New Featured Author on PDB!

I was recently named as the Featured Author on the Polka Dot Banner website for the month of January. Below is short excerpt of the interview conducted. You can read the entire interview by clicking on the link afterwards. Please be sure to stop by and visit the site. I would also like to extend my thanks to the PDB site owner, Jamie Saloff, and Jane White, the site moderator, for all they do for authors on the site.


Mixing History and Fantasy/Scott Rezer

Written by Jane White
Monday, 08 February 2010 15:53

Scott Rezer's enthusiasm for writing shines through his answers in our recent interview. His love of history and fantasy, and skillful intertwining of the two, are evident as well.
PDB: Congratulations, Scott, on being the Polka Dot Banner's feature author for the month of January, 2010.

SR: Thanks for the congrats! It truly is an honor to be the newest featured author on the PDB.

PDB: Tell us a little about who you are as a person. How did you become a writer? What are your writing habits like?

SR: Everything I've written so far has something to do with history, which isn't surprising, since my grandmother was a local historian and writer in my hometown. From a young age, she taught me an appreciation for the past by getting me to help with researching deeds for houses she was working on, to place on the Historical Register. By junior high school I was an avid reader, and I wrote my first story for my younger sister. It was a story about a baby elephant in the tradition of Paddington Bear. In the thirty-some years since, I have certainly grown in my passion for history and writing. Unfortunately, you would think that in that time I would have developed an exemplary creative process. That is not the case. My wife would call my writing habits a comedy of errors. Sitting in front of a computer screen does nothing for me until I have written it down first. Give me a piece ofr paper and a pen. And I don't mean a notebook. Small scraps of paper from notepads to napkins to the back of bank withdrawal receipts, or anything else that might be handy, usually end up as my writng medium. We have a rule in my house: nobody throws out anything with my writing on it unless I have crumbled it up. You'd be surprised how many scenes I lost before my wife came up with this simple rule. As for when I write, the best ideas seem to come to me when I'm busy doing other things, like driving home from work, sitting in church, or waiting in line at the grocery store. I try to resist the urge whenever I'm out for a quiet dinner with my wife, but it has been known to happen from time to time. After twenty-five years with me, my wife just rolls her eyes and hands me a scrap of paper. She knows it's not worth arguing. It's easier to just let the obsession pass.

PDB: Who or what inspires you in your writing?

SR: The thing that inspires me most in writing is my passion for learning, and the excitement of sharing that knowledge and love with others. I know it sounds cliche, but it's true. For me, writing is more about the process; it's about creating something that no one has thought of before, or interpreting something in a whole new way and getting others to share in that joy. I love history. Not everyone else does. But if I can find a way to make history come alive, as through an historical fantasy, and have someone enjoy it, then it makes what I have written all the more special. Whenever I finish writing a chapter, I have a couple of people who read my work for me. Hearing the eagerness in their voices when they tell me what they like or don't like about where the story is going inspires me to write even more.

To read more of the interview follow the link to the Polka Dot Banner: http://www.polkadotbanner.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=279:mixing-history-and-fantasyscott-rezer&catid=15&Itemid=100018

Six Degrees of Separation

As any writer will tell you, if they’re honest, we would all love to see our books become the next bestseller, however remote the possibility. To that end, we try to pursue the best marketing strategy we can find or afford for those who have self-published. Unfortunately, even the best marketing has only a brief window of opportunity to make your presence known to the public. However, in this age of information technology, we often ignore the most powerful and most enduring tool available to us: connectivity.

This past Christmas as I sat with my family watching “It’s A Wonderful Life”, I couldn’t help but think about how much each of us touches the lives of others in large ways and small. We are all interconnected, often in ways we may never fully understand or comprehend. George Bailey, the unassuming hero of the holiday classic, never fully realizes how many lives he has effected until he learns one enchanted Christmas Eve how different his small sphere of influence changes without him having ever been born. He discovered the power that one person can make in the lives of others.

The theory goes that each of us is connected to any one other person in the world by only six degrees of separation, meaning loosely that if you pick any name at random from the cosmic hat of nearly seven billion people living on the planet, there are only six or less individuals forming a chain of connections between you and that random person. Now, throw into that theorized equation the power of the internet and you have a very useful toll indeed for connectivity. Of course, one of the most popular and most successful ways to connect and get your name out into the public eye is through what is called social networking. It is more commonly known as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or any number of networking tools. Connectivity is the attraction that makes each one of these new media forums so appealing. Networks, however, are not the only avenue of connectivity.

By becoming a member of an author/reader site called the Polka Dot Banner (thank you Jamie Saloff for making this possible for all of us), I discovered fellow author, D. L. Wilson’s novel, Unholy Grail, a book that has several points of interest with my own book, The Leper King. I am an avid reader and shopper at bookstores and libraries, but I had never heard of the novel or the author before. So much for marketing. But now I have, and I look forward to reading his book with enthusiasm. It cost me and Mr. Wilson nothing to connect my interest with his novel; nothing more than the time it took for us both to participate in an author network. No marketing. No fees. No disappointments. Nothing. That is the beauty of such sites as the Polka Dot Banner and others like it. Connectivity.

It is not just enough, however, to simply connect; it requires putting yourself out there and taking a chance, whether it is with networking or blogging or simply developing a website to promote yourself and your work. I have an author fan page on Facebook started by my son and daughter. Most of those who have become “fans” are people I don’t know; they are friends or family of those few I do know. And that is how it works. You connect with somebody, who connects with someone else, and so forth. Six degrees of separation.

Still skeptical. Try this. Almost two months ago I received a brief email from a stranger asking to connect with me. As it turns out, he is my third-cousin and he found me by chance on the internet after Googling his name (we both have the same last name). After a quick search, he linked from my website to the author contact page at the publisher and sent me a message. In the time since, we’ve corresponded numerous times and we’re getting to know each other. All this because my name popped up on the internet as an author in connection with various media and networking sites. By the way, my newfound cousin has since joined my Facebook fan page along with two others connected with him. Six degrees of separation.

Now I can’t promise that each one of us will find some lost relatives because of connectivity, but I can promise that when it comes to marketing, the more people who know about you via Facebook, Twitter, or even the Polka Dot Banner and other author sites, the better chance you have of reaching the most unlikely and amazing people and, perhaps, a life-long fan of your work. Whether we write the next bestseller or a book with a slightly less than stellar performance on the charts, by connecting with people we have the opportunity to touch people’s lives and make a difference in ways we’ll never know, even if it’s one person at a time. I certainly hope I have.

www.scottrezer.com
www.scottrezer.blogspot.com
http://www.polkadotbanner.com/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=434&Itemid=27

Six sites worth checking out to help you get started now and connect:

• The Polka Dot Banner (authors/readers)
• Author’s Den (authors/readers)
• Facebook (social networking)
• Twitter (social networking)
• Live Journal (social networking)
• Blogspot (blogging)

We All Need Heroes!!

Strip away the elements of wild fantasy and tedious history and the story of The Leper King is one of simple faith, hope, and self-sacrifice; a story in which the hero must overcome impossible odds to protect his people and all he believes at a great personal cost to himself.

According to Bernard Hamilton, British historian and author of The Leper King and his Heirs, Baldwin IV of Jerusalem suffered from lepromatous leprosy, the most deadly form of the dreaded disease. To give some idea of the king’s terrible illness, read the account of William of Tyre, Baldwin’s close friend and Chancellor:

It is impossible to refrain from tears while speaking of this great misfortune. For as he began to reach the age of maturity it was evident that he was suffering from the terrible disease of leprosy. Day by day his condition became worse. The extremities and face were especially attacked, so that his faithful followers were moved with compassion when they looked at him…

His sight failed and his extremities were covered with ulcerations so that he was unable to use either his hands or his feet. Yet up to this time he had declined to heed the suggestion offered by some that he lay aside his kingly dignity and give up the administration of the realm, so that with a suitable provision for his needs from the royal venues he could lead a tranquil life in retirement.

Although physically weak and impotent, yet mentally he was vigorous and, far beyond his strength, he strove to hide his illness and support the cares of the kingdom…

In our modern culture it is perhaps hard to contemplate what this great king accomplished despite the fact that by the time of his death at nearly twenty-four, he was blind and lame, his body eaten away by a horrible disfiguring disease. And yet, we are surrounded everyday by people much the same as he, who endure their own hellish existences, suffering in silence as they seek to make a difference in the world by refusing to be defeated by the vicissitudes of life. Where does someone find the fortitude to accomplish such a thing? Where did Baldwin find his source of inner strength? Certainly not through those who surrounded him at Court and saw his perceived weakness as an opportunity to advance their own petty agendas. No doubt he experienced ridicule and scorn, both veiled and outright, and knew firsthand the prejudices small-minded men could contemplate at the expense of those who suffer from life’s little injustices. The Pope, himself, boldly proclaimed that Baldwin was “severely afflicted by the just judgment of God.” Small-minded men, indeed.

As someone with a physical disability (though nothing like this young king endured), I find great encouragement and comfort from Baldwin’s example. I understand his need and his desire to push past his infirmity for the good of those he loved and the duty he felt to protect his kingdom, the need to determine for himself that his life would not be defined by his disability. He wished to meet life’s uncertainties on his own terms. Self-pity and sorrow were not luxuries that Baldwin, or any one of us, can afford.

One of my favorite movies of recent memory is The Kingdom of Heaven. Oft times overblown and certainly unhistorical in many details, the one character, however, in the entire story that is the most accurate is the Leper King. Even from behind a mask, the actor’s beautiful portrayal strikes the perfect balance between self-sacrifice and duty without ever transforming him into a pathetic character in need of pity. Baldwin certainly would not have wanted any.

Having written The Leper King before the movie hit the big screen, they both still bear out the same principles. Strength in weakness; hope in sorrow; faith in the face of tragedy. Yes, the story is an historical fantasy, and yes, I wrote the Magdalen and the Order of Sion to represent the opposite poles of Baldwin’s personal conflicts of faith and disbelief with Saladin as the hope that can be found in even the darkest of moments. But for me, the story of the Leper King is, at heart, an affirmation that the weakest, the seeming least able-bodied, can make a difference with their life. It is a story whose central character embodies the true definition of a hero. And we all need heroes—even disabled ones.

www.scottrezer.com

Sneak Peak at Leper King Sequel!!

Book Description for The Gambit Queen, the forthcoming sequel to The Leper King:

The Leper King is dead. In the wake of such personal tragedy, his sister, Countess Sibylla of Japhe and Ascalone, longs to return to the convent and leave the crown in the hands of her young son and his Regent, Raymond of Tripoli. But when Baudinouet suddenly dies of illness, Sibylla is secretly forced by the Order of Sion to sacrifice her desires to become queen and crown her estranged husband, Guion de Lusignan as king, even at the risk of civil war.

Meanwhile, the squire of the lord of Ibelin, a young man of mixed Christian and Arab blood named Ernoul, discovers that the nun attending his sick mother in the Hospital of Saint-John is a woman who claims she is the beloved saint, Mary Magdalen, and that he is an heir to an ancient bloodline. As the heretical Order of Sion seeks to regain strength and the kingdom moves ever closer to war with Salehdin, Mary is lured by a puzzling clue to the hiding place of the lost Holy Grail. But is it a trap set by her enemies to destroy her…

or the end of a long quest to reclaim Christianity’s most sacred treasure?

Fact and Fantasy in The Leper King

BALDWIN IV was indeed an historical king of Crusader Jerusalem—and he was a leper. He was born in 1161 and ruled between 1174 and 1185. He died at the age of twenty-three. Until recently, historians have long looked upon Baldwin’s reign as a period of decline which culminated in the disastrous loss of the kingdom to Saladin at the Battle of Hattin. As the king succumbed to his disease, so too did the kingdom. Historians thought the young king a weak and ineffectual ruler who, because of his disabling infirmity, could not keep his conniving lords at bay. Even William of Tyre, Baldwin’s tutor and Chancellor, wrote that the king was easily manipulated by those closest to him. Certainly, this is an odd observance given the opinion of a personage no less than Imad ad-Din Isfahani, a Muslim chronicler of the time, who expressed the view that Baldwin was a king who “knew how to make his authority respected”—among his own people and among his enemies.

Fortunately, modern scholarship has begun to see Baldwin’s reign as a brief period of stability and growing prosperity in the face of war—a view that certainly throws into sharper contrast the unexpected and devastating loss of Jerusalem by Guy de Lusignan only two years later. As for his illness, it must have come as a complete shock to the kingdom. Leprosy is a disease that slowly comes upon a person from long exposure—hardly a condition one would expect from a prince born of royal blood. It is certain that the Crusaders held a far more tolerant opinion of the disease than did the Muslims or the rest of Western Christendom. In a bull issued by Pope Alexander III in 1181 calling for new crusade to the Holy Land, he expressed his solemn opinion that the king was “severely afflicted by the just judgment of God.”

As for Baldwin’s own people, they saw their young ruler as a hero and a savior. They loved him and mourned his death greatly no matter whether he was a leper or not. In a time of war, the barons of the Christian kingdom unanimously stood by Baldwin’s claim to the crown by electing him king. Quite easily he could have refused the throne or laid aside the crown as he so often desired in later years and no one would have thought any ill will towards him. Again and again, despite his leprosy and continual bouts of malarial fever, he proved the worth of his election to the throne and managed to help keep Saladin from his treasured prize of Jerusalem for more than a decade. As to how or why he contracted leprosy at such a young age is a mystery, especially since he spent most of his youth under the personal tutelage of Archbishop William in Tyre. Perhaps, a nurse or close childhood friend infected him—or perhaps, it was an affliction of God sent to chastise the war-mongering Crusader kingdom. We will never know.

Turning to MARY MAGDALEN, she has always occupied a peculiar place in Scripture and other mundane writings. She seems to appear and disappear almost at will. Aside from a few meager though very important scenes in the Gospels (which only seem to conflate the problem of her identity) she remains a mystery to even the most learned scholars. But just who was this woman about who so much is written and believed? The Gospels give just enough information to make some speculate wildly beyond the bounds of common reason. What we do know is that: 1) she had seven demons cast out of her; 2) she was a woman of some means (in other words, she had money) who followed Jesus and his disciples with several other women and supported him; 3) she was present at the crucifixion; and 4) she was the first to see the risen Lord.
Beyond these scant, tantalizing facts, we know absolutely nothing more of her. These few tidbits, however, in the way they are presented, are enough to give the overwhelming impression that the Magdalen was sufficiently well known and important that it was not necessary to explain her presence in the Gospels. The early Christians knew her well, even if she disappeared completely from the historical record after the Resurrection. We are left then with traditions that claim she traveled westwards into France and the cultural backwater of Europe that evolved into the late Roman and Medieval periods of history.

By the 11th and 12th centuries, legends about the Magdalen had blossomed in the south of Europe, particularly in the Languedoc whence many of the first Crusaders originated. By then, however, the Church and various heretical groups had done much to malign Mary’s growing reputation. The Church made her out as a harlot and sinner; the heretics claimed she was the wife of Christ, or worse. The Magdalen of the Gospels disappeared into a cycle of legends and cultural stories that bore little resemblance to her true historical character. In fact, in the millennium between Christ and the Crusades, Mary Magdalen, because of her attachment to the Christian story, became a figure of myth herself.
When it comes to the ORDER OF SION we are on far less certain ground. Despite claims to the contrary by modern historians, it is obvious that it existed. In 1099, after Jerusalem fell to the Crusader armies, Godfrei de Bouillon founded an abbey on the ruins of a Byzantine structure located on a hill south of the city called the Abbey of Notre Dame du Mont de Sion, just as he instituted another order of knights and monks in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. There is evidence, albeit thin, in the form of charters, that there was some connection between the Abbey of Sion and the newly formed Order of Templar Knights. But were the Order of Sion and the Abbey one and the same? Beyond these few simple facts we can only speculate. A strong case can be made, as some notable conspiracy theorists claim, that the Templars actually began to function several years before their official founding in 1118. But does this necessarily mean that the continued bad press the Templars have attracted of late is true or that some secret history exists?

Given their known thirst for knowledge of the religious and the arcane, it should come as no surprise that some Templars would be guilty of such. Perhaps, some members of the Order could have formed some sort of esoteric society, but the overwhelming majority of the knights believed that they served God and his Church in defense of the Holy Land. Some have argued that Sion’s influence extended even to the throne of Peter, particularly during the long and dark years of the 11th and 12th centuries. This was the Middle Ages after all, and many strange and unorthodox ideas were beginning to ferment under the oppressive system of feudal Europe. That a group of powerful and influential nobles might think to try and control the Church is not outside the realm of possibility. The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa certainly tried for many years to put his own popes in the Lateran Palace.

The sudden and dramatic demise of the Templars at the hands of the Pope and King Philip IV of France has forever fostered all sorts of rumors as to the cause of their downfall. Were the famous warrior-monks devil-worshippers or heretics? Were they too powerful and rich for the Church to allow them to exist? Did they protect a sacred bloodline descended from Jesus and the Magdalen? Were the Templars the military arm of the Order of Sion? The answer to all these questions is an emphatic “no,” despite the supposed “evidence” of the conspiracy theorists. The Templars were certainly not saints… but neither were they heretics.

I am often asked: Why write a story about the Leper King with the Magdalen and a heretical conspiracy based on facts not in evidence? My answer is simple: Why not? In the past twenty-some odd years or so the world has become fixated by conspiracy theories (i.e. Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Da Vinci Code, and others) bent on uncovering some elusive mystery lying at the heart of Christianity. Namely, that the Church has long suppressed a hidden secret about Jesus and Mary Magdalen and that various groups have guarded this faith-shattering secret until the present day. In writing The Leper King, I set the story in the timeframe in which the origins of many of these supposed theories are said to have been given birth. By bringing Mary forward in time it gives her the opportunity to answer for herself the charges laid against her by the heretics and a chance to defend her faith against the enemies of the Church. And if such diabolical power and elemental magic was called into play during the turbulent times of the Crusades, could not a curse disguised as a disease devour the life of a young king sworn to defend the holiest place on earth? If the purveyors of wildly heretical nonsense can make such fantastic claims on history, why can’t an historical novel demand any less from the realm of fantasy? Is there really any difference between the two?
S.R.R.

Further Reading:
King Baldwin IV
Mary Magdalen
Mary Magdalen: Medieval Legends
Templar Knights
The Order of Sion (as it relates to conspiracy theories, particularly The Da Vinci Code)
Bernard Hamilton, The Leper King and his Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Cambridge University Press, 2000.