Book One of The Heretic's Gospel is now available for purchase through the XLibris, Amazon.com and the Barnes and Noble website. I would go with the B&N one, myself.
From XLibris.com:
http://bookstore.xlibris.com/Products/SKU-0136000049/THE-HERETICS-GOSPEL--BOOK-ONE.aspx
$23.99
From Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/THE-HERETICS-GOSPEL-BOOK-Novel/dp/1483650979/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1371274214&sr=8-6&keywords=The+Heretic%27s+Gospel
$19.31 (Paperback)
From Barnes and Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-heretics-gospel-book-one-gabriel-stone/1115635700?ean=9781483650975
$18.92 (Paperback; also available on Nook.)
Friday, June 14, 2013
Sunday, June 9, 2013
We are Good to Go!
The Heretic's Gospel - Book One is now ready for production, that is, if it passes their plagiarism department, which it should. So this time next week, the book should be ready for Kindle through Amazon.com and Nook through Barnes and Noble. I was going to delay the release of Book One until Book Two was closer to completion so that I wouldn't lose potential readers to Dan Brown, but James said that a delay between release dates would just build anticipation. Hope he's right. Anyway, I should have a copy of my book in my hot little hand in about another week, and it'll take about a month before XLibris has my book in paperback.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Update
I got a call from the lady at XLibris and my book is now in the production stage. I should receive the galleys in about two weeks. I imagine a Roman vessel, manned by galley slaves, gliding through the glassy sea toward the port, which is me, with my book standing tall and proud on the wooden deck, soft ocean breezes fluttering her pages.
It probably won't be like that.
It probably won't be like that.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Questions and Answers
Question: So, why did you write the book?
Answer: A couple of reasons. I've always been interested in history and religion, for one. For another, it seems lame to me to expect people to believe in something without any reason whatsoever, just "Take it on faith." Faith is nice, don't get me wrong. But it just seems wrong to me for some big institution, like Big Church, to tell us that we have to believe what they tell us to believe or we are going to go to Hell. That just seems a little power-mad and emotionally-abusive to me.
Question: No, I mean, why did you write this book?
Answer: Oh, you mean specifically? Well, a very long time ago, I was sitting in the back of church on a lovely Easter morning, listening to the sermon, and it occurred to me, "What if it's all a hoax? What if Jesus survived the crucifixion and this is all b.s.?" Well, God, amazingly, did not strike me with lightning for just thinking this, so I put it on the back burner for a couple of years. Fast-forward to 2004 (gee, I thought it was earlier than that!) and the movie The Passion of the Christ. My friends all told me not to see it because it would just upset me. I don't know why. Seriously, no clue. Still haven't seen it. So that, combined with the back-burner thing, and I got to thinking, "What if I wrote a book about Jesus that was based on solid archaeological and historical evidence instead of on mythology and antisemitism, something logical and that made sense? Would Jesus turn out to be the Son of God and the Messiah, or not?"
Question: And does he?
Answer: You'll have to read the book and find out!
Question: There has been some controversy about whether or not Jesus even existed. Based on your 'solid archaeological and historical evidence,' do you think he really existed?
Answer: Absolutely! No doubt in my mind. I mean, look. You've got the four canonical Gospels- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and you can take it on faith, or not, that they show that he existed. But they were, I think, heavily doctored by the Catholic Church and edited to advance their own agendas, so you really can't count them as telling, pardon the pun, the gospel truth. (Listen, there's a reason I call this The Heretic's Gospel, okay? It's heresy.) And you've got that little blurb that Josephus wrote about Jesus, but Josephus was a traitor to his people because, when push came to shove, he sided with the Romans in the Jewish Wars, and he was a major suck-up, so you can't count on what he has to say, which isn't really a whole lot about Jesus, when it comes right down to it. On the other hand, to me, the proof of Jesus' existence was found in the Apocrypha, the gospels that were written (at least theoretically) by Philip, Mary Magdalene, Judah, Thomas, Jude, Nicodemus and I think a couple of others. They weren't included in the Bible, but the fact that they exist at all tells me that Jesus did, too.
Question: But aren't you afraid of ruffling some feathers?
Answer: Yup. Lots of feathers. Orthodox Jewish feathers. Evangelical Christian feathers. Catholic Church feathers. And there isn't a day that goes by when I don't worry about it. You know, like somebody burning a cross on my lawn or taking a shot at me with an AK-47. There are all sorts of nutcases out there, you know? But there are also a lot of people, and I like to think the majority of people, who are nice, rational human beings. People who dropped out of going to church because they just couldn't get behind the "Believe what I tell you or else!" thing. Those people are going to want to read my book because it makes sense.
Question: You keep talking about "the book," but aren't there two books?
Answer: Ah, you got me! Yes, there are two books. I wrote The Heretic's Gospel as one book, one gigantic book, which, when I was writing it, seemed to be about three thousand pages long. That's a little hefty for a book. So I had to divide it into two books, just for manageability. The first book should be available for purchase in around September, and I'm hoping that the second book comes out immediately afterwards.
Question: Three thousand pages?
Answer: Yup. But I have vision problems, so I wrote it in 24-point font, with a two-page view, so once the adjustments were made, it was about 800 pages. Still a little long for a paperback, so I divided it into two books.
Question: So how is this Jesus different from all other Jesuses? I mean, seriously, there are so many books on the market, so hasn't this story been done to death, pardon the pun?
Answer: Oh yeah, absolutely. And you might notice that all of the Jesuses in the movies are Christian and European. Long straight brown hair, perfect beard, blue eyes, tall, very handsome, and they have an otherworldly quality about them. And I understand that the supporting actors tended to treat the actors who played Jesus as though he really were Jesus, with awe and deference. That's just wrong, and on so many different levels. I mean, Jesus was a Middle Eastern Jewish guy, which is not to say that Middle Eastern Jewish guys can't be tall, dark and European-looking, but still... My Jesus, or "Yeshua," as I call him in my book, is just this average-looking Middle Eastern Jewish guy, an Everyman by design: short, dark kinky-curly hair, olive-toned, hardly intimidating. He's the kind of guy you'd want to have a beer with and tell your troubles to. Very approachable and likable and human. And that's the beauty of him. He's human. He leaps to the wrong conclusion. He makes mistakes. He has all of our little human foibles, because otherwise, how could he possibly relate to the rest of us? And the longer I worked on him, the more I genuinely liked him, and I think that's important.
Question: Well, thank you for the time to talk with me. Do you mind if I pop in from time to time to ask you questions?
Answer: No problem!
Answer: A couple of reasons. I've always been interested in history and religion, for one. For another, it seems lame to me to expect people to believe in something without any reason whatsoever, just "Take it on faith." Faith is nice, don't get me wrong. But it just seems wrong to me for some big institution, like Big Church, to tell us that we have to believe what they tell us to believe or we are going to go to Hell. That just seems a little power-mad and emotionally-abusive to me.
Question: No, I mean, why did you write this book?
Answer: Oh, you mean specifically? Well, a very long time ago, I was sitting in the back of church on a lovely Easter morning, listening to the sermon, and it occurred to me, "What if it's all a hoax? What if Jesus survived the crucifixion and this is all b.s.?" Well, God, amazingly, did not strike me with lightning for just thinking this, so I put it on the back burner for a couple of years. Fast-forward to 2004 (gee, I thought it was earlier than that!) and the movie The Passion of the Christ. My friends all told me not to see it because it would just upset me. I don't know why. Seriously, no clue. Still haven't seen it. So that, combined with the back-burner thing, and I got to thinking, "What if I wrote a book about Jesus that was based on solid archaeological and historical evidence instead of on mythology and antisemitism, something logical and that made sense? Would Jesus turn out to be the Son of God and the Messiah, or not?"
Question: And does he?
Answer: You'll have to read the book and find out!
Question: There has been some controversy about whether or not Jesus even existed. Based on your 'solid archaeological and historical evidence,' do you think he really existed?
Answer: Absolutely! No doubt in my mind. I mean, look. You've got the four canonical Gospels- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and you can take it on faith, or not, that they show that he existed. But they were, I think, heavily doctored by the Catholic Church and edited to advance their own agendas, so you really can't count them as telling, pardon the pun, the gospel truth. (Listen, there's a reason I call this The Heretic's Gospel, okay? It's heresy.) And you've got that little blurb that Josephus wrote about Jesus, but Josephus was a traitor to his people because, when push came to shove, he sided with the Romans in the Jewish Wars, and he was a major suck-up, so you can't count on what he has to say, which isn't really a whole lot about Jesus, when it comes right down to it. On the other hand, to me, the proof of Jesus' existence was found in the Apocrypha, the gospels that were written (at least theoretically) by Philip, Mary Magdalene, Judah, Thomas, Jude, Nicodemus and I think a couple of others. They weren't included in the Bible, but the fact that they exist at all tells me that Jesus did, too.
Question: But aren't you afraid of ruffling some feathers?
Answer: Yup. Lots of feathers. Orthodox Jewish feathers. Evangelical Christian feathers. Catholic Church feathers. And there isn't a day that goes by when I don't worry about it. You know, like somebody burning a cross on my lawn or taking a shot at me with an AK-47. There are all sorts of nutcases out there, you know? But there are also a lot of people, and I like to think the majority of people, who are nice, rational human beings. People who dropped out of going to church because they just couldn't get behind the "Believe what I tell you or else!" thing. Those people are going to want to read my book because it makes sense.
Question: You keep talking about "the book," but aren't there two books?
Answer: Ah, you got me! Yes, there are two books. I wrote The Heretic's Gospel as one book, one gigantic book, which, when I was writing it, seemed to be about three thousand pages long. That's a little hefty for a book. So I had to divide it into two books, just for manageability. The first book should be available for purchase in around September, and I'm hoping that the second book comes out immediately afterwards.
Question: Three thousand pages?
Answer: Yup. But I have vision problems, so I wrote it in 24-point font, with a two-page view, so once the adjustments were made, it was about 800 pages. Still a little long for a paperback, so I divided it into two books.
Question: So how is this Jesus different from all other Jesuses? I mean, seriously, there are so many books on the market, so hasn't this story been done to death, pardon the pun?
Answer: Oh yeah, absolutely. And you might notice that all of the Jesuses in the movies are Christian and European. Long straight brown hair, perfect beard, blue eyes, tall, very handsome, and they have an otherworldly quality about them. And I understand that the supporting actors tended to treat the actors who played Jesus as though he really were Jesus, with awe and deference. That's just wrong, and on so many different levels. I mean, Jesus was a Middle Eastern Jewish guy, which is not to say that Middle Eastern Jewish guys can't be tall, dark and European-looking, but still... My Jesus, or "Yeshua," as I call him in my book, is just this average-looking Middle Eastern Jewish guy, an Everyman by design: short, dark kinky-curly hair, olive-toned, hardly intimidating. He's the kind of guy you'd want to have a beer with and tell your troubles to. Very approachable and likable and human. And that's the beauty of him. He's human. He leaps to the wrong conclusion. He makes mistakes. He has all of our little human foibles, because otherwise, how could he possibly relate to the rest of us? And the longer I worked on him, the more I genuinely liked him, and I think that's important.
Question: Well, thank you for the time to talk with me. Do you mind if I pop in from time to time to ask you questions?
Answer: No problem!
Just Getting Started
Yesterday, I sent off all of the necessary elements to The Heretic's Gospel: Book One, a Novel by Gabriel Stone. Donna Green and Brian Mendez of XLibris have been very helpful. In another three weeks, I should be holding a copy of it in my hot little hand, and if all goes well, shortly thereafter, the book should be available for purchase at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, on the XLibris website, and I don't know where else. Stay tuned, sports fans!
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