It’s been quite the journey: Taking the story I started my college days and turning it into a book. If you haven’t heard, my first novel releases this month (May 2023). I’ve learned a lot along the way. Though this project has come to an end, it’s really just the beginning for ZanderverZ. Sounds kind of ominous, doesn’t it? Let’s delve a little deeper into this first novel, The Visions of Bezek.
From the blurb:
“You should remember, but you don’t. No one remembers. You were there in Bezek with the rest of us.”
That’s the hook I came up with for the book. I wanted to involve the reader on a personal level. The adventure even starts with a letter to the reader. This is an important part of the story. For some reason, no one remembers the town, and the author of the letter wants you to remember that you were there.
Continuing with the blurb:
“The town flourished with a bright future, but that was only a veil for the sinister presence at its heart. Through my visions, I have seen the truth of those last days. Held in the arms of the great forest, around the pulsing lake, and among the constructs of humanity, I have known Bezek through the people who lived there. I even see the man beneath the lake searching for the secrets of his blood. I want you to know the town as I have known it. And I want you to remember.”
The story primarily takes place in Bezek. The town itself is a big part of what I wanted to develop in the book. I wanted it to feel like a living community with all the parts of an actual town. And as the blurb explains, I want you to know about the sinister presence at the heart of Bezek.
The novel comprises twenty-two chapters that explain why no one, including the reader, remembers Bezek. Here’s the twist, though. Each chapter, or vision as the book calls them, follows a different resident of the town during their last days. As a result, each vision provides a standalone story, but also adds a piece to the overall puzzle about the disappearance of the town. Some even cross into different genres, but most of them are dark/urban fantasy sprinkled with mystery. These are the visions of the one who penned the letter at the start of the novel. Thus the name, The Visions of Bezek.
Wrapping up the blurb:
“The Visions of Bezek is a collection of dark urban fantasy visions that weave together the mystery behind the disappearance of Bezek, the town lost from time. Each vision follows a different gifted individual during their last days in town, and each is represented by their own Tarot major arcana.”
That’s right. Each vision is loosely based on the meaning behind its own tarot card. For example, the first vision is The Fool. In a tarot reading, The Fool can be interpreted to mean new beginnings, faith in the future, lack of direction, and even stupidity. The meaning can change based on the order and position during the reading. As such, each card can have multiple meanings. Since I wrote the first chapter loosely based on myself, The Fool obviously represents stupidity. I’m joking. You can stop laughing now. It’s not that funny.
The first chapter is about Anthony Grace. He’s a hopeless romantic. He meets someone new and embarks on a love story. This first chapter seems to make the novel out to be a romance novel, but that changes along the way. I don’t want to give away too much.
Early in the course of Anthony’s story, he saves a young child named Timmy from drowning. The second chapter is about Timmy. This model continues on through the book, with each following chapter being about someone you met in a pervious chapter. It makes for quite the mysterious, story-telling web.
I’ll end this blog by noting that I only intended for there to be one Bezek novel. The book begins and ends with no further reading necessary to answer the questions of its storyline. With that said, as I finished up the story, I found myself with a wealth of other Bezek stories that I wanted to write. So now I’m working backwards in writing future Bezek series books. Can I call it a reverse series? Is that a thing? I think that’s what I’m doing. The Veiled Maze is already a product of that concept. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy The Visions of Bezek.
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