Though New Star and Survival Secrets can be read and appreciated any time of year, it’s a special treat to introduce them during Christmas season. 

Author Lana Christian joined me on the blog in June 2025 to discuss her debut novel New Star, a story about the Wise Men’s travels to Bethlehem and everything that needed to happen before even embarking on such a monumental journey.

Survival Secrets, the second book in a four-book series, lives up to the adventure and intrigue of its predecessor. Only this time, the Wise Men are trying to get back home. 

Blurb for Survival Secrets (The Magi’s Encounters Book 2)

On the run from Herod and the Nabataeans, Akilah makes a desperate decision to venture into the unforgiving Wilderness of Paran. To reach Egypt’s safety, his caravan must survive the elements while maintaining their anonymity and protecting the secrets they harbor. Their knowledge of Yeshua is one of many secrets that jeopardize their lives. When calamity tears one Wise Man away from the others, the group’s resolve and newfound faith start to crumble. Farther from their goal of returning to Persia than ever before, they encounter Yeshua’s family again. Its ramifications raise the stakes for their cost of belief in the Hebrew God.

Two thousand miles away, Akilah’s estranged cousin, Farzaneh, wrestles with the same as she tries to uncover secrets her husband took to the grave when he embraced the Hebrew faith. As life shifts radically for everyone, each person must risk trusting an unfathomable, sovereign God.

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My thoughts

I enjoyed New Star, the first book in this series, but I enjoyed this novel just as much, if not more. Akilah, Rashidi, and Tallis (the three Wise Men) and their caravan are fleeing from King Herod the Great by taking a different route home from Judea. But this is more than just a story of survival in the wilderness. We also get a glimpse behind the scenes as locations and character points of view alternate throughout. 

This thoroughly researched novel comes alive with vivid characters and imagery. I love the juxtaposition of the various scenes jumping from Farzaneh’s dilemmas to Herod Antipas’s schemes to the Magi caravan’s travels through the desert and Egypt.

Akilah’s journey through the wilderness reflects his faith journey. Having put everything on the line to find this future king of the Jews, he’s also challenged to put his trust in the Jewish God—no easy feat.

According to Akilah, “Ignorance is a safe choice. Knowledge is a dangerous choice.” Yes, but in some cases, either one can be a dangerous choice in this story.

Even though Herod the Great has died, his sons fill his shoes. While Akilah maneuvers through the wilderness, Herod Antipas wants to contest his father’s will after finding out his rule only extends to Galilee. Tallis finds himself in unexpected challenging predicaments. And Farzaneh, back home in Persia, is a woman who holds a grudge against Akilah (her cousin) even though she helped to fund his journey. On her own faith journey, Farzaneh seeks aid and understanding from Elyakim, a Levite her deceased husband knew and who might be able to locate Akilah’s caravan. 

Some scenes are out of chronological order, but it makes sense in the context, and seems like the best order of events.  There are some resolutions at the end, but additional turmoil surfaces, making me want to read Book Three.

I only wish that the scripture references were not footnotes, which briefly take me out of the “narrative dream,” making it seem like a textbook. The verses should be at the end of the book instead. But regardless, the story is gripping and the characters are worth caring about. Once again, this narrative makes me wonder what it might have really been like for the Wise Men of scripture.

Join me for some Q & A with author Lana Christian.

Questions about Survival Secrets

How much of your 4-novel series did you map out ahead of time? Did you always plan for this story of the Wise Men to be spread over four books?

Yes, I’d always planned for the Wise Men’s story to be a four-book series. There are specific reasons for that. My premise for the series is two-fold: (1) when the Wise Men find Yeshua/Jesus, it affects them so profoundly that it radically changes the trajectory of their lives, and (2) because of that, they cross paths with Him more than once during their lifetimes. 

Each encounter, however brief, creates a seismic shift in their lives. So, based on who the Wise Men were and what they did, I identified four times where it would be plausible for them to cross paths with Jesus again—once in each book. Figuring that out required mapping a timeline and doing high-level plotting for the whole series ahead of time.

That’s a lot of planning ahead! What additional research did you do for this particular book as opposed to New Star? 

I introduced a couple new countries in Survival Secrets, which required researching their governments, histories, geographies, cultures, and religious practices. I did more research on the Nabataeans, a people group and kingdom that figure prominently in both books. 

I also did a deep dive into Herod’s divided kingdom after he died. I didn’t know much about the three sons who assumed rule over parts of his kingdom, so I read as much as I could about them to get a feel for their family dynamics. In doing so, I got a better understanding of why Joseph and Mary didn’t return to Bethlehem. 

Finally, I did a deep dive into Herod’s fortress of Machaerus, which figures conspicuously in Survival Secrets. And I literally stumbled over a few bits of information that became crucial to the plot line involving Machaerus. (God gets all the credit for that!)

It’s amazing to think of how many different cultures the Wise Men encountered throughout their journey—which could lead to multiple complications for them. What surprised you the most as you developed this story? (No spoilers, please!)

Farzaneh’s storyline surprised me the most. To explain that, I need to backtrack for a moment. In the early stages of writing New Star, I initially gave her only a few scenes. But as New Star progressed, I saw how much potential her character had, so I crafted more scenes with her in the first book. 

I had always planned that she would get a lot more real estate space in Survival Secrets because I wanted to show how her faith journey differed significantly from what the Wise Men experienced while on the run from Herod and other enemies. 

Even so, every time I wrote one of her scenes, Farzaneh surprised me with her strength, courage, and resilience.

Farzaneh’s character arc definitely adds to the novel’s complexity. Did you enjoy writing from one character’s perspective more than the others? Do you have a preference of writing a male or female point of view?

I don’t prefer writing from either point of view; I just write what the scene requires. In Survival Secrets, some of the lead characters are geographically separated from each other for long stretches of the book. 

For example, Akilah (the lead Wise Man) is 2,000 miles away from his estranged cousin, Farzaneh, until near the end of the book. Akilah is the main character, so almost all his scenes are written from his point of view. Only Farzaneh could tell her faith journey, so I needed to write her scenes from her point of view. 

I wrote all of Herod Antipas’s scenes from his point of view so readers could relate to him—even though they wouldn’t agree with him. Ultimately, multiple points of view were needed to make the story read like I wanted it to.

Seems like the various points of view are well chosen. Which scene was particularly challenging to write, and why? 

Herod Antipas’s scenes were the hardest to write. Crawling around inside the head of any member of Herod’s family is creepy. I needed to depict Antipas as more than just a pale imitation of his father, Herod the Great. 

I had to figure out how Antipas felt about being cheated out of being king when Herod changed his will on his deathbed. How did that influence Antipas’s actions after that? History records he was never as “great” as his father in any way. He accomplished some significant building projects (like Tiberius), but they were modest in scale and strategy compared to his Herod the Great’s brilliance in building. 

Antipas wasn’t as politically astute or cunning like his father. Instead, he overly relied on Rome’s goodwill to help him out of messes. 

So what did he do—or aspire to do—that Herod the Great had never tried? I combed through a lot of history to piece together Antipas’s character profile so I could make his actions believable and relatable. If I did my job right, readers will understand why he does what he does, even if they don’t agree with his reasons for his choices.

Yes, it would be creepy being inside of Herod Antipas’s head. But doing so  definitely added much to your layered story! How did writing Survival Secrets  compare to writing New Star? Easier, harder, different kinds of challenges?

Writing Survival Secrets posed unique writing challenges overall—plus, it was harder to write than New Star.

First, most anyone can write one good book, but every author must face the challenge of “can you do it again?” Think about how many movie sequels were disappointments to you. I didn’t want to disappoint my readership—or myself. The pressure was on!

Second, I wrote New Star very linearly, almost completely in chronological order. Survival Secrets was written the opposite—almost completely out of order. I had written a dirt-ugly draft of it when I was still querying New Star. After I returned to Survival Secrets in earnest, I felt it was unnecessarily long, had too many subplots, and was substandard writing. 

Following the mantra “nothing is sacred,” I kept the first few chapters and the characters’ arcs, then scrapped almost three-fourths of the draft. New scenes came to me in pieces. The book felt like a jigsaw puzzle dumped upside-down on the floor. I knew all the parts were in there somewhere, but it was a challenge to find them. 

I think that’s because the main characters had divergent storylines for a good deal of the book. I finally decided to write each main character’s storyline separately, almost as if I was writing a standalone novella for each of them. Then I color-coded index cards by character, wrote one-sentence summaries of each chapter on their color of card, spread everything on the floor, and figured out how many chapters of each character’s story I should tell before switching gears. 

Laura, I don’t know if you remember, but the index cards were your suggestion. They were a lifesaver! Not only did they help me visualize how to interweave the story lines, they also helped me double-check my timeline and ensured that all the storylines came together at the end.

I’m glad the index cards help with overcoming the jigsaw puzzle approach! Does your novel contain any symbolism or “Easter eggs” readers should look for?

Yes, Survival Secrets contains both. I’m big on doing word origin studies when I pick my characters’ names. so one Easter egg is the Wise Men’s names. Their names have been lost to history, but I researched what names were in use in their respective homelands in the early first century and picked names that mean “wise” in their first language. 

Only one other person in the series has a name that means “wise,” so I’ll let you read the series to figure out who that is.

As far as symbolism goes, certain articles of the Magi’s clothing and accessories symbolically represent something, as do Akilah’s navigation instruments. Water has a double entendre in the book as both a life-giving force and a barrier.

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Back to Laura . . . On a similar note . . . 

If you like dual timeline fiction about family dynamics in a small town Midwest (Wisconsin) setting, try The Broken Weathervane (launched September 2). Two co-workers seek the same information. One wants to publish it; the other has good reasons to keep it hidden. The timeline alternates between 2015 and the 1950s. Check out the reviews and book trailer here.

If you like historical fiction, you might enjoy A Hundred Magical Reasons (launched January 2025). This story spotlights L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, his friendship with a young girl, and his impact through the decades. Set in Holland, Michigan, this dual timeline novel alternates between 1980 and the early 1900s. Read more and watch the book trailer here. 

If you like Southern fiction and small town/rural stories about family dynamics and secrets, you might enjoy my novel All That Is Hidden. Set near North Carolina’s Smoky Mountains in 1968, the story spotlights the bond of family and the connections of a tight-knit community. Northern exploitation threatens as a father’s hidden past catches up to him and tests family ties. Learn more and watch the trailer here.

All That Is Hidden is now an audiobook! 

I invite you to join my monthly newsletter for writing updates, freebies, and giveaways. Sign up and I’ll send you 7 Oz-inspired recipes: A-Taste-Of-Oz-Cookbook-Sampler.com

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Lana Christian bio

Lana Christian is an award-winning author in business and creative writing. In the corporate world she won numerous APEX awards for her newsletters and training materials. In creative writing, she has won seven faith-based writing awards, including a Pencraft Award in January 2025. Lana believes most problems can be solved with common sense, hiking, or chai tea–but all problems can be solved with God. Connect with her on Facebook, X (Twitter) at @LanaCwrites, or her website. Her website includes her devotional blog, “Encouragement from Living History.” Receive her free newsletter, early access to blogs, book progress news, and a free e-short: lanachristian.com/contact/.

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Join me next time for a visit with author Linda Dindzans.

Meanwhile, have you read any Christmas-themed novels or either of Lana’s books? Answer in the comments below.

Ever reading,

Laura

Sign up for my monthly newsletter and receive the 7 free Oz-inspired recipes: A-Taste-Of-Oz-Cookbook-Sampler.com