Richard Long Guest Post
Please enjoy
this guest post by Richard Long, author of the nail-biting supernatural
thriller, The Book of Paul. Then read on to learn how you
can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including 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.The Tarot
A 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 The Book of
Paul, 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 The Book of Paul 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 The Book
of Paul, a 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. “Okay, open ’em.”
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.
“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.”
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
RIGHT HERE. Remember, winning is as easy
as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment--easy to enter; easy to win!
To win the prizes:
About The Book of Paul:
A cross-genre thriller that combines the brooding
horror of Silence of the Lambs with the biting humor of Pulp Fiction.
Get it on Amazon or Barnes &
Noble.
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 on his
website, Twitter, Facebook, or GoodReads.
Thanks for supporting The Book of Paul blog tour Tasha! Any questions you or your readers have are welcome:)
ReplyDeleteNo problem! And Thank you(:
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