Seabrass wrote:Are you a good swimmer?
Prime example of why I rescue 4-legged asses instead of 2-legged ones.
Priceless!
He will indeed demonstrate that he can take care of himself before the tour is over. One of the reasons he's there is that he's being hunted in Rome, even inside the Vatican. They send him to the Holy Land not just to jog his memory, but also to keep him relatively safe while they hunt for a killer of cardinals and bishops in Rome. That killer is believed to be the Antichrist.
The tours I've read about don't travel chronologically. They take the short route. In thinking about this since yesterday, I've settled on a chronological presentation.
He's a target of the Antichrist, so he'll be traveling in a motorcade of three armored Mercedes SUVs loaded with heavily armed Swiss Guards. There's a Catholic expert on the Holy Land in the group. How's that for a tour? :-)
Thanks, MJ. The question of whether Connor is Christ is one of two key mysteries in the book, both answered at the climax of the story. He has special (supernatural) gifts, which is why the Church thinks he may be Christ. Unfortunately, if I discuss Jesus's life in chronological order then I have to hop around (Start in Tel Aviv, bypass Jerusalem, head south to Bethlehem, then north to Nazareth in Galilee, then south near Jerusalem on the Jordan River, then back north again to Galilee not far from Nazareth).
If I make the route logical, then the events of His life will be told out of sequence. If I put them in proper sequence, then there has to be some back and forth between Galilee and Judea. I'm leaning toward a chronological route. Christians know he goes back and forth (even more often than I do in the story), so I think they'd be fine with it. I think non-Christians would understand the story better if told chronologically, with brief mention of the fact that they're moving around Israel to follow Christ's movements through the Holy Land. Jerusalem is the major exception. It played a huge role in Jesus's life, so I want to build up to it by only going there once, leading directly to the climax.
As some of you know, my current WIP has a teen named Connor whom the Catholic Church has come to believe may be Christ returned in the flesh. Connor has no memory of a past life, so they send him on a tour of the Holy Land to visit many of the sites where Jesus walked the earth. The book is primarily for a Christian/Catholic audience, but it's also a supernatural thriller, so I hope to pick up some non-Christian readers. Regardless of audience, I need to keep the trip simple to avoid confusion.
Here's the complication. Travelling the Holy Land in the order that most closely resembles Jesus's travels would have the motorcade crisscrossing the Holy Land in haphazard fashion:
Connor and his escorts land at Ben Gurian Airport in Tel Aviv, skirt by Jerusalem to get to Bethlehem (where Jesus was born), then to Nazareth up north next to the Sea of Galilee (where Jesus grew up), then south again to Qasr al-Yahud east of Jerusalem at the Jordan River (the tourist site in Israel commemorating Jesus's baptism at around age 30), then an hour's drive to get to the official baptism site in Jordan, then back to Israel and north again to the Sea of Galilee, where most of His ministry became more localized, except for yearly trips to Jerusalem. When Connor goes north the second time, I'm taking him to Capernaum (Jesus's base), even though He preached in Nazareth first.
The Bible says that Jesus's parents went to Jerusalem every year for Passover. He was there at least once as a child at age twelve, and at least three more times as an adult. Since Jerusalem is the climax of Jesus's ministry, I decided not to take Connor there until the end of the journey, where they finish up in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the location where Jesus was crucified and entombed.
I'm worried the crisscrossing will be confusing, especially for non-Christian readers, who aren't used to Jesus wandering back and forth as he does in the Gospels. The alternative is to follow this route:
Bethlehem, baptism sites, north to Nazareth, then Capernaum and the surrounding region. This is much easier to picture on a mental map, but requires delaying discussion of His childhood until they actually get to Nazareth. In other words, he'll be visiting the baptism sites (which happened when Jesus was an adult) before His hometown where He spent the first thirty years of his life.
Thoughts?
Hmm. Complication. Travelling the Holy Land in the order that most closely resemble's Jesus's travels would have the motorcade crisscrossing the Holy Land in haphazard fashion.
They land at Ben Gurian Airport in Tel Aviv, skirt by Jerusalem to get to Bethlehem (where Jesus was born), then to Nazareth up north next to the Sea of Galilee (where Jesus grew up), then south again to Qasr al-Yahud east of Jerusalem at the Jordan River (the tourist site in Israel commemorating Jesus's baptism), then an hour's drive to get to the official baptism site in Jordan, then back to Israel and north again to the Sea of Galilee, where most of his ministry became more localized, except for yearly trips to Jerusalem. When he goes north the second time, I'm taking him to Capernaum, even though he preached in Nazareth first.
The Bible says that Jesus's parents went to Jerusalem every year for Passover. He was there at least once as a child at age 12, and then at least three more times as an adult. Since Jerusalem is the climax of Jesus's ministry, I decided not to take Connor there until the end of the journey, where they finish up in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the location where Jesus was crucified and entombed.
I'm worried the crisscrossing will be confusing, especially for non-Christian readers, who aren't used to Jesus wandering back and forth as he does in the Gospels. The alternative is to follow this route: Bethlehem, baptism sites, north to Nazareth, then Capernaum. This is much easier to picture on a mental map, but requires delaying discussion of His childhood until they actually get to Nazareth.
Thoughts?
Correction, Yardenit isn't really a competing site. It was created up north because the current Israeli baptism site (Qasr al-Yahud) was hostile territory until the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty and de-mining.
It looks like Qasr al-Yahud is going to be very easy to write up. I only have two pages of notes for the entire site. 360°-view photos are a God-send. Unlike the archeological dig in Jordan, the Israeli site is brand new with only a few unmistakable attractions, the steps into the water being one of them. Add two outdoor churches. A couple of shaded areas. And a large building that no one has photographed from the inside, so that's gotta be the visitor's center, shops, and bathrooms. Palm trees spread about. Very large tour buses run here in droves.
Kdot, turns out Yardenit is a competing site for where Jesus might have been baptized. It's just southwest of the Sea of Galilee. It's considered the least credible. So far, only Bethany Beyond the Jordan is formally recognized by most Christian denominations (including Catholics) and is the only one of the three to be designated a UN World Heritage Site.
Just found what I needed to finish the description of Bethany Beyond the Jordan. All that remains is a detailed description of the Israeli site opposite the Jordan River. So close, but I have errands to run today. Probably wrap up sometime this week. Way more time than I wanted to spend on this damn location.
Thank you, everyone.
My current WIP has essentially two stories woven into one, but they rarely connect. It's a supernatural thriller about the Apocalypse, including the Antichrist, the False Prophet, and Satan.
One half of the first book is dedicated to a Catholic orphan that the Church believes may be Christ returned in the flesh. He's being pursued by the Antichrist in Rome, so the Church sends him to the Holy Land to keep him safe and to visit the places where Jesus once walked the Earth in hopes of jogging his memory about who he may be.
The other half of the book is a series of supernatural murders in Rome of bishops and cardinals also believed to be the work of the Antichrist. This half of the story follows two detectives as they investigate the murders and close in on the Antichrist.
The two story halves really only connect at the beginning of the book and at the end. The connection at the end is very strong, but beyond that they don't overlap. There will be two scenes per chapter, one for each story half.
Question: is this an acceptable way to tell a story? I took some flak with my previous book because it was two separate stories that had minimal connection until the climax, when both halves came together. My new story will have even less of a connection.
Thoughts?
Thanks. That looks like part of the Israeli side, I believe.
Good grief! The baptism site of Jesus is turning into a real bitch to research. It's an archeological site in Jordan about 500 meters from the modern Jordan River. Christians built anywhere from 3 to 5 churches at the same location, only to have earthquakes and the river keep wiping them out (the river used to run right past the building's foundation). It took me hours just to find a picture and, later, video of the original site. Apparently there is a visitor's center, a bus terminal, trinket shops, and shuttle buses to take you from the parking lot to the site. I can't find pictures of any of that, so the description of those is either going to be very minimal or made up. Parts of the archeological site has been covered with open wood structures supporting gable roofs. There's a long walkway around most of the site. Took me all day to discover that most of the pictures of those were out of date and they're now covered walkways. Opposite the church remains, there is an elevated walkway I have yet to discover in pictures that takes you from the remains to the Jordan River where, on the other side, the Israelis have built a very large modern tourist center for people who want to dunk their heads in the river. I knew they both existed, but I didn't realize the Israeli side was so close to the original, nor did I know the archeological site is so close to the modern path of the river. Turns out the remains are built on a flood plain and when the river overflows, the ancient baptism site in Jordan gets enough water to fill the dried out river bed from 2000 years ago. I've looked at 100s of pictures, dozens of videos, and countless web sites to get a sense of where everything is, what it looks like today, and what it looked like thousands of years ago. Unfortunately, I have no info yet on where the highway is, nor Elijah's Hill from which he rode a chariot to Heaven (it's nearby and big, so I need to know where), and the modern mosque(s) and Christian churches that the motorcade will pass along the way. There are also numerous caves nearby that John the Baptist and his followers lived in. A small number of tombs were also located on the main site, but I'll be damned if I can find them.
I was going to have Father Romano take Connor to the false Israeli site first as a test, but I don't want to spend two days researching it just for a few paragraphs in the story. I may still do it, but only if I wrap up the original research by tomorrow.
This is probably going to be the hardest site to research because it's so remote, second only to Old Jerusalem, although I don't plan for Connor to go sightseeing there, since he's still being pursued. Just the key Christian stops and then back to Rome.
Way past my bedtime.
Thank you. I already signed up for the trial, so hopefully I'm now on their list. I tried the software but find I prefer Grammarly because of its tight Word integration. Regardless, since it's so expensive, I won't use it until I do my final edits.
Temple, where do you sign up for their blog/posts? I can't find a field to submit my email address.
Thanks.
Dirk
Just tried AutoCrit. Interesting application. I couldn't tell if the overall summary number was a percentage or a number that can exceed 100. I got 87. My readability varied from grade 4 to grade 10, depending on which test it ran. Too bad the story requires so much violence. Otherwise, I'd have a YA novel on my hands.
Anyone know if you can sign up for their various writers' posts? I couldn't find a place to enter my email address to get on a mailing list. Seems like it would be a useful way to convince potential buyers to pay up.
Nazareth is done, including the Church of the Annunciation, where Gabriel told Mary she would give birth to Jesus. The lower church surrounds the remains of what is believed to be Mary's home. tripadvisor.ca has a ridiculous number of excellent pictures of the church (and probably every other church I care about). There's at least one church for every major event in Jesus's life, ministry, and crucifixion.
Next up, Jesus's baptism at Bethany Beyond the Jordan (river), now located in Jordan. I think I'll take Connor to the tourist baptism site in Israel first and have him realize that it's not the original site (a test by Father Romano).
Next up, Nazareth. According to the Bible, Jesus had some knowledge of his holiness at age 12 in Jerusalem. However, Jesus went to the Temple (now the Dome of the Rock) multiple times in his life, so I'll probably save it until the end of the trip, ending in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. I'll have to recheck my list of miracles tomorrow. If he performed any major miracles in Jerusalem on earlier visits, then I'll need to take Connor there more than once, albeit to different locations. Possibly the healing pools.
I saw variations of that while hunting for armored cars tonight. I decided to go with a little elegance. If the president and pope can travel in style, so can Connor. No need to encase him in a landmine-resistant vehicle. The armored Mercedes can withstand hand grenades and assault rifles. All the guards will be heavily armed with whatever weapons the Swiss Guards normally use to protect the pope. I forget the make, but their similar to what the Secret Service carry under their suit jackets.
Correction. Make that the GLS550 flagship. By the time I publish, it will be out of date anyway. Seats seven, so there could be up to three guards in Connor's SUV, although that would probably be cramped. I figure one guard/driver in Connor's car and four each in the other two SUVs.
The FIAT 500X looks like a toy car. Base price is $20K. I'm going with armored Mercedes.
Bethlehem & the Church of the Nativity are done! I could spend a week or two writing a high school-level book report on it, but I'm not that insane. Two days will do for now. It's a good thing the Vatican will assign one of its Jerusalem-based experts as a tour guide. There's going to be a lot to describe, and the Holy Land is rich with both Biblical and Roman history.
No, it's a Vatican mission and their vehicles really do have uniquely Vatican plates. I'm just extending it to use them on Connor's SUVs in the Holy Land. Now I have to choose an SUV type. I'll have to see if the Italians make any large, luxurious SUVs that I can make bulletproof. Mercedes makes a lot of them. Not sure who else.
