Hi all,
Today I'm talking with T.R. Heinan, author of the novel
L'Immortalité: Madame Lalaurie and the Voodoo Queen which will be published in October 2012. This interesting fiction novel is based on true events and is Mr. Heinan's debut novel. Mr. Heinan is also a fellow Minnesotan who has traveled extensively and has given of himself and his time for many worthwhile causes. I hope you enjoy this interview with T.R. Heinan and the excerpt from his upcoming novel.
T.R. Heinan, Author
Please tell us a little
about yourself
I was born
and raised in the picturesque, frostbitten town on Duluth,
Minnesota before moving to Milwaukee
to attend Marquette University. From there I moved to the Boston area where I worked for a few years as
a journalist before beginning a long career in investment banking. I specialized in financing the distribution
of Hollywood motion pictures and discovered
that I had some talent when it came to selecting scripts. Since retiring from finance, I work full-time
supporting an orphanage that I helped to found in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico. My love for writing keeps me
busy crafting manuscripts late at night and on weekends. I am an avid traveler and have been honored
with two European knighthoods. I now
reside in sunny Tucson, Arizona with my wife and two cats.
You have a debut novel coming out in
October 2012. Please share a brief description of it.
By turns
comedic and macabre, L'Immortalité: Madame Lalaurie and
the Voodoo Queen is
an irreverent horror story drenched in the excess of its nineteenth century
southern Louisiana
landscape. It is based on the real life events of New
Orleans' Lalaurie
Mansion, involving an
elite society woman, and the barbaric treatment of her slaves. This
novelization begins in the city's St. Louis Cathedral where lay sacristan
Philippe Bertrand has become a recluse after the loss of his mother and wife.
When a mysterious force upends his life and leads him to the shadowy mansion of Delphine
Lalaurie, he meets Elise, a slave girl who
has been brutalized by Delphine.
After the
mansion matriarch demands that the Voodoo Queen Maris Laveau giver her eternal
fame, everything goes haywire. A child
slave dies under questionable circumstances, spurring Elise to escape the
mansion. Philippe and his extended family head to the gator-filled bayou where
they hide Elise at Maris Laveau's cabin and secretly teach her to read and
write.
When Marie reveals
a new spin on the meaning of zombies, the once reluctant sacristan is
determined to find out what really goes on at the Lalaurie Mansion.
To his horror, he will discover that Delphine and her physician husband carry
out repugnant medical experiments on their slaves, even as they put on a
refined social façade during their well-attended society balls. Their monstrous private world may be exposed
when a slave cook sets herself on fire, along with the mansion. Philippe must
break the chains of his own conflicted spirituality as well as those that bind
the slaves in the attic if he is to rescue the Lalauries' victims.
As the novel
reaches its stunning climax, Philippe will come to understand the different
paths people take in search of immortality.
A comedic meditation on what humans do to persist beyond their mortal
lives, L'Immortalité is an inventive horror story
that vividly brings to life the torrid landscape of New Orleans.
Your novel is based on a true story. What inspired you to write about this story?
I discovered
the Lalaurie Mansion
on a walking "ghost tour" while visiting New Orleans.
What caught my attention was that one could see four or five tour groups
at a time competing for sidewalk space just to view the exterior of the Lalaurie
Mansion, "New Orleans' most haunted house". People from all over the planet visit the
place night after night. Actor Nicholas
Cage owned the house for a while. I was
surprised that Hollywood
hadn't been all over this story, but as far as I can tell, Delphine Lalaurie is
only referenced briefly at the beginning of one film, The St. Francisville Experiment. As for my supporting character,
Marie Laveau, it is reported that her grave is the second most visited
gravesite in America. I was, therefore, amazed to discover how
little of the legend of Madame Lalaurie has appeared in novels or motion
pictures. Since I began writing my book,
two non-fiction history texts have been published about Delphine Lalaurie and
twelve years ago, Barbara Hambly involved some parts of the legend in her
wonderful novel, Fever Season. Apart
from that, the Lalaurie legend is all
but absent in literature after the 19th Century, except for a
chapter in an out-of-print book from 1946 and a ten pages in Troy Taylor's Haunted New Orleans. Still, a myriad of
web-sites, a popular exhibit at New Orleans' Conti Historical Wax Museum and
the success of several tour companies indicate a continued interest in the
story of Madame Lalaurie, so I decided to write a piece of historical fiction
devoted entirely to the tale of her haunted house on Royal Street.
Have you always been fascinated with
hauntings and the paranormal?
I do believe
in life after death. That is the theme I
explore in my book from the very first sentence and I try to examine the many
ways people pursue the goal of immortality.
I am not actively involved in ghost hunting, but have experienced some
difficult to explain phenomena while accompany some friends who are paranormal
investigators.
How long did it take you to write
this novel?
It took two
years and two months to write, with at least half of that spent in historical
research. While trying to keep the best
parts of the "legend" alive, I wanted to remain as faithful as I
could to the history of the period and discover the physical changes that have
occurred to the locations mentioned in the book.
Have you always wanted to write a
novel?
Yes,
although I always thought my first book would be about something else. I am fascinated with the history of medieval Portugal and
still want to pursue a book in that setting.
Are you self-publishing your novel or
going through a publisher?
I grew up
when at a time when three networks monopolized everything that was available on
television. Now we have an almost
endless number of choices on cable and on-line.
I believe book publishing is undergoing the same sort of sea change and
started my own Indie publishing company, Nonius, LLC. I am a strong supporter of Indie writers (and
Indie bookstores).
Would you share with us a little
about your work with orphaned and homeless children in the Mexican orphanage
you helped establish?
I have been
very blessed throughout my life with family, faith, freedom, friends, health
and fortune. Like the protagonist in my book, I have come to believe that we
are all called, not merely to "do no harm", but to take some risks
and make some sacrifices to positively do some good. Part of my effort to that end was to
establish a non-profit organization to support orphaned and abandoned children. This effort led to building and operating a
modern orphanage in Sonora,
Mexico, which,
hopefully, will benefit from the sale of my book.
Now available in Paperback format on Amazon for $14.99
Where can readers find out more about you and your book?
I am especially proud of my trailer
Excerpt from L'Immortalité: Madame Lalaurie and the Voodoo Queen
Here's a
little scene in which Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau encounters my protagonist,
Philippe Bertrand, in New Orleans' Congo Square and explains her blending of
Voodoo with Catholicism:
Philippe
watched as a heavyset man approached Marie.
“Madame Laveau,” the man pleaded, “I
need your help.”
Marie cupped the man’s hands in her
own. “It’s about your wife, isn’t it?” she asked.
“Why, yes. Yes, it is,” said the
man, who now appeared to be convinced that everything he had heard about the
voodoo queen must be true.
“I’m afraid your suspicions are
correct. She is being unfaithful. It’s that Spanish cobbler who lives down the
street.”
“I’ll kill him!” the man shouted
before noticing Sheriff Dubois was standing less than thirty meters from him.
“No,” Marie advised in a calming
tone. “Take no revenge. Instead, I want you to do this…” She whispered
something in the man’s ear.
He blushed and grinned. “Oh, Madame
Laveau!”
“Of course, it works better if you
place this under your mattress,” said Marie as she held out a red gris-gris
bag. “Powerful gris-gris,” she said, “and hard
to come by.”
The man handed Marie five silver
dollars, took the little red bag, and walked away smiling.
Philippe walked over to Marie
wagging his finger at her. “Is that your voodoo?” he asked. “Just a cheap Gypsy
trick I used to see in France.”
“M’sieu Bertrand!” said Marie with
sudden indignation.
“I’m sure a hairdresser hears more
confessions than the priests at the cathedral. Plus, half these slaves tell you
whatever they overhear in their masters’ homes. Nothing supernatural about
that.”
“The power of the spirits is very
real,” insisted Marie. “Perhaps I help them along, but it’s real.”
Philippe knew that voodoo was an
ancient religion, sacred to those from the islands and from Africa who
practiced it. He also knew that Marie was beginning to modify the cult by
introducing new elements, such as veneration of the Virgin Mary. What bothered
him was her use of a network of spies to convince others that she had
supernatural powers.
“Do you claim you are contacting
some loa?” asked Philippe.
“Does it matter if a person prays to
Saint Patrick as patron of the enslaved or kneels before the same statue and
calls him by another name?”
“Is that what you do?” asked
Philippe.
“No, I believe that only a priest reaches
to the Good Maker, but the loas hear every invocation. Dr. Lalaurie doesn’t
believe it, but even the rituals at his lodge are heard by certain spirits and
can affect the things around us.”
****
Thank you to T.R. Heinan for sharing his new novel with us. I will be sure to add links where you can buy his book when it is available for sale.
Cheers,
Deanna
