The promised inside info...

Whew! Suddenly I look up and it's been almost two weeks since my last post! Sorry about that, but as a few of you know I have to drive to my grandparents' house to use the internet - and with all of this snow I haven't been able to get out! By the way, I think we should all make an effort to congratulate all of the environmentalists who so nobly gave up their SUVs and incandescent bulbs for the sake of stopping global warming - their efforts have obviously met with smashing success. Now can we please go back to SUVs so we can thaw out for a while? ; )

But I digress.

Since you've asked so sweetly (and since Heather and Traveler might come after me if I don't), I'm posting some of that insider information I promised on Son of The Shield! So here goes:

First off, I'm sure some of you have noticed the capitalization 'error' in the title (shouldn't it be Son of the Shield instead of Son of The Shield?). Nope. That's deliberate. Reason being: just as, in our world, we refer to God as "The Lamb of God" or "The Lion of Judah" - by His title, not His actual name, in Reyem, the world where SOTS is set, they refer to God by His title "The Shield" instead of by His name "Azor". Likewise, as in our world followers of Christ are called "Christians," in Reyem the followers of The Shield are called "the Protected".

So, if The Shield is God of Reyem, the title Son of The Shield means 'Son of God' right? Well, yes ad no - that's a little tricky to explain. Let me start by telling you a bit about how I had the idea for SOTS. I was standing in the kitchen doing dishes - a great start, eh? Anyway, I turned around and looked down the hall to the front room, where the lights were off and it was dark. I saw a shot of a man with blonde hair and blue eyes sitting on a horse, and a young woman with dark hair and gray eyes standing nearby. As I watched, the girl's eyes suddenly went from pale gray to black, and - well, I won't say what she did next, because that would give away part of the story! (mwahahaha) Anyway, I was quite intrigued by what I had seen, and I went and got my name book, hoping to find some good names for the characters I had just been introduced to. Skimming through the girls' names, I found the name 'Orienne'. Perfect! It suited the dark-haired woman wonderfully! So I moved on to guys' names. None of them really grabbed me. I did, however, find a meaning of a name that I loved. The name was Ransom, and it meant - son of the shield. Sweet! I didn't care for the name, but the meaning was awesome - perfect for the title of a story, I thought. So I named the man on the horse Ransom in spite of my dislike for the name, hoping that it would grow on me. It didn't. As time went by, I actually grew to dislike the name even more. It just didn't work for the character, no matter how I tried to make it. But I had already begun to call my vague little idea by the title "Son of The Shield", and that part fit perfectly.

Eventually I found the name 'Sorek' - a perfect fit for the man on the horse. The name 'Ransom' became the name of the group of six men who are chosen to lead Adelfia. These men, "sons of The Shield," are ranked as sons, from First-Born to Sixth-Born. If one of the younger sons dies, for instance: the Fourth-Born, the sons younger in rank than he move up to fill his place and a new youngest son is chosen by the remaining sons. If the First-Born dies, however, his replacement can be chosen only by The Shield.

So, while technically the title SOTS does mean "son of God", it doesn't refer to the Son of God. It simply refers to the men chosen to lead The Shield's people. All of the Redeemed are Sons, after all. "And if children, then heirs"... you get the idea, I hope. If my rambling attempts at explanation have left anyone profoundly confused, please let me know and I'll try to clarify!