I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.
As a note, I'd like to let you know that The Mahogany Door, the first of a series of fantasy-adventure books for young readers, will be released next Spring. Unseen circumstances have dictated a later release, but I believe the extra time we are going to put into the soundtrack and marketing will be well worth the wait.
In the next few months I'd like to show you some of the final chapter headings, the passages behind them, and why I wrote those passage - before unveiling the cover art at the beginning of the year. That might seem like a long time, but it's actually only three and half months away!
The passage that Lauren drew for Chapter 19 is as follows:
"A mysterious bang rang across the floor and JT woke from his mesmerized state. He walked out of the small inner room and the stone wall slid shut and JT was stopped in his tracks. He turned to face the bed, and all around him, was a very disturbing site.
On the stone walls surrounding the bed were counting marks. The lines were grouped by five with four marks vertical and one mark slashing across the others. After studying the groupings for a few moments, they appeared as though they were in uniformed rows and columns and seemed to have started from the top right corner across from where JT stood and dressed each of the three walls entirely. The neatly stacked groupings stopped to his left just above his ankle directly beside him. The last grouping of marks was only four vertical lines. As each collection of marks receded and labored down the walls, the lines became shakier, jagged, and deep. A sense of sorrow penetrated JT’s body. His heart sank and he felt powerless. He remembered Charlie stating in the great hall of the Triton pyramid that he had counted each day he had been in Bruinduer and in his bed chamber is where he had done the deed..."
" ‘Do you have any idea what it feels like to be totally alone?!’ Charlie screamed at the top of his voice toward his guests.."
The theme song for The Mahogany Door is called "All Alone." It's driven by the fact that in my personal life there was a time when I felt all alone, as if there were no one there to catch me if I fell. During that time, the days never seemed to end. One after the another, the morning sun and the monotonous bounce of life continued relentlessly. I never thought that I would be able to move forward. In fact, some of the time I felt as though I was taking steps backwards with my life. Depression set in and ripped not only my psyche apart, but also my body, physically. To this day, I have yet to recover fully as pain is a daily reminder of that awful time in my life. The last grouping of four lines in the passage represents the reminder that there would be at least one more day I'd have to face.
Slowly, with the help of my father and a release to the Holy Spirit, I was able to get the hands of time moving again. My life started with a new purpose and I moved to Wilmington, NC. There, sitting on the beach and through regular counseling sessions, I allowed myself to let go of a lot of anger. I found that I could love again and support myself without always relying on my parents. It was a tough but satisfying two years.
One of my assignments from my counselor was to write a journal. Instead, I started remembering the good days of being young and I tried to figure out where my life went wrong. Out of it all, I began to develop The Mahogany Door.
Writing didn't save my life. I believe the story God gave me did. I know it's not Shakespeare. Some may even think it's not very good. I don't mind. I'm not alone anymore.
Thanks for keeping up with me - you have no idea what it means.
Mark
