Elthgar

I have been a fan of Aviad Cohen’s music for over a decade — and recently started listening to his last album ScriptureSonics nightly. I find his presentation of the Scriptures really helps them to resonate with my heart. I know that it has been many years since he has passed away — but I know the Christian music community lost one of its better musicians, and the community lost a man who had a passion for Jesus.

Aviad in many ways acted like a modern prophet, and that also resulted in a lot of negative things happening that was typical of the prophets of old when people didn’t hear platitudes and simple affirmations of their conduct. Some of the claims about his death (like he committed suicide, he was unhinged) were informed by a reaction to him speaking out. As I understand it (and IIRC), he actually had died from a side-effect of the bipolar medication he was taking — something like a brain aneurism. In any case I do believe that he made music that was genuine worship music (as opposed to something mass produced) and I am sure that he is still making such music in heaven.

If you get a chance — go to messianicradio.com and give his albums a listen.

1. Scripturesonics Vol. 1
2. Hooked on the Truth
3. Firestarter
4. Good News to Mission Control

If you want to learn a little more about Aviad Cohen, Chavah Messianic Radio gave some details in their announcement of his death in 2017.

About a year back, I transferred my decade-plus old account from Webfaction to Epik. The reason for doing this had nothing to do with quality of service, rather it was because Webfaction, owned by GoDaddy, engaged in a de-platforming of Gab.com. This was distasteful to me because Gab.com supported the First Amendment, and their rules were that any speech protected by the First Amendment was allowed on their site. They complied with law enforcement when the occasion arose, but they allowed speech that some people wished to silence. This got them black-listed by Silicon Valley.

Epik decided that they were willing to host Gab.com because they opposed de-platforming (see https://www.epik.com/blog/why-epik-welcomed-gab-com.html). Because they were willing to take a stand for the rights of others, I thought they were worth my fiscal support.

Since that point, I’ve setup and transferred sites with Epik, and when I’ve run into issues on my own — I have been able to rely on their staff to bail me out. Kudos to them for standing up for the rights of others AND providing a quality service. If you are looking for a hosting provider or to register a Domain on the internet, please consider them.

Each story is laced with scriptural references, and while no story is overtly a “gospel presentation”, they do contain scriptural truths.

In Episode 1 – The Tears of the Tuon, the references include Genesis 15, Genesis 19, and 2 Sam 24.

In Episode 2 – The Shadow of Ikral, the allusions include Judges 6, Hosea 2, and Num 25.

In the unpublished Episode 3 – The Mission to Muze there is a scene that is largely derived from 1 Sam 21.

I have two goals when writing my stories:

1. To write an entertaining story
2. To write an edifying story

I was rereading my first two episodes and pleased to find that I was both entertained and edified by them.  It had been a long enough period from when I had read them last that the experience was somewhat novel.

The first draft of Episode III of Scourge of Torial, called Mission to Muse has been sent to an editor.  I’ll make changes per her feedback, and then work through one or two more revisions.  I also will need to contact Ke about artwork for the book.  If all goes well, Episode III should be live mid-July.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Years!

Hopefully, I’ll wrap up episode III (and more) in the first half of 2018.

I thought there might be some interest in how some of the names came to be.  Some are pretty much just made upon with no underlying thought to them (Daalus being the most clear cut, and Elthgar a close second).

1. Delev is a tweaked anagram of Devil.
2. Barel was a name that took the Greek word for son (“Bar”) and merged it with a Hebrew word for God (or gods: “El”).  To my embarrassment this was before I realized the underlying languages were different.  This ultimately is a reference to higher level angels that are referred to at various points in the Bible (Genesis 6 and Job 1-2 are the chief examples).
3. Poleysez was originally an alien race that could shapeshift in a sci-fi series I had started writing in High School, and their native form was bird-like.  The name always makes me think of a parrot saying “Poly says, I want a cracker” or some similar nonsense.
4. Tuon is the name an indigenuous tribe gave to a missionary that meant big nose.  Being bear-like the Tuons are definitely big nosed.  One note: For most of the draft period, I had the plural of Tuon as Tuon — just like Deer and Sheep.  I changed it to Tuons for clarity sake, but it sneaks in at places (like the first episode title which had already been produced).  In terms of language inspiration, I can’t help but picture the Tuons as like the vikings, so a simplified phonetic spelling of Swedish is sometimes used.
5. Maeuw were originally Petalir which was definitely a nonsense name.  I was encouraged by a few people to make it something more cat-like, hence a reference to a cat meowing.
6. God is referred to by many names throughout the Bible, but for simplicity sake I use 2 names exclusively, and they highlight different parts of God’s character: Yah Elyon is used when God’s strength, power, and sovereignty are being referenced, and El Roi is used when God’s all-seeing, all-knowing attributes are being used (Hagar’s story from Genesis 16 is what inspired this primary usage).
7. Torial was originally Toreal and of course inspired by Israel.  The name changed when feedback I got at a writers workshop was that Toreal was actually a reference to it not being real (To Real) and that thought had never occurred to me.  I changed it to clear up any potential confusion.
8. Senas is an anagram for Seans (ie, lots of the author).
9. Nanae was an attempt to make a race name that something sheep-like would make.

Since it has been a while since I last made a post on the site, I wanted to mention that the writing has taken a back seat (but not done) to other more urgent issues of life.  My employment has changed twice in the last 18 months, and I had a stint of unemployment, as well as my youngest’s onset of diabetes.

I currently have a first draft of episode 3 about 80% done, and I have numerous later episodes (maybe 3 or 4) at about 80% of a second draft.  The urgency for finishing hasn’t seemed great, and each episode costs me a bit to produce, which I have not been able to afford of late.  I will pick it up again soon.

The novella can be found at the following location: Kobo version

When I made up the worship of Ikral, modeled in parts by Chemosh and the Phoenician gods, I had viewed the sacrifice of children (aside from the evil “Planned Parenthood” which was painted as something else) as an artifact of cultures long since dead.  Unfortunately, this is the second occurrence in the last few months showing me I was wrong: Child Sacrifice for Power

Placeholder for original creation of blog.