Rex Deus The Families of the Grail by Cyndi and Tim Wallace-Murphy

Grave Distractions Publications started a relationship with prolific author Tim Wallace-Murphy last year when we reissued Tim's  The Genesis of a Tragedy: A Brief History of the Palestinian People. Now we're pleased to announce that we're not representing one Wallace-Murphy, but two. Cyndi Wallace-Murphy has co-authored Rex Deus: The Families of the Grail with her husband Tim. We're happy to say that Rex Deus: The Families of the Grail was released earlier this week, just in time for Cyndi and Tim's tour of New York and New Jersey next month. 

Rex Deus: The Families of the Grail Synopsis

Did Jesus found a dynasty that is still with us today? Rex Deus: The Families of the Grail describes how Rex Deus, the descendants of the Twenty-Four High Priestly families of the Biblical Temple in Jerusalem went underground throughout Europe and kept their secret teaching alive despite terrible persecution. It describes how, after careful planning, they created the Order of the Knights Templar and laid the foundations for modern European culture. How their banking skills stimulated the growth of capitalism and banking and shows why they created an atmosphere of tolerance for the Cathars and other heretical groups. Their association with the legends of the Holy Grail and the veneration of the Black Madonna give us an indication of their true belief system. These families also influenced the Rosicrucians and played a vital, formative role in the foundation of Freemasonry to pass on what they believed were the true teachings of Jesus to the wider world.

Rex Deus: The Families of the Grail is currently available in both print and ebook editions at online retailers like: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Google Books. For a full listing, visit this book's page at the Grave Distractions Publications website. Also a preview Rex Deus: The Families of the Grail, can be found here.

About the Authors

Cynthia Wallace-Murphy is a Professional Registered Nurse specialising in cardiology. She is also a graduate of Marketing and Management. She has travelled extensively throughout Europe and spent some time in the Middle East. She has been researching Western Esoteric Spirituality with an emphasis on the Cathars, Knights Templar, Hermeticim, and Christianity. She returned to France in Languedoc-Rousillon in 2013 in order to study medieval cathedrals and the Cathar strongholds. Having an empathic feeling, a strong connection with Occitania, she decided to make it her permanent home where she currently resides with her husband Tim Wallace-Murphy in the foothills of the Midi Pyrènèes. She has published several articles on her experiences through travel in several books before embarking on a collaboration with her husband in their first joint book entitled Rex Deus: The Families of the Grail.

 The Irish born internationally known author and lecturer, Tim Wallace-Murphy, is the author of thirteen published books, mostly about the history of a variety of heretical forms of spirituality. He once redefined heresy as, "The use of God's gift of Freewill in matters of Religion, Faith and Dogma."

Tim has appeared in some eight or nine TV documentaries and many of his interviews can be found on YouTube. He has given talks and lectures in a wide variety of venues, to Masonic Lodges, Spiritual groups, clubs and associations across the western world such as in Seattle and Long Beach on the West Coast of the USA, in Denver Colorado, in Santa Fe New Mexico. New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, in Montreal and the Eastern townships in Canada, all across England, Scotland and Ireland, in France, Italy, Spain and in Prague.

Eleven of his works describe historical aspects of spirituality and cover a variety of themes including the Knights Templar, the Cathars, Rosslyn Chapel and the Western Esoteric Tradition as well as the Grail genre. The other two, including the most recent are more modern mainstream historical works, namely What Islam did for Us a study of how Islamic scholarship laid the foundations of most of the more valued aspects of European culture, and his latest work The Genesis of a Tragedy - A Brief History of the Palestinian People. Tim was provoked to write this work as the Palestinian side of this conflict is rarely heard in either Western Europe or the United States and if this ongoing running sore in East West relations is ever to be solved, the pain on both sides needs to be understood.

He has acted as a tour guide in some of the most beautiful and inspiring sacred sites in Europe. including Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, Avebury Stone Circle in England and Stonehenge. Tim has escorted people of all faiths and some of none around such fascinating and beautiful Cathedrals as Chartres, Notre Dame de Paris, Orleans and Amiens and the jewel in the crown in Paris, Sainte Chapelle.

Tim and his wife, Cyndi, live in Esperaza in the Languedoc in South Western France a few kilometres from the famous and controversial site of Rennes-le-Chateau and is constantly discovering new and fascinating aspects of this wondrous land.

Follow Grave Distractions Publications on Twitter @GraveDistract, Facebook, Pintrest, or LinkedIn.  

Five Strategies to Combat Writer’s Block

We’ve all been there—if a gun were held to your head, you couldn’t write another sentence. Yes, friends and neighbors, we’re talking about writer’s block. The condition so familiar to anyone who has taken pen to paper sounds so trite to those who has never written anything longer than a term paper. To the rest of the world, you’re just making stuff up and how hard can that be? For the person with writer’s block, it’s more akin to running out of gas in Death Valley. There’s a certain amount of panic tinged with desperation when our common malady hits. Those are usually followed by the what ifs? What if I can never write anything ever again? What if I can’t even write a Tweet? What if I can only write about a heroic cat who has a trusty unicorn steed? (No offense intended to those writing in the cat/unicorn fantasy buddy genre.)

Writer’s block is real to us and it sucks. Like remedies for the hiccups, there are scads of “sure-fire methods” to stymie our common foe. The trouble is nothing works for everyone and no two writer’s creative process is the same. The real first step is to jot down some notes when you’re on fire. Those days that ink flows through your veins and your fingers can’t type fast enough to get all of the thoughts out of your head. Make notes on what was unique about that day. Was it a certain time of day? Did you go for a walk that morning? Was there a news story that sparked that over productive writing day? If you make notes long enough for those good writing days, you’ll probably come up with some common denominators. Then when you have writer’s block, introduce those stimuli that have worked in the past.

If you haven’t been taking notes on behaviors that have induced creativity, here are a few things we’ve found that might knock a bout of writer’s block in the metaphorical head: 

1. Do something you hate.

Clean the house, rake leaves, go visit Aunt Hattie (who always tries to give you 20-year-old hard candies that taste like Vick’s VapoRub), or do whatever else you avoid like the plague. While this step might sound counter-intuitive, there is an elegant wisdom in performing a task you loath when faced with mental constipation. The chances are that while you’re carrying out your hated task, your mind will wander to stop you from thinking about the dreaded chore you’ve chosen. So what you’ve really done by “doing something you hate” is tricking yourself into a creative state. The bonus of this strategy is that you’ve probably needed to go see Aunt Hattie and have put it off for far too long. 

2. Get some rest.

There is a certain percentage of people that creatively thrive under fatigue conditions. If this applies to you, just do the exact opposite of the advice in this section. Without citing clinical studies and the age old wisdom of your mother, we all know that a good night’s sleep is a universal cure-all. Sleep gives you a chance to mentally reset, which is exactly what you need when faced with writer’s block. If you’re under a deadline or something else is preventing you from an eight-hour kip, take an hour nap. Thomas Edison supposedly took catnaps throughout the day and night just so he could clear his head and start fresh whenever the awoke. While that might be an apocryphal story, the theory is sound. A little sleep could just hit your creative reset button. 

3. Step away from the blinking cursor.

The taunting cursor is as good a visual symbol for writer’s block as any. The smug little intermittent box or line on your word processor taunts you with every on/off cycle. For all we know, the blinking might actually be sucking the words out of your soul. One thing is sure, get the hell away from the blinky thing. I’ve yet to run across a writer who actually said, “Staring at the cursor for three hours actually gave me an idea.” So close out of your word processor if you value your sanity. 

4. Fall in love.

“I’m writing about 18th century pirates and falling in love has nothing to do with my plotline,” you might be thinking. If you're already married or attached, falling in love again might seem like a horrid idea. Take heart, the falling in love step won’t land you in divorce court or sleeping on a friend’s couch. There’s something inexorably linked with the creative process and matters of the heart. This might possibly be because we want to impress someone with our writing. So if you’ve already fallen in love, do something for that special person in your life that reminds you of when you fell in love. If you’re single, go out there and take a risk on someone that you’ve been thinking about just a little too much. If you’re single and there are no prospects in your life, go to a coffee shop and strike up a conversation with someone you think you can make a connection with. If none of that fits your situation or your comfort zone, call up the friend in the world you love the most. You don’t talk to them enough anyway. At very least, do something nice for someone else, even if you don’t know them. The point here is that, hopefully, love stimulates creativity. In the immortal words of Kid Rock, “Now get in the pit and try to love someone.” 

5. Just say no.

There is always a temptation to enhance one’s creativity with various substances. Alcohol, energy drinks, Twinkies, cat videos on YouTube, or reading someone else’s work should all be no-goes during a bout of writer’s block. Whatever your vice of choice is, you’re already feeling low because you can’t write. Heaping some other unproductive behavior on top of the writer’s block can be disastrous. You’ll end up feeling hollow from the combination of both experiences. It’s also likely that what could have been a short stint of writer’s block will turn into a pity party hamstringing your writing even longer. Not to sound too airy-fairy, but if you’re involved with positive behaviors in trying to combat writer’s block, that same positive energy will help release the boa constrictor squeezing your imagination.


As previously mentioned in this post, there is no magic bullet to cure writer’s block. The only certainty about writer’s block is that it will happen. There’s little reason to get frustrated about something that is a certainty. Writer’s block could be the price one pays for creativity. Another way to look at it is that roadblocks do make a trip more interesting. So if writer’s block didn’t exist, would writing be as rewarding? If there was no internal enemy to face when writing, could one produce quality work? The more one treats writer’s block as an old college friend that wants to crash on your couch when he’s in town, rather than an enemy between our own ear, the better off you’ll be when it strikes.

Follow Grave Distractions Publications on Twitter @GraveDistract, Facebook, Pintrest, or LinkedIn.  

Pre-order Micah: The Sword of Malachi by Lee DuCote

Grave Distractions Publications author Lee DuCote is one of those type authors that just never quits. On the heels of releasing Across Borders, we'd like to announce that Lee's first foray into the young adult genre, Micah: The Sword of Malachi is now available for pre-order in eBook formats. Micah is a departure in subject matter from Lee's other books, but fans of DuCote's work will instantly recognize his unique style and ability to craft a story. Micah: The Sword of Malachi will be released on 3 May 2016 and is available for eBook pre-order from Amazon, Google Books, and Smashwords.

Micah: The Sword of Malachi Synopsis

When lacrosse star Micah Spearman moved to the quiet little town of Seven Springs, he never expected to become such a significant part of his lacrosse team, his group of friends, or of the battle raging just beyond human reach. With a gift to see into the spiritual dimension, Micah learns he is part of a prophecy and must lead an army of guardians against legions of demons, all while trying to live a normal teenage life.

Navigating through high school can be a daunting task. When Micah finds himself falling in love with his friend Stephanie, he must be careful not to disrupt their group of friends—or attract attention from the demons that watch his every move. But high school will not be the biggest survival challenge he faces. Micah and friends soon find their world expanding far beyond, as Micah discovers his true purpose.

As the battle rages to find the Sword of Malachi, the young freshman finds himself falling deeper into a world of unknowns. Can Micah find the sword before all is lost? Will Stephanie give into her feelings for Micah? In Micah, the Sword of Malachi, you too will fall under the charm and the mysteries of Seven Springs.

About Author Lee DuCote 

Lee DuCote has traveled throughout the world, researching cultures, people, and historical accounts to create his stories. A native of Louisiana, he writes to give hope and encouragement to others, as well as to entertain and spark the imagination.

Lee lives in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas with his wife, family, and pet raccoon. Lee is also the author of Fields of Alicia, Waterproof, and Across Borders. Lee is currently working on a number of other book projects.

Follow Grave Distractions Publications on Twitter @GraveDistract, Facebook, Pintrest, or LinkedIn.
 

Robert Eisenman's The New Testament Code: The Cup of the Lord, the Damascus Covenant,and the Blood of Christ

It’s been a long time coming, but we’ve re-released Professor Robert Eisenman’s classic work, The New Testament Code: The Cup of the Lord, the Damascus Covenant,and the Blood of Christ. We’ve done something a little different with this edition that we think will enhance the reading experience for everyone. Given the overall length of the book and the depth of material covered, we wanted to make sure The New Testament Code: The Cup of the Lord, the Damascus Covenant, and the Blood of Christ was as accessible as possible. In print, we’ve published the main text of The New Testament Code: The Cup of the Lord, the Damascus Covenant, and the Blood of Christ as a standalone print book. The newly edited and complete end notes, charts, maps, and photographs have been published as a separate edition called The New Testament Code Companion. The eBook editions of The New Testament Code: The Cup of the Lord, the Damascus Covenant, and the Blood of Christ contains the main text and the materials in The New Testament Code Companion.

While this combination of two separate print editions and an eBook edition is unconventional, there was a logic to this reasoning. First of all, we wanted readers to have the option of a side-by-side reading experience with the main text and the end materials. Flipping back and forth between endnotes and the main text isn’t always easy in a book this rich with materials. Secondly, we wanted to keep the cost of the main text as low as possible. Not everyone is interested in end materials, and we didn’t want to penalize those readers with a far more expensive book. So for those of you interested in the print edition of The New Testament Code: The Cup of the Lord, the Damascus Covenant, and the Blood of Christ, we have a number of options for obtaining the material in The New Testament Code companion.

• For those wishing a “side-by-side” reading experience with the end materials, we have published a print edition of The New Testament Code Companion Edition (ISBN 9781944066109). The Companion Edition is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other fine on-line retailers.
• A PDF is available for download, free of charge, at the publisher’s website. Visit our The New Testament Code Companion page to download this document. This document is perfect to pull up on a tablet while reading the main text to explore the end materials.
• For those readers who purchased this edition via Amazon, you can take advantage of their Kindle MatchBook program. A free Kindle eBook edition of this text is available to you. Due to the flexibility of eBooks, all the end material is included in the digital edition. See this book’s page on Amazon for more details. This offer is bound to Amazon’s terms and conditions of the Kindle MatchBook program and may change without notification to the publisher.

As mentioned before, the eBook editions of The New Testament Code: The Cup of the Lord, the Damascus Covenant, and the Blood of Christ contains the back materials. So if you’re a print or eBook reader, all the materials are available to you at the best price possible.

The New Testament Code: The Cup of the Lord, the Damascus Covenant, and the Blood of Christ Synopsis.

In The New Testament Code: The Cup of the Lord, the Damascus Covenant, and the Blood of Christ world-renowned scholar and bestselling author Robert Eisenman uncovers the Truth and unravels the real code behind New Testament allusions like “this is the Cup of the New Covenant in my blood” and connects them to “the New Covenant in the Land of Damascus” and “drinking the Cup of the Wrath of God” in the Dead Sea Scrolls.


In doing so, Eisenman demonstrates the integral relationship of James the Brother of Jesus to the Righteous Teacher of the Dead Sea Scrolls, deciphers the way the picture of “Jesus” was put together in the Gospels, and clarifies the real history of Palestine in the first century and, as a consequence, what can be known about the real “Jesus.” In paring away the traces of Greco-Roman anti-Semitism—which were deliberately introduced into “this picture” thereby tainting Western history ever since—The New Testament Code shows what happened in Palestine in that time, not what the enemies of those making war against Rome wanted people to think happened.

In making these arguments and exposing these revisions, overwrites, and falsifications that were introduced into the New Testament, Eisenman also explains the esoteric meaning of many of the usages with which we are all so familiar in the Western World. In doing so, he identifies the Scrolls as the literature of ‘the Messianic Movement in Palestine’ and ‘decodes’ many well-known and beloved sayings in the Gospels such as, “Every Plant which My Heavenly Father has not planted shall be uprooted,” “Do not throw Holy Things to dogs,” “A man shall not be known by what goes into his mouth but, rather, by what comes out of it,” and “These are the signs that the Lord did in Cana of Galilee.” Offering a thorough and in-depth, point-by-point analysis of James’ relationship to the Dead Sea Scrolls, he illumines such subjects as the “Pella Flight,” “the Wilderness Camps,” and Paul as an “Herodian,” exposing Peter’s true historical role as “a prototypical Essene,” who was used in the Gospels and the Book of Acts as a mouthpiece for Anti-Semitism, and demonstrating how, once we have found the Historical James, we have found the Historical Jesus.

He covers new archaeological discoveries along the Dead Sea, AMS radiocarbon dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the controversial almost miraculous appearance of the “James Ossuary” (which he considers having been based on his book on James) and the reasons for its being considered a fraud. A crucial new point that emerges in The New Testament Code is the identification of the document known as the MMT as a Letter from James to someone early Church Fathers call the “Great King of the Peoples beyond the Euphrates.” Readers will not be disappointed.

The crowning point of all his arguments will be his exposition of the relationship of “the New Covenant in the Land of Damascus” in the Dead Sea Scrolls to the ritual of “the Last Supper;” and ‘the Cup’ connected to both, to be but a parody–one of the other. The final mysteries of the Dead Sea Scrolls as they relate to Peter, Paul and James will be elucidated. Did Paul know the meaning of the famous Damascus Document, discovered in the Cairo Genizah in 1897, “to set the Holy Things up according to their precise specifications”? Or the reverse of it, as Peter was presented as discovering it in the Books of Acts—to make “no distinctions between Holy and profane”? These and many other questions will be revealed in The New Testament Code.

The New Testament Code: The Cup of the Lord, the Damascus Covenant,and the Blood of Christ is available in print and eBook editions at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other fine online retailers. You can read an excerpt of this text by clicking here.

Follow Grave Distractions Publications on Twitter @GraveDistract, Facebook, Pintrest, or LinkedIn.

Barnes and Noble to Drop Nook Sales and App in the UK

Yesterday afternoon we received an email from the Barnes and Noble Nook team announcing that as

of 15 March 2016, they will no longer be selling digital editions in the United Kingdom. Here are the relevant portions of that email:

We are writing to announce an important change to our NOOK Service that will affect NOOK Press vendors publishing content in the United Kingdom. Effective March 15, 2016, NOOK will no longer sell digital content in the United Kingdom. The NOOK Store on NOOK devices sold in the UK, on the NOOK Reading App for Android, and at www.nook.com/gb will discontinue operations.

NOOK customers in the UK will continue to have access to purchased NOOK Books until May 31, 2016. After this date, NOOK has arranged for the award‑winning Sainsbury's Entertainment on Demand to provide access to customers' purchased NOOK Books.

There is no change to NOOK Service or NOOK Press in the United States...

We'd like to thank you for continuing to be a part of the NOOK Press community and sharing our passion for books. We will try to make the transition as smooth as possible for you and our customers who have purchased your titles in the UK.

We've redacted some items that are related to publishers outside the United States and how this change will effect those publishers.

There was no indication as to why Barnes and Noble will so abruptly discontinue service to the United Kingdom or why readers will not be able to access titles they've purchased after 31 May 2016. For those in the UK who have purchased the actual Nook eReader, there's no further information as to what the functionality of your device will be. 

For readers who have purchased Grave Distractions Publications titles in the UK, we apologize that Barnes and Noble has pulled the rug out from under you. We are contractually bound to the terms and service agreements of our digital vendors and other than voice our concerns, there's not much we can do about their decision. We also suggest that you contact Barnes and Noble with any questions and concerns you might have about these changes.

As for Grave Distractions Publications, we will still continue to distribute our titles in the United Kingdom via Amazon, Google Books, Gardeners, and other ancillary eBook vendors.

Follow Grave Distractions Publications on Twitter @GraveDistract, Facebook, Pintrest, or LinkedIn. 

New Release The Metaphysics of Spiritual Healing and the Power of Affirmative Prayer by Reverend Michael Carter

Can Prayer Truly Heal Body and Soul? In The Metaphysics of Spiritual Healing and the Power of Affirmative Prayer, Reverend Carter continues to focus on the God-Power that resides in each and every one of us. Acknowledging that traditional Christianity teaches that we are indeed separate from our Creator or Source, Reverend Carter emphasizes that we can be transformed by "the renewing of our minds" using the techniques of spiritual metaphysics and affirmative prayer. When we really come to believe that we are not separate from but indeed part of the energy and Intelligence many of us refer to as "God," we become happier, more loving, and fulfilled human beings. In this way, the world we have awaited for will eventually become the world attained.

This title is now available in print and ebook editions at fine online retailers like Amazon and Barnes and Noble. For a full listing of vendors, visit this book's page at the Grave Distractions Publications website here. 

About Author Reverend Michael Carter

Reverend Michael J. Carter is originally from Baltimore, Maryland. He moved to New York City in 1980 and lived there for 25 years, working as a professional actor before moving to Asheville with his family. Michael is an ordained Interfaith minister and received his BA Degree in Letters from the College of New Rochelle where he graduated cum laude. He received his Masters In Divinity Degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City (class of 2000). While serving various Unitarian Universalist Congregations in New York, Michael was trained as an anti-racism trainer and has been recognized by President Clinton for his efforts. Michael was also a weekly columnist for the Asheville Citizen Times. Rev. Carter now serves as the minister for Unitarian Universalist Congregation of The Swananoa Valley, in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina.

Reverend Carter has written articles on UFOs and Religion for such publications as UFO Magazine, Alien Encounters(A British Publication), the MUFON UFO Journal, Contact Forum, the S.P.A.C.E. Newsletter (Support Program for Abductees Contact Encounters) a UFO support group in New York City. He has spoken at UFO Conferences such as the Contact In The Desert 2015, ARE Ancient Mysteries Conference, 2nd Philadelphia, Need To Know Conference, the Annual Long Island UFO Conference with Budd Hopkins, as well as appearing on radio and TV appearances across the nation. Reverend Carter has also appeared on Japanese television discussing the Bible and UFOs.

A long-time UFO experiencer, Carter lectures extensively on the topic of religion and UFOs. He has appeared on the Sci-Fi Channel and Steven Spielberg production of Abduction Diaries,The Real 4400, the nationally syndicated Coast to Coast AM radio show, and is a frequent guest on the History Channel’s production of Ancient Aliens. 

Follow Grave Distractions Publications on Twitter @GraveDistract, Facebook, Pintrest, or LinkedIn. 

Tim Wallace-Murphy's The Genesis of a Tragedy: A Brief History of the Palestinian People

We've been waiting to make this announcement until this title hit the streets. Tim Wallace-Murphy is the newest member of the Grave Distractions Publications family. We've reissued a previously eBook only edition of Tim's The Genesis of a Tragedy: A Brief History of the Palestinian People.  Tim Wallace-Murphy is a well known author and lecturer who has written twelve previous books on a variety of historical and spiritual themes. As a young idealist of Jewish extraction, steeped in military history, he was completely taken in by the mythology surrounding the foundation of the state of Israel. It was romantic, dramatic, appealing, and so professionally and pervasively promoted that he went for it hook, line and sinker. Truth did not even begin to impinge on this fantasy until after the bombing of Beirut and the TV news broadcasts about the massacres at Sabra and Shatilla. Then he began to search for the truth.  

Tim is no stranger to contentious issues and he tackles the controversial subject of Israeli/Palestinian history with deep and penetrating research and then lets the facts speak for themselves. The long catalogue of atrocities committed against the Palestinians are largely founded on official Israeli sources, government documents, Hagganah archives and the memoirs and diaries of a variety of Israeli politicians and generals. On reading the resulting narrative, the mythology that was created to describe the birth of Israel vanishes like snow on a hot shovel and the powerful and all pervasive litany of lies promulgated by successive Israel governments and their supporters are exposed as the distorted lying propaganda that it really is. Israel has become the experts at blaming the victims of the persecution it has conducted for over 70 years.   

The Genesis of a Tragedy: A Brief History of the Palestinian People is now available in print and eBook formats at a number of online retailers. The previous link as a current listing of vendors. If you're interested in this title, you also might like Islamic Law in Palestine and Israel: A History of the Survival of Tanzimat and Sharia in the British Mandate and the Jewish State by Robert Eisenman as well.

Follow Grave Distractions Publications on Twitter @GraveDistract, Facebook, Pintrest, or LinkedIn.