The Good, the Badass and the not at all Ugly…more awesome photo entries!

Posted by Richard Long - October 2, 2012 - Funny shit, Giveaways, Horror, Irish, Occult, Paranormal, Richard Long, Sci-Fi, Supernatural, The Book of Paul, Thriller

After checking out yesterday’s winners in The Book of Paul photo contest, you’re probably thinking…well, how should I know what you’re thinking? I’m not some kind of tarot reading mystic! Um, well yeah, Im supposed to be I guess, wait a sec, I must have a crystal ball around here somewhere…CRASH…BANG…THUD…SPLAT…okay, here it is. Hmmmm, yes…it’s becoming clearer every second…you’re thinking…you wanna see more crazy pictures, right?

You want it, you got it! Herewith is a grand guignol assortment of the profound, the profane, the mysterious, the mythical, the horrifying and the hilarious:

And the winners are…

Posted by Richard Long - October 2, 2012 - Funny shit, Giveaways, Horror, Irish, Occult, Paranormal, Reviews, Richard Long, Sci-Fi, Sex, Sticky, Supernatural, The Book of Paul, Thriller

First of all I want to thank all the incredibly awesome bloggers, writers and readers who made The Book of Paul Tour such a huge success. So many of the bloggers put so much effort into their posts and designs — and the reviews were amazing — truly an author’s dream. Thanks also to all the visitors here who subscribed to The Book of Paul newsletter and are following future posts! I promise to deliver on the entertainment factor, though any wisdom and valuable insights into the human condition will remain iffy at best. So without further ado and adon’t, here are the fantabulous winners of the photo contests (drum roll please):

The Book of Paul Contest Pandemonium! Win a Kindle Fire or Custom Tarot Reading by Being Wacky

Posted by Richard Long - September 28, 2012 - Funny shit, Giveaways, GoodReads, Horror, Irish, Occult, Paranormal, Richard Long, Sci-Fi, Supernatural, The Book of Paul, Thriller

The Jist

The Devil made me do it! Here I am with The Book of Paul, all decked out for Halloween. Now, I’ve shown you mine, it’s time to show me yours!

Time to get creative and compete for huge prizes! Grab your copy of The Book of Paul (either paperback or digital) and take a picture to enter in our themed photo contest. A Kindle Fire goes to the overall most creative entry, while the most Irish and best impression of a tarot card categories win a look into their future by a custom tarot reading performed by yours truly. One more tarot reading goes to one of my random mailing list subscribers, so click here to subscribe if you haven’t already. This contest runs from right now (yes, this very minute) to Sunday, September 30th, at 12 noon EST. Send your entries to contact@novelpublicity.com, and don’t forget to be creative!

The Prizes

Brand new Kindle Fire for the most creative photo submission
Tarot reading performed for you by ME!, one to the most Irish photo and one to the best tarot dress-up
A $50 Amazon gift card to one random Book of Paul mailing list subscribers

The Rules

For the photo contest, a copy of The Book of Paul MUST BE VISIBLE in your photo in order for your entry to be eligible
Submissions to the most Irish or best tarot dress-up may still win the overall most creative prize, or you can be uber creative and do something completely different
You may send in as many submissions as you’d like—one, one for each category, ten million, whatever
Send your photo submissions to contact@novelpublicity.com
By submitting entries to this contest, you give me permission to use the photos as I see fit for marketing and hype-building and what not
A minimum of 10 entrants are required in order to declare a winner. The contest ends at 12 noon EST Sunday, provided 10 people have entered. Otherwise, the contest will be extended until this benchmark is met.
Questions? Leave a comment below or email contact@novelpublicity.com

The Tarot and Paul’s Prophecy

Posted by Richard Long - September 23, 2012 - GoodReads, Horror, Irish, Supernatural, Uncategorized

Laura gave me my first tarot deck. It was a Crowley. A lot of people get creeped out by Crowley decks, much as they would have been creeped out by Crowley, I imagine. He called himself ‘The Great Beast.’ To me, he seemed more like a big joke.

“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law!”

Stop it, you’re killing me.

You just read the opening lines of The Bone King, a prequel to The Book of Paul. They happen to be true. Laura gave me my first deck. I still have it and use it. In fact, I’ll be using it shortly to provide Skype tarot readings for two lucky winners of my Whirlwind Blog Tour. I’m looking forward to the readings. The winners? I suppose that depends on which cards come up.

Actually, I don’t give scary tarot readings, I just write about scary tarot readings. People have enough fear and stress in their lives without me throwing more gas on the flames. Besides, the scariest trump cards –The Hanged Man, Death, The Devil and The Tower – can all be interpreted in very unscary ways. Most of the time.
The scary cards (even scarier in the Crowley deck): Death, The Devil, The Tower

The Fighting Irish

Posted by Richard Long - July 26, 2012 - Interviews, Irish, Richard Long, The Book of Paul

My parents fought all the time. One particularly horrendous episode lasted for months without a break. My brother and I used to hide in our rooms. You did not want to be anywhere near their line of fire. My mother was an alcoholic, my father a rage-aholic. Both of them were “Irish.” I use the quote marks because they called themselves Irish, even though they were both born in Buffalo, NY.

My father’s mother was born in County Clare, Ireland. I never met her, though I have her to thank for my dual Irish citizenship. I have never been to Ireland. After my mother died and I was making an attempt to connect with my father I invited him on a trip to “the old country.” Even bought the tickets. He first accepted the gift, then declined. I can’t remember why. I can’t remember what I did with the tickets either, but I didn’t go.

I never met any of grandparents. They were all dead before I was born. My parents rarely talked about them, and when they did it was chiefly to complain. Alcoholism. Abuse. Neglect. And so on.

In an earlier post I wrote about this same topic:

“My parent’s never told me anything about my Irish heritage. The Book of Paul was my way of trying to make sense out of the way my parents behaved – or why they even bothered having children in the first place. One time when I asked my mother what her father was like, in an effort to understand where I “came from” and how “she got that way”, she immediately broke down, sobbing uncontrollably:

“He was…a…bastard!” she sputtered, immediately followed by father’s contribution to the conversation: “Gooddam it! Why are you upsetting your mother?”