Today, I'm pleased to share a guest post by author Paul DeBlassie III about his new psychological thriller, The Unholy.
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Ten things most people don't know about me
by Paul DeBlassie III
Those ten things will remain ten things that most people
don’t know about me. But, the other ten things that I’m willing to share
concern The Unholy itself, the fact that it was a story twenty years in
the making. It’s held up over such a long period of time because every
time I wanted to put it away my wife would encourage me. It was rejected
well over one hundred times…so there’s one hundred things people didn’t
know. If it wasn’t my wife, then my dreams would say not to give up on
it, even though I had shelved it and moved on to other novels. People
don’t know about the dreams about The Unholy that I had. They said to
leave it in the kiln, to be fired some more, and then one day when I
least expected it would be ready to be removed from the kiln. That’s
when Jim White from Sunstone Press and I met up and he was on fire for
the story. This is stuff people don’t know about me. Years, and despair,
and patience, a plethora of dreams and nightmares, struggles,
encouragement from my wife and family, and synchronistically meeting the
right people went into publishing of The Unholy…dreams, nightmares,
patience, despair, my wife, my family, encouragement, the phantasmagoric
kiln, Jim White and Sunstone Press…all things some people know but many
people do not. So, these ten things are hidden emotions and relational
encounters and The Unholy and how it was woven into the fabric of my
life for twenty years before publication in 2013.
*~*~*
The
Unholy
Paul
DeBlassie III
Publisher: Sunstone Press
ISBN-10: 0865349592
ISBN-13: 978-0865349599
Paperback: 202 pages
Genre: Psychological thriller
Book Description:
A young curandera, a medicine
woman, intent on uncovering the secrets of her past is forced into a
life-and-death battle against an evil Archbishop. Set in the mystic land of
Aztlan, the Unholy is a novel of destiny as healer and slayer. native lore of
dreams and visions, shape changing, and natural magic work to spin a neo-gothic
web in which sadness and mystery lure the unsuspecting into a twilight realm of
discovery and decision.
About
the Book:
Part psychological thriller, part
supernatural heroine’s journey and part gothic horror, The Unholy lures the
reader into a twilight realm that pits two old worlds against each other: the
medicine woman against the church. Witchcraft, magic, demons and religion each
play a role as healer confronts slayer.
“Paul DeBlassie III has brought us a richly
imagined supernatural thriller set in the high mountain desert of Aztlan, where
Claire Sanchez, an herbalist and medicine woman, has come to reclaim her
healing heritage and uncover the secrets of her mother’s death. The book digs
deep into legend, folklore, and the author’s own imagination to paint a
stirring picture of traditional curanderismo pitted against the oppressive
forces of institutional religious power. Make sure you have lots of time; once
you start reading this book, it will be hard to put down.”—Stephan V. Beyer, author of Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo
Shamanism in the Upper Amazon
Rich in the native lore of the
southwest and set in the mythical, yet modern, land of Aztlan, you will follow
a young curandera (Spanish medicine woman) Claire, who is intent on uncovering
the secrets of her past, secrets that lead her into a life-and-death battle
with an evil archbishop. As women die in mysterious circumstances, Claire must
decide how much faith she has in her own powers and how far she can go before
putting her own life in mortal danger.
The Unholy will appeal those who
are fascinated by the old traditions of healing and magic as well as those who
simply desire a fast paced battle between good and evil, masculine and
feminine, darkness and light…
“The Unholy, an excellent novel
by Paul DeBlassie III, keeps the reader engaged throughout in mystery,
suspense, and church politics. In addition to vividly depicting the beauti- ful
landscape and culture of New Mexico, it exposes and strengthens the traditional
work of the medicine women of the Southwest. I am looking forward to Dr.
DeBlassie’s next book.”—Eliseo “Cheo”
Torres, author of Curandero: A Life In Mexican Folk Healing, professor, and
university administrator
Book video: http://youtu.be/O6dqH211hKA
Excerpt:
“Hush now,
child,” said a voice she recognized as that of her mother’s closest friend.
“The man cannot harm you, mijita, as long as you are with us.
We will make him
think you are dead. But you must be very quiet. Ya no
llores,” the
woman warned, raising a finger to her lips.
The woman then
carried her into a dark cave illuminated by the light of a single candle. The
cave was frightening, with shadows of what appeared to be goblins and demons
dancing on the red sandstone walls. “I will return for you soon. You will be
safe here,” the woman said. The girl watched the woman walk away, shivering as
a breeze blew through the cave’s narrow passages.
Closing her
eyes, she rocked back and forth—imagining herself safe in her mother’s
arms—then opened her eyes to the light of the full moon shining through the
mouth of the cave. The shadows on the walls were just shadows now, no longer
goblins and demons. As she slipped into a trance, images flickered in her mind.
She saw the woman who had brought her to this place scattering pieces of raw
meat around the open mesa where her mother had struggled, helped by two other
women the girl could not identify.
Suddenly, the
scene shifted to a stone ledge jutting over the mesa, and she heard the
pounding footsteps of a man running toward the women. The girl felt her heart
race and her breathing quicken, afraid that the bad man would spot them and
kill them. Then the image shifted again, and she now saw on the mesa three gray
wolves circling the raw meat and the man walking away from the granite ledge.
As he left, she heard his thought: The child is dead.
Paul DeBlassie III, Ph.D., is a
psychotherapist and writer living in his native New Mexico. A member of the
Depth Psychology Alliance, the Transpersonal Psychology Association, and the
International Association for Relational Psy- choanalysis and Psychotherapy, he
has for over thirty years treated survivors of the dark side of religion.
SoulCare, his professional
consultation practice is devoted to the
tending of the soul. One of the few therapists writing fiction with a healing
emphasis, Dr. DeBlassie has been deeply influenced by the surreal beauty and
natural magic of the mestizo myth of Aztlan.
The Unholy is his first novel.
Website www.pauldeblassieiii.com
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