Entertaining Angels
By: Emerald Barnes
Genre: Young Adult
Released: June 24th, 2014
Madison Andrews can't face her reflection in the mirror.
All she sees is a big, fat nobody. Yet, deep inside she longs for something
more, something that's not skin deep.
Along comes Zach, the new guy in school. He's smoking
hot and totally out of her league. She somehow catches his eye, and he
makes her feel beautiful for once. But just as she gets close to Zach, her
nerdy best friend, Chase, won't let Madison doubt her true beauty, no matter
how many meals she skips.
Even as Madison begins to realize that she is more than she
thinks, darker forces are at work, darker than the lies and mocking from her
peers, stopping her from amounting to her full potential. Can Madison find true
happiness in her own skin?
When writing Entertaining Angels, I didn’t do much
research aside for some Bible verses that applied to my novel in some way. A
lot of the Bible verses had to deal with beauty and being a child of the King
because the main goal I had in writing Entertaining
Angels was that I wanted people to see that God is the one who made them, and
God only makes beautiful things. It doesn’t matter what we look like, we’re
made in the image of God, and all things made in that image is beautiful. (Even
if my readers don’t believe in God, I still hope that they’re able to love
themselves just a little bit more after reading it.) So really, the research
was Bible verses.
But, it was lots
of fun writing the novel, although it was an extremely emotional book to write.
The characters were what really brought out the fun of the novel itself.
Madison is
completely upset with the way she looks, and she’s being bullied by the most
popular girl at school. When the new (hot) guy at school shows up and starts
paying her attention, she can’t believe it. Madison cannot see how truly
beautiful she is, so when people start paying attention to her, I loved how
awkward she felt about it because it’s so realistic. But, like most people,
Madison ended up doubting herself. So, I had to write just how she overcomes
this doubt, but she has a little help from above in how she comes to love
herself.
There is an angel
in the book who was sent to help Madison overcome her doubt and finally realize
just how beautiful that she is.
Writing about an
angel was completely different and such a new experience for me! I had
previously had no experience writing about them, and the only things I knew
about angels came from the Bible. I have only ever seen an angel once, but we
didn’t exactly talk. I just knew it was there, watching over me. So, I really
had to dig deep and write an angel that was as close to Biblically true as
possible but that was also kind of human.
In the end, I was
happy with the results. If you think about The
Bishop’s Wife, the Cary Grant film in which he portrays an angel, I’m
pretty sure you’ll see my angel in the same light. They’re there to help, but
also, they’re kind of human. Even though I was
scared to write it because it was new for me, I’m glad I took the plunge
because Entertaining Angels has been
my favorite book I’ve published and written to date!
Emerald Barnes graduated with a B.A. in English with an emphasis on Creative Writing at Mississippi University for Women. She resides in a small town in Mississippi and has the accent to prove it. She mainly writes suspense/thrillers in the YA genre, but she dabbles in other genres and her books are enjoyed by all ages!
She's constantly working on new novels and has more ideas than she knows what to do with. She is a crazy grammar nazi who also proofreads novels!
She's an auntie to three beautiful nieces and two handsome nephews. She's a Whovian, a little bit of a nerd, a reader, a writer, and a family-oriented person. God is number one in her life, and she thanks Him continuously for His love and favor.
Website: www.emeraldbarnes.us
