In the liturgical year, January 6 is the day of the Epiphany, and the days from now until Ash Wednesday, when the penitential season of Lent begins, are the Epiphany season.  The imagery of Epiphany includes a new and portentous star and the arrival of foreign wise men.  The meaning of Epiphany is a showing forth of something heretofore hidden but momentously significant.

This reminds me of my just-published novel Downfall Tide.  But oppositely, like a photographic negative.  The story opens with a new star in the night sky.  It isn’t the kind of astronomical new star the colonists on Planet Green first  guess it may be.  It’s something else entirely.  And soon the not-really-a-star brings the arrival of foreigners who are not only not wise men, but anti-wise men.  What follows for my main characters is a time that could be considered a penitential season.  And after that, the story parallels Holy Week from Palm Sunday to Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday.

The aspect of Downfall Tide that is a parallel to Good Friday is what made it the hardest book I’ve ever written.  Some readers will find that  part distressing to read.

But the end of the book mirrors Easter, the day that dawns with resurrected hope.