Welcome to my guest Blog with David Beem
“A word of advice to Lost Ark enthusiasts: this is the book to take on holiday—it is a captivating and well researched romp through some of the most exciting Ark territory. Terrific!”
Tudor Parfitt, University of London scholar, author of The Lost Ark of the Covenant: Solving the 2,500-Year-Old Mystery of the Fabled Biblical Ark.
Hollywood Reading! By David Beem
Fans of Fringe, Inception and Raiders of the Lost Ark are going to love my new book, Abyss of Chaos. I’m calling it the “Cool-Action-Adventure-Supernatural-Thriller” genre, and with Abyss’ release, Amazon is just going to have to add that to their selection page.
Abyss of Chaos was written with the best ingredients of summer blockbuster-style Hollywood movies in mind. It’s about a 26 year-old prodigy cellist and his aging archeologist godfather discovering their roles in a doomsday prophecy connecting them to the fabled Ark of the Covenant.
Sound cool? Yeah baby.
Abyss sews together elements from Christianity, Judaism and Islam into one big bag of cool, a kick-ass supernatural thriller chock-full of religious extremists, Satanist bad-guys, and rogue nuclear material that might be in your back yard right now! In fact, run—don’t walk—to this link to find out how you can harness the Power of the Ark to protect yourself from shadowy terrorist threats! ;)
David was also gracious enough to stick around and answers some questions for me!
Q: I super really want to know what you think about paranormal romance books. Many of them have a lot of suspense and action as well. Mine, for instance!
A: Paranormal romance books are popular for a reason. In some ways I think it gets a bad rap; people who wish to marginalize paranormal romance as only being about swooning 16 year-old girls (or whatever those people are saying) are missing some deeper subtext. Vampires, werewolves, Wiccan, and other themes typical to the genre, all appeal to readers’ varied sense of “earthy” spiritualism. These supernatural archetypes are a natural partner for romance because the notion of connecting with nature as a werewolf, falling in love with an immortal, or through the use of spells or other sorts of mysticism are fundamentally romantic notions.
As for yours, it’s not out yet so I haven’t read it! But I hear it’s gonna be awesome! :)
Q: What other books do you have out?
A: Just Abyss of Chaos, but I’m already starting on its sequel, The Philosopher’s Game.
Q: Who is your favorite male/female character in all of your books? Why/What qualities do you like in him/her?
A: Probably Aliyah or Azrail. Aliyah is the heroine, and would be one of my favorites because she’s got all these great conflicting forces inside her, and surrounding her, but she achieves tremendously despite the hand she was dealt. Born into a family whose politics she despised, then later forced into an arranged marriage with a husband who shared these ideals, she overcame all this to rise to the rank of Commander in Iraqi Special Forces. There’s a lot of admirable stuff to her backstory, most of it only hinted at, but it’s there.
Azrail is a very bad man. Satanist, anarchist, anti-Semite and otherwise just downright despicable, he’s just a damn good bad guy you’ll love to root against. I can’t tell you too much about him.
Q: What’s your favorite action scene in Abyss of Chaos?
A: Maybe a three-way tie. There’s a scene on the docks in Port Sudan, a scene on a train as its coming into Jerusalem, but I’d also have to include the finale. The docks scene was fun because it is one of those scenes where the heroes get stuck between multiple sets of bad guys at once, so the noose gets good and tight. The train thing was awesome because it just keeps escalating, and just when you think the heroes might escape, it gets worse for them. The finale is fun because it was a chance to pull out all the stops and things get super creepy when the reader finally sees the scope of what is going on in the larger battle between good and evil.
Q: Explain your new Cool-Action-Adventure-Supernatural-Thriller genre?
A: In a word: Awesome. In a bunch of words: It’s all the cool stuff I’ve read or watched in the movies or on TV that punched the cool button inside my head. It’s like, “What’s cool about Raiders of the Lost Ark?” and “What’s cool about Fringe?” and “What’s cool about Dan Brown?” and other “things cool,” all wrapped into one big bag of cool. In fact, I have it on reliable authority that your life will be cooler just by owning the book. You don’t even have to read it; the cool will rub off on you just by owning it!
Q: How do you think that compares to a paranormal romance?
A: LOL. Well, I suppose “cool” is in the eye of the beholder. Any author brings her/his personality to the word processor based on what s/he has read, and loved. Readers do the same. In the end, the only thing your reading list has in common is that you, the reader, thought it was awesome. That’s the reader’s personality. But the personality of an author develops the same way. Things “hit” when an author’s personality manages to connect with his/her readership. And that isn’t the easiest thing to do, awesome book or not. If a reader who loves paranormal romance books sees that I’ve written a book that has the Ark of the Covenant in it and feels all geeky (in a good way), and finds it enticing, then I think they’re going to love my book. That reader is also going to consider attaching the word “cool” to a good paranormal romance genre book also. Which makes that reader super cool. (And proves my point that they’ll be cooler for just owning my book!)
Q: Have you thought about adding Romance to that genre in your next book?
A: If I talk about that aspect of the next book too much, I’ll be spoiling. Let me say this: Something happens to Max Sinclair in the next book that impacts his love life, but also makes it a bit…complicated.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see if there’s a genre change coming up.
Thanks for sharing with me, David!
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