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Salome's Conversion
"Salome's Conversion" is a beautiful rendition of the Gospel as seen through the eyes of Salome, the step-daughter of Herod, and her Roman guard, Decius. Their story intertwines with that of Jesus and the Apostles to give insight into Hebrew and Roman life at the times and the affect the Lord had on the day to day affairs of the people. Quotes from the King James Version of the bible in the narrative gives the story a classic feel.
181 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 11, 2011
14 people want to read
About the author
Rohn Federbush
18 books207 followersMotivations for my Novels.
My husband says I need to practice talking about my books, not the content but how I came up with the ideas. So here goes, as far as I remember. I’ve always written. When I was a full-time employee of the University of Michigan, I couldn’t wait until I retired to write all day. I thought I would be published by a traditional publisher by now. I’ve finished more than fifteen novels and two novellas. After buying three filing cabinets and FILLING them with rejection slips for my poetry, short stories, and novels. I decided to self-publish.
The first novel was “Salome’s Conversion.” I never liked Oscar Wilde’s seduction rendition or the death scene in the Strauss opera where the soldiers kill the dancer by plummeting her with their shields. According to Josephus’s history, Salome was merely twelve or thirteen when she danced at her mother’s request for her step-father. Claiming her innocence, I decided to write about her escape from Herod and where she might have taken refuge during the three years our Savior, Jesus Christ walked the earth. In my King James Version the authors move around the miracles to suit their tastes. I did the same. I also made Mary Magdalene the Mary, whose brother was Lazarus. Salome doubts all the miracles until the Resurrection.
Then I published three historicals. As a member of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church’s history group, I was able to take advantage of their access to the Bentley Library. Diaries of members and the general populations have abstracts to choose from. The biggest donor to the church also became the first president of Michigan’s History Society. It seems he was innocent of a larceny charge and took it all the way to the Supreme Court to prove he was free of any wrong doing. Apparently he wanted future generations to be aware of his struggle. However, when he was only thirteen, he attended the Maumee Rapids Treaty signing, which gave President Monroe enough land from the Indians to build the Erie Canal. The treaty with all the names of the seven tribes around the Great Lakes in 1818 is kept in the Ann Arbor District library. So I wrote “North Parish” to reconstruct the trip around the lakes to acquire consensus for attendance at the treaty signing. Of course, I wrote about a young couple that falls in love with each other during the voyages.
My 1841 novel “Floating Home” was inspired by a lighthouse keeper’s diary. He had propagated seven children before his Ann Arbor wife sent him off to man a lighthouse in Lake Superior. The diary contained descriptions of his lonely hours and daily tasks as well as a detailed drawing of a large wooden globe and its rotating stand. For my hero’s heroine I chose an Irish gal escaping the potato famine. The young nobleman is an artist and wants the lonely habitat to fulfill his dreams of being an artist.
The 1879 novel “Love’s Triumph” came from reading a biography of a man called Vaughn who funds scholarships for chemistry students at the University. I use him as a well-documented villain of Ann Arbor’s typhoid epidemic. For the heroine I conjured up the second female lawyer in Ann Arbor living with her Civil War veteran grandfather. Her hero is the oldest son of a furniture maker who loses most of his family to the disease.
Agatha Christy and Elizabeth George books tempted me to try my hand at mystery writing. “Sally Bianco Mystery Series” contains four different crimes and their solutions by a sixty-nine year old retired lady.
“Bonds of Affection” combines the female race-car driver who lived in an apartment across the hall from me in my younger days with my mother’s loss from cancer and a pair of high school twins who fill out the romance'sstory line.
My husband says I need to practice talking about my books, not the content but how I came up with the ideas. So here goes, as far as I remember. I’ve always written. When I was a full-time employee of the University of Michigan, I couldn’t wait until I retired to write all day. I thought I would be published by a traditional publisher by now. I’ve finished more than fifteen novels and two novellas. After buying three filing cabinets and FILLING them with rejection slips for my poetry, short stories, and novels. I decided to self-publish.
The first novel was “Salome’s Conversion.” I never liked Oscar Wilde’s seduction rendition or the death scene in the Strauss opera where the soldiers kill the dancer by plummeting her with their shields. According to Josephus’s history, Salome was merely twelve or thirteen when she danced at her mother’s request for her step-father. Claiming her innocence, I decided to write about her escape from Herod and where she might have taken refuge during the three years our Savior, Jesus Christ walked the earth. In my King James Version the authors move around the miracles to suit their tastes. I did the same. I also made Mary Magdalene the Mary, whose brother was Lazarus. Salome doubts all the miracles until the Resurrection.
Then I published three historicals. As a member of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church’s history group, I was able to take advantage of their access to the Bentley Library. Diaries of members and the general populations have abstracts to choose from. The biggest donor to the church also became the first president of Michigan’s History Society. It seems he was innocent of a larceny charge and took it all the way to the Supreme Court to prove he was free of any wrong doing. Apparently he wanted future generations to be aware of his struggle. However, when he was only thirteen, he attended the Maumee Rapids Treaty signing, which gave President Monroe enough land from the Indians to build the Erie Canal. The treaty with all the names of the seven tribes around the Great Lakes in 1818 is kept in the Ann Arbor District library. So I wrote “North Parish” to reconstruct the trip around the lakes to acquire consensus for attendance at the treaty signing. Of course, I wrote about a young couple that falls in love with each other during the voyages.
My 1841 novel “Floating Home” was inspired by a lighthouse keeper’s diary. He had propagated seven children before his Ann Arbor wife sent him off to man a lighthouse in Lake Superior. The diary contained descriptions of his lonely hours and daily tasks as well as a detailed drawing of a large wooden globe and its rotating stand. For my hero’s heroine I chose an Irish gal escaping the potato famine. The young nobleman is an artist and wants the lonely habitat to fulfill his dreams of being an artist.
The 1879 novel “Love’s Triumph” came from reading a biography of a man called Vaughn who funds scholarships for chemistry students at the University. I use him as a well-documented villain of Ann Arbor’s typhoid epidemic. For the heroine I conjured up the second female lawyer in Ann Arbor living with her Civil War veteran grandfather. Her hero is the oldest son of a furniture maker who loses most of his family to the disease.
Agatha Christy and Elizabeth George books tempted me to try my hand at mystery writing. “Sally Bianco Mystery Series” contains four different crimes and their solutions by a sixty-nine year old retired lady.
“Bonds of Affection” combines the female race-car driver who lived in an apartment across the hall from me in my younger days with my mother’s loss from cancer and a pair of high school twins who fill out the romance'sstory line.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 22, 2013
This would have been an enjoyeble (if preachy) book if it had not used historical characters the way it did. But it did, and consequentially there were so many historical inacuraties, that I found the book irritating. Salome's involvement with a Roman soldier may make a good love story, and her lenghty path to convertion may be interesting, but it does not fit in with known history.
It seems that American authors do not know what it is to live in an occupied country. They always seem to side with the Romans, who were actually ruthless and cruel oppressors, and the biggest slave drivers in the history of mankind. No Jewish girl would get romantically involved with a Roman, she would be rejected by her own people, maybe even murdered. Besides,Roman soldiers were not allowed to marry till after they were dismissed from the army. Moreover, Herod Antipas did not employ Roman soldiers, he had his own army, and his soldiers would join the Roman army as auxiliaries if needed. Roman soldiers had no business in Galilee, which, unlike Jerusalem, was Herod's territory.
Salome's dance is traditionally seen as erotic, but in this book it is turned it into something sadistic, which would not have been appropriate for a party. A party at which Herodias could not have been present, for men and women partied separately in those days. Moreover, at 14, Salome would never have been regarded a child. The minimum age for marrying in 1st century Judea was 12.5yrs, which was the age when children became adults and were responsible for their actions.
The use of red print I found annoying, and I just skipped over those parts in the end. If I want to read the bible I know where to go.
So is this a historical novel? I do not consider it so, it is an unlikely story of a royal (not imperial, please) girl and a Roman soldier, who, between them, are present at every major event in the NT. It is told well, but with a strong modern day western mind set, and, I am sorry to say so, not enough research. I like to learn something when I read a historical novel, so when I read a tale set in 1st century Israel, I do not expect to read about fur lined coats, harem pants (or any pants actually), or thatched roofs, etc, and I certainly would not expect to see the Dome of the Rock.
It seems that American authors do not know what it is to live in an occupied country. They always seem to side with the Romans, who were actually ruthless and cruel oppressors, and the biggest slave drivers in the history of mankind. No Jewish girl would get romantically involved with a Roman, she would be rejected by her own people, maybe even murdered. Besides,Roman soldiers were not allowed to marry till after they were dismissed from the army. Moreover, Herod Antipas did not employ Roman soldiers, he had his own army, and his soldiers would join the Roman army as auxiliaries if needed. Roman soldiers had no business in Galilee, which, unlike Jerusalem, was Herod's territory.
Salome's dance is traditionally seen as erotic, but in this book it is turned it into something sadistic, which would not have been appropriate for a party. A party at which Herodias could not have been present, for men and women partied separately in those days. Moreover, at 14, Salome would never have been regarded a child. The minimum age for marrying in 1st century Judea was 12.5yrs, which was the age when children became adults and were responsible for their actions.
The use of red print I found annoying, and I just skipped over those parts in the end. If I want to read the bible I know where to go.
So is this a historical novel? I do not consider it so, it is an unlikely story of a royal (not imperial, please) girl and a Roman soldier, who, between them, are present at every major event in the NT. It is told well, but with a strong modern day western mind set, and, I am sorry to say so, not enough research. I like to learn something when I read a historical novel, so when I read a tale set in 1st century Israel, I do not expect to read about fur lined coats, harem pants (or any pants actually), or thatched roofs, etc, and I certainly would not expect to see the Dome of the Rock.
June 1, 2012
This is one of the most unique formats I’ve seen in a book, to date. Because Jesus happens to be a character in the book, Ms. Federbush uses red font whenever His name is mentioned, and also for all of His dialogue, just like in the Bible.
I have always liked any story that involves Salome, and this one is no different. As in the Bible, it starts with Salome’s dance for King Herod on the night John the Baptist is beheaded, then proceeds through the three years she follows Jesus in His ministry, until His crucifixion and resurrection. Yes, we know what happens through much of the book, but Ms. Federbush has added the details to Salome’s life in a credible way that brings her to life for the reader, as she never has been before. Federbush gives Salome good reasons for the things she does, and appropriate consequences follow. Her thought processes and emotions fit very well within the circumstances already set forth scripturally. The same holds true for Decius, the Roman soldier who rescues her, and becomes her love interest.
There is one thing that jumped out at me throughout my reading: Mary Magdalene was depicted as the Mary who was Lazarus and Martha’s sister. Maybe I’m the only one, or maybe I haven’t connected the dots like everyone else, but I never thought of Mary Magdalene in this way before. It does, for the sake of the story, tie everything together neatly. That element is easily overlooked, allowing enjoyment of the rest of the story.
This book provides a new and entertaining way to learn from the teachings of Jesus. If you like to read Biblical fiction, then you will enjoy Salome’s Conversion.
(The Wordsmith Journal strives to guide readers to books of personal interest, with the understanding and respect that what appeals to some may not appeal to others. Therefore we attempt to keep our reviews focused on content, genre and style. The rating is necessary to make use of Goodreads and Amazon. It reflects the reviewer’s own level of enjoyment, but the review is intended to be informative for the benefit of all readers.)
I have always liked any story that involves Salome, and this one is no different. As in the Bible, it starts with Salome’s dance for King Herod on the night John the Baptist is beheaded, then proceeds through the three years she follows Jesus in His ministry, until His crucifixion and resurrection. Yes, we know what happens through much of the book, but Ms. Federbush has added the details to Salome’s life in a credible way that brings her to life for the reader, as she never has been before. Federbush gives Salome good reasons for the things she does, and appropriate consequences follow. Her thought processes and emotions fit very well within the circumstances already set forth scripturally. The same holds true for Decius, the Roman soldier who rescues her, and becomes her love interest.
There is one thing that jumped out at me throughout my reading: Mary Magdalene was depicted as the Mary who was Lazarus and Martha’s sister. Maybe I’m the only one, or maybe I haven’t connected the dots like everyone else, but I never thought of Mary Magdalene in this way before. It does, for the sake of the story, tie everything together neatly. That element is easily overlooked, allowing enjoyment of the rest of the story.
This book provides a new and entertaining way to learn from the teachings of Jesus. If you like to read Biblical fiction, then you will enjoy Salome’s Conversion.
(The Wordsmith Journal strives to guide readers to books of personal interest, with the understanding and respect that what appeals to some may not appeal to others. Therefore we attempt to keep our reviews focused on content, genre and style. The rating is necessary to make use of Goodreads and Amazon. It reflects the reviewer’s own level of enjoyment, but the review is intended to be informative for the benefit of all readers.)
March 25, 2012
With the main theme of the importance of doubt in our spiritual lives, "Salome's Conversion" allows modern readers to journey to Israel during the time Jesus walked the earth for three years.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews