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NEW book: Blown: A Novel Set in the World of the Scientology Sea Org

CommunicatorIC

@IndieScieNews on Twitter
NEW book: Blown: A Novel Set in the World of the Scientology Sea Org

The novel is based on a true story. There is a planned sequel entitled SP.

Official website - Read Online: https://lhbbooks.com/home/

On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blown-Lauren-Halsted-Burroughs-ebook/dp/B01FWQOX9U/

Amazon version of the book is 218 pages long.

Article on Scientology Books and Media: https://scicrit.wordpress.com/2016/07/18/blown-a-novel-set-in-the-world-of-the-sea-org/

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* * * * * BEGIN AMAZON SUMMARY * * * * *

At the tender ages of only three and five, sisters Amory and Riley are abandoned by their mother at the Church of Scientology in Hollywood, California.

For sixteen long years Amory does what she’s told, following Church rules and regulations about every aspect of her life. Yet, while working in the Sea Org—the Church’s administrative organization comprised of the most dedicated members—Amory experiences for the first time a stirring yearning for freedom unlike anything she’s ever known.

When Riley admits that she’s pregnant, Amory knows she must do something and swallows a handful of pills in a desperate attempt to escape. When she wakes up, the Church places her in a strict ethics “rehabilitation” program that isolates her from family and friends.

As Amory becomes more convinced of her need to leave the Church, she struggles to disconnect from those around her and free herself from the ties that hold her to the only home she has.

Will Amory find the courage she needs to escape the manipulation and controlling demands of the only world she’s ever known?

Based on true-life events, Blown represents the first novel depicting life inside the repressive confines of the Church of Scientology.

* * * * * END AMAZON SUMMARY * * * * *

* * * * * BEGIN AMAZON ABOUT THE AUTHOR * * * * *

Lauren Halsted Burroughs teaches English at Cuyamaca Community College in San Diego, California.

Burroughs began her writing career as an editorial assistant at Surfing Girl Magazine and has worked as a journalist, grant writer, online content writer, and in research, and academic publishing. This is her debut novel.

* * * * * END AMAZON ABOUT THE AUTHOR * * * * *
 

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Mosay

Patron
I feel like this is all Scientology will be in the future.

Just a collection of social commentaries, fictional stories, jokes and documentaries.

It makes me feel optimistic :)
 

oneonewasaracecar

Gold Meritorious Patron
I feel like this is all Scientology will be in the future.

Just a collection of social commentaries, fictional stories, jokes and documentaries.

It makes me feel optimistic :)

Scientology was always just a collection of social commentaries, fictional stories, jokes and documentaries.
 

Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
Someone on FB said it may have been ghost written by the author but originated from an ex.

Do you think that's possible?

In the "About Blown" tab on the web site, it says that the book was based on interviews by the author with a friend who had been in.

I don't know if such a combination is workable or not. A work of fiction written by a long-time staff member or SO member that hews closely to real life would look unreal to a never-in. It's not believable that someone would give up 20 or 30 years of their life to work under horrendous day-by-day conditions for pennies an hour based on far-fetched scifi promises of "salvaging the galaxy" and so on.

There's a difference in all the little details, like the attitudes of people to one another, the specific words they use to describe things, that a never-in wouldn't notice but stand out to an ex as "fake." I know that a work of fiction is obviously fake, but it's like a Tom Clancy novel which gets (or seems to) all the little military details accurate: it comes through.

I don't know if it will appeal to never-ins. I suspect it won't appeal to exes much beyond the overall idea.

Paul
 

Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
My friend thinks the title "Blown" is awful.:eyeroll: (Yes, she knows what it means to Scientologists)

What does it mean to never-ins? BJ blown? Fly-blown? Glass blown? Cover blown? Trumpet blown? I'm not trying to be funny: I don't know, especially when associated with a gang of little kids in cutesy sailor uniforms in front of crenellations.

Paul
 

Little David

Gold Meritorious Patron
What does it mean to never-ins? BJ blown? Fly-blown? Glass blown? Cover blown? Trumpet blown? I'm not trying to be funny: I don't know, especially when associated with a gang of little kids in cutesy sailor uniforms in front of crenellations.

Paul
Her reply:

I think many people would think bj and do a double-take. It might make them look at the book, but kind of incredulously or with a wince. No one much outside the critics community knows about "blown" in the Scientology sense. Of course people who are already interested in the topic will read it anyway, but to those who don't know anything about it, I think the title would come across as an unintentional double-entendre, if the reader gets far enough to realize it's a double-entendre and unintentional.
 

Hypatia

Pagan
What does it mean to never-ins? BJ blown? Fly-blown? Glass blown? Cover blown? Trumpet blown? I'm not trying to be funny: I don't know, especially when associated with a gang of little kids in cutesy sailor uniforms in front of crenellations.

Paul

Well, there always the...no, I won't say it...
 

George Layton

Silver Meritorious Patron
What does it mean to never-ins? BJ blown? Fly-blown? Glass blown? Cover blown? Trumpet blown? I'm not trying to be funny: I don't know, especially when associated with a gang of little kids in cutesy sailor uniforms in front of crenellations.

Paul

Blown away, that a never-in would write it! The audacity!
 

CommunicatorIC

@IndieScieNews on Twitter
Sample: https://lhbbooks.com/2016/06/17/scene-20-billion-year-contract/

Looks like it was written by a never-in based on reading the Internet.

Paul
From the author's About page:

https://lhbbooks.com/about/

* * * * * BEGIN EXCERPT * * * * *

About BLOWN

The novel Blown began in the Spring of 2011. The story is based on the life experience of a good friend of mine. She would tell me things here and there about her life growing up in the Church of Scientology, and I always found her stories intriguing and shocking. One day, I encouraged her to get her experience on paper, as it is a story that needs to be told. But she is not a writer. That’s where I come in.

Our process began as a series of formal interviews. She would come over to my house and we would talk for hours, my voice recorder capturing every word that I would later transcribe. After talking with her, I would do my own research, and one thing I saw early in the process was that my friend’s experience shared many similarities to stories of other ex-Scientologists.


After outlining the basic plot and story structure, I began drafting chapters. Our original plan was for me to write a chapter, and then send it to my friend so she could read and edit, fill in details and make corrections. However, one page into the first chapter, she realized it was just too difficult, her own experience still too raw to confront so directly.

With her blessing, I continued to write, edit, write, edit. Now, I have a “completed” manuscript. It is a novel, and not a memoir, because I did need to take some creative license for the purpose of drafting a compelling story. However, I am posting the chapters on a blog in order to get feedback from readers, and hopefully from ex-Scientologists who can give me the critique my friend was not able to give.

Please help me make this story even better with your comments. I do want to publish this story, as my friend wants to share her experience with as many people as possible and hopefully see the church shut down one day soon. That’s actually how she wanted Blown to end, but that will be the ending of the sequel, SP. Stay tuned.

* * * * * END EXCERPT * * * * *
 
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