The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy by Sandy Nathan

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy

Blurb: In the tradition of 1984 and A Brave New World, The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy presents a future world tottering on disaster. By the 22nd century, a totalitarian government controls all. People live in fear. War rages while the authorities proclaim the Great Peace.

In the midst of the chaos, the angelic extraterrestrial, Eliana, comes to Earth on a mission to save her people. She must find Jeremy Edgarton, computer genius, revolutionary and the FBI’s most wanted. When Jeremy decodes new transmissions and discovers that nuclear Armageddon will occur the next morning, Jeremy and Eliana begin a quest to save two doomed planets … and find each other.

Their love story brings hope and optimism for the future. Readers come away from reading Angel determined to fight for their individuality, creativity and goodness and to be watchful of authority.

Excerpt: The beginning of Chapter One

When the girl appeared on the sidewalk, the edges of her body and clothing were fuzzy, as though all of her hadn’t arrived. She looked up and down the street, the way a person would if she’d forgotten an address or lost her way.

Her hair was frizzed and matted, sticking out akimbo. She was thin, had a dirty face, and wore a scratchy coat that was far too big. Its sleeves were rounded little capes; her arms stuck out of them like chopsticks protruding from a napkin. The coat slipped off her shoulders, first to one side, then the other. She hitched it up and kept walking. When she walked, the coat opened to reveal her feet and lower legs.

Her thin socks, trimmed with grayed lace, were pulled up to make a ruffle below her knees. Pink satin laces held up the socks, their Xs snaking up her shins from her shoes. She looked pretty much like everyone she saw, except for her shoes. Long pink ballet slippers stuck out from beneath her coat, as improbable as roses sprouting from the cement.

Eliana made her way along the sidewalk, knowing that she was dirty, feeling the grit in her hair and on her skin. When she had reached the planet’s atmosphere, clothes and all sorts of things had rushed at her with great force, tossing her over and over. Dirt had come, too. She’d found the clothes she needed and put them on the way her teachers had shown her. Then her people had put her where she was.

Humans passed, but no one stopped or said anything to her. A paper blew against her leg. More dirty papers blew and piled up everywhere. Streaked and grimy buildings rose near her. Writing in different colors covered their walls. She looked carefully, but couldn’t make out the words. She’d learned to read and write English, but those words mystified her.

“Hey, you!” a person said loudly.

“Yes?” She spoke to a human for the first time, politely bowing. The human was dirty like Eliana, with torn clothes and matted hair. She couldn’t tell if it was a he or a she.
“Get out of here!” the ragged person shouted. “You don’t belong here.” Eliana cowered, but the stranger rushed past her, clawing at something Eliana couldn’t see. “Stay away,” the human said, and then stood with feet braced, shouting, “Get out of here, all of you. Stay away!” The creature hadn’t seen Eliana at all.

The girl realized that her people were right; they had put her where no one would notice her. Now she needed to tell them that she had arrived. She raised one foot, turning it gracefully and resting it easily on the other knee. She flicked the shoe with her finger, listening. A trill of clear notes deep within her brought the hint of a smile. She held the coat closed and stood still. She was where she was supposed to be. It had begun.

She fingered the piece of paper in her pocket. Her map. Beneath it, in the pocket’s depths, was the notebook. What was written on it would get her where she needed to go. She had all she needed.

She walked a long way along the hard path. More humans passed her. To her left, gray, inert structures rose high in the sky, blocking the sun. She touched the see-through parts of their lower levels, looking at the humans inside. They looked at each other with darting eyes, speaking rapidly. Everyone outside rushed frantically, noticing nothing. They didn’t see her, just as her people had said.

Eliana choked when a very large carrier passed, spewing a foul odor. The carrier floated above the hard surface where the vehicles moved. Her teachers had told her about the floating. Though she couldn’t see it, a force lived under the machines that made them go. It would kill her if it touched her. She didn’t know what kill meant; kill did not exist in her world. Her mother had explained that she would be like a dead pet. She had seen dead pets before they whisked them away. Motionless husks. She moved away quickly. Better get on with her purpose. She didn’t have much time.

A man with a round stomach and a gray hat walked out of an opening in the ground with many others. He walked like he had a mission. His coat was the same scratchy stuff as hers, but it was buttoned up and looked new. He looked new; his face was ruddy and clean. His shoes reflected the pale sunlight. The trill of notes resounded in her mind once again.

He was the one! She stood in front of him to make him stop. She hoped he could comprehend her speech.

“Will you help me?” she said, working to form the strange words.

Bio:
Sandy Nathan’s writing incorporates all the aspects of her life. “The Angel came to me from a couple of places. Following my brother’s tragic death, I had a transcendent dream in which the angel appeared. After that, the book unfolded. The dark world of The Angel is my psyche’s reaction to our current desperate economic situation––that future world is only heartbeats from our own.” Sandy holds master’s degrees in economics and marriage, family and child counseling. “Both the economist and transpersonal psychologist in my soul wrote The Angel.” Former economic analyst of Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) CA, Ms. Nathan has written full time for fifteen years. She has four published books and has won twelve national awards for her writing.

Buy from: Amazon

See also:
Excerpt from: Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could by Sandy Nathan
Interview with: Sandy Nathan, Author of Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could and The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy

Adventures of a Lightworker: Dead End Date — by Caroline A Shearer

Today’s guest is Carolyn Shearer, author of Adventures of a Lightworker: Dead End Date. Dead End Date introduces readers to Faith, a young woman whose dating disasters and personal angst have separated her from the reason she’s on Earth. When she receives the shocking news that she is a lightworker and has one year to fulfill her life purpose, Faith embarks on her mission with zeal, tackling problems big and small — including the death of her blind date. Working with angels and psychic abilities and even the murder victim himself, Faith dives headfirst into a personal journey that will transform all those around her and, eventually, all those around the world.

Carolyn writes:

Studies consistently show the vast majority of people believe in angels, and one doesn’t have to look far to find examples of people who believe they have been helped in some way by an angel. Many will even say angels have saved their lives!

I was taught about the existence of angels from a very young age, and I even have a framed picture from my childhood of the famous scene of an angel guarding two small children who are crossing a bridge. I was raised to believe I had a guardian angel who was always with me, and I welcomed that idea. Perhaps because of this, I always have felt protected, in all situations.

As I became an adult and began looking into this concept of angels, there is much that I have brought into what I consider “my truth.” I still believe in guardian angels, and now I believe that most people have at least two angels with them at all times. I believe we can call on more angels any time we want, and they will respond immediately. I also have come to understand the real significance of “free will.” We are here to evolve our souls, and as such, we have to ask angels to help us, or they will simply lovingly support us from the background. The exception to this would be in the case of an emergency.

In my (funny to me) way of thinking, I interpreted this piece of knowledge as, “Hey, my angels must get bored when I forget to ask for help!” Ever since then, I have made specific efforts to ask for help, understanding my angels will act when it is for my highest and greatest good.

One way angels help me all the time is with my worries. I used to be a worrier, but I began asking my angels to hold on to my worries for me. That way, if my freaking out side pops up, I know my worries are still technically there, but in the meantime, I know I can release them and move forward with whatever is positive in my life. It works really, really well!

Right now, this very moment, you can close your eyes and talk to your angels. It is that easy! Listening can take some practice, but we can all do that, too! Angels will communicate in whatever way you are able to receive it – so that may be with a song on the radio, a sign on the side of the road, a sentence you just happen to overhear in a crowd … Be open to receiving their messages, and you will find them!

Now, what does all this have to do with me, and my guest post? Well, angels appear in my mystery novel, Adventures of a Lightworker: Dead End Date, and my main character, Faith, has a special relationship with them. It is a fun and eye-opening mystery – I hope you’ll read it!

Bio

Caroline A. Shearer is the author of the novel, Adventures of a Lightworker: Dead End Date, with a second book in the series due out in 2010. Previously, she was a journalist for publications across the U.S. and was the editor in chief of a statewide magazine. She is a graduate of Texas A&M University, from where she earned a B.A. in Journalism, with a minor in Psychology. She also began an Interdisciplinary Studies Masters’ Program in Children’s Literature and Psychology at Texas State University. Caroline has been recognized twice as a finalist in the prestigious Austin Under 40 Awards.