Well, it’s the last day. Tomorrow Adélie Angst releases, and my bizarre “Four Books, Four Months” endevour is over. I got to say hello to one book, and goodbye to three. I’m not going to have to edit Reign Falls, Solitaire, or Adélie Angst again, unless some random urge takes me. It’s a strange thing to say goodbye to a book that you’ve worked with for years. Adélie Angst, Parabaloni 5, was my NaNo book in 2013; its been over two years now that I’ve poured over it, taken it apart, rewritten parts, diced it, chopped it, spliced it, and then decided I didn’t like the changes and started all over again. Solitaire has always given me fits, as I mentioned in another post. But Adélie Angst has always stayed basically the same, through every edit. It’s the fairly minor things that have gotten changed, because the plots and points of this book I’ve always been content with, from conception, to writing, through about fifty different edits. No, not just content; I’ve always liked the bizarre plotline of this story, as well as the adventures of the mismatched American spies, as they try to figure it all out and stop the crazy bad-guy.
I remember that National Novel Writer’s Month two years ago, November rolled around and I shrugged my shoulders and said to myself, “I want to write a fun book.” In the four Parabaloni stories I had already written the footnotes and random comments were always hinting at these crazy, outrageous cases the spies had been involved with, like saving the world on numerous occasions. They hadn’t done anything that impressive in the other books… so I decided to let them do something unbelievable in this one, and hang the realistic feel. My file from when I first started plotting Adélie Angst is still saved as, “Outrageous Parabaloni Plotline.” I think I succeeded, and still managed to keep it believable. Okay, maybe almost believable is a better description. It’s really taken until now, after having run through it extensively in the past weeks, to get me bored with this book. It’s always been a fun read, with a plot that I really enjoy, and that teaches people something extraordinarily simple and profound about Christianity. Our worldview doesn’t ignore the angst, and pain, and illogical sorrow of the world; but it offers a beginning without it, and a way into joy everlasting at the end. We have hope with Christianity.
I had fun writing this book. And I encouraged myself too. It’s more than just hopeful to remember we serve a smart God, as well as a real One, a God who knows exactly what the humanity He created needs, and makes sure to fulfill our every longing. No service is trivial, because He cares what we do. Every sharp longing for beauty, lasting joy, truth, it has a defining purpose and foundation in our God. I hope the thing you come away with from this book is the simplicity and beauty of the gospel.
“By Thy own eternal Spirit rule in all our hearts alone; by Thine all sufficient merit, raise us to Thy glorious throne.” -Charles Wesley