Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this post, free of charge, from Novel Publicity, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post.
Today I'm excited to bring you a Guest Post and Kind Fire Giveaway from Chris Datta. His first Novel
Touched with Fire was a number one best-seller in the Historical Fiction
category, and this supernatural thriller lives up to the high expectations readers have for this talented
author.
The Demon Stone by Christoper Datta
Synopsis:
The Demon Stone is a powerful supernatural thriller that leads you from
the killing fields of Africa to the quiet Boundary Waters of Northern Minnesota. In braided narratives,
Datta spins a terrifying story about the spiritual forces—both real and supernatural—that incite the
basest, bloodiest and most frightening of human behaviors.
"Reading Chris Datta is like riding a rollercoaster. It’s a fast ride filled with twists and turns. His Demon
Stone is scary fun. Stephen King, watch your back!"
-Richard Rashke, author of The Killing of Karen Silkwood
Interview with Chris Datta
Novel Publicity: What drew you to writing
about spiritual forces, and could you explain how spiritual forces can be both real and supernatural?
Christopher Datta: I want to write books that matter and do more than tell a story,
although I think that telling a good story is critically important. What could be more significant than
exploring our spiritual lives and to look for purpose beyond unexamined living and consuming day to
day? I want to ask questions and lead the reader on a journey so that by the end of the book he or she
hopefully comes to a new understanding about life.
I read a great deal about new advances in theoretical physics. It is a fascinating field that increasingly
shows us that the more we know, the more we come to see how little we really grasp about the
mysteries of the Universe. There are things about the cosmos and our place in it that we may never fully
understand; that are, in fact, beyond our ability as human beings to fully comprehend. In Demon
Stone, I symbolically represent those mysteries through the supernatural.
NP: The two geographic locations in the book are very distant from each other. How
did Africa & Minnesota become part of the setting for The Demon Stone?
CD: I lived for many years in Minnesota (I went to high school with Jessie Ventura!)
and I loved camping in the isolated Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota. The wilderness is both a
thrilling and at the same time dangerous and even alien environment, which again serves as a metaphor
in the story for life. There is an incident with a black bear in the book that is close to something that
really happened to me.
My career as an American diplomat took me to many places in Africa. The original inspiration for the
book occurred when I was traveling through rural Uganda. I came across a hut with a hand painted sign
advertising the services of a local shaman. Intrigued, I stopped and met the old man, who offered to
cast a curse on any enemies I wanted eliminated. That got me thinking about what it would be like to
have that kind of power, and what the unintended consequences of using it might be. The record of
the human use of unbridled power is not very good. In my travels through many war zones I have seen
incredible beauty and sacrifice as well as the most horrible and brutal acts of cruelty.
NP: Did you have to do a lot of research into different cultures and religions to write
this book, and can we expect to delve into the differences between cultures throughout the book?
CD: I have lived and worked for many years in several African countries. I also studied
the belief in demons in Africa, and Agbadofrom my story is a demon well known in Sierra Leone. My son
is an adopted war orphan from Sierra Leone who has been with me since he was 14 years old and he
was a big help with some portions of the book. Religion and culture play a big role in the story.
NP: How much of the book was inspired by your work overseas?
CD: I saw the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda, was in Sierra Leone at the end of
the brutal civil war in that country, was the acting Ambassador to Liberia when the capitol was attacked
by two rebel armies in a war that I helped to end and I was again the acting Ambassador to the Republic
of South Sudan when war broke out between that nation and Sudan. Again, I played a major role in
helping to end that conflict. I have brought two African war criminals to justice and was active in a
program to try to end the reign of terror led by Joseph Koney, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army,
one of the most brutal and deadly terrorist groups in Africa. General Mosquito in my book is based on
a real warlord in Sierra Leone. I actually played a role in bringing him to justice. I have had to deal first
hand with the bane of child soldiers and modern slavery in Africa.
NP: The Demon Stone seems to have everything from love & tragedy to religion
and supernatural beasts. Can you expand a bit on your writing process, and how you were able to bring
the characters together across vast distances and very different settings?
CD: That’s complicated! Many of the characters in the story are based on real people
I have known. General Mosquito, for instance. Gem and Hampton, the two dogs in the story, are dogs
I have known and loved very much. Basically, I took experiences and people from my life in America
and in Africa, put them in an environment of my creation, and let them weave the story together. My
books never turn out the way I think they will at the beginning of writing them. The characters at some
point take over and they tell the story. Sometimes, in my experience, all a good writer has to do is listen
carefully to what the people he creates are telling him. That certainly happened in Demon Stone. But that shouldn’t be surprising. If you are really on a spiritual journey in telling a story, and you do a
good job of it, you should expect to wind up in unexpected places.
NP: Who were the easiest and toughest characters to write and why?
CD: The toughest character to write was Morgan. She is one of the main antagonists
of the book, but I didn’t want her to be a caricature and there was a real risk of her being a two
dimensional archetype instead of a real flesh and blood person. On some level, for an antagonist to
work well in a story, the reader needs to identify or on some level sympathize with that person. Morgan
does terrible things, but terrible things have happened to her. I hope that comes across in the story.
The easiest character to write was Hampton. He’s a dog, a very loveable, dopey and fearless dog. I
enjoyed writing about him.
NP: People often talk about feeling like they’re being followed, especially if they have
to walk through a secluded area by themselves. What gave you the idea to play on people’s fear of being
stalked for this book?
CD: All the time I spent in the isolated Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern
Minnesota. I love it, but there is nothing that will give you the heebie-jeebies faster than being alone
in the middle of the deep forest in the middle of the night. I suspect thousands of years of human
evolution dealing with the risks of being secluded in the dark in a wilderness just naturally puts the fear
in us. We somehow intuitively feel the threat of being hunted.
NP: Demons are part of many religions and cultures myths. Was there a particular
reason you decided to write about demons?
CD: We create demons, and we have always created demons. They symbolically
represent the forces in life that we fear. A spiritual journey, which I hope readers of the Demon Stone find the book to be, needs to confront those demons and the dark side of our natures.
NP: Symbolism plays a large part in The Demon Stone. The Demon within can
sometimes be as scary as a supernatural being seems. Do you think that talking about human behavior
through the use of symbolism makes talking about tragedies like murder easier or harder?
CD: The most frightening sections of the Demon Stone are not encounters with
the demon, but the real and terrifying things people do to each other, sections of the book based on
real events. The demon Agbado is a symbol of that dark nature that haunts us, that leads some of us to
rationalize the most horrible of acts and represents the loss of empathy that permits people to commit
such unspeakable crimes as genocide, which I have personally witnessed. To me, the most terrifying
story in the book is the tale of the child soldier Muctar. This story is based on a real child. The demon
within is the real monster of the book. But yes, I felt the use of symbolism made talking about these
horrors easier, just as Halloween or The Day of the Dead in Mexico make dealing with monsters and
death easier for us to confront.
NP: This is a two part question. The cover of The Demon Stone is very unique and
doesn’t focus on any particular character, rather an object. Who did you choose to do the cover art and
why? How hard was it to settle on the cover, or was it love at first sight?
CD: The mask on the cover of The Demon Stone is from my personal collection. I
bought it in Rwanda when I was there helping to reopen our embassy directly following the genocide in
that country. It was always in the back of my mind to use it as the cover for this book (and yes, I started
this book that long ago). Finding that mask in Rwanda at that particular moment, and the way it looked,
just made it seem right to me for this book.
This type of mask is actually from the Congo, and is used in coming of age ceremonies for young men. A
good friend of mine, Don Hurlbert, is a photographer for the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC,
and he took the photo. Mallory Rock designed the cover. She is a terrific graphic designer I know and I
use her for all the covers on my books.
NP: Civil conflict and slavery were both a focus in your working life. Do you find that
your writing reflects this in The Demon Stone?
CD: Absolutely. It is a major part of what this book is about, and not just in The
Demon Stone. I also have published Touched with Fire, a novel set in the American Civil War
inspired by the true story of a slave woman who escapes by posing as a man. She later joins the Union
army disguised as a man so she can fight her way South to free her husband. That story is turning into
a trilogy, and book two, Fire and Dust, will be out in November. It also extensively addresses the
issue of slavery in America before and during the Civil War, but is told exclusively from the Confederate
side of the war. Book three will be set in the Reconstruction period of American history and the
characters from the first two books will meet.
NP: Survivors’ guilt can be devastating to many people who work in war torn
countries and come back home to a peaceful life. Having worked overseas, and in war torn countries,
do you have any advice for others. Would you say writing The Demon Stone has been a cathartic
experience for you?
CD: I have been in some very tough situations involving life and death issues for
sometimes thousands of people, as well as having been under fire myself. Sometimes I saved people,
sometimes I couldn’t.
I have had to deal with instances of PTSD. It was never easy, and there were times I had to step away
from Demon Stone because it was getting too deep into places I was not, at the time, ready to go
to for the sake of my own well being.
What helps? Giving yourself permission to take the time to heal and being able to confront the demons
with good friends are both important. Know and accept that you are not Superman, and don’t expect
yourself to be. That’s not healthy. In the end, writing the Demon Stone was cathartic, but there
were times it was right for me to keep away from it until I was ready.
Giveaway
About the Author
Debut author CHRISTOPHER DATTA is no stranger to
civil conflict or the still-extant scourge of slavery. Most recently the acting ambassador to the Republic
of South Sudan where he helped end a war in April of 2012, he has spent a distinguished career moving
from one strife-torn country to another, including Lebanon, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. A lifelong
student of the American Civil War, his research for Touched with Fire is exacting and based in part on a
true story.
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