New
A personal message from the author:
Let Us Unite all Genders
A friend was driving me to the Miami Airport when talk on AM radio turned to abortion and abused women. The commentator cited a list of Bible passages “proving” God chose everyone from the womb: Galatians 1:15, Isaiah 44:24, Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139:13-16, and Job 31:15.
My friend, hearing this, switched the channel. “Sorry about that,” she said. “I do wonder, though, how we could possibly address an issue as nuanced as aborting the fetuses of abused women.”
“It seems to me,” I said, “that God forfeits His decision by allowing rape in the first place. Most of the talk, like the radio there, is thoughtless bluster. It is a mother’s choice. It is her body that was so cruelly abused; she should have full say over how she recovers. No other soul in the universe has any authority over the abused woman and the child she carries. There must be rules and consistency, even for God.”
The argument occupied my thoughts during the flight. I realized it was a much bigger problem than I’d originally thought. How can we stop abuse in the first place, for all genders and regardless of age?
Eventually I came to a conclusion. Perhaps a mason or a nurse would find a different solution, but as a writer, I know we can change minds through our stories. I was determined to stop abuse through a story.
I decided to create a friend, someone the reader would grow with and love. In this way, we make abuse immediate. We make it something that must be stopped whether it happens to woman or man, young or old.
Suffering anywhere ultimately hurts us all. We can only end abuse and its fallout through the realizations that we are all humans on Earth and the things that separate us are nothing more than invisible walls.
Gender, sex, age, and ability; none of those things divides us as much as life connects us. When we lift up those who are abused, those who suffer, those who are judged to be less, we lift ourselves up as well.
Seed of Fury is four separate novels, set in different times and studying different situations. Each one shows the lessons we’ve learned from abuse and its fallout.
We start with a famous atrocity of the classical world: The Rape of the Sabine Women. The Romans were at the height of their power when this happened, and their wanton and hideous treatment of the women they abducted has drawn focus to the abuse of women ever since.
This story, though set in the midst of an actual historical event, is fiction. But it is my hope that, through the lens of fiction, we can lift our spirits and create a better world for our fellow humans. Even if you feel it’s good story and nothing else, I pray that the light of the sisters in this novel, Ronica and Zolia, will live on within you.
— Joe Antony Sebastin
Set during the founding years of the Roman Empire, Zolia’s Revenge is the story of two virginal Sabine sisters: Ronica the Revolter and Zolia the Crusader. Told by the older sister, Ronica, it is a gut-wrenching depiction of the Rape of the Sabine Women, their degradation and torture at the hands of King Romulus and the Roman men, and their eventual heroic escape.
Marked by historical events that intermingle tragedy, love, romance, and unforgettable fantasy characters, this compelling story paves the way for Christianity in a world of non-believers.