Frank Georgalis – Writer

Step by Step to Write, Promote and Market Your Book PART II

A Simple Guide To

PROMOTE YOUR BOOK
by
Frank Elias Georgalis

Promote your book Part 2 out of 10

Speaking of inserting something in a book is called Suspension of Disbelief, which means that the reader suspends judgement of the implausibility  of the plot. Every book of fiction should have a Suspension of Disbelief particularly books of comedy or horror.  I use Suspension Of Disbelief in my books of drama. I don’t do it for suspending judgement of implausibility of the plot I use it to increase the plausibility of the plot and many of times I use  supernatural events.  Jesus was using parables in his teaching to strengthen the meaning of his teachings.

In my book Salome there is a touch of a supernatural phenomenon. Eleazar, the Pharisees chief at Herod Antipas’ birthday party and the night John the Baptist was beheaded, was one of the men who insisted of having the prophet beheaded. An unknown guest named Jacob, hearing Eleazar’s recital to destroy John the Baptist and then Jesus, warned him in very emphatic terms that if anything would happened to John the Baptist, he would hold Eleazar responsible and promised in front of 200 guests that he would make him pay with his life.  A few days after the death of John the Baptist, Eleazar was abducted by four men, who called themselves The Death Squad and who had devoted their lives in protecting Jesus. It was Jacob, Aaron, David and Simon. I am going to go away from my main topic, for a moment to tell you that all the significant characters in your book should have a background to give them an identity. Jacob was a loyal follower of Jesus because he restored his little daughter back to health, who was in the gates of death.  Aaron was the oldest and the wiser, who was a soldier to Herod the Great. David was the quietest of them all. He loved Jesus and was ready to give his life for him. Simon was the mad Samaritan who hated Jews including Aaron the old soldier

Thus speaking, he assisted Eleazar up the rocky hill while the three followed in silence. The driver of the carriage named Aaron, was one of those long-limbed, adroit, slim and slick-looking figure to whom it was difficult to assign any precise age but looked the oldest of the rest and less talkative. After a few minutes of slow walk, they came to an opening that led into a dark cave. Jacob was the first to enter followed by the limping Eleazar and his three companions. He reached up and pulled down a lantern, which hung at the end of a long rope that passed through a fixed heavy beam in the ceiling of the cave, and lit it. The lantern cast a dim light upon an old table and three chairs that were placed beneath it. There was a wineskin, a water pouch, some ropes and harnesses, indicating that the place was occupied by some goat and sheep shepherds.
“Now,” said Jacob, removing the lantern from the rope and placing it on the old table, “The sooner we come to our business, the better for all of us.”
Simon placed a chair under Eleazar and pushed him down to sit; the other two sat across from him while Jacob was fondling with the end of the rope making a loop. When this was done he hastily placed the loop around Eleazar’s neck and pulled to tightened it slightly. Eleazar moaned loudly and tried to stand, Simon pushed him down and said firmly, “Sit and behave!”
“You have said that you have information about some planning to harm Jesus The first question is of what information you have about that,” said Jacob, looking at Eleazar’s eyes.
“That is the second question,” said Eleazar, “The first is what you will do with me after I give you the information?”
“Depends on what kind of information it is,” said Jacob with his face close to that of Eleazar. The faces of the two men who sat around the table nearly touched as they leaned forward over the small table in their eagerness to hear, and Eleazar leaned backwards to avoid their intimidating eyes. The feeble rays of the lantern falling directly upon them, brought out the anxiety of their countenances and looked ghastly in the extreme.
“I shall not be intimidated by your ferocious looks or brutal treatment. Although no man is a stranger to fear, I fear you not.” said Eleazar with an ironic smile.
“I know,” said Jacob with clenched teeth. “You are tough and brave; that is how you sounded in the Herod Antipas’ party the night of the beheading of John the Baptist.”
“I am now realizing being tough and brave is not the best thing in life; the best is to be a coward to stay alive, but I cannot,” said Eleazar.
“To be a coward you must have a heart, and you don’t,” said Jacob.
“I am a Jew and I am entitled to some rights and privileges. Where are they?”
“You will get your privileges and your rights handed to you soon,” returned Simon, “And they will be garnished with salt, sugar and other spices.”
Eleazar reached into a hidden pocket, brought out a bag of money and threw it on the table and said, “There is a price for everything in life, this should buy a lot of spices; good spices”
“Not everybody is greedy, Eleazar,” said Jacob, turning away. “You see, gentlemen,” continued Jacob, walking towards the back of the cave, “Jesus is a well known personality. The Romans cannot touch him, because he has said nothing against them, and the Jews cannot touch him because the Romans in Rome would not like it. All of you remember that many Jews believe that Jesus is their Messiah and many Romans believe that he is the Son of God. So, there can only be one or many, outlaws for example, or the non-believers, who can sneak up to him and kill him,” Jacob went on, as if he were thinking out loud, “One man alone will not make an attempt, because he knows he will be killed by Jesus’ apostles or undercover bodyguards that Jesus has. A group of men has no reason except only for money,” concluded Jacob, lowering his voice on the last words as if something hit him.
Hearing this, Eleazar let out a fixed loud laugh and all the heads turned to him.
“Oh, yes,” said the other man, named David and who was a man of few words and possessed a little power over eloquence or precaution and who was the third man in the carriage, “Jacob, you must have hit a correct note or you are completely out of the arena, the way this Pharisee laughed.”
Although that statement was directed to Jacob, his eyes stayed on Eleazar, “I would like to say at this point; let us kill him and let us go home.”
Simon drew a long breath, as if he were glad to find that the story would soon be over and no mention was made about any information that Eleazar may be holding. Jacob’s eyes moved around and gazed at his companions and finally settled on Eleazar who was wiping off the perspiration, which began to trickle over his nose.
“It has to be a conspiracy,” uttered Jacob walking away, “He knows the conspirators, but he prefers to die.”
He suddenly stopped and turned to face Eleazar, “What do you expect from a man who in his whole life stole from the corpses before they had hardly turned to corpses,” cried Jacob in a voice, which, from its very suppression, seemed only the more furious.
“Can I have some water?” asked Eleazar.
“Aaron,” said Jacob to the driver of the carriage, “Get him that water pouch that’s hanging next to the wineskin.”
“You are right, it’s a conspiracy that has promised to pay a large sums of money to some violent outlaws to kill Jesus. There is also a conspirator among you,” cried Eleazar with desperate eagerness.
“It’s a lie! I will not be fooled or played with. I shall tear the life out of you, but in the end I will know the correct information,” yelled Simon, imparting a slap on Eleazar’s head.
“I told you I shall not be intimidated and broken by your brutality,” said Eleazar, letting out an ironic smile, which looked intimidating to Simon, who immediately prepared for another blow, but he was stopped by the hand of Jacob.
“I can observe that there is no chord in your hearts that I can touch, then, is there nothing left to which I can appeal against this terrible infatuation to kill me?” asked Eleazar
“You have created this temptation for us and you have placed yourself within our reach,” returned Jacob, “Do not close your heart against my efforts to help you, even though you deserve nothing kind from us, but you must help us find this conspiracy.”
Hearing this, the condemned creature to whom Jacob’s words were directed, teurned away feeling overpowered by this unexpected interrogation, which bore more resemblance of a lingering bad dream than an actual occurrence, it became an endeavor to collect his wandering thoughts.
“I shall tell you one more thing, “ said Eleazar, after that short meditation, “They were given forty days to accomplish their mission.” Saying this Eleazar restored himself into a serious attitude, seeing and feeling that Jacob was on his side.
“Tell us then, who—to whom—and where,” yelled Jacob, with his mouth near to Eleazar and his words full of anger.
“I will not say another word until I am promised life and freedom,” said Eleazar, putting on the same ironic smile.
Overtaken by much anger, Simon grabbed the water pouch from Aaron’s hands, approached Eleazar and threw the pouch on the table, took off his cutlass and hit the water pouch several times as Eleazar watched the water running out on the table and the floor. Without any further ceremony or delay Simon administered another blow on his face, “Tell us— Who!” he yelled.
Eleazar took the blow again in the same manner as the one before, “I told you I will not be broken.”
“Tell us— to whom!” he yelled again, hitting him again.
“I will not be broken,” he repeated, wiping the blood off his mouth and looking at his hand after he did that.
“Tell us—Where!” repeated the same way and a blow as before.
“You cannot break me,” uttered Eleazar, in the same unbelievable manner.
“All right, all right, that is enough. Let us see who wants him dead, or wants him interrogated,” said Jacob,
“David?”
“Dead!” replied David, hammering the table with his fist.
“Simon?”
“Dead and I shall kill him,” said Simon with clenched teeth.
“Aaron?” Jacob asked, the driver of the carriage.
“What ever the rest of you want, I will go along.”
“It is settled then. Come with me to discuss it further. If we have to, we shall take another vote.” said Jacob, moving to the back of the long cave.
As his captors stepped to the back, traces resembling new hope appeared on Eleazar’s face.
“Gentlemen,” Eleazar called out, “I must tell you that I believe that Jesus is the Messiah. You may vote which ever way you wish.”
Whether he thought his captors could see that by cooperating with them, they would spare his life is unknown, because now, the demon who was always advising Eleazar on his daily business, was flying over the cave at that moment, casting down on his eyes with mere curiosity, happened to fall on Eleazar, sitting there with his back close to the cave entrance, The demon darted down into the cave with inconceivable speed, passed around the head of Eleazar, his friend and partner in his evil deeds and prompted him to make an attempt of escaping.
Listening to his friend whispering in his ear, Eleazar made an effort to loosen the lasso from around his neck but the demon who gets angry when things go right and finding it more beneficial to his evil purpose to complicate matters, made the effort for Eleazar to loosen up the rope from his neck, very difficult and time consuming and whispered ‘you are losing time go on with your plan of escaping’.
Eleazar stood up, grabbed the moneybag, held it close to his breast and darted out with the rope dragging behind him. His abductors hearing the sound of the rope dragging the table, rushed out and before they could reach him they heard a shout of triumph and saw the table firmed against the entrance, where the demon had placed it, and the rope extended tightly over the cliff. Speeding up to the top of the cliff, Jacob, who was the first to reach the cliff, stood and looked over the ten-foot drop and saw Eleazar’s body swinging with the breeze, lifeless, as he hung with his feet a few inches short of touching the ground, still holding onto the money bag. Jacob, turning to his companions who had scuttled right behind him, said rather sullenly, “He finally reached his destiny. He almost made it.”
“Almost made what?” asked Simon with a lot of eagerness, standing back from the cliff.
“Evidently he jumped and almost made it to safety. But he forgot the rope. He accidentally hung himself, but one thing he didn’t forget was the moneybag,” mumbled Simon.
“That is the truth in life; people forget that there is always a rope around their neck attached to their past bad deeds and it is held by their friend the demon; one wrong step they hang themselves,” said Aaron, the driver who was the oldest of them all, pointing to the rope tied to the leg of the table. “I don’t remember anybody tightening this rope here,” continued Aaron pointing at the table which blocked the entrance to the cave. “I believe that Eleazar, was about to do the first and the only good deed in his life, to reveal what he had known of the conspiracy to kill Jesus, but the demon got to him first.”
“You really believe in demons, Aaron, don’t you?” remarked David.
Aaron looked at him from the corners of his eyes, cleared his throat in an apparent effort to soften his nerves, said, “I told you, men, if you believe there is a God, you must believe that there are demons.”
It was the demon who tied the rope to the chair, according to my characters’ beliefs. It was the same demon who made him run away because Eleazar for the first time in his life longed to be good to give them the name of the conspirators and demon doesn’t like to lose friends to the good. Dear reader, just think, the death of Eleazar would have left a gap on my story, but I closed that gap with a supernatural phenomenon which cannot be disputed.

Please understand that there is no good formula in writing a book. You can go to school and learn rules of grammar but that is not enough in writing a book that the reader will be satisfied and pleased reading it. You may say to me that you can write a book because you are a reader. It is like some one is saying to you that he is a good cook because he likes good food. A writer is like a good cook. The good cook knows how much salt, pepper  and other ingredients to make it good.  Reading is like eating food, you like it but you don’t know what went in to make it good.