Andie Oliver is a faithful woman—to God, to husband Joe, and to televangelist Calvin Artury, a Godfather in a Mafia of holy men. Joe works limitless hours on the megachurch ministry team, falling deeper into debauchery, while Andie attempts to free him from the Reverend’s control and far-reaching influence. Uncovering long-hidden truths—even murder—she loses everything, including her children. Andie fights for redemption for her family and herself, confronting the very definition of sin, and shaking the Christian evangelical world to its core. Evading ruthless adversaries who will go to any lengths to protect Reverend Artury, Andie battles the dark side of televangelism.
Paperback: 584 pages
Publisher: Satya House Publications (October 2012)
ISBN-10: 1935874160
ISBN-13: 978-1935874164
Twitter hashtag: #televenge
Enjoy the Televenge book trailer below!
Televenge is available in print and e-format at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Satya House.
Book Giveaway Contest: To win a copy of Televenge please enter using the Rafflecopter form at the bottom of this post. The giveaway contest closes this Friday, October 12 at 12:01 AM EST. We will announce the winner the same day in the Rafflecopter widget. Good luck!
Pamela King Cable was born a coal miner’s granddaughter and raised by a tribe of wild Pentecostals and storytellers. She is an award-winning, multi-published author who loves to write about religion and spirituality with paranormal twists she unearths from her family’s history. Married to a megachurch ministry team member as a young adult, she attended years of megachurch services. Pamela studied creative writing at The University of Akron and Kent State University. She has taught at many writing conferences, and speaks to book clubs, women’s groups, national and local civic organizations, and at churches across the country. Nearly a decade in the writing, Televenge is her debut novel. She lives in Ohio with her husband, Michael, and is currently working on her next novel.
Find the Author Online:
Author website: www.pamelakingcable.com
Author blog: www.southernfriedwoman.blogspot.com
Twitter: @pamelakingcable
Facebook: www.facebook.com/southernfriedwomen
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/2935883.Pamela_King_Cable
------Interview by Jodi Webb
WOW: Why did you begin writing?
Pamela: In the 6th grade I wrote a story that made all the girls cry. For years afterward, I filled diaries, journals, notebooks, and shoeboxes with my musings. Later, I pounded out short stories on an old IBM typewriter. But for me, my writing career began one day in 2002 when the man I was about to marry looked up from a manuscript I’d written and said, “This is a great story. Let’s find a way for you to do this full-time.”
I write to transport my readers into a story and to pierce their hearts. That, for me, is the ultimate joy. I write about my passions, what moves me, what I care about, what shoots out of me like a rocket. I have to write. Otherwise, I think I would explode. I write because God made writing a part of me as surely as He made my eyes green.
WOW: Your first book, Southern Fried Women, was a collection of short stories. Was it difficult to go from short stories to writing a novel or did it seem like a natural progression? Do you prefer either type of writing more and if so, why?
Pamela: I’ve been writing short stories since the late eighties. I also wrote paragraphs, scenes, and chapters of Televenge since that time. It wasn’t until late in 2001 that I began to outline the novel. Around the second or third draft of Televenge, I decided to set it aside to put Southern Fried Women together. I needed something to sell at the back of the room after a speaking engagement and as a way to build my platform. So I rewrote a few of those old short stories, created a few new ones, and then published and marketed the collection in 2006. Southern Fried Women sold thousands of copies and is still selling well on Amazon and everywhere I speak. Many say it’s a cult classic in regions of the South.
The stories stacked inside my head and heart may be long or short depending on the characters and what they have to say. They dictate the plot and its length as we progress. I have no preference for either the short story or the novel. A good story is a good story is a good story. To create a fictional world is to submerge yourself beneath the stormy surface of a novel for days. Novels, novellas, and short stories—each one sparks something unique inside the writer.
WOW: You and Andie, the main character in Televenge, have a few things in common. What was it like to write about such familiar characters and situations?
Pamela: It was healing. Televenge was inspired by my spirituality and my own story. It’s true that like Andie, I cut my teeth on the back of a church pew and eventually joined a church where I experienced a world that encompassed both the sublime and the bizarre. For twenty-five years, I was a member of a megachurch operated by a TV evangelist. As part of its inner circle, I was married to a ministry team member for seventeen of those years. My husband traveled with this televangelist who held mammoth faith-healing crusades all over the world. Under much distress, I left the church in 1988 and lost everything in the wake of my rebellion.
Although there are many similarities, Televenge is not about me. My eyes are green, my dad never smoked cigarettes, and the father of my children was not like Andie’s husband, Joe. The characters are a mixture of many people I have known. Although it was difficult to revisit so many dark places in writing the story, the characters are purely from my imagination. While many scenes were inspired in part by real life, I wrote Andie’s story. Not mine. Which in itself, was more than inspiring. It was a high that I have yet to come down from.
WOW: Did you ever wonder if people from your past would read Televenge and say, "Hey, that's me!"
Pamela: I think it’s something every writer wonders. As previously stated, Televenge was inspired by my spirituality and my own story. But the televangelist in my story, Reverend Calvin Artury, is a mixture of many. Joe, Andie’s husband, is nothing like the father of my children. I’m a storyteller. Most people who know me are aware of that fact.
WOW: Do you have any advice for writers who have stories or characters that are "close to home"?
Pamela: Be a fearless writer. Writers can do without a lot of things, courage isn’t one of them. I had to write my heart.
Please allow me to quote one of my favorite authors, Dorothy Allison, who wrote Bastard Out of Carolina. She said, “Everything I know, everything I put in my fiction, will hurt someone somewhere as surely as it will comfort and enlighten someone else. What then is my responsibility? What am I to restrain? What am I to fear and alter—my own nakedness or the grief of the reader? I want my stories to be so good they are unforgettable; to make my ideas live and my own terrors real for people I will never meet. It is a completely amoral writer’s lust. If we begin to agree that some ideas are too dangerous, too bad to invite inside our heads, then we stop the storyteller completely. We silence everyone who would tell us something that might be painful in our vulnerable moments.” I concur with Dorothy.
I think that pretty much says it all.
WOW: Well said! Love Dorothy's quote and agree with what you said about courage.
Televenge is longer than today's average novel. Did you have trouble finding a publishing home for it? Did you ever consider dividing it into a series (so popular these days!)?
Pamela: I love this question. In truth, it’s much shorter than it started out to be. At one point, I did try to divide it into a trilogy, but it didn’t work. Of course I knew if I wanted to get this story published, I needed a little luck. I also knew no literary agent or big publishing house would touch it at the length it was and is. Even though a few read it and loved it. “Unknown authors are too big a risk,” I was told.
It was Diana Gabaldon who told me to write my heart. “The way it was meant to be written.” If you know anything about Diana, her first book, Outlander, ended at page 627. I met her in 2004 in Durham, NC at a book signing. Diana’s encouragement over the years gave me the courage I needed to keep going. I was in luck. Julie Murkette, Publisher at Satya House, spent several days in 2008 immersed within the pages of Televenge and immediately began a quest of her own: to publish my book. She never gave up. Her pursuit, diligence, and understanding the incredible amount of blood, sweat, and tears that went into this story, convinced me she was the one. The small but mighty publisher sent me the contract last December, and I signed it. Happily. I have no regrets. I think we’ve made history, actually. And who knows, there may be a sequel in the works.
WOW: We love sequels at WOW! We love to see our favorite writers back with something new for us to enjoy. So let’s take inventory, you've written short stories, a novel, there may be a sequel in the works . . . are there any other genres or types of writing you would like to try your hand at?
Pamela: Some day I may write a book for preschool children. One I’ve had rolling around in my head for a while. Currently, I’m in rewrites on my next novel, The Sanctum. It’s about Neeley McPherson who accidentally killed her parents on her fifth birthday. Thrown into the care of her scheming and alcoholic grandfather, she is raised by his elderly farmhand, Gideon, a black man, whom she grows to love. Neeley turns thirteen during the winter of 1959, and when Gideon is accused of stealing a watch and using a Whites Only restroom, she determines to break him out of jail.
The infamous Catfish Cole, Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon of the Carolinas, pursues Neeley and Gideon in their courageous escape to the frozen Blue Ridge Mountains. After Gideon’s truck hits ice and careens down a steep slope, they travel on foot through a blizzard, and arrive at a farm of sorts—a wolf sanctuary where Neeley crosses the bridge between the real and the supernatural. It is here she discovers her grandfather’s deception, confronts the Klan, and uncovers the shocking secrets of the Cherokee family who befriends her. Giving sanctuary, the healing power of second chances, and overcoming prejudice entwine, leading Neeley to tragedy once again but also granting her the desire of her heart.
The Sanctum is a coming-of-age Southern tale dusted with a bit of magic, and set in a volatile time in America when the winds of change begin to blow.
WOW: If The Sanctum is as good as Televenge at capturing a culture, it will be unforgettable! And thank you for the excerpt and reading from Televenge to whet our appetites.
Click this link to read an excerpt: http://www.pamelakingcable.com/televenge.html
You can also hear Pamela read the first scene of Televenge here: http://www.southernwritersonline.com/take-five.html
“A captivating, beautifully rendered, unforgettable look at a world so few of us understand. Ms. Cable has courageously opened the door . . . and my eyes.”
~ Lesley Kagen, NEW YORK TIMES Bestselling Author of Good Graces
“Pamela King Cable’s debut novel breathes good and evil, frost and fire. You can finish it, but it won't let you go.”
~ Jacquelyn Mitchard, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Deep End of the Ocean
Televenge is “ . . . an emotional rollercoaster that ends as intensely as it begins . . . those who commit to Cable’s tome will find themselves captivated and deeply devoted to Andie. Fans of Fannie Flagg and Janet Evanovich will be hooked on this saga of religion, romance, and crime.”
~ Shannon Marie Robinson, Library Journal
Library Journal Editor’s Pick BookExpo America 2012
---------Blog Tour Dates
Wednesday, October 10 @ CMash Loves to Read
Learn more about author Pam King Cable and enter to win her novel Televenge.
http://www.cmashlovestoread.com
Friday, October 12 @ Words by Webb
Want to know what Words by Webb learned about televangelism from the novel Televenge? Don’t miss her post and review of Pamela King Cable’s debut novel.
http://jodiwebb.com
Tuesday, October 16 @ Thoughts in Progress
Wonder where writers get their inspiration? Find out from author Pamela King Cable and enter to win a copy of her epic novel Televenge.
http://www.masoncanyon.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, October 17 @ A Writer’s Life
Stop by today to learn more about the early life of Pamela King Cable and what led her to a writer's life.
http://carolineclemmons.blogspot.com
Wednesday, October 24 @ All Things Audry
Check out this review of Pamela King Cable's saga Televenge.
http://allthingsaudry.blogspot.com
Friday, October 26 @ Lori's Reading Corner
Stop by for a visit from Pamela Cable King, author of the novel Televenge.
http://www.lorisreadingcorner.com
Monday, October 29 @ Capability Mom
Learn more about the epic novel Televenge today!
http://capabilitymom.com/
Thursday, November 1 @ Mrs. Mommy Book Nerd
Learn how authors come up with their book titles and covers and enter to win Pamela King Cable's novel Televenge.
http://mrsmommybooknerd.blogspot.com
Friday, November 2 @ Bookbags and Catnaps
Read a review and enter to win a copy of Pamela King Cable's debut novel Televenge.
http://tweedling.com/
Wednesday, November 7 @ Musings from the Slushpile
Don't miss some writing advice from author Pamela King Cable and your LAST CHANCE to win her novel Televenge.
http://blog.juliealindsey.com/
To view all our touring authors, check out our Events Calendar here. Keep up with blog stops and giveaways in real time by following us on Twitter @WOWBlogTour.
Get Involved!
If you have a website or blog and would like to host one of our touring authors or schedule a tour of your own, please email us at blogtour@wow-womenonwriting.com.
Book Giveaway Contest: Enter to win a copy of Televenge! Just fill out the Rafflecopter form below. We will announce the winner in the Rafflecopter widget this Friday, October 12.
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Good luck!
11 comments:
I am really interested in reading this book. It sounds great and I love this interview. You are so inspirational, and I love how you wrote the story in your heart and then found a publisher! That is every writers' dream. Best of luck to you!
Great interview, ladies! I'm so intrigued by the subject of this book and can't wait to read it. :)
Pam, I think it's fantastic that your publisher really got behind your book and made its success her mission. I read the reviews on Goodreads and they are outstanding. Kudos on your success. I will be picking up a copy!
I hope I win :)
Margo, thank you for your kind words! Yes, my publisher was a god-send. I'm so grateful for her. Angela, thank you also for your wonderful comments. I'm anxious to hear from you after you read the novel. Please keep in touch! And sweet Monica, thanks for throwing your hat in the ring! Who knows? You just may win! God bless you all. Big Hug.
Happy Autumn!
theyyyguy@yahoo.com
thanks for the giveaway :)
cb_shorty2003@yahoo.com
How long did it take you to get published?
lanalbradstream(at)yahoo(dot)com
What your everyday writing life is like? Do you write year round?
Please Enter Me In Your Book Giveaway
It Would Be Great To Win
A Copy Of
Televenge By Pamela King Cable.
This Sounds Like It Would Be Interesting To Read.
Thank You For Having This Giveaway!!!
great interview!!!! God Bless You!!!
myamurphy@mail.com
Happy Autumn to you, Anonymous!
Ciara, Happy to give away a copy of Televenge for WOW Blog readers!
Lana, getting published was a long process. I self-published my first book in 2006, which was picked up by Satya House in 2008 and re-released. It's still selling strong. Televenge is a long book, and I know it would take someone special to want Televenge. But the hand of God moved. Last December, Satya House made me a deal I could not refuse. Small but mighty, Satya House came to the table. Now, here we are. After ten years in the writing, it made it's debut on October 4, 2012. That's the short version of my long publishing story, anyway. :-)
Lisa, I write full time all year round. Some days I work 10-hour days... it depends on what's happening. Lately, it's been a great deal of social media and book promotion. But when I'm deep in edits, or a new story, my days just get away from me. It wasn't always like that. But now that my children are grown, I can devote more time to writing. I have an extremely supportive spouse. That helps.
Wayne and Mya, God bless you both! And best of luck! Enjoy Televenge, and contact me after you've read it!
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