Publisher: Tribute Books (January 24, 2012) ; eBook
"A True Inspiration" by AMY LIGNOR
I was thrilled when I was asked to be a part of this blog and tell readers how Emily and Matt - the angel/warrior team - came into being. According to Webster, inspiration is a stimulation for the human mind to do creative work. But where does the stimulation come from? Not to sound hokey, but mine came from finding a best friend at a time when I really needed one.
Thirteen is the age where the whole world looks like a real mess. (It’s not until later in life that we come to KNOW the world is a real mess. But losing someone I loved at that age was devastating to me because he was my best friend. Up until that moment I’d been writing stories about history and mythology. My mom was a research librarian and she passed along the love of old legends, but when my grandfather left my life, things changed. I actually began to wonder about angels, such as: if they were real, why on earth would they come to this messed-up place?
I wanted to know where Grandpa was and if he was doing okay, and my dreams turned away from Mount Olympus and ended up in a very grand library. I loved that place - it had every book known to mankind; groups of eager looking students walking around; a few adults who seemed to be ‘watching’ carefully; and a young boy named Matt.
Matt was my age and was hysterical. He would sit and talk to me in that library and I always thought we’d get kicked out for being too loud. But he ‘showed me around’ and spoke a great deal about his training and what he was waiting for - the chance to come ‘down’ and have a life. He was all excited about adventure, and when I would speak about how awful it was, he would just smile and say that he wanted a chance at a life - a chance to fight, defend…maybe even fall in love. That’s how Matt became a reality for me - a spark of imagination that helped lead me through the troubled time of losing my grandfather.
Years later when I lost my father, Matt returned, and I finally knew that the world should meet him and his partner. They should see their journeys through life - the people they had to defend, save…even the people they had to take. I wanted readers to know about what I saw and how different everything was from what is ‘in print,’ and how there was fun, laughter, lighthearted sarcasm at times - and the real difference between their lot in life and ours.
I’ve worked on The Angel Chronicles for a while now, and over time I’ve gone back to edit, change, add - a writer never stops, as all writers out there will tell you. There’s always something that can be ‘tweaked’ as time goes on. But I was absolutely thrilled when the YA world began accepting the ‘winged ones.’ The ‘fanged ones’ had been all the rage for so long that it was nice to see an angel take charge once in a while (LOL).
Emily and Matt will never ‘fall’ into the ‘fallen’ category. They are a team that come from a place where things make sense, and enter into a world where they could be torn apart by the emotions - good and evil - that they find surrounding them all of a sudden. But the one thing they will always have is another chance. And, to me, that has to be one of the greatest gifts anyone could possibly ever receive. Until Next Time, as well as the others in this series, are a true inspiration to me, and I hope readers will find them to be their new ‘best friends’ when they head out on the adventures that this angel/warrior team take!
Thank you for giving them a spot on your site, and in your lives!
Until Next Time, Everybody.
Amy
*****
Until Next Time: The Angel Chronicles, Book 1 Summary
Author Bio:
