Fuck Cancer. The Faceless God ebook is Still Being Published on 8/27/2022
Welcome to the first post of 2022! I hope the New Year has been kind and that everyone is staying safe. So, I'm just going to jump straight into what's been going on with me as it's directly affecting my career.
Note: The information in this post was originally published in my Newsletter of the Cursed on 3/31/2022. It’s been edited and revised for this blog.
Welcome to the first post of 2022! I hope the New Year has been kind and that everyone is staying safe. So, I'm just going to jump straight into what's been going on with me as it's directly affecting my career. I found a lump on my breast the same evening I got back from Rose City Comic Con in early September of last year. I was not seen by a doctor until November, but eventually my biopsy came back positive for breast cancer, more tests ensued, and on January 19 I had a lumpectomy. On the positive side, the tumor was small and hadn't spread beyond my breast. But on the negative side, the pathology report and genomic testing showed the cancer was fairly aggressive. To make sure it's gone for good and doesn't come back, I started chemotherapy in March and will be continuing treatment until May, and then undergoing radiation.
Needless to say, this all sucks, but I'm not going to let cancer fuck with the world of the Ellderet. More than anything, I want to put The Faceless God in your hands, my dear readers. The Faceless God ebook is still on schedule to be published on 8/27/2022 through Amazon. The paperback will follow shortly after, as it takes a bit more work for me to assemble (formatting, interior artwork, new chapter headers, etc). In the meantime, you can download a sneak peek over on BookFunnel, including the prologue and the first two chapters. Please note the artwork on the sneak peek cover is not the final cover art for TFG.
The next couple of months are going to be intense, but to quote a lyric from one of my favorite songs by Nine Inch Nails, "nothing can stop me now." You can now pre-order The Faceless God ebook on Amazon, and know that your pre-order helps put my stories in front of other readers.
Thank you for coming along with me on this crazy ride that is a writer’s life!!
Teipanoc (laters),
EMM
Guest Post | Redemption by Catherine Schaff-Stump
Like most readers, I know what I like. I have a weakness for troubled souls who turn it around. For me, the redemption arc is one of the most satisfying aspects of a good book.
A casual skim of my bookshelves stories where characters become better in spite of themselves. There’s Pride and Prejudice, where Lizzy Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy give up their biases for love.
Original image pulled from https://cathschaffstump.com/
Like most readers, I know what I like. I have a weakness for troubled souls who turn it around. For me, the redemption arc is one of the most satisfying aspects of a good book.
A casual skim of my bookshelves stories where characters become better in spite of themselves. There’s Pride and Prejudice, where Lizzy Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy give up their biases for love. On the shelf below it, I see The Count of Monte Cristo, where even revenge-driven Edmond Dantes learns how to forgive and start a new life. The list goes on: The Last Unicorn, where Schmendrick figures a few things out; the Rivers of London series, where I’m eagerly watching to see if Lesley May comes out the other side of her descent into angst-laden bad decision making; and The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, in which the titular characters have to learn that the decisions that allow them to be true to themselves are the only decisions that allow for their redemption. Even the book my new novel The Wrath of Horus is patterned on, Dante’s Inferno, is a story about a guy turning his life around in the right direction because damnation is a bad option.
Image pulled from https://cathschaffstump.com/
I enjoy writing the redemption arc as much as I enjoy reading it. The Wrath of Horus is book three of the Klaereon Scroll series, and it is a descent into darkness for all the characters, but especially for Gregorius Klaereon. When we first meet Gregorius, he is the quintessential bad boy. I mean, come on. Look at his Byronic picture on the cover!
Gregorius has been guided toward his Trial with the god Horus by Horus himself, who has taught Gregorius he is better than everyone else, just like Horus is. Greg swaggers and talks with his fists, but something that Horus hasn’t taught Greg lurks beneath the surface of Greg’s actions. Greg believes he is responsible for causing the deaths of his parents. His bravado and his aggressive posture keep people away from this essential truth: In Greg’s mind, he is unlovable, and those who get close to him get hurt. In the book, Greg is abused, and he feels deep down he deserves it.
I have writer friends who don’t like Greg, who find him distasteful and irredeemable, a petty bully they have little empathy for, who makes the people around him suffer. What makes a character potentially redeemable? There’s a line I think can’t be crossed. As we launch The Wrath of Horus, I’ve posted an article elsewhere about Set, who I don’t think I can redeem, based on the severity and brutality of his crimes. Set’s motivations also make him irredeemable. Greg, on the other hand, has possibility.
Greg suffers because of Set. If redemption is partly suffering, as Dante suggests it is in The Inferno and Purgatorio, Greg goes through the physical act of paying for his sins. Greg comes through his experience to understand both himself and others in different ways. Most importantly, Greg understands from his family and friends that he doesn’t deserve suffering, that he doesn’t need to drive people away, that he can be loved.
What happens in the next book, The Wisdom of Thoth is largely up to Greg. I can’t tell you for sure if he is destined for redemption, because I haven’t written that book yet, but I do know the door is open, and Greg has the option to step through.
And I am a sucker for a good redemption arc after all.
Image provided by the author
Cath Schaff-Stump writes fiction for children and adults, from humor to horror. She is the author of the Klaereon Scroll series and the Abigail Rath Versus series. She lives and works in Iowa, teaching English. You can find her online at Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, @cathschaffstump, and cathschaffstump.com, and follow her Kindle Vella serial The Autumn Warrior and the Ice Sword.
About The Wrath of Horus
For Gregorius Klaereon, his Trial with the god Horus isn’t about winning or losing. It’s about the fight. His temperament aggressive, his anger on display for all to see, Greg is a direct contrast to his brother Marcellus, the perfect Lord Klaereon, the prophet who can do no wrong. How Marc tolerates Greg is a mystery to Greg himself, especially as Greg knows deep down that Greg is responsible for the deaths of his parents.On the eve of the Klaereon birthday celebration, two days before Greg’s Trial, Greg fights with his cousin Flavia Borgia, and the two of them activate a reality shard which sends them, Marc, and others to the Abyss. There, they are judged and scattered throughout the nine circles. Greg, alone, discovers his Trial was the least of his worries as he is confronted by Set, the god of destruction, in a desolate landscape where his shadow powers no longer work. While Greg endures, certain his rightful punishment has found him, Marc and the others scramble to reunite, rescue Greg, and make their way to the Golden City of the banished Egyptian pantheon, desperate to find a way home.
Links:
Subscribe to Cath’s Newsletter: https://cathschaffstump.com/newsletter-sign-up/
Learn more about the Klaereon Scroll Series: https://cathschaffstump.com/the-klaereon-scroll-series-2/
Check out Cath’s Blog: https://cathschaffstump.com/blog/
