Welcome to this stop on the tour
for The Unholy,
presented by
Bewitching Book Tours!!
About the Book
Paul DeBlassie III
Trade Paperback, 202 pages
Sunstone Press, August 1, 2013
Metaphysical Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Urban Fantasy
Book Synopsis: A young curandera, a medicine woman, intent on uncovering the secrets of her past is forced into a life-and-death battle against an evil Archbishop. Set in the mystic land of Aztlan, "The Unholy" is a novel of destiny as healer and slayer. Native lore of dreams and visions, shape changing, and natural magic work to spin a neo-gothic web in which sadness and mystery lure the unsuspecting into a twilight realm of discovery and decision.
Print Edition
Kindle Edition
Paul DeBlassie III, PhD.
Author Interview
Maria: This
book is inspired by your thirty years of experience as a psychotherapist,
dealing with what you call “the dark side of religion”. Could you elaborate on just what this dark
side is, and how it has affected your clients?
Paul: The dark
side of religion is the use of spiritual energy or power by organized religion
in a way that hurts people. You see it when priests get people to believe in
God, to trust the church, to trust the priest, and then the person is used and
abused all because they have trusted. I’ve had patients say, “I feel like I’ve
been abused by God.” It’s how it’s registered in the deep unconscious mind…to be abused by religion is to be abused by God. I’ve been helping patients for
over thirty years heal from the dark side of religion. In The Unholy, a young
woman is face-to-face with the dark side of religion and has to decide to do
what she has to do or forever be haunted.
Maria: Why
did you think it more important to write a novel dealing with this topic, as
opposed to a self-help book?
Paul: A self-help book appeals to the conscious mind; a novel, its story
and symbols, move into another realm that bypasses defenses. It gets to you
in a way that you can’t stop. You can stop it by stopping reading The Unholy.
People have said it was too much, needed to put it down then come back; others
have wrapped themselves in a cozy blanket, sunk into the story, and let it speak
to them no matter what.
Maria: What do you see as the
central conflict in The Unholy, and
how is it embodied in the two main characters?
Paul: Destiny as healer and slayer pivots itself in the drama of a young woman’s life. Do we fulfill what we are meant to do or do we back away and run? It’s a dilemma for us as vulnerable human beings. The Unholy captures fear and potential, to run or to face the ghost and deal with what you need to deal with.
Maria: Do you see patriarchal
values as inherently evil, as opposed to matriarchal ones? Why or why not? Do we need a balance of both?
Paul: Any values are evil if they are used to oppress, to use and abuse.
Mothers can be devouring, not let go, consume their children so they don’t have
a life. In The Unholy it’s the father, paternal values gone awry via religion.
It’ll eat you alive out of a need you have to belong and to find salvation or
to find a way out of the complexities of being human. The Unholy…it pivots good
and evil, and the way balance is achieved by going into the dark forest,
sinking into self, and seeing what emerges from behind the trees.
