Getting ideas for stories is one fun endeavor. When I was seventeen, I read a feature story in the Indianapolis Star. It postulated that, in 2056, white people would become a minority in America for the first time. Cool. How would that change the political and social dynamics of the United States? Would white America just shrug and go about its business, America becoming the true melting pot (or tossed salad) it has always claimed to be? Would white America give up its stranglehold on power, but grudgingly? Or, would factions of white America refuse to surrender power to the majority? That last became the basis of an as yet unpublished novel, Conqueror's Realm.
2012 is yet another evocative opportunity for writers. You see, the ancient Mayans, bless their hearts, were amazing mathematicians. One of their accomplishments was a complex system of calendars used for everything from astronomical observation to scheduling when to plant their crops. By far their most famous calendar was the Great Cycle, which counted a continuous progression of days that stretched longer than 5000 years. That calendar runs out on December 21, 2012. Now, you'd think that the calendar running out would not cause worldwide panic. You just go out to Barnes and Noble's and buy yourself another one, right? Not in this case. The Great Cycle's termination has been dubiously interpreted as the end of the world as we know it, possibly the end of the world, period. All manner of calamities have been predicted for that dire day in Earth's future history, few if any having anything to do with the Mayans.
Some expect a terrifying rogue planet to careen into our solar system and collide with Earth on the fateful day. Others disagree; they're certain that the DUI astro-body will be a comet instead. There is no astronomical data to back up either assertion. The scare just appeared, made up out of whole cloth, as it were. But the Death By Planet idea has numerous followers. Never mind that a planet forcing itself down our collective throats two years in the future would by now be inside the orbit of Mars. I think we'd see such a thing approaching. But here we are with thousands sure of a planetary collision, even though no such planet exists.
A movie came out this past fall that postulated a ludicrous idea of planetary lineups and solar flares causing neutrinos to mutate and bombard us with deadly radiation. Never mind that the premise defies all laws of physics. It wasn't a very good movie, either.
In 2012, the Earth's magnetic poles will suddenly reverse, causing all manner of ambiguous, destructive horror. The mechanism for this occurrence remains as vague as the event itself.
Also in 2012, the great alien conspiracy (this is extraterrestrial aliens, not extra-national aliens) will finally throw down the spacesuit glove and challenge man for supremacy on this planet. Of course, you first have to accept that there is a great alien conspiracy, or that there are aliens who care enough to conspire, or that there are aliens at all. These are difficult stumbling blocks for most people, thank goodness, though not all.
My favorite 2012 prediction warns that none other than Jesus Christ Himself will return to Earth on that ill-storied December day. For those not Christian, that means the end of the world, the Rapture of souls, Armageddon, the judging of the damned and worse. As a Christian, I have a healthy respect for such goings-on, but I see no compelling reason why they should commence on December 21, 2012. Still, I thought it would make a fun story if some so-called Christian of means did believe the Rapture was on the way, and decided to maybe help it along.
From that happy germ sprang my 100,000 word thriller Last Days and Times. This is not a novel so much about the end of the world as about someone trying to make the world end. And he has the chomps to follow through, having more money than a bailed-out banker and a cache of nuclear bombs as well. Okay, so I dreamed up a rich guy with nukes, make that a crazy rich guy with nukes. That could be a fun tale on its own, but I wanted something deeper, something with more of a primal hook.
Make that a crazy rich guy who isn't who he seems. He's 2000 years old, blessed back in the day by Jesus Christ to live to see the end of times. That's right, the crazy rich guy was once a Roman legate in Palestine. He has lived, through no advocacy on his own, for generations, hiding his curse, as he sees it, and seeking out new identities on a recurring basis. He wasn't crazy to start; the conditions of his new existence wiped sanity from his brain. Now all he wants is to give it all up, to rest, to sleep, to die. And if he has to take the rest of us with him, then so be it.
That might make a great story, too, but I wasn't satisfied. I needed something more than an anti-terrorism chase story centered on an immortal. Frankly, that's been done. I needed a clever foil for my villain, someone … wonderful.
Well, that's what I was looking for. Only you can judge if I succeeded.
I chose a girl, a twenty-something blond American Jewish girl from a family line of seers, people blessed to see the works of God, no matter how beautiful or how horrible. Wait a second. Too X-Men? No costume, no bad attitude, no mission. Make her a twenty-something blond American Jew with a six-year old mentally disabled autistic son, living in near poverty and with a preference for boyfriends who beat her up. Fundamentalist Christian boyfriends who beat her up.
Add to that protagonist a twenty-something African-American graduate student in Comparative Religion who just happens to have written a paper on post-millennial insanity. He's Christian, he becomes her boyfriend, and she expects he'll beat her up.
Add to that a driven FBI agent who gets this whole ball of yarn thrown in her face, who crosses the line in her personal fight against terrorism, and who hopes for redemption thereafter.
The FBI agent, the black grad student and the blond, cranky seer find themselves standing together against our 2000 year old immortal and his vast network of Christian terrorists, who plan to make the most terrifying parts of the Bible come true, even if it kills us.
And that, I think, makes for a really fun story.
Last Days and Times is available at Smashwords in several flavors of ebook. I would love for you to read it and let me know what you think. There isn't a "Why?" question to direct toward that suggestion. I want you to read it because, well, I want you to read it. I've told a story about the power of faith, hope and love against adversity, and I'm proud of it. I think it's good, and I think you'll agree. Even if you don't, I'd like to hear from you. At the very least, whether you like this story or not, it raises questions worth discussing. Does God exist and is he the God from Sunday school stories? What is the nature of evil, the nature of love, the nature human intelligence and emotion? Are we rational beings or irrational animals? Just who are we, anyway? And, hey, we've only two more years to talk about this, and all other things, before it all grinds to a rust-clogged stop.
Conversation, for the human animal, is everything.
