And if we fail...

You are probably aware by now that I’m a writer and a publisher. In fact, everyone in my family is a writer. Just Friday night, DW rushed DD and me to a mailbox service to get our entries for a literary competition delivered before the 6:00 deadline. We barely made it before they locked the doors. And neither of us would have had our novels ready to submit if it hadn’t been for countless hours DW spent editing our material and pushing us to revise and clarify what we had written. Whether we win or not, both DD and I know that we have submitted quality work, perhaps our best ever, to this competition.

It was in the midst of this frantic revision cycle that I was inspired with the topic for this post. In my thriller, the heroes are driven in their quest to find a hidden treasure, pursued by unknown forces bent on preventing them from succeeding. There are explosions, injuries, mad dashes across country, biblio-terrorism (a term I coined for this story), and kidnappings. At some point—and I’m sorry I don’t remember the exact words—DW asked me why they were so anxious to find this treasure. What would happen if they failed?

You’ve probably read a book or have seen a movie at some time that sounds a lot like what I’ve described. The heroes have to overcome all kinds of obstacles to complete their quest, but someplace along the line you realize that if they just stopped running the villains would never find the treasure that only the heroes have the clue to. The secret would be safe from their enemy; or someone else would discover it.

As a by-product of this, we find that thrillers have to have increasingly cataclysmic risks. If I don’t pursue the killer in spite of being warned off by my superiors, the president will die. A nuclear weapon will be detonated in a major metropolitan area. World War III will break out. An asteroid will hit the earth and all life will end.

We start thinking that if the obstacles are there, then the result of failure is world-ending.

Unfortunately, in writing as in life, the level of the obstacles can completely hide the value of overcoming them. Yes, your hero should be thwarted at every opportunity. As a friend said once, "Steal his shoes." But there really has to be a reason for him to continue, and it doesn't always have to be the end of the world. Many times, the intense personal issue that the hero faces will motivate their actions more than the end result of actually reaching the goal.

For example, protecting or saving a loved one (common in thrillers) is often just as important as stopping the next world war. Personal obsessions, though legitimate motivators, are significantly less interesting to readers. High moral standards are the classic tragic flaw. Oedipus must uncover the truth, even though the truth causes the suicide of his mother/wife and the blinding of his eyes. He is warned not to pursue this line of questioning, but because he is essentially a just man, he must uncover the cause of the plague on his country. The thing at risk is not always the object of the quest.

I'm an amateur at making this happen, but realizing that it has to happen is changing the way I write and the motivations of my leading characters. What do you think would motivate a historical librarian to pursue the discovery of an ancient treasury of documents even when he is being threatened, chased, and injured at every turn? It has to be important enough for him to deny his own instincts for self-preservation. Otherwise, why go on? Just so he can call himself the discoverer? Most people don't really have that big an ego. If biblio-terrorists start chasing me I'm not going to the library any more!

Is your character's motivation believable? logical? sufficient to drive him past the obstacles?

The Joy of (re-)Writing

I is not lost on me that I last posted to the noveling notes in October when I had just gotten feedback on Gutenberg's Other Book that made me decide to start over. Here's the story and what has happened in three months.

Trying to get my fiction off dead center, I've tried a couple of new techniques with Gutenberg's Other Book that have worked so well that I want to share them.

I decided last year that I'd gotten too heavily involved with NaNoWriMo and that overall I wasn't taking the time and care that I used to take with my writing. I've improved as a writer by forcing myself to focus all my writing energy on 30 days a year, certainly my productivity, but the projects were dying as quickly as they were created. I've been doing research and preparing to write GOB for two years and last January I decided that it was time to give it life. I filled a journal with pencil-written notes and according to the time-stamp started writing on January 4th. I wrote a little almost every day, letting the ideas germinate and following an evolving outline that I kept in the journal.

But by August 12th, I was in a stall. I had 43,000 words and just couldn't force myself to add the next chapter. So I put the project aside and in September I asked Jason and the DW to read and comment. (BTW, if you haven't read Jason's "Show some character" blog, you are missing some of the best free advice on the Internet!) The comments I got back really shed light on the weaknesses in my story and in my characters. They also showed that there was the germ of a story that was worth following through with, but needed serious rethinking. For one thing, in the liesure of months instead of days to write I allowed myself to follow no less than five different story-arcs. Everyone had a secret agenda or organization or both. It had gotten so complex that I lost the main story and POV. So I closed the book and started over.

I did some outlining, culled my character list, and focused on the main event. I completely avoided thinking about the pseudo-historical backstory that was over a quarter of my current draft. November 1, I put pen to paper, literally, and started writing again. In 31 days, I had 54,000 pretty well-crafted words in a story with a single arc and minimal distractions to the limited POV. I was pretty happy with the result, but knew that there were other things that had to be exposed as well, so the book -- in spite of ending -- wasn't finished. I set it aside and came back to it after the first of the year, intending to write the bakstory arc.

As I read the new work, I was still aware that it wasn't quite right. There were inconsistencies and weaknesses that I could see right away. So I decided to take an entirely new approach. I began rewriting the story in first person. I've had pretty good success with a couple of books written in first person, but I wasn't sure I could expose enough of the storyline if I didn't have a narrator. The first revelation in rewriting the first four pages was that the book started in the wrong place. According to my MC, the story started a bit further in than I thought then looped back to catch people up. I let him tell it as he saw it.

Since my major goal in this rewrite is to have a solid 30 pages and synopsis for the PNWA Literary Competition in February, I'm focusing all my energy on the first chapter. So my next step was to rewrite the first four pages again, shifting to third person narration but maintaining the refocused limited POV.

Wow! What a difference. My first four pages are an order of magnitude better than the first four pages of the second draft and so far beyond the first that I can't believe that's where I started. You drop into my MC's head from the first paragraph and watch the story unfold from there.

Now, I'm continuing to do the double rewrite, continuing to narrate the story in first person from the MC's point of view and then recast it into third person. It's an interesting technique and involves a lot of actual re-writing. I think that is where I lost it with previous NaNo books because I thought all they needed was editing. It's simply not so. If you are writing something as complex as a novel, it deserves the kind of thought that comes from actually writing the sentence again and evaluating if it is the right sentence for the book. It makes a huge difference!

Plot resolution of a sort

I've been really pushing the plot in directions it didn't want to go, especially when it comes to the mysterious "Voice." Everything has been a stretch from his ability to manipulate people to the crazy weapon to the ancient rivalry of two guilds of typeseters and printers. It is time to simpllify the whole shebang. Here's what I'm thinking.

I've already established that about the time of WWII, Frank and another typesetter were involved in a "top printer" competition, which Frank supposedly won. The other competitor is The Voice (TV), who I'll have to name now. The prize was to become a Third Degree Master. Frank, for reasons he will explain sometime, declined the honor. TV took the opportunity to claim the rite and became the third degree master. When he found what was in the strongbox, he stole one page of the secret writing that described the Library of Alexandria and Ptolemy I's creation of the Djinn. His intent was to use the description on that page to find the Library, whether he ever found the other book with the location or not.

Unfortunately, while he was exploring in Egypt in the 60s, about the time of the Israel/Egypt 7-day war, his page of the manuscript was torn apart and a bit of it was discovered by a radical Muslim scholar who passed information on to a cell of extremists bent on the destruction of non-Muslim books. The small cult arose out of the idea that Caliph Omar had ordered the destruction of the Library of Alexandria and therefore they needed to pursue the destruction of libraries and especially to find and dstroy the remaining volumes of the Library of Alexandria.

So, that sets up the search being handed down to his granddaughter, Maddie, and his apprentice. Maddie and the apprentice (who thinks one day Maddie will be his) hatch the plot touse Keith to find the other Gutenberg. Maddie intends to use Keith in anyway she needs to in order to get what she wants, but ends up falling in love with him and betraying the apprentice. With other complications to be disclosed.

That eliminates both the backstory and the whole inter-guild rivalry thing. That was getting too complicated and too essoteric. The idea that the guild is betrayed from within by the highest ranking master brings them into a deeper internal conflict and better motivation than warring secret societies. It still, also, brings in a reason for Homeland Security and the potential for deeper destruction of libraries than what is currently implied. They don't want to herd Maddie and Keith, "they" want to destroy the library. So much for the secret weapon.

Back to the drawing board

Having decided that I will start over on November 1, I really need to settle the big questions and map out my characters and conflicts.

1. Keith Drucker, principal male lead. Still not 100% happy with the name. Drucker is necessary (German for Printer). First name? Ready to take suggestions. Keith has to have a harder time of it all. Like Benjamin Franklin Gates in National Treasure, he has spent his life looking for Gutenberg's Other Book, thinking that it is the end of the search. He has even been ridiculed for believing it exist. Unlike Benjamin Gates, however, Keith is at home sifting through books one after another, tracking down collections and libraries. He is entirely a bookworm who makes his home among the books he loves and can't always separate reality from fantasy. I'm keeping the fact that he is a master typesetter and member of the oldest guild in that discipline. Keith is going to lose a lot in the process - possibly an eye, probably at least one finger (like his granddad), and his shoes.


2. Madeline Zayne, principal female lead. She has to be harder and more calculating. she is a willing participant in manipulating Keith. Sex is a side benefit. she takes on the assignment intending to steal the prize and give it to the enemy. (More definition needed there.) The problem is that as she progresses in the deception she becomes truly attached to Keith, first sympathetically and then in love. She acts on principle to try to put Gutenberg's Other Book in her library's collection, but is not an evil person. Ultimately she will have to decide whether to betray Keith or to betray her cause. Though attractive, Madeline is no great beauty. She is tall, broad at the hips, and freckled all over. But that makes her more believable as the geeky Keith's love interest. He has already figured out that he isn't going to date a cheerleader.


3. The Voice male archvillain. This whole commitment of Madeline to the cause takes a lot of unreasonable pressure off The Voice. He no longer has to have programmed her from infancy to be the perfect match for Keith and be manipulated by subtle references. He doesn't have to be omnipotent and we can actually give him some character. He has two big problems to deal with. The first is keeping Maddie on the team and providing momentum to get Keith moving. Left to his own devices, Keith would do an Internet search. We might not even need a new secret weapon, but that really provides the motivation for Homeland Security to get involved. That becomes The Voice's second major problem. He has to keep moving around and diverting Homeland Security's attention from Keith and Maddie. Of course, being an archvillain, The Voice has his own secret motivation that Maddie is not privy to. He plans to ultimately betray Maddie and profit from the adventure on his own. Ultimately he has no interest in preserving the result for mankind. got to figure his angle on that. Maybe he's actually moving the weapon to the Jihadists?


4. Granddad - Francis (Frank) Drucker, the old mentor and idol of Keith. Got to settle in and call him one thing. Don't keep changing his name based on who is talking to him. Frank is going to die. The question(s) is (are) when, where, and to what end? This will rip Keith's only anchor out from under him. Without Frank he is easy prey for Maddie and The Voice. Because it is set up for Frank to be crucial to solving the problem, Keith has to rise to his own power while grieving for his grandfather. I will see to it that Frank meets a good end.


5. Detective Robert Allen, the investigator working for Homeland Security who is always a step behind Keith and Maddie. Det. Allen has strong ties among the Kurds of Southeastern Turkey. His parents both immigrated from Turkey during or after the war. They became citizens and Robert - Kurdish name is Robar Allan - was born in the U.S. but his parents taught him Kurdish ways. Among the 5% of Kurds who are Zoroastrian, they are equally hated by the Turks, the Christians, and the Muslims. but because of his connections in Southeastern Turkey, it is he who actually is positioned to come to Keith and Maddie's aid when they are kidnapped.


6. The amorphous Jihadists, a supposed threat who we never actually see, but suspect are the ones who kidnap Maddie and Keith.I have painted apicture that could justify their single-minded desire to destroy the library. They are radicals, convinced that their act, while contrary to Muslim teaching, can b forgiven on the grounds that they are carrying out Caliph Omar's instructions 1400 years later. (His instructions to Emir Amrou in Alexandria were as follows: "As for the books you mention, here is my reply. If their content is in accordance with the book of Allah, we may do wihout them, for in that case the book of Allah more than suffices. If, on the other hand, they contain matter not in accordance with the book of Allah, there can be no need to preserve them. Proceed then, and destroy them." -The Vanished Library by Luciano Canfora)

Now, on to the main plot lines.

I'm starting over

In January I set out to write the book I've been planning for two years. At around 45,000 words, I gae my unfinished draft to Jason who is also a book doctor at http://plottopunctuation.com. When Jason was done with it, I handed it over to my wife.

What I got back is - figurativel speaking - more red ink than black. It is enough to shake your belief in yourself if you let it.

Curiously, however, I am strangely relieved and encouraged.

Early on I struggled with getting the right voice for the work. hen there was sorting out the multiple storylines, developing a cast of distinct and compelling characters, and weaving in a backstory that covers 24 centuries. I was getting bogged down and progressively more dissatisfied with what I was producing, but I couldn't put my finger on the problem. After the incredibly in-depth and thoughful reviews by Jason & Michele, though, I'm pretty confident that I know what the problem is ... er ... problems are. But this is not a time to edit.

This is a time to re-write in its most literal sense. Start from the beginning with a clean sheet of paper and write the book the way I thought it was going to go instead of the way it went. Sure there are portions of my first draft that are "so brilliant, I'll just copy and paste." I can think of one. But my NaNoWriMo this year will be a new novel, somewhat based on the one I wrote the first nine months of the year.

I've looked back at some of my earlier (30 years ago) novels and have realized that I was much closer to that kind of writing process then than I've been for a long time. I'm still blaming a lot of it on word processing. When we started getting computers, our writing mode changed. When I had one shot at typing a page correctly or starting over, I was much more careful about getting the right word down the first time. When I re-wrote a novel (and my first one has gone through 14 drafts) I had to type it again, not copy and paste and spell-check. As a result, even though I was still a novice at learning the craft, I was more careful about everything. When computers came along, I succumbed, like a great many other people, to the idea of getting it down and editing it later. Only the editing never seemed to equal what I got out of a complete rewrite.

If you see me at write-ins during Nano this year, you'l see a strange thing (that is, even stranger than usual). I'll be writing with a pen in a notebook. You might catch me typing what I've written, but I'm going to be a little more anachronistic than usual. I believe it will improve my writing. Sorry to say it might also mean that I don't finish 50,000 words in 30 days, but I expect them to be higher quality words.

Oh yes, and that one thing that I think is good enough to copy and paste? The title: Gutenberg's Other Book. Now to write a novel worthy of the title.

The Danger of the Djinn

I've painted a believable case for the Islamic world to want to get rid of the Djinn and the library, or scrolls that they have. The Djinn are mentioned in the Quran as having been created by Allah. If a scroll predating Mohammed by nearly a millenium recorded in detail the creation of the djinn by Ptolemy I as a secret army, then that would cast doubt in the minds of some regarding the infallibility of the Quran. That would be enough to drive some factions to seek to destroy the offending scroll.

But the Djinn pose a more universal problem. It seems that in every part of the world, there are two sometimes opposing and sometimes cooperative forces. One is the force of national government and the other is the force of religion. Both of these forces lay down laws and rules that people must live by. In the United States, there was a governmental founding that separated church and state - a direct reaction to the British system in which the head of the state is also the head of the church, even though both operate separately. In some Islamic countries, we see the state ruled out as a force in government and the laws of the religion being the only guide needed for government. In China, we see the opposite in which the state is the only ruling force and church or religion is scarcely tolerated. So what if there were shown to be a third force that obviated both Church and State?

My original thought was that the Djinn had made the library a type of religious institution - a sort of temple, if you will. But the real danger is that it holds the potential to supplant both the religions and the nationalistic governments. Some people have held up science as this end-all, but I submit that it is knowledge. The Djinn have developed universal access to all knowledge in the form of a non-religious institution that crosses all national and religious boundaries. It is non-temporal, non-geographic, non-deistic knowledge. It is called The Library. That makes the Djinn the enemies of nationalism, religion, and political/economic theory. A very Vulcan sort of institution.

The librarians are truly the ones who rule the world.

The Secret Message

The nicks on the characters of the 12 pages are a grill. If you place the rubric over the first page of the gospel, then prick through each of the nicks, they line up with a sequence of characters in the text. This sequence when spelled out holds a message from Gutenberg. It says, basically:

“The great library of Ptolemy is preserved beneath the mountain of the gods in Kommagene of Anatolia. But no man may ever find its entrance unless he find where the moon and the stars meet at the water. Here, fierce warriors guard the ancient treasure. Their religion is none but the saving of the word and by many they are called the fire of the desert. It was here that I learned the art of the book, and here that I made my greatest alchemical work. This secret has been hidden in the black river and preserved at the behest of my most excellent patron and guardian, Dieter von Isenburg; may he live long.”

The Temple Treasure

• 71CE - Titus caries the Temple Treasure from Jerusalem to Rome


• 75CE - Vespasian builds the Temple of Peace in Rome to house the Temple Treasure.


• 455CE - The Vandal King Genseric sacks Rome and carries theTemple Treasure to Carthage


• 533CE - Belisarus, general of Emperor Justinian, recaptures the Temple Treasures when he defeats Carthage and sends them to Byzantium.


• 533CE - Justinian fears the Temple Treasure may bring evil and returns it to the Christian Churches in Jerusalem


• 614CE - Persians sack Jerusalem, kill the inhabitants and destroy the Christian Churches


• 631CE - Abbot Modestus restores the holy places in Jerusalem and becomes Patriarch of Jerusalem

Gelimer of Carthage entrusted the treasure to the scribe Boniface, a Libyan and native of Byzacium. Trapped in harbor at Hippo Regius, Boniface struck a deal with Belisarus to transfer the treasure to him.

A Jew, seeing the treasure, approached one known to the emperor and said, "These treasures I think it inexpedient to carry into the palace in Byzantium. Indeed it is not possible for them to be elsewhere than in the place where Solomon, the king of the Jews, formerly placed them. For it is because of these that Gizeric captured the palace of the Romans, and that now the Roman army has captured the Vandals."
Procopius (545CE) "History of the Wars"

Stuff about ink

From 40 Centuries of Ink by David N. Varvalho.

Hebrew word for ink is "deyo," prepared for ritualistic purposes for 2000 years - powdered charcoal or soot mixed with water to which gum was sometimes added.

Arabian word for ink was "alchiber," used lampblack, made by burning oil, tar, or rosin, then comingled with gum and honey and pressed into cakes. Water added when it was wanted for use.

More backstory

I think I've resolved the question of how/why Gutenberg gets involved with th eDjinn. There has long been a question regarding what Gutenberg's real role was in the invention of printing as it was used in Mainz. So, let's put pieces together.

1. The issues of printing included
   • typedesign & molding
   • dimensionally stable metal alloy
   • press
   • paper supply
   • ink


2. At one point or another, Gutenberg has been credited with the invention of all these except paper. I'm going with the theory that even though he was experimenting with various forms of printing at least ten years before the Bible, his only real contribution was the alloy.


3. In 1440, we have a secret organization that has been protecting the library of Alexendria for 1700 years. It includes a caste of librarians who are charged with duplicating the texts because they would naturally deteriorate over that period of time. Since they continue to gather the writings of cultures all over the world, they have encountered various forms of printing, both woodcut, engraving, and movable type. So, it stands to reason that they would have also experimented with printing for the preservation of books.


4. The Djinn have realized long ago that they are inadequate for the job of preserving all the books of the world, so early in the first millenium (at least by 400 C.E.) they had infiltrated the Christian monastic system to recruit more copyists. At first the scriptora copied only Judeo-Christian texts, but as the system expanded, various classics were introduced for copying.


5. The Djinn also realize by the 15th century that the body of written work is expanding more rapidly than they can collect and preserve. So by the early 1400s, they are actively seeking ways to expand and de-centralize the library and principle of preservation. They decide to promote printing as one method of doing this (the creation and expansion of libraries is another) but the Djinn copyists are unhappy with the quality of the works. While looking into the method of expanding, they discover the alchemist Johannes Gutenberg. They engage him to develop a dimensionally stable alloy and in return for his services, they take him to the library to train in the other aspects of printing. These are the missing years in Gutenberg's life between the mid-1430s and 40s.


6. When Johannes returns from Turkey, he is filled with a vision and sets about to fund a printshop. It is possible that he was ejected from the Djinn because of some inadequacy, which is why he had to seek funding for his operation in Mainz. Because he is not a fabulous artist, his first typeface is large and is used to print indulgences. He sets an initial page or two of The Bible to try to get funding and also attracts a yount artistic talent named Peter Schoeffer. Schoeffer designs and cuts the 42-line type, and gradually takes over the printing business as Gutenberg becomes more absorbed in recreating his journey to the library. He shares his story only with his friend and priest, Dieter von Isenburg, who encourages Honnes to record and conceal the information. This ultimately leads to the rift with Johan Fust and the resulting suit.


7. In order to survive, Gutenberg sells his original type molds for the 36-line Bible and instructs the owner in Bamberg on how to set up the printshop. He even assists in the printing of the 36-line prior to 1460. When he is exiled from Mainz in 1462, he returns to Bamberg and, the print-run having been finished, he prints the rubric, concealing in it the secret location of the Djinn and their incredible library. He dissassembles his own family Bible from the wealthy Wyrich clan that was given to him by his mother. He re-assembles it with the printed gospels from the Bamberg Bible along with the personal memorial page of his grandparents, and re-binds it in the original binding, using the rubric for inside cover padding.


8. When Gutenberg returns to Mainz, he once again goes to Dieter. Dieter has been suplanted by Adolf of Nassau, but has been retained in Adolf's court. Gutenberg gives Dieter the family Gospel and tells him the secret is hidden in the Black River. Dieter sets Johannes up with Hummery and begins his plea with the Archbishop Adolf to recognize Johannes for his contributions, resulting in Adolf pensioning gutenberg in 1465.


9. Gutenberg dies in 1468 and Hummery inherits everything he owned. In 1476, after the death of Adolf, Dieter is restored to the archbishopric of Mainz. He contacts Hummery and gives him the family Gospel, telling him that Gutenberg's secret is hidden in the Black River. Hummery, now a master in the Guild of Alchemists and Typesetters, uses the Guild to pass down the symbols and legend of the Black River, but doesn't pass on the Gospel because he sees it as just a part of what he inherited, and not related to the mystery. The Gospel is passed down, lost, and eventually comes to America where it is donated to the LDS library in 1983. No one knows what it contains until Peter and Maddie discover it on their visit, all because Peter's alias - Bjorn Wyrich - is mentioned in a search of the family name as being in a family Bible at LDS.

A little more alchemy

I still need a small alchemical detail worked out. I need to know the formula for lead type. I hope I can look it up. If not, I would need the volume by weight of the three metals (lead, tin, antimony) when liquid and when solid. With those numbers, I should be able to determine the % of each that is needed to create a dimensionally stable alloy.

I'm pretty sure how to do this with Antimony and either one of the other metals:
aV₁T + bV₁A = aV₂T + bV₂A where a and b are the percentage or number of units and V₁T is the volume of tin when liquid per unit and V₂T is the volume of tin when solid per unit. V₁A is the volume of antimony per unit when liquid and V₂A is the volume of antimony per unit when solid.

Then I compute the same formula for Lead and Antimony. Once I have two dimensionally stable alloys, a 50/50 mix of the two alloys should result in a third dimensionally stable alloy of all three metals. So, for example, if the ratio of Tin to Antimony is 3:1 and the ratio of lead to Antimony is 5:1, then the total formula would be 3 parts tin, 5 parts Lead, and 2 parts Antimony. I'd like to see how close the actual formula is to the previously solved formula for a 3 part alloy that is equal inweight per volume to Silver (.803005305cm³ Lead + .105459050cm³ Tin + <.091535645cm³ Antimony result result in 1 cm³ alloy equal in weight to 1 cm³ Silver.

Idea for a movie

Here's a quick idea for a movie script I'm thinking of and don't want to forget. It's called "The Story Not Told." The concept is that there is a pretty good and clear noire detective story -- in fact I might even set it in the 40s or 50s. It's a first person narrative with voice-over. We follow the detective as he pieces together his puzzle, but in almost every shot there is a different cast acting out a completely different story in the background. Some of the characters overlap, so they come into focus as part of the story the detective is telling, but the untold story is unfolding in the background and in the wasted scenes of most movies. It is the people passing in the park, kissing in a doorway, seen at the hospital, or in the bar, and at the police station. So the key will be to have the other story unfold completely and with a full resolution without any scenes or dialog actually attributed to it. Yeah!

Turkish phrases

Thank you -tesekkur ederim (tea sugar dream)
French is also acceptable
dilli kasarli - roasted tongue sandwich served by a Turkish fast food chain.

Back to the urgency and motivation

Ptolemy's manuscript records the creation of the Djinn. It makes it clear that the so-called fire-spirits are actually his djinja, modeled after the Japanese ninja warriors.

In the Quran, Mohammed states specifically that the djinn were created of fire by Allah. Since the Quran is an absolute text, an outright error in any detail would cast doubt on the whole book, especially since Ptolemy writes nearly a millenium before Mohammed.

Somehow, the rumor of this text has set a sect of Islamic fundamentalists on its scent. Their intent, in order to preserve the infallibility of the Quran, is to destroy all evidence of the manuscript, including the Djinn who still guard it. "The Voice" is attempting to 1)reach the Djinn first with a weapon that will repel the jihad, yet be as traceless as the Djinn themselves; and 2) to get the manuscript and expose Islam as a fraud using the writings of Ptolemy.

Protecting the Djinn will be common cause for The Voice, Peter & Maddie, and Homeland Security, however both Detective Allan and Peter want to keep the discovery secret and not discredit one of the world's largest religions. The Guild just wants to keep the library safe, like the Djinn.

It is possible that Gutenberg did not invent movable type printing and transfer it to the Djinn to preserve the books. It is possible that the process was invented by the Djinn and given to Gutenberg as part of a plan to make the library indestructible by sheer proliferation of books throughout the world. It would fit with both the timing and the process, and Gutenberg would have hidden the secret location of the library in his own code. That is what the librarians have been doing for the two millenia of the library at the time of Gutenberg. They have been desperately trying to make copies of the texts (even extending the task to the scriptoria of the monasteries) in order to get enough books distributed through the world that they cannot be destroyed. Gutenberg improves the process (dimensionally stable alloy, for example), but essentially is just an extension of the library himself. The Library of Alexandria is distributed throughout the world now, not just held in a single building.

Overall, beating the jihad to the Djinn to protect them and the library creates the urgency that was needed to make this a constant thriller.

Bits for the first section of ancient history

About 285 BCE, the Greek scholar Hecataeus visited the tomb of Ramses II in Thebes. He translated the inscription on the statue as "I am Ramses, king of kings. Whoever wishes to know how great I am and where I am to be found, let him surpass one of my works."

Ramses had himself portrayed beside a lion. Some priests said he had tamed a lion and it was his companion. Others say it simply portrayed his boldness of spirit.

Circa 300BCE, Ptolemy I Soter started the library. He was joined by Demetrius Poliorcetes of Macedon ~287. Between 287 and 283 (the year of their deaths) the library had grown to over 200,000 volumes, including the Torah. In 285, Ptolemy I associated his son to the throne. In retirement, his focus was entirely on his library, including building up the force of Djinn that would protect it. The seating of his son was contrary to the advice of Demetrius. When Ptolemy I died, Ptolemy II set about to rid himself of Demetrius and had him assassinated in a remote inland village.

Aristeas was an Alexandrian Jew who worked in the library with Demetrius. He was a valued diaskenastes (curator of texts) who kept his membership in the Jewish community secret while pressing Demetrius (and by extension, Ptolemy) to include the Jewish texts (laws) in the library. The captains of Ptolemy's bodyguard were Sosibius of Tarentum and Andrew.

Tarentum was a colony founded by the bastards of Spartan women who were conceived while the Spartan men were away at war. This is a great background for an elite warrior class! So, Andrew will be given the guardianship of Ptolemy II Philladelphus, and Sosibius will be given charge of founding the elite Djinn guardians of the library. How cool is that?

Chapter 2 of "Gutenberg's Other Book" will be 283 BCE, the founding of the Djinn.

Ptolemy will discover a record that arrives from the Far East (India) that tells of a fierce group of fighters on an island kingdom who can disappear at will. These are called the Djinja. He will extol Sosibius of the nature of this force who will become the heart of the desert, beating with fire and guarding the true empire of thought contained in the library. Since they are not Egyptian by nature, their kingdom will not be limited to Egypt, but will extend across all the deserts of Africa, Asia, and Syria. They are to search the deserts for the right place to hold the library and see that it continues to grow with the accumulated knowledge of mankind.

What is the order of the ancient backstory

• ~323BC Ptolemy I takes the throne of Egypt and founds the library. Created the Jinn.


• ~70BC Antiochus starts (continues?) The underground building at Mt. Nemrud.


• ~48BC Julius Caesar burns the ships and part of the docks at Alexandria, including 50,000 books.


• ~300AD Carthage sacks Rome, carries away the Temple Treasure.


• ~529AD Justinian defeats Carthage and carries the Temple treasure back to Constantinople. Later ordered returned to Jerusalem.


• 641AD Emir Amrou Ibn el-Ass receives instruction from Caliph Omar to burn the books of Alexandria, saying "As for the books you mention, here is my reply. If their content is in accordance with the book of Allah, we may do without them, for in that case the book of Allah more than suffices. If, on the other hand, they contain matter not in accordance with the book of Allah, there can be no need to preserve them. Proceed, then, and destroy them." (The Vanished Library, Luciano Canfora)


• ~1460AD Gutenberg founds the typeworkers guild to protect the secret location of the library.

Do I take them in the historical order, or can I pull them up as they are appropriate tot he story? Can I keep the ancient story straight if it is not chronological?

Who else should be in the story?

There aren't enough characters to keep it interesting yet. Who is the betrayor and who is the betrayed? What is the urgency? Is the bad guy destroying a manuscript for every day the library is not found? What about the ambiguity between looking for one scroll and the whole library? When does it change? or does it?

The urgency!

What if The Voice is pushing Peter & Maddie to find the library not only for his own purposes, but because an Islamic sect has targeted the Jinn for destruction because their founding papers show that the Jinn are not a separate creation of Allah, but are an elite cadre of guards created by Ptolemy to protect the library through both stealthy warriorship and cunning. They are to become invisible, striking where there is no sign of a strike, and moving the library as it is necessary to do so. They are to acquire and manage the books secretly. The urgency is to beat the Islamic Jihad to the library to protect it from destruction - the completion of the job that Amrou began.

Elements of a Thriller

Not an exhaustive list, I'm sure. This is just some of the things that I've discovered from reading them and that I've heard from people who know a lot more than I do.

• The hero is usually reluctant, pushed into his role, and eventually accepting.


• Something significant is at stake or the risk from failing is staggering.


• There is a time restraint.


• There is uncertainty regarding who is a friend or foe, a sense of betrayal (either real or imagined), and an isolation of the hero from everything he was counting on for success.


• There seems to be a potential for reward and a threat of punishement both; the hero may have to sacrifice the reward in order to succeed; i.e. give the glory to someone else, save a friend rather than the reward, or keep his involvement a secret.

It seems to help if the hero is plagued by self-doubt and seems unable to complete the task. It also helps if the stakes increase at each milestone. The character of the hero and other players must be uncovered in layers, however, unlike the tragic hero,t he fatal flaw in the hero must ultimately save him rather than destroy him. The story of Oedipus Rex may have thrilling elements, but you can't really cheer for Oedipus because no matter how noble he tries to be, he is creating his own doom. He is never truly redeemed.

Here are some entertaining resources on writing thrillers by people who are a lot smarter than I am.

• What I've learned about writing thrillers from reading Dr Seuss by Jeremy Duns


• Secrets to Writing Best-selling Thrillers by Gayle Lynds


• Thriller Fest 2006 - Gayle Lynds


• Mystery Writer

Christianity vs. Islam in fiction

Can an author treat Islam the way they treat Christianity in fiction? In "The DaVinci Code," Brown creates a secret societ that is protecting the identity of the last scion and the remains of Mary Magdalene. This would prove, somehow, that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a sexual relationship, and destroy some fundamentals of Christianity. In "The Testament," van Lustbader's secret society is protecting a manuscript that is the testament of Jesus himself that would indicate that he raises the dead by annointing them with the quintessence and was in turn raised by his disciples using the same alchemical formula. This would prove he wasn't God.

So could you suggest the same kind of scenario regarding Mohammed? Is there so much difference between Christian and Moslem that essentially mocking the icons of either would result in insanely different reactions? With Christians, books get condemned, maybe even banned. Someone speaks out against it in outrage. The author says, "It's fiction," and it all fades away. "Satanic Verses" - obviously a fiction/fantasy story - suggests something fishy about the Ayatollah and suddenly there's a fatwah on Rushdie.

So the question is, can you treat religion equally across the board as a subject for fiction, or are there some religions that are simply so volatile that you risk your life touching them?

Learning from Van Lustbader Part 4- final

I've finished reading "The Testament" by Eric van Lustbader. He's a great storyteller and kept things moving. It was a pretty good read. I'm not sure what the final body count was. Somewhere in the vicinity of 20 or so - though I lost track of exactly how many about half-way through - most described in visceral detail. While I enjoyed the context of two rival religious orders, I have to believe that there is another way of writing a thriller other than "kill or be killed" at the end of each chapter.

Another issue for me, however, is that even though Brav's classical education and expertise in manuscripts gave him context for medieval history, it really didn't help himsolve the problems. He did that with his code-breaking skills and fists. And even with the code-breaking skills, it seems likely that Bravo would not have succeeded had his father not specifically written the clues based on his experiencess with his son.

In "Gutenberg's Other Book," we have a series of clues that were created five hundred years ago with the assumption that someday someone would make sense of it. The clues are embedded in rituals that have lost all current meaning. The protection of the cache itself is given to a completely separate organization that might not even know the clues exist. Normally that would require a scholar to sit in a library with dozens of reference books and manuscripts, puzzling over what is a clue and what isn't for a few years before anyone even got around to trying to decipher them. That has always been the mystery of "The Hypnerotomachia Poliphilli," for example. Does the book hold the clues to find a hidden treasure or not?

In this respect, then, G.O.B. more closely resembles "National Treasure or "Indiana Jones" than it does "The Testament" or "The DaVinci Code." The clues have all been here unchanged for five hundred years. They weren't designed for this person to decipher. Now without world domination at stake, nor the precious beliefs of a particular religious group threatened, what paints the urgency to find the cache on a daily basis. Why does it have to be found in a week or a month or a year?

Learning from Van Lustbader - Part 3

Reading "The Testament" has made me very tired of the "mounting body count" method of making something a thriller. I'd really like to do "Gutenberg's Other Book" without a casualty. Might not be possible, but I have in mind that my antagonist (The Voice) will say something like "Kill innocent people? No. Murder is the result of not being able to solve your problems." He may go on to say that Peter's friends and family would all ive, but would suffer for the rest of their lives and blame Peter for it.

That puts me in mind of another story I'd like to write. What if no one died? Suddenly, people just stop dying. They didn't stop aging or become instantly healthy. They just stopped dying. Wars would cease to have meaning because no one dies. However, far from being happy, people continue to become more and more miserable as the quality of life deteriorates.

Some things that might happen include the government experimenting on people to try to kill them and inadvertently creating a race of wraiths -- people who have been utterly destroyed, but still live. These become a malevolent army. People try to commit suicide, but end up more miserable than before because they are unable to die. People sue the government to get death back. People become disillusioned with religion that promises eternal life. All people want is for it all to end.

Well, that's another story.

Learning from van Lustbader-Part 2

The Testament	Gutenberg's Other Book
Bravo/Jenny: She was his father's lover?? They fall in love/have sex He thinks she must be the traitor	Peter/Maddie: She was raised to be his match They fall in love/have sex She is (unwittingly) the traitor
Bravo/Jordan: Best Friends Jordan is using him On opposite sides	Peter/The Voice: Enemies from the start Peter doesn't know who he is Has a hold on Maddie
Observatines/Knights: Started by the church Secularized Competing for the same cache of info	Gutenbergs/Aldines: Two competing guils Secular with religious rituals Competing for the same cache
The Testament of Jesus Christ and the quintessence that shows Jesus was human and not divine and can give immortality to a person	The Library of Alexandria containing the Wisdom of Ptolemy showing the origin of the Jinn and casting doubt on Islam

Gee. Can you do that?

Where I want to go with "Gutenberg's Other Book:" More intellectual, less life threatening. I'd be just as happy if there wasn't a body count. Peter and Maddie will never kill anyone. Peter and Maddie are not trained in hand-to-hand combat. They really only have their wits. No superpowers. No eidetic memory. No savant code-breaking ability. They are scholars who may have to fight for their lives, but they just have to be clever about it. They do have the ability to use alternate identities.

They have the power of the press. They may need to exploit their ability to print or have things printed.

There are two rival secret societies that will surface. Peter is a member of one. Maddie may be a member or at least a pawn of the other. Maddie has been trained from childhood to be everything that Peter wants. He is everything that she wants. She betrays him -- accidentally or through conflicted loyalties. They have to be separated and get back together at a critical moment.

The treasure is different, but the same. I'll probably abandon the quest for the alchemical powder that enables the making of the Philosopher's Stone that van Lustbader calls the quintessence. The particular scroll they are after does hold alchemical secrets, but the real crux is that it will somehow change our perception of reality. First, it does or may hold content that casts doubt on both the New Testament and the Quran. Second, it shows the establishment of the Jinn. And third it gives a version of the fall (Adam & Eve) that makes it obvious that there is another power at work in the universe. Whether it is supernatural, alien, or alchemical, I don't know yet.

Peter/Robert: Policeman tailing Peter
Peter is oblivious of him
Robert turns out to be his savior

Learning from van Lustbader-Part 1

Probably some spoilers here if you are planning to read "The Testament" run along now.

First let me say I'm enjoying the read because I like a thriller and van Lustbader knows how to write them. His book, "The Testament," has a lot of similarities to the concept I've been describing in my posts this year about "Gutenberg's Other Book." An ancient book, scroll, or fragment, is of high interest because it could give some person or persons unlimited power of some sort. So, as I read it, I am trying to carefully pick out the differences and similarities. It's pretty easy to get caught up in the story and ignore what gets you involved.

Von Lustbader knows how to write a thriller. We have the element of starting off with a secret message and having the one person who knows everything killed. From there on, we have a constant chase with a fight, a death, a near-death, another death, or a crisis in every chapter as the hero is drawn deeper and deeper into the plot, against his will.

Second, there is the hero and his partner. Both are highly skilled and trained for rugged survival and for breaking codes and ciphers. It helps that Bravo, like Robert Langdon in "The DaVinci Code," has an eidetic memory and never has to write anything down. So, we have a hero who is initiated into a religious sect. He has highly honed physical combat and survival skills, can break any cipher or code, and remembers everything. His partner is a woman with which there is a strong sexual magnetism. She is already a member of the sect, trained even more in combat than he is because she is his guardian. She is strong and competent while at the same time exhibiting uncertainty and emotional fragility. Both have potentially damaging secrets in their pasts.

Next, there is the element of time. The hero has to find the secret cache and protect it before the bad guys find it and use it for evil. Triggered by an impending death of the pope. The bad guys know that only the hero can find the cache in time, so they manipulate him to ever greater speed. This ignores the concept that they would be better off not looking for the cache so they wouldn't lead the enemy to it.

So, mapping out the basics we have

Observatines	Knights	Vatican
Bravo & Jenny	Jordan & Camille	Cardinal/Pope
Male & Female dichotomy	Knights/Church split	Deathbed
A traitor in their midst	Independence movement	Threat to doctrine
A murdered father & other dead guys	Lots of dead guys
Manipulating the world for good with information	Wanting world domination & immortality

More in Part 2.

Antiochus

"If he in his folly of mind undertakes measures contrary to the honor of the gods and attempts to ravage this hierothesion, may he - even without my curse - suffer the full wrath of the gods." - Antiochus

Kommagene is on the western shore of the Euphrates. It was first a land of the Hittites and then the Persians. Kommagene became an independent kingdom in 163 BCE. It had lots ofiron mines and was of high strategic value. The king fortified Samosata on the shores of the Euphrates as his capital, making it the most important point on the Euphrates. When the Attaturk Dam was built, the site was flooded.

About 70 B.C. Antiochus was crowned king at Mt. Nemrud - apparently while his faterh was still alive. about 69 BCE, Armenia defeated Pergamum and left Kommagene between the Roman and Parthian Empires. Zayuma on the Euphrates was given to Antiochus by Pompeii. From 62-36 BCE, the kingdom under Antiochus enjoyed peace and calm, enabling him to complete the massive monument on Mt. Nemrud. He built a nationwide cult reform portraying himself as a fellow of the gods. It was designed to homogenize the population between the east and west.

Picoras of Parthia crossed the Euphrates to invade Rome. Antiochus joined his son-in-law Picoras and Marc Anthony marched on Samosata. Archers (and black clad calvary???) picked off the Romans and defeated Marc Anthony. Antiochus gave Anthony 100 talents of silver as a consolation prize and Anthony retreated with what was left of his army. By 32 BC, Mithrodates II was on the throne.

in 72 CE, Emperor Vespasian annexed Kommagene and made it a part of Syria call Euphrasia.

These notes were gleaned from the movie Mount Nemrud The Throne of the Gods.

Archeology and topology

According to archeologist Teresa Goell's topographic map, surveyed by H. Brokamp in 1953-56, the mountain is pretty broad. The depth of the structure would be pretty impervious to showing up on the soundings they took inthe 90s.

Please follow link to http://www.learningsites.com.
The soundings discovered two or three (a little uncertain how the readings correlate) hollow spots according to the movie Mt. Nemrud, Throne of the Gods. One is high in the tumulus. The second is 45 feet below the west terrace. Archealogists have speculated that the upper may be the burial chamber and the lower might be some sort of reservoir or drainage basin.


IMHO, from the pictures, if the upper is the burial chamber, then it was designed to be found if someone decided to dig in the tumulus. Of course, finding the chamber whould end excavation, thus protecting anything further down. If the second anomally is a reservoir, then what does it serve, other than as a year-round source of water for those deep in the rock.

I believe that there is probably no one left living in the library now. It has been 500 years since Gutenberg, and he may have brought the last bit of technology needed to complete the copyists' task.

Where did all the rubble come from?

Is the rubble that makes up the tumulus at the top of Mt. Nemrud nothing more than what it took to level the top of the mountain and then pile up the dome? We have no record of what the mountain looked like before construction began. A few miles east and slightly north, near Lake Van, there is a second Mt. Nemrud that is an active volcano, last erupted in the mid 1600s. It is over 9,500 feet tall. It has a flat top with a caldera lake in it. What if the Throne of the Gods Mt. Nemrud was also fairly flat, even a caldera of some couple of hundred feet in depth. A great pyramid was built in it, actually excavated another two or three hundred feet deep. As the sloping sides of the pyramid were built, the rubble was piled up outside. The volume of the tumulus is equal to the volume of the rock removed to build the pyramid and to level the rim of the caldera.

I suppose it would be a pretty unbelivable feat of engineering to build a pyramid underground. It would be an easier digging feat to invert the pyramid, but that would necessitate building a roof that would support the tumulus. On the other hand, combining the two concepts might work. You dig down to an incredible depth and build the inverted pyramid, then build the regular pyramid on top of it.

Okay, so the biggest problem with this is that you have to quarry the entire excavation first and then build inside it. Why? You'd have to store allt he blocks of stone and then lower them back into the hole tobuild the structure, back-filling as you go.

There is really no reason that the project would need to take any less effort than the building of the pyramids and sphinx of Egypt. In fact, it could leave even less trace of local inhabitation than the pyramids due to its remoteness. The labor could have come from any number of sources for slaves.

In ~36 BCE, Antiochus was strong enough that he could repel the Roman army led by Marc Anthony. A hundred years later, in 72 CE, the Romans marched through Komagene with scarcely any resistance, and did not even know about the Throne of the Gods. Suppose the difference was the state of the concealment of the resting place of the library, designed by Ptolemy I. The move would have been executed by Ptolemy VIII, father of Cleopatra before Caesar & Pompei came to Egypt. Antiochus negotiated with Pompei, avoided Caesar, and defeated Marc Anthony.

The next problem, whatever the engineering feat, is that there has to be a continuing opening or access to the structure underground that enables the use of the library after the top of the mountain was sealed. Somehow the location has to have been disclosed to Gutenberg in order for him to have concealed it in the map and in the printers' marks. I'm thinking that the access point is several miles away, near the Euphrates. They need water and access to food.

So, some thousands of laborers over a period of one to three centuries, excavate a mountain, quarry the building stone, build an underground pyramid, backfill it with rubble and bury a king on top of it so that should it ever be excavated the burial champer would be found and no further excavation attempted, all without being noticed or investigated by anyone who survived to tell about it. And for two thousand years since then, a cult has lived in the structure, preserving the documents and guarding the mountain against discovery. -- Easy!