First Week of Book Sales

It's been an exciting first week since "Ungodly" hit the bookstore shelves. At the Macon Barnes & Noble, where Christopher Paine led the drive to the book named as B&N's "must-read" title for the summer, it was the best-selling book at the store over the past weekend. There have been lots of encouragement and postive responses to "Ungodly", but perhaps the most gratifying to me has been the endorsements from African-American readers. After all, I'm a white guy writing about a predominantly black community. I attempted to do it in a colorblind fashion, and it has been great to hear that blacks who read the book credit me with some success in that effort.
First of all, Dr. Catherine Meeks, of Mercer University and the Center for Racial Understanding in Macon, gave a strong testimonial for the book for a DVD, which was used for in-house education and marketing by Barens & Noble. She stated that she was prepared not to like the book, because of the nature of the crimes it detailed. However, she felt that the racial issues raised in "Ungodly" were set in a sociological and historical context that made it easier to understand. After a speech I gave to the Downtown Rotary Club in Macon, a black member of the club approached me and thanked me for writing the book. He was a corrections officer who was familiar with the difficulties York and the Nuwaubians posed while he was in state custody. He had little patience for the loyalists who are still trying to claim that York is innocent. Then, at one of the Barnes & Noble stores, I was engaged in a bracing discussion of the book with a young black woman who works at the store. She said she normally reads a book in a matter of hours, but this one, she had to go slow, due to the painful stories that are told. She asked me, "Did you ever get past the feeling of disgust when you were writing about what this man did?" Sadly, I had to answer, "No".
The topper was the reaction from a black woman, a former cult member who was an important source for my research. After reading the book, she told me, "You've finally told our story." It was perhaps the best compliment I could have received. That's it for now.

Book Tour Begins in Macon

The Ungodly book-signing tour got off to a splendid start Thursday in Macon. The stream of customers was steady but slow enough for me to chat with some very interesting folks. Two people mentioned in the book came to buy copies, including a former chairman of the Putnam County Commission who was in the thick of the zoning battles with the Nuwaubians. Also, a book was purchased for the federal judge who presided over York's trial. It was gratifying for me to see people who shared their stories with me express strongly positive reactions to the book. The highlight of the signing was the appearance of a woman who was a close friend of Flannery O'Connor's. She thought the passages about O'Connor and the other literary lions of the region, Alice Walker and Joel Chandler Harris, were handled well. She is also related to the people who bought the Tama-Re property from the federal government, after it was confiscated due to York's racketeering conviction. She told me of the massive job of disposing of the tons and tons of concrete York poured for his Egyptian theme park, and of the massive landfill fees that had to be paid. I inscribed one of the books she purchased, To the destroyer of Tama-Re Also Thursday in Macon, a small group of Nuwaubian loyalists picketed City Hall, continuing to protest York's conviction. I made a serious effort in the book to interview former cult members in order to understand the motivations of the people who joined. They spoke of a legitimate desire to be part of a community where blacks could live as they chose. However, at this stage of the game, the logic of the protesters totally eludes me, and I have no desire to make the effort to understand them. I can have a dialogue with just about anybody, but I draw the line at trying to deal with people who will try to defend York, a convicted child molester of epic proportions. And please, don't give me that conspiracy argument. I've talked to the victims. I know they were telling the truth. To depict them as part of a conspiracy is both ridiculous and demeaning, not to mention a form of continuing exploitation. The Nuwaubian protesters were smart enough, though, to realize that picketing the signing would only bring more attention to the book. So, we were actually somewhat disappointed that they didn't show up. There was, however, a guy with a Free York tee shirt lurking by his lonesome self in the parking lot of the bookstore. That's it for now.

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