Author Interview with Pamela King Cable

I am delighted to welcome author, Pamela King Cable to Word Salt today!  TELEVENGE will be released on October 8th, 2012 but is available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and everywhere fine books are sold.  That said, Pamela has graciously offered a signed copy of her book, “Televenge” today.  So leave a comment for your chance to win!

About the Author:

Pamela is the author of the highly acclaimed collection of short stories, Southern Fried Women. Born a coal miner’s granddaughter and raised by a tribe of wild Pentecostals and storytellers, Pamela is an award-winning, multi-published author who loves to write about religion and spirituality with mystical twists she unearths from her family’s history. As a young adult she was married to a megachurch ministry team member and attended years of megachurch services. She has taught at many writing conferences, and speaks to book clubs, women’s groups, national and local civic organizations, and at churches across the country. More than a decade in the writing, Televenge is her debut novel. She lives in Ohio with her husband, Michael, and is working on her next novel.

To learn more about the author, visit www.pamelakingcable.com.

About the book:

Andie Oliver is a faithful woman—to God, to husband Joe, and to televangelist Calvin Artury, a Godfather in a Mafia of holy men. Joe works limitless hours on the megachurch ministry team, falling deeper into debauchery, while Andie attempts to free him from the Reverend’s control and far-reaching influence. Uncovering long-hidden truths—even murder—she loses everything, including her children. Andie fights for redemption for her family and herself, confronting the very definition of sin, and shaking the Christian evangelical world to its core. Evading ruthless adversaries who will go to any lengths to protect Reverend Artury, Andie battles the dark side of televangelism.

Why do you write?

I write to transport my readers into a story and to pierce their hearts. That, for me, is the ultimate joy. I write about my passions, what moves me, what shoots out of me like a rocket. I have to write. Otherwise, I think I would explode. I write because God made writing a part of me as surely as He made my eyes green.

How does your past inspire what you write?

I was born in the middle of the 20^th century. My mother says I cut my teeth on the back of a church pew. I grew up first as a Baptist and then as a Pentecostal—a fundamentalist, attending revivals in tents, tabernacles, and clapboard churches. Eventually, I became an evangelical, joining a church where I experienced a world that encompassed both the sublime and the bizarre. For twenty-five years, I was a member of a megachurch operated by a TV evangelist. As part of its inner circle, I was married to a ministry team member for seventeen of those years.

But the dust laden roads in the coal towns of the ‘sixties are where my career as a writer was born. For me, it is within sanctuaries of brick and mortar; places of clapboard and canvas that characters hang ripe for picking. From the primitive church services of the mountain clans to the baptisms and sacraments in cathedrals and synagogues all over the world. From the hardworking men and women who testify in every run-down house of God in America to the charismatic high-dollar high-tech evangelicals televised in today’s megachurches, therein lie stories of unspeakable conflict, the forbidden, and often, the unexplained.

How did you come up with the book cover and the title, TELEVENGE?

The avenging angel wielding a sword at her side seemed a natural choice. And actually, it was Literary Agent, Katharine Sands, who came up with the title. I drove her around North Carolina many years ago from one writing conference to the next, giving her my “perfect pitch.” When I told her the title, she said, “I think you should call it Televenge!” And so I did. 

What was the inspiration behind the book?

Inspired by my spirituality and my own story, I wrote this book after surviving life’s heartaches and hardships. All of it gave me plenty to write about. Working on the megachurch ministry team, my husband traveled with the televangelist who held mammoth faith-healing crusades all over the world. Under much distress, I left the church in 1988 losing everything in the wake of my rebellion, including my husband in a bitter divorce.

What do you hope this book accomplishes?

I want the reader to get a glimpse of what really happens inside the inner circles of megachurch ministries as they compare it to their own church. Since I lived the life and had a backstage pass to faith-healing services, I translate what it’s like behind the scenes. What it’s like to lose a spouse—not to drugs, alcoholism, or even another woman—but to God. I show the reader what it’s like to grow up in a family whose every thought and deed is run by a religious leader; what really happens when touched by a faith healer, and what it’s like to be manipulated by a charismatic pastor. That it’s okay to leave if they want to. That they won’t fail God or go to Hell for leaving the ministry. That it’s not desertion. That it could save their marriage, their family, and quite possibly their lives.

Who is this book written for?

I did not write this book specifically for the Christian audience, or to come against any pastor or ministry. I remain a woman of great faith. But I’m a storyteller. I wanted to write a great story. To reflect the realities, the long-lasting devastation, and the horrific effects of legalism. I wrote Televenge for anyone who wants to read a great saga of religion, romance, and crime.

I also wrote the novel to help myself heal; to show that “pastors are human” and to encourage others struggling in dogmatic churches to share their stories and hold their pastors accountable. I wanted to write a story of hope, of deliverance, and strength of the human spirit. An unforgettable tale of unconditional love, heartbreaking loss, an invincible spirit, and incredible courage. I want Televenge to inspire countless conversations for years to come. Although Televenge is a novel about the dark side of televangelism, it is also about the light of God’s unconditional love. And that is why I wrote this book.

Do you have a life verse that you have claimed? If so, why, and why is it meaningful?

Lamentations 3:22, 23 “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning, great is Your faithfulness.”

This verse saved my life. At the lowest point of my life, He whispered it into my ear.  It is the bedrock of hope upon which Televenge is based.

Who is your greatest encourager when you write and why?

My husband, Michael. If it had not been for his unfailing love and unswerving patience there would be no Televenge. None of it could have been possible had he not picked me out of the miry clay many years ago and given me this whole new wonderful life. His constant devotion made it possible for me to be a writer. Not once in over ten years has he complained of my endless hours of writing. His uncompromising belief in me is mind-boggling, a man of extraordinary integrity, insight, and strength.

Is there anything else you would like your readers to know about you that would give us even more of glimpse into your personality and passions? 

Someone recently asked me if I considered myself to be a “southern writer” or a writer who is from the south. I was born in the South. My grandfather was a coal miner, but my father escaped the mines, went to college and moved his family to Ohio to work for the rubber companies in 1959. I spent every weekend as a little girl traveling back to the Appalachian Mountains. My memories of my childhood run as deep as an Appalachian swimming hole and as strong as a steel-belted radial tire. As a little girl, I was a transplanted hick in a Yankee schoolroom. I grew up in the North. So my influence comes naturally from both regions.

I find that if you say you’re a Southern writer, people think you only write about the South. But Southern writers as a whole are incredibly diverse in their writing styles, goals, stances, conceits, passions, and personalities. While most of my writing does gravitate to Southern states, folks everywhere identify with it. Working and living in both the North and South—it’s given me a broader view of both. A richer impact to my writing. Who I am influences me as a writer. Not where I live.

After living over a decade in the South, I have come full circle. I returned to the North as easy as slipping into a pair of old familiar blue jeans, tattered and worn. I cannot deny the Northern part of me, any more than I can deny the Southern blood that runs through my veins. It’s like I’ve always said, a Southern Fried Woman is any woman brave enough to start over again, darlin’, and never gives up her dream, wherever she decides home is. 

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