and proofreading before turning it into a paperback POD. I like The 41st Sermon a lot. But the ebook hasn't done very well. It has a Walker Percy connection, which I've commented on before.

It's also told from the third person POV, but with a lot of thoughts presented by that character in first person. I've now put those in italics. That simple change has given the manuscript a new tension and drama, I think. Much more powerful.

It's a good story and quite erotic. Episcopal priest in mid-life and mid-faith crisis gets caught up in a phony kidnap plot with a blonde parishioner who seduces him and turns out to be the daughter he didn't know about. And that that's just part of Satan's complications!

Here's a non-erotic taste from the beginning and then one from near the end:

He looked up. Phosphenes danced in the pale blue sky the way they did when he closed his eyes. Do people look up at the sky so much because they are curious about the weather or because they are looking hoping to see God up there? Maybe they looked up in fear, afraid that God was up there looking down and seeing everything they did. Maybe we're damned either way. Damned if He isn't up there – damned in the morass of own humanity – and damned if He is up there because we deserve His condemnation.

And so, for the first time in his life, The Reverend Christopher Talley, rector of St. Philip's Episcopal Church, offered up a real prayer to God. A prayer not taken from the Book of Common Prayer, a prayer with neither fine phrases nor elegant, wonderful sounding words, but a prayer without words taken from the book of his own newly discovered soul.

Rabbletown Now in Paperback Edition

Okay, I need to hype this one more time (not promising it won't be the last). Rabbletown: Life in These United Christian States of Holy America is now available as a printed paperback through Amazon. Just received my copies today and everything looks great. In print form, it came out at 131 pages. It sells for $7.99.

Here's the back cover description:

When religion rules, society enters a new dark age...

The year is 2084. The place is Topeka, Kansas. The Church of the Evangels run the country through the Pastor President, who rules with a Bible in each fist. Abortion isn't just outlawed; pregnancy is mandated. The Church uses the computer-based social networking systems we know today to spy on its members. If you don't fit into this brave new society, you try to make a life in Rabbletown.

And then the son of a mason reminds everyone what redemption is all about...

Here are excerpts I used from positive reviews:

PRAISE FOR RABBLETOWN

"...one of those satires that is a bit too close to reality to be entirely comfortable."

Tim Miller, chair, Religious Studies, The University of Kansas

"I expected a few things when I started reading this book. I expected to maybe be amused by a satirical take on the Fundamentalists that are doing their utmost to take over this country... I expected to be outraged by the excesses of Fundamentalist leaders who grow fat and rich off the tithing of their flock, while the common people live in poverty and squalor. I expected to be terrified by the idea of an Evangelical theocracy in general.

What I did not expect was to be profoundly moved. I did not expect the overwhelming desire to make this book required reading for everyone. I did not expect goose bumps or a profound feeling of “rightness” to come over me while I read this book.

I did not expect to want to take to the streets to preach the word of Bobby – to propose that the world would be a better place if we all became … Bobbites."

Katy Sozaeva, Amazon top 1000 reviewer

"Not for the proselytizers among us, but for those who will be intrigued by an Orwellian America ruled from the pulpit." Attwood's Rabbletown won't disappoint."

Jill Garza, Smashwords reviewer

(PS.  Katy, your copy is coming soon!)

Rabbletown Review and My Response

Rabbletown: Life in These United Christian States of Holy America received a really interesting review from the writer Nancy Griffis on her blog. I hope you will go there first to see her review and then return here to read my comments below.

Dear Nancy,

Thank you for a fascinating review.

It made me ponder my own book and why I wrote it the way I did and I thought you'd be interested which of your comments got me to thinking and what those thoughts were.

Character development and plot:

I think effective character development (or character creation, as I call it) comes from seeing what a character does and his/her interactions and dialogue.

I don't outline. I try to discover characters and learn who they are and what they are doing and that usually leads me to a plot. And a plot is really a road down which characters travel. When I started this book in the 1980s I knew I had a stone mason working on a cathedral and I knew the religious right had dominated the society. I knew Bob Crowley would have a wife and many children.

And so I created other characters through which we could explore what kind of society had been created. My first working title for Rabbletown was 2084. I was working on the book close to the year of 1984, the date that is, in my opinion, also that most famous of dystopian works, Orwell's masterpiece.

I discovered Bob's son Bobby had an incredible memory for Bible verses. I explored the ways Evangelical Christians reached an accommodation with the Catholics and used their technical skills with computers which turned into spy machines. Then the book stalled on me. I couldn't get it to move forward until the late 1990s. I let Bobby perform his miracles. I let him be a Christ figure.

That is one reason there isn't a point of view from Bobby. Imagine if we had a point of view from Jesus in the Gospels. His presence is much stronger when his actions are reported on by others. That it why the stigmata scene is reported from so many different points of view. And just as Jesus is important to so many individual people; so it is with Bobby and his preaching and sayings.

Nancy, reading your comment you were "...kinda jealous I didn't write this one myself," is the highest compliment. I thank you for it!