Chapters 52 Through 56 — The Twelfth Window

I’m moving fast today!  We have just eleven chapters left to cover after this… roughly three more blog posts to go and then I hope that the Lord will let me get into writing my next book, which will be a follow-up to The Twelfth Window.  Let’s get started…

Chapter 52 was painful to write because I had to summon all sorts of painful thoughts to put it together.  Those who have read the story have all told me that this chapter took them completely by surprise.  Well, it takes the characters in the story by surprise as well.  Chapter 52 contains references to Luke 12:50, Luke 22:41-44, John 12:27, Luke 23:35-37 and 39.  I meant to show what the twelve apostles of Jesus were expecting… they were in the holiest place on the holiest day of the year after having watched Jesus triumphal entry into the city… everything was going their way.    As normal, I discovered why I was lead to make certain plot points and symbols.  In this chapter, if you look hard enough, are the complete key elements both spiritual and temporal, of the Easter Triduum.  I’ll give you some hints:  the sports car is silver, and its description comes after Michael drinks a cup of tea after praying.   The italicized paragraphs show what I believe the angelic POV must have been.   To me, the most beautiful part of Chapter 52 is the unwitting use of the Jewish Daiyenu prayer as regards what Jesus Christ did for us.

Chapter 53… no explanation necessary.

Now, Chapters 54 through 56 are purely spiritual.  #54 comes from an experience that I had when I was about eleven.   Since there are precious few verses describing Heaven, I had to go with personal experiences and speculations.  My editor said #54 creeped her out.  Can’t say it didn’t creep me out either!  #55 means to show how bits of life creep into dreams, which is why the diner looks different and yet the same, to show how time ceases to exist in the eternal, and honors how Jesus said that He would build us a dwelling in Heaven to be with Him.

I love Chapter 56, personally.  I love the whole story of The Twelfth Window but #56 touches me still, two years on.  Chapter 56 contains Revelation 7:14-16, Revelation 19:7-9.   I really love this chapter.  One meaning I will reveal is that those corny, oily-looking, badly-dressed men and women who may have been your FAITHFUL Sunday school teachers, CCD instructors, or hosts of badly-filmed religious educational material will definitely in Heaven be seen as the surpassingly beautiful people they are for having taken the time to increase the Kingdom.  Notice how Michael’s expression changes from merry–acknowledging Lisa’s surprise, to solemn–acknowledging a good and faithful servant who has entered the joy of paradise.

Well!  I’ve made it to Chapter 57 already.    There are no more spiritual/italic chapters in the rest of the story… but there is a reason for this, as you will see if you pick up a copy of The Twelfth Window, available online on many, many sites.  Like www.authorhouse.com 🙂

–J.M. Norwood

Chapters 48 through 51 — The Twelfth Window

Good evening and happy Divine Mercy Sunday!  Hope you’ve been well.  Had some personal stuff happen but I’ve recovered and I’m back to comment on the next several chapters of The Twelfth Window.

Diving in… Lisa is savoring her new level of relationship with Michael.  I can say that this bit is part autobiographical and part to represent that each relationship that one has with Christ is unique to him or her.   The beach is back, I used it as a setting for Lisa to explain herself to Kim… again the bridge between the earthly and the eternal.  It’s not an accident that I am advocating abstinence in Chapter 48,  by the way.   But what was an accident was the writing of this chapter and my later discovery of ancient Jewish wedding/marriage customs.   The last paragraph in Chapter 48 is also semi-autobiographical–I still have the bag of shells in my house today.

Chapter 49 contains inspiration from John 16:17-18 where Jesus’ disciples are troubled when He tells them that he must go away for a while.  This short chapter ends with the word “immortality” on purpose, to hint that Michael’s going away and immortality might somehow be interconnected.

Chapter 50 was easy to write.  All I had to do was remember the last day of school for seniors at my school.  We really did have a tradition of emptying our lockers onto the floor and walking out from under the authority of the school forever.   I wanted to parallel it with the people of ancient Israel wanting to get out, forever, from under the authority of Rome.   Chapter 50 contains references to John 13:33-34 (when Michael tells Lisa that she can’t go with him where he’s going but she will have plenty of company around) and Job 33:14.   All these Scripture references to St. John, it’s no wonder I thanked him in the credits!  Anwyay, also to be found in Chapter 50 are John 13:36-37, Luke 18:31-34, John 14: 2-5, John 7:32-36, John 16:16-18 and John 22.   Look ’em up and you’ll see what I mean.

Chapter 51 shows the spiritual side of anticipation of a completion of Michael and Lisa’s relationship.  It used to freak me out that I was even writing The Twelfth Window but after the Lord showed me Jeremiah 31:32, Hosea 2:1-23 and Mark 12:25, I felt better.  Anyway, Christians of some traditions will understand what Lucius says on page 194.  In two simple words–Marian devotion.  I am trying to say that it is approved of by God because Mary leads to Jesus… but that is just one aspect of the whole story.

The Twelfth Window is available on www.amazon.com, www.authorhouse.com, www.12thwindow.com and elsewhere.   I dare you to Google it !

(Side note:  please pick up a copy of Terraforming by Gould, Black & Brown on iTunes… Phil Gould of the group has written a lot of songs that helped inspire my writing, so it’s only fitting that I give him a blurb here.)

–J.M. Norwood