Interview with Gary V. Tenuta

[Scott]

(In the following, Ellen George interviews Gary V. Tenuta, author of The Ezekiel Code.)

I recently had the opportunity to ask author Gary V. Tenuta questions regarding his current book, The Ezekiel Code.

ellen - Gary, have you always wanted to be a writer?

Gary - I wrote my first story when I was in the 6th grade. It was a sci-fi story called The Beam From Planet X. Sounds like the title of one of those really bad old black-and-white sci-fi movies fromt the 50's, doesn't it! Come to think of it, it was that bad. But at the time I thought it was great. Hey, my Mom said it was great! What kid could ask for more?

It was that story that got me hooked on writing and I've been writing in one form or another since then. I've written everything from poetry to songs and a few of my song demos actually got a little air time on local radio stations but it never resulted in any music publishing contracts. It's a tough, dog-eat-dog business to break into.

I have been a published writer of feature articles for Fate Magazine and Beyond Magazine and had a monthly column in a chain of local newspapers. But The Ezekiel Code is my first published novel.

ellen - Is writing your only job?

Gary - I wish! No, I work part time for a small advertising specialties company and I do some freelance graphics and illustration work.

ellen - Tell us about The Ezekiel Code.

Gary - It began as an idea I had one night about 10 years ago while sitting in Denny's Restaurant. I was thinking about the book of Ezekiel in the Bible and how Ezekiel's descriptions of the object he encountered seemed as if he was describing a mechanical craft of some kind. The whole episode, when read through modern eyes, is so reminiscent of the UFO/ET close encounter reports that we read about these days. It occurred to me that this idea could be expanded into an interesting story for a sci-fi movie. Not having the means to make a movie and not having any connections to anyone in the movie business at the time, I figured the next best thing would be for me to write a novel based on this theme. I had one novel already half done, but this idea was so compelling that I just had to put the half finished novel on the back burner and I began working on what eventually became The Ezekiel Code.

As you know, The Ezekiel Code is a near epic-scale book, over 600 pages, and covers a lot of ground. So it's difficult to sum up the story in just a few words, but here's short synopsis that will give the readers a pretty good idea of what takes place -

1887 AD: A fabled "lost scroll", scribed by the prophet Ezekiel, comes into the hands of a secret society, the Order of the New Dawn. Brother Hiram - a mystic priest of the Order - has a vision in which he sees the year 2012 as an unprecedented window of opportunity for the next step in the evolution of human consciousness. He also sees something coming that could prevent the window from opening and would seal the fate of humankind forever. He realizes the Lost Scroll and his vision have a strange but vital connection. In an attempt to save the future, he devises a coded message that he hopes will one day find its way into the hands of someone who can prevent the greatest catastrophe the modern world has ever known.

1999 AD: Frank McClintock - a self-styled adventurer and researcher of ancient mysteries comes into possession of the coded parchment. But an unfortunate fate awaits him and the parchment will remain hidden for the next six years.

2005 AD: Zeke Banyon, a Catholic seminary dropout, is running a homeless shelter in the old waterfront district of Seattle. He and his assisitant Angela, unwittingly stumble upon the code and soon find themselves thrust into a world of secret societies, metaphysics, mystery, and murder. In the process of trying to understand the code, Banyon discovers a disturbing truth about himself and the extraordinary fate that awaits him...and us. No amount of seminary schooling could ever have prepared him for this.

2012 is coming.

The clock is ticking...

The code must be deciphered...

And only one man can save the planet...

If he can just figure out how - before it's too late...

The inclusion of the Mayan prophecy concerning the year 2012 was not part of my original idea for the novel. One of the curious things about writing a novel is how the story sometimes takes on a life of its own and goes places the author had never envisioned. That was the case with The Ezekiel Code. I was constantly surprised at how various elements of the storyline seemed to manifest from out of nowhere. Looking back on it now, however, I can see that some of those elements were derived from the alphanumeric code that carries the story from beginning to end. That, in itself, is a curious phenomenon and goes to show the practical, utilitarian value of the code. In every sense, it functioned as a sort of divination tool producing ideas and information that I would not otherwise have even considered. It is, in fact, what led me to the Mayan Calendar and how that fit like a missing puzzle piece with another element in the story. There were times when the story seemed to be writing itself. Wait...is that the theme song from the Twilight Zone I hear in the background?? (smile)

ellen - What does The Ezekiel Code mean to you?

Gary - It's pretty much the culmination, in a fictional format, of much of what I've learned over many years in terms of ancient mysteries, sacred geometry, world religions, mythology, metaphysics, paranormal phenomena, the UFO/ET phenomenon, quantum physics and, in general, the world of alternative explanation about the nature of our reality.

ellen - What should a reader expect when they read it?

Gary - Good question! I'm glad you asked because I do want to say that if a reader is not familiar with any of the above-mentioned subjects, not to worry. I wrote the story with the presumption that many, if not most of those subjects would be unfamiliar territory for many readers. Like you so aptly put in one of your wonderful reviews, you don't need to be an expert on anything...just sit back and enjoy the ride! The reader will be in good company with the two main characters, Zeke Banyon and Angela Martin, who are totally unfamiliar with any of those things when their adventure begins. So they do all the work for the reader as they get swept up in the mystery and the reader - as you said - can just sit back and enjoy the ride.

What the reader should not expect is for the book to start out at a break-neck pace with car chases, gunfire, and bombs bursting in air. I classify the book as a metaphysical/mystery/adventure/thriller. You'll notice 'thriller' comes at the end of that description and, although there are plenty of thrills and chills along the way, the real adrenaline-pumping thrill-ride comes toward the end of the story. Up to that point, it is more of an adventure as Zeke and Angela and their small group of companions journey into unfamiliar territory, dodging renegade Jesuit priests at every turn, narrowly escaping murder and unraveling one clue after another in a race against time to fulfill Zeke's appointed mission and save the world from total annihilation. WHEW! Did I just say all that in one sentence? LOL!

ellen - There surely is a lot of metaphysical information in Ezekiel - where did you find that info?

Gary - Well, like I said earlier, it's a culmination or a composite of stuff I've explored personally over many years. I just sort of opened up the floodgates and let it flow!

ellen - Also there is a lot about E.T.'s and Biblical references - tell us about that -

Gary - Yes, well, Ezekiel's experiences - as recounted in the bible - is probably the most often cited example of what could be interpreted as evidence of ET visitation on our little planet. In fact, as is mentioned in my novel, there is a very interesting little non-fiction book called The Spaceships of Ezekiel, written by a former NASA space-systems enhineer, that goes into great detail about how the Ezekiel story dovetails with modern claims of ET encounters and also how Ezekiel's descriptions of the object of his encounter makes some technical sense from the point of view of a space-systems engineer. It's fascinating stuff.

But in addition to the Ezekiel story, there are other passages in the Bible that could be interpreted as evidence of extraterrestrial intervention in human affairs in ancient times. An example would be the often quoted passages about Moses following the "pillar of cloud by day" which turns into a "pillar of fire by night". Then there is the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah which, to me and to many others, seems so much like a nuclear strike that it's tempting to think that's exactly that exactly what it was. And there's another intriuging aspect of that story involving the famous like about Lot's wife turning into a pillar of salt. Is that really what happened? Is that the correct translation? One of the characters in The Ezekiel Code discovers something that puts a whole different spin on that scenario.

ellen - Do you believe in UFOs?

Gary - UFO, of course, means Unnidentified Flying Object. Just about anything that flies can fall into that category if it's not identifiable. But I know you're referring to extraterrestrial crafts in particular. I do believe some UFOs might be ET in origin but I have no way of knowing that for certain. Just recently I was presented with photographic evidence sggesting that the 9 flying objects Kenneth Arnold witnssed back in 1947 (the event that is considered to be the beginning of the modern era of the UFO) may have actually been a fleet of experimental "Flying Wing" aircraft that was developed and soon scrapped by the U.S. Army.

I've personally witnessed - at fairly close range - what has become known as the "Black Triangle" UFO. It was an utterly mind-boggling experience that I will never forget as it glided slowly, silently, above me. And even though flight characteristics that do not fit with what we know of conventional aircraft - or even of declassified "unconventional" aircraft - I can't say for certain it was of ET origin. In fact, I was given some information that suggests it may have been a top secret Govenment project involving anti-gravity propulsion. Still, one wonders if that technology was reverse engineered from downed ET craft or by some other means of gathering information from an ET source.

Here's a curious fact about these huge triangular UFOs, They have been seen and reported by hundreds of people over the past 10 years. My affidavit concerning the details of my sighting was on of about 30 others that were introduced into court when my friend, Peter Gersten (a lawyer well-known for his role in acquiring UFO files from the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA in the 1970's) filed a suit against the Department of Defense in an attempt to gain information about these "Black Triangle" UFOs. His logic was that the primary job of the agency known as NORAD was to be aware of, track and identify, all aircraft within American air space. That's what they do. Therefore, given the fact these huge triangular machines are flying over major metropolitan cities, it seems that NORAD would know about them and would have some information about them on file. The judge ordered the DoD to come up with whatever information they had in this regard but the DoD came back saying they searched their files but could find nothing. I'll leave it up to you to decide what that means...(smile)

ellen - The number code!! How did you get all of that? You know how many are doing the Code?

Gary - Ah yes!! The number code! That is all a result of my personal work over the past 10-15 years exploring the possibility that the English alphabet is "encoded" in such a way that it might be used in much the same manner as the ancient Greek and Hebrew priests and mystics used the alphabets or their own respective cultures. That was an ancient system of divination known as Gematria, by virtue of the numbers, is also closely associated with sacred geometry. The two often go hand in hand. In fact, it has been demonstrated that the Bible story of Jesus and the 153 fishes is a tale constructed to illustrate 'secret knowledge' based on sacred geometry.

In the course of my exploration I found some numeric patterns seemingly embedded (encoded?) within the structure of our alphabet. I realize how unlikely that seems. However, my work has gained a considerable amount of international attention from people who are interested in such things. A physicist, Dr. Joseph Turbeville, for example, came across my work and noticed some similarities between the numbers my work was generating and the numbers that were turning up in his work. His work, much more scienctifically oriented, deals with what is known in the field of mathematics as the Fibonacci numbers. He cites my work and provides some examples of how it correlates with his would in two of his books. Believe me, no one is more amazed by that than me!!! If - when I had started my little exploration - someone had told me it would one day end up being cited in a book about something called Fibonacci numbers and the mathmatics underlying the geometry of the Great Pyramid - and written by a physicist, no less - I would have looked at them as if they were even crazier than me. What can I say? Life is full of surprises!

Anyway, to make a very long story very short, I had a huge archive of alphanumeric data in my personal files to draw from. If anyone is interested in more details and deeper explanation of this work they can visit my website at http://hometown.aol.com/codeufo/gemetria.html

ellen - Do you envision Code to be a movie?

Gary - Right now, with The Ezekiel Code just published, I'm so busy with the marketing aspect that I hardly have time to think too far into the future. What I hope to see in the horizon, of course, is The Ezekiel Code on a national best-seller list!!

ellen - Will there be a sequel to Code? Will we see Zeke again?

Gary - I've been asked that so many times I'm going to feel guilty if I don't come up with a sequel. I'm giving it some thought.

ellen - If not a sequel - what can we expect from you?

Gary - I have an idea brewing for a paranormal mystery thriller involving the infamous practitioner of the "magickal" arts, Aleister Crowley. I came across a little known - but oddly intriuging - fact about him that just begs to be the basis for a creepy little tale.

ellen - How can people contact you for more infomation?

Gary - I can be reached by email at TheEzekielCode.aol.com and people are corially invited to my Ezekiel Code website at www.ezekielcode.com where they can read the reviews, the book's prologue, and a sample chapter.

And many thanks, Ellen, for this interview. Great questions. I enjoyed it very much. You've done so much to help advance the recognition of independently published authors such as myself. We thank you all for that (smile)

ellen - Gary, it is I who thank YOU - as a fan of the book, I learned a lot from your answers and feel that people interested in The Ezekiel Code, or fans of the book can too.

My review of The Ezekiel Code is on this site -