Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Angel Lore: part 1 by Toi Thomas #OurAuthorGang

from Pinterest via Toyas Tales: " I'll Be Watching You " by Beata Belanszky-Demko. Acrylic on Canvas. 
Here are a few things to know about me. I’m a huge Batman fan, I adore classic Betty Boop, and I love angels and angel lore. When I first started writing my book Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel, I knew I’d need more than my geek-girl fascination with angels to help me flesh out the characters of this story. I didn’t know exactly how my story and the characters would all congregate, after piecing together a reoccurring dream of a man who turns into an angel, but I was ready to take on this exciting research challenge. 

I’ll tell you, my first mistake was typing the word ‘angel’ into a Google search. You’d think I’d never done research before. I quickly began to conduct a different kind of search. I went to Amazon.com and searched for books on angels and angel lore. That too was a grueling process of elimination, but I soon found the book that suited my needs, Angels A to Z. With this new reference tool in hand, I now had some focus and direction for my research. 

Being only a fan of angel lore and a novice student of Angelology, I’m not going to try to wow you with everything I’ve learned, however, I will share some of the most interesting things I’ve come across. Today I’ll share one for each letter from A to E.

Angelolatry is what some might easily derive from its name, the worship of angels. 

The Buddhist faith was split at one point, developing the Theravada and Mahayana sects with the latter nurturing the idea of angel-like beings, the bodhisattva

While many of us in modern, western civilization think of Cherubim as chubby, winged babies, ancient scholars describe them as large winged creatures with animal bodies and human heads. The evolution of how they ended up on holiday greeting cards is a story for another day. 

Devas are either demigod of the Hinde and Buddhists religions or angel-like beings part of the New Age metaphysical culture. 

Enochian Magic is something any fan of the show, Supernaturalalready knows about, but they may not realize that the show didn’t make it up. It is the teachings of angelic magic executed in a special angel language.  

Well, I hope you found that interesting. I’ll be sharing more angel lore with you down the road. If you too have an appreciation for angels and angel-like beings, you may want to enter my giveaway.


Also, while you’re at it, why not try 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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Erika M Szabo via Google+

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Erika M Szabo

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Very interesting post Toi! To be honest, I never knew Angelology existed. I learned a lot of things from your post and looking forward to part 2
 
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Ruth de Jauregui via Google+

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Toi Thomas shares information on angels and the inspiration for her books.
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Ruth de Jauregui

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Wow! I never even considered that there was so much information on angels!! Fascinating premise for your books and great info on angel lore.
 
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Joe Bonadonna via Google+

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Today on A Small Gang of Authors, Toinette Thomas​ talks about doing research into angels, angel lord, and how they play a huge role in her novels.
 
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Joe Bonadonna

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Fascinating stuff, Toi. I have some angel cards around here, somewhere, and growing up in the Catholic faith, angels were a big part of my life, and still are. I pretty much based a whole fictional religion around angels for one of my books. Looking forward to more of your posts.
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That sounds really cool. I wasn't raised Catholic but my father was. I think he has a few angel cards; at least that's what I think they are. They could be saints. I should ask him one day. I too am thinking of more ways to incorporate angels into new stories.
 
+Toi Thomas -- I've seen saint cards, too. I think they, like angels cards, are used a lot like Tarot cards, in some ways. The whole realm and hierarchy of angels intrigues me, and I should do more research, too.

Rick Haynes

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Very interesting. Thank for posting.
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Grace Au

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Angels are one of my passions, too. Have made many studies and research papers on them. Each is as individual as we are...each having their own purpose and gift to share with those who call upon them. Thanks for sharing...time to get out my Angels 101 book again.
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Yes, working on this blog series has renewed my interest. I'm thinking of going back over some of my old minor research notes to compare it with what I'd find now.

Juneta Key

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
I'm a Supernatural fan and interested in angel lore for writing too as they play a part in my current work. <a href="https://www.junetakey.com/"> Juneta @ Writer's Gambit </a>
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That's so cool. I was a littel worried. I know not everything is for everyone, but I'm glad that I've found others with interest in angels.

Mary Anne Yarde

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Fascinating! Looking forward to part 2!
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Thank you.

Rich Feitelberg via Google+

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Rich Feitelberg

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Interesting. One of the main characters in my fantasy series, the Aglaril Cycle, is a follower of St. Michael, which is the archangel Michael. Such beings don't appear in my stories, anymore than God does, but there's a connection there. Perhaps one day I'll explore it.
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I like the sound of that. In my next ECS installment I'll be briefly introducing my version of the archangel Michael and will admit that it's a bit daunting. It's a challenge I look forward to, though.

Toi Thomas

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Today I share some of my fascination with angels and how they've inspired my writing.
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Tuesday, October 17, 2017

All in the Day's Work #OurAuthorGang

All in the day's work
by
Erika M Szabo


Today I'll share a story that happened not too long ago...

I do eBook and print formatting for GBBP for the authors who don't have the time to learn how to do it or don't have the time to format the books themselves, therefore, they have to rely on services to have their books correctly formatted.

I want to share this very interesting conversation with an author that got my head spinning. I got a message from her, "I heard from author friends that you format books. I need my book formatted to be acceptable by Createspace and Amazon. Can you do it?"

I replied, "Yes, I can."

Her reply, "Oh, good! Give me your email and I'll send you my book. I want the print 5x8 size."

Ding-ding the bell went off in my head, "Okay, we will discuss the details after you order the formatting service. Here is the link to the page: http://www.goldenboxbooks.com/book-formatting.html"

She sent me another message shortly after, "I was under the impression that you format books for free for author friends."

"Formatting a book is tedious work, I don't do it for free."

"Okay, but my eBook was formatted already, I paid $149 for a company to do that, so you should give me a discount because it had been formatted already."

Me, "Then why do you need formatting?"

"Because Smashwords keeps sending me emails about errors and they keep rejecting my book."

"Well, then have the company that formatted your book correct the errors, it must be included in their price."

"Okay, I'll be honest with you, they did correct it and it was accepted, but after I downloaded the book from Amazon and read it, I found a lot of mistakes, and then I realized that I sent them the wrong, unedited file, so there were hundreds of mistakes. I corrected the mistakes in the original file but now the company wants me to pay the same price for formatting that I paid already."

Me, "Sounds legitimate to me, because they have to do the work again."

"That's not right, they should have done it for free, but anyhow, can you at least give me a discount?"

"Usually GBBP gives a discount if the author has more than one book to format, but how much discount you have in mind?"

"I'm thinking half price, at least."

"Well, if you looked at the prices, you must have noticed that you're getting less than half price already compared to what you have paid for that company."

"No, I meant half off of your price!"

I wrote back, "Sorry, I cannot do that. Formatting a book  is tedious work but if you want to save money, you can download formatting guides and learn how to do it yourself."

"Okay, I'll find someone else to do it. Goodbye."

Me, feeling much relief, "Sure, no problem. Good luck with your book."

Respecting the work of others and not trying to take advantage of others are human values, which, unfortunately, are not possessed by everyone.

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