This Sunday, Christian families around the world will gather together and celebrate Easter. And while many focus on the story that is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Cranston resident Richard Sorensen focuses on a different story in his two-part book series, the second of which will be released within the next month.

Book One, titled “Unholy Grail,” tells the story of Judas Iscariot – the apostle that betrayed Jesus – and his relationship with Mary Magdalene. Book Two, titled “The Heir of Judas Iscariot and Mary Magdalene,” is set in contemporary times and tells the story of the descendant of Judas and Mary who ends up becoming a powerful political figure.

“I was inspired to write ‘Unholy Grail’ by the same book that inspired Dan Brown to write ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ namely, ‘Holy Blood, Holy Grail,’” Sorensen said.

He says the story is not only about a “quest for God and immortality,” but also about “passion, desire, romance, sexuality, the process of corruption and demonology.”

He calls Book Two “an apocalyptic novel about romance, betrayal, politics, secret societies and ultimate power.”

Sorensen was born in Minneapolis, Minn. to Danish immigrants. As a young child, he was never interested in history or current events.

When he read J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy in seventh grade, however, he became fascinated with the past. “How did people live, what did they think about, and why did they do what they did?”

Sorensen also hated writing as a kid. His mother, a college professor, constantly forced it on him.

“But I came to love it as I grew older. Writing to me is a personal catharsis – a way of expressing my deepest feelings and longings,” he said.

Sorensen calls writing his passion, but his career is in software engineering.

“In college I was fascinated with memory systems and brain function, but also in logic and software development,” he said.

Sorensen graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois in 1973 with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology. He also received a Master of Science degree in Internet engineering from Marlboro College in 2002.

Along with running a software consulting business, Sorensen also volunteers at Cranston Christian Fellowship, acting as storyteller for kids.

“Storytelling has increasingly become my passion,” he said. “Stories, either literary or cinematic, to me are the most powerful means of communicating ideas. People don’t remember speeches or sermons – they remember stories.”

He says that if readers could take away one thing from his writing, he would want it to be the “power of story.”

Sorensen doesn’t have any definite plans for additional novels at present, but he continues to write essays for both his personal blog site, www.richardsorensen.com, and the website for “Unholy Grail,” (which is available to purchase on Amazon), www.unholygrail.net. He is also in the process of making movie clips for “Unholy Grail.”