Summoned (Redemption's Heir #1)
by Anne M. Pillsworth
Book Summary:
When the Elder Gods extend an invitation, be wary of the strings attached
While browsing in a rare book store in Arkham, Sean finds an occult book with an ad seeking an apprentice sorcerer, from a newspaper dated March 21, 1895. Even more intriguing, the ad specifically requests applicants reply by email.
Sean’s always been interested in magic, particularly the Lovecraftian dark mythology. Against his best friend Edna’s (“call-me-Eddy-or-else”) advice, he decides to answer the ad, figuring it’s a clever hoax, but hoping that it won’t be. The advertiser, Reverend Redemption Orne, claims to be a master of the occult born more than 300 years ago. To prove his legitimacy, Orne gives Sean instructions to summon a harmless but useful familiar—but Sean’s ceremony takes a dark turn, and he instead accidentally beckons a bloodthirsty servant to the Cthulhu Mythos god Nyarlathotep. The ritual is preemptively broken, and now Sean must find and bind the servitor, before it grows too strong to contain. But strange things are already happening in the town of Arkham….
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Author Interview
1. Who are your favorite authors of all time?
Jane Austen wins for the
desert-island-book author, over a big field of competitors. I would need an omnibus of her six novels,
because I can't pick just one, no way, can't make me. Others high on the list include J.R.R.
Tolkien, Ray Bradbury, C. J. Cherryh, Mark Twain, J. D. Salinger, China
Mieville, Olivia Goldsmith, Anthony Trollope, Charles Dickens, Susanna Clarke, H.
G. Wells, Hilary Mantel, Stephen King, Stephen Jay Gould, E. F. Benson, and H.
P. Lovecraft, natch. I'll stop now, but
the line of contenders still stretches around the block and all over the
map. So much bookly goodness! It's like standing in the middle of a
thousand-year candy shop!
2. If you could travel in a time machine, would
you go back to the past or into the future?
If I can only choose one destination, I
would have to travel back to 17th century New England in order to do
on-the-spot research for a book I'm planning -- that is, the origin story of
Redemption and Patience Orne. I'd hang
out in Salem, the Arkham archetype, and take side-trips to visit the Mathers in
Boston, Anne Hutchinson in Portsmouth, and good old Roger Williams in
Providence.
I'd probably end up getting accused of
witchcraft, but hey. The time machine
could snatch me back to the present as I ascended the gallows, creating a
mystery that would last to this very day, when I could look all knowing and
smug about it.
3. If you could have a signed copy of any novel,
what would it be and why?
The first thing that came to mind was
Salinger's Franny and Zooey. But
could Jane sign a first edition copy of Emma, too? Sure she could. Why, because both books are so close to my
heart.
4. If you could invite any five people to
dinner, who would you choose?
Well, Jane Austen and E. F. Benson (her
true modern counterpart) would sit to my left and right so we could whisper
arch comments to each other. Then I'd
have Roger Williams, because I could count on him to start a debate with anyone
within the reach of his voice. Maybe
with Gregor Mendel, in whose honor I would serve a lovely dish of spring pea
risotto. Then, as our token live person,
Viggo Mortensen, because Viggo.
5.
Do the words come easily most of the time? How do you unlock your writer's block?
If I sit at the keyboard and peck away
for fifteen to thirty minutes, I find that I reach a clicking point where the
narrative takes over. If I'm really
stuck, I free-write in all caps until something starts to make sense and/or
generate sparks. As in:
OMG IM SO STUCK I CANT EVEN STAND IT
WHAT ABOUT THAT WEIRD DOG I SAW THIS MORNING LOOKED LIKE A CROSS BETWEEN A
DACHSHUND AND A BERNESE SHEEPDOG I SHOULD PUT THAT IN THE BOOK LIKE SEAN SEES
IT CROSSING THE STREET JUST BEFORE TENTACLES ERUPT FROM A NEARBY MANHOLE AND
DRAG HIM INTO A SUBTERRANEAN STARBUCKS NO LAIR OF CULTISTS LED BY MICHAEL
FASSBENDER YEAH
The caps, for me, have an informality
that is freeing, as does the breathless lack of punctuation.
About the Author
I was born in Troy, New York, but I currently live just outside Providence, Rhode Island, at the head of beautiful Narragansett Bay. New England has long been my spiritual home, and the region informs much of my fiction. One day I hope to find Lovecraft’s portals to his mythical towns of witch-haunted Arkham and Kingsport, shadowed Innsmouth and accursed Dunwich. Until then, I’ll just have to write about them..
I am a member of SFWA and HWA and a rabid Austenite. Don’t those three always go together?
Apart from writing, I like gardening, swimming, king cobras, jumping spiders, and cats. No cobras or cats at the moment, but the jumping spiders are always with us. In spite of maintaining a mental age of between twelve and sixteen, I have just married my partner of more than thirty years. Thanks to the RI Legislature for finally living up to Roger Williams’ philosophy of crabbing at people he disagreed with but never denying the primacy of the personal conscience.
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***GIVEAWAY***
3 Winners will Receive a Copy of Summoned+Tote Bag by Anne M. Pillsworth.
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