Angels & Demons vs. TRM
--SPOILER ALERT--
Don’t continue if you don’t want to read some of the plot of the movie.
The movie implies that there is a secret organization, the Illuminati, that has infiltrated the highest ranks of the Catholic Church, as well as The Swiss Guard, and is plotting to take over the Papacy itself. The gruesome death toll mounts as the Illuminati lead the heroes on a chase to save the lives of some potential Popes and prevent the destruction of the Vatican with an anti-matter bomb!
I had the “bad guy” picked out during the first scene where he appeared. But what I didn’t expect was a major plot twist. The Illuminati aspect of the story was nothing but a false trail, the type of red herring Alfred Hitchcock called a MacGuffin. The bad guy wasn’t a member of the Illuminati at all, he was just a crazed bozo who thought that the church had become too liberal(!).
In the end, there were actually two stories. One was a power grab, the other was a bunch of facts (about art works, about the Illuminati, etc.) looking for a story. Contrary to what some have claimed, I would say that this was a pro-Catholic film. The church remains doing what the church has always done because it is composed of human people.
But because the second story, all about the Illuminati, is nothing but a ruse, so, too, is any spirituality or mysticism that could have been the beating heart of such a story.
If you are looking for an exciting mystery that is filled with spiritual concepts, I would encourage you to read The Resurrection Murders. It doesn’t “cop out” at the end. The “lectures” found in Angels and Demons are minimized in my book. People in the story learn by doing, not by hearing. It’s far more active and has more than just one major twist in the story.
Okay, The Resurrection Murders is my book, so perhaps I’m prejudiced. But if you’re looking for an exciting and spiritual story that doesn’t wimp out at the end, read The Resurrection Murders. I think you’ll really enjoy it and won’t feel like you were cheated.
Personal Appearance
My friend, Lon Milo DuQuette will be giving workshops there, too. There will be lots of rituals and practice. This is an adults only, clothing optional festival at a beautiful private site. I'll have copies of The Resurrection Murders there, too. This will be your opportunity to get a signed copy.
Please come by and say hello!
It's the Characters
So I worked very hard on making the characters--even the minor ones--memorable. In the page on this website entitled “The Characters,” I describe some of the major and minor actors in this novel. Those descriptions are very brief and just give you a hint as to who they are.
However, there are lots more minor characters, and I’ve tried to make each one memorable. For example, there is Sylvia Scorsi, a creepy, money-oriented telephone psychic. Another interesting character is Jim Dodge. He’s part of a group oriented toward Aleister Crowley, and when detective Paul Christian meets him there is a wild party going on. Raul Dante is the doorman at one of the top clubs in Hollywood. He wants to be an actor, spends hours in the gym every day, and who only has a sense of power in his life because he controls who gets in and who stays out of the club.
Cindy deGrasse is a wannabe actress. She becomes fascinated by The Baron whom she meets at a club. She hungrily accepts the cocaine he offers her and agrees to go to his home where the party will continue. The party becomes wilder and wilder, but she’s up for anything.
Some of these minor characters survive. Some don’t. But they’ll all leave an unforgettable impression on you.
About the Cover
However, I did not draw it. I sent the idea to the publisher, and they ran with it. They hired a very good artist and he did the symbol with the blood and the word “murders,” but due to various issues, he couldn’t do the rest of the cover.
Eventually, I volunteered to do it. Now, I’m a terrible “fine artist,” but thanks to years of practice and training (and the ease of some computer programs), I can do a fair job as a “graphic artist.” So the first thing I did was search the internet to try and find the font that the publisher’s artist used. That took quite some time. When I finally found it, I purchased the font and then played with the it for days, but couldn’t make it look right.
So I threw out trying to match that typeface and went back to some earlier ideas. Many mystery and horror books have the author’s name in bold type at the top, so I started with that. Then, I wanted to have the feeling of the words, “The Resurrection” having some sort of spiritual feeling to them. I tried various “halos,” but it didn’t work. Eventually I settled on the idea of (spiritual) light coming from a distance.
Taken by itself, those two words give the impression of spirituality. The far more grim “Murders,” in play over the symbol with blood dripping from it, gives just the opposite feeling. It was this dichotomy that I wished to stress. I think I succeeded.
What do you think?
Welcome!
I am absolutely thrilled that Galde Press has published my first novel. I have known the people at Galde for some time and am very happy to be working with them.
I’m also thrilled to have this, my first novel, published. I’ve worked very hard on it and I know you’re going to love it. I focused on the characters and how they change and evolve. I’ve tried to make them as real as possible so you’ll come to really care about them. I’ll talk more about some of the characters in weeks to come.
This is actually my second attempt to make this website. The application I’m using, RapidWeaver, lets you make beautiful websites very quickly. It saves the website in its own format, then publishes it in HTML. I was so pleased with the way it first came out that I accidentally got rid of the application files. So I had a nice website that I couldn’t edit! I’ve had to reconstruct the entire thing. Well, that’s not entirely bad. I’ve been able to update and expand upon what I had originally created.
I hope that either through what you read hear or from what you know of my past writings you’ll be intrigued enough to read a copy of The Resurrection Murders. Then I hope you’ll contact me and let me know how much you liked it. If you like, I’ll even publish your comments.