Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Angel Lore: part 2 by Toi Thomas #OurAuthorGang

from Pinterest via Flickriver: VNV Nation - Darkangel
Today, in part 2 of my Angel Lore series, I’ll be sharing more angel knowledge with you from the letters F – J, as I work my way through the alphabet (see part 1 here). But first...

The story within my Eternal Curse Series started from a dream I had about a gray man who later turned into an angel. The crazy thing about it is, I don't actually believe people can become angels. When I started writing the first installment of the series, EC: Giovanni's Angel, I knew I'd have to take my personal beliefs and mash them up with 'what ifs' and influences from other lores to make up the compelling story I felt developing in my mind.

Later, I tried to think back to my childhood and remember where the fascination with angels started. I don't recall thinking I had a guardian angel growing up, at least, not until I was a preteen. Growing up in a large family and being around babies all the time, I remember someone telling me that the reason babies often stared into space and giggled at nothing was because they were innocent enough to see the angels and that the angels were playing with them.

To many people, this scenario is a far out idea. To think that our perception and maturity affects our literal ability to see what's around us and the notion that angels are among us is a lot to accept. I would learn later in life that my notions and ideals of angels were not the norm around the world. Not everyone believed what I believed, so that made me wonder even more.

Do people who don't believe in angels lose their angels or do they never have them to begin with? What's the point of having a guardian angel if you can't interact with them? Perhaps, there isn't just one angel to watch over just one person; maybe it's more of a grouping effort. Perhaps one angel watches over several people because divine power allows them to multitask at a measure that is beyond human understanding.

These and so many more questions fuel my fascination with angels, and these are only the questions I have from a Judeo-Christian point of view. There are so many more to consider, but you'll have to wait till part three to discuss some of my other queries... On to the list.

The Fall, has one of three distinct meanings in relation to angels, some more popular than others, but here they are. 1) The Fall of Lucifer from grace/Heaven. 2) The Fall of Angels/The Sons of God who took human wives against God's will. 3) The Fall of man/humanity when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit (tempted by Satan in the form of a serpent).

The idea of a guardian spirit/angel dates back to the beginning of time, long before it was fully established as a popular Christian idea. In ancient Mesopotamia, massar sulmi, were the personal gods that looked after individuals. An, almost, ancient theologian named Origen can be credited for all those cartoons of little angels and devils on either side of a characters aiding them with the decision to do the right thing or be bad.

Did you know there is a hierarchy of angels? Well, actually, there are several, but the Dionysian one is the most popular. This doesn't necessarily mean that not all angels are created equal in value, but it does define the complexity of each type of angel. I guess historians and theologians figured that if animals and plants were going to be categorized, so should the greater/higher beings leading right up to God. Plus, this idea reflects the social or caste systems of many monotheistic religions where not all gods are created equal.

Here's a bit of name play for those not familiar with bible stories. Jacob and Israel are one in the same, but to explain why here would take too long. There's a bunch of Greek and Hebrew translations involved along with a family saga, a 'calling' from God, and a name change. In any case, I mention it here because aside from it being the name of a country, it's also the name of an archangel. Israel is the angel of praise or the "one who calls the angels to praise", also known as Uriel.

Speaking of Jacob; have you ever heard of a Jacob's Ladder? Aside from being a cool science experiment, it started out as a vision of angels ascending and descending from Heaven, which Jacob had on his way to fulfill is destiny...

Well, that's all I have for today. Stick around this blog so you don't miss part 3 down the road.

Be sure to check out my Eternal Curse Series?

Book 1:
Giovanni is a creature out of time. Mira is a doctor trying to classify him. Beauty and the Beast meet Jekyll and Hyde in this paranormal tale with romantic and biblical influences.


Book 2:
A tale for fathers, sons, and daughters, this epic saga touches the past and future. The story of Giovanni will bring you to tears as loss and duty blur the lines of hope for what is to come.

The Eternal Curse series was my first book and series I ever wrote and to know that someone liked it meant the world to me. It's currently unavailable pending a rewrite in order to align it with new developments in the 3rd installment. If you'd like to read the first two books and offer me your feedback, please consider joining my email list to receive a free digital copy. 

Find out more about me, my work, and my inspiration at the following links:

Amazon | Goodreads The ToiBox of Words | YouTube | See a list of my other posts here.

#cursescanbebroken, #angels, #wings, #Pinterest
COMMENTS

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Nikki McDonagh

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Dreams as inspiration for stories! Fabulous. I wish I could remember mine in such detail.
 
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Grace Au

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Thanks for sharing, Toi. I have a fascination with angels, too.
 
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Joe Bonadonna via Google+

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Wednesday on A Small Gang of Authors, Toinette Thomas​ -- author of the "Eternal Curse" series -- continues with part of her article on Guardian Angels, the Hierarchy of Angels, and the 3 aspects of The Fall from Grace. Please, check it out. Thanks!
 
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Joe Bonadonna

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
This is great, Toi! I liked you're discussing of Guardian Angels, and especially the hierarchy and the 3 aspects of The Fall. I am so looking forward to part three.
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Toi Thomas

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
I'm so happy to continue my exploration of angel lore, sharing some of the cool things I've learned in part of this series.
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Ruth de Jauregui via Google+

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
More on angles and the inspiration for her book, from Toi Thomas.
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Ruth de Jauregui

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Oh that is fascinating. And I do believe in guardian angels -- mine probably has migraines. Or maybe there's a rotation so they don't get burnt out because Lord knows I've had some adventures along the way...
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I hadn't considered the rotation theory. I like it!

Mary Anne Yarde

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
I love your posts, Toi!
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Thank you. I try to make them a mix of facts and my personal rants... I mean my geekdom. ;)

Erika M Szabo

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Great post! I could never be sure if I have a guardian angel or not, but I had a few events in my life that made me a believer. One morning everything that morning delayed me leaving for work such as my dog pooping on the carpet which needed cleaning up, I spilled coffee on my uniform and had to change, so I left the house 20 minutes later than usual. Two miles from my house there was an accident which claimed a driver's and a passenger's lives and two people were critically injured. The EMT I knew said that accident happened 20 minutes before. Another time I was at work and the supervisor noticed that I didn't have my badge on. I remembered putting it on the dashboard, so I headed out to the parking lot to get it. Before I reached the door, a patient's cardiac monitor beeped and I went to check. A few minutes later I went out. There was a thunder storm and I saw my Subaru from the door with a large tree branch sticking out the windshield on the driver side. Had I been in the car looking for my badge, the branch would have gone through my chest. Coincidences or my guardian angel watching over me? Who knows...
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I love stories like this. It really makes you question the actions we take in life and all the things that happen around us that could change our fate at any moment.

Rich Feitelberg via Google+

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
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Rich Feitelberg

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Did you happen to see the movie Jacob's Ladder? Has some stark images in it.

And it doesn't matter if others believe what you believe. That's why diversity is cool. I can appreciate your beliefs even if I don't share and vice versa.
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I have not seen Jacob's Ladder, but I have heard of it. And you are right about diversity. Sometimes the thing I enjoy most about a story is seeing someone else's beliefs or point of view on a particular matter that is different than mine. For me, it's not about trying to have the same opinion or change people's minds, it's about being exposed to a different mind set and appreciating that difference whether I agree or not. I have so many ideas floating around in my head that I never would have had, had I not been exposed to different social, cultural, and even religious influences.

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Our Halloween Stories #OurAuthorGang

Halloween stories by the Author Gang



Erika M. Szabo

My first Halloween in the US was a memorable one. I grew up in Europe where we celebrated all Saints day November 1st when the graves are cleaned, the gravestones are washed and adorned with flowers and wreaths. In the evening people gather at the graves, they light candles, pray for the dead and share precious memories about their lost loved ones.

Foto credit to www.dailynewshungary.com

On Halloween day the building where I used to live was buzzing with excitement. The doorman decorated the lobby and I got enough candy for trick or treaters to feed an army. In late afternoon the kids started ringing the doorbells demanding treats, so I was excited when the first trick or treater rang mine. I opened the door and saw an adorable little girl in pink tutu smiling at me and holding her pumpkin basket for treat. I held the candy bowl and let her choose when I noticed black, furry legs behind her. I lifted my eyes and scanned the hairy torso and my eyes reached all the way up around six feet a huge gorilla head.


The head bobbed and said, “Trick or treat!” in a deep voice. My stomach sank and I almost fainted. The gorilla sensing my distress reached up and took his head off, which instead of easing my distress added to it, revealing a handsome man behind the mask. He apologized and grabbing the hand of the little girl, they quickly left. After that when I heard the doorbell I looked out the peephole before I opened the door.


Rich Feitelberg

When I was a boy, growing up in a neighborhood of Boston, I dressed for Halloween as Spiderman and went out to collect candy. I went alone because I was old enough and times were different then. There was *much* less violence in the city. 

On the way home, I was stopped by a man dressed in a policeman’s uniform who asked me all kinds of questions about what I was up to. I was scared, to say the least, but explained that I was on my way home after trick-or-treating. He told me to get home because it wasn’t safe on the street alone. There were reports of mischievous pranks in this area.

He let me go, and I hurried home. I said nothing of this to anyone when I arrived. Later in the evening, I heard from my brothers there was a kid dressed in a police costume stopping children and taking their candy as punishment for some illegal activity. I felt like a fool because that was obviously who I had spoken to. He didn’t get my candy but I should’ve have known from the old style of the uniform, he wasn’t a real policeman.
That’s my one Halloween story.


Toi Thomas

Aside from the one time I dressed as a pumpkin for a Homecoming parade near Halloween, I always dressed as a black cat. The thing is, though, my family didn’t really celebrate Halloween. Often my mom would have to chaperone a school dance, so she’d dress up me and my sister and we’d tag along. I have many fond memories of dancing with middle and high schoolers who thought I was just adorable. Fast forward a few years to college and my black cat on the frat house dance floor wasn’t exactly adorable; the words sensual come to mind… Ah, the days of being young and sexy. I’d say the scariest time I’ve actually had on Halloween was when the cops broke up one of those parties and I was the token sober girl who kept the hosts out of jail… Yolo, as they say. 



Mary Anne Yarde

My parents were not big on Halloween. My mum like carving various root vegetables — swedes and turnips were a favourite for some reasons! So we always had a couple of Jack-O'-Lanterns. Living in the country, there wasn't much call for trick-or-treating. I only went trick-or-treating once, and that was when I was at my aunt's house. I didn't have a costume, so she cut some holes in a sheet, and I became a ghost!


Grace Augustine

(Photo courtesy of Pinterest)

As a child, I joined my neighborhood friends going door to door for candy on Halloween. It was the mid 60’s and northern Montana...you didn’t have to worry about all of the things today’s society brings to our children. We’d have Halloween parties at school, usually on the Friday afternoon before the holiday. We’d spend weeks planning what we were going to “be.”  More times than not I had a mask of some kind from the Ben Franklin store.

When I had children of my own in the early to mid 80’s, I dressed up and took them around the neighborhood. After we were finished, the boys would get into their pajamas and gather around the table as we dumped all the candy out and sorted it. It worked out great because each like different candy. What they didn’t like was given to us. 

(photo courtesy of history.com)

When my boys were 7 and 4 they decided it would be much more fun to stay at home and hand out the candy. They thought it was dumb to go begging door to door for something we could buy at the store.


Ruth de Jauregui

Halloween brings back memories of homemade popcorn balls, the fire crackling in the fireplace, a cold night and the few houses where we were allowed to trick-or-treat. Costumes were a mostly a plastic mask I couldn’t see out of or a sheet (or both) and a pillowcase for the treats. Flashlights carved streaks through the dark and children laughed as they trooped from one house to the next. And when we got home, chilled to the bone, hot chocolate, and a treat or two doled out by Mom. 


Joe Bonadonna

Halloween in Chicago, when I was a kid, was all-out warfare between the gangs hanging on different corners, and in different neighborhoods. But it was all in fun. Eggs, tomatoes, shaving cream, soap, toilet paper, Nair, cans of black spray paint . . . these were our weapons. When I was in high school, eggs were about 35-cents a dozen -- and we bought a lot! We’d buy them weeks in advance and keep them in very warm places. Every other corner in my Italian neighborhood had small grocery stores, and bushels of all kinds of vegetables were set out on the sidewalk. We’d help the owners carry the bushels in and out of their stores, get paid like 50-cents a week, and use that money to buy eggs and other things. In exchange for also making sure no damage would hit those stores on Halloween, the owners would save up all the rotten tomatoes for us. In high school, one guy’s father owned a butcher’s shop, and he had a small panel truck with no side windows in the back, and no business name on the truck at all. It was the perfect “troop transport.” We’d load that truck with bushels of rotten tomatoes and dozens of rotten eggs, not to mention shaving cream, soap, spray paint, and Nair. Then we’d put on these butcher’s aprons and smocks, drive all over the west side of Chicago, and wherever we saw other teenagers hanging out on the streets, we stopped the van, got out, and attacked. The Nair was saved for those we had a grudge against: we’d rub it in their hair, and you all know what Nair does. No doubt you also know what the soap, shaving cream, and toilet paper were for. As for the black spray paint? Wherever we saw a police car parked outside a restaurant and the cops eating dinner inside, we sprayed the windshields and back windows of the squads with black paint. We never got caught. Not even when we’d slash their tires. We didn’t much care for the police when we were kids: didn’t trust them. Still don’t. Ah, good Halloween memories. And NO one ever got hurt! 


COMMENTS

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Rich Feitelberg

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Actually, I'm wrong, I have another Halloween story but it's about our house getting egged. Didn't think that was the one to share.
 
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Rich Feitelberg via Google+

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
 
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Ruth de Jauregui via Google+

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Ahhh, the Halloween memories!!!
 
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Toi Thomas

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
These stories are so great. Happy Halloween everyone!
 
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Mary Anne Yarde

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
I love reading all these stories!
 
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Joe Bonadonna via Google+

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Happy Halloween! Today A Small Gang of Authors brings you true stories and anecdotes about our own fondest Halloween memories. Check us out!
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Erika M Szabo

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Joe I'm glad I didn't live in your neighborhood in Chicago when I was a kid :)
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Oh, you would have had fun. We even threw a costume party now and then. Thanks for posting this for me.

Erika M Szabo via Google+

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Grace Au via Google+

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Monday, October 30, 2017

Color your world with diversity – Part Three

By Ruth de Jauregui



Today, I'd like to talk about adding diversity to your world. First, let me say that I don't expect any writer to change any character, especially established characters, to a person of Color. You may not be comfortable writing characters outside of your own life experiences. There is nothing wrong with that -- there's much to be said about writing what you know.

What I'd like to point out is that we don't live in a vacuum. When I lived in the San Francisco East Bay and out in West Sacramento, I was surrounded by all kinds of people. Native American, Latinx, Black, Asian, Sikh, Ukrainian, gay ― name a race/color/ethnicity/gender/sexuality/religion and I probably encountered someone of that group on a regular basis while I was out and about.

My first novel, a work in progress, is also set in a diverse world. Since my majors were fine and commercial art, color and form are important elements in my world, and that includes the people who reside there. Sacramento is diverse and so is the society that Bitter, my main character, moves through. The tamale man stops by to sell her a dozen tamales, her taxi driver is Sikh and the neighbors play music with a heavy bass rhythm. As a woman of Color, she also faces microaggressions both at work and off-duty based on her sex, age and color.

Small descriptive elements, such as the cop taking statements after a fender bender, add to the story and enhance the flow of the scene:

The blue taking statements looked up. "Out of the street and away from the accident." He pointed at the curb across the street. "You can film from there." 

"You can't―"

He straightened to his full height and looked down at the reporter. Sweat glistened on the blue-black highlights of his bald head. "Yes, I can. You can get out of the street and film from over there. Nobody is infringing on your right to report the news, so get over there before I have to notice you disobeying a lawful order."

The cameraman stepped back as the blue loomed over the pair. 

"To the curb. I'm sure there's witnesses you can interview while we take care of the accident."

"I want to know your name and badge number," the reporter blustered. Bitter noticed that his bald spot was turning pinker from rage or sunburn, she couldn’t tell which. She hadn't noticed it during his reports on the evening news.

So with those few words, we know that the officer is tall, dark complected, bald and not taking any lip from the reporter. We can also ascertain that the reporter is probably white, starting to lose his hair and hot-tempered. I say "probably white" because race and color are not always the same thing…

While I encourage adding diversity by peopling your world with the regular folks you meet while you're out and about in your real life, be careful to avoid stereotyping. For example, take a look at the original Hardy Boys series. The bad guys were all too often "swarthy" IE not white and people of color (POC) are portrayed in racist and ethnic stereotypes. That's not a trope I want to encourage.

Next time, I'll share the ways some of my favorite authors have introduced their characters as POC without dipping into the usual "mirror, mirror, on the wall" techniques.

My lovely daughter -- and the face of Bitter.


http://www.ruthdj.weebly.com

#ASmallGangOfAuthors  #Bitter  #CrimeMeetsUrbanFantasy #DiversityMatters

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