What does it mean to make an investment in someone’s imagination?
I recently saw that George Lucas opened an amazing museum devoted to his work and life. It is an extraordinary structure, and I cannot wait to see it in person.
Of course, I idolize George Lucas. He created Star Wars and was remarkably early in his expression of imagination. When he made the first Star Wars film—which I believe was his third movie—he created it strictly from his own imagination. He did not first write a novel or publish a book. He imagined the characters who became the foundation of his extraordinary career and the Star Wars universe.
That imagination eventually made him more than a billionaire. It gave him the resources to build this museum—a lasting monument that people will be able to visit far into the future.
You might say Lucas became something of a modern Walt Disney. In fact, he sold his property to Disney years ago, and Disney has continued producing numerous adaptations and expansions of Star Wars. The stories now appear in almost every form and color, and the family of characters continues to grow.
I have respected George Lucas since I saw the first movie and recognized the extraordinary power of science fiction.
Therefore, when someone purchases a unit of participation in my project, that person is investing in my imagination.
Why would anyone invest in the imagination of an unknown person like me?
If you understood my life story, you would discover that there was a path set before me—a path I had to walk. My life placed me in a unique position to develop the concepts and ideas I am now bringing to the page.
The first book, Sophia, the Goddess of Divine Wisdom, is a book within the novel Thoth the Evangelist, my first major work. That novel is composed of four internal books similar in form to Sophia. In other words, the reader progresses through four distinct books to complete the larger novel.
Outside those four books, there is a three-chapter prologue introducing Valeria, one of the principal characters. There is also a concluding section that wraps up the story, summarizes its meaning, and introduces the reader to the next novel.
That next novel is Thoth the Exile.
In his story, Thoth—a deity—was exiled from ancient Egypt by his peers, other deities, and the forces that came to oppose him. He had committed what was considered a cardinal sin during his time in ancient Egypt, and that transgression resulted in his exile to the region that became Mesoamerica. Therefore, the second novel takes place primarily in Mesoamerica.
Why am I writing all of this?
It began with my academic work. I became fascinated by the origins of lineal measurement, which led me to study humanity’s first ruler: the royal cubit. Through that research, I came to understand Thoth as the designer of the cubit itself.
From that point forward, I focused my academic work on learning everything I could about this comparatively minor deity of ancient Egypt—a figure who has nevertheless become famous even in Hollywood, appearing as a character in the film Gods of Egypt.
Eventually, I recognized that I could take the wisdom I had accumulated through academic research and apply it to fiction. Fiction would allow me to bring that knowledge to a much broader audience.
I am nothing like George Lucas. What I am bringing, however—something different yet similar—is an extensive cast of characters grounded in mythology. The characters in my work come from different mythological traditions and historical periods, all intermingled within a single story.
There is also considerable history and archaeology underlying these characters—enough to suggest that perhaps, in some sense, these myths may have been real.
Consider Jesus Christ. He is not truly a character in my books, but his story comes to us through a tradition that some people regard as myth and others regard as sacred history. The principal surviving testimony is the Bible, which is itself substantial. I view the Bible as a book of history, and I believe that a great deal of what is written there is true.
My characters come from mythology, religion, theology, ancient history, and even other worlds. There is evidence within ufology related to some of these beings. I bring all of these elements together in a philosophical fantasy intended to teach two primary lessons.
The first is that there is a source of unconditional love. That source is the Almighty—the ultimate source of love, and especially of unconditional love.
The second is that intelligent beings who recognize this source of love developed what I call a body of Universal Law. This legal system is observed throughout the universe by highly intelligent species—those possessing the ability to travel between stars and across galaxies.
This creates an important distinction between my work and that of many other science-fiction and fantasy authors. My characters are, to varying degrees, traceable through history, theology, religion, mythology, archaeology, and ancient literature.
I believe this gives my imagination credibility. It also creates a genuinely distinctive form of fantasy.
Homer did something comparable in The Iliad and The Odyssey. Archaeological evidence suggests that places and civilizations described in those works may truly have existed. Did all the characters exist? Did the events happen exactly as Homer described them?
That is where history ends and imagination begins.
