The Who Picked This Book? club featured Lipscomb English professor Dana Carpenter’s Bohemian Gospel on Tuesday in Beaman Library.
Bohemian Gospel is a historical fiction thriller set in thirteenth-century Bohemia. The novel is Carpenter’s debut first and has appeared in The Arkansas Review, Jersey Devil Press and Maypop. The novel also won Killer Nashville’s 2014 Claymore Award.
The novel tells the harrowing tale of a bold, fierce and unusual young orphan girl named Mouse, who is on a quest to uncover her past and find her destiny. Carpenter said that a lot of readers will be able to relate to Mouse’s challenges along the journey, as well as her courage during the process of self-discovery.
“All of us can relate to that struggle, and isn’t that what we are here to do?” Carpenter said.
Carpenter said she is a person of faith, and although her book is not a Christian novel, it is considered to be “deeply spiritual.”
“Mouse’s experiences will cause the reader to examine the nature of Good vs. Evil,” Carpenter noted. “The book asks tough spiritual questions without an agenda. It encourages readers to start asking themselves the complicated questions and finding their own answers.”
Her advice to other new writers is not to be too self-critical.
“First drafts are supposed to be bad,” Carpenter said. “As a writer, you won’t always know what’s next. You may struggle and wrestle with the outcome and the direction of the story — but just don’t quit.”
Bohemian Gospel is available at Beaman Library, Green Hills Branch Library, on Amazon and Kindle and in New Releases in Barnes and Nobles.
The book club’s meeting began with an overview of Carpenter’s thoughts during the creation of the story, as well as history on ancient Bohemia and a discussion on the historical research and challenges that went into creation and development of her characters. Later, Carpenter followed with a book reading and audience Q&A session, closing with a book signing.
Carpenter talked to fans about unsolved mysteries in Bohemian Gospel and assured eager readers that loose ends will be tied up, and many questions will be answered in the upcoming, anticipated follow-up novel. The sequel to Bohemian Gospel is scheduled for release on March 2, and is entitled the Devils Bible.
Also in the works for projected release next spring is The Crop Duster’s Daughter, which is loosely based on her father’s life.
Carpenter admitted that being a writer has its challenges, especially attempting to balance her writing time with being a full-time professor, and additionally a wife and mother of two homeschooled children.
“I learned that I can do things I didn’t think I could do,” Carpenter said. “It is very demanding, but it makes me stronger in the end. Being a writer has enhanced my teaching and also helped me make a lot of connections that get many of my student’s internships as well.”
The Who Picked This Book? club was created through collaboration with Nashville’s Green-Hills-Branch-Librarian Chad L’Eplattenier and Elizabeth Heffington, catalogue and collection development librarian at Lipscomb’s Beaman Library. The book club was formed in September of 2015 in hopes of bringing the Lipscomb community closer to the greater Nashville area through the love of reading.
The club meets twice a semester. The next meeting will be held on Feb 7, and the featured selection will be New York Times Best Seller HomeGoing by Yaa Gyasi.