I was raised in Governor’s Harbour in the Bahamas by my Danish father and English mother.
Governor’s Harbour – still the same.
I had ten years of boarding school: De Carteret in Jamaica, and Stowe in England. As the schools were nominally Anglican (i.e. Church of England) they taught religion – the life of Jesus without reference to the Roman occupation of Palestine. They also taught history – including the history of the Roman Empire, without reference to the life of Jesus.
At Stowe I realized that Christianity is only believable if you don’t contextualize Jesus within the Roman occupation.
My fascination with religion and history was also stimulated by the conflicting viewpoints of my parents. My mother believed in everything: reincarnation, flying saucers, the Lost Continent of Mu, you name it. My father was a journalist, and he believed nothing and no one.
Robin Helweg-Larsen
Two strongly conflicting opinions on everything at home, no real opinions about anything expressed by school. I guess that’s a good start, for thinking for yourself.
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I like your first chapter. Is your novel a Kindle ebook? I found your book’s title in the message you posted in the historical fiction section of the Kindle community.
Thanks, David – the Kindle is in process, it appears I neglected a step. Should be up in a couple of days.
1. What are you pricing the Kindle at? With a 70% royalty you can make as much on a $2.99 Kindle as on a $20 hard cover.
2. The problem is, how do you become visible to internet searches among 16,000 titles in the historical fiction category?
3. Are you going to list your book in the spiritual-religious-Christian category as well as in historical fiction? The process seems to be complicated and I haven’t managed to do it yet. It probably wouldn’t do me much good anyway. We seem to be birds of a feather.
Robin, actually Stonehenge is not 500yrs older than the Great Pyramid…both are about 3000 BC. The GPyr is usually dated to ca 2500 BC but see the results of the G Pyr C-dating Project [Harvard] which show results 4-500 yrs earlier. The wooden boat at the foot of the G Pyr has also been C dated to ca 3000 BC.
For a new contrarian view of pre-Christian history check out BEFORE THE DELUSION by Wm Gleeson, just published in UK. Radical stuff but very impressively researched and documented
Regards
RossMelb
Pricing is always an issue, isn’t it? I see quite a few references to $2.99… The Kindle conversion isn’t complete yet, I expect to get a status update next week.
I think visibility has to come from networking, and connecting to interest groups who will give you support or promotion.
There’s a religion-atheism category, I’ve decided to list as that along with fiction-historical, at least on Amazon.com – which I trust carries through to other parts of their empire.
Good luck with yours!
For what its worth- I found your book by way of a facebook ad- no doubt targeted to me due to being an atheist or listing books by well known freethinkers (voltaire, betrand russell, sagan, etc). I’ve spent a few minutes googling the title and will now read the first chapter and likely buy the book. I’m the type that will tell friends or post something here or there if I like the book. In short- your facebook campaign was effective in getting my attention!
Many thanks for the information, Joe – advertising is always a shot in the dark, and therefore it is always very welcome to hear a direct response. I hope you enjoy the first chapter, and that the rest of it more than meets your expectations. Let me know!
I too came here via facebook
Hi Craig – See anything you like? (Now I feel like a storekeeper of odd ideas.)
I am nearly finished reading “The Christ Conspiracy….the greatest story ever SOLD.” It is something you might enjoy in looking at the “history” part of religion.
I like your writing. Good character development and narrative, dialogue.
I’ve been sailing on a live-aboard catamaran we owned for a few years, and enjoyed Governor’s Harbor and the Bahamas in general.
Thanks, Bob, I’ll definitely look into it. I have a lot more to write about, especially regarding what Paul did to the Judaism of Jesus.
And of course I’m delighted that you found and enjoyed Governor’s!
I can’t wait to see that one! I had a debate just last week with a kindly old Christian who kept quoting Paul (or the psuedo-Pauls) in place of what Jesus supposedly said. Remarkable! I am grateful for organized minds that can collate all this material. It runs around in my head but never quite makes it to paper. Two books come to mind along these lines. One was “Paul the Conver” and it was well written but from a scholarly Jewish point of view and the other was by a Rabbi (sorry just move and books are all over the place as I write) who proved definitively that Paul or Shaul of Tarsus was not a Rabbi. Anyway, there it is.
Hey Andrew, I’ll look for “Paul the Conver”, and I’d be glad of details on the other one when you run across the name. Thanks!
Letting you know, I’m nominating you for the versatile blogger award. Rules on my blog here.
http://aheathenspath.wordpress.com/the-versatile/
Fun! Thanks, Heathen!
Any other candidates out there for Versatile Blogger? Let me know too!
Hey Robin! Thank you for leaving me a message on my Crazy Bible blog. I hope as you read you will discover there are Christians who are in pursuit of Truth, who read the Bible for themselves (and don’t simply take every preacher at their word, or give them all their money…I mean, dang I gotta enjoy a some sushi or a meat lover’s pizza from time to time…and last I checked, no one was handing out those treasures for free) and who are not afraid to admit that reading the Bible can lead to far more questions than answers.
In the meantime, I will read through your posts as I’m able to, and if I feel it’s worthwhile, will post a thought from time to time. I’m not much one for arguing on the internet (there’s enough crappy arguments happening in real life as it is) but I will read what you write as often as I’m able to.|
Take care my new fellow internet adventurer.
Hey Mac – I’ll be glad to follow where your reading and thinking leads you. Mine led me all over the place, and led even to changing countries as a side effect.
We would love to be in touch once again, after so many years – Val Morin, Vancouver etc. …. and we laughed and revelled in your blog. Good to see your mind is as quirky, sharp and truth-seeking as ever!
Rodney/Raghava/Raghunath, Usha/Frances and Penny/Murali/Janaki
The timing of this note… you will laugh… I will have to post a note on omens! I am struggling to find a mechanical explanation. Give me a day or two. And I want to catch up with you guys.
I’ve been in Kenya for a week with Eliza, we have been training a small consulting group to run our workshops. Tomorrow it’s back to Bahrain and then Saudi, probably for a couple of months, setting up (or helping set up) a business there. Life continues to be strange, rich, diverse, interesting!
Robin, you’re a delight. I want to hear some more of that wit. You’ve been all over the world. I do wish you’d share more about your adventures (don’t pretend you don’t have them!) Take care my friend.
You mean “Mu” is not real? Great blog, thanks