6/19/2016 7:30 - 9:00 pm

It's been more than three months here since last writing, and I've got no idea where to begin of all the things I've figured out in that time.

Longer than in that time, actually. Quarter of a year whatevs, but half a year (beginning of NaNoWriMo) when I figured out the plot for book 1, and then just, kind of, didn't reveal any of it...  I've figured out a lot of stuff, and have a lot that I haven't told you. The first book I'd been meaning to reveal the plot of day-by-day over the month as I hashed out each point of my 28-pointed plot per day over the month, having a much fuller more detailed outline. Failed there. Totally unprepared for it, with a lot that I still hadn't figured out yet, a lot that couldn't be forced. Like I said. I am very very very much a plotter over a pantser. I've figured out more since then, but...

I'm still not sure where to begin. Even get around to that? Tell what I've figured out so far of Book 2? And just of that, with more than three month's work on it (but with the last few weeks being especially instrumental) I couldn't tell you where to begin.

Though I do have some ideas.

overview of awesome stuff

Like I said, each of these books is my absolute favorite. Like how each member of the Justice League is my favorite, or something. But really, Martian Manhunter all the way. Book 1, it's got a heist scene to steal the Necronomicon (which is actually the NOC list) from the Tower of Babel, which is made out of human teeth, because the Tooth Fairy is a member of the Babylonian Brotherhood of shapeshifting lizard people. Book 2, it's got the revelation that the IRA have connections with the Jewluminati, because the Unseelie Court are actually descended from the Lost Ten Tribes this whole time. Book 3 has a time-traveling golem simulacrum that is itself powered by time travel, which turns out at the end to be both The Mole AND the main character. Everything is just so ridiculously amazing and over-the-top. I wish you could make any of this up. 

It would certainly make my job (making all of this up) a whole lot easier...

I don't think I've told you any of those things yet, bar the stuff from the third book which I already worked over (went over? worked out?) to you over this blog. The other stuff, doing a check back through the previous posts, should all be new. I mean, I've told you about the NOC list idea, and make some concession to the Babylonian Brotherhood, Illuminati of Lizard People, tied that as a rivalry with the Jewluminati though I don't think we're going quite that direction anymore. The real unique novel stuff is from book 2, the stuff I've been working on most recently anyway. Let's go over that.

at mount zoomer... er... zaphon... whatever

Mount Zaphon is named by name exactly once in our English translation of the Bible, Joshua 13:27, mentioning it among the inheritance of the tribe of Gad as the holy land is being split up. Its name appears far more times than that, though, though translated differently- Zaphon (or Tsfun, or Tzfnh, or whatever transliteration you prefer of צפון) is Hebrew for "north," and... Well, actually, I'm not sure how to drop this revelation. Last time I played around with mythology, I had a several-hour-long post, which I'd given a lot of thought and construction to, so I could drop the bombshell of the connections of the disparate mythological plotpoints at the end where it would have greatest impact. Right now, though I suppose I could have that luxury if I wanted, I... I'm really not sure how to go about this. I suppose I'll just go over the order in which I managed to piece everything together.

I've got a class on ancient temples and temple texts this semester. So useful. As fascinating as you'd expect it to be. (You know how bizarre the Egyptian conception of the soul is? Last week I had to read a 50-page article on Ancient Egyptian cult practices, the importance of the idols of the gods and why they were so important... At 50 pages long, it was the most concise holistic explanation of the Egyptian soul I've come across in my life.)

You know the ancient Canaanite city of Ugarit? The place where the Baal Cycle texts were discovered? It lies to the south of the mountain that they called Sapan (Hebrew form Zaphon) (or, in other words, the mountain is to the north of Ugarit. Remember, Zaphon=north.)

North, taken symbolically, is a sacred direction. It's associated with divinity in Hebrew. Isaiah 14:12-14, right: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north [eh?! eh?!]: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High." Sides of the north, also translatable as directly mentioning Zaphon in its role as a mountain (mountains of course also carrying intense religious significance.)

Sapan was said to be the home of Ba'al (and 'Anat his sis) in Canaanite mythology, but it's regarded as a sacred mountain in, basically whatever else religion knows about it, as well. Including Judaism, as is above mentioned. Place is said to be home to a lot of gods.

And it's the Hebrew word for north.

north of reality

Here's how things play out, then: the Ten Northern Kingdoms get scattered and carried away, by the Babylonians (whether that means by the Babylonian Brotherhood or no, I can't say, but (seeing how it ties into stuff from the first book, plus retaining the Illuminati/Illuminati connection) I'm going to say yes.) They get carried away to the north, which, we'll say, is actually a mistranslation? They get carried away to Mount Zaphon, a point on earth that sort of halfways-to-halfway the Dreamtime, which is itself halfway to the exterior Source of All Magic, or whatever. The Dreaming, this outside place independent of time, where all creation is simultaneously still actively going on and already completed. It's confusing, but if we're going to appropriate Aboriginal Australian religion, we're going to appropriate it accurately, darn it.

This mountain, portal to Dreaming, to a universe fluid between the universe fluid between our world and the Powersource (query to self to research later: any better words for this; any cultures that already have a similar concept whose word we could use?), this fluid point hanging in there, would be a world that does still have time, though time would work differently, a world that touches our world frequently and fluidly interacts with it, though would be deucedly tough to get to from our side (sure using the word "fluid" a lot, just trying to get this concept across of how un-western and alien the idea is, though you should still probably page Doctor Freud.) This in-between point, liminal of liminal, would be, in other words, Fairyland.

Fairies are the Lost Ten Tribes. Now residing primarily in Ireland (it has been a few thousand years) they've got connections with the IRA... which have connections with the ETA... which have connections with the Strigoi. It's all totally logical, and gives us, at least, a decent plot thread to string along.