The world’s largest oil
painting. A 400-year-old murder. A disembodied whisper: “Amore mio.” My love.
Nick and Julia O’Connor’s
dream trip to Venice collapses when a haunting voice reaches out to Nick from
Tintoretto’s Paradise, a monumental depiction of Heaven. Convinced his
delusions are the result of a concussion, Julia insists her husband see a
doctor, though Nick is adamant the voice was real.
Blacking out in the museum,
Nick flashes back to a life as a 16th century Venetian peasant swordsman. He
recalls precisely who the voice belongs to: Isabella Scalfini, a married
aristocrat he was tasked to seduce but with whom he instead found true love. A
love stolen from them hundreds of years prior.
She implores Nick to liberate
her from a powerful order of religious vigilantes who judge and sentence souls
to the canvas for eternity. Releasing Isabella also means unleashing thousands
of other imprisoned souls, all of which the order claims are evil.
As
infatuation with a possible hallucination clouds his commitment to a
present-day wife, Nick’s past self takes over. Wracked with guilt, he can no
longer allow Isabella to remain tormented, despite the consequences. He must
right an age-old wrong – destroy the painting and free his soul mate. But the
order will eradicate anyone who threatens their ethereal prison and their
control over Venice.
Trigger Warnings.
Violence, a rape scene, a torture scene.
Buy Links:
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( ¸.•´✶
Rob Samborn
Fun Facts
(Stuff you may or may not already know.)
I survived a plane crash.
Well,
it was more like a plane fender-bender, but still. I’ve traveled a great bit
(forty countries, forty U.S. States, five continents) and have had some incredible
trips, but this crash wasn’t even the culmination of the worst trip of my life.
I
was returning from a business trip to New Delhi, on which I contracted
dysentery. I had a connecting flight in Newark before finally returning to my
home in Los Angeles and while we were on the tarmac waiting to take off,
another plane hit us! Thankfully we weren’t in the air and nobody was hurt, but
the damage was severe enough that both planes were grounded.
Six
hours later, we finally took off in new planes. Still ill, I returned home to
find my girlfriend at the time had broken up with me and rats had moved into my
apartment. Not the greatest of trips, but it makes for a cool story!
I hitchhiked to Romania.
While
doing a semester abroad in the city of Pécs in southern Hungary, I had been
living on a budget of three dollars, which was actually enough for three meals,
beers, and cigarettes.
Another
American student and I learned we could stretch our dollar even further in
Romania, where vodka and cigarettes were even cheaper. So, along with a
Hungarian friend, the three of us decided to hitchhike to Romania.
After
multiple rides, including being dropped off in the middle of nowhere and
sleeping in the back of a nightclub, we finally made it to within a few miles
of the border. The only problem? Nobody wanted to take these obviously American
kids across. Finally, we were picked up by the cops, who, it turned out, just
wanted to see U.S. passports. We ended up taking the bus back and spending much
more than we ever expected to save, but it sure was a great adventure.
I’ve been in three movies.
At
one point in my writing career, I was a screenwriter in Los Angeles. Being
involved in the movies, you meet a lot of people and I was invited to be an
extra on multiple occasions. I opted for three, all fantastic experiences.
These were Point Doom, starring Ice-T (with whom I had a scene), Richard Grieco
and Angie Everhart; Varsity Blues, with James Van Der Beek, Jon Voight, and a
then-unknown Paul Walker; and Collateral, starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx.
I was
a club dancer in Collateral in a major action scene. Tom Cruise shoots five
people and the place goes berserk. Prior to the shooting, Tom Cruise needed to
navigate the dancers. Due to the intricacies of the scene, director Michael
Mann needed to shoot it about ten times. And each time Tom had to bump into me
as he traversed the dance floor. (BTW, he’s a super nice guy and bought
everybody (at least a hundred people) dinner.)
I used to work for the Japanese government.
Prior
to following my dream as a writer, I was an International Relations major with
minors in Japanese and Political Science, on track to take the foreign service
exam. My first job out of college was with the Japan External Trade
Organization, a branch of the Japanese government’s version of the U.S.
Department of Commerce. This was in New York (where I’m from). My job was to
help American businesses from seventeen states in doing business with Japan.
I dabbled as an artist and musician.
As
an artist, my medium was a mixed media collage. Specifically, I worked with
money—actual money—creating images with U.S. currency. As a musician, I play
guitar and sing. I’ve been in two bands and played live about fifty times.
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To
learn more about The Prisoner of Paradise or to find purchase locations, visit the author's Website
Follow the Tour HERE
Rob Samborn
In addition to being a novelist, Rob
Samborn is a screenwriter, entrepreneur, and avid traveler. He’s been to forty
countries, lived in five of them, and studied nine languages. As a restless
spirit who can’t remember the last time he was bored, Rob is on a quest to
explore the intricacies of our world and try his hand at a multitude of crafts;
he’s also an accomplished artist and musician, as well as a budding furniture
maker. A native New Yorker who lived in Los Angeles for twenty years, he now
makes his home in Denver with his wife, daughter, and dog.
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