A Lincoln Paranormal by Diana Rubino

Right now, Abraham Lincoln is a hot topic. The recent movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field has been nominated for just about all the major movie awards.

Diana Rubino, who is the author of 13 paranormal and historical novels, has a passion for history that led her to writing her own book about Lincoln.

Diana, who, along with her husband Chris, owns an engineering business, is studying for a Master's Degree in Archaeology. She's a longtime member of RWA New Hampshire Chapter and the Richard III Society. A few of her favorite authors are Barbara Erskine, Philippa Gregory, and the collaborative team of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

Find Diana

Website: http://www.DianaRubino.com
Blog: http://www.dianarubinoauthor.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DianaLRubino
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dianarubino

Now, here's Diana to tell you about A Necessary End which will be free on February 12, Lincoln's birthday, and on February 16 - 18, President's Day holiday.

A Necessary End
by Diana Rubino

The popularity of the Lincoln movie and Lincoln's upcoming birthday on February 12 inspired me to launch this special offer for my novel A Necessary End.

Normally priced at only $.99, it will be offered free on Lincoln's birthday and President's Day weekend to celebrate our 16th President.

A Necessary End offers a dark paranormal twist on John Wilkes Booth's insane plot to assassinate President Lincoln. A malevolent spirit haunts Booth and coerces him to assassinate the tyrant as in Julius Caesar. However, since I believe every situation, no matter how foreboding, allows for humor, I've added a few lighter scenes that offer the reader some much-needed relief. How can Booth's plot not leave itself wide open for humor? If one thinks about his motley band of adoring disciples in his absurd conspiracy, it has all the hallmarks of a comic farce even though it had such a tragic end. Yes, Booth gets what's coming to him in the end.

Readers have asked me … Why did you or … Why didn’t you … about many aspects of the book. I'll attempt to answer one of each of these questions here, so you can get a better idea of what was going on during this time, and how I made the events leading up to Lincoln’s assassination fit my story.

Why Did You?

... parallel the Shakespeare play Julius Caesar in this story?

Because in the play, Caesar was known as a tyrant to the Senators, who feared losing their power, as Booth feared losing the Confederacy. Booth always considered Lincoln the tyrant, hence his proclamation sic simper tyrannis (be it ever to tyrants) when he jumped to the stage after shooting Lincoln.

Caesar’s Senators, Brutus and Cassius among them, conspired to stab Caesar to death on an appointed day. Booth recruited a group of like-minded disciples to aid him in his insane plot, at first to kidnap Lincoln, then to kill him.

By day, Booth was a Confederate spy and courier, taking dangerous missions so that his beloved South could fight the North in the war that tore the nation in two. But in this story, an even darker secret plagues him -- he believes he’s the reincarnation of Brutus, the man who slew the tyrant Caesar. Therefore, he believes that his destiny in this life is to murder the tyrant who’s ravaged the South -- Abraham Lincoln. In obeying the spirit of Brutus, Booth devises a plot to assassinate the tyrant.

Why Didn’t You?

... write it as straight historical novel about Booth’s plot to kill Lincoln instead of a paranormal?

Because spirituality was extremely popular in 1865 and all throughout Victorian times. Mary Lincoln was a staunch spiritualist. So stricken with grief after the deaths of her boys Willie and Eddie, she hired mediums such as Nettie Maynard to visit the White House and hold séances in attempts to contact her boys from beyond the grave.

The extent of séances, table-tapping, Ouija boards, Tarot cards, and otherworldly activities in this era fit perfectly with the story I wanted to tell. We could never enter Booth’s head, but his insane behavior begs the question: was he truly haunted by a spirit who drove him to his heinous act that changed history forever?

Takeaway Truth

If you've a speculative fiction fan, make room for A Necessary End on your cyber bookshelf.

1 comment:

  1. Do you have any video of that? I'd like to find out more details.

    ReplyDelete