“Then my heart, with pleasure,
fills and dances with the daffodils.” ~~William
Wordsworth
Hi all,
Welcome to another exciting edition of "Jenni scrambles to
complete a newsletter whilst also working on two
stories"! Big thanks to Sierra for submitting the
questions below. She actually sent seven but I'll save
the other three for later. If you have something you're
wondering about, please let me know. Sometimes doing
stuff like this clears my head and makes for a fairly quick
newsletter when I've got other stuff going on.
I hope you're all doing well!
God bless,
Jenni
Ask a JABB Co-Founder: Story Stuff with Sierra
Question 1: Will we see more Sergius and Bacchus or their backstory?
(This gives you the possibility to tell their story and how
they’re not characters.)
You will definitely see more of them and probably fairly soon,
even if it's more of a cameo. I don't know that I would do
a flashback... at least not any time soon. I feel like
that would require a fair amount of historical research that I'm
just not up to right now. But I think there are some
characters coming along who might benefit from hearing their
story so I may have them relay it in a more fleshed out way than
we got in "You'll Never Walk Alone." But more like a
storytelling scene than a proper flashback.
For those who aren't aware, Saints Sergius and Bacchus are
definitely not creations of my imagination. While there
are some disputes about their existence, they are regarded as
real and venerated as saints in a number of churches. You
can get an overview here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergius_and_Bacchus
In the Dyeland stories, they're known as Serge and Bach in the
modern day. They're friends of Lucius and Mary of
Magdala. They helped Joccy during her recovery after her
suicide attempt. While historians may quibble about their
existence and the nature of their relationship, in the stories
they're anam caras and were gay when they were living on
Earth. 2. Did Joshua ever walk among native or
non-Christian/Jewish populations? If so, how did He
interact with their religious beliefs?
In both the stories and real life, I think Joshua/Jesus has done
a lot more than is contained in the Bible. I mean the
Bible actually says that. I don't think he necessarily
goes places and is like "Hey, it's me! The Son of
God!" I sometimes think of Joshua as the greatest chess
player to ever live. He's not always very direct.
Sometimes, yes. But often not. So I think it's very
possible that he appears to people and populations not with the
expectation that they'll all fall to their knees and recognize
him but to plant a seed of knowledge that they're loved by the
Creator. And sometimes it takes a while for that seed to
bloom but it does eventually. Also, since the Dyeland
stories very much fall into a Lewisian theology, anyone who can
look upon the face of Joshua with love at the end of their lives
is saved. So Joshua may very well pay visits to people,
without revealing his identity, knowing that at the end they'll
join him because of positive personal or cultural memory.
Joshua delves into this a bit himself when he tells JenniAnn the
Parable of the Queendom in "The Carpenter."
I think the way Joshua interacts with other religious beliefs
would be pretty much in line with what we see in the
Gospels. Jesus didn't get really hung up on the specifics
of how people worship God. He didn't provide an outline
for a worship service. He didn't list off a bunch of the
rituals and traditions that now comprise various forms of
Christian worship. He spoke out against specific beliefs
and behaviors within Judaism during his time that were
harmful. And I think he'd be that way with other
religions, too... including modern Christianity. Even when
he was disappointed, though, Joshua wouldn't take back his gift
of free will. So, sadly, he can't end child marriages or
conversion therapy or clerical abuse. But I don't think
that means he's silent about them, either.
Also, we know that in the stories Joshua can shapeshift and has
a number of aliases. So... no one ever quite knows where
he'll turn up, what he'll look like, and what name he'll be
using. I think in this way he could have a lot of
influence on a lot of different people without making a big show
of it. 3. Do an older Avi and Belle wish they would have
understood more of what was going on when they were younger?
This one just fascinates me! It makes me wonder if I wish
I'd known certain things about my own childhood and I think my
general answer is yes sometimes and no sometimes.
I think there's something to be said for them having had a
better understanding of their parents' struggles. I think
Andrew and JenniAnn shield them from a lot and I don't blame
them. But I think older Belle has a very fairy tale view
of love because she didn't see the disagreements, the crying,
and the frustrations. She'll probably remember that both
her parents had major health scares. But I doubt she'll
remember how the other struggled to cope. When she's
older, she may very well wish that she'd been granted a more
balanced view of her parents' relationship. Avi doesn't
experience some of the angst that Belle does because he marries
the only girl he ever loved. But even at that, he may
eventually wish he'd seen more of the struggles Andrew and
JenniAnn faced. Just because someone finds their spouse
quite easily doesn't mean the resulting marriage will be all
sunshine and butterflies.
I also think, from Avi's and Belle's POV, it would be easy to
assume Andrew and JenniAnn always had great communication and
complimentary communication styles. But they didn't for
several years. And knowing how they parsed that out may
have been really helpful. I'm sure Andrew and JenniAnn
will give good advice, though!
I think when it comes to many of the Friends, they'll be glad
that they were shielded from some of the more troubling
backstories. As children, they really couldn't have fixed
anything so knowing about the abuse some of them suffered, the
reasons behind Joccy's suicide attempt, the human trafficking,
Vincent's troubled past, and more would have just been
stressful.
I think the person who probably most wishes she'd known more is
Shelby. Given she ends up chronicling their stories,
Shelby might have liked having a more nuanced view of the start
of Andrew's and JenniAnn's relationship. But I also think
she's pretty happy to interview them and get details later.
4. Will Joshua ever stop regularly visiting the Friends?
I always intend for Joshua to step back... and then things are
going on in my life or in the world that make me feel comforted
by writing about him. So that's hard to say. I think
that's the natural progression of it. It makes sense that,
as with the Apostles, he sets the Friends up to spread his love
and then steps back. Maybe eventually he'll do that.
But right now there are still missing pieces to the puzzle,
mournful demons looking for a second chance, and more.
I do think, eventually, Joshua will stop coming every Christmas
and make it more sporadic. But not this Christmas. I
already have a to-do list for him. :-)
This newsletter is dedicated to John Dye for inspiring me to
plant daffodils because they're blooming right now and quite
lovely IMO!
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