From the Sons of God and the Daughters of Man – An Introduction to the Half-Angel, Nephilim.

Anyone that’s read my post, know that I love all things, weird, otherworldly, and paranormal.  Most of the topics of my post are vampires, werewolves, and faeries.  Well, today you’re in for a shocker-I’m not writing about any one of thee above (vampires, werewolves, and faeries, that is).  Yes people; this kid is no one trick pony.  Today, my subject of choice is of a divine nature.

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them.  That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.  And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.  There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.  Genesis6:1-4

And such is the bible’s first description of the Nephilim; the giant, half-human offspring of angels.  While there is mention of the divine offspring in the Torah as well, no religious text speaks more of the doomed race, than The Book of Enoch.  While most Christian groups don’t consider the text religious canon, The Book of Enoch, is composed of five sections.  The first two sections, The Book of the Watchers and The Book of Parables of Enoch, speak of the Angels, Fallen Angels, and the Nephilim.

I first became interested in nephilim after watching an episode of the X-Files, entitled All Souls.  In the episode, Mulder and Skully are tasked with finding the cause of death of a young girl, by Skully’s priest.  The girl’s body is found with her eyes burned out of her head, and herhands upturned towards the heavens.

She turns out to be a one of a set of quadruplets, and Skully finds herself racing against time, to find the other sisters and prevent their deaths at the hands of a Dark Figure.  This figure is shown to have wings and the faces of a lion, satyr, and a fierce bird.  I won’t give an entire synopsis for the episode, but it sparked my fascination with the subject.

My fascination with angels and the nephilim, grew by leaps and bounds with the each new release of the Prophecy film series.  If you haven’t seen the first three movies, with the wonderful Christopher Walkens, do yourself a favor and check them out today.  Walkens plays the Archangel, Gabriel, and his mission goes from trying to destroy mankind, in the first movie, to trying to prevent the birth of a nephilim, in the second movie, and helping prevent said nephilim’s death, in the third installment.

The icing on the cake was the Fox Family adaption of The Fallen, series of novels by, Thomas E. Sniegoski.  In the mini-series, Paul Wesley, plays Aaron Corbett, a young man that learnshe’s a nephilim, and fated to redeem fallen angels so that they can return to heaven.

After Fallen aired, I began researching the subject in earnest.  My research and captivation with angels and nephilim, has manifested itself into my first young adult title, UnBound: Battle of the Half-Angels.

Here’s a small synopsis:

In the days of old, nephillim walked the earth. Half-human and half-angel, their existence is forbidden; a crime so severe that it caused angels to fall from the heavens. After the Great Flood, any remaining nephillim were ordered bound, stripped of their powers.

But Lucifer and his Fallen have broken divine rules, one too many times. Now heaven’s misfits, the nephillim, may be mankind’s only hope at surviving the coming battle between the Light and the Dark.

UnBound: Battle of the Half Angels, will be released soon from Copperhill Media.  But until then, be sure to check back regularly for new post on the fascinating subject.  And check out the trailer below.  As always, you can read more about my work from my post here or at http://frogenyozurt.com/, or by checking out my website, http://www.ronniemassey.com/.

Faeries…fairy’s…faery…fae. No matter how you spell it, or what you call ‘em, I’ve got ‘em for you. (originally posted at Frogenyozurt.com)

Alright, I know I’m jumping the gun a little, as the first book in my Triad series, The Road To Was, has not been released; but I’m going to post the prologue to The Land of Not.  The Land of Not is the sequel to The Road To Was, and, seeing as how I’m still waiting to get Black Moon Rising back from the editor,  I’m ready to throw myself into writing something new.  The Land of Not began screaming at me, “Pick Me!”  So, I’m rolling with it.

The Road To Was and The Land of Not are both YA DarkWorld titles, and like other DarkWorld stories, are spin-offs of Crimson Dawn: Darklife Saga Bk I.  Once I got done with Crimson Dawn and read over it, the time that the two main characters, Valeria and Irulan, spent in the FaeLands, began to stand out.  I am in love with mythology and folklore, and because of Laurell K Hamilton, became aware of the Sidhe of Irish and Scottish mythology.  I’ve read more books dealing with the Fae since then, and it’s only increased my fascination with the subject.  The Sidhe aren’t your run of the mill, sprite sized, butterfly winged faeries, and I totally dig that.  Val and Ire’s jaunt into Fae territory was the perfect starting point for me to began building my own version of the Fae.

After finishing the first draft of Ascension, my werewolf novel, I wanted to do another young adult title.  It just so happened to be November; time for NANOWRIMO (NationalNovel Writing Month), and I wanted to challenge myself to write a complete novel in a month.  The timing was perfect.  Everything came together and The Road To Was, was birthed in 29 days.

With The Road To Was, I was able to delve into the FaeLands, Irulan’s birthplace, and begin building the magical, steampunk, world of my imagination.  It’s sitting on the shelf now, waiting for me to come back to it and finish up the re-writes and editing.  Until I get ready to bring those characters to the masses, I’m going to begin working on the sequel.

The Land of Not is a YA DarkWorld title.  While none of the Darkworld characters that readers are familiar with, make an appearance in The Road To Was, Valeria, my smart-mouthed vampire from Crimson Dawn, is making one in the second book of my Triad Series.  She’s got a pretty important role to play when it comes to aiding the heroine of the story.

I’m posting the prologue because I’m looking for a little feedback.  Let me know what you think before I get too far into the story.  Would you want to continue reading after finishing the prologue?  Tell me what I need to change.

So without further ado, here it is people.  Remember to let me know what you think.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Sometimes you don't realize something is happening until someone points it out to you.  As a writer, you may not realize how much you use a particular word or phrase, until someone sit's you down and points it out.  Who might that someone be?  Why an editor of course.  Why am I mentioning editors?  Because my grammar leaves a lot to be desired. 

As a writer, it almost leaves a bad taste in my mouth to admit that, but I am.  I never suffer from a lack of ideas.  My imagination is wonderful.  New ideas pop into my head all the time.  Sometimes new ideas and story lines  railroad whatever story I'm working on at the moment; forcing me to pay attention to them.  I often have to put aside my work and jot down a line or two, or maybe an outline.  Nope, no problems in the idea department.  But my grammar...yeah, my grammar is horrible and I own that fact.  

Where my imagination, I feel, is my biggest strength, self editing is my biggest weakness as a writer.  While I personally would rather read a great story with a few mistakes in it, rather than one with perfect punctuation, but a weak story line; not all readers feel the same.  Believe me, this is a fact that I have learned.  Faerie Wishes and Jaguar Kisses got reamed by an amazon reader for poor editing.  Aside from a lot of readers,most publishers and agents, don't share my sentiments either.  If you're going to query your work, you'd best put your best foot forward, because most publishers and agents will turn away a manuscript that is poorly edited. And guess what, the spell/ grammar checker does not qualify as an editor.  (I was told this, so I'm passing it along)  If you're a writer that is either querying or self-publishing, and remember nothing else as you research the publishing industry, remember to always have your work edited.  Even if you're grammatical skills are Jedi-Master level, always have a fresh set of eyes go over your work.

For many of my stories, I'd get one of my sisters to edit them for me.  But now that two of them have graduated college and entered the workforce, they don't have the time to dedicate to editing my work anymore.  For a long time I put off finding someone to edit.  Part of it was hesitation with trusting an outsider with my work and part of it was finding someone that I could afford.

Lucky for me I found Bev Harrison, or rather she found me.  Bev took on the task of editing Faerie Wishes and Jaguar Kisses, and has pointed out issues that never would have stood out me, had not she pointed them out.  If you're a writer in need of an editor, Bev is exactly what you're looking for.  But in the words of LeVar Burton, you don't have to take my word for it.  Head over to her newly launched website and check out the glowing recommendations from other authors.


http://bevharrosproofreading.weebly.com/index.html 

Until next post.