Day 4 of the Book of Paul tour is here.
Today we have a guest post from the author
Richard Long.
Welcome to the Save the Book blog, Richard.
Make yourself at home. Can I get you a cup
of coffee?
No, you want to get started. Fire away!
Guest Post by Richard Long
Laura gave me my first tarot deck. It was a
Crowley. A lot of people get creeped out by Crowley decks, much as they would
have been creeped out by Crowley, I imagine. He called himself ‘The Great
Beast.’ To me, he seemed more like a big joke.
“Do what thou
wilt shall be the whole of the law!”
Stop it, you’re
killing me.
You just read
the opening lines of The Bone King, a prequel to The Book of Paul. They happen to
be true. Laura gave me my first deck. I still have it and use it. In fact, I’ll
be using it shortly to provide Skype tarot readings for two lucky winners of my
Whirlwind Blog Tour. I’m looking forward to the readings. The winners? I
suppose that depends on which cards come up.
Actually, I
don’t give scary tarot readings, I just write about scary tarot readings.
People have enough fear and stress in their lives without me throwing more gas
on the flames. Besides, the three scariest trump cards--The Hanged Man, Death
and The Tower--can all be interpreted in very unscary ways. Most of the time.
William, the
narrator of <em>The Book of Paul</em>, lives in the East
Village/Alphabet City of New York in the years before gentrification made it a
much less fun and frightening place. He makes a living doing tarot and
numerology readings, same as the author did at the time. Like me, he is also a
collector, but that’s where the similarities end. He collects ancient occult
codices, some covered in human skin. He collects other things that are even
more…disturbing.
The mythology of
<em>The Book of Paul</em> is based largely on my very unique (so
unique you’ll never see it anywhere else) interpretation of the twenty-two
trump cards of the tarot. As William endeavors to unravel Paul’s
nefarious intentions, he discovers an arrangement of the trumps that reveals
the true story being told. In the following excerpt from one of William’s
journal entries, Paul congratulates William on his discovery (which is not
revealed, so no spoiler alert!) and rewards his efforts with a very special
gift to add to his collection, and the promise of an even greater prize.
A fabulous tarot
reading from Richard Long? A Kindle Fire?
No, William
isn’t as lucky as three of you wonderful readers.
He’s about to
have his very first look at <em>The Book of Paul, a</em> gift
that comes with a very hefty price tag.
“You’ve done
exceptionally well here,” Paul said, “but you’re never gonna get to the bottom
of this no matter how many of those old books you poke your nose into.”
“And that’s
because…”
“For starters,
those writings were deliberately intended to disguise the truth in countless
metaphors and scrambled codes to keep the idiots at bay. They’ve been
translated, and re-translated back into the original demotic, Coptic or Greek
countless times, every scribe adding his own pontifical touch in his glorious
interpretation. Of the more accurate writings, there’s more missing from the
tracts than what remains, as you’ve seen in the Drivel of Mary. You’ve about as
much luck hitting pay dirt in those dustbins as those literalist born-agains
have of seeing the Rapture. However, I have a gift for you that should prove
far more enlightening, if you apply yourself with half the dedication of these
research efforts.”
He reached
deeply into his pocket and told me to close my eyes. “Don’t go using yer second
sight and spoil the surprise.” I nodded and felt him place a large rectangular
object in my left hand.
It was a tarot
deck. Older than any I’d seen. The paintings were incredibly detailed and
absolutely exquisite. I turned them over one by one, The Hero, The Herald, The
Oracle—all the trumps labeled with Paul’s titles. “These are amazing!” I said,
awed and yes, flattered by his incredible gift. I had a hard time spitting it
out, but I managed to say, “Thank you.”
“You’ve earned
it,” he grunted, taking the cards back before I had a chance to look at the
rest of them, setting the cards down gently on the table. “But don’t stay up
too late gazing at them. This deck can be quite…entrancing.”
“Is there
something else I should know about it?” I asked apprehensively.</p>
“Indeed, there
is. Get a good night’s sleep and meet me in the chapel tomorrow. I’m bumping
you up to the advanced class, so make sure your eyes are bright and your head
is clear. You’ve earned a little taste of the Gospel according to Paul.”
Thanks Richard.
Please leave a comment for the author or me.
And here is a
pic of Aleister Crowley
And here is his
Wiki entry.
As part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel Publicity, the price of The Book of Paul eBook edition is just 99 cents this week. What’s more, by purchasing this fantastic book at an incredibly low price, you can enter to win many awesome prizes.
The prizes include a Kindle Fire, $300 in Amazon gift cards, 5 autographed copies of the book, and a look into your future through a free tarot reading performed by the author.
All the info you need to win one of these amazing prizes is visyhttp://www.novelpublicity.com/whirlwind-tour/paul
Remember, winning is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment--easy to enter; easy to win!
To win the prizes:
Purchase your copy of The Book of Paul for just 99 cents
Enter the Rafflecopter contest on Novel Publicity</a></li>
About the author:
Richard Long is the author of The Book of Paul and the forthcoming young-adult fantasy series The Dream Palace. He lives in Manhattan with his wonderful wife, two amazing children and wicked black cat, Merlin.
As part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel Publicity, the price ofThe Book of Paul eBook edition is just 99 cents this week. What’s more, by purchasing this fantastic book at an incredibly low price, you can enter to win many awesome prizes.
The prizes include a Kindle Fire, $300 in Amazon gift cards, 5 autographed copies of the book, and a look into your future through a free tarot reading performed by the author.
All the info you need to win one of these amazing prizes is visyhttp://www.novelpublicity.com/whirlwind-tour/paul
Remember, winning is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment--easy to enter; easy to win!
To win the prizes:
Purchase your copy of The Book of Paul for just 99 cents
Enter the Rafflecopter contest on Novel Publicity.
About the author:
Richard Long is the author of The Book of Paul and the forthcoming young-adult fantasy series The Dream Palace. He lives in Manhattan with his wonderful wife, two amazing children and wicked black cat, Merlin.
Visit Richard at
Here is our celebratory song. Enjoy.
I have had to think hard about this one as we have travelled across quite some terrain. So why not a travel song.
Have a thought on this?
ReplyDelete