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The Lamb of Sandalwood is a novel that follows Sam Hale on a hero’s journey. |
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Sam Hale was born on the cusp of a spiritual war between good and evil, the event horizon where visions race through time and space. Mortals who can receive visions of the war – closet telepaths like Sam – threaten the balance. Sam’s early childhood traumas taught him to mask his intuition, anxieties, and unwanted prescience. Now, it’s 1998. Sam is thirty-two, dangerously overweight, exhausted from masking, and wishes he had some joy. Yet he must still travel from Chicago to work as a senior information technology consultant. Dixon Hale, Sam’s long-lost paraplegic brother who blames Sam for the poolside accident at Sam’s wedding that paralyzed Dixon, is a wealthy black marketeer. Dixon has developed a cell regeneration pill to help him walk again using the abundant nickel and sandalwood in New Caledonia combined with fetuses supplied by his secret network of human traffickers. The O, a genus of parasite species that feed on dark matter, thrives worldwide by stealing unforgiven souls from an existence where all souls await judgment at the end of their mortal life. It traps them in the roots of Sandalwood trees and offers them a choice: Haunt living souls into becoming unforgiven souls or become dark matter. The story begins when Sam discovers the lifeless body of a young intern from New Caledonia. Then, his boss sends him to consult at a bank in New Caledonia. Once there, he receives a vision of sandalwood roots draining life from the young intern and discovers Dixon has manipulated his soon-to-be ex-wife Amy into bringing her unwanted fetus to New Caledonia so he can walk again. Amidst the visions and eerie coincidences, Sam meets Simon, a wise and compassionate spiritual master who is blind. Sam first struggles with Simon’s guidance but accepts it when Simon shows Sam that he has a purpose buried by early childhood trauma. When Sam starts receiving visions of the O, he realizes his highest purpose is to free souls, including his unborn child, but feels overmatched by the quest. For Sam to succeed, Simon guides Sam to discover himself, master his gift of visions, and commit to his highest purpose. He must do all this while the O sends Dixon and others to stop him. |
| Is this material too much for YA? My response was that it depends. However, as I thought more about the question, some considerations came to mind. Firstly, I am not motivated to make this something other than what it is—a hero's journey to self-discovery. I'm not motivated to turn it into an Illiad poem, a Shakespeare-like play, a screenplay, or a short story. I work organically, and these forms have felt too constrained—but that's me. In saying that, I've accepted that this novel series format will not be for everyone. Secondly, I would probably not have read a book or understood the psychological perspective of this novel in my twenties. That is, I did not know what I did not know. By my thirties, I had more questions than answers. By my forties, I was ready to read a book like this. I realize others get through those stages faster, so there is nothing age-related in my perspective. My perspective is more about the state of readiness of the reader. And my point is that the target audience for something like this will read it when they need to and are ready, if ever. So, for those willing travelers, I want the novel to be clear, well-paced, and riveting (aka binge-worthy). To put this goal in contrast, I am not a fan of the ponderous tomes of Harry Potter novels or the soliloquies of Shakespeare. Such things put me to sleep, as I'm sure the 'ready' reader will also be asleep. On your behalf, I struggle and work to boil away wordiness and passive voice and apologize if I ever give you a reason to nap. For those willing, the journey should move forward because the perils are clear, so there is good reason for bravery and heroism. If such a journey were easy, everyone would be doing it. I hope this helps |
| "Breaking the Seals" is a metaphor, representing a changed capacity and awareness for the hero. The book title and the Seals are symbolic references to the Lamb and Revelations. In other words, once the reader breaks open (begins reading) a new Seal, the author assumes that the reader has already journeyed (experienced) the Seals that came before it. In this way, the meaning is not lost to the reader or the hero. |
| The novel mixes the physical with the metaphysical to describe the hero's journey to self-discovery. The cupula is the meter that tracks the hero's progress. The cupula in the novel is about the size of a large, high cathedral ceiling (from the author's perspective). Imagine lifting that cathedral dome and placing it upside-down in a special dry dock for cleaning. Sam sees it for the first time as an upside-down dome, like a bowl. Neither Sam nor the reader is given much 'big-picture' information about it at the beginning. That is by design. The cupula's damaged and encrusted state symbolizes a blocked lens. Should the hero choose to cleanse it, much of the work will involve self-discovery. The lens is patterned after the metaphysical Third Eye (I will leave researching that reference to the reader). The cleaning work can be considered physical, which then triggers metaphysical work. The metaphysical work follows hints and patterns of visions, discovery, deciphering, and releasing work from a psychological perspective. As much as possible, nothing is directly told or pre-determined for the hero by design. That is because the meaning is in the journey. For those interested in the psychology theory involved, I would say it is an eclectic mix of Gestalt, Jungian, and feminist theory, with a touch of the Socratic. The cupula has twelve slices, each like a pizza slice, that organize the progression of cleaning. The hero, and I'm sure the reader, may want to jump to the end. Again, the meaning is the journey. As someone famous said, "You can't have the rainbow without the rain." The first two installments of the novel clean the first six slices. The Third Seal opens with work to face the structural damages to the seventh slice. Our hero still has five slices to cleanse. What is clear to this author at this midpoint is that the novel series ends when the twelfth slice is cleared. But since it is a quest, one can only imagine what happens next - this author included! |
| I am new on writing.com, so I still have to figure out how to connect this blog to the novel and have it appear on the browse page for books. I will figure that out, but please go to https://www.writing.com/main/portfolio/view/stevet71. There, you will find the synopsis and first two installments of the novel series. |
| I understand the disconnect when taking on a book with metaphors mixed with real places, people, and events happening in real (fictional) life. So I would like to offer some notes that might help, I hope: As to the terminology: For me, an idol can be an object, person, or even an ancient entity that a group of followers worships. Examples: There is the Greek Goddess of fertility. The golden calf imagery. Then, in modern times, we have people called influencers, and they have many followers, e.g., D.J.T., Elon Musk, Obama, Taylor Swift, or in sports, G.O.A.T. figures. In this novel, some ancestors have become legends with stories and a family of worshippers. There are also villages and chiefs with followers and bank presidents with followers. Dixon, the brother, has many followers who think he is excellent, riveting, and perhaps even extraordinary. In all these examples, followers refer to their idols by name and will, and when pressed, they say that they wish they could be more like them. I see no difference in the pathology of Idolotry involved with each example. From my perspective, I freely believe there is one true God with a commandment not to worship false idols. So, for me, idolatry is a big deal, a terrible thing that I am naming for all its spiritual darkness. I am also deliberately confronting the depths of idolatry from many generations (think: ages). No doubt about it - this “spiritual war” is the arc of the novel. As you might guess, I am no fan of aristocracies or autocrats. The confrontation in the novel follows along two tracks. The first is to show the narcissism and pathology involved by the idol who needs worshippers as a food supply to comfort their self-worth issues. This is the O species, the Dixon brother, and others in hierarchies that lead to an idol. Predatory terms like slither and capture show the soulless strategies of the idol. Terms like “food supply” are used to show again that the purpose of the idol is primal and self-serving with a narcissistic, sociopathic, or psychopathic pathology. Zero empathy or forgiveness. In short, bullies. The other line shows the worshippers and the human weaknesses that allow worshippers to get trapped by the belief that they must have idols to worship. Along these lines is addiction led by terms like “They are great! I love anything they do! I can’t wait to hear from them about what I must focus on next. I was overwhelmed by their charisma!” As you might guess, I am no fan of non-critical thinking. I am the first to say, “Do the homework, test assumptions, try different angles, change based on test results - sometimes.” Advertisers are constantly seeking to understand what makes someone trappable. This is also true of drug dealers, etc. Questions I have been asked: 1. Can false idols be trapped by a more prominent, more sinister, darker false idol? I see no reason why not. The enormous false idol would only need to be hungry for more worshippers. This is how cults are built. This is what mergers and acquisitions are all about. This is how turf wars happen. 2. Does this process of idolatry end with mortal death? I have no reason to say it does. Consider how we describe famous dead authors, musicians, or political leaders and build monuments to them, e.g., Mt. Rushmore. 3. Is idolatry the problem, or is putting an idol on a pedestal as if a God is the issue? For me, it’s okay to show how to do something by referencing how someone famous did it. That is different than surrendering oneself to that famous person to the point of sacrificing the free will to choose. The God I worship does not deny my free will. Ever. I can fail forward (fail, be forgiven, fail, and fail again to make good choices) with God. He/she/they love without conditions. 4. Do false idols have descendants? I see no reason why not. Instead, I refer to why many people (not all) report wanting families. As I read the reasons for background research in psychology, words like legacy, ancestor, expression of self, and my kingdom often come up. Nowadays, people are not looking for child labor. Some will say they want their little corner of the world, so that is about control. Many reasons are the same as those of idols and read as reasons to need worshippers or followers to mitigate self-worth issues. Parenting can be challenging, but too often, it’s entered into for selfish kingdom-building. When done for good reasons, terms like stewardship, service, respect for free will, hope, and love arise. When done for idolatry, too often we see revenge cycles (some clan killed one of mine, so we will take revenge by killing one of theirs). Here, again, is another example of false idol worship and how false idols can be dead but have descendants that become clans who war with each other for hundreds of years, often forgetting who smote who first. 5. A novel seems like a daunting task. Wouldn’t it be better to write something smaller? I am not motivated to write something smaller. The work is pushing me and does not yet seem done with me, so I write on. Since the topic is so large and there are many ancestral trees, alive and dead, I believe this must be a novel, not a short story or poem. Summary: As I hope these notes show, I’ve given a lot of thought to narcissism and ancestral false idol worship and have come to an evolving worldview that this is often at the root of abuses we now call criminal. But, for the longest time, prior generations did not call the abuses criminal out of the fear of offending false idols. Also, false idols often hunt in packs like wolves for greater control of the smear campaign. And they consider each other their most significant threat, which can be their greatest weakness. Even today, we see war crimes but no stoppage because the perp is a false idol. The novel is still in progress, revealing more metaphors and examples of everything above. So please remember as you read that this topic or syndrome is at stake and faced head-on overall, but from many angles through metaphors, symbols, and real-life characters. And now, my questions for you, dear reader: 1. Is the read is riveting, perhaps even binge-worthy? 2. Is the overall arc and structure of the novel series understandable? 3. If you are baffled, can you help me understand that? |
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