Of all the books I’ve published, INTERCESSION has ignited my most passion, and I will now share the reason with you.
The year before I wrote the book, I discovered that the local priest in the parish in which I live had molested someone close to me when he was 7 or 8 years old. I cannot explain the surge of rage and revenge I had in my heart. The only explanation that makes sense to me is that my DNA, my heritage from a land that was overtaken and controlled by outsiders for centuries, had surfaced.
I thought for days about how I was going to take manners into my own hands. I actually began planning this evil man’s demise. Suddenly, it dawned on me. I had never done anything like that before, and there was karma to consider. Besides, what good would I be to my family if I were caught and sent to prison? So, I decided to put my vengeance on paper.
The characters, the killings, the locations, and the chase of John Deegan by Vic Gonnella and Raquel Ruiz poured out of me like a torrent. During the writing of INTERCESSION, I barely slept and was in a dreamlike state when I was awake, constantly thinking about the characters and their next moves. When I was writing, it was as if I couldn’t wait to finish each paragraph.
I made sure that not only catholic priests were the victims of the protagonist Deegan so as not to be criticized as being anti-Catholic. Honestly, ten years later, I still get hate e-mails and texts and inboxes and calls from some people who take the book as an attack on Jesus and His church. It is nothing of the sort. I am anti-pedophile, not anti-priest. No one has ever heard me criticize the moral teachings of the church in which I was raised and educated.
My message in INTERCESSION is as clear as Jesus’ own words. “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
Some movie makers are interested in the INTERCESSION script. My message will reach millions, and I’m hoping it happens soon. However, I will never give up the fight to protect innocent children from predators, no matter who they are.
