Sips & Scripts with Terrence Rotering on Godwinks, Faith, and Writing an Epic Multiverse

A 10-book, 5,000-page multiverse doesn’t happen by accident, and Terrence Rotering’s story proves it. We talk with Terrence, an Air Force veteran who spent years behind the scenes of real-world defense, about how his love of movies, comics, and big ideas turned into a faith-based sci-fi and Christian fantasy saga that stretches across seven dimensions and an 8,000-year timeline.

We get into the craft choices that make genre-mixing work: spiritual warfare that stays grounded in conviction, science fiction concepts like time tunnels and time dilation, and action that feels authentic because Terrence has lived the tactics. We also unpack his inspirations, from Tolkien and C.S. Lewis to Peretti and modern sci-fi, plus why he thinks so much entertainment sneaks in dark philosophies while pretending faith has no place in speculative fiction.

Then it gets personal. Terrence shares the “Godwinks” that kept showing up while he wrote, including an eerie naming discovery tied to ancient history, repeated 3:16 moments, and the way those patterns pushed him to keep expanding the story. We also talk about the “jars of clay” theme and why the point of an epic isn’t just escape, but coming back to real life with courage, tools, and hope.

If you’ve ever felt stuck, don’t miss his SMILE framework: Service, Mission, Intentionality, Legacy, and Eternity. Listen, share this with a fellow reader or writer, and subscribe and leave a review so more people can find the show.

link to Terrence Rotering;   Https://Chroniclesoftrinian.com 

Transcript

Welcome To Compass Chronicles

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Hey everyone, good afternoon, good evening, good morning, wherever you're at. This is Javier from the Compass Chronicles podcast, where Fandom Meets Faith. I'm here with my co-host Mickey, and we have a special guest today. His name is Terrence Rottering. I hope I didn't destroy his name. But um we're gonna let him introduce himself and we're gonna have a great talk. Uh so I hope you join us and you enjoy it. And I'm gonna have Mickey introduce herself. Good morning, Mickey.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Good morning. Welcome back, everyone, to Compass Chronicles. Terrence, welcome in. Glad to have you. Cannot wait to hear what you have to talk about today. Super, super stoked. And um, yeah, so Terrence, why don't you go ahead and just introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about yourself, and then we'll dive right in.

Terrence’s Military Life And Origins

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Well, Javier, Mickey, thank you so much for having me today. It's it's a real pleasure to be here. I I was really looking forward to this for as long as we've had it scheduled. I think it's a good fit, and I hope I'm able to uh spread some information, uh, give some information to your listeners and and to you guys, and then we just have a great time. So, yeah, my name is Terrence Rotering. Um, I'm getting old now. I don't know how that happened, but uh I had kind of a long life already, uh 62. And so I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I was an only child and uh just loving movies, books, mostly movies, though. I gotta tell you, I'm I'm in that generation that, you know, the comics. I got a ton of comics out in my man cave out here from back in the 80s, um, all in plastic. So saving those up for someday. But yeah, an only child in Milwaukee. And then I went off to the Air Force Academy for four years and then went in the Air Force for 20. Um, was fortunate enough to uh be, you know, like in Top Gun, I was goose. So I was a back seater and I was the right seater in the F-111 for 15 years, and then another five years or so in the strike eagle. And then after that, I got out and came out here to Colorado to Norred Northcom for 15 years, um, the defense of the nation kind of thing, but more of a staff job and all that. And then uh we retired and moved up here to the mountains of Colorado. So got two big uh Colorado mountain dogs. My wife and I live out here and uh just hike around and write stories and just having a great time. That's awesome.

How A Trilogy Became Ten Books

SPEAKER_00 2:43

I mean, just the whole military and the whole background, that's wild. It's like almost like I'm I'm looking, you know, you read those spy movies and stuff, and you look at you know, people in NORAD and you know, those stories just get crazy. Um, but that seems like an exciting life to do to have. And and the whole thing about being old, I'm right there with you. My birthday's in about two weeks from now. So I'm uh counting the days, and but that shows that no matter what age, we can do what we need to do and and have fun and and still enjoy life, right? So uh a couple of questions, and just to get us rolling and get us to get going. So um I see you built a massive 10 book 5,000 page epic. This is huge, it's beautiful. What first sparked the idea for this multiverse, and when did you realize it was going to be that big?

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Yeah, so it's it's kind of got a long journey, just like I have. Uh, you know, I I started back in 2005 when I wrote just a half of a book, uh Stand, which was the second book now in the first trilogy. And I did that just for my boys because you know, they're reading books, they're like eight years old, ten years old. And I just wanted them to know, hey, you know, you can write a book someday, and just to get that instilled in them when they were young, that they could have a voice and and you know, they could share with the world and use their imagination and all. And then I five years later, I said, Oh, there should be a prequel to this because where I started it up, you know, it just seemed like there was a lot to talk about before that, because I left a bunch of stuff open. And so I wrote that one, and that was The Faithful, which turns out to be the first book in the because I kind of did a Star Wars thing there. Uh the first book in the trilogy, a prequel, and then it was a lot bigger. So I really liked those two, and then it had a little about with cancer, and so I I still remember, you know, with all the things that you have with, you know, cancer, you're thinking about oh, my family and all of this. Um, I still I still remember asking God, oh, can I just finish my trilogy kind of thing? So I got cured of the cancer, and then it took me 15 years before I did anything with the trilogy. So um, I don't know if I subconsciously I was like, hey, I don't, you know, I don't want to continue this on because then it might be time to go if I finish it. So um, but anyway, so in 2024, I rewrote the first two because they were kind of sloppy, and then I did uh Forever, which was the third book in the trilogy. So I did that, um, finished the trilogy, thought I was done, and then there were the series of God winks that kind of happened, which you know we can get into a little bit, and I was like, wow, this is kind of interesting. And it kind of inspired me to write a prequel trilogy to the trilogy that I'd already written because again, I left a bunch of stuff kind of open. So the the first trilogy was largely fantasy kind of stuff, you know. Think, I don't know, Ten Commandments meets Braveheart, you know, that kind of deal back there. And then and then I said, Well, you know, I I left so much stuff open that I just I just started stuff and left crazy thing ideas in there. I kind of felt like I needed to finish those. Like, where did those come from? So I did the prequel, and then that really dove into a lot of science fiction stuff: time tunnels, people traveling around between books, you know, these strange stones, this this capsule that landed that started it all. Where did that come from? Um, all kinds of stuff like that. And so it mixed the fantasy along with sci-fi, but it worked. And I don't know if it's you know, a lot of times I hear people talking, well, you can't mix the two, and you can't mix spiritual warfare with those either, but it it worked. And so I don't know if it's because it's so long or not long, but you know, it's not a real short story where you don't have a you don't have an easy time mixing them. You have more time to develop things, and there's different time periods. And so, anyways, that that all came together. And then just to jump into the rest real quick, then after that happened, some more god wings happen, and I said, well, you know, there's still some things that I left unanswered. So I expanded it from this one place, I blew it up into seven dimensions and seven different worlds, and threw in some, you know, black holes and time, more time tunnels, and tesseracs, and you know, photon entanglement, and just all kinds of really cool sci-fi aspects and really blew it up sci-fi-wise. And then I had all kinds of room to go more sci-fi, more spiritual warfare, more fantasy on these different planets, because you have a lot more room, right? You don't have just one place that you're dealing with, and that allows you to really expand it. So it's kind of like an egg within an egg within an egg, kept growing. And then finally, I have this last installment, um, another 800 pages or so, which is basically a trilogy all in one big book, which is going to come out here in a couple months, which I I think is the best of all of them. Because again, it blows everything up, just tightens everything up, and then it takes it all from these, all these dimensions right back down to earth, unfences it, and makes it so the reader is like, holy smokes, I'm in this war, and I have the tools to fight it. And so it kind of brings it all together and and tells people, hey, you know, you you are just as good as any one of these other, you know, characters that have been in in the story, and you have all the tools to fight, just like, you know, when when you get out of a movie, um, and Javier, I I guess you're gonna be more like me than than than Mickey is, but maybe I'm wrong. Um, you know, if it's a top gun or a mission impossible or something, I'm driving my car really fast, you know, going home. I think I'm flying that jet or whatever um for about 30 minutes and then it kind of wears off. Well, with these, you know, it's not like you needed the ring, you know, Frodo, or you needed the wand. Um, what's his name? You know, from now I can't think of it all of a sudden.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

Harry Potter.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Yeah, yeah, Harry Potter. You don't have those things, but you do have the things that are in these books. So it doesn't wear off. And then you realize, hey, this actually taught me something. It encouraged me, gave me hope. And that's a really long answer to your question. I tend to ramble a lot.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

So over to you. So don't trust me. We love talking, we love enjoying listening to stories. And me and Mickey, we it's it's our high. We enjoy this so much, and we enjoy having great conversations. So, yeah, uh, Mickey, you have any questions or follow-up?

Blending Fantasy Sci-Fi And Faith

SPEAKER_01 8:41

No, that was wonderful. But I I I will say I'm right with you guys on the top gun and um get in the car and take off because that's you know, I've gotten many speeding tickets, I won't lie. But um, yeah, I think it's I think it's wonderful that you can you're bringing in um spiritual warfare because I know in a lot of like um series people kind of tend to um gravitate towards switching spiritual warfare to a different type of warfare, but it's still similar to spiritual warfare. We were just talking about that the other day, Javi and Air, Javier and I were. And so I actually really love that you integrated the spiritual warfare in because some people think, oh, you can't mix fantasy and fiction with real life spiritual warfare. You absolutely can. There's a lot there. So I love that you did that. I think it's a great, it was brilliant, actually. So kudos for that.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

So I, you know, when you think about all that, and I agree with you guys, I'm just gonna blow that up a little bit. Um, even when you get into just sci-fi movies, like take Interstellar or or take um, um, what was it? Um I'm sorry, I should have had more coffee this morning. But uh you know, you take a lot of these movies where they go on a spaceship, they go off somewhere, so you got the sci-fi, and then they go into it land on a planet, and then all of a sudden there's almost like fantasy creatures and everything. They're almost like mixing it already, and then they have to solve these problems, and and how do they do it? Well, they rely a lot of times upon their own strengths or their own faith. You know, so you have the spiritual warfare. So you they're almost mixing all the genres anyway, even though they're trying to argue, no, you can't do that, and they stovepipe them. And I think part of that is is they want to keep the spiritual aspect out of it, I think a lot of times. Because if you look at sci-fi, very heavy humanism or fantasy, you know, you really get into the agnosticism or Gnosticism is God, God is bad, or there is no God, or um, you know, like I said, humanism or a cult, even, you know, there's a lot of the magic that gets really dark. And a lot of these shows are are just really dark, or mysticism, Eastern mysticism. So you have all of this stuff that's teaching our kids or teaching people, even though they don't really see it, maybe, but internally or or subconsciously, they're getting all of these other aspects of different religions or different philosophies. And so when we come out with spiritual warfare stuff and we're kind of in your face um a little bit with that, that's not a foul. That's just being really what they're doing, maybe a little more obvious and sometimes not so much obvious. So, like C.S. Lewis with analogies or um, you know, Tolkien, you know, heavy good and evil, and there's there's stuff there, but you really kind of dig for it. With my stuff, I I'll admit I'm a little bit more, you know, with that unfencing, it's kind of in your face. And and I've been very careful not to, you know, step on the Bible or or add to it in any way that's important, kind of thing, but I'm trying to show people that you can all these characters in these books and these in these worlds that can actually believe what you know a third of the world believes already about Christianity and about how the wheel will be destroyed, it's not going to turn forever. There is a Cronus terminus, that's my last book, where the time ends, and it is all leading up to that. So all of these books ended up being, you know, an 8,000-year period, um, where you go to eight, seven different dimensions, and but then it all comes back to earth into those central themes and beliefs. So a little bit of it's in your face sometimes through some of the characters. I don't try to be preachy, um, but I do unapologetically not back off from what I believe is the truth. And I think we all have opinions and we all have beliefs, and we should share them. That's what you know, being a part of the human community is.

Influences Villains And Big Themes

SPEAKER_00 12:16

So that's awesome. I I I think, especially sci-fi, uh, when it comes to faith-based sci-fi, uh, like you said, a lot of people are don't really want it because oh, it's not God, it's it's supernatural and all that stuff. But if you read CS out of the silent planet, you can't get any more sci-fi than CS Out of the Silent Planet. Um, you got uh Frank Peretti, you got Token, so they all uh encompass that whole sci-fi and and magic and all that. And um, I appreciate that because I think it's needed in in our times now. But especially I'm a comic book head and I love fantasy and I love all that stuff, especially anime. And uh to mix that all together is what uh this show wants to do and want to have people understand that God uh uh created this imagination for us. Why not share it to the world? Uh He's the number one imagination creator in the world, he created this world. So um, and uh so I have a few more questions uh just to get it going because I'm really enjoying the whole idea of the sci-fi and stuff. It's just in I love it. So um so the question is uh Token, Lewis, Peretti, Asimov or big names to follow in their footsteps, as they say. What did you intentionally borrow from each of them? If you did, um what did you make your own? Like how if you use them as what did you use for your reference or for you know, just an idea?

SPEAKER_02 13:45

Yeah, so I think uh it's not gonna be as obvious, maybe, of an answer to that question as you know, like A, B, and C, you know, I took these things. Like we talked about before, and I think like we share, I love movies. So I think a lot of it's internal and subconscious. When you go through these books, you will see, you know, there's a lot of elements, and and some people might say I stole them. I don't think I stole them, but there's elements of you know, action, and and you when you get Star Wars and you get fighter jets, you know, from a lot of my experience, I'll have, you know, that there'll be people, I have male and female pilots, I have, you know, uh fighter aircraft fighting each other, I have them fighting spaceships, I have a guy riding a dragon that is basically employing the tactics of, you know, like you'd see over fighting in Iran right now, you know, with F-15s. So a lot of that stuff is subconscious that I've just brought from my experience. And I think a lot of the movies and stuff that we have seen and love, I also have brought, you know, the top guns, you know, the Star Wars aspects, the the interstellar with the black holes and the um the time dilation between and the time that people lose when they're going through these time tunnels. So I've brought that in. So some of these Viteri, which are truth keepers that travel around and basically they're spreading the word, um, that's one aspect of it. It's not, you know, the huge aspect in in the books, but it's a big one. They're called truth keepers. And so when they go into time tunnels and then they come back out, you know, they've time has passed much faster for folks that they've left behind. So there's a big time dilation aspect to that. And I and I borrowed that, for instance, from Interstellar. So, you know, when you when you look back to Peretti and Tolkien, those guys, definitely a good versus evil kind of aspect to it. Um, you know, the dragons and you know, Tolkien and Lord of the Rings, you know, I I should probably get into the protagonist and the antagonist here. The beginning and the end have both Satan and God in it. They're the protagonists and the antagonists, but they're kind of the kings of the chessboard, if you will. And then, you know, all the bishops and the knights and the rooks and all the pawns are just tons of different characters. There's probably 600 characters, 20 to 30 that are major characters throughout the whole 10 books. Um, but they're fighting in all of these different uh planets and in these different dimensions, and they're all kind of they have similar themes, the good versus evil. So Satan, he's trying to um change time. So he's you know in a number of the books, he's tracking down an artifact that he believes will actually change time because he wants to go back in time and change the past so that the things basically that God did to you know set the world on a path of redemption are undone. And so that that carries all the way forward, especially into the seven wheels and then into this this last one, the Chronicles of the Wheelstones, where he's he's teaming up with AI. So there's a time for AI to come now, so artificial intelligence. So he's these beings in the future here are called block, or he's called block because it's beings like our kind. And so he's basically saying he's better than than anything else that God's created, and he's gonna um he can't be judged by people, he can't be judged by God. And so he's that's the main struggle between good and bad. Um, but then that's just you know, in the background, kind of that's the spiritual aspect in the background, and then in the foreground, you have all of the the fantasy and sci-fi aspects and elements fighting each other and going through, you know, trying to survive and all the different things that are happening on these planets. And, you know, it there's a lot going on. I mean, when when you're talking about 5,000 pages and 10 books, um, I think what I would say is I'm I'm not as I don't pretend to be as good as Tolkien or Lewis or those guys as far as writing. I never went to school for it. Um, I think my ideas are the strength of the series and the different aspects of interweaving the genres. I think the action is really good. I think the plots are excellent. And I and you know, I hear I am talking about my own stuff, but the characters and their plots, the character arcs that they have, I think are very good. So I would say that, you know, if you're looking at a forest that Peretti or C.S. Lewis or Tolkien wrote, and my forest, they would really be concentrating on the trees and the colors of the leaves and how they're moving in the wind and and all that kind of thing. My my my trees would be more bland. It might even be black and white, but the the life that's going through, you know, the trunk and the and and just how the trees are are situated together and how they work together and interact, I think that's my strength. So we both have different kinds, we all have different kinds of forests. I'm a different writer that way, but I think people could enjoy just one book, one trilogy, or the ever-expanding trilogies to just go, holy smokes, you just changed everything. And and then by the time you get to the end this spring, you're like, I have to reread the whole thing because now everything has changed, and my whole view of everything has changed.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

That's awesome.

unknown 18:45

Mickey.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

I answered 10 questions there, not just the one you asked.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Yeah, you just you just deleted all of them, they're all gone. I have one more question. You'll think it's show's over, people. Let's go home.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

Okay, that one hour is 15 minutes. Yeah, there you go.

What Flying Fighters Feels Like

SPEAKER_00 18:59

Awesome. So I'm gonna geek out a second here. How is it to be on an F-15? Like, how is it to fly in an F like a fighter pilot?

SPEAKER_02 19:11

Like, so one thing that was different from you know, like I mentioned Top Gun with Maverick and Goose. Uh, you know, Goose is in the backseat, doesn't have any controls. He's still doing, believe it or not, most of the work. I mean, Mav's having a good time up there flying the jet, but Goose is telling him where to go. He's working the comms, he's working the electronic warfare, he's you know, working the weapon systems, all that stuff. And then, oh, by the way, when when Maverick pulls some G's and says, Hey yeah, Goose, keep track of that guy behind him, he's the guy that's got to be twisted around with his back and trying to find the you know the bandit back there, you know, while Mavs up there pulling nine G's. And oh, by the way, in case you didn't know, when your head, you know, your head under nine G's instead of weighing the 20 pounds, it's 100, 180 pounds. It's you know, nine times the weight. So if you're leaning forward or whatever, all of a sudden you're planted, you know, on the front console. So so I guess I kind of gave you a little idea of what it's like sometimes, but yeah, it's a big time rush. So in the in the Air Force, we had all the controls back there. So we could, you know, we could fly just as much because the Air Force, in their wisdom, decided, you know, if that guy in the front seat or in the left seat in the W-111, he gets hurt. We want the other guy to be able to fly too. We want just to have to have to have him punch out like they did in Top Gun. So yeah, it's a great time. Sometimes I look back and I can't believe, you know, now that it's been you know 15, 20 years since I flew, I can't believe that I even did it. It's almost like you you look back like on your childhood or whatever, and you go, did that did that really happen? And so, yeah, it's it was it was a blast. And I wish I could go back and do it again, but you know, I would just snap in half, probably. Um, but yeah, good time. Flew flew all over the world, you know, deployments everywhere. And uh yeah, I I can't I can't complain about my past. First time jumping out of airplanes and riding motorcycles, and uh just when I was young and stupid, I was young and stupid.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

So well, thank you anyway for your service. I appreciate it. We all appreciate it. Um so um, Mickey, you have anything to follow up or questions for?

Jars Of Clay And Reading Order

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Oh my goodness, where do I start? That's what I'm moving for. That's what I'm saying. I want to take it apart. I want to take it apart. Let's go. It's so awesome. Um, I love that you wrote like the the Chronicles, and I love um I actually with your website looking, and I'm so glad that you put it on there, that you put the age limit because my daughter is an adamant reader, she's 16, and your books say you're 16 and up. So I can't wait to get that series for her because I think she would absolutely love it. She's she has so many, so many books. And we own me and my other daughter, we own a bookstore, so we are we are big into the the book realm world, and and so but I have to ask you a question about a quote that is on your website. It says, We are jars of clay, our bodies are easily shattered. It it it is what's inside that will not shatter. Where did you res where did that resonate with you from? Because I have a similar quote that I came up with about shattered plates, almost almost just like what you just said about the jars.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

Yeah, so I'm pretty sure, and I couldn't give you the passage, but I'm pretty sure I got it from the Bible. Um, and I'm gonna hold this book up real quick. You know, this is origin, it's backwards. I don't know if it's backwards for you or not. If it's backwards for me, but there's a little girl on here, and there's a big lion. And that and that's where that quote comes from in or in this one. Um, and I could probably find it real quickly to read, you know, half a page or whatever, but I'll just tell you. So when I was going through, that's actually from the third trilogy. So I'm gonna ramble a little bit before I get to your answer, just because that's what I do. Um Okay. So that first trilogy, The Faithful Stand Forever, didn't plan that, but it had a nice ring to it, the way it worked out. And then the second one was a little bit more planned, but um for for the Foundation Chronicles, which was The Promised Time Redeemed. So there's a big redemption story there that leads up to the second one. And then then the third one, this one, Origin is the first, the first book, and then it's Trinity, The Gathering, and then Cronus Terminus. And the reason I put Origin there is because I realized that even with the six books that I started with um all in one place, which is basically Trinian, and then I blew it up to Trinian just being one of the seven different worlds. So don't let your daughter, you know, listen to this before, I'm just kidding, but before she starts reading them. Because I'm when my wife, and here goes another tangent, when my wife first started reading The Faithful, she got through like 20 pages and she goes, okay, the sun's rising in the west. And she's like, I can't, you know, she was a teacher and she's circling things in pencil and stuff, and I and she's going, This is just so messed up. And I didn't want to tell her it's not Earth, you know. But but I was just like, just trust the author and just you know, bear with me, it'll be okay. Um, so anyway, so I had a lot of that stuff in there, and then when I made it seven different places, I needed an origin book to go. How do I explain how the stuff started in these seven different worlds? Because there's a capsule that's crashed that's involved, there's a half-burned book, there's a bunch of stones that you know, people when they first started reading, if they didn't know it was a mix of all the genres, would say, Oh, those are magic stones, because they have a lot of properties that would kind of tell you they're magic. But you'll find out in this last iteration, they're not magic. You know, there's you know, the world wants to make it magic, God wants to make it, you know what? Everything that's sci-fi, everything that's in this world, I actually came up with that. And that's spiritually, you know, uh originated. That's me. So um, you'll find out that those that are not magic. But, anyways, there were all of those things that I needed to explain it. So, where did you know in this origin book? It kind of explains where that stuff came from. So, getting back to now to the answer to your question, um, the jars jars of clay. So, this little girl, she has an accident, her parents, something bad happens to them, and she's like, I'm kind of lost. And she starts wandering off in the snow, barefoot from the car, and and all of a sudden, you know, you think she's gonna die, and she's in the middle of nowhere, it's you know, heavy snow coming down, it's nighttime. And she turns the corner, and here's kind of a fantasy aspect, but it's kind of Narnia too, a little bit. But she turns the corner, and then you know, out of the trees comes this massive lion, and she's just like, Holy smokes! And uh, and this lion's like, you don't need to be afraid, everything's gonna be okay. And he's like, I'm I've kind of chosen you for something that's very important. And she's like, Well, little girl, she's like, What can I do? You know, who am I? I'm just I'm just a little girl, and and that's where the jars of clay comes in. He says, It's not what it's not, it's not important what you are. Of course, he still thinks we're all important, but what's important is what's inside of you, and I'm inside of you. So that's where that brittle, fragile jar of clay comes from. And we're all, and as we get older, you know, you young 18-year-olds that want to go off and fly jets and jump out of airplanes, you will find out that you, when you get older, and maybe even before that, you are a fragile jar of clay. And what's inside of you is what's gonna sustain you, whether you're a believer or not. Um, your courage, you know, your commitment, your loyalty, all of those good things are gonna be what brings you through this life on your path. But more importantly, if you have, you know, God inside of you, you have the spirit inside of you, you have faith, um, that's gonna bring you a lot farther in your life and it's gonna take care of you after this life. So what's inside of you, that you know, that fragile jar of clay is what's really important.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

That's really awesome. Thank you for that answer because um I know there's also a a music group called Jars of Clay that I listened to. It kind of made me think of them as well, but I also makes me think about the scripture where it talks about in the Bible um where we uh God is the potter and we are the clay. So he shapes us and mold us molds us. So I like I just I it resonated with me because I I did an as excuse me, an episode on my other podcast about shattered plates. So it kind of resonated the same way. So I just wanted to ask, take your brain on that a little bit. So with my daughter being 16, where should she start? You have you have the 10 plus one and then the three, the three chronicles, correct?

SPEAKER_02 26:59

Yeah, so I've had people tell me, you know, I had another one of my friends, he's like, he's read it, and he and he's like, I think you should start with origin. And I'm like, well, you know, if I start with or if you start with origin, then you continue on with that, then you're already in the seven dimensions thing. So I still believe, even though it's a little bit harder in the very beginning to start with the faithful stand forever, which is the first trilogy, that sets the basis of basically family, love, um, that kind of deal. And it yeah, I it's not really Little House on the prairie, but I've heard someone refer to it, it's kind of like Little House on the Prairie. Well, it's it's not. It's these folks have to live it, they're living in this land and it's starting to go south. I mean, bad things are happening, and they go, you know, basically God tells them, you know, you guys gotta leave. And I'm gonna, you know, he takes them across the ocean and they develop, you know, with some other folks and the seven sons, and they they um uh settle this whole other land and create this massive nation. And that's kind of the first two books, but they're attacked by the bad guys, and there's some spiritual warfare and stuff in there. Um, and then forever kind of jumps way ahead, and you could hold off on forever for a while because that's way in the future. And when I first wrote the trilogy, that was gonna finish it, that was gonna end the trilogy. So, but it's kind of neat that that's where it's the James Bond, John Wick, spies, you know, uh another story of redemption and an interesting story of three siblings and and what happens to them, and then you got an emperor and you got block AI and you know, taking over and tyranny, and people, you know, uh people turt giving over their freedoms for convenience, and I mean just all kinds of stuff. You could hold that one off and then jump into the the prequel, which is the promised time redeemed, that leads up to that first trilogy. So you have that that whole Trinian thing finished, and then when it explodes into the seven different worlds, which starts with Origin, Origin Trinity, the gathering, and and uh Cronus Terminus, which is the Chronicles of the Seven Wheels, because now all of a sudden, instead of just that one wheel that you went through in the first six books, you have seven different wheels. Then you go, What's happening here? And then you see how all that interacts and and what's going on there, and then this last one where you really make a you'll like this because I'm gonna give away too much here, but it's okay. Um, you know, how many people are gonna watch? Well, a lot of people will watch your podcast. What am I saying? What did I almost say there? We're hoping, we're done, we're praying, we're praying. We'll find out that those those stones, all right, I'll say it. They're they're the fruit of the spirit stones. So um, so they really, you know, it really changes the whole dynamic. So that's why you really don't want to do it. I don't think out of order, but it does take some discipline because you know, if you're basically looking at a trilogy that's a thousand pages each, after you're done with the first one to do the second one and then to do the third one, I understand that's kind of tough for people. But I will I will guarantee you that even though I'm not the paretti or tolkien kind of writer, you can make it through it, but you'll you'll enjoy all of the gems that are hidden in there. And when you're done, there will be tons of hope, tons of encouragement. You'll understand all the just like all the characters, you're unique, you're very important. You know, there is help in the universe, there's hope in the universe, and and there's God in the universe. And then it's not all of this nihilistic, humanistic, dark, agnostic, occult, mysticism stuff that's out there. It's it's very positive. And I think it's, you know, I think it's a great story. So, you know, if you're really into the you know, high definition, takes 20 pages to describe, you know, where you had your picnic, um, then maybe it's not the perfect one for you. But if you're really into having something that's positive and hopeful and has a really good story and a lot of interaction between the books, um, I think it's a great fit.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

So I have one more question. I know Javier's like, let me talk.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

No, no, no, no, no, no, this is I'm having a great time. So I'm so excited. No, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

So um now we know like Token wrote like like 30 books, and I I know I'm gonna say his name wrong. Armish Armish, the Russian guy that you that you follow. Yeah, I always say his name wrong. He wrote like 500 books. Where do you see yourself? So so you have these what 13 right now? Is that all you that you've written so far? Is these 13, or do you have a huge goal to like hit a big number?

Self-Publishing Kindle And Audiobook Options

SPEAKER_02 31:11

I don't have a goal for a number. I uh, you know, again, the way I kind of described it before, I was kind of thinking one, and then I did a prequel, and then I was thinking thinking the first trilogy, and that was going to be good. And then with these Godwinks, uh, which I hope we get into next, um, it became the second, third, and now the fourth trilogy, and all one story. So it just keeps expanding. So there's there the advantage to the all the different books is you can have very different and the different worlds and dimensions, you can have very different stories with them them in them, even though they're they're all one massive story, they can still be all very different. And I would tell you, if you don't like one book, you know, just keep reading because there's they're very different. So, do I see myself continuing on? Man, I don't know. Because I with these God winks and kind of been told to keep going with the story and keep developing it, it could keep going. I don't have a goal like, yeah, I'm gonna have 500 or 20,000, you know, whatever books. Um, I'm I just really am excited about this one series because I think it's very positive. Um, yeah, I just didn't want, just didn't want I I looked around and it was like everything was getting so dark. And I I just was like, this could be, this could be all of this, these elements of all of these genres could just be wonderful. And it and they could really speak to what the truth is and what's going on in the world and and God and and and this eternal struggle between good and evil, God and Satan, and and then ultimately finish it at the top of this pyramid with these different books. Think of it as a pyramid with four different edges, four different faces, and it's kind of like the story from four different sides, and they all reach up to that Cronus terminus, that that peak where we know what's going to happen at the end, where block and AI and evil and all these evil characters that have been struggling and fighting against, you know, the demons have been fighting against the angels and against God. It's not a fair fight, Mickey. It's not a fair fight, you know. Satan and all of his demons and stuff, they're created beings. They put up one heck of a fight through this series and through our world. But it's not a fair fight. Oh, you know, God the creator, you know, yeah, we know who wins. So, and I and I wanted to be faithful to that finish at the end, too. I didn't want to leave people hanging. So, um, yeah, I hope I hope people dig into it. Next question.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

Your trilogy of trilogies plus one, the whole series is coming out. Okay, is it coming out all the books together in a group or um in one big group? I know it's coming out in like 12 days. I'm so excited about that.

SPEAKER_02 33:37

So see this back here where I'm pointing. Um and the name is in the way too there, but the the 10 books are already out. Right. Like you didn't do them all in one, right? No, I didn't put them all in one. That would be such a I can't even find a publisher that would put a 5,000 page book together.

SPEAKER_01 33:53

So I know Narnia did it, so I was like wondering if you were gonna try to. Well, maybe, maybe someday.

SPEAKER_02 33:58

Um, so you know, I gotta keep stop doing this because I I I put my hands in front of my light, and then it's like, where do you go? Um, no, so those two 10 books are out, and then I I didn't want to put out three separate books for this last one, so it's gonna kind of be a big one. And so people that look at that, they go, Yeah, that's kind of expensive. You know, I really like those covers, and and some folks are really into paper. I'm into paper big time, but they're all on they're not on Audible right now yet, but they're on Kindle. So most people have an Amazon or a you know, an Alexa. I don't know. Do you have one, Mickey? I don't do Alexa, but I have Amazon. Okay. All right, so so there's also an app you can get. It's called uh Speechify, and you can it, you know, I don't know, it's like eight dollars a month or something. And that maybe is expensive, isn't expensive, different people, but you can pick between a hundred different speakers with that. So anything that you have, you know, a book or anything on writing or whatever, it'll take it and it'll just boom. And and you can have Barack Obama reading to you, or you know, Gueneth Paultro or whatever, and you can switch constantly. So there's that. So if if I was gonna say, because if it's too expensive to buy the books, you know, that I have them all on Kindle and they're like for$2.99 a piece. So so that's really cheap. But you have to have you know some kind of player to play it. Um, so maybe that is kind of a hindrance for some people. Audible, you know, I'll get to that, but it's you know, okay, you either got to pay someone real, you know, a lot of bucks to be that guy reading it or gal reading it, or you have to spend an spend a just a ton of time recording it and then send it to them um for them to put it online. I just haven't got there yet because with those two rewrites that I did of The Faithful and Stand um in 2024, and then eight more books after that to get to 5,000 pages in two years, you know, I've been a little bit busy, about eight pages a day, um, as on an average. So, you know, it's been kind of hard to put it all in audio. So I I really hope that it not being on you know audible yet is not too much of a negative for people to be able to get it and read them.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

No, but I have one last question for you, real quick. Um, did you self-publish or do you have a publisher? And if you have a publisher, um, do you recommend this publisher for for those that are writing and that are stepping into wanting to get their book published? Um, can you just dive into that just for a moment?

SPEAKER_02 36:20

Sure. Um, I looked at that and I was like, this story, again with the Godwinks we're gonna get into, I really felt like this story has to get out. And so for a number of reasons, I didn't try to go yet through a publisher publisher and I self-published them because I needed the story to get out. I was writing like crazy. I didn't want to wait for however long that might take. And I, to be quite honest, I was a little bit negative thinking about, oh, you know, am I gonna like most probably authors are when they start out, unless they have a really big ego, you know, am I gonna be able to get a publisher, you know, with this and right away and and all that. So I so I self-published and I got them out there. I found out after the fact that that's kind of a negative, right? I mean, once you've self-published, you've already put them out, and and publishers are really um reluctant to, you know, take your stuff. Hopefully, I can still get around that barrier somehow, but we'll find out. You know, and and like you've seen on my website, you know, one soul is the goal. I'm not I I really do believe that if if God wants it to get to wherever it's gonna get to, that it will. And and at the very least, I pray and I hope and I believe that it'll get to the person or the people that I that he wants it to get to. So that was most important for me. Um, the delay in the timeline, even if someone just picked it up right away to get them out, I wasn't positive or reassured that you know it wasn't gonna be a hindrance to getting the story out. So so maybe that was a mistake and it was mostly out of ignorance if it was, um, in the past. I wish I sometimes I wish I would have just delayed them and gone that route and really tried to push for the first book and second, and then by now there'd be like three of them out instead of 10. I don't know how that would have affected everything or or not. So that's the answer to that question. Okay, thank you for that. Sure. And I wish I could say, oh no, I got a great publisher, and man, we've got 500,000 sold and everything's going great. You know, but it's you know, it's just not reality.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

All in all, God is going on Amazon, right? What's that? God is the ultimate publisher, right? He's the ultimate.

SPEAKER_02 38:19

Does that mean we're transitioning into the Godwinks?

Godwinks Tofet And The 3:16 Pattern

SPEAKER_00 38:22

Yes, that's what I was just gonna go into. Uh just the thing we were talking about jars of clay, and I found uh refers to 2 Corinthians 4 7, which states, but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that all surpassing power is from God and not from us. That's NIV. Exactly. Um, so these God wings. Explain that to us. What are God wings?

SPEAKER_02 38:46

Yeah, and so one quick delay, of course, but one piggyback on that. Um, you'll see that all the in the in the the characters in the books, they're they're mostly people you would not expect it to be these superheroes. There's a couple of them that, you know, there's a fighter pilot guy, you know, yeah, of course he's gonna have the big big ego. Um, but we shut that down a little bit fairly quickly. But you know, there's orphans, there's you know, a number of children, um, you know, men and women. My when my wife, again, when she first started reading uh The Faithful, she was like, Oh, you know, there's this beginning part, the the guy, the you know, Abner, he's very he's big with his sons, you know, Kale and Truan, and and it's all about them. And it's like, how come the women are, and I'm like, honey, it's because it's a certain time period, you know. Don't be down on the women because they end up being critical to the story. And then later on in later books, they're huge, they're like way bigger than the men are in this part. So don't let that shut you down and make you think it's like, oh, it's all about men. The majority of the heroes and heroines are are women in the book. So let me just throw that out there right away so you don't think, oh yeah, whatever, from reading the very first book. But, anyways, the god winks. Okay, so when I finished, when I was going in, this is the first one, I'm going into forever. So after the faithful stand, and um I wrote this big long section about where everything began, and this is kind of dark a little bit here. And I should say, for your daughter, Mickey, um, there's no sexual stuff, there's no swearing, but sometimes evil, you know, there's some evil is depicted kind of dark in some ways. Nothing real gross or you know, grotesque or anything like that. But, anyways, so um, so I'm looking for this place that I wrote, this big section on where it all began, where these people were sacrificing their children over a fire to a demon. That's one of the darkest, darkest parts of the series. So I'm like, I need a name for this island, and and I didn't have any idea what I would name this island. So I said, okay, I'm gonna go back to 2005 and 2010 to the land masses that I've already put on the map in those two books, even though I rewrote them. And then I have a new land mass in this book, and I'm gonna and I'm gonna throw that on, and I'm gonna take the first letter of each of those places in the order that I put them in the books. And it turned out to be Trinian, Omentia, Parlantis, Um, Heath, and Altigra. So T-O-P-H-E-T. And I was like, Tofit, that's kind of got wow, that's amazing. It's got a ring to it. The vowels are in the right place and everything. Sweet. So I sat on that, put it on my map, you know, kept doing my story for a while. And then after a couple days, I said, is that actually a place? And so I Googled it, and Google came up with, and I'm paraphrasing, but it's like, oh yeah, Tofit, uh, a place in ancient Israel in the Valley of Henam where some ancient Israelites were sacrificing their children over a fire to a demon called Molech. And I was like, how is that possible? Because I didn't even plan on a trilogy when I first wrote the first book. And the second book I had no idea, and I wrote it, you know, those books were written like five years apart. And then this last part or landmass that I put in, um, it was 15 years after that. So I didn't plan that. I didn't even think I was writing more books. So how did that happen? So I kind of, you know, I'm it inspired me to continue going, but it it wasn't like, oh, what I'm writing is, you know, God is giving me the words to write. I'm writing another Bible or anything crazy like that. But it did inspire me to keep going. And then um, for years on my Facebook, I have this problem of getting up early in the morning from it being in the Air Force and all. So I'm always up at like two o'clock. So I take a picture of my my uh clock radio at 316, and I would put John in front of it, that picture, and just post it on Facebook for years. So I was doing that, and then all of a sudden, all these 316s started popping up. You know, I needed to self-publish a book, so I I turned in a piece of gold um that I had buried out in the backyard, which is another, you know, except eccentric kind of thing. But um, at that moment, you know, with gold price changing all the time, the guy's like, well, you know, it's changing all the time, but right now it's uh$2,316. And I was like, oh,$316. And then the first lady that did a review of the book that I had just done with that piece of gold stand, um, it was her 316th review, and I was like, well, that's kind of odd. And then the book comes out and it's got 316 pages, even though that was totally unplanned, and the publisher, you know, did all their magic work on it or whatever. And I'm like, well, that's crazy. And then I was uh donating all the money that I was getting from the books to um our new church that we were building uh east of the Colorado Springs here, and it was delayed and delayed and delayed during COVID. And when did it open? March 16th, 316. And so there was just like, and that's just a few of them. They just kept going. And so that was crazy. And so then when I got farther along in the series, before the the first or the third trilogy, the the Chronicles of the Seven Wheels, um, I was like, I needed a I had a group of people and I had their names already, and so I needed uh a name for this group of people um that were all these uh truth keepers, and they were going between there was one in each one of the seven wheels and and all that stuff. Kind of crazy, bunch of story behind it. But anyways, I had their letters and I went into Google and I said, I need a name, give me, give me words that have all of these letters in it, and it came up and and it was blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, V I M. And so Google made the mistake of thinking the Vim needed to be together. And I hope I'm not boring you guys with this stuff, but this is crazy stuff for me. No, no, no. So it came up with four words. There were only four words with all these letters that ended up ending in vim, English words, and three of them had to do with the uh Old Testament uh Jewish writings, which blew me away. Just three of them, because you know, one of the big uh I've got three big passages in my series. One is John 3 16, of course, like I just talked about. That's huge. Another one is Job 19, 25 through 27, where you know I know my Redeemer lives, and then I'll see him. I'll be, you know, I'll see him with my own eyes, and oh how my heart yearns within me. And so, so these three uh with the old Jewish writing is one of Was the Ketuvim, which had Job in it. And I was like, how does that happen? And so this group in the in the in the third trilogy becomes the Ketuvim. That's the name of their group of people. And they're very important with the ending. I won't get into that, won't tell you about it. But all of these things just kept happening. And so it just kept inspiring me to keep going. And that's why I've kind of continued to expand the story and to keep writing. But it's really been an upper for me because I think one thing the listeners can take away in you guys is just open your eyes to the crazy things, the wonderful things that are happening all around you. I think a lot of times we're just walking around with our head down and we don't see these things. So just opening my eyes to that stuff, it just more and more things happen. And I think God does speak to us, you know, personally in the ways that, you know, are individual for us and you know, to inspire us and to encourage us to different, you know, things that he wants us to do in our lives. So, you know, all the characters, you know, all of us, we're all unique. We've all been created to do something. And I think if we open our eyes more to it and listen more and watch more to where he's steering us, I think he he really shows us what we're meant to do. And one last thing with that is how are we doing on time, by the way? I don't even worry about it.

SPEAKER_00 45:49

We're good, we're good.

One Step When You Feel Stuck

SPEAKER_02 45:51

Is uh, you know, I I one thing that's really brought out in the story and and that I believe is is, you know, God is sovereign. He's I I refer to him as the big puzzle maker. And and so we're all, you know, not like you know, we don't have free will and all that, but he does steer our course. And if we're you know faithful to him, he'll guide us to what he wants us to accomplish, all the things that he's planned for us before we were ever even conceived. Um, that he's the puzzle maker and we're all pieces of the of his puzzle. So a lot of times people look around, they'll compare themselves to other people, they'll try to be like other people. They won't think of themselves as important enough, or if I could only be like him, or you know, if you're in high school, if I could be that, you know, the quarterback or the head of the cheerleading team or whatever. And it's like, no, no, you were created to be the puzzle piece that you've been created to do. And without you, that puzzle is not complete. God made that puzzle, and every piece is just as important, whether it's red or it's got a little house on it, or it's got a cloud on it, or whatever in that puzzle. You're critical to that puzzle. And and you've been created and formed exactly like you should be. That doesn't mean we shouldn't work on ourselves or or improve ourselves and stuff, but God, God created us to be though that puzzle piece. So don't try to be someone else, be yourself and and look at how you should, you know, develop that puzzle piece and and you know accomplish that thing that God has planned for you to do, that wonderful thing. Don't ever be down on yourself, just be very happy with your piece of the puzzle.

SPEAKER_00 47:16

Amen. Amen. So I we have one question we ask all our guests before we go, so that you can answer it any which way you want, and we'll give you the time to so for someone who's listening to us right now who feels completely stuck right now. What's one simple step they can take today to start moving forward?

SPEAKER_02 47:36

Okay, well, that's a pretty broad question. I'm glad, I'm glad that you said, Oh, we'll give you as much time as you want. Oops, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:43

Hold on, let me pause.

SPEAKER_02 47:48

So you're stuck, and what's the one thing you could do to to move forward? Um, you know, the first thing that comes to mind is move forward, which sounds really dumb. Um, but I think you can be stuck. Like, well, yeah, you you just said you were stuck. But I mean, I think part of being stuck is thinking you're stuck. Um, part of not moving forward is thinking, I don't know what to do to move forward. I think you should just start moving. So, what do you do when you're stuck and and and how do you keep how do you move forward? Move. Um you know, one thing, so so this might get into this or or not, but another thing I do when I wake up in the morning, um, and I haven't done this forever, but I've done it for a period of time now, is I smile. And that sounds silly. But when I smile, I think of what SMILE is, and I think of the acronym SMILE. And so what it what it stands for for me is service, mission, intentionality, legacy, eternity. So I think, okay, service, you know, who am I serving today? And ultimately, I'm serving God. I'm serving my family, I'm serving my community, I'm serving my nation. You know, everybody's different in different places that they are. That's kind of a vertical thing. Then horizontal mission. What's my mission gonna be for today? And so maybe that, maybe that helps with moving forward if I'm stuck. You think, what is my mission for today? What can I just do today? You know, am I am I gonna try to write eight pages of a book? Am I gonna try to go, you know, study a little bit more for that class? Am I gonna go help grandma, you know, move her furniture, whatever it is, just move. And that's why I said move. Because if you just have a mission and you move with I intentionality, you know, you've decided, you know, when you woke up in that first five minutes, yeah, and you can change, but I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna be intentional about it. All of a sudden you're moving, and moving has momentum. So if you're moving and you have momentum, you're gonna find out other things that you can do. So you're not stuck anymore. And then that legacy is every day you do this and you move and you move and you move, and before you know it, you're gonna have a legacy because you're gonna have a history of having accomplished some things. And then if you've thought about it, the strategic level of it, of course, is eternity. If you've been thinking like this, you're gonna, you're gonna realize that one day I'm gonna be old, like that Terrence Rotoring guy that was talking, and I'm gonna look back and hopefully have a legacy of having done things intentionally, and that that legacy will take me to where I want to be in eternity. So I think all of that's important. I think so it so I would say smile. If you're if you're stuck and you're not moving, smile, and then think about what smile is, and intentionally just do something, and you'll you'll have momentum and you'll move forward.

Where To Find The Books

SPEAKER_00 50:24

That's can't end the show any better than with that. That is awesome, and please. Um, so again, Terrence, let people know where they can find your books, where they can reach out to you, how we can get connected, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 50:40

Sure. So I don't know. It I think Terence Rotoring is down there in the corner. That's how you spell it. If you throw that in Google, you'll find everything you need. They'll take you to books, they'll take you to my chroniclesoftrinian.com website, all one word, chroniclesoftrinian.com. And uh they have email on there. You can send me an email. I'll I promise I'll answer everybody's email. Um, but it also has, you know, like Mickey saw, that connection to the books. There's a there's three little lines up in the upper corner, and that's where if you click on that, you'll you'll get taken to podcasts, you'll get taken to um different reviews, all the different books where you can find them. You can click on them, we'll take you right to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, my publisher Zulon. And then again, if they're too expensive, because I guess they just all went up because of book prices and paper and ink and all that crazy stuff. You know, if if you do have Amazon Alexa, um now she'll start talking to me. Um, you can you can have her, you know, read Kindle to you, which are actually pretty good. Um, or you can get that little app like Speech of Fi or something. I don't get paid for mentioning them, but um, that can read all with all these different voices. It's pretty neat too. So, you know, all those are options, and and I just hope you'll you'll give the books a chance. And you can start anywhere you want to. I would still say start at the beginning, um, even though it might be a little bit hard to get through that book. Um, like my wife says, there's a lot of battles and stuff, and I'm like, okay, well, you know, I'm just setting the stage. So think of it as the foundation of a pyramid, and you gotta you gotta get some stuff accomplished before you can move up. So amen.

SPEAKER_00 52:02

That's awesome. So everybody will know I'll have all of Terrence's stuff in the show notes. Links everywhere you can find Terence. We're gonna have links for Mickey's uh uh podcast as well. We'll have all our stuff on there. Terence, thank you again for giving the honor to come on the show. We this was amazing. I'm um you you inspire me more to keep writing. So um, thank you so much, Mickey. As always, thank you so much for being on the show. We had a great time. You're more than welcome to come back, Terence, whenever you want. It's an open invitation. And uh I want to say bye to everyone and God bless. And this was an amazing time. See you in the next one.

SPEAKER_02 52:41

Thank you all.