Donegal Studio presents · Forthcoming novel
The Songs of Sabbath
Before Eden, heaven was already singing.
Gabriel missed his entrance. It had never happened before. Not once.
Original artwork · Donegal Studio
First official excerpt ·
A story that began before the first sunrise.
What if the story of Sabbath began long before the first sunrise on Earth? And what if the first disturbance in heaven’s magnificent song was almost too small to notice?
The Songs of Sabbath opens not in Eden, nor at Mount Sinai, but in heaven itself—where Gabriel has missed a beat and Lucifer, beloved and trusted, quietly catches it.
Across centuries, angels, patriarchs, prophets, ordinary families and followers of Christ carry a story of creation, rebellion, redemption, worship and remembrance. Their lives seem far apart. Their songs are not.
Rooted in Scripture and told through sacred literary imagination, the forthcoming novel invites readers into the human story behind an ancient invitation: remember.
From the opening chapter
The First Song
Chapter One · An official preview from The Songs of Sabbath
Gabriel missed his entrance.
It had never happened before.
Not once.
Lucifer caught it without turning his head.
His left hand rose by less than the width of a finger, held for the smallest fraction of a measure, and the company beneath Gabriel’s direction waited.
One beat.
Then Lucifer released them.
Their voices entered exactly where they should have.
The mistake vanished beneath ten thousand others.
Gabriel exhaled.
Across the great court, Raphael was grinning at him.
Gabriel ignored him.
Raphael widened the grin.
Lucifer continued as though nothing had happened.
Of course he did.
That was why they loved singing under him.
Lucifer never humiliated anyone.
He could have stopped the entire assembly with a glance. He could have made Gabriel’s missed entrance apparent to every order gathered before the throne.
Instead, he had simply repaired it.
The song continued.
Gabriel found his place again.
The voices under him rose through the immense brightness of the court and joined the greater harmony already moving toward the throne.
Heaven did not echo.
Echo was something empty places did.
Heaven answered.
✦
Excerpt from the forthcoming novel The Songs of Sabbath by William Ochs. © 2026 William Ochs. All rights reserved.
The song continues
Some stories begin with a question.
This one begins with a missed note.
Some are joyful. Some are heartbreaking. And across the centuries, something older than humanity keeps calling its children home.
Forthcoming from Donegal Studio · Release details to follow