Books R Us: Interview of Maxime Trencaval Author of The Matriarch Messiah (#contests- Enter to Win An Amazon Gift Card- 2 Winners)

THE MATRIARCH MESSIAH

Maxime Trencavel

BLURB:

Zara Khatum, a woman haunted by ancient visions, finds herself drawn deeper into the heart of a perilous quest. Guided by a mysterious voice, she seeks to fulfill an ancient prophecy and find the cavern of blue light - a sanctuary rumored to hold the key to saving humanity. But the path to salvation is fraught with danger, and Zara is torn between her destiny and her heart.

A shadowy organization, known as NiQihs, seeks to exploit the power of the legendary black object, the source of Zara's visions, for their own sinister ends. They are not alone. The world's superpowers, driven by greed and ambition, race to control the artifact, threatening to unleash unimaginable devastation.

Joining Zara in this dangerous pursuit is Rachel Capsali, a brilliant Israeli archaeologist driven by a personal quest to uncover evidence of Asherah, a forgotten goddess who held a pivotal place in ancient Israelite faith. Unbeknownst to them, both women are bound by a shared destiny - a prophecy foretelling the cavern of blue light and a final, heartbreaking truth: two women will fight to the death, and only one will save us all.

Adding to the complexity, a passionate triangle forms as Rachel vies for Peter Gollinger's affection, a man deeply entangled in the ancient mystery. Zara, torn between fulfilling her destiny and her own feelings for Peter, finds herself caught in a web of conflicting desires.

As Zara and Rachel navigate a treacherous landscape of hidden agendas, betrayal, and relentless pursuit, their rivalry for Peter's affections intensifies. Can love survive the forces that threaten to tear them apart? Will the quest for salvation lead to a heart-wrenching sacrifice?

INTERVIEW:

Can you tell us when you started writing?

When I was a child. I had wanted to emulate the Captain Horatio Hornblower novels in primary. That was a fail. But later in secondary school, I wrote morality plays that the theater group practiced. Actually, tacking a novel as an adult did not happen until corporate life took a liberating turn. The Matriarch Matrix was the result.

Can you tell me who or what the inspiration for the book was?

The Matriarch Messiah is the sequel to The Matriarch Matrix. So, when writing the first book I had the second one already in mind. Hence the nearly seamless connection between the two. In writing the second book and the summer release prequel, I had the third book in the series in mind.

Now what inspired the first book?

I felt the world needed a story which linked customs and faiths which come under western ire and fire to be linked to the ancient days before written words and oral traditions. We are more alike than different when one sees the life through this perspective.

Can you tell us how you came up with your title?

The original title for the first book was “The Object”. All the books’ storage files are marked The Object I or II or III, etc. At the time the manuscript went to beta readers, I had to make a commitment to a title. The theme of the book already changed from patriarchal legend to matriarchal legend, the word Matriarch became prominent. Lulu used to have a title scorer using algorithm which would give your idea% chance of bestseller title. The Matriarch Matrix scored well, although other names did better. I wanted to highlight the matriarchal nature of the series, so away we went.

Can you tell us a little about your main characters?

Zara is a devout Kurdish woman whose life has been shaped by conflict and a deep faith. She seeks to find peace and understand the voice of the divine, struggling to reconcile her traditional beliefs with the complexities of the modern world. She forms a unique bond with Peter, a man who challenges her traditional views and helps her understand her true destiny.

Peter is a Californian man who has inherited a family legend and a deep connection to his ancestors. He is often perceived as eccentric or even delusional, yet he possesses a strong moral compass and seeks to use his knowledge to protect the world from the forces of destruction. He forms a profound bond with Zara, a woman who challenges his worldview and helps him embrace his true calling.

Alexander is a ruthless and ambitious magnate who seeks to control the world through his technologically advanced empire. He is obsessed with finding the source of the blue light and believing that the world is a chessboard that he can manipulate for his own purposes. He possesses an uncanny ability to use people for his own gain, often betraying those he claims to love.

Rachel is a dedicated Israeli archaeologist and Torah historian who seeks to uncover the truth behind the ancient scriptures. She has inherited a family legacy of vengeance and feels a profound obligation to unravel the secrets of the past. She forms a partnership with Peter, a man who shares her thirst for knowledge and helps her navigate a world full of conspiracies and hidden agendas.

Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it?

I had a five-year block. At the beginning of 2020, I was incorporating the copy editor’s edits and editorial commentary. Then, a global pandemic harkening of the century earlier Spanish Flu changed all of our paradigms. Then the global turmoil, the political turmoil, new wars all ate up share of mind. Four plus years later, new year resolution time comes. And with it the commitment to revisit a nearly finished manuscript. And the sequel launched four months after that online file folder had been opened again. The key issue of such a long gap of time is I lost the brand equity built from the first launch. So, there is no synergistic spend for this latest launch.

What’s next on your writing to-do list?

We’re on a roll now. The prequel, The Matriarch Mission, is now with a developmental editor and beta readers. Outlining The Matriarch Mandate will start shortly while wandering around the shores of Mallorca.

Can you tell me about your experiences finding a publisher for the book?

The nature of this series creation mitigated any strategy of pitching to traditional publishers. Why? They are not written to genre. They are the inverse. Whatever genre is needed to tell the story is used for that section’s prose or chapter. So, AI analytics define several genres for these books. The readers who like these books appreciate the read, but without a concise defined genre, traditional book marketing would likely fail. So, an LLC filing and away we go.

If you were going to hang out with one of your characters, who would that be?

Lunch with Rachel could be amusing if only to listen to her go on and on incessantly about the injustices committed by Torah scribes writing Asherah out of the scriptures. But, hanging with the evil incarnate himself, Mr. Alexander Murometz, would be awe-inspiring. How the world’s most powerful puppet master controls government heads worldwide. How he controls the world media. But of course, he would find a way to have me to pay the check.

What do you like to do for fun when you’re not writing?

I travel when family availability or business needs arise. With high-speed internet and laptop, one can work from most anywhere. I take hikes or bike rides to stay fit, clear the head, and ponder what and where the current book in progress should head. That means straight to the keyboard upon returning

READ AN EXCERPT:

Another dewdrop hits her nose. But this time, she does not wipe it off as it mingles with the drops from her eyes while she searches inside for the strength to remember that which remains

unresolved in her life, with her family, with her destiny. Is he really the one? Should she reveal what should only be revealed to the one man who will bring her to her destiny?

A purse of her lips and she finally says, "Sara, my great-grandmother, she was our link to the wisdom of generations of spiritually inspired women before her."

Still facing away from Peter, she says, "Sara liked you. She saw something in you when she first met you at that first dinner at her ancestral house when we were staging for our mission to retrieve the object."

Turning back to him, she says, "Sara said to my grandmother Roza, her daughter, that you harbor the same light her husband, a Sufi imam, my great-grandfather, had within him when they first met."

She points to his eyes. Blue ones which naturally go with his once-blond and now-sandy-brown hair. “Sara said the light is blue. The light we should seek is blue. The world thinks the light is white. But the one we seek, we yearn for, we die for, is blue. She so feared dying before she could find the blue light. For in the blue light, we shall return”, she said.

Peter, who knows so much trivia because he is an editor of all sorts of topics, papers, and books, is speechless until he finally mutters, "Blue? Where did that come from? I'm not getting the connection to the mystery of the ancient matriarch we solved."

"As you had with your grandfather, your pappy, who entrusted you with an ancient family oral tradition, passed from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation, as far back in time as that temple, the world's oldest temple, which our follies led to be destroyed, so there is a line of similar wisdom passed down in my family line. But through the women. Mother to daughter and to granddaughter."

About the Author:

Maxime has been scribbling stories since grade school, from adventure epics to morality plays. Blessed with living in multicultural pluralistic settings and having earned degrees in science and marketing, Maxime has worked in business and sports, traveling to countries across five continents and learning about cultures, traditions, and the importance of tolerance and understanding. Maxime's second novel, The Matriarch Messiah, was conceived, outlined, written, and edited in different locations in Belgium, including the Turkish and Kurdish neighborhoods of Brussels, in various islands of the Caribbean, in Colombia, in Madrid, Malaga, Mallorca, Spain, London, UK, and on the two coasts of the United States.