Photo Courtesy Flickr Creative Commons and gacabo
We’ve always been a little obsessed by angels. And why not? Of all the characters in the bible, angels are the most common, yet the least understood. They are usually sent as God’s messengers. The angel Gabriel told Mary that she’d give birth to Jesus. The angel Michael gave Daniel some incredible information about the last days–information that appears to be quite accurate in these days in which we live. But because we have so little information about angels, we tend to re-create them to our liking.
We give them wings. I suspect because the cheribum on the Ark of the Covenant had wings. But cheribum are cheribum, not angels. After all, if Michael had these huge white wings, don’t you think Daniel would have noticed that before he ultra-white clothing? Mary didn’t mention it, either. We’ve also created various versions of angels. Some good. Some bad. Some look like John Travolta. But rarely is an angel presented in a fashion that would be fitting to any biblical text. And I’m not going to start now. Well, maybe my partner, Gina, and I will attempt to stay within biblical guidelines, but we may have to make certain assumptions. And that’s fine. We’re fiction writers. We love a good story. If you need facts, go to the source.
Beginning next month, we’ll start our weekly installment of a new series about–you guessed it–angels. But it’s going to be a little different. I’ve always wondered what happened to the human wives the fallen angels took for themselves. And, more importantly, what happened to their children? And their children’s children? And so on. And can the descendant of a fallen angel ever find favor with God again? Or maybe God has a plan for those descendants.
6 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. – Genesis 6:1-4
So what if you’re just a normal (or not normal) kid, say a 6th grader, living in nowhere special, and one day you discover that you come from a long line of fallen angels? Oh, and certain abilities start to show themselves. As you grow, so do your abilities. I mean, someone has to explain Michael Jordan, right?
That’s what we’ve got coming. A 36 week series over, I hope, four years. Think of it as a weekly TV show for middle-grade urban fantasy fans, only you read it. Oh, and there may be some interaction through social networks like Instagram. As far as I know, this is a first. I’m sure it won’t be the last. The world is changing, why shouldn’t the way we read change with it?
The episodes will be delivered via the newsletter. It’s up there, on your right. Sign up. You won’t miss an episode. Look for some teasers to come your way in the meantime. We won’t send you an e-mail every day. We don’t have the time. And for you fledgling middle-grade and high school writers out there, we’ll include some writing tips with each episode (at the bottom, the rest of you can just ignore them). We’re excited and ready to get this angel party started. I hope you’ll join us. Sign up here!