Prophet's Death

                                                          PROPHET'S DEATH

Robert Creekmore

 

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GENRE:  Southern Noir

 

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BLURB:

 

Death-cult leader Joseph Proffit has met his end! Along with him perishes the secret method for manufacturing indigo, the substance that imbued him with godlike abilities.

 

To the dismay of Naomi’s family, she succumbed to the injuries Joseph dealt her during their final battle atop the abandoned Coast Guard station, Frying Pan Tower, thirty miles off the North Carolina coast.

 

Both of their bodies were lost at sea when the one-hundred-foot-tall structure crumbled during Tropical Storm Gabriel.

 

Naomi’s beloved companions escaped aboard her dive boat, along with Joseph’s final victim, who is on the verge of death.

 

In the aftermath, Naomi’s family has no choice but to rebuild their lives in hiding, fearing reprisal from the handful of remaining Apostle loyalists.

 

Soon, their secret, dormant conflict will be thrust onto the world stage by a wealthy benefactor who funnels his personal hatred and unfounded grievances into throngs of ignorant followers.

 

Is this the end of Naomi’s family? Without her, how will they survive?

 

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EXCERPT

 

The winds of Tropical Storm Gabrielle punish the small dive boat. Its howling feels like the voice of nature herself crying out in lamentation at the death of Naomi Pace. 

 

As Nate pilots the craft over each wave, there’s a moment when he can hear the engines rev hard as the props come out of the water momentarily just before crashing down again. This cycle repeats every few seconds, seemingly without end. 

 

Below deck, Rebecca and Herschel steady an unconscious Malcolm by keeping him squeezed between their bodies. It’s difficult. There’s nothing to hold onto since the Apostles stripped the cabin bare. The two hours it takes to get back to their dock are hell, both physically and introspectively.

 

Naomi was Nate’s best friend. To him, she was invincible.

 

How could she be dead? Nate thinks to himself as he involuntarily projects images of their time together across the water. 

 

He has successfully outrun the incoming storm wall, but a new one awaits his fractured mind when all of the chaos subsides. 

 

Neither Herschel nor Rebecca has the same composure. They wail with grief. Reaching across Malcolm’s limp body, they hold one another’s hands for comfort as much as they do to keep their injured companion safe from the onslaught of the turbulent water.

 

Nate threads the needle at the Masonboro Inlet, just like Naomi taught him. The waves rocking the swollen bay attempt to push them easterly into the mainland. Even though it means safety, the sight of the dock fills Nate with dread. Its arrival in the foreground always meant the end of a day fishing with Naomi, until now.

A Word With the Author

1. Did you always want to be an author?

I suppose. I was able to read by the time I turned four and had read my first novel, Charlotte’s Web, on my own when I was five. Admittedly, I cried my eyes out directly afterward.

I spent a lot of time at the library as a child. I applied for my first library card the day I turned six, which was the minimum age. Not long after, I volunteered there during the summer.

I recall at the age of eight, standing in line to check out books, a woman asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I told her that I wanted to write scary books like Stephen King. Recently, someone compared a novelette I wrote to his work, which felt amazing. 

 

2. Tell us about the publication of your first book.

-Prophet’s Death, is my third traditionally published novel and my fourth overall. The way I landed my first publishing deal was a bit unorthodox. 

I spent some time in a psychiatric hospital a few years back. After being released, a therapist told me to journal. I found it boring and wrote my second novel instead, using it as an allegory for what I was going through.

I sat on the manuscript for a while. One day, however, an author on the press I’d eventually sign to, Cinnabar Moth, said something to the effect that they didn’t like stories about revenge where the protagonist doesn’t learn that revenge is wrong.

I replied, “The moral of my new book is, some motherfuckers need killing.”

Cinnabar Moth asked for me to send the first fifty pages. After the first book, I signed a multi-book contract with them and have never once regretted it. 
3. Besides yourself, who is your favorite author in the genre you write in?

-I want to say Chuck Palahniuk because his writing has been a huge influence. However, I’d rather not be associated with a man who has spent his free time palling with white nationalists like Jack Donovan. Which, of course, wasn’t something he was doing or that I was aware of when I was reading his work as a young man.  

Instead, I’ll pick someone from another genre, sci-fi, Jeff VanderMeer. I adore the Southern Reach Trilogy.
4. What's the best part of being an author? The worst?

-The best part: I get to go places and meet other authors and people I never would have otherwise. Some of whom are people I’ve admired since I was a kid.

-The worst part: My work is controversial. I get nasty emails and phone calls because of it.

 
5. What are you working on now?

Currently, I’m writing a literary fiction novel called Diary of Attrition. It’s about a young woman’s descent into madness after the murder of her best friend. 

 

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Robert Creekmore is from a rural farming community in Eastern North Carolina.

 

He attended North Carolina State where he studied psychology. While at university, he was active at the student radio station. There, he fell in love with punk rock and its ethos.

 

Robert acquired several teaching licenses in special education. He was an autism specialist in Raleigh for eight years. He then taught for four years in a small mountain community in western North Carolina.

 

During his time in the mountains, he lived with his wife Juliana in a remote primitive cabin built in 1875. While there, he grew most of his own food, raised chickens, worked on a cattle farm, as well as participated in subsistence hunting and fishing.

 

Eventually, the couple moved back to the small farming community where Robert was raised.

 

Annoyed with the stereotype of the southeastern United States as a monolith of ignorance and hatred, he wanted to bring forth characters from the region who are queer and autistic. They now hold up a disinfecting light to the hatred of the region’s past and to those who still yearn for a return to ways and ideas that should have long ago perished.

 

Robert’s first traditionally published novel, Prophet’s Debt, was a Manly Wade Wellman Literary Award Finalist.

 

His second, Prophet’s Lamentation, was a Lambda Literary recommendation for July 2023.

 

Website: https://www.robertcreekmore.com/

Twitter: AuthorCreekmore

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Prophets-Death-Robert-Creekmore/dp/1962308162/ref=sr_1_1

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Robert Creekmore will award a randomly drawn winner a $10 Amazon/BN gift card.

 

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