The Mountaineer - Outline of the sequel to "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"

Four months after the tragedy of Greenjet Flight 1220, Bill and June Montoya are very concerned about Sonia's deep depression. Armed with Bill's new-found mega-wealth at the passing of his mother, they decide to go all out and treat Sonia to a vacation in the beautiful Canadian Rockies. There is a scenic train called the Lofty Mountaineer that Bill has always wanted to go on. They arrive at Jill Petra's house where Sonia is staying with the two children of Violeta Blanco, one of the stewardesses who died in the crash. Sonia finally agrees to go on one condition, that her best friend, her sister Jill, go, too. Having anticipated that, the Montoyas had already gotten a ticket for Jill.
But they have also bought a ticket for Sonia's ex, her first love Chad Knowles. Having just lost his job as a financial advisor, Chad has time to go on vacation. He is due to get on the train a few stops after Bill and company do. Sonia has no idea that this "surprise" is in the works.
Since Sonia refuses to fly, the four adults and two kids pile into a rented Toyota and drive across country. Here we find more about Sonia and Jill - like why they're not easy to get along with - and we learn more of what we suspected about Bill and June; they never stop talking.
After they board the train, they settle in to have lunch in the dining car. Bill is rambling on about some old story when suddenly everything stops. Sonia realizes that the rain has frozen in time, along with everyone on it except for the chef working on the buffet line directly in front of her. He begins to talk to her and she realizes he is the Being. Sonia responds panicked and angry. After her experience on Flight 1220, she is no fan of the Being. [Her reconciliation with him will be in the final scene of the story] The chef/Being warns her that "the Devil" is on board and will kill everyone if they don't intervene. Sonia must trust that he will guide and deliver her through the crisis with one caveat, she must let her "true love die". As the train starts again and the chef remembers nothing, Sonia is totally perplexed. After lunch, they head back to their seats and arrive just as Chad is getting ready to take the seat in front of Sonia on the train. As she sees her first love, realizes this is what the Being meant by her true love, and that he must die, Sonia suffers a meltdown, trying to force her way out the door while the train is racing along. A clean-cut, well-dressed Hispanic man keeps her from jumping from the train and possibly hurting or killing herself. Ironically, the "hero" who keeps Sonia from jumping out is the Colombian terrorist, Miguel Smith, who has a plan of his own.
The Being begins to expose the group of hijackers even before they get a chance to carry out their plan. This creates tension but eventually forces the hand of one of Miguel's men. In the last car, there is a secret cache of gold bars that the train is hauling to a bank in Edmonton. The conductor, on his last assignment before retiring, has let them in on this secret in return for a hefty fee. He believes this would be a "victim-less" crime only he is not fully aware of the plans Miguel Smith has for the train.
As one of the passengers confronts one of Smith's men about why he is heavily armed, the narco-terrorist panics and fires off a shot to get the people around him back down. The sky window above him shatters. Thus the premature hijacking begins. There is one stop left before a long stretch through the mountains of Alberta and the train conductor will have to blow past it, tipping off the authorities that something odd may have happened.
Chad, Sonia, and the passengers plan to take back the train. The Being shows up at intervals to guide Sonia on. As the first attempt to take back the train turns into a scary bloodbath, Sonia starts to doubt whether the Being has a solid plan or not. Smith's plan becomes clearer as his men cart the gold bars to the front of the train. Adding to this back and forth battle that plays out over several hours, a news helicopter catches up with the train and catches the rebellion on a live video feed, drawing the rest of the world into the drama unfolding in rural Alberta.
Finally, Chad and Sonia hatch a plan where he is going to sneak onto the front trains after they draw some of the narco-terrorists toward the back cars. The passengers have to disconnect the passenger cars from the two engines in front. Sonia fights second thoughts about this as it falls into the timeline that the Being had mentioned; let your true love die. During the adventure, Chad and Sonia realize that they had been hiding how much they each loved one another. Chad shows her that the rumor that he'd cheated on her could not have been true. They make plans to get married as soon as the ordeal is over.
The storyline involves several narratives in which the characters are transformed by the impact of the frightening experience. Childless Jill Petra becomes the fierce defender of the two children. Chad, his confidence still rocked by his recent firing, regains his mojo. Bill and June stand up to the terrorists as well. The Being delivers on his promises.
In the end, the two engines are domed to crash, with Miguel Smith, the now-repentant conductor, Chad, and the surviving terrorists (all but two and Miguel are taken out by the passengers). The helicopter's intervention plays a key part of the action-packed ending. Though the Lofty Mountaineer is going straight down the rails, there are myriad twists and turns in this riveting drama.
What will happen to the villains and, most importantly, to Chad? For that you'll have to wait till I'm finished. For now, only the Being knows.

The "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" Interview - Al Gorosito

Hola amigos! Here's an interview for the program "Escuchando de Pelicula" / "Hearing About Movies". This is the first part of the series, about writing the book and beginning the marketing to get attention for transferring it to the screen.

13 Ways of Looking at a Blackird with music

13 Ways' Kool New Kindle Page

Amazon update. Here they did a good job adapting the book cover to the Kindle advert.

Video-poem of 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird now available on Kindle for $2.99

Electronic books are cheaper so you can buy lots more and not have the look of my office. "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" is now available on Kindle for $2.99. Don't have a Kindle? You can now download Kindle applications to most PCs and smart phones. I have it on my Blackberry Curve. Enjoy.

Belief and Damnation on Flight 1220

A recent poll showed that 1 out of 5 Americans believes President Obama is a Muslim. Coming back from a Bible retreat, my friend agreed that that was kind of silly. However, he wanted to see what Obama's response would be to, "Do you believe all people who don't believe in Jesus go to Hell?" What an awesome question that would be! It is the make-or-break question for a Christian because, if you say yes, you're a Christian, and, if you say no, you're not - as Christopher Hitchens puts it - "in any meaningful sense a Christian".

At the core of Christianity is salvation versus damnation. The answer to the age-old question is in Jesus Christ. We often forget that and, as most American Christians would take the bait and say no, most have abandoned the core value of their faith. These Christians who deny the exclusivity of Christ are cultural Christians, not unlike the cultural Jews of the Old Testament who didn't follow God. Not surprisingly, they were the majority also. They were born into, but not born again. From John 3, verse 3: In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." Jesus described salvation/Christianity as a life-changing experience, NOT something you're born into.

In "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird", the 149 souls on Flight 1220 are all in different points along the spiritual walk. On one end you have the Musgrave family, on a mission trip to the remote Amazon region. Their salvation is secure and it should be no surprise little Morgan Musgrave - who blurts out the gospel to Paul the moment they meet - plays a key role later on in the story.

The Montoyas are still in a cultural Christian rut while Sonia Petra is the only active believer among the survivors. Although Sonia will go through a time of anger toward God in "The Mountaineer" sequel, her faith is strong. The Montoyas will be shaken out of their spiritual paralysis by the events of Flight 1220 and move toward Christ in time to deal with Bill's life-threatening illness that is soon to be diagnosed. Paul Thurber, the "13 Ways" protagonist, is a young, cultural Christian with some idea, albeit nebulous, of who Jesus is. I am very familiar with him; he is based on myself as I was 20+ years ago.

In the nightmares from 1999 to 2009, Paul was not me; that is, I was not in the dreams. It was just easier to tell the story through Paul's eyes using my personality to color him. Now Paul's salvation - while inferred - is not fully revealed because there is that element between ultimate reality and doctrine that we cannot penetrate. Paul falls, as I did, in that broad swath of people who have heard a weak version of the gospel and haven't rejected it nor have they sought it with any passion. He is confronted with his own mortality in an era of his life in which he is not spiritually mature.

The salvation by Jesus question is not as cut-and-dried as it looks, but it is still a yes-or-no question. The key word is "believe"; If you believe in Jesus Christ, you go to Heaven, and, if not, Hell. Belief denotes a frame of reference exists. If someone asked me if I believed in the Tazmanian Jaguar God and, upon saying "No", found myself in Hell I'd definitely cry foul. I would have to know what the Tazmanian Jaguar God is before my reply would be binding. The Bible teaches that we will be judged by what we know. We are "under the law" [Romans 3:19] by varying degrees. This is why the person who hears the gospel clearly and rejects it is in far more danger of Hell than the aborigine who only knew a cross necklace that his persecutors wore around their necks.

Paul's almost comical view of faith is a sharp critique of Christianity as it exists in America today. In one scene, he gets tangled up trying to pray during the turbulence, hijacking a few phrases his Christian uncle used to use. The prayer becomes a bunch of babbling nonsense. It was a metaphor for the big problem so many people have (and I had) in being able to talk to God in their own language.

Salvation for us is a one-time event that is ongoing. By that I mean salvation has a definite beginning but the journey with God grows from that point. The Bible teaches that the opposite is also true; damnation has a starting point and grows progressively worse. Anyone who studies the development of a monster like Hitler or Stalin can see how that dynamic works. For me, I give thanks that I will never know that firsthand. God has saved me through Jesus Christ.

I like the idea that God doesn't just speak through visions and dreams on Flight 1220. He also talks directly to Paul through the Being, speaking through the bodies of the passengers and crew with that authoritative - sometimes male, sometimes female - voice. He is around Paul, and Paul realizes He's always been around. Every saved soul has that intimate truth revealed to them; God has always known us and loved us more than we can possibly imagine. God is very real. That is what I wanted to convey most in "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird". That is why His Word stands today on solid ground after thousands of years of attacks upon it. Like those people who believe in Him, the Word endures forever.

"13 Ways" is not an altar call but a conversation starter

A Christian movie producer recently asked me, "Why is this film important to the Christian audience?" Just in time for this question I had been reading a recent issue of USA Weekend with an article titled, "Holy-wood's next big hits". It noted many of the Christian-themed films did not have an altar call or an overt Christian message. Writes Cathy Lynn Grossman, "Their goal in making films is to move people with universal themes that create conversations while the credits are still rolling." That is also my goal with this story. I wanted to get inside people's minds by getting them inside Paul Thurber's mind and then shocking them with the rapid-fire events of Chapter 13.

I am not belittling overtly Christian movies like "Fireproof" and "Facing the Giants". They play an important role. But most Americans are clueless about Christianity as I was; the only difference between Paul Thurber and I is that I had blonder hair. The films that moved me the most were "It's a Wonderful Life" (watched 50+ times), "Groundhog Day" and "Fargo" (watched about ten times each). It wasn't until after I met Jesus Christ that I found these movies were being used as platforms for sermons. "Wonderful Life" was a profoundly philosophical and theological tale disguised as a mass-appeal Christmas classic. "Groundhog Day" was a redemptive story that, while being hysterically funny, was also a brilliant Bible study piece. "Fargo" was a superb expose on the power of sin and how it takes over our lives. Those three movies met me right where I was in my life and had a positive impact on my thinking.

"13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" uses the classic Wallace Stevens poem of the same name to begin each chapter. Stevens wrote of the fear of death in his "13 Ways", something at the very heart of the human experience and - here is the really significant point - something that is inextricably linked to sin itself which is the true cause of death. I feel it meshes perfectly with the airplane story. That night I woke up from the first "13 Ways" nightmare ten years ago, I had the name for my story as well. The poem is even woven directly into the story; the mysterious "Shadow" is taken from the 11th Way and mentioned on Page 187.

Back to the theme of this post, my goal was to put the reader in Paul's brain, have them bond with him, and then show them how Paul's approach did not work. His point of view is the point of view of 95% of all the people who ever lived so it was rather easy to get the audience to identify with him. That everything goes the other way guides the audience to another reality, true reality. Paul does not seem like a sinner trying to escape the will of God. Jerry Lundegaard, Bill Macy's hapless car dealer in "Fargo", commits a crime, but Paul is only trying to be a hero. Or is he? The culmination of this analysis of Paul's thoughts are in Chapter 10 when he comes face to face with an older version of himself.

So don't expect "13 Ways" to have an altar call. Neither is it sailing along on a wing and a prayer. The message is that God is in control and can overturn everything, providing us with real peace and eternal contentment.

Conversations on 13 Ways - Problem of Unnecessary Suffering Pt. 1

13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird addresses the problem of unnecessary suffering. The Bible has two ways of looking at this dilemma. First, we are born in sin, not the world God intended for us, so suffering is necessary. Many will protest that view but I know no one who has never needed negative reinforcement in their lives. Just try not saying a word of discipline to your employees for two weeks. Things slide out of control. It's a fallen world. Suffering leads us to desire the good that God has in store.

Second, God makes some strange promises in the Bible to Abraham. He grants him a land where God's people will live, but it won't be for another 400 years. Poor Abraham, Isaac, and even Jacob will never see the Promised Land in their lifetimes. They will live as strangers in their own land in their lifetime. Later, Moses meets the same fate; teased by the Promised Land but not allowed to enter in life. In Exodus 3, God reveals His "name forever" to be The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Is this God the God of three dead guys who never saw the Promised Land? No, that wouldn't make sense.

There is something beyond this life. It's there teasing us all the time with the question, Where did all this come from? What is beyond beyond, so to speak. Wittgenstein called this "the mystical" and concluded, "The mystical is that we exist" [Tractatus]. The Bible presumes that there is something beyond life; two things to be exact. One is ineffably sublime and wonderful; the other unspeakably horrible.

What if we draw the line at the end of physical life? We might have precluded a full understanding of what suffering is. If God picks us up when we die, what do we have to worry about? Without God and this life after death, we would live in a world of irreconcilable differences and infinite injustice. Ironically, the pivot point in our history is a moment in time when God died in our place and returned to life. The resurrection of Christ answers all these questions completely. Lots of people will protest that interpretation, but it is far more than mere coincidence that the Gospel of Christ sows together 1,500 years of scriptures and answers every question fully. Not even an educated group of people can conjure up something as flawless as Jesus. Look at the deviations within church organizations since that time. Flawlessness is not a human characteristic, but a divine one. Even to those who want to believe Jesus is a myth, they have to admit He exists on paper and, unless we deliberately distort His words, He's flawless.

And what more unnecessary can we get than the crucifixion? Jesus said He could have gotten a fleet of angels to rescue Him. He didn't. Did He suffer unnecessarily? I think not. He suffered for our sake to show us the way to eternal life. If you make a decision that Jesus is who He says He is, then you cannot believe suffering is unnecessary. Even, and especially, Christ's suffering was necessary to bring about the resurrection and answer this question for all time.

The folks of flight 1220 are afraid of the plane crashing. That is understandable. But it is the scares that warn us of the gravity of our situation. It might be a close call in an airplane, a disease that we have to deal with, or a death that shocks us. It's hard to say, but suffering is necessary. If God chose to suffer so we could believe in Him, who are we to say we don't deserve suffering? We ultimately cannot count on the material for support, it will always crash. We are forced by circumstances to look to the mystical. Reality is calling us to faith.

Coincidence or something more? The dreams that made up the novel

13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird began as a nightmare 10 years ago and popped up as a recurring nightmare over the years. The story was structurally the same from the very first nightmare. A young man is told by a stranger in front of him that the plane that they are o, the one that just took off, is going to crash. The catch is that he is NOT to prevent it from happening because he is one of four survivors. It becomes clear that the survivors are sitting behind him, the pretty Brazilian girl and the couple behind her. I woke up right when it was getting too scary.

Subsequent dreams included the scene where the Being attacks him in the bathroom in the person of the old woman. At first the "Why didn't you obey?" rant didn't make sense to me. After failing to come up with an alternative encounter, I wrote it out as I saw it in my dream. The next day I was on I-95 listening to a sermon on Genesis 3 and how it nailed the very problem of mankind. "Why didn't we obey?" the preacher asked. As he went on I was fascinated that the old woman/Being was talking about our war against God's will. It was actually what my whole story was about! The revelation put me in such deep thought that I almost wandered of the road. Amazing. A vision that at first did not make sense defined my whole work and then gave me the solid ground I needed for my finale.

Another dream was the scene in the Pub where the passengers and crew are holding a twentieth-anniversary reunion of Flight 1220. Paul sees a vision of a Pub in the middle of the dessert that's holding this reunion and he finds that the owner of the Pub is an older version of himself. Older Paul's quote to the younger, "I am you, but you..are not yet me" came verbatim from my dream. This scene served to expose Paul's ulterior motive in preventing the crash as his own fear of going through such a terrible ordeal.

The scariest nightmare probably was the one that became the scene where the Being attacks Paul through the person of the bubble-headed blond stewardess. When she/It revealed that Paul's intervention will cost everyone on board their lives and the lives of everyone on board the plane they're about to hit, and she/It ended with "It's all your fault!", I woke up in a cold sweat.

Yesterday another detail snuck up on me as I remembered why Paul was on that flight. His parents had gotten him the tickets. How fitting for the metaphor of the plane ride as a life that is doomed to end one day. Flight 1220 represents our physical life; we've taken off and the final destination is death. Our parents put us here, just as Paul's parents gave him the vacation. The odd thing is that I really hadn't thought about that until now, 4 months after publication.