The Prince of Prigs
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Anthony Anglorus - Writer
I have always been creative. As a teenager, I was writing music, and indeed one piece I wrote was stolen by the publishers in that they rejected it, but it came out as a single a few months later - obviously with in-house composers.
Recent Work - By Presidential Order
Following release of 'The Prince of Prigs', I began writing a sequel. But in December 2015, I heard reports of a spat between American Presidential hopefuls:
"I'm more religious than you."
"No you're not!"
"Am too!"
"Shut up or I'll set my dad on you."
Well, not really the last line but you get the picture I'm sure; childish behaviour from contenders for the most powerful job in the world.
It got me thinking; what if America were to elect a zealot fundamentalist as President? It's not at all implausible, especially given that subsequent
events have placed businessman Donald Trump in the post, with Evangelist Mike Pence as his deputy.
A little later, I read of reports that scientists (and later NASA) have observed particles travelling faster than the speed of light, and that "Time Travel may indeed be possible". So I thought "What if the American Intelligence/Military were to develop time travel? Certainly, if it can be done, they are the most likely."
I put the two together and decided that such a President would demand sight of key religious events, at the forefront of which would be the crucifixion and resurrection.
Research told me that in fact, whilst time travel backwards may be possible, returning is a completely different problem but serendipitously I then saw a science report stating that there probably exists a mirror-image universe where time runs in the opposite direction. So I saw in this a way to reverse the journey.
Other research told me that fundamentalists not only believe the bible to be totally true, they believe that it was written by God himself. To me, this is incomprehensible given the vast number of rewrites over the millennia and the differences between the individual gospels but hey, each to his own.
I constructed a rough storyline using these factors, and liked the story so much that I immediately abandoned my sequel to 'Prince of Prigs' and started writing in late January, 2016. I wrote the last segment of the story in Ondres, France in late August the same year.
The title of this work is "By Presidential Order", and is available now.
Writing this tale was an utter joy, but I had a problem. Two, actually. One, the start of the book must catch the reader's eye.
There is nothing especially fascinating about a teenager arguing with his father and leaving home even in the seventeenth century, so I elected to start the book sixteen years later. Two, by starting at this point, I was rejecting a lot of fascinating stories, and to make matters worse, eight months later he left the country to fight abroad, and there is little information about this later period.
So I wrote his tale covering the eight months, and then hit a problem; it was way too short. However, history was roiling around him in this period, so I decided to show some of the events which coloured his actions. In doing so, General Thomas Lord Fairfax caught my eye and I researched him before weaving him into the tale. But the story still lacked depth and a proper conclusion. So I introduced Zachary Howard, weaving his tale around the existing story, and because of some of his actions, I was able to create a totally fictitious but utterly satisfying conclusion to the book.
Please note: Following the demise of Bygone Era Books, I have reclaimed the copyright and reissued "The Prince of Prigs" myself. At present, paperback copies can be bought from Amazon, this website and Jaffe & Neale bookshop in Nantwich, Cheshire. As an e-book, it is currently only available from Amazon.
The Other Robin Hood
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If you are tempted to buy the book, it is to be found in numerous online e-book retailers, including Amazon, and Smashwords and other places including Apple, Kobo and Nook.