Book Review — The Twelfth Window

It’s a sunny and warm Memorial Day where I am.  I’m taking a bit of a respite from barbecues until the next three-day weekend.

I read a review of The Twelfth Window by Becky from yabookscentral.com today.  It was posted nearly a month ago but it just showed up on google.  I google my own book daily to check the progress of click-thrus.

I was relieved that Becky found no wrong in Michael’s character.  It is very difficult to portray someone completely without sin when one is a Daughter of Eve like myself.  Becky kinda-sorta understood what I was trying to put across about the Trinitarian concept of God.  She saw that the protagonist of the story was a believeable, typical teenaged American girl. 

Becky was honest in her review.  Even at the end of the review, she owned up to the notion that maybe she just didn’t “get” The Twelfth Window.  That is o.k. with me because I am breaking new ground with the type of storytelling.  The only thing that I take to task is that Becky felt the writing was just all right.  She is wrong; it is very good writing!  I think that she was so busy picking through the theology of the story that there was little room for her to get carried away in the story as a whole.  She missed very important messages meant for teen readers that were conveyed.  If you have been reading my blog since its inception, you will see what I am talking about.   The very cover of the book, where it says “written, composed and arranged by” instead of “written by” is a huge hint that The Twelfth Window is a new way to tell an allegory using The Song of Solomon.  Another huge hint is the big wedding ring on the back cover, which tells you that it is an allegory about The Divine Lover of our souls, the LORD God of Israel. 

She criticizes that I used too many underlined words in the story.  She must be thinking of the italics.  The moment that she did not grasp that the meaning of the italicized script denotes a supernatural portion of the story, she didn’t have a chance.  I think that Becky read my book the way an atheist reads the Bible.

The more I muse over her review, the more I realize that it technically isn’t a bad review.  I think she sped through it.  Perhaps this isn’t her type of book.  Heck, I detest anything written in the 19th Century! She had a problem with the “almost” feel of the setting.  Well, anything not reality is fantasy… unless you’re Hillary Clinton, hahahaha.  Becky also underhandedly accused me of borrowing from Frank Peretti; let the record show that I have never once even picked up a Frank Peretti novel.  But back to The Twelfth Window; I may have Becky to thank for my increased sales on Amazon this month. 

…This could be my ego talking.  Every author is protective of his or her book, as I am of mine.  This is why I sought out reviews, both impromptu and professional, to see if I was crazy or if The Twelfth Window really is a worthy story.  It is.

And it is, as Becky acknowledged, a fantastic, 5-star story; you just might have to have more of an open mind to read such a book as this one, that’s all.

 

This weekend I will be busy with the Book Expo and a big concert that I will have to work, so I shall post another set of chapter explications either this week or next. 

As usual, you may purchase a copy of The Twelfth Window on www.authorhouse.com, www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, www.buy.com, www.12thwindow.com and many other places!

 🙂 

Chapters 36 and 37

Happy Mothers Day! (US only),

As mentioned last week, we’ve reached the halfway point of The Twelfth Window.  You can bypass the week-by-week breakdown and buy your own copy… www.twelvewindow.com, www.amazon.com, www.12thwindow.com …

Let the record show that I hoped to reach teen readers in writing The Twelfth Window.  I presented many of the same feelings and situations that a suburban-dwelling American teenager would face, as I did.  It just so happened that a story about faith was woven into The Twelfth Window, to maybe reach a new audience or perhaps just “put the question out there” about faith, religion and spirituality.  Since I wrote the original manuscript in high school, a teenaged reader can be sure that I was not talking down to him or her.  I saved notes that me and my best friend used to pass back and forth in school.  I looked at my high-school yearbook signatures to research the particular language of the 80s.  Some items I had to update for parental sensibilities, but most have still been left in the book in order to be true to what I meant to get across in the story.

That being said, Chapter 36 is Lisa Chess’ lowest point in the story.  She has surrounded herself by the worst people and suffers for it.  She wants to be free of it but doesn’t know how… and then something happens like a miracle.  But she is ashamed about what has happened and does not fully embrace it.  While I wrote this chapter and Chapter 37, I had in mind the freeing of the people of Israel from their hardships in a foreign land while God punishes those who enslaved the Hebrews.  I had a blast writing the whole book, but these chapters stand out to me as some of the more fun to write.  My editor, Rachel Crick, deserves much of the credit for pushing me to really dig into the scene.  She knew at the outset that it was a pivotal moment of the story.  Call me old-school, but I think the pivotal moment in a narrative should be in the exact middle of a book, and so Chapters 36 and 37 are.  

…Bible verses that were alluded to in these chapters were:  Sirach 31:39-30, Psalm 38, Revelation 20:7-10 and Hebrews 10:31.

–JM Norwood

Chapters 28 through 35… halfway point reached!

Before I begin, I figure I help line Hallmark’s pockets by reminding my readers that next Sunday May 11th is Mothers Day (US). 

If you would like to purchase a copy of The Twelfth Window, as I am sure you are wondering, it can be purchased many places online including www.authorhouse.com, www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com; www.12thwindow.com lists all the major places online that it can be found.

Shout outs to:  everyone at Black Christian Book Promotion, my new publicist Heather Dyer, Kim and Becky Laney from www.yabookscentral.com, and Phil Gould from the original lineup of Level 42.

Now, the Bible verses referred to in this post will be Matthew 26:53, Psalm 13, Isaiah 63:17, and John 11:21-37.  Please do not think that I am some sort of Biblical scholar.  I think I am fairly familiar with Scripture, but not in the I-have-a-degree-in-theology sort of way.  If you have made it this far into the blog, then it should be obvious that I had some Help in writing The Twelfth Window!

In The Twelfth Window, the increased tension in the story between Lisa and her friends, including Michael, kicks in at this point.  I was trying to show that once you go down that slippery path in the Wrong Direction, defiance becomes increasingly easier.  That goes for the individual as it seems to me that it did for the House of Israel.  In chapter 29, Lisa’s reaction to the news about the fight in the hallway shows her vanity.  In hindsight, this is common; we want God to fight our battles for us.  Michael’s parting words to Monty Ray after the fight were my way of saying that God honors our free will.  This hardens the hearts of many, methinks. 

Chapter 30 is my way of reimagining Matthew 26:53, both in the context of Scripture and in the context of the storyline of The Twelfth Window.  OK, and also in the context of the fall of Lucifer. 

By Chapter 31, Lisa has spiritually hit rock-bottom.  Even when we hit rock-bottom in defiance and sin, as I am trying to show, God does not decimate us.  Just as He did not decimate the House of Israel.  Lisa’s friends serve as the surrounding nations of ancient Israel, doing a little armchair quarterbacking as I am sure that the peoples of other religions may have done. 

Chapter 33 shows that despite all of the bad that had been going on in the world, despite Israel’s sins, God stuck by His Plan of salvation.  There’s a little of Hebrews in there, now that I think of it.  Hebrews 2:9 and Hebrews 2:16.

Chapter 34 gave me a chance to show that Dormey is starting to get an inkling of who is best buddy really is.  Just as the old prophets had an inkling of Who the Christ would be.  I wanted to show that death saddens God more than it does us, because He is the only One Who knows the real cause and origin of it.  I also wanted to show that God is also supreme over science, and that no matter how advanced science gets, it will never be able to solve the mystery of death.

Chapter 35 is simply portraying that the algebra textbook represents Scripture, Dormey represents the prophets handing it repeatedly to Israel, and Monty Ray represents the enemy, who kicks it away.  If you read the chapter, the meanings fall neatly into place.  Truth be told, this was one of my favorite chapters to write.

My godmother asked me if Monty Ray represents the Devil, or what?  Well, he represents (what is) evil in the world, while Uriusa (mentioned in a couple of places in the story) represents the Devil. 

I give you permission to congratulate yourself because you are now more than halfway through The Twelfth Window !   😉

–JM Norwood