Today I have a guest post from Paul DeBlassie III. He's the author of the psychological and supernatural thriller, The Unholy.
As part of his virtual book tour, Paul will award one randomly drawn commenter the choice of a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit other tour stops and enter there, too!
5-10 musts psychological thrillers and dark fantasy stories should
have
Scary, mean,
dark, compelling, transformational potential, and hope, but not too much, for
the future. If there is too much hope then we run the risk of selling our soul
out to an angel. Selling out to an angel is a terrible possibility because that
trivializes the human condition, takes what is complex, and looks only at the
surface and ready-made answers that seem to provide immediate relief from
suffering.
Scary and mean
and dark and compelling set the stage for dark forces infringing on human hope
and potential with no guarantees. We have to remain on the edge of our seat,
waiting to see what’s going to happen.
Claire, in The Unholy, is a young woman haunted and
intimated by a life-threatening figure – a man robed in black. He haunts her
dreams; comes in nightmares as terrifying remembrances of things past. This
deep fear from childhood trauma so laces The
Unholy with compelling imagery and emotion that the reader is flung forward
into the narrative desperate to find out not only what will happen, but how it
will happen, how a young woman could possible handle the power of a
misogynistic religious male patriarchy.
Archbishop
William Anarch hates women and Claire Sanchez, curandera, is a young and
vulnerable woman. When a man carries the sanction of society, particularly of a
huge religious organization, and mixes it with his own sordid inclinations so
as to empower himself, then we’ve got one of the building blocks of good set
against evil.
Innocence is another
building block, represented by Claire Sanchez, and when she confronts face to
face the worst thing in her life…we’ve got action and thrills.
Scary, mean,
dark, compelling with the potential for hope and transformation are the
building blocks for good psychological thrillers and dark fantasy!
Blurb from The Unholy:
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.
Excerpt from The Unholy:
Lightning
streaked across a midnight dark sky, making the neck hairs of a five-year-old
girl crouched beneath a cluster of twenty-foot pines in the Turquoise Mountains
of Aztlan stand on end. The long wavy strands of her auburn mane floated
outward with the static charge. It felt as though the world was about to end.
Seconds later,
lightning struck a lone tree nearby and a crash of thunder shook the ground.
Her body rocked back and forth, trembling with terror. She lost her footing,
sandstone crumbling beneath her feet, and then regained it; still, she did not
feel safe. There appeared to be reddish eyes watching from behind scrub oaks
and mountain pines, scanning her every movement and watching her quick breaths.
Then everything became silent.
The girl leaned
against the trunk of the nearest tree. The night air wrapped its frigid arms
tightly around her, and she wondered if she would freeze to death or, even
worse, stay there through the night and by morning be nothing but the blood and
bones left by hungry animals. Her breaths became quicker and were so shallow
that no air seemed to reach her lungs. The dusty earth gave up quick bursts of
sand from gusts of northerly winds that blew so fiercely into her nostrils that
she coughed but tried to stifle the sounds because she didn’t want to be
noticed.
Paul DeBlassie III, Ph.D., is a
psychologist and writer living in Albuquerque who has treated survivors of the
dark side of religion for more than 30 years. His professional consultation
practice — SoulCare — is devoted to the tending of the soul. Dr. DeBlassie
writes fiction with a healing emphasis. He has been deeply influenced by the
mestizo myth of Aztlan, its surreal beauty and natural magic. He is a member of the Depth Psychology
Alliance, the Transpersonal Psychology Association and the International
Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy.
Links:
Buy links:
6 comments:
Thank you for hosting
Lisa,
Thanks for hosting The Unholy and the 5 musts for writers of dark fantasy!
Sounds like a very exciting story.
Kit3247(at)aol(dot)com
Fun to watch the progression on the tour!
vitajex(at)aol(Dot)com
Sounds like a really good scary book. Thanks for sharing it and the giveaway. evamillien at gmail dot com
The Unholy sounds like a great read!!
Thanks for the chance to win!
natasha_donohoo_8 at hotmail dot com
Post a Comment