creative writing – OmegaBooks

Snippets-to-Spin-Offs: The Murder Rule, and More (Part Six)–The Plot Thickens

Hopefully, by mid-June, Part One of The Murder Rule will be completed (and then comes the editing part). It is mostly completed already. Part Two, featuring roadie Bobby Jones, is mostly completed but I need to manuscript the climax and leading up to the climax. Then comes Part Three and maybe, Part Four. The plan is to complete the entire novel, The Murder Rule, before the end of 2022.

This post is the one that leads up to the climax of Part One of The Murder Rule, where narrator and pop-culture pundit Lloyd Denholm begins to come to the conclusion through investigations as to who murdered fictitious rock star Denny Spradlin in early 1996.

Spradlin’s band mate Blake Fenmore has requested of the pop culture magazine X-Zine to have pundit and free-lancer Denholm to find out ‘who done it’ and how. The request was made in Spring, 2005. In this snippet, Denholm meets with Blake at his rock house in the Lake District of northwest England. Below is the snippet, copyright © 2022 by Deborah Lagarde:

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How I Wrote The Prodigal Band Trilogy, Parts One Through Three (Repost)

Part One

This post is not about how, in the 60s and 70s and 80s, I came up with the characters as a gang, and then as a band. This post is about how I developed the final plot involving good vs. evil spirits and entities using the prodigal band for good or evil purposes, how I was inspired this way and how I managed to write the three novels, the final one (The Prodigal Band) twenty years after the second one (The Prophesied Band). How I turned just an entertaining piece about the foibles of rock stardom into a spiritual plot using the Parable of the Prodigal Son of the Gospel of Luke Chapter 15 as a guide. Finally, it is about actually creating the novels using various software including ClarisWorks (for Mac) and Corel WordPerfect, Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat conversions for PDFs on both Mac and PC desktops and laptops. I reviewed the “why” in the previous post; now is the “how.”

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The Prodigal Band Trilogy Deleted Scenes, Part Six

Episode Six is similar to Episode Three, where singer Erik’s girl and future wife Ger is conversing with the bassist Keith’s wife Jarris by a swimming pool at the home of a movie producer; they are starring in a ‘zany’ comedy.

This particular episode however is more satirical—knowing how hypocritical Hollywood-type celebrities can be, claiming they care about endangered wildlife while wearing fur coats of endangered animals or wearing leather clothes of animals they claim to care about, I just can’t help pointing out this hypocrisy!

In Episode Six, Ger and Mo, the estranged wife of synthist Bry, get together within her room at a fancy palatial estate next to an Ashram of New Age cult leader Cole Blessing, whom had just ‘cured’ Ger of esophagus cancer. After the cure, Ger, who is brunette, Erik and their children moved to a fancy estate in ‘LA Hills.’ Note: Bry is also at the bash to try to win her back. The ‘bash’ in question is a gala to help fund Blessing’s New Age cult, the Church of the Circle of Unity founded by the evil Swami Negran, and his Ashram.

Ger arrived at Mo’s room right after Blessing left the room—to perform a satanic ritual in the basement cavern of the palace, which Blessing did not know drummer Tom and his lover Princess Tina had witnessed outside the cavern through a small door window. The Red Crystal of Corion used by the late Swami Negran was essential to the ritual. This gala and ritual event takes place in late May, 2000. From Chapter Eight of the original The Prophesied Band:

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The Prodigal Band Trilogy Original Deleted Scenes, Part Five

Welcome to the next episode of scenes or sections from the original novels that make up The Prodigal Band Trilogy that were deleted within the trilogy book. Most of the scenes or sections posted in this series were deleted for the sake of allocation of the amount of pages.

But this section here was not included in the three-books-in-one trilogy mainly because I had originally written this as a short story related to the trilogy series and I only put it into The Prophesied Band for its heart-warming, feel-good quality. When I was writing this short story that I’d incorporate into the second novel in the trilogy, I cried my way through it! And when I was re-typing from the original novel onto this laptop for inclusion here, I cried again!

The short story, by the way, made its way into a yearly publication of poems and short stories written by members of my local writers group, Texas Mountain Trail Writers. At the time I was the editor of the monthly newsletter as well as the yearly publication.

This section/story takes place within the time frame of spring, 1996, when singer-frontman Erik and bassist Keith are recovering from mild heart attacks they endured in early February (as told in the final chapter of Battle of the Band.) At the same time, Ger, Erik’s wife, is battling esophagus cancer she brought upon herself during her long bout with the eating disorder called bulimia, which involves eating lots of food and then immediately purging it by vomit into a toilet or whatever. This is told in Chapter Four of The Prophesied Band referenced here. In Chapter Six, she is seeing doctors for treatment and discovers she has the cancer, and has difficulty swallowing any food or drink.

In April, 1996, after bringing her to a doctor visit for a second opinion on this cancer, Erik decides to buy chocolate chip cookies (called biscuits in England) at a local cookie shop, but not for Ger. He has not been a worthy father to his two-year-old son, Alec, as he admitted in Chapter Four of The Prophesied Band, and he has vowed to change that–he himself never really had connected to his own father as stated in the final chapter of Battle of the Band, so he had no guidance as to how to be a good dad. He had to figure this out on his own.

But son Alec wanted nothing to do with his father, either. Erik was an alcoholic, and he smelled like it! Alec did not want to be around someone smelling of whiskey or scotch and having ‘clammy’ hands. Yet Alec also knew his father did not smell that way anymore, as the singer severely cut down on his booze consumption, only having drops of booze added to tonic water ‘for the taste of it’ by his personal assistant–who had strict charge over all booze in the house so Erik wouldn’t!

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The Prodigal Band Trilogy Original Deleted Scenes, Part Four

Welcome to another episode of the scenes and sections that were deleted from the original OmegaBooks self-published ‘Prodigal Band Trilogy’ novels.

In the previous deleted episode, Ger, the girlfriend and future wife of prodigal band singer Erik, and Jarris, the wife of bassist Keith, were taking a break from starring in a movie in Hollywood, discussing an escapade featuring Laurie, the girlfriend and future wife of band guitarist Jack. Gossip. In this episode, taking place after the UK ban of the group has been lifted and the band returns to their homes, Ger, a model with the Morreson Modeling Agency, is being offered a much more ‘fashionable’ scene that would make her an idol to millions of teens and women seeking the latest fashion trends. The deal would also put her on the same celebrity A-list as her man, Erik. The scene takes place in April, 1991 at the Morreson Agency, and features jeans designer Sybil and entertainment promoter Colin Darnell, who is featured in a previous snippet as the ban on the band is lifted also featuring Jack and Laurie. This episode was originally within Chapter Five of Battle of the Band.

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The Prodigal Band Trilogy Original Deleted Scenes Series, Part Three

Welcome to another episode of the scenes and sections that were deleted from the original OmegaBooks self-published ‘Prodigal Band Trilogy’ novels.

The time frame of this deleted episode is December, 1990 as the band is banned from their UK homeland over ‘obscenities’ by the fictitious ‘Ministry of Culture’ on the orders of the powerful evil side that runs the music business there. The band Sound Unltd moved to the NYC area during the ban. Two of their women, Ger (girlfriend and future wife of singer Erik) and Jarris (wife of bassist Keith) are in the Hollywood area as they are featured in a ‘zany train chase’ movie.

This is referenced in Chapter Four of Battle of the Band within the trilogy book: ‘Meanwhile, Ger and Jarris co-starred in a comedy-action Hollywood flick.’

Above that line was a phone conversation between guitarist-band leader Jack and his woman, Laurie, a super-model, concerning her decision to return to England on a modeling assignment which led to Jack reading about her seeing other men at a fancy nightclub within the pages of a fictitious tabloid newspaper, Tattle Tales.

This deleted episode is from the original Chapter Four of Battle of the Band.

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The Prodigal Band Trilogy Original Deleted Scenes Series, Episode Two

This second “episode” (or part) of a series where I post scenes or sections of the original novels Battle of the Band, The Prophesied Band and The Prodigal Band that make up The Prodigal Band Trilogy deals with how the fictitious prodigal band Sound Unltd found their road crew, made up of members of a biker gang. For the most part, all of their roadies were members of biker gangs.

Why was this section deleted from the Lulu published trilogy? There are references to some of these biker roadies winding up in jail for disruptive behavior in night clubs and pubs, so the scenario was already present. Yet this episode shows the beginning of this type of scenario so I am posting it now…plus it’s interesting, in my opinion. The episode begins in a biker night club in south London, and the bikers within are already riled up to an extent that band singer Erik is experiencing ‘stage fright.’ And he and two others in the band, guitarist Jack and drummer Tom, had been in a street gang for years! The gig at this night club was part of a ‘national tour’ after winning a ‘Battle of the Bands’ in northeast England several months previously. A night club mentioned, the River Rat, was a club in the band’s fictitious home city of Walltown.

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Snippets of Reality within The Prodigal Band Trilogy: “Christian” Cults

I guess this ‘cult’ thing is just too interesting! After posting several snippets about the reality of New Age and Cult practices within the entertainment industry which influenced my The Prodigal Band Trilogy I took a break from that, posting about the reality of eating disorders within the fashion industry influencing a main female character.

Now, back to the ‘cult’ thing, only this time the cult is a ‘Christian’ one! That is, it is a cult that claims to be Christian, but is anything but.

Many atheists (one atheist has a YouTube channel which claims Christianity is a cult but Satanism is not) think all religions (except Satanism?) are cults–I know a few atheists, and that is what some of them think. Same with agnostics–and I used to be an agnostic (I could not quite bring myself to becoming atheist but the thought did cross my mind) so I know what I am talking about. But the funny thing is, Christianity is the only ‘cult’ or religion that atheists tend to attack…not Judaism, not Islam, not Hinduism, not Buddhism…they only attack Christianity. I will let the reader figure out why, but I have my own opinion which at this time is neither here nor there. I believe an atheist can think what they want; it’s between them and God (or the “flying spaghetti monster” or whatever).

Folks, I am being facetious, okay?

But while Christianity is a religion (IMHO) not a cult, there are in fact actual cults that claim to be ‘Christian.’ I am not talking about (what some consider cults) Mormonism or Seventh Day Adventism or Jehova’s Witnesses or any denomination or sub-denominations (by the way, I am strictly non-denominational), but actual cults that claim to be ‘Christian’ and are led by actual cult leaders. These cult leaders are actually looked upon by the followers as actual Messiahs or ‘gods.’ These folks live in cult-like cloistered-type communities. ‘Good behavior’ is awarded handsomely and ‘bad’ ones are punished severely. These bogus Christian cults are in many if not all nations.

The one that inspired the bogus ‘Christian’ cult in my trilogy is based on a movie I saw in the 1990s about a supposedly Christian cult in a rural region of Quebec, Canada. I do not remember the name of this cult but the name of the movie was “Savage Messiah.” This movie was based on an actual event where the cult leader was convicted of murder and other crimes. The cult I bring up in my books is loosely based on the notions set forth in the movie, but in the case of the books one form of punishment is getting hit over the head with a hard-cover Bible. A true Christian group, a true Body of Christ, would never do such a thing!

For the sake of making a simple and quick point, I will only include one snippet instead of the usual three or four. I could get more graphic, but that would be too much of a spoiler if you know what I mean (and if you want to read a much more dastardly snippet about this bogus Christian cult, buy the trilogy!

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Snippets of Reality within The Prodigal Band Trilogy: Eating Disorders of Models and Celebrities

I’m taking a break from religious and cultist and new age group influence and symbology this week in this post to bring up an issue which isn’t overly important in The Prodigal Band Trilogy but an issue I am well familiar with–eating disorders, which according to my research on the fashion industry and histories of fashion models seems to be quite prominent. Several of my female characters, wives or girlfriends of my prodigal band members, were models in the fashion industry as well as celebrities otherwise. One of them had an eating disorder known as bulimia.

Bulimia is highlighted by eating–sometimes huge amounts of food–and then vomiting it up to supposedly maintain their skinny (or otherwise) weight. This is one of the more prominent disorders to maintain low weight; the more serious one is called anorexia nervosa, which is self-starvation. But some folks simply cannot starve themselves. So they eat, and then vomit the food.

For proof that fashion models and celebrities (mostly female) have been ‘forced’ to keep their weight down to a very skinny level, I have some links to articles that will verify this:

Victoire Macon Dauxerre’s fashion model experience

Eating disorder expert Dr. Adrienne Key’s report

Model Zuzanna Buchwalk’s story

Eight Famous Celebrities (some who started out being child fashion models) Who Battled Bulimia

Oh, and I too was bulimic on and off for six years–in order to attract a future husband! That is one reason my most important female character was made to be bulimic. Ger is the name of the character, and she is the woman of Erik, my singer-front man character. She is five-foot-eight with dark brown close-cropped page-boy hairstyle with a widow’s peak, and has sultry blue eyes and an enticing smile. She was born in London to an upper-middle class family, and her father owns a hardware store in Walltown, where the band is from. When her man Erik and the rest of Sound Unltd make it big in 1989, she desires to be a super model. So it went.

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Inspirations from Reality: Truth Snippets Within The Prodigal Band Trilogy–The Series

My original inspiration to author the books of The Prodigal Band Trilogy was divine, or divine inspiration, my ‘mission of God’ so to speak, a term I use within the novels. But that was not the only reason for the content of these books: Battle of the Band, The Prophesied Band, The Prodigal Band.

Through years of research into popular culture, various brainwashing programs based on eye-witness stories, New Age philosophy and cult practices–I’ve known several individuals who belonged to New Age cults as well as bogus Christian ones, and of course occult groups as well–effects of drug use on various rockers and others including overdoses leading to death or near-death, supposed ‘suicides’ by famous rockers that may or may not have been suicides and were perhaps even murders (the ‘27 Club’ and all that…and now famous young rappers also appear to be caught up in that)… And then there has been research into Satanism, the so-called ‘Illuminati’ and other evil groups in that the power these evil ideas have on popular culture especially these days with all the symbolism shown in VMA shows and whatnot…devil horns, eye-covering ‘one eye symbol’ photos that seem to be everywhere…and the various websites exposing this stuff. Seemingly what began as my research began in the late 60s before I even considered writing these novels is now the norm. Back in the 60s and 70s, it seemed a bit extreme. Yet the most popular bands of that era, and their handlers, may have set those occultic scenarios into motion. I know that because I, too, dabbled into the occult for a short time.

I will say this, however. Without the divine inspiration, my novels would likely have played out differently. The journey of my six-member band, the ‘prodigal band,’ would have ended up on a different course.

Beginning next week this series of reality events and truths that caused me to write what I wrote will be posted, one truth at a time.

And, while fiction is fiction, there is likely not one fiction novel of any genre or kind that has not been inspired by some real event or truth in the life of the author.

As to the picture at the top of this post–“pearls of wisdom,” so to speak.