PHANTASMAGORIAS is an unflinching, honest account of the trauma and tragedy
inherent when self-serving authoritarian predators exploit our vulnerabilities.
Reminding us that the only ties we should allow to bind us are those forged by true love.
If you like eye-opening journeys, overcoming adversity, and gay coming of age, then prepare.
Royce Clay Slape Seiger's memoir transcends and is guaranteed to transport you.
Buy PHANTASMAGORIAS to reconsider fallacy versus reality today!
In 2002, Royce took his adventures further, signing up for a year-long internship with a nonprofit arts organization in Costa Rica.
Where he still lives, with the "Tico" (the name Costa Rican males call themselves), whom he has called Hubby, for eighteen years.
In 2007 Royce founded Intercultural Odysseys Costa Rica, Costa Rica's premier international Artist-in-Residence Program. Introducing artists from around the globe to Costa Rican art and culture.
Royce continues to see the world. His two favorite cities are Amsterdam and Paris. To date, he has visited upwards of a
dozen countries in Europe, Asia, and the Northern and Central Americas.
July 1, 2019, People Magazine Investigates: Cults, aired "The Movement of God." Publicly exposinig
the insidious cult that practically raised the author until he escaped in his early twenties.
January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared an international public health emergency.
Time to edit scenes he'd been scribbling for decades. Some days dreaming of publishing.
Other days content to relive, weep as needed, write when possible, heal, and move on.
These chronicles of a unique family life emerged:
separate but linked adventures in four distinct locations.
ROYCE CLAY SLAPE SEIGER
Regarding a fiction piece,
informed by but unrelated to,
PHANTASMAGORIAS
A MEMOIR
"I truly enjoyed this... wonderfully experimental in its way... thanks for the great read."
- Nate Brown, author, managing editor of American Short Fiction and senior lecturer at the University
Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University.
"Written well... nice phrasing and sentences throughout... you've also taken a risk – which I heartily encourage."
- Stefen Styrsky, associate fiction editor, Tahoma Literary Review
"We enjoyed it ... you do a great job with imagery... I was able to visually see all the scenes presented. In addition
to this, the narrator has a strong voice."
– Typehouse Literary Magazine
© Royce Clay Slape Seiger
PREORDER NOW
Book II
HOPING AGAINST HOPE
Longview, Washington
COMING SOON
Book III
SEQUESTERED BY A DOOMSDAY CULT
On a Homestead in Alaska
Book IV
THE AFTERMATH YEARS
Portland, Oregon
PHANTASMAGORIAS
A MEMOIR
(in series)
The Chronicles of a Loving,
Fractured Family
Book I
OUR BEGINNING
The Colorado Rockies
Grave mental illness.
Toxic religious radicalization.
To help liberate his family,
he must first unshackle his own mind.
CLICK the appropriate link from the menu button, to visit the website for Intercultural ODYSSEYS Costa Rica. Costa Rica's premeir international Artist-in-Residence Program founded by Royce Clay Seiger in 2017.
With Hubby and Hubby's mother, Grace, Royce shares custody of Sissy,
a toy French Poodle who when she isn't posing for photos, loves to
run like a champ around the racetrack at the local park.
Sissy's superpowers are the ability to soften hard hearts
and transmit her thoughts telepathically.
Regarding an essay excerpted from
PHANTASMAGORIAS
A MEMOIR
"A wonderful memoir essay in progress. Narrative structure is sound, the language and imagery are vivid,
characters are nicely developed. That opening paragraph deserves a chef's kiss of the fingers!
- -Ann Beman, co-publisher and nonfiction editor, Tahoma Literary Review
"Ambitious, and your perspective is one that would be of interest to many in this moment... you have
an obvious talent for anecdotal writing." – Masters Review workshop critique.
"You're an awesome writer and I enjoyed reading."
-Kayla (K.S.) Dunigan, author, and sensitivity reader.BlackSensitivityReader.com
His parents spoiled him. But Royce Clay Slape Seiger's childhood, otherwise idyllic, concealed a dark netherworld:
His daddy's wartime flashbacks and night sweats; his momma's intrusive thoughts and turbulent emotions.
Compounded by archaic rituals practiced by the insidious cult masquerading as their "church."
Royce sleepwalked, acted out strange scenarios in his sleep, and when things got their
scariest, he escaped through out-of-body experiences (OBEs).
Observations by fellow authors
regarding excerpts from
PHANTASMAGORIAS
A MEMOIR
About the writer, within earshot, holding up his manuscript:"This guy can really write."
To the writer: "I don't know how you did that, but it works!"
-Jenefer Shute, author of the novels Life-Size, Sex Crimes, Free Fall, and User ID."
"That. What you just read. I thought you were reading poetry."
- Gaylord Brewer, the author of fifteen previous books of poetry, fiction, criticism, and cookery.
"Royce Snape brought his own talent to the table."
- Carol Topolski, British novelist, author of Monster Love and Do No Harm.
(Royce notes, "A terrific misspelling of my paternal surname in the acknowledgments
of "Monster Love": Professor Snape of the Harry Potter saga? Epic!").
Praise for an essay
excerpted from
PHANTASMAGORIAS
A MEMOIR
Well-crafted... working at such a high level... great strengths: handling these topics with grace and sensitivity... the voice is
compelling, conversational, invites us into a particular world but then challenges us to look at our world, our own lives...
a privilege to read... tackling something challenging, and doing it well... not afraid to look at a complex, uncomfortable
subject and to challenge the reader to sit in their own discomfort... the courage to examine its speaker's life -- mistakes,
triumphs, and evolution of their own ideas... compelling... honest... topical, but also resonant beyond the speaker's particular experience giving it legs to last for a while... beautiful -- bravo!"
– Bridget Apfeld, Associate Editor, member of Carve Critiques team, Carve Magazine
Royce Clay Slape Seiger is a dual citizen:
USA by birth and Costa Rica for love.
He lived most of his first decade in Bond, a tiny
railroad town. Where he explored the Colorado Rockies
with his own Border Collie and Shetland Pony.
After a stint in Longview, WA of the Pacific Northwest,
he lived seven yearsmost of his teens,
in the remote Alaskan tundra.
Followed by his young adult years, upwards
of twenty, again in the Pacific Northwest
(this time Portland, OR) to study and work
as a Medical Social Worker.
Challenging and rewarding years which included
providing hospice care, as his profession, and as the
primary caregiver for his aging parents. Until
both passed, four years apart,
in the same bedroom of his home.