If You Like "American Gods" You Might like My Novel (mild spoilers for the book/show—not my novel)

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Original American Gods book cover.

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Follow Me: Tattered Veils wide image art work created by Jake @ J Caleb Designs

This is part of my Honest Comparison series.  Hopefully, it helps you decide if my novel might be something you'd enjoy reading.  Thanks for tuning in!.

American Gods: is a novel by Neil Gaiman that's seeing a resurgence in popularity as a Starz TV show based on the book just finished its second season.  The basic premise Shadow, upon his release from prison, agrees to work as a bodyguard to Mr. Wednesday.  The two go on a road trip recruiting various associates of Mr. Wednesday.  A bunch of stuff happens that I would spoil if I went any further.  It’s a great supernatural/fantasy hybrid story that incorporates many kinds of storytelling.

What does this series and Follow Me: Tattered Veils share? 

One element both this story and mine have in common is that the magical/supernatural world intertwines with the mundane world readers know.  It’s happening next to us non-magical people and we’re just not looking at it.

In American Gods, gods and mythical creatures are just chilling on the human plane, working mundane jobs, and interacting with humans as they feel is best for their survival.  The inhuman beings in Follow Me: Tattered Veils are like that too.  They show up and bless or curse humans as they feel appropriate.  And just because the characters’ have ended the summoning or the ritual, doesn’t mean the beings they called have left.

American Gods uses real road trip landmarks as mystical energy centric places for gods and supernatural creatures to gather.  Since these places are real, readers can create their own American Gods style road trip if they desire, but it also helps to ground some more fantastic elements of the narrative in the real world.  I went to Rock City because of how it’s featured in American Gods and how I experienced that place was impacted by Gaiman’s description.  I’m aspiring to do the same for a few locations in Huntsville, Alabama.  

The characters in American Gods and Follow Me: Tattered Veils have critical flaws.  Sometimes the characters are down right unlikable.  What drives a reader to keep going is how interesting they are, it's a different type of charisma.  No one wants to sit down and have a beer with them, but they might be curious to see what the next move is anyway.  

While never intended for this use, American Gods comes up a lot in American pagan discussions.  There are a subset of polytheistic pagans in America who wonder what gods to honor.  We don't have ancient land gods like our European cousins (we do, they are Native American deities but there is a whole side discussion over whether we should/can honor these gods and which gods apply to which territory/how we would verify this info with the still living Native peoples).  I can't tell you how often "This is a bad land for gods," was quoted in a forum.  While not a religious or theological texts, American Gods creates a jumping off point to start discussing what it would mean if there were multiple gods, if those gods had limited powers, and if those gods had a fluctuating morality.  

Follow Me: Tattered Veils is a smaller, more personal story.  It doesn't discuss the nature of gods and how they may exist in a non native landscape.  Instead it tackles one woman modernizing an older practice to suit her lifestyle and it further tackles what happens when myths and legends are real and interacting with each other in the real world.  I don't expect it to be an intro to paganism, but I do think it may open a conversation up on many magic and legend based topics.

Did you love American Gods?    Have you read the book, watched the show, or both?  Do you like the book or the show better? Were any of these elements parts you loved?  If so consider picking up Follow Me: Tattered Veils when it releases in February.  Check out my website jessicadonegan.com for more details.

Haven't read American Gods yet but want to now?  Check it out at Amazon.  Looking for the show?  Look here.

Still undecided on whether you want to give my novel a chance? There's more stuff to help you! Check out:  Lost Girl Comparison and The O.A. Comparison.

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Turth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?  Check out my childhood stories recapping themes in my life I hope prepared me to write this book: Remember the Magic of Santa?, Closet Monsters: Gone too Far?, and Garden Gnomes and other Evils.

Need an introduction to Roxi Starr? Here's her performing an Imbolc ritual to help whet some appetites.

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

And for updates please check out jessicadonegan.com and subscribe.