Reincarnation: Heretical, But Inevitable in Novel Anathemas, Published by Outskirts Press
New York, NY, May 27, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Outskirts Press, Inc. has published The Anathemas: A Novel about Reincarnation and Restitution by Victor E. Smith. The author's most recent book to date is a 6 x 9 paperback in the visionary and metaphysical fiction category and is available worldwide on book retailer websites such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The webpage at www.outskirtspress.com/TheAnathemas was launched simultaneously with the book's publication.
About the Book (Excerpts & Info)
In 553 AD, Justinian I, the sanctimonious ruler of the decaying Roman Empire, held Pope Vigilius prisoner until the church leader consented to sign the decrees of the imperial Council of Constantinople. So, with the stroke of the papal pen, anyone who believed in the ancient doctrine that souls existed before the present body's birth or reincarnated after its death were declared anathema: that is, excommunicated and subject to persecution. This little known historical fact has prejudiced the western world against reincarnation right up to the present.
Richard Strawn is a Philadelphia businessman disowned by his Quaker brethren for serving in the Civil War as a medic. In 1879 he must come to terms with his teenage daughter Jennifer’s conviction that she was once a fabulous queen and that he was her partner, the king. Otherwise he’ll have to concur with his wife, Lucinda, that the girl is dangerously insane.
Burying his head in work by day and in the pubs by night, he defers the decision, betting that time will either cure Jennifer's fantasies or soften Lucinda's intransigence. Then, just when a truce appears to be holding between mother and daughter, nightmarish events erupt around Richard. A fire destroys the business he manages, and he is blamed. He escapes town, drunk and despondent, only to be pursued by a dream in which he is indeed a king, but a cowardly one about to capitulate to a revolting faction.
Lucinda takes advantage of his absence to have Jennifer committed to an asylum. With luck, which materializes as randomly as misfortune, Richard rescues the girl. In the quiet place where he takes her to recover, she too dreams of the revolt against them as royal rulers long ago. Compelled by such coincidence, the two -- sometimes in tandem, sometimes in opposition -- set out to discover what binds them to the ill-fated 6th-century emperor, Justinian, and his empress, Theodora.
With Lucinda’s recent efforts to undermine her husband and daughter foiled, she ferrets out their mission. After identifying herself with a powerful and destructive sorceress in the imperial story, she plots to use similar magic to destroy the reincarnated pair, thus proving to them and to all who would meddle with the dead that history indeed repeats itself, and there is nothing that can be done to stop it.
The Anathemas weaves the religious controversy about reincarnation into a multi-lifetime saga of conspiracy, redemption and ultimately love. A novel, it is yet firmly based on history, notably Procopius's Secret History and Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. With the pace of a thriller, it portrays the essentially spiritual adventure of a man and a woman coming face-to-face with the life-and-death experience.
476 pages in length, The Anathemas: A Novel about Reincarnation and Restitution is being aggressively promoted to appropriate markets with a focus on the visionary and metaphysical fiction category. With U.S. wholesale distribution through Ingram and Baker & Taylor, and pervasive online availability through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and elsewhere, The Anathemas meets consumer demand through both retail and library markets with a suggested retail price of $19.95.
Additionally, The Anathemas can be ordered by retailers or wholesalers for the maximum trade discount price set by the author in quantities of ten or more from the Outskirts Press wholesale online bookstore at www.outskirtspress.com/buybooks.
ISBN: 9781432753726
Format: 6 x 9 paperback cream
SRP: $19.95
For more information or to contact the author, visit www.outskirtspress.com/TheAnathemas.
About the author:
Victor E. Smith sees himself as a generalist. From childhood on a communal farm in Pennsylvania, to adolescence in a religious seminary, into adulthood with occupations that ranged from counselor and teacher to computer entrepreneur and corporate trainer, Vic remains astounded, often stunned, by both the wonders and terrors of human existence. Such awe has always compelled him to write: poetry, journaling, in publications about business and education, and now in the novel form.
A lifelong proponent of human spiritual evolution, he has focused on paranormal phenomena and their manifestations. Travel to the settings he writes about, no matter how remote, is to his research what fingerprints are to a detective. The Anathemas, A Novel of Reincarnation and Restitution, aged literally through decades of experience and revision, is his first novel. A prequel and a sequel, among other works, are well underway.
About Outskirts Press, Inc.
Outskirts Press, Inc. offers full-service, custom self-publishing and book marketing services for authors seeking a cost-effective, fast, and flexible way to publish and distribute their books worldwide while retaining all their rights and full creative control. Available for authors globally at www.outskirtspress.com and located on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado, Outskirts Press represents the future of book publishing, today.
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Outskirts Press, Inc., 10940 S. Parker Rd - 515, Parker, Colorado 80134
http://outskirtspress.com 1-888-OP-BOOKS
About the Book (Excerpts & Info)
In 553 AD, Justinian I, the sanctimonious ruler of the decaying Roman Empire, held Pope Vigilius prisoner until the church leader consented to sign the decrees of the imperial Council of Constantinople. So, with the stroke of the papal pen, anyone who believed in the ancient doctrine that souls existed before the present body's birth or reincarnated after its death were declared anathema: that is, excommunicated and subject to persecution. This little known historical fact has prejudiced the western world against reincarnation right up to the present.
Richard Strawn is a Philadelphia businessman disowned by his Quaker brethren for serving in the Civil War as a medic. In 1879 he must come to terms with his teenage daughter Jennifer’s conviction that she was once a fabulous queen and that he was her partner, the king. Otherwise he’ll have to concur with his wife, Lucinda, that the girl is dangerously insane.
Burying his head in work by day and in the pubs by night, he defers the decision, betting that time will either cure Jennifer's fantasies or soften Lucinda's intransigence. Then, just when a truce appears to be holding between mother and daughter, nightmarish events erupt around Richard. A fire destroys the business he manages, and he is blamed. He escapes town, drunk and despondent, only to be pursued by a dream in which he is indeed a king, but a cowardly one about to capitulate to a revolting faction.
Lucinda takes advantage of his absence to have Jennifer committed to an asylum. With luck, which materializes as randomly as misfortune, Richard rescues the girl. In the quiet place where he takes her to recover, she too dreams of the revolt against them as royal rulers long ago. Compelled by such coincidence, the two -- sometimes in tandem, sometimes in opposition -- set out to discover what binds them to the ill-fated 6th-century emperor, Justinian, and his empress, Theodora.
With Lucinda’s recent efforts to undermine her husband and daughter foiled, she ferrets out their mission. After identifying herself with a powerful and destructive sorceress in the imperial story, she plots to use similar magic to destroy the reincarnated pair, thus proving to them and to all who would meddle with the dead that history indeed repeats itself, and there is nothing that can be done to stop it.
The Anathemas weaves the religious controversy about reincarnation into a multi-lifetime saga of conspiracy, redemption and ultimately love. A novel, it is yet firmly based on history, notably Procopius's Secret History and Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. With the pace of a thriller, it portrays the essentially spiritual adventure of a man and a woman coming face-to-face with the life-and-death experience.
476 pages in length, The Anathemas: A Novel about Reincarnation and Restitution is being aggressively promoted to appropriate markets with a focus on the visionary and metaphysical fiction category. With U.S. wholesale distribution through Ingram and Baker & Taylor, and pervasive online availability through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and elsewhere, The Anathemas meets consumer demand through both retail and library markets with a suggested retail price of $19.95.
Additionally, The Anathemas can be ordered by retailers or wholesalers for the maximum trade discount price set by the author in quantities of ten or more from the Outskirts Press wholesale online bookstore at www.outskirtspress.com/buybooks.
ISBN: 9781432753726
Format: 6 x 9 paperback cream
SRP: $19.95
For more information or to contact the author, visit www.outskirtspress.com/TheAnathemas.
About the author:
Victor E. Smith sees himself as a generalist. From childhood on a communal farm in Pennsylvania, to adolescence in a religious seminary, into adulthood with occupations that ranged from counselor and teacher to computer entrepreneur and corporate trainer, Vic remains astounded, often stunned, by both the wonders and terrors of human existence. Such awe has always compelled him to write: poetry, journaling, in publications about business and education, and now in the novel form.
A lifelong proponent of human spiritual evolution, he has focused on paranormal phenomena and their manifestations. Travel to the settings he writes about, no matter how remote, is to his research what fingerprints are to a detective. The Anathemas, A Novel of Reincarnation and Restitution, aged literally through decades of experience and revision, is his first novel. A prequel and a sequel, among other works, are well underway.
About Outskirts Press, Inc.
Outskirts Press, Inc. offers full-service, custom self-publishing and book marketing services for authors seeking a cost-effective, fast, and flexible way to publish and distribute their books worldwide while retaining all their rights and full creative control. Available for authors globally at www.outskirtspress.com and located on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado, Outskirts Press represents the future of book publishing, today.
###
Outskirts Press, Inc., 10940 S. Parker Rd - 515, Parker, Colorado 80134
http://outskirtspress.com 1-888-OP-BOOKS
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Outskirts Press
Kelly Schuknecht
888.672.6657
www.outskirtspress.com
Kelly Schuknecht
888.672.6657
www.outskirtspress.com
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