A first step toward a novel can be the most fun...imagining what it was like. Imagining a novel of ancient times, based on the Genesis record...
This is one of the most fascinating periods of time that I could attempt to comprehend…the earth before Noah. What would it have been like to live at the same time and on the same interconnected land-mass as the dinosaurs (assuming a literal understanding of Genesis)? How would they have interacted with man? As part of a “very good” creation (Day 6), they should not have been a menace to man and probably were territorial, maybe testing their perceived boundaries at times. The animals’ fear of man had not been implanted until after the flood. But with all the evil going on among men, could it have affected the animals? Maybe some of them were becoming predatory...like the T-Rex and saber tooth tiger. I’m also fascinated with tree houses. What an opportunity to live in one (as the author), with all the clever gadgets, passage-ways and ladders. There is also the practical value of living above ground, where who-knows-what might roam at night...and a spectacular view. Let’s be within sight of the coast and that mystical sea, where Leviathan dwells. Everything grew to giant size back then…the same basic forms of animals we have today along with many more. Some were genetic composites of the varieties we have today, like a horse/mule with zebra stripes. Some could have been small. But, generally - based on the fossils - things were much larger, even insects. How would that have affected family life? Foot-long roaches...How would you go after one in the house? If meal clean-up wasn’t thorough, they would be there, along with sizable rats.
…This begins the journal of thoughts which resulted in the publication of The Ninth Generation, an adventure novel rooted in Biblical history. What value is there in such a journal? It helped me to identify my passion in writing a book and prevented writer’s block (by way of review). After spending decades writing commercial copy, I was ready to launch a different kind of project, one I had been pondering and planning since my years in seminary.
