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 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

The Twelfth Window — Chapters 21-27

In a couple more posts, we will be halfway through the book!  Please note that I will be in attendance at the Book Expo in Los Angeles next month.  I’ll be at the Authorhouse booth signing copies of The Twelfth Window during the convention.  The Book Expo is May 28-30, 2008.

More good news:  the April edition of Authorhouse’s newsletter, Voices In Print, has featured The Twelfth Window.  This is nothing less than a God-send, but a shoutout also goes to Chris Skees for writing the article on my book!

So, in chapter 21, I began the insight on the full-blown rebellion and enmity between Lisa Chess and Michael, Lisa Chess and her friends, and the kind of enmity that may have happened with the bad angels and God.  Dormey Tapson evolves in his role as Michael’s best friend and now closest bud, taking Lisa’s place in this.  I meant Dormey here to represent the Old Testament prophets, who continually spoke to the people Israel on God’s behalf.  Lisa Chess, as it were, has chosen an earthly “king” in Monty Ray.  When the human soul turns against God, she is left at enmity with Him in the long run, though He continues to woo her by example, messages and hints.  If he seems further away, it is of the human soul’s doing. 

In Chapter 21 specifically, I used the metaphor of the cutting words to show the supernatural change that occurs when one rejects God.  It also represents the sword that fell upon the house of Israel during the beginning of the Babylonian captivity. 

Chapter 24 is another spiritual insight into the fall of the bad angels.  I think that their struggle was to keep God’s wishes first and foremost at heart, since at that time there may have been no commands. 

By chapter 25, Lisa’s friendships have fallen to the wayside along with her relationship with Michael; in the next chapter she has only one friend on speaking terms and she cannot bring herself to face Michael.

The feelings that Lisa has of abandonment and anger against Michael have been seeded by her.  In her conversation with Michael she tries to put this on him.  At the end of this interview, they reach an agreement–a new kind of relationship much less loving than the one before.  Where has this been seen in Scripture before?… Look at Hebrews 4:7 and Psalm 95:7-8 for what I was trying to get at.

Amanda, who initiated the conversation, does not represent the prophets here; she covers for anyone who is a friend to someone going through a spiritual situation like Lisa Chess’. 

As always, www.12thwindow.com is constantly updated with information on where to purchase a copy of The Twelfth Window.

–JM Norwood