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Potentially, Professor Hinkley could secretly continue to run his company, jumping around time to bring futuristic inventions to market. Him running Acme eliminates the need of another character to do so. It simplifies that aspect of the story. He founded Acme, invented time travel, and is believed to be using the latter to keep his monopoly on tech.

No, I want The Prophecies to foretell actual events, even though they don't get into specifics, like naming Joseph and Apollo. Also, if I add another character, it will further complicate the story. I already have Hinkley bouncing around time and Queen Aussie running Acme, receiving instructions from the future and communicating with Joseph and Apollo, pretending to be Saint Michael, among others.

In the current draft, a mysterious character named Aussie pops up every few chapters to cause carnage, leaving 'Queen' Aussie (CEO of Acme) to deny any involvement, yet Acme's share price goes up every time there's an attack because governments buy more weapons. Neither Aussie nor Queen Aussie appear physically in the story (until the end), but rather through events told in news broadcasts. The two Aussie's are one and the same, of course. The authorities eventually come to that conclusion and Aussie takes off, assuming the role of robopilot for Caligula, who goes on the run across the galaxy because he was indirectly responsible for the destruction of New Bethlehem.

In theory, all of this should remain in the book, otherwise there's no reason for Aussie to appear, not even in news broadcasts, until the reveal at the end of book three. However, I don't care for how Aussie currently appears in the story. She doesn't really tie into the story. I need a way to use Aussie to give the reader clues that she is the one haunting Joseph and Apollo.

I'm considering Britannia because Joseph's home world is a monarchy that serves as the head of the church on his world, based on and descended from Queen Elizabeth. If I introduce Brother Hinkley and the Third Testament early enough in the story, I think the reader will give me some latitude when Jesus appears to Joseph, apparently fulfilling one of the crackpot prophecies of the Third Testament. Ponder I must.

Another twist. What if the Professor jumped through time and was responsible for the Third Testament of the Church of Britannia? I could use 'Father Hinkley' as the historical prophet who wrote the Third Testament. This makes him the one who has been messing with events throughout time. After writing the Third Testament, he entered a monastery and was never heard from again.

This keeps getting better and better. If Jesus had kids, as the Church of Britannia believes, then Joseph and Apollo could be His descendants. I could hint at it by suggesting that the Church has been looking for His descendants for almost two millennia, believing that they are the last hope for mankind.

It just occurred to me that Queen Aussie could serve as the 'artifact' in Seabrass's post above. Since Acme, Inc. manufactures everything in the book, and Professor Hinkley is thought to be alive in the future, sending back messages in time to his company, Aussie could include programming from the future. That might be worth dropping my original ending to the series in favor of an AI god.

I would probably drop the whole drag queen bits, though, since they're not working in the story, in my opinion. I especially dislike her in the prologue, in the middle of a desperate battle.

I'll still need to hijack a religion for Aussie's plan to work. That will entail doing something about the irreverent chapters. I would add something to the Church of Britannia, such as a Third Testament to their Bible, addressing why Jesus didn't return yet, and hint that the Church has found some evidence that Jesus was married and may have had children.

I have 650 lines in my names bible for my old book (90 rows just for the characters), and that was easy compared to what I'm going for this time around. Fortunately, a much smaller cast of characters, but Connor is going on a Middle East tour of many of the exact places visited by Jesus, as documented in the Bible. Few of them exist as they did in His time. In some cases, the original location is buried under new villages or monuments built over top. Even the Church of the Nativity is probably in the wrong location. There are a number of sites on the Web that say the translation from the original Gospels for Jesus's birthplace should have been interpreted as a spare or lower room in a private home, which is where people often stayed when the inn was full. It was customary in Palestine in that era. Bethlehem was Joseph's ancestral home, and it's highly unlikely he couldn't find a relative or friend with a place for Mary to give birth. It's too bad I never did database programming. A database would be ideal for this much data.

Thanks, JP. It fits with other have said as well.

Church of Britannia might be better than Church of England, especially if I introduce a Third Testament (written a few hundred years into the future) addressing why Jesus didn't return after the Great Collapse of Civilization, which had to be the Great Tribulation of Revelation. Surprisingly, the Antichrist was a woman, namely Dr. Ess. Also, I need some way to justify why Jesus didn't return before humans left earth and colonized the stars. The new prophecies will mysteriously foreshadow the events of the book.

I still need to consider how much of Charles's suggestions I can use. It breaks things I had planned for future books, but we'll see.

Thanks, Charles. It's an interesting premise, and I've already set up the idea of time travel with Professor Hinkley's coconut-powered time machine. However, I have a different ending in mind when it's time for the boys to meet God. I could toss it, but I'll need to think about the pros and cons of your suggestion before I make a decision. Fortunately, I have years to make up my mind.

Thanks for your input.
Dirk

A religion descended from Christianity sounds very good, although I'll need to define a number of new beliefs before Joseph turns them inside out. I think Dr. Ess should feature prominently. How do you feel about being the 'Antichrist That Wast', Amy? There could also be prophecies about a teen prophet born in the 41st century and the destruction of New Bethlehem. I could include Bible excerpts similar to the Galactipedia articles.

I don't think I'll use the Mormons, though. Not prominent enough. And Protestants are too diverse (although that would make it easy to create a denomination that veers off course over two thousand years). Since Joseph is (currently) crown prince of his home world and is descended from Queen Elizabeth, I think I prefer the Church of England. I just need to be careful not to piss off the British by modifying their religion before Joseph turns it upside down.

The best time to rewrite this would definitely be after the Unholy Trinity series, since I'll have a lot more knowledge about Christianity and the Bible by the time I'm done. I'm also sick of Into the Mind of God, so it's definitely time for a break. I'll also need time to eventually research the Church of England.

Really cool solution. Thank you, both.

Thanks, Amy. Although I didn't consider the Roman pantheon, I did think of taking out Christianity, either by ripping out all religion, or by creating a new religion in the heads of both boys. The Roman gods is an interesting idea, although neither boy currently believes in those gods. The Imperium celebrates the Roman gods as part of their culture, but doesn't necessarily believe in them. I could change that to a resurrected belief system.

I wouldn't want to replace all of Joseph's ghosts with Roman gods, however. Joseph's belief that the ghosts are real people in his life are what help convince him that they are the real spirits of dead family and friends. Part of the problem with the belief in, say, Zeus as the god in their heads is that the reader won't believe they're real, so they must be mentally ill. At least with Christianity (my likely target audience), there is a degree of belief that the voices, especially God's, could be real.

There is quite a bit of crossover in v3 between Joseph and Apollo. They regularly exchange testy messages in act I (in the epigraphs) about current events, and are at each other's throats in act II. I'll have to think if there is still more I can do to pitch them against each other. Act III necessarily separates them, with Joseph in prison and Apollo fighting his military.

If Apollo heard more voices (including his dead beast friend, Germanus, and his assassinated father, Nero), that would make the two boys's experiences very similar. Nero will definitely wind up in Apollo's head in any rewrite. I had intended to make Nero's ghost part of v3 before deciding to shelve the book.

Joseph hearing the devil would either cause him to resist it at all turns (as Apollo does with God), or require Joseph to turn evil as part of his character arc, which was a change planned for book two of the series, when Billie (Joseph's evil demon) regularly learns how to take over his body. This makes it somewhat similar to later Dune books, where Paul Atreides's sister Alia is overwhelmed by the ghosts in her head and makes a deal with her evil dead grandfather to silence the voices at the expense of eventually losing control to him.

I'll spend some time thinking about all of these options. Completely ripping out Christianity would almost certainly break much of the story, however. Since that is my primary target market, I'll probably keep it in, but eliminate or at least tone down the chapters that would be most objectionable to my planned audience.

Great food for thought. Thank you.