Later this summer, I will launch a series of short stories that take place 20 years before Operation Kaleidoscope. They will be filled with spoilers so I'll be giving you all time to finish the novel before I begin posting them but I am excited to share the stories that led up to the events you are about to read. These stories will be followed by another series of prequel short stories that will be spoiler free to introduce you to the characters of my next novel "Song of the Dove" which will hopefully be ready to start the publication process by Christmas. In the meantime, I have another kind of story I'd like to share with you.
Many of you (even those who have been there since its conception) do not know the full story of how Operation Kaleidoscope came to be (though I did share a piece of it earlier in this blog, in the entry "Faith so Small"), nor the journey that has developed it into the powerful piece of fiction it now is. Few know the way my heart broke writing chapter 46 and how I still cry every time I read it (and I read that chapter often), how I feel sick when I read chapter 42 and get chills when I read chapter 41. Why do I feel this way? Well for one because I am a very emotional and sentimental creature but also because the journey of these characters is my own as I believe it is each of ours.
Earlier this week, I was talking to a friend who asked why it took me eight years to finish. The simple answer would be that I was busy, I went to college during those years, worked full time during my Masters and worked in ministry every chance I got. But the truth is, no matter what I do with my life there's always time to write. Nothing has shown me that more than my work with Heartlight ministries where I work over 75 hours a week and still have managed to finish nearly 40% of my next novel (more about that at another time). The truth of why this has been a eight year journey is not an issue of time but an issue of transformation.
When I started writing 13 years ago, I wrote for fun, for myself and the entertainment of my little sisters and our younger cousins. I wrote nine science-fiction novels based on the imaginary world I created to entertain my insomniac mind in the hours I would stare at the ceiling. But they were unfit for publication. Not only because I was merely in middle school but because they did not bring me transformation. But they did provide fantastic material for my creative writing class my junior year of high school. It was through that class that I discovered protagonize.com the birthplace of Operation Kaleidoscope.
Through this website I was able to join with hundreds of other writers of all ages and create characters to go on adventures. I was part of many collaborations on that site and created hundreds of characters and explored numerous worlds but Colors of the Rainbow changed everything. I joined with eight other writers (3 of which were members of my family) and we each created a character based on a color of the rainbow (plus white) and developed a super power to go with each of them. Then we threw these characters into a mansion and took them on some wild adventures. We went mattress surfing, fought samurai, visited people in dreams, fell in love, were kidnapped and tried to go to the Bahamas all while discovering our super powers.
When the story finally began to gain some direction (thanks to our writer for Isabelline getting kicked off the site and a new author not coming in till 50 chapters later) some of the other writers decided to scrap the story and start over causing the rest of us to leave. But for me the story still had too much life to throw away. So, with the permission of the writer who developed the plot (who happened to be my dad), I began writing Operation Rainbow. I kept the plot, the first names and their powers, gave them proper last names, kept their most prominent characteristics and scrapped the rest. Then I poured a special ingredient into each one: myself. To Cobalt I gave my guilt, to Carmine my pride, to Azurite my addiction, to Wisteria my self-hate, to Myrtle my envy, to Mikado my doubt, to Azo my anger and to Isabelline my confusion.
And then I took myself on a journey that would change my life just as it changed theirs and will hopefully change yours. And that is why it took me seven years to write those last words: "I will never forget". I finished this story nearly three years ago but it sat on my hard drive, gathering nano-dust as I struggled to discover what it was still missing. In 2015, I hit a really dark place. You can read about it on this blog in the entry titled "A Writer's Journey" and in that darkness God found me. He stripped me of the fear that had caused me to hold onto Operation Rainbow as I waited for a perfection that would never come. He told me that the story I had to tell was beautiful and then...he told me to delete chapter 46. I cannot explain what happened after I deleted that chapter except that the words that have now become chapter 46 are not my words.
I cannot read that chapter without crying because I do not remember writing them. They are the cry of every human heart, and the words that I finally had to accept in order to find freedom for myself. I could not finish this story until I experienced for myself the very thing I was demanding my characters to experience. With this revelation Operation Rainbow received a new name: Operation Kaleidoscope. I hope that as each of you read this story, you will be changed. This is not just a story for entertainment, it is, I hope, a catalyst for change.
May you find your serendipity!
