Building Paradise City — The World Inside MARK! The Herald Angel

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MarkTheHerald.com

✦ The Herald Dispatch ✦

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Every story lives or dies by the reality of its world.

Not reality in the sense of factual accuracy — fiction is fiction, and the rules of fiction are different from the rules of journalism — but reality in the sense of internal consistency, specific detail, and the feeling that the world you're reading about existed before you arrived and will continue existing after you leave.

The world of MARK! The Herald Angel is called Paradise City. And I want to tell you a little about what it took to build it — because the world-building in this book is something I'm genuinely proud of, and it doesn't always get talked about.

Starting With What We Know

The biblical portrait of heaven is more specific and interesting than most people realize. Scripture describes actual geographical features — a sea of glass, a throne of extraordinary splendor, gates of pearl, streets of what is described as transparent gold, a river of the water of life flowing from the throne, trees bearing fruit on both sides. There are distinct categories of angelic beings with specific functions and appearances — Seraphim with multiple wings who sing before the throne, terrifying Cherubim with four faces who guard sacred spaces, Archangels who carry divine commissions, a vast enumeration of other orders and ranks and choirs.

I read all of it. I took notes on all of it. And then I asked a question that I find genuinely useful when building fictional worlds: what would the ordinary life of an ordinary person look like in a world governed by these extraordinary realities?

Because what the Bible gives us are the cathedral moments — the throne room, the proclamations, the cosmic significance. What it doesn't give us are the Tuesday afternoons. And Tuesday afternoons are where character lives.

The Eternal Herald

The centerpiece of Mark's world is his workplace: the Eternal Herald, Paradise City's premier

newspaper, headquartered in the tallest building in the city on the 777th floor.

I chose 777 deliberately. In biblical numerology, seven is the number of completion and perfection — God rested on the seventh day, the seventh year was Jubilee, Revelation is structured around sevens. A newspaper on the 777th floor of a celestial skyscraper felt right. Perfectly, completely, literally on top of everything.

Mark's office is at the end of a surprisingly long hallway behind a frosted glass door with gold lettering. It is small. Unassuming. Exactly the right size for a Herald Angel who prefers quiet and facts to spectacle and noise.

The building has an express bus that runs from the westside to Eternity in three minutes flat — because of course in Paradise City the transit system is perfect. The elevator plays Hallelujah and the other passengers join in on floors 1 through 776. There is a corner store with a window display that always catches Mark's eye. There is a sidewalk with exactly 279 cracks, which Mark counts on his way home, including a brief stop to admire Mr. Clifford's window display.

Every one of those details was deliberate. They are the Tuesday afternoon of Paradise City.

(story continues after the ad)

The Angels and Their Varieties

One of the most enjoyable parts of world-building MARK! was working out the social and functional hierarchy of angelic beings in Paradise City.

The Seraphim are the celebrities. They fly around the King's throne singing praises, adorned in the most vibrant colors, always wearing the newest shades the moment a new color is created. They are the life of every party they attend. They have the most spectacular singing voices, as you'd expect when your audience is the King alone.

The Cherubim are terrifying. Four wings, multiple faces, assigned to the highest-security locations — the kind of beings you don't want to encounter in a dark celestial alley. But they can sing with extraordinary beauty, which is one of the book's more delightful contrasts.

And then there are the Herald Angels. Small. Cerebral. Deeply uncomfortable in social situations.

Equipped with disproportionately large eyes that can detect the smallest inconsistency in any narrative, large heads to house the brains required to process all that visual information, tiny bodies, and wings so small as to be barely noticeable to the naked eye.

They see everything. They sing nothing. Until the night that one of them stands in a field outside Bethlehem and the whole calculus of his existence changes.

That's the world. Come visit sometime.

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✦ The full world of Paradise City is waiting for you in MARK! The Herald Angel. Available at

MarkTheHerald.com in print, eBook, and audiobook.