Here’s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media & culture: 11/15/23

When fantasy meets truth. In my conversation with Keith Call (currently up on the Acton Institute’s Religion & Liberty Online), we spoke about the collection of essays he collected and edited by the late highly-regarded professor of English and literature Thomas Howard (1935–2020) for the book Pondering the Permanent Things: Reflections on Faith, Art, and Culture. During our discussion on the general subject of what distinguishes mere pop culture from enduring art, Call says Howard believed that art is an expression of “prophetic truth” – of eternal principles that are given “fresh garb in the life of language, drama, or something like that.” He suggested that, while pop culture can rise to the level of art, it is exception rather than to rule.

Two such exceptions to that rule were C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series of books and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, both of which Howard loved and can be categorized as belonging to the Christian-themed fantasy genre.

Mike A. Arroyo shares Howard’s love of those timeless stories – so much so that he created his own epic fantasy saga with Christian themes from his basement office in North Carolina. Driven by a fanciful setting, engaging characters and spiritual themes, his book series The Chronicles of Rylie Glen has established a loyal following of readers drawn to its tales of noble heroes fighting the dark forces waiting to devour the innocent.

JWK: So, tell me about The Chronicles of Rylie Glen. What is it about?

Mike A. Arroyo: The idea of The Chronicles of Rylie Glen really was born right before covid. I noticed that during the covid time there was a real need of connecting again. People were isolated and all the…fears (and) the doubts were  coming out (into the open). That just made the storyline even (more relevant).

The story is focused on a young (noble) boy who at ten-years-old essentially is kidnapped (from the island of Rylie Glen) by a rival family and sold as an indentured servant to a gentleman whose name is Captain Munro Evermore. He owns a fleet of ships and the boy stays on his fleet for about eight years. The boy grew up resenting his father because his father never came looking for him. He resented him so much that he took on the (captain’s) surname. He renamed himself Josah Evermore. Eight years goes by real fast. I have a prologue and then the story starts right at the eighth year when he realizes that his father has passed away and the captain encourages him to go visit and pay his respects.

So, that’s where the story begins. The whole idea of the story is (answering the question of) what does it mean to be noble? This young man now who goes back home and, on his way, he hears rumors that the same man who had sold him into captivity as an indentured servant is now the ruler of a rival city. As he’s going home he hears (of a) plot to kill whoever is the new ruler of (Rylie Glen). It turns out that the ruler of the city is a young girl that he had grown up with (and) she’s trying to defend the city.

I wanted to come up with a storyline that kind of unfolds this idea of coming to terms with what it means to be noble… (Josah is) denying the fact that he is already a noble (and) he just does not want to be tied to the city. At the same time, there’s a bigger story going on. I actually build this around Genesis 6 (and) this idea of fallen angels…That’s where I really wanted to focus. I wanted to come up with a story that, while we’re looking at the localized story of this young boy as he’s coming of age and has to deal with these things, at the same time there’s this bigger story of this group of…the offspring of these fallen angels bound to the city called Karune and they are gathering strength. They’re actually getting influence throughout that known world.

So, in this bigger story is this idea of what has to happen with this city if the boundaries that are holding them in finally (give way) and they get released into their world. There’s this group of watchers who are sent there by God to go ahead and provide balance by urging on certain people to come and confront this group. So, as this young man is going (on with his journey) what you’ll find out is that these are two separate storylines they’re intermingled (like real life).

We live our lives and we’re focused on what we know and what’s happening to us but there’s also a bigger picture of what’s happening in the world. Eventually those two storylines will intersect somewhere – maybe multiple times. So, the (the question is) what does it take to overcome evil and how can someone experience redemption in a way where it’s life changing. That’s really what this story is about.

Think about the last ten years in the media and in writing. Everything was focused on superheroes, dragons (and) vampires…I was just hating that this was the influence that many young adults were reading, watching and experiencing. Everybody was wanting to have something supernatural happen to them, not realizing that in real life there are those things. You know, there is a spiritual dimension that we’re not aware of. I wanted to write a story that was not focused a superhero, didn’t count on one person to be the hero but, at the same time, there was something magical – not magical in the sense of incantations or anything like this but that there is a spiritual dimension that breaks through our everyday life if we only see it.

That’s what inspired me to write a story that is about some ordinary people who become heroes without any superpower, magic or anything like this and, in so doing, actually end up defeating the darkness that is invading their world. Throughout that, you’ll see the interaction of God. We refer to Him as the Ancient One.

I’ll end this synopsis really quickly by just telling you that I describe the story as if it’s in medieval times. The reality is that the actual time is somewhere after the Flood and before Christ is born. The idea is that there is this movement of these chroniclers who are recording the history of what God is doing in the world. One of them who befriends Josah is involved in this whole world and there is this realization that God is alive – well alive! – in this world in ways that we are not really familiar with until we look back and we see His fingerprints in the events in our lives.

JWK: Tell me about Rylie Glen. Where is it?

MAA: Again, it’s a make-believe world but I try to put it in our world. That’s one of the things I try to do. I try to make sure that everything in the books has a sense of reality…Rylie Glen was an island that was discovered (between) the East and West Mainland. One of the problems with those Mainlands was that each of the cities (in those Mainlands) were pretty difficult to break through because they were all run by nobles. So, the idea of Rylie Glen (by) this gentleman who discovered the island…(is) he wanted to establish a location where it didn’t matter if you were noble or not. So, he started these cities (within Rylie Glen). He got people to move out there. Over time some of the cities reverted back to the ways of nobles running everything. One city in particular is Bon Abbi (which is) initially where Josah’s father was ruling.

JWK: The real world is definitely in a state of upheaval now. Do you feel your story speaks to that?

MAA: Yes, it does…Again, I think living in the post-covid world – and that’s our reality right now – you know, people are back in the world but they have never reestablished connection like they had prior to covid. There is still a sense of isolation. The is still a sense of hopelessness, of fear that maybe this whole experience of covid may come back again. I think that that’s one of the things that I’m trying to show here – that you don’t win by yourself, you win with friends.This idea of connecting with people and having meaningful relationships, that’s really what this story – and the series – is all about because you’ll see that when they try to do things individually they don’t win. When they do things collectively they do. I think that speaks highly of the value of community and why you need to have that kind of support.

I think it also speaks of a world that in these last five (or) six years we’ve seen not just violence (but) some absolute evil and hatred at levels that we’ve never experienced before. I think that when you watch the news – and if you watch it long enough – you get very depressed. I’m sure there are a lot of people feeling that these days. I think that the books speak to that…In spite of this, if I can borrow Corey ten Boom‘s line that “There is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still” that’s what I think this book series is trying to show – that, no matter how desperate things get, if you look hard enough, you’ll find that God is still there with you.

JWK: Why do you find fantasy to be a good genre to get this message across?

MAA: I chose fantasy because, first of all, there’s a renewed interest in fantasy and you’ll see that big companies like Amazon and so forth are investing telling stories through fantasy. So, I think that is the right genre to be in – but I think it also lends something to the storytelling. You have some freedom that you don’t find in other kinds of genres of writing. I love fantasy anyway but it’s a little bit unusual to have fantasy in the Christian world.

JWK: Well, famously, there’s C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of  Narnia and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Did they influence you?

MAA: They did, in fact both of them. I remember watching some of the movies and I had certainly read the books before. It’s just kind of interesting. I’ve always been creative anyway. I write, I draw, I play music, I write music and all sorts of stuff but I never found an opportunity to really put a (big) story together. It wasn’t until around December of 2019 (that) I had this idea. I can’t tell you if it was a dream or not. It was one of those moments. You’re laying down, everything is quiet, not quite asleep…and all of sudden this storyline just unfolds. I decided, you know, I’m gonna do something this time. I wrote it down. That’s when I started working. I spent a year not only laying out the cities for the story but developing characters, making sure they’re unique, making sure that I understood their choices, their weaknesses, their strengths, where they’re gonna grow. I spent a year laying out all of the surrounding components so that way when I started to develop the storyline it became natural. I was able to sit down and write these books at a fairly quick clip. I actually wrote Book#4 in thirty days. I spent an additional sixty days editing.

JWK: How long are the books?

MAA: The first book is certainly the longest. It’s an unusual length. It’s about 100,000 words. It’s around 28 (or) 29 chapters. It’s about 4,000 words per chapter. Usually a fantasy book is probably around 80,000 (words). All the other books are right there at 80,000. I took a little longer on the first one because it’s a very complex storyline – not complex to read but complex to write. I wanted to make sure that I gave myself enough time to lay down the foundations that that the rest of the books would be built on.

JWK: Gene Roddenberry, when talking about Star Trek, said he could get away with presenting certain ideas in the sci-fi genre that he wouldn’t have been allowed to present say on a contemporary crime drama or something more rooted in the actual world.

MAA: There are some things.

JWK: You’re a Christian and your business background is in computer design, right?

MAA: Yes.

JWK: How did that background play into your storytelling?

MAA: It really did help me out. One of the things that anyone who’s been spending time in CAD (Computer-Aided Design) does is you end up thinking very logically. You go through the process. (At the same time) my background and my degree is in philosophy and theology. So, I see big pictures and I look at these big pictures and I break them down in a logical format. So, for me, laying out the world, laying out the characters just made more sense than trying build a storyline and then trying figure out what kind of characters would carry that storyline. I think a lot of people do this in the wrong order – but they would consider what I did it backwards in that (traditionally) you write your story and then you create your characters around it – but I think if you build your characters, you know who they are, you know what they stand for and you know that they’re going to be influenced one way or another. Then you can build your story and you can plug in your characters in such a way that they’re gonna drive the story. They’re gonna have some interesting components. Each character is different and, at the same time, they come into the right spot…The idea of the plot, as well, is that there is growth in every character – whether it be positive or negative. It’s just like real life. We grow forward or sometimes we don’t – but no one stays stagnant.

JWK: So, you’re fourth book has just come out and, I understand, you’re planning six. So, when all is said and done and all the stories are out there, what do you hope people take from The Chronicles of Rylie Glen?

MAA: I hope they take two things – maybe three – but two things for sure.

One is I want them to take away the idea that God isn’t so far away, that He is in every portion of our world and that He is as intimate to us today as He was yesterday and the day before or decades and millennia ago…Regardless of what it feels like or the conditions of where we find ourselves, I hope that there’s this sense that God is still in the world working out His will and His goodness. I hope they’ll take that away.

I think the other thing is this idea of community (and) how important it is – especially as Christians – to really find people of like-faith that can inspire us, that can help us and (remind us) we’re not on our own. We’re never asked to be on our own. In fact, there are Scriptures that tell us we should be seeking the presence of others and to bind ourselves with them. There is strength in numbers but also there are ways that other people can help us when we aren’t as strong and we aren’t as faithful. I hope that there’s this idea that a sense of community is very, very important.

And I think the third thing is…I hope that people will come in there and say, listen, if he can do it, I can do it. There’s no reason why other people can’t write.

As a quick sideline here, I’m Spanish. My parents were born in Puerto Rico. They came to Chicago. As I was growing up in Chicago and I went to school I didn’t know any English.  So, I had to learn English. My parents didn’t want me or my brother and sister to speak Spanish (at home) because they wanted to learn English. So, I was caught in this two-language world – but I was very smart and I remembered everything. Both my brother and I were double-promoted back in the day.

JWK: Wow! Double-promoted! I was lucky to get promoted.

MAA: I jumped from first grade to third grade – but in third grade I experienced a problem. All of a sudden I started stuttering. I stuttered really bad. So, when I got into the fourth grade I just stopped talking. I just couldn’t stand it. Every time I would say something – even at home – I’d say something to my mom and halfway through she’d walk away. She was making the bed and she’d walk away to another room and the next thing you know I had to start over again.

So, I decided, you know what, I’m going to learn how not to stutter. I started teaching myself. I stopped talking for almost a year. In fourth grade the teacher or someone at the administration of the public school asked for my mom to come in. My dad was working so my mom came in and I knew she was coming in. Anyway, when she was done she came to visit me in the (class)room. She told me everything was fine and she’d see me at home. I didn’t think anything about it.

I get home, my dad’s home from work and I see on the table a lot of artwork stuff – you know, paints, brushes, canvasses, paper, pencils and charcoal, all sorts of stuff. I said “What’s this for, Mom? She said “That’s what the school told me – that I needed to encourage you – so I got you some artistic things.”

Years later – I’m talking years later, maybe ten or fifteen years later – I talked to Mom about that. I said “Mom, what did they actually tell you?” She said “They were concerned because they thought you were artistic.” I said “Artistic? Mom, maybe what they meant was autistic.” So, she thought they meant I was an artist and they were concerned that I was autistic because I didn’t speak anymore.

JWK: That worked out because you are an artist.

MAA: So, anyway, to me that’s really important because then when I get to work on my undergrad I took creative writing (as an) independent study. During that time I wrote for a couple of Christian magazines. I wrote some stories that got published in these magazines and I started a book. I had it all done and gave it to my faculty (advisor) who was the person doing the independent study. It’s one of my last courses before I graduate and she decides not to give me a grade, she says, because I was “too independent.” I said “I don’t understand what that means.” She simply said that I didn’t meet with her enough times. She was angry that I actually went out and got things published before I gave them to her to read. I thought the whole idea of independent studies was to gain insight from her but, at the same time, to go out there independently, do my work and document everything.

So, anyway, she said “You’re gonna be able to graduate. You just won’t get your diploma and I’m gonna ask you stay with me for another six weeks and then we’ll close this up.” I refused. I said “You know, to be honest with you, I don’t see how you’re gonna add anything more than what I’ve done so go ahead and fail me if you want. I’m gonna take a summer course and I’ll get my diploma then.” I refused to buckle down to her demands because I wasn’t counting on her to guide me through everything.

That, unfortunately, contributed a lot to why I didn’t write until just recently. I wrote everything else. I wrote technical documents. I must have written a million pages of documentation on everything from CAD to NT (New Technology). I’m in the eLearning business now and have been writing and creating all this kind of how-to (material) for all sorts of stuff. It wasn’t until, like I said, around 2019 (that) I decided, you know, I’m not gonna (hold onto) all the negative things that I was told…Basically, what she told me was that my writing was not good enough and, if I stay with her for six weeks, I can at least start writing better but “You’ll never be able to write a novel if that’s what you’re looking to do.”

JWK: She said that to you?

MAA: Yeah. So, I kind of took it to heart. Finally, like I said, in 2019 I decided “You know, I spent my time telling stories to my kids as they were growing up. They loved them!” So, I said “You know, I’m just gonna start writing” – and I haven’t stopped since.

JWK: Just to be clear, you’re not actually autistic. Someone at the school thought that because you stopped talking.

MAA: Yeah. It was a misdiagnosis for sure. I was not autistic. They thought I was because I was always in my own little world and I didn’t speak. I think part of that was because I spent so much time in my head coming up with stories. I entertained myself that way. That’s how I learned not to stutter. It’s hard to describe it but I know the words that I’m gonna stutter. I see them. I can see them in my mind’s eye and as I’m getting to those words I find an alternative word that will them free me from that stuttering.

JWK: You obviously don’t stutter now.

MAA: You know, I do. I still stutter. It’s most noticeable if I go through a drive-thru. My wife encourages me to overcome that so I get myself all worked up and I go through a drive-thru. That’s the hardest thing for me because when I’m focusing in on the actual words of things and I’m trying to put an order together I can’t help but stutter. It just comes out. Anyway, I’m getting better at it. Sometimes I end up ordering the wrong thing because it’s easier to say. But it’s better. I used to stutter quite a bit on the phone but, as you can tell right now, I’m actually better.

JWK: Definitely. I wouldn’t think of you as a stutterer at all. You seem to have mastered it pretty well.

MAA: Yeah. You know, I came to know Christ at a young age. I was sixteen-years-old. It’s a really kind of funny story. What ended up happening was my parents were watching Billy Graham. I didn’t want to watch it. I stormed upstairs to the bedroom and shut the door but I could still hear Billy Graham talking. All of a sudden I found myself listening – and just as Billy Graham said “Well, here’s what you have to do…” my parents turned the channel. So, I said to God “God, if this is important send somebody!”

Well, this was around March. It’s springtime – and then here comes June 8th. My brother’s graduating. I just turned sixteen-years-old and I didn’t want to go because, for like a month, I was so sure I was going to die. I didn’t want to be in the car because that they were gonna be in a car accident and I was gonna die.

JWK: Why’d you think that?

MAA: I don’t know. It was just a feeling that I had. It started around April and it started building up in June. I decided “Hey, I’m gonna die. I’m not gonna go with you guys. I’m staying home.” Then all of a sudden I realized “I’m gonna die at home! I’m all by myself!” Then someone knocks at the door. It was a friend of mine from high school. I had gone to a different high school than my brother. Anyway, the gentleman’s name is Tony Black who is a pastor today. He’s retired now but he was a pastor for many years in Oklahoma – but Tony came by and said “Hey, Mike, listen I know you probably don’t want to hear from me.” I didn’t know him very well but he was an acquaintance I guess I should say. It’s more accurate. He says “Listen, I gotta tell you something. I was watching this Billy Graham program and at the very end of it I heard this voice say “You gotta go talk to Mike.”

JWK: Oh, really? Wow.

MAA: And he says “I’ve been putting it off for weeks and I can’t do it anymore.” He says “Can I tell you something about the love of Christ?” I said “Sure! Come on in!” I mean I didn’t want to be by myself. Within fifteen minutes I knew that I had to receive Christ. I said to Tony “Tony, I want to pray that (prayer) but I want to pray that by myself.” So, I let him go. I said that prayer and, I tell you, I could have jumped tall buildings! It was a life changing experience – June 8th at 8:05. I mean will never forget the day or the time. It changed my entire my life.

That is really why I get inspired – because it’s the weak things that God finds and uses to make the strong things. I don’t consider myself at all strong in any of these areas. I’m a philosopher. My background is theology and philosophy – yet I started to teach CAD. The way I started teaching CAD was I just asked simple things. “You got a book? Does it pay?” If they said yes to those things I took the job and learned it. Again, that’s just who I am. I’m so convinced that if there’s anything that people need to take away (from my story it’s) that if I can write so can you. I think there are so many people now who are wanting to do that. I hope that this will be an encouragement for them as well.

John W. Kennedy is a writer, producer and media development consultant specializing in television and movie projects that uphold positive timeless values, including trust in God.