Happy 2011…!

 

Just a quick note to let you know that the sequel to The Twelfth Window is out now on softcover and e-book.

The name of the new book is Heroes And Angels, brought to you by the same author and editor and still using the Biblical foundations.  Heroes And Angels is a sci-fi/fantasy allegory about the parallel between the Early Church and the Endtimes.

Heroes And Angels, like The Twelfth Window, can be purchased on Amazon.com, Authorhouse.com, barnesandnoble.com and googlebooks.  🙂

I will be doing a separate blog to cover each Biblical principle in Heroes And Angels, chapter by chapter the way I did in this blog.  If you have a Facebook account, there is a group community for Heroes And Angels; feel free to “Like” the forum so you can stay up-to-date on events and contests in regards to the book.

Happy Reading!

–J.M. Norwood

 

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

Chapters 45, 46 and 47 — The Twelfth Window

Happy New Year 2009!  I hope that you had a great holiday break as I did.  It’s been nearly three weeks since I went on vacation, the days are running into each other and I believe I’ve slept away the bags from under my eyes.

That being said, let’s delve into the next chapter.  Chapter 44 is another of the many chapters dealing with the heavenly point-of-view, reminding myself that angels have longed to understand the sacrifice of Jesus for mankind (it’s in the New Testament, just not sure which book).   Wisdon 15: 1,2, Exodus 34:6-7a are referred to in this two-paged chapter.   The five seraphim are given a command but only one of them (Luceus) had once been human and would be the best suited to carry out the command.  I’m reminded once again that I wrote and did the research later; Luceus looks like a Biblical ringer for Enoch.  Commentary in the Torah says that Enoch is now the Metatron, one of the highest angelic beings who serves God directly.  Funny how that worked out!  Luceus is a carry-over into The Twelfth Window from an earlier story that I wrote.

Chapter 46 is my way of retelling the story of the Feeding of the Multitudes.  Cited in this chapter are:  Matthew 16:17, John 6:14 (I think; I can’t decipher my own notes!), Matthew 14:32, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, and Isaiah 30:20.

The warmth and anticipation of the future give color to the chapter 46; in a parallel to Chapter 45, I delineate what the gang are up to individually in the way that I did about the five seraphim.  As usual, Kim is the one that I used to show forth the miraculous first because I know she would be the last to acknowledge the miracle for what it really is (like many atheists that I’ve observed).   Kim points out this miracle to the gang and they push Michael’s best friend, Dormey, to ask him what’s going on.  That meant to unapologetically show the primacy of Peter amongst the Apostles.  Amanda, the closest to the miraculous (even more so than Lisa) realizes the implications of Kim’s observations first.  Kind of like the Apostle John.

Chapter 47 gives the story a duller tone.  Lisa is once again haunted by the nightmares she’s had since she was a child; David Lechner is haunted by his failing health; and the seraphim are troubled by those and the weight of the command they were given.  Michael alone serves as the root of the problem and the only solution for these issues.  I affirm this when Michael says that he is “going to confront Uriusa myself.”   I bring Chapter 47 to a lighter close with the seraphim envisioning their glorious return Home and Lisa packing for a long weekend at the beach (by now you should have figured out that beach scenes are meant to connect the earthy with the heavenly).  And in the last line, I affirm that things are going to turn out all right.   Scripture verses making an appearance in Chapter 47 are:  Hebrews 1:6, Deuteronomy 32:43, Ephesians 6:12.

The Twelfth Window continues to sell, all praise and honor to the LORD the God of Israel!  Even if it never becomes a best-seller while I am alive, if this book brings just one new soul to Christ, then it’s been worth every bit of ink.

The Twelfth Window can be found for sale on www.12thwindow.com, www.authorhouse.com (the publisher’s site), www.amazon.com and a few others.  Happy reading!

–J.M. Norwood

Chapter 44 — The Twelfth Window

Good evening all… 

John 16:12, 15 says “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.”   That’s pretty much one of the themes of the rest of the story of The Twelfth Window.  Such a verse stood out to me that there’s a bigger and wider universe of knowledge and existence and love than can be recorded into the Bible.  C.S. Lewis had it right in The Last Battle:  the Bible is just the cover and title page to a beautiful and eternal story.

As I avoid hateration from the parents of my minor readers, the chapter opens when Lisa and her beloved are eighteen.  The first setting is a familiar one to anybody who has graduated high school.  The second takes place in their temple, a scene I carried directly into the story from my own experience of God at Central Synagogue in Manhattan.  If you live in the NYC area, I suggest you visit it and you will see exactly what I mean.  Try to go on a sunny day so you can experience the full effect.

They told us in Sunday School that if you are good, you will go to Heaven when you die.  However, there are precious little details on Heaven but most of the descriptions of Heaven come directly from Our Lord.   We have committed to Jesus by baptism and/or a confirmation ceremony, and we’re told to look forward to His return.  As has been taught for centuries, Christ is going to return for His Bride (the Church or Israel, depending who you are) and so I thought it important to weave the eschatological with the romantic in The Twelfth Window.  When you get to the end of the book it will all make sense, just like the end of the book called Earth will make sense when we get to the end. 

(John 16:16, John 16:6 and Hosea 2:19-20 also play a central role in the book to this acceptance of a deeper commitment.  I drew Lisa’s acceptance from Luke 1:46-55).

Next blog, I will cover Chapters 45, 46, and 47.  This means we are getting real close to Chapter 50, which closes out the gang’s high school years and brings the story into the final Act V.

The Twelfth Window is available for purchase on www.12thwindow.com, www.authorhouse.com, www.amazon.com, and other fine places that sell books online!

–J.M. Norwood

Chapters 41, 42 and 43 — Act IV

The election is over and like other Americans, my mind and life and time are my own again.  So, let’s plow into the beginning of Act IV, which encompasses Chapters 41, 42 and 43. 

Chapter 41 is inspired by Ezekiel 39:25-26 and John 6:15.  Since the change of seasons were important to the writing of the story, I felt it a good idea to use the spring of my own senior year to convey the feeling of a “home-stretch.”  I’m sure that Jesus’ disciples and supporters felt the same home-stretch feel upon His triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  Stronger than a New Year feel.   I counterbalanced the grating and uncomfortable feeling in Act III with the giddiness of the final spring of high school and reconciled love.  Which is why “reconciling with the one you love is its own spring.”

Chapter 42 is, without a doubt, a shadow of the Transfiguration.  Whereas the Transfiguration in the Bible was real, I used this chapter for the story’s heroine to catch a glimpse of what the reader already knows.  Many dreams are a hodge-podge of past events and conversations.  Notice the scene that the declaration takes place in; it’s a place of worship under construction and called a word yet unknown to that world.  I was trying to show that Jesus was building His Church the whole time that He was on earth but the impact on the world was still to-be-seen.  I’d be lying if I left out the reason for Lisa’s reaction being unlike that of the disciples that witnessed the Transfiguration, and it has to do with conversations that I have had with some Jewish people on the subject of Jesus Christ.  Even so, it is declared to her still that something will be done about her nightmares.

Finally, Chapter 43 brings the long-tenuous relationship between Michael and Mr. Chess to a head.  It shows the choice that Lisa makes by the end of the chapter.  She fights both physical illness and mental stress from the conflict and is healed in the end because of her decision.  Our soul is also healed when we decide–even when put on the spot–to choose Jesus.  Ephesians 6:1-4 and Sirach 3:1-6 both make an appearance on page 164 of The Twelfth Window. 

The Twelfth Window would make a great gift this Christmas!  You can purchase it from many places such as www.12thwindow.com, www.amazon.com, and more! 

–J.M. Norwood

Chapters 38, 39 and 40 — The Twelfth Window

I know, I know.  As emcee-extraordinaire Rakim would say, “it’s been a long time, I shouldn’ta left you…” .

Lots of personal (good, not bad!) things have been going on this summer, so I took a little sabbatical from posting.  I have returned, and I’ll use the same time to update here as I will be doing to write the sequel to The Twelfth Window.  Before I begin, more shoutouts to Strategic Vision, LLC publicity company.  They are making me put my spiritual money where my spiritual mouth is-most recently I was a guest with Coach & Joel on “The Morning Break Sports Show”, on AM1240 and AM1470 in Chicago.  The subject was “should prayer be legislated in public schools?” .  A spirited conversation was had after being roundly booed about my vicariously supporting the New York Mets baseball team.  Thank you, Coach & Joel, for having me on as a guest!

Chapter 38 begins the series of Lisa’s private meetings with Michael about the events of the past weekend.  I meant it to reflect Israel’s repentance in the Book of Daniel, and of the experience of a faithful Catholic in the confessional booth.  In Chapter 39, now that I look at it, I was being led to warn the reader against scrupulousness.   (Scrupulousness is when you keep confessing sins back-to-back, like spiritual OCD.)  The ending of Chapter 38 clearly shows that things are moving along the right path to reconciliation despite Lisa second-guessing herself and Michael, while Chapter 40 ends with divine assurance that I think every human being needs in order to move further into the only relationship that will ever matter this side of the grave.

It took three chapters for Lisa to move past her lowest point in the story.  Maybe it has to do with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  #38’s forgiveness comes after a chastisement likened unto the Book of Daniel, #39’s comes in the form of a voice only, and #40’s comes in human form, face-to-face, and divine.   Further proof that I had some assistance in writing The Twelfth Window. 

Next go-around is the beginning of Act IV of the story, where I will lay out chapters 41 through 43.

The Twelfth Window is available for sale on many fine websites including www.12windows.com, www.amazon.com, and www.authorhouse.com .

P.S>:  I’m on Facebook; I dare you to add me to your friends list!  🙂