Prophet’s Death
by Robert Creekmore
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GENRE: Southern Noir
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BOOK 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 TWO:
He guides the boat between the two wooden bunks of the boat lift. Nate fights his way onto the dock through the sheets of rain blasting sideways into his face. He activates the hydraulics. The lift pulls the boat out of the water and level with the dock.
The three of them drag Malcolm off the boat before Nate lifts it higher to avoid the rising water.
Exhausted after moving Malcolm from the dock to the side door, the three can go no further and lie him on his side atop the sofa in front of the picture window.
“We have to call home,” Nate says.
“Telling someone that their spouse is dead isn’t something you do over the phone,” Herschel replies.
“More urgently,” Rebecca interjects, “we have to get electrolytes into Malcolm. He drank plenty of water before passing out, so he’s not in imminent danger of thirsting to death. To regain some level of consciousness, we need to get something like Pedialyte in him.
But, no stores will be open in this storm.” “Would powdered Gatorade work?” Nate asks.
“Yeah,” she responds.
Nate gets up and begins rummaging through Naomi’s kitchen junk drawer. He excavates an old plastic container, half-filled with clumpy orange Gatorade powder. Nate mixes up a batch inside a large plastic cup with a flexible straw. Malcolm mumbles and occasionally opens his eyes. When he does, they encourage him to drink. Within the hour, he’s holding the cup himself. His eyes begin to regain life. He looks around, saying, “Where is the other woman?” “She didn’t make it,” Rebecca answers.
A wave of melancholy washes across his exhausted face.
“The sooner we leave, the better,” Nate says.
“Will he make the week-long boat trip back to Northern Virginia?” Rebecca asks.
“No. That’s why I’m going to take Tiffany’s Corolla.”
“They’ll follow you,” Herschel says to Nate.
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GUEST POST:
Inspired by Headlines: How to Put Your Spin on Real-Life Events
The Prophets Trilogy takes place over twenty-nine years, from nineteen-ninety-three to twenty-twenty-two. The entirety of it is rife with commentary and allegory about the history of that period.
The overarching theme, however, is the resurgence of the Christian Nationalist movement and how it became intertwined with rural militias and white supremacy.
The first novel in the trilogy, Prophet’s Debt, begins in nineteen-ninety-three, specifically because it was the year of the Branch Davidian standoff in Waco, Texas. Their cult’s leader, David Koresh’s, real name was Vernon Wayne Howell. Vernon Proffit was the name given to the antagonist of the first book. Howell was the surname of the pastor whose church Naomi’s family attended.
Waco combined with the events at Ruby Ridge in Idaho, a year prior, was seminal in the radicalization of Timothy McVeigh. A book titled, The Turner Diaries, was the blueprint for his terrorist attack on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in nineteen-ninety-five.
I make mention of it in Prophet’s Debt because, despite the book being fifteen years old at the time, it’d seen a resurgence and had become influential in white nationalist and conspiracy circles. A direct line between those ideas, especially the acquiescence of stochastic terrorism and real-life violence, can be made between that period and the attempted insurrection on January sixth, twenty-twenty-one.
Today, the movement has distanced itself publicly from its roots in white nationalism. Its overarching assertion now is that the laws of the United States should be solely based on the tenets of their narrow interpretation of the King James Bible. I truly believe that Fundamentalist, Evangelical Christianity has morphed from the racist Jim Crow proponent it was in the nineteen fifties and sixties into a modern conspiracy theorist death cult.
I based the Solid Rock Church in Prophet’s Debt on the twentieth-century version of their religion. Their metamorphosis into the Apostles of the Clovenhand cult represents the church’s activity throughout the early twenty-first. Specifically, in Prophet’s Death, it represents the so-called “MAGA” movement.
Take for example this passage from chapter thirty-five. It sums up concisely.
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“How did he look health-wise?”
“For a man in his late seventies, fantastic. He appears fitter. Even though he’s bald, Abraham keeps a neatly manicured beard. With the distinguished appearance of an elder white man and the ability to spin Biblical myths into modern relevance, he’s built a cult following. It’s growing faster than I would have anticipated. He’s even made the national news. Disciples are visiting every white Evangelical church in the state to hold court with their pastors.”
“It’s that bad?”
“Naomi was right. But it’s even worse. He’s weaponizing social media and encouraging violence against queer folk and anyone who dares to dissent openly against his message. Abraham has them frothing at the mouth over slights that never existed. Counter protests have mounted, but the police, whom he dotes upon, are flagrantly beating people bloody in the street. Even worse, he now has disciples who are black.”
“What?!” Rebecca says. “The Apostles are a white nationalist organization.”
“He has at least two men of color who are close confidants.”
“White supremacy isn’t just for white people. Hatred can be internalized. Ignorant people can be conditioned to become the agents of their own destruction,” Rebecca says.
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As you can see, I represent their movement in all of its brilliant simplicity.
It boils down to this: ‘Our god said we are special. Those who defy us also defy him. The reason your life hasn’t turned out the way you wanted isn’t due to your shortcomings. It’s a direct result of the actions of people who think, love, and worship (or don’t) differently than yourselves. By merely existing, they’re thumbing their collective noses in the face of our God. Therefore, it is holy to disregard democracy, subjugate, imprison, and murder them to set things right.’
This may seem like hyperbole to some readers. It is not. I grew up in this movement. While the future is not yet laid, be aware that a significant minority would like to see one resembling what I have described.
The mortar between those archaic stones has yet to dry. Don’t wait before it’s too late, or you’ll need a chisel and decades to regain what you’ve already begun to lose.
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AUTHOR 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.
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.
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CONNECT WITH ROBERT:
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GIVEAWAY INFO:
Robert will award a $10 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble (Winner's Choice!!!) Gift Card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.
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Thank you for hosting today.
ReplyDeleteSounds like an interesting story.
ReplyDeleteThe book details sound like an interesting read.
ReplyDeleteThis should be a brilliant novel. Thanks for sharing and hosting this tour.
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