Anglican priest at Sonora's Red Church gets fantasy adventure published

SONORA -- The Rev. Wolfgang Krismanits clearly remembers the first time he thought about writing a fantasy novel. He was walking on the beach near San Diego with his oldest son, then 2, when the boy ran after a group of seagulls, crying out "Dak, Dak" (his word for duck).

"I thought I'd like to write a children's book about a seagull," said Krismanits, the Anglican priest at the historic Red Church in Sonora.

Although it's taken him 25 years to revise his original concept and complete his quest, Krismanits' "The Seven Scrolls: Sword of Pantok" finally made it to print, released in May by Tate Publishing.

In the genre made popular by C.S. Lewis' "Narnia" series and J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings," the novel includes talking animals and humans interacting with strange creatures in a made-up world.

"It makes you feel kind of like God, creating your own world," Krismanits laughed. "It was fun; it really was."

The plot pits some unlikely allies ? an abused boy, a cursed king, a seagull named Dak, a mammoth whale-like creature ? against some disgustingly evil creatures. Pantok is the Greek word for God; Whorkh is Krismanits' made-up name for the equivalent of Satan. The seven scrolls contain the truth of Pantok, and the allies must fight some gruesome battles to extricate them from Whorkh's hiding places.

In his preface, Krismanits said some of his inspiration for the book came from the struggle his own church has faced with the national Episcopal denomination. His diocese was the first in the country to leave the theologically liberal Episcopal church to align with the more conservative Anglican branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Lawsuits against most parishes in the San Joaquin Diocese resulted; his own parish, St. James, is in a tug-of-war legal fight that could lead to his congregation forced out of its historic building.

"The whole battle between us and the Episcopal church is over the word of God," Krismanits said. "The battle is not over homosexuality; it's over the Bible. Is it God's true word? Obviously, the Episcopal church doesn't believe it is. They think it's been tainted by the men who wrote it, so they say, 'We can believe this part, and we can't believe that.' Without the (inerrancy of the) Bible, anything goes."

Similarly, in his book "the whole idea is that the scrolls are worth fighting for. The authenticity, the word of God is so important. When we don't have the word in front of us, then we cannot live true lives, because that is God speaking to us, his letter to us."

In "Seven Scrolls," a brother and sister, separated at birth, lead two of Pantok's teams to recover the divine scrolls, which were taken by Whorkh five centuries earlier. One group, helped by an angel, goes mainly by sea while the other fights its battles on land, led with a dagger-sword that glows brightly and grows longer with each encounter.

The conclusion of the story will be told in the second book, "The Seven Scrolls: Pantok's Key," which Krismanits recently delivered to the publisher. He said it should be out next spring.

The first book, available at Mountain Book Shop and Mountain Home Gifts in Sonora, as well as from online bookstores, the church's thrift store and as a Kindle e-book, is not suitable for children 10 and under, Krismanits said, but should be fine for ages 11 and up.

Reading during childhood and adolescence was not important in his own life, he said.

"I was not into books growing up," he admitted. "It wasn't until I started college that I really started enjoying reading. I started devouring books, even like 'Les Miserables' and 'Moby Dick,' which were not easy to read."

Source: http://www.modbee.com/2012/08/23/2333747/anglican-priest-at-sonoras-red.html

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