A BIG congratulations to Nancy W. for winning the monthly Angelic Wars t-shirt. The drawing asked the reader “what was your favorite scene?” Nancy chose the final scene in the book where the Septemviri were equipped for fight spiritual warfare with armor described in Ephesians 6.
To enter any of the drawings, just download Angelic Wars, First Rebellion free supplement—Behind the Scenes Secrets by clicking this link. You will have to re-enter your email address. (Don't worry if you are already a Septemviri follower. You will not receive double issues, just the emails that offer the contests). Other drawings include leather bookmarks, signed posters, t-shirts, and signed musical CDs.
The next book of the Angelic Wars musical novel series, End of the Beginning, is moving forward. Next week we go into production of the music. This music will vary in genres. There will be five songs in this next novel which is about the conclusion of the war for Heaven. The novel and music is scheduled to be released early 2021.
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Readers have little information when discovering a new author. With any author, but especially a new one, readers must take a risk; they must spend their money (and time) to test the book of a new author—without any chance of a refund (of either their money or time). Yes, a reader can click the “Look Inside” tab to read a sample, but that sample is small and is not a fair selection to either the reader or the author.
Therefore, I wrote Into the Mind of Lucifer, the prequel to the Angelic Wars Christian fantasy series. I offer this book for free—no risk to the reader. My initial book, Angelic Wars, First Rebellion is about the wars between angels in Heaven. This prequel, Into the Mind of Lucifer, is the novella that precedes the wars, explaining the mindset of why Lucifer rejected God and invoked the first rebellion. The setting, characters and music of this novella carry over to the full-length novel that follow it.
This free novella is more informative than most prequels. Not only does it open the story and series, but it provides a (free) link to one of the songs I composed, which is offered along with others on iTunes. This song is not representative of all the genres that I composed in Angelic Wars, First Rebellion, but it does display to the reader how a musical novel works, and the interaction between the written word and music sung by characters.
Another point about writing this free novella is to display the use of biblical footnotes. Though the books I write are fiction, I use my familiarity as a long time Bible teacher and online missionary to support many aspects of the story. The footnotes are Scriptural references that support the setting, characters, and the dialogue among those characters. You’d be hard-pressed to find any Christian fantasy book with dozens of footnotes that support its fantasy premise. The Amazon Kindle Sample does not provide the footnote page at the end of the chapter, but the footnoted numbers are displayed.
In general, I wrote the Angelic Wars series, on three levels in order to entertain and inspire its readers: First: they may read it on a fantasy level like any novel that creates an alternative world to take the reader on a fantastical journey. No biblical training (or belief) is required. Second: Christian with some biblical knowledge may appreciate the books biblical footnotes allowing them to see the biblical parallels with its characters and events. This level also mirrors the convention that history is intertwined or vaguely “repeats itself.” In the Bible’s Old Testament, there are Messianic and Apocalyptic prophesies, many of which are fulfilled in the New Testament. Likewise, I wrote this fantasy with a view that acts, locations, and even events arose in the time before the Bible was written, but in a more vivid and dynamic setting. Third: readers can read the Angelic Wars, First Rebellion novel along with its companion, a New Adult Bible Study curriculum (ages 18-25), which is available for a free download at www.AngelicWars.com.
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In designing the exterior of the Great Hall in the Heavenly city of Thyatira, the Author uses structural images from a compilation of medieval castles, including a large Keep standing tall over the courtyard.
The picture above is inside the Great Hall. Uriel and Azarias enter through the over-sized double doors. They find it eerily empty with large, odd paintings of angels flaunting colorful borders, which Azarias assumes signifies their high statuses. Without spoiling the plot, the scene in the Great Hall is inspired by the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland. The author experienced the ride when it first opened in 1969 leaving a lasting impression on him that inspired this part of the novel—he was twelve years old at the time.
The author draws upon Revelation 2:20;22; 24-25 in other parts of the series relating to Thyatira.
“…I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. I will cast her on a bed of suffering…Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
Thyatira also has a “Jezebel,” who appears in this Hall during the series. The challenge for the reader is to determine who this character is in the Angelic Wars series. She does not appear in “First Rebellion,” but appears in other forthcoming books, “Into the Mind of Lucifer” and “End of the Beginning,” where this illustration is relevant.
Illustrator: Judith Stepan-Norris
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This diagram is displayed on page 81 in Chapter 8. The vision, seen by the Septemviri, is the enemy’s battle plan on one of the spirals of Heaven (see Author’s Tome posting #3 on the website blog regarding Heaven’s structure). The dark circle in the middle is the Siq, the portal to the material world. The author incorporated the traditional Satanic pentagram into the enemy’s strategy, the star representing invasion points towards God’s Throne which encircles it.
The dots are Heaven’s districts. Starting at the bottom, the lowest dot is Al Birka, the Septemviri headquarters. Directly above that is Thyatira. Moving clockwise are districts: Smyrna, Philadelphia, and Laodicea on top of the spiral. Just below Laodicea, closest to the Siq (and barely visible) is Pergamum. Moving clockwise to the right are Sardis and Ephesus. These district dots are not to scale since this Heavenly spiral is so large, it baffles our imagination.
The district names can be found in Revelation 2-3 in their earthly forms.
Illustration: Judith Stepan-Norris
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This diagram is displayed on page 81 in Chapter 8. The vision, seen by the Septemviri, is the enemy’s battle plan on one of the spirals of Heaven (see Author’s Tome posting #3 on the website blog regarding Heaven’s structure). The dark circle in the middle is the Siq, the portal to the material world. The author incorporated the traditional Satanic pentagram into the enemy’s strategy, the star representing invasion points towards God’s Throne which encircles it.
The dots are Heaven’s districts. Starting at the bottom, the lowest dot is Al Birka, the Septemviri headquarters. Directly above that is Thyatira. Moving clockwise are districts: Smyrna, Philadelphia, and Laodicea on top of the spiral. Just below Laodicea, closest to the Siq (and barely visible) is Pergamum. Moving clockwise to the right are Sardis and Ephesus. These district dots are not to scale since this Heavenly spiral is so large, it baffles our imagination.
The district names can be found in Revelation 2-3 in their earthly forms.
Illustration: Judith Stepan-Norris
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Click the picture (or here)to watch the music video
The first song in the musical novel is sung by the Angel Gabriel as he flies through the Khasneh Forest in Heaven during a mission. This forest is structured like Earth’s multi-layered rainforest but is infinitely more vibrant. The leaves, crystalline and transparent, radiate millions of colors, blending with one another, throwing rays of countless hues up into Gabriel’s face. Like him, most angels in Heaven break out into an intimate song while basking in this form of God’s Holy Spirit.
Readers can hear Gabriel sing this song in the paper books by scanning the QR codes; or a link in the eBooks.
The song was recorded Legacy Sound in El Segundo. Lead vocalist, D.J. Stanfill, Background vocals: Rick E, Norris, Julia Harriman and Kieran Moriah. Guitar: Rick E. Norris; Percussion: Judith Stepan-Norris
The song is available on iTunes and other online music outlets.
University of California, Irvine student dancers display their interpretation of Angel Gabriel's song.
Illustrators: Image licensed through Bigstock
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The cover picture of the Angelic Wars, First Rebellion is the sign of the Septemviri. This sign brightens with fire on the right wrists of seven Septemviri–the angels commissioned to seek and expel rebellious angels from Heaven. It identifies God’s loyalists when they are near each other.
The sign has interrelated components: First, it is a two-dimensional representation of one of the two intersecting heavenly spirals, as described in an earlier post. Second, the outer bluish glow to the sides is a glimpse of the Throne of God–the globe encapsulating the two spirals of Heaven. Third, the center has a tri-colored triangle, the traditional symbol of God’s Holy Trinity, with red, white and black sides (the colors are not apparent in the picture). The significance of the triangle and colors are revealed in book two: The End of the Beginning. Finally, the interpretation of the white figure in the middle is left to the reader. Some see it as an angel, others as a white dove—the Christian symbol for God’s Holy Spirit.
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My first challenge in writing the Angelic Wars series was to create an image of Heaven in light of existing Biblical verses that refer to it. The Scripture mentions (or eludes to) Heaven's description in only a few places; I tried to reconcile my imagining with these verses.
My conception of Heaven is that it’s all-encompassing structure is made up of two intersecting spirals, enclosed within a globe. Four main areas in the Bible contribute to this imagining. First, Ezekiel, who writes about Satan’s expulsion from heaven; Second, the book of Job that refers to a conversation between God and Satan (which occurs after his fall); Third, Paul’s reference in 2 Corinthians to a “third Heaven” and finally, John’s images in Revelation.
Ezekiel 28:17 makes clear that God cast Satan out of Heaven. Curiously, Satan reappears in Heaven in Job 1:6-7. How was Satan able to interact with God after his removal from Heaven? This created a specific challenge for me: I needed to create a Heaven where Satan could return after being cast out.
In the novels, I reconciled this dilemma by creating three different levels of Heaven, two of which exclude Satan and one of which allows his presence. I supported this concept of “levels” by reference to the Apostle Paul's statement in 2 Corinthians 12:2-3, where he writes that he knew a person “who was caught up to the third Heaven.” In consideration of these Bible citations, I created an imagining of Heaven with three levels. Level one is God's Throne (described in Revelation 4) which exists on the outer globe; level two is one of the two spirals where only angels with access to God exist after the fall. The Angelic Wars, First Rebellion takes place on this level because no angel has fallen from grace at this point of the epic. Finally, the third level is the other intersecting spiral where Satan and demons can enter after their fall and engage in spiritual battles against the good angels for human souls. I will write these battle stories to start in the third novel.
For my fantasy, the only remaining issue was to create a passageway into the material world—what we know as the universe. I call this passageway the Siq, the porthole existing at the intersection of the two spirals. It is black and encompasses the entire material universe. The Siq is surrounded by all levels of Heaven. This illustration shows the Siq as a light in the middle, but that is surrounding the proposed black hole.
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