Novelist Robert Creekmore joins me today to chat about his new dark thriller, Prophet’s Debt.
During his virtual book tour, Robert will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit his other tour stops and enter there, too!
Bio:
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.
Robert’s first novel Afiri, is a science fiction love letter to his childhood hero Carl Sagan. It was nominated for a Manly Wade Wellman award in 2016.
Robert’s second novel is the first in a trilogy of books. 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.
Welcome, Robert. Please tell us about your current release.
Prophet’s Debt is the story of a fourteen-year-old girl named Naomi Pace coming of age during the early nineties. It’s discovered that she and her best friend are romantically involved. They are torn apart, and Naomi is sent away to a conversion camp in the remote Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina. There, she is tortured and physically mutilated. Naomi escapes into the wilderness, taking refuge with a kind couple. After growing up, Naomi comes back for revenge.
What inspired you to write this book?
I wrote this book as a therapeutic way to deal with past trauma without the expectation of it ever being published.
Excerpt from Prophet’s Debt:
When I awake, my face is swollen and my head throbs with each heartbeat. I hear the muffled sounds of a woman singing hymns. It is the voice of Shelby Howell, the pastor’s wife. I hear the clank of dishes and the water running. Shelby is the kind of person who likes to occupy herself with chores during a crisis.
I sit up and attempt to swing my legs off the right side of the bed. My arms are snatched back with a clink and rattle. Both of my wrists have been secured to the bed with medium gauge chains, no more than a yard in length. The links have already left marks on my skin. The padlocks holding the loops of chain around my wrists clatter when I moved. I hear the water in the kitchen stop running, followed by the high-pitched snap and clap of cheap flip flops. Mrs. Howell is a woman in her late sixties, short, round, and pale. She has a shitty perm, which gave her hair the appearance of a puffy white helmet.
As Mrs. Howell enters the room, she comments, “I thought I heard you wrestlin’-bout.”
“Where are my parents?” I ask.
“They’ve gone out of town with Pastor Howell.”
“Why?”
“They’ve gone to get help for you.”
“I don’t need help.”
What exciting story are you working on next?
Currently, I’m writing the follow-up to Prophet’s Debt. I’m expanding the mythology behind the first book while preparing to write the third, and final installment next year. There is also a supplemental novella in the works about the experience of Naomi’s girlfriend, Tiffany. It takes place during the same time period but is a parallel story since they are separated.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I always knew I would write novels. However, when I tried to in my twenties, it didn’t work out. It wasn’t until my mid-thirties, that I had gathered up enough life experience to have anything interesting, and hopefully introspective, to say.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I don’t have a real job. Once upon a time, I was a special education teacher. I did that for twelve years. I have severe psychiatric problems, which have led to hospitalizations. Eventually, I was unable to continue working, and the school system offered me early retirement.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I write almost exclusively in the middle of the night.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Happy.
Links:
Website | Twitter | Smashwords | Amazon | Barnes and Noble
Thanks for hosting!
I love everything about this book – genre title and cover.
Thank you. I hope you enjoy it.