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Writer’s Diary July 2020
By Admin | ToESWriting
Astute observers will have noticed that in my list of events from the time of Daniel I included the most detail in the early times. This is deliberate because I do not need the later detail yet and there is little available.
My current story about Daniel only deals with his life up to the second siege of Jerusalem a little while after the brief reign of Jeconiah (about 597/596BC).
Later details are only important in shaping the story, but not in fine detail.
I finally realised that I had left out two family trees in Terror on Every Side! Volume 1 – Early Days . Those of Josiah and Shaphan were intended to be included, but somehow I had forgotten them. How? Frustrating. Imported the PDFs of the family into Inkscape and converted them to SVG so that I can adjust the aspect ratio better to maximise the size of print.
Little actual writing.
More work on the book of Jeremiah in chronological order with more feedback from Cathy. I managed to leave out Jeremiah 37:17-21 because at the time I wasn’t sure exactly where to put it. The order of events around the start of the final siege of Jerusalem are not spelled out clearly although a few passages give clear hints as to the order.
It seems clear that the final siege started after the following events took place (see Jeremiah 34:1-10; 37:1-16; 34:11-22; 39:1; 52:4; 37:17-21; 21:1-14):
Updated the table on the website (https://www.bibletales.online/chronological-order-of-jeremiah/) to include the omitted passage.
Updated the eBooks (EPUB/MOBI/AZW3/PDF of Terror on Every Side! Volume 1 – Early Days to include the family trees of Josiah and Shaphan which I had left out. Made them available on the Bible Tales website.
Also updated the files I need to upload for fixing up the internals of the paperback versions.
Finished updating the table of Jeremiah in chronological order and then went back to Terror on Every Side! Volume 1 – Early Days (2nd Edition).
The spine width calculator (https://myaccount.ingramspark.com/Tools/SpineCalculator) says that 186 pages gives a spine thickness of 10.058mm (0.396”), while 188 pages gives a spine thickness of 10.160mm (0.400”). Difference is 0.102mm (0.004”).
For 226 pages the spine width calculator gives 12.116mm (0.477”), while for 228 pages it gives 12.217mm (0.481”). Difference is 0.101mm (0.004”).
This seems a little strange, given that the 9.5pt version has a few empty pages at the back, making 192 pages altogether (although only 186 are used for the content while the printing information appears on the very last last page (p192)). Adding one extra sheet should just fill up an empty page and make no difference to the spine thickness. I am beginning to suspect that the method used for calculating the spine thickness is not quite as accurate as it might like to appear.
The 10.5pt version uses 226 pages followed by a final sheet with printing information (page 228).
The printers say that they print books of this size with either 4 or 6 page sheets and 4 and 6 are both factors of 192 and 228. However, if they were using 4 page sheets, they could have used only 188 pages in the 9.5pt version, so I think that I can conclude that they are using 6 page sheets.As a result, adding 2 pages to the 10.5pt version would make it 228 pages which would require another 6 pages to fit the printing information. ie. adding 1 sheet would actually add 3 sheets. Using the spine width calculator gives 12.116mm for 226 pages and 12.217mm for 228 pages. Difference is 0.101mm.
If they print with 6 pages per sheet, the spine thickness should only change every 6 pages, but the calculator gives a different thickness for every two pages.
I think that I will update both of the cover files, but only upload the one for the 10.5pt edition which I believe is the only one that will change.
Continuing to look at Jeremiah in chronological order caused me to reconsider Jeremiah 50:1-51:58. Jeremiah 51:59-64 speak of Seraiah (Baruch’s brother) going to Babylon with Zedekiah in the 4th year of Zedekiah’s reign and taking with him a book containing all the messages against Babylon. Jeremiah 50:1-51:58 which immediately precede this passage give messages against Babylon, but seem to speak as if Babylon had already destroyed Judah/Jerusalem (Jeremiah 50:7,11). It seems likely that messages were given against Babylon over a long period of Jeremiah’s service (in fact, they had even been given in Isaiah’s prophecies). Jeremiah 51:11 says that God has stirred up the spirit of the Medes against Babylon which also suggests a later time although God sometimes speaks in the past tense about things that will happen in the future. These chapters may have been the last messages given and this is how I have categorised them, but God’s messages may well have been repeated either exactly or with some variation throughout Jeremiah’s career. These two chapters may also be an amalgamation of messages given to Jeremiah over many years, but I have collected them all together to one time. Anyway, having reviewed the placement of the passage, I have decided to leave it where it is!
More work on finalising the second edition and fixing the initial error with it (missing family trees of Josiah and Shaphan). Uploaded the eBook files. Make the eBooks (PDF/EPUB/MOBI/AZW3) of the second edition available on BibleTales.online for the following products:
Volume 1 is also available as an eBook (EPUB) and print on demand through sites like Amazon in 9.5pt and 10.5pt paperback versions. This means uploading new versions of the internals and EPUB file. So far I have done the 9.5pt and EPUB files, but the something has happened with the pagination of the 10.5pt version due to bugs in Word, so I had to spend quite a bit of time fixing it up.
Finished repaginating and uploaded the internal content file for the 10.5pt version. Glad to get it done. Now the hard cover version is required, as well as the eBook of Jeremiah in chronological order.
Finished working on a final draft of the eBook of Jeremiah in chronological order. Handed over to Cathy for final checking.
Another goal is to add the contents of the 2 Kings 22-25, 2 Chronicles 34-36 (similar to the harmony set out in https://www.bibletales.online/bible-records-in-the-time-of-jeremiah/) and Jeremiah’s Lamentations into the book. This will not always be easy either, but would help to make the book even more readable.
Busy with other things, so little actual writing has happened this week. Closing in on the release date for the hard cover version of Volume 1 – Early Days, so that needs finalising too so that I can print a copy for review and allow any updates before the release date (20 July).
More work on chronological order and found a couple of errors in the existing list. Added an extra table containing the more vague dates (ones that specify only the name of the reigning king). Made the eBook available through the newsletter.
Also added the book to the website front page and bibletales.online/books/.
Started to work on the pre-publishing promotion of “Fiction Favours the Facts – Book 3”.
Next newsletter is to be about common and unusual expressions in the Book of Jeremiah.
A list of very common words, expressions, or ideas (in the ESV):
|
Expression |
Frequency in Jeremiah |
|
“Thus says the Lord of hosts” |
71 |
|
“Thus says the Lord” (not “Lord of hosts”) |
101 |
|
“The word of the Lord came to me” |
10 (all before Jeremiah 32) |
|
“The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah” |
13 (all after Jeremiah 28) |
|
“The word of the Lord” (not “to me” or “to Jeremiah”) |
30 |
|
“Declares the Lord of hosts” |
4 |
|
Lord God of hosts |
7 |
|
persistently (of God’s persistent warnings) |
10 |
|
“I did not send” |
7 |
|
nations |
60 |
|
gods |
34 |
|
north |
25 |
|
terror |
16 |
There are also other words that are interesting and fit with many other books in the Bible: orphan, widow, adultery, lovers, whore and “Queen of heaven”.
The nation is also broken down into various groups which are often mentioned together: kings, officials, priests, prophets and people (or “men of Judah” or “inhabitants of Jerusalem”).
Much of the story of Daniel is already written, but I have decided to revisit the basis of this fictional story to check that my attitude to Daniel is reasonable, based on what we know of him.
God’s opinion of Daniel in his later years is given in Daniel 9:23, 10:11 and 10:19 where he spoken of as being “greatly loved”. He is the only person in the Bible described like this.
In Daniel 12:13, he is told that he will stand in his allotted place at the end of the days. This seems to be linked to verses 2 and 3 that talk about judgement and the righteous then shining like the brightness of the sky.
Ezekiel 14 mentions Noah, Daniel and Job together twice (14:14; 20) as outstanding examples of righteousness. The early parts of Ezekiel appear to be in chronological order and this chapter appears to be shortly after the time mentioned in Ezekiel 8:1, then fifth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of Jeconiah’s captivity (the sixth year of Zedekiah’s reign). By that time, Daniel had been in captivity for about 13 years and would have been about 30 years old, yet he is used as an example in the company of Noah and Job.
Some five years later, Ezekiel 28:3 speaks of Tyre and uses Daniel as the best example, the epitome, of wise men.
In the book of Daniel (1:3-4), we read that Nebuchadnezzar commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skilful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.
Daniel and his 3 friends met those criteria.
Not only so, but they were found to be 10 times better than all the magicians and enchanters in the kingdom (Daniel 1:20).
At very young ages, they were all appointed to important positions in the most powerful empire in the world.
Daniel was made chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans and astrologers by Nebuchadnezzar (2:48; 4:9; 5:11).
Aside: Despite the appointment of Daniel to such a senior post, Nebuchadnezzar seems to have consistently tried to avoid talking to him until he had tried asking others. In Daniel 3, Daniel’s 3 friends are involved, but he is not. It seems likely that Nebuchadnezzar may have held him in some awe but not liked his serious, righteous, religious approach to life. He may have felt it too constraining (vegetables, no strong drink (Daniel 1:8, 12; 10:3).
Belteshazzar made Daniel number 3 in the kingdom.
Darius made Daniel one of three presidents over the kingdom and planned to make him chief.
Clearly Daniel was an outstanding man in ability and character from a very young age, but also to a very old age. We know nothing about him or anything he did that is specifically or incidentally identified as wrong.
This outstanding character needs to show when telling his story. However, it must normally show in an active way (doing good), not a passive way (avoiding wrong) – although he must have done that too.
From yesterday’s list, we need to conclude that Daniel was an astonishing man. His ability was extreme, and his godliness stands out even amongst the most righteous of the people in the Bible.
As a result, it seems very likely that he would have been outstanding before ever he was taken to Babylon, and probably even at the end of the reign of Josiah when he was only 10-12 years old.
He seems to have had faith that he could achieve the impossible with God’s help, but also that he could convince people to let him do what he believed he should do. In the cases that we know about, he could do so too.
Revisiting what is said about him confirms for me what my approach to describing and presenting this man has to be: Intellectually brilliant, morally outstanding and unusually willing to act on his faith.
Finished work on the hard cover version of “Early Days” and uploaded the files to IngramSpark.
More work on promotion of Fiction Favours the Facts – Book 3.
The e-commerce side of Bible Tales has not been working well. The product pages are not good enough and the purchasing experience is substandard. As a result, I have examined Shopify and decided to move the e-commerce part of BibleTales.online to there using the address BibleStories.online which I already have.
Yesterday I began creating the basic website and imported the products from the Bible Tales WooCommerce store. Still need to import all of the downloadable files for eBooks (PDF/EPUB/MOBI) and audiobooks (ZIP). A quick estimate of files suggests that there are about 9 eBooks (27 files) and 6 audiobooks (6 files), so that shouldn’t be too hard to move although it could take a while to make sure I get them right!
It seems that each product can only have one downloadable item, so collections will have to be put into a single zip file for download.
Many of the downloadable files will still be available on BibleTales.online since they are free samples or chapters from serials.
Overall, I hope that I can get things to work much more easily and avoid the current problems with shipping as well.
Back to working on Daniel.
Given that he seems to have been such an amazing man in ability and righteousness, it seems reasonable to assume that he would have certain expectations of success and his own importance when growing up in Jerusalem. I believe that it is fair and reasonable to have him expecting to become an important official in Josiah’s court in Jerusalem at a young age.