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
The Twelfth Window 