by Donovan Neal
Anakin eventually found redemption, no such situation exists here. Lucifer is clearly shown to be judged at the end of time, and my novel shows him in that state at the very beginning. I would encourage people to take a look at my prologue in the book. The novel clearly starts with where Lucifer is destined to be. The series simply addresses HOW he arrived from point A to point B.
I don’t believe telling his story takes nothing away from the central message of the Bible which culminates in the person of Jesus Christ.
You can read the prologue here.
http://donovanmneal.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/third-heaven-the-rise-of-fallen-stars-prologue-reveal/
I don’t think it romanticizes Lucifer to talk about the fact that at one time he was good. It simply is a statement of fact. I do not want to make him into something he is not, I’ve tried to share an entertaining tale from a Christian perspective that a believer could ‘get with’.
What is the real story to me is how someone who held such position in the kingdom, who was so close to God, who was created in perfection and lived in perfection could acquire a level of dissatisfaction that could be so contagious that it resulted in such a schism that a third of angel kind rebelled? That I believe is the story of interest, and the story in this first of what is to be three books in the series.
If anything I hope it can be an object lesson and a warning to all of us, and foster a deeper love of the Bible and bring the scripture to the forefront of peoples mind, via literary entertainment. Similar to the Left Behind Series.
I hope you feel comfortable supporting the project.
Highest Regards,
Donovan”
So last time I checked the word romanticized means to treat as idealized or heroic. I’m not sure how that’s portrayed in the trailer or even the prologue. But it is an issue that I had to address when writing the novel.
So my question to you guys is this? Has what you seen so far romanticized Lucifer?
You be the judge.
Why I edited the F word out of my novel.
by Donovan | Jul 14, 2014 | Authorprenuership, Christian Commentary | 9 comments
I want to give you a scene.
The angel Michael overlooks the lake of fire at the end of time and sees multitudes of men and women screaming. Moans, and wails and curses echo from the Lake of Fire. As he listens, he hears a curse come from one of the persons judged to burn in the lake of fire. Ready? Here it is.
“I hate your f—ing guts angel of God! I hate you!”
Now tell me. If you were to read this line in a Christian novel…would, you be offended? Would you think the novel is not Christian? Would you think the author herself is not Christian?
Would you think the book is filled with other racy language because of this one sentence?
Yesterday I read Tony Broodens blog entitled “@#%*!!, or Dirty Words & the Christian Author – Part 1”
It is a well-written piece that discusses the challenges that Christian authors face in writing their stories to a Christian audience. In reading his blog post, it reminded me of my own challenge when creating my own book. Why? Because the sentence above is the actual original sentence I wrote in the prologue of my book; The Third Heaven: The Rise of Fallen Stars.
When I wrote the sentence originally I thought of Matthew 13:42 “And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
I imagined a place of wailing and cursing and agony. So let’s say oh an angel happens to stroll along to see this site, and your one of the damned. I can imagine some pleas of mercy, help, and yep a curse at the onlooker. It seemed pretty reasonable to me at the time.
But along came a reviewer. Now keep in mind that when I first published the book, this sentence was in there. But a Christian reviewer came along and basically said that they couldn’t get past the language, and because of that (and a few other ‘symbolic’ things), they decided to choose not to review my book. (They never read the whole book.)
So here I am as a Christian thinking to myself. Perhaps I simply cannot write this story, because the audience can’t handle the F word coming from a burning soul in the Lake of Fire.
I admit I was kind of put off. I was like really? Someone screams F you from the lake of fire, and you can’t handle that?
But then I took off the creative hat of the author, and put on the business hat of the entrepreneur. If one person feels this way so much that they won’t finish a book given to them for free to review. How much more then might this be the case for others? So I changed the sentence. It reads like this now.
“I hate you your guts! Do you hear me angel of God? I hate you!”
Honestly, I don’t think it’s as powerful a sentence. (and you can tell me I shouldn’t have done it. (It’s my book...nana, nana nah!) People who hate other people in my experience might use an expletive or two now and then to express that hate. (Maybe that is why they are in Hell….that’s a joke by the way.) Bad Donovan…bad Donovan sorry.
So anyways I took it out. So I wrote a book about angels killing each other, but that was OK. (Pray for me the spirit of sarcasm might be influencing me.)
This reviewer finally told me that I might be a part of what was called “Edgy Christian Fiction.”
I was like wow, now there is a label I had never heard of. Needless to say yep there was an actual group or a genre that is called “edgy Christian fiction”. So one instance and one partially spelled out expletive coming from the mouth of a condemned person in Hell in a book of over 100,000 words is edgy…really? It really made me wonder is this is what we’ve come too? I am for “clean” fiction just as much as everyone else. But if this is “edgy” I dunno seems kind of lame to me. I can think of a lot racier things.
If I tried to write “Saving Private Ryan” as a novel I think I’d have a hard time writing that book, thinking that not one GI used some kind of curse word during the whole experience. I’m not saying you have to see everything…somethings are best left to the imagination. But that’s why I spelled out F—K as opposed to spelling the whole word out. Which Tom in his blog covers. I guess that still doesn’t count for some!
Don’t get me wrong. People are entitled to read what they want. Christian or otherwise. But 6 times my Bible uses the phrase, “pisseth against the wall.” Now that’s not a curse word. But man, it’s not something I went around condoning my own kids to say–just saying.
In the end I don’t want a person being so offended by language that they can’t even finish the story. Yeah, yeah I know I can’t please everyone. But I think Christian authors really struggle over how to depict violence and sexuality, etc. in a way that honors God, and is real to the fictional world they are trying to convey. It’s not always easy.
In any event, I’m curious how other authors in the genre have handled fiction. Christian readers have you had issues about language that unsettled you. Do you apply this standard towards all media? Any advice or encouragement for us authors out there? What saith thou?
More thoughts about the Third Heaven
by Donovan | Dec 22, 2014 | Author Interviews, Authorprenuership, The Third Heaven Series | 2 comments
One of the benefits of writing is that I get to let my fans peek into my world. To give them a sense of how I come up with things. What moves me to write, and what some of my thinking is behind certain elements in the story. After reading some reviews and interacting with readers, I thought I’d share some of the thinking in response to some of the feedback I’ve received from reviewers.
One of the criticisms of my story is that “the author would continuously use human metaphors and similes when describing how an angel perceived different events.”
The reader noted that this was something that as an author they had a problem with it, however not so as a reader. In my “Thinking about the Third Heaven”, I actually address this issue.
The real issue is how do you describe something like the color red to someone who has never se
en red before? How do you describe music to someone who cannot hear?
What words can used to describe something that prior to that time does not exist? This was my challenge as a writer. Angles had never experienced certain emotions and various things (I’m assuming) prior to Lucifer’s rebellion. How would they then be introduced to said events? How would they react? What words would they use to describe these new experiences and more importantly how would this be communicated to a reader?
I tried to address this on some level by couching the whole story within a flashback. The “real” story is taking place within the prologue. Each book is an advancement of ‘that’ story. Lucifer and Michael’s conversation is the ‘real’ story. Everything else is simply a giant flashback on Michael’s reminiscing on how they arrived to that point. Therefore, not only would they have the language we use today, but even more so as the events of the prologue take place beyond our current history. So in other words the story teller, (Michael) is very much aware of the current “modern day” language we use to tell the story. How well this device is “pulled off”, I will have to leave to the reader.
On a secondary front I think I believe I simply reached my capacity as a writer to describe experiences that prior to did not exist and communicate those experiences in such a manner that a reader connects said experiences with their own. The reviewer stated it this way, “Even though the reader can understand what is being conveyed in these instances, these references are not appropriate given the voice of the book. While it would have been much more difficult to write this book if this type of reference was omitted, I think it would have made it much better.” The reviewer was correct. In that, it would have been extremely more difficult. I also believe it would have been a better book. I just confess I had reached my ability to bring it to pass. Nor did I feel it necessary for the majority of readers.
I recognize that I could have researched perhaps the writings of other authors who had experienced something like this. But then I think I would have poured more than I wanted to in investing in that aspect of the story. In the end as an author, you have to do what feels right to you as the creator.
After much thought I decided that it was not important overall. Some readers are more sophisticated than others. I wrote for the person who enjoys Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, and the Avengers so such persons already know they are entering fictitious worlds, and can forgive “minor” issues, like the physics in such movies, because they appreciate the spectacle that they are seeing. There is simply a lot about a story like this we do not know. I have tried to marry what we do know with speculation to come up with an entertaining story. Overall, I would like to think I succeeded.
I’m glad writing this novel is over! It was definitely a challenge to write!
What makes this book such a challenge for Christians?
I think the biggest challenge was simply writing this book for Christians. The reality is that the body of Christ is a “fragmented” bunch. We are Protestant and Catholic. Some believe in demonic possession, speaking in tongues, etc. We are pre and post trib, and I could go on and on. In addition, some just feel writing about how Lucifer fell is a moot issue to even discuss, possibly even sacrilegious. Others are afraid of such a subject. I’ve received a lot of input from members of the body of Christ---mostly good. Some of the comments have been so praiseworthy as to say it’s better than the epic poem of paradise lost, to ” the story line is chilling to me.” to my book being called sacrilegious. So obviously, the reaction is all over the map.
“I’ve had people describe my take on God the Father as “loving”, “powerful”, to “too human.”
The reality is that it’s not possible to write to everyone’s tastes. As an author writing such a challenging story; my desire was to show the epic powers that are moving on both God and the enemy’s behalf. To give the Christian a greater appreciation of who composes that “cloud of witnesses”. And that the Bible is a supernatural book, with beings that are in epic conflict with one another. It was an attempt to peel behind the veil of the spirit and speculatively ask, “what might Heaven be like, and the angelic host.” To speculate on the 21 days that took Gabriel to get his message to Daniel. To look at things from the point of view of the angels and wonder what are/what were they thinking about all this?
I find that I am simply too limited to accommodate the whole of Christendom’s expectations and feelings on such a grand topic. What I can do is write in such a manner that tries to be faithful to the major story arcs most of us share. To add that “geek” element to our stories: particularly if we had the money to bring such a story to the big screen. In essence, I wanted to tell a great story that as a Christian male I wanted to read. I am a lover of sci-fi and fantasy. My stories will probably appeal more to that demographic. Typically men, which I see as a great thing! (We need more men reading Christian fiction that caters to them.) So yep, the battles are a bit long. Because hey, we fellas like action! I wrote the book for the kid in me. So if you like, epic battles I think you will like the book. If you like, Braveheart, Lord of the Rings, Return of the Jedi, and of course the Bible. I think by the time you get to the end of the story. You will go “wow!” If a person approaches the book, looking for something that is 100% in line with how the reader pictures the spiritual world a reader will probably be disappointed.
Another piece of feedback was on how fast angels move from their innocence to sin. As an author, I am forced to determine the pace of storytelling. My rational is that in the garden we went from biting the proverbial “apple” to murder. This is a very quick escalation of events. While we do not know how long the actual time frame was from Adam and Eve’s sin to the death of Abel. We are given to see how things can quickly escalate out of control. How much more then can I speculatively ask could things go awry among beings that are not bound by time at all?
Do Angels die or have weapons? Angels and strange Bible scriptures.
by Donovan | Jan 22, 2015 | The Third Heaven Series, The Third Heaven: The Birth of God | 2 comments
Not too long ago I received a letter from a wonderful reader who enjoyed my book with the exception of two caveats. He gave me a 4 out of 5 star review. So he was gracious in his review of the book.
Because I have tried to go above and beyond in helping readers of the book understand that my work is Christian Fiction based on the Bible I have written in my preface of the Third Heaven, and in the upcoming book the following.
“To my beloved Christian reader — this work is not scripture. I do not profess divine inspiration, nor would I ever attempt to place this work alongside the word of God. The story is a fictional exploration of the fall of Lucifer, and by taking part in this fictional account you as a reader and I as the author are in no way implying that we must have theological agreement. The work does presume certain doctrinal beliefs (the existence of the Trinity for example) but this novel is not meant to be a point-by-point exposition of biblical truth. Nor an exact attempt to create a chronologically correct depiction of creation and the events depicted in the Bible. It’s an exploratory look into a biblical event and imagines, “what if?”
Now despite this preface some readers still feel a need I think to query me on various things. This brother was kind enough to give me his credentials prior to establishing his problems to certain things in the book. My guess he did this to reinforce his being an authority of the subject.
Because I enjoy questions and feedback from readers I took the time to write out a long response to him. I’m sharing with you in two blog posts what I shared with him so that I can have something to point people too in the future. His letter raises some questions for me specially and the Christian community in general. Topics I hope to address in a later post about Christian Fiction.
His first caveat was “The first problem, as I see it, is allowing Angels to be killed. One of the features that separate man from Angels is mankind’s mortality. Man can die, cast off the body of sin and be given a r
esurrection body and a heavenly nature. Angels already possess this, so redemption doesn’t appear to be a possibility for them.”
His question was a great question. It was really one of the foremost questions I had to ask in the book.
The rest of my blog is really a more in depth understanding of the thinking behind the biblical underpinnings of angels “dying” and my overall approach in the book.
Here was my response to his first problem.
“The reality is that scripture is actually silent on this issue. The Bible is a book addressed to man that primarily addresses God’s relationship with man. Death as it is referred to in the scriptures is man centered. For example In Genesis, we see that Adam was never meant to die. He was gifted initially with long life. NATURALLY he would not die. As we understand, he had no sin nature that would cause decay, sickness and therefore death. However, does this mean he could not feel pain? If he fell off a cliff, could he have died?
Angels in my book also do not experience old age, decay or disease. They die because they are attacked by like beings. There is one exception to this in my book. Sasheal, who dies in saving the planet, after he changes himself to become physical to interact with the physical world therefore exposing himself to mortality. A sacrifice that I show in the book as a prelude to many events to come.
The Apostle Paul indicates that there are different types of bodies in 1st Cor 15. “All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. 40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.