Anthony Jeremiah Ball

WHY I WROTE THE CASTLE OF FATHER JAMES 
          
          I had originally written my Gothic short story "The Castle Of Father James" in 2015 (though I copyrighted and published it in 2025), which was the year that I had my first girlfriend, who would be my wife a year later in 2016, and experienced my first kiss at 24 years old, just as Nehemiah does by Shariah, the female police officer investigating the castle and befriending Nehemiah in the story. In the story, Nehemiah, who is 24, has never even met a woman in his life (not even his own mother) until Shariah. In many ways, I believe my subconsciousness manifests itself in some aspects of my fictional stories. I had met females and my mother, of course, but I had no true romantic or physical knowledge of the feminine and had suffered emotional isolation for my whole life until that year.
          
          The female protagonist of my fictional tale, Shariah, is not strictly based on my wife, but rather Shariah is symbolic of the feminine in general (Womankind as a whole), "Eve's kind", while Nehemiah (the defecting priest who wants out of James's cult and begins to trust Shariah) represents the repressed, ascetic and isolated form of Man who has deprived himself of happiness, love and non-sinful pleasures with a misguided mindset that he cannot have God and be happy at the same time. When Nehemiah experiences Shariah's affection, he is finally experiencing "Eve's kind", much as I did in real-life when I began dating Brittany and married her not long after our relationship began.
          
          In the story, Father James (the antagonist who represents hypocrisy, secret sins covered up by deception and corruption amongst centralized power within the clergy) is hinted to be practicing human sacrifice (though I leave the interpretation up to the reader on that note) on the 11th Floor where an abominable creature lives under his care.

10 years ago today, when I was 25, my life changed forever as I entered a covenant with one of Eve's daughters at the local courthouse in Newport, TN, and then she moved into my house that day.
          
          My intention before developing a friendship with her 1 year prior to this marriage was a life of eternal singleness/celibacy, like a Catholic monk. 1 year before we went to the courthouse, I was 24 years old and had never had a girlfriend, had never been on a date, had never been to prom, had never kissed and had never even held hands. Due to autism and a traumatic childhood as well, I lacked self-confidence and social skills. I had asked two different women out, ackwardly, when I was in Bible Institute as a young man pursuing a theological college education, but was rejected (and even made fun of by one of the two women and told by her that I would die all alone). 
          
          So, I gave up on pursuing a companion and came to "accept a monk-like life in the city", genuinely believing I would be alone forever.
          
          Boy, did the Lord have a suprise in store for me that took me off-guard!!!! There was another daughter of Eve, one with a Gothic heart, who had secretly been plotting, since we were kids and I wasn't friends with her back then, to trick me into a friendship before finally seducing me into marriage. She succeeded, and I loved every second of her conspiracy. It ended up being the second best thing that ever happened to me, second only to the Lord Jesus Christ forgiving my sins and giving me peace with God.
          
          We have had two children together---our son (currently 3) and our unborn daughter who died in the womb and is resting with God until the Day of Resurrection. 
          
          Marriage is the greatest earthly gift from Heaven.

I wrote this tale back 11 years ago (2015), but officially updated it and published it in 2025.
          https://www.wattpad.com/story/405780530

Jesus Christ our Lord said “the love of many shall wax cold” in the context of the Last Days.
          
          Due to the cruelty and pain‑inducing nature of humanity in general, many people today are turning to AI (Artificial Intelligence) and chatbots for emotional support, comfort and friendship because they see human beings as unreliable, cold, cruel and unkind. To many people today, AI has become a substitute for human companionship because AI will never leave you, never yell at you, never cuss you, never have a falling out with you, never gossip about you and is available 24/7. This is a sad reality. The truth of the matter is that AI is not alive and never will be. It is artificial life. It is governed by coding to make itself reply to people in a human‑like manner. God never intended us to substitute human companionship. He wants us to socialize and make HUMAN friends.
          
          This grim and sad reality of isolation today inspired me when I wrote “The Shadow After The Dust Storm” (Copyright 2025). Commander Sarah Davis is truly alone against the entity on Mars, despite having her AI assistant/robot “Tom” by her side, because Tom is really just a weapon/security system with coding to make it give human responses to Sarah, not a sentient person. The closest “conscious” companion that Sarah has is THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY across space, back on Earth. As far as true sentience is concerned, she is all alone against an unknown entity outside.

Darkness, grief and trauma can sometimes be coped with through Writing, at least in my case anyway.
          
          My Dad was not actively in his life for 29 years. When I was 29, we finally got to know each other on a personal level and spoke with one another weekly, but he died suddenly 2 years later of a heart attack.
          
          I was always living each day of my life trying to be good enough for him and meet up to his standard of masculinity. I didn’t understand until recently that it is perfectly okay for men to cry. I saw my Dad’s corpse on the hospital bed, in 2022, and did not shed a single tear because I knew he would be disappointed in me and ashamed of me if he knew I wept, due to his perception that men are to be emotionless and super tough, like machines. It was not until last year, 2025, that I finally cried and began to mourn for my Dad.
          
          During my 29 years without my Dad, I went through a dark childhood, was heavily involved in the Occult and then ended up in a fundamentalist religious cult that claimed to be Christian but did not align with Christ or the New Testament at all, or even with Orthodoxy or Historic Christian Theology for that matter. I suffered PTSD from those many factors. My wife was the first and only girlfriend I ever had, and my first date was when I was 24, due to my fundamentalist years depriving me of natural, human relationships and social interactions with so-called "outsiders" and "worldly people".
          
          Through writing, I was able to channel out those emotions from my past in some stories and poems.
          
          Ultimately, God has been my Deliverer and has blessed me with good people, true friends, now at 35 years of age.
          

I just finished reading your story and honestly really enjoyed it. The scenes and characters felt very vivid, and while reading I kept thinking it would look amazing as a comic. I'm a commissioned artist and I’d love to help bring your story to life visually if you're ever interested.
          
          No pressure at all just thought I’d share the idea. If you'd like to talk more, you can reach me on Discord or on Instagram (iameemilyy). I can also share my portfolio there.
          
          Looking forward to connecting!
          Best,
          Emmiliya!!