Wives and Sisters and secret symbols

Ack! I’ve been asked to join the Girlfriend’s Cyber Circuit, and in all the hullabaloo of the recent current events, I almost forgot to tour my very first assignment.

Natalie R. Collins is a thriller writer whose book, Wives and Sisters, exposes the dangers of a community so wrapped up in their fundamental religion that they are willing to overlook a crime. The first chapter is available here, but I’m warning you, read it at your local Wi-Fi enabled bookstore, because you’ll want to run right out and grab a copy.

Wives and Sisters is a story about a Mormon woman, Allison, who as a child, witnessed a horrible crime that was hushed up by her community. She never even had her own questions answered about what really happened to her childhood friend. It’s a story of rage, of discovery, of self-empowerment, and of the search for justice.

Pretty heavy stuff.

And check out some of the reviews:

“A dark, powerful debut novel. Natalie Collins pulls no emotional punches crafting this searing tale.”—Lisa Gardner, author of The Killing Hour

“Startling and compelling— I could not stop turning the pages. Natalie Collins weaves an absolutely riveting tale.” — Tess Gerritsen, NY Times Bestselling author of The Sinner

“This is not a book that can be put down. It’s so compelling, so dramatic, with strong suspense and mystery elements, that I had to find out what would happen… I had to check the locks before I could go to sleep after finishing.” –Perri O’Shaughnessy, NY Times bestselling author of Unlucky in Law

And of course, from the notoriously tough Kirkus Reviews:

“A white-knuckles ride all the way. Expert depiction of a young woman’s struggle with the oppressive “family values” of one kind of fundamentalism. Newcomer Collins is a talent to watch.”–Kirkus Reviews

Natalie is somewhat of a firebrand, and regularly stirs up controversy on her blog, Trapped By The Mormons: Living Life Behind the Zion Curtain. At the risk of breaking my pledge not to talk religion on DD, I have to say that blog title might be one of the cleverest ones I’ve seen yet. I giggle every time I pop in to take a look at her latest report.

Personally, I can’t decide which is more compelling: Natalie’s fiction, or her non-fiction reports on her blog. I admire her for her commitment to exposing what she sees as abuses and wrongs within the system. She certainly isn’t afraid to put her money where her mouth is.

In contrast, I find myself increasingly stymied about what to say on my blog, knowing that it can be read by anyone who cares to take a look. Some bloggers, like Natalie and Alisa Valdez Rodriguez, talk politics and religion all the time, and screw anyone who decides not to like them for it (or, you know, threatens to firebomb their house). For the record, no secret society members have threatened me… yet. Maybe it’s because I don’t tell secrets on my blog.

Well, inspired by the forthright nature of Natalie R. Collins and also the religion which informs her fiction, I think I’m going to take this opportunity to spill:

So, one of the most famous secret societies in this country and the world are the Masons. Most of the founding fathers were Masons, there is a lot of Masonic imagery in the symbols of our nation (check out a dollar bill sometimes. That pyramid? Yeah, just the tip of the iceberg, no pun intended). In my city of Washington D.C., only a few miles from the enormous white Mormon Temple (topped with a shiny gold statue of Joseph Smith, facing Salt Lake City) there is an even huger Masonic Temple, built as a replica of the Tomb of Mausollus in Halicarnassus — i.e., the Mausoleum, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

The Masons were originally a trade society of builders — a sort of forerunner to a union. In ancient times, if you came to town, looking for work, you proved to the other masons in town that you were one of them and knew all the cool info about building arches and hardening cement under water and stuff by revealing to them the secret signals, handshakes, codewords, etc. that only members of your society knew.

Masons aren’t necessarily contractors anymore, but they still have the secret handshakes and other symbols. Unfortunately, over the centuries, those symbols and signals have been co-opted by other groups looking for some secret handshakes of their own. Some of these groups are college fraternities, secret societies, and yes, the Church of Latter Day Saints. Imagine the surprise (and dismay) of a young Mormon pledge upon discovering that a secret symbol of his religion is the same as one his frat uses at every meeting.

Another cool story (perhaps apocryphal) about these symbols, though this one doesn’t have anything to do with Mormons, so we’re getting a bit off topic (sorry, Natalie!) is about some of the first European explorers in the Australian continent. The story goes that the explorers came upon a tribe of Aborigines. One aborigine came up to the head of the party, and shook his hand, making a Masonic symbol indicating the explorer’s rank. The explorer thought the guy was a mind reader!

So, you may think your society’s symbols are secret, but maybe they’ve been used by Aborigines for millenia.

And that, folks, is why my books are comedy.