Cindy Koepp's Blog, page 8

Remnant in the Stars: Setting

Remnant in the Stars was published by Under the Moon.

Remnant in the Stars takes place in the future. Earth has colonized many of the major moons in the solar system as well as several space stations scattered here, there, and yonder. Although they have interstellar travel, they got that from the Aolanians in exchange for trade agreements and resources.

There are two major locations for this story. The first is onboard Gyrfalcon, a small scout ship. It’s big enough to hold a half-dozen people easily. In the sequel, we’ll find that — as long as folks don’t mind roomies — they can do half that again without too much trouble.

The ship has storage space, a control center, engine room, doctor’s office, crew quarters, and kitchen. Although not intended to be a warship, it can defend itself decently, and it’s fairly maneuverable both in space and in atmosphere.

The other location in the story is a planet where the exploration ship crashes. The planet once had a thriving ecology until the greedier members of the sentient race went after the easily-available resources with devastating results. (I didn’t intend for this tale to be an environmentalist commentary, but it kinda turned into one). The only habitable area now is a small region on the coast of a continent stretching back into a nearby mountain range.

 

 

An Interesting Father

Yes, I know I’m about a month late for Father’s Day, but I just found this in one of my file archives, so I’m going to share now, anyway.

Mindstorm: Parley at Ologo: Setting

Mindstorm: Parley at Ologo was published by Splashdown Books.

Mindstorm takes place on a space station that doesn’t currently exist and on two planets that might exist, but if they do, we haven’t found them yet.

Cities of Refuge

Consider Numbers 35:10-28.  How do the Cities of Refuge reflect Christ and relate to us?

This gets a little convoluted.  Ready?

First, you’ll need some historical background on ancient Israel.  A great deal of responsibility was placed on the next nearest male kin.  This person was called the Goel or Kinsman Redeemer.  The Goel had the job of redeeming land for the family if they lost it somehow.  He also had the responsibility of raising up offspring if his dead kinsman had no heir.  Some of these duties were required.  Some were voluntary.  If you give the book of Ruth a quick read, you’ll find Boaz.  He ends up being Naomi’s – and Ruth’s – Goel after a nearer kinsman bails out.

One thing Boaz doesn’t demonstrate when he acted as the Goel is vengeance.  When Israel first possessed Canaan, there were no policemen or prisons.  If someone was murdered, the Goel was expected to become the Avenger of Blood, go hunt down the murderer, and take him out.

Just like today, sometimes accidents happen, though.  A person might accidentally do something that results in another person’s death.  These days, we call that “manslaughter.”  This is where the Cities of Refuge come into play.

When Israel entered the land, God told them to set up 6 Cities of Refuge, three on each side of the Jordan.  The purpose of these cities was to provide a refuge for someone who killed another person accidentally.  Someone guilty of manslaughter had to race to a City of Refuge and get there before the Goel caught them.  Upon arrival, the person had to convince the city elders that the situation was really manslaughter rather than murder.  If the person succeeded, he had to stay in the City of Refuge to be safe from the vengeance of the Goel.  If person ever left the city, he was fair game if the Goel could catch him.  This situation remained until the High Priest in Jerusalem died.  After that, the person could go free and return to their previous adventures without fear of the Goel.

That’s an interesting process, though more than a little odd.  I mean, why would the death of the High Priest have any bearing on whether someone guilty of manslaughter could go free or not?

Believe it or not, the whole thing falls into place when you recall Psalm 40:7, John 5:39, and Hebrews 10:7.  The whole book is written about Jesus.  This includes the Cities of Refuge idea.

Consider this.  To take advantage of the Cities of Refuge, we would have to be guilty of manslaughter, unintentional murder.  Remember what Jesus said from the cross in Luke 23:34?  “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

Well, if we humans didn’t know what we were doing, then it’s manslaughter, not murder.  We qualify to flee to the City of Refuge.

Who is our refuge?  At least 15 times in Psalms and Proverbs, God is said to be our refuge.  So we should flee to God to avoid the wrath of the Goel in his Avenger of Blood role.

How long do we have to stay in the City of Refuge?  Until the High Priest dies.  Well, who’s our High Priest?  That would be Jesus.  Hebrews says so several times.

Jesus died on the cross several years ago, making us free.

Pretty cool, huh?

 

Source: Chuck Missler.  Recurring explanation in several of his commentaries.

Lines of Succession: Setting

Lines of Succession was published by Under the Moon.

This tale doesn’t take place on any Earth we know.

I designed a map then populated it with people we may be familiar with, in some cases. (Honestly, the further you go down the list, the more I totally made up).

The region is called the Ibari Peninsula. If that strikes you as somewhat like “Iberian Peninsula,” there’s probably a good reason for that, but the similarity doesn’t extend much past the name.

There are 5 countries on the peninsula and a sixth on an island south of it.

Most of the story takes place in Corby, which is divided into provinces each ruled by a baron (or by the duke in one case). I had the grand idea that Corby had once been two countries, but one had been overrun by the other a long time go. Southern areas tend to have Germanic names and northern areas are a little more British.

To the west, there’s Sonjikstan, where Elaina attends school. They’re Russian, sort of, but with a greater fondness for martial arts and a somewhat more Catholic religion.

East of Corby, there are two countries: Gada and Toshiro. I stopped gathering cultural aspects of real countries, but used name parts (a little less so for Toshiro) from Israel and Japan, respectively.

South of Corby, there’s Indira, and if you guess India as the source for names and other little quirks, you’d be right there.

The island nation of Dabir is south of the peninsula. That one is loosely (very loosely, even more loosely than Toshiro is Japan and Indira is India) Arabic.

The sequel is going to take place (so far) in Corby and Toshiro.

When is this happening? I picked the Renaissance era. Most fantasy tales, whether they contain sorcery or not, tend toward the Medieval era. It’s all swords and snazzy armor and so on. I picked the Renaissance because that gave me rapiers to play with (Elaina is fairly skilled with one), and I used to study Renaissance fencing, so I know a bit or two about it.

Then, after I’d written the first couple drafts, a beta reader suggested I needed black powder weapons. If the tale is Renaissance, they had muskets, black powder pistols, cannons, and so on.

Okay! A bit of research and a few YouTube vids later, and I became an impromptu “expert” (ex = former, spurt = drip under pressure, so “expert” = former drip under pressure) on black powder weapons.  Have I ever fired one?  Well, sort of.

One year, I got to play in a San Jacinto (last major battle of the Texas Revolution) re-enactment. At the end of the second day, one of the gents had a few shots left and asked me if I wanted to give it a try. He loaded the rifle, and I tried to lift it so I could pull the trigger, but the silly thing was too heavy (I am an original 100-pound wimp). He helped me out, and I pulled the trigger. That’s as close as I got to shooting a black powder gun.

So, anyway, Lines of Succession took place in a made-up world in a roughly Renaissance time frame.

Menorah

How does a menorah represent Christ and the Church?

Remember Jesus’ discourse in John 15 about “I AM the vine.  You are the branches?”  A menorah has six branches coming up from a central one.  6 is the number of man (That’s both guys and gals).  Add one to make completion.  That one is Christ.  We aren’t complete without Him.

 

Source: Missler, Chuck.  The Book of Zechariah: A Commentary.  Koinonia House.

Like Herding the Wind: Setting

This one originally started out with a setting in the late 1800s in the Texas Panhandle. The Eshuvani were Elves and the police sergeant was a Texas Ranger. As I plotted it out, I realized it sounded a little too Lone Ranger, I tweaked the setting to a 1965 small Texas town on the Gulf coast.

As I designed characters and plot details, I realized my Elves were either going to be very atypical. Rather than deal with readers crying foul, I changed them to an alien race, the Eshuvani.

Eshuvani landed on Earth during the European Renaissance. Well, crashed is more like it. They were on a generation ship that developed major malfunctions and came down in a farmer’s recently harvested field. After some initial misadventures with humans (which I may end up writing into a novel some day), the Eshuvani tried hiding out in their own enclaves scattered around the planet.

Fast forward to 1965. Eshuvani enclaves are still scattered here and there, and relations between Eshuvani and humans are cordial as a rule, but not exactly friendly. Humans view Eshuvani as aloof, and Eshuvani view humans as impulsive.

The setting for this story was a topic of huge debate among a group of writers I was playing with at the time. Many of them had an issue with science fiction set in 1965. This wasn’t, after all, an alternate history kind of story. Some of the writers said I really needed to put the story at least in modern times, if not at least a few decades ahead. I declined and kept it in 1965.

You see, there was a reason for that. I needed the humans to being technologically behind the eight-ball. Sure, I could have done that by making the Eshuvani much more technologically advanced, but for some key points (especially in the plot of the sequel), that would have required the Eshuvani to have some snazzy widget that would disable the human’s technology. Sure, I could have done it that way, but that just seemed too convenient. I preferred to set things up so the humans didn’t have the means in the first place. No hokey plot device needed to come in and mess up the humans’ day. Setting the tale in 1965 made it more believable, in my opinion (which I value highly.

Moses Breaks a Model

How did Moses wreck a model of Christ in the wilderness wanderings?  What was the consequence of his actions?

Whenever you start feeling down about yourself, remember Moses.  He started out a basket case (Exodus 2).

Moses did start out with an assortment of challenges, but he was raised and educated as a member of Egyptian royalty (Acts 7:22) until he killed someone and ran for it (Acts 7:28, Exodus 2:12).  Forty years later, he returned and got Israel out of slavery (Acts 7:30, Exodus Ch. 3-13).  It’s a very familiar story made even more familiar by Charlton Heston.

After this, Moses held a position of great honor.  He spoke directly with God, received the law and led somewhere around 2 million or so Jewish folks toward the Promised Land*.  Then something shocking happens.  After 40 years of serving as the leader of all these people, Moses didn’t get to go into the Promised Land.  God let him see it, but he couldn’t enter (Deuteronomy 34:4).  Why not?

Go to Numbers 20:7-13.  God told Moses to talk to the rock to get water for the people.  Instead of talking to the rock, he smacked the snot out of it.  The water still came forth, but God was not amused.  As a result of his great displeasure, he forbid Moses and Aaron to enter the promised land.  Ouch.

So how does this wreck a model of Christ?  Well, you need the first half of the model.  Go to Exodus 17:6-7.  There, Moses was told to smack a rock to get water.  He did as he was told, and water spewed forth.

Who is the Rock?  Paul tells us that it was Christ in 1 Corinthians 10:4.  So if Christ is the Rock, the first time they encounter the rock, God tells Moses to hit it to get the life-giving water.  The second time, Moses is supposed to just talk to the rock to get the water.

Christ was struck down for our transgressions the first time to secure our redemption.  Now, we need only speak to him and ask to be redeemed.

Moses, because he was ticked off about the annoying, grumbling Israelites, hit the rock the second time instead of talking to it, so God forbid Moses to enter the Promised Land.  He broke the model, but God still accomplished his will.

 

*In Numbers 1:46, we find that at the end of the wanderings, less the Levites, there were 603,550 men of fighting age.  Assume roughly one female of the same age for each guy, add in the Levites (22,000 males … see Number 3:39).  Double that to account for girlie people, then add in probably another 500,000 for kids under 20 in all the non-Levitical tribes and you get…  1.75 Million… and that’s probably a short estimate since most families have more than one kid.

The Last Mission: Dwarves

“The Last Mission” is a science fiction tale that appears in Seventh Star Press‘s anthology: A Chimerical World: Tales of the Seelie Court.

In this tale, the elves and humans take care of basic operations and aerial attacks and defenses for the outpost. Dwarves are the mechanics and engineers (and ground forces, which didn’t appear in this particular story) of the group. They keep all the equipment running.

The dwarf who takes the stage in this tale is Gwalk, the technician who keeps Zanforil’s starfighter in good working order. He shows up a couple times: once right before Zan leaves on the mission and once when he gets back.

Originally, this story was going to be a lot longer, and dwarves were going to have much more to do.

Currently, the tale is a one-man-show. Zanforil, with his prototype armor, charges into enemy territory to disable the missile aimed at the outpost. Then he just has to get out of there.

In the initial idea, Zanforil was still headed in there by himself to wipe out the missile, but that was going to be followed up by a ground assault by a group of dwarves to completely overrun the Horde’s base and take them out of commission.

So, what happened?  Space constraints. The anthologies — both of the ones this was submitted to — had word count limits, and the current story had to be trimmed down as it was.

Some day, I might expand this story into the original format so the dwarves get their on-screen time, too. We’ll see!

 

The Book of Ruth

While we’re on the matter of models, try dissecting one. First, go read the book of Ruth.   How do Naomi and Ruth model Israel and the church, respectively?  What role is Boaz in?  Can you figure out who in the book of Ruth is the model of the Holy Spirit?  (HINT: The Spirit won’t testify of himself.)

Did you read the book of Ruth?  It’s only four chapters, so it’s a quick read.  In a nutshell, Naomi and her hubby go on a road trip to Moab to get away from a famine.  Naomi’s sons both marry Moabite women.  All the menfolk in the family die.  Naomi, hearing the famine is over, returns to Bethlehem.  Ruth, one of her daughters-in-law, goes along.  Ruth heads out to collect gleanings, which was a sort of a Jewish welfare system.  Reapers could go through the field only once.  Anything that was left was for the poor to collect and eat.  The guy who owns the field Ruth ends up in sees her and tells his reapers to cause her no harm and leave some extra for her to collect.  Naomi notices that Ruth comes home with too much stuff and finds out who owns the field.  Boaz is a redeemer of the family so Naomi instructs Ruth how to get Boaz’s attention.  Boaz takes care of everything.  They get married at the end.

Boaz was what is called a “Goel” or kinsman redeemer.  In Israel, when land is sold, it’s not an absolute transfer the way we think of it.  It’s really what we would call a lease.  A contract is drawn up and sealed, and the instructions for redeeming the land early are written on the outside.  In the Jubilee year, all land goes back to the original owner, but to get the land back sooner, the nearest kin can fulfill whatever the deed requires to get it back.  The kinsman redeemer is also expected to marry the widow of a deceased kinsman and raise up offspring for his dead relative.  This was called a “levirite marriage.”  The kinsman redeemer is not required to do any of this, but he has that option.  If he declines, then the next nearest kinsman has the right to take over the responsibilities.

So, Boaz was not Naomi’s nearest kin.  That’s why he had to confront the nearer kinsman at the city gate.  Technically, it was Ruth’s job to do that, but Boaz fulfills the requirements of the law for her.  Once the nearer kinsman declines to redeem the land for Naomi and marry Ruth – he had to do both – Boaz is free to marry Ruth and redeem the land.

Boaz is in the role of our “goel.”  He fulfilled the requirements of the law for Ruth so he could take a Gentile bride and restore the land to Naomi.  Who is our “goel?”  Jesus Christ.  He fulfilled the requirements of the law for his Gentile bride and will be coming to restore the land to its rightful owner.

Naomi was a Jewish woman who taught a Gentile woman what to do to approach Boaz.  Naomi is in the role of Israel.  Israel is often spoken of as divorced or widowed.  Naomi is a widow in this story.  Through the actions of the kinsman redeemer Naomi – and Israel – will get the land back.

Ruth is the Gentile bride of the kinsman redeemer.  Who is the Bride of Christ?  The Church.

So, who was the Holy Spirit in this model?  Well, look at who introduced Boaz to Ruth.  It wasn’t Naomi.  It was an unnamed servant.  Remember the Spirit never testifies of himself.  He is often, but not always, an unnamed servant in these adventures.

One last bonus trivia point for you: The threshing floor is often used as an idiom for the Great Tribulation.  If Boaz is a model of Christ in this story, where is Ruth when the thrashing floor happens?  At the feet of Boaz.  We know from Revelation that during the Great Tribulation, Jesus is in heaven until the end.  So if the Church is at his feet, where are they?  Yep.  Same place.

By the way, the significance of Ruth asking him to cover her with the hem of his skirt is not what you might think.  She’s not propositioning him.  She’s asking for his authority and protection to be placed over her.  In Israel, rank and authority were shown on the hems of garments.