Women of Faith Writing Contest Winner Releases

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Phoenix writer wins Women of Faith Writing Contest – Now Available on Amazon

Phoenix, AZ – Christian writer Giselle Aguiar’s first novel, Deo Volente! (God Willing): Love in the First Century, won second prize in the 2011 Women of Faith Writing Contest sponsored by Westbow Publishers (a division of Thomas Nelson).

Deo Volente! (God Willing): Love in the First Century is an historical romantic adventure set in Puteoli, Italy, in AD 69, a few years after the Apostle Paul arrived there on his last trip to Rome. (Acts 28:11-14)

Claudia, 20-year-old daughter of the Roman magistrate, is invited by her cousin, Paolo, to a clandestine meeting of a Christian church. There she meets and falls in love with Anthony, the son of a local merchant, and a leader in the church.

Unbeknownst to Claudia, her father, Marcus, has betrothed her to his middle-aged assistant, Darius. Meanwhile, her aunt Aurelia returns from 30 years of service as a Vestal Virgin hoping to marry her childhood sweetheart, Darius. At Aurelia’s welcome-home party, Marcus announces the betrothal, shocking everyone including Claudia.

Betrothed to a man she doesn’t love, in love with a man her family would disapprove of, told that the gods she grew up believing in are false, Claudia learns to seek and follow God’s Will while coping with her tyrannical father’s plan for her future.

The fact-based, historical setting details the lives of Roman nobility, their pagan beliefs, their homes, culture, mythology, a Roman wedding, the baths, government, and the eruption of Vesuvius and its aftermath. It provides a look into the early Christian church – where the people met, what they did, how they converted pagans and how the early church developed. There is also a fictionalized account of the Apostle Paul’s visit.

Deo Volente! (God Willing): Love in the First Century is the first in The Christian Centuries series. Each story takes place in successive centuries, focusing on pivotal points in Christian history. “I am a seeker, on a journey, seeking a more intimate relationship with God.” Aguiar states. “As I seek, I find stories – stories that need to be told – messages of love from God directed through my words to be shared with the world.”

Deo Volente! won a full self-publishing package from Westbow Publishers and may be purchased in paperback and hardcover formats from Ms. Aguiar’s website: www.giselleaguiar.com/novel1 and now available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other outlets and also as an ebook for Kindle and Nook and other ereaders. Subscribe to the author’s email list to be informed of availability, special events and book signings. Discounts for churches and bookstores are available from WestBow Press. Visit the novel website for details. 

With the extensive research Ms. Aguiar did for the novel, she has become an expert in the Roman Empire and early Christian Church History. She is preparing several presentations for various types of groups. Visit her website for details and booking information.

One dollar from the sale of each book benefits Streetlight Phoenix to help combat child rape for profit.

Ms. Aguiar is available for media interviews, and her final galleys are available for review in pdf format. Please contact Ms. Aguiar at icreate@yahoo.com.

Paperback: ISBN: 9781449718282

Hardcover:  ISBN: 9781449718305

ebook: ISBN: 9781447118299

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The real meaning of ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’

12 Days of Christmas

The 12 Days of Christmas…source: Dr. Phillip Barnwell In the Church “Christmas” refers to a twelve day period that starts with Christmas Day. There is where “The Twelve Days of Christmas” comes from.

The world celebrates Christmas for 24 hours, but the Church celebrates if for 12 days because the gift of Christ is with us for twelve months of the year.

When most people hear of “The 12 Days of Christmas” they think of the song. This song originated as a tool to instruct young people in the meaning and content of the Christian faith.

From 1558 to 1829 Roman Catholics in England were not allowed to practice their faith openly. Someone wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. “The 12 Days of Christmas” is an allegory. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the song is a code for a religious reality which helped the children remember.

The song says, “On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me….” The “true love” represents God and the “me” who receives these presents in the Christian.

…the “partridge in a pear tree” was Jesus Christ who died on a tree as a gift from God. .
..the “two turtle doves” were the Old and New Testaments–another gift from God.
…the “three French hens” were faith, hope and love–the three gifts of the Spirit that abide (I Corinthians 13).
…the “four calling birds” were the four Gospels, the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
…the “five golden rings” were the first five books of the Bible, also called the Torah, the law or Books of Moses. (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
…the “six geese a-laying” were the six days of creation.
…the “seven swans a swimming” were seven gifts of the Spirit listed in Romans 12: prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, administration and mercy.
…the “eight maids a-milking” were the eight beatitudes found in the Sermon on the Mount.
…the “nine ladies dancing” were nine friuts of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galations 5:22-23).
…the “ten lords a-leaping” were the Ten Commandments.
…the “eleven pipers piping” were the eleven faithful disciples. .
..the “twelve drummers drumming” were the twelve points of belief in the Apostles’ Creed.

Shared from Soul Supply

Links added by Giselle

Merry Christmas
Soli Deo Gloria
www.giselleaguiar.com/wwjd

Historical fiction should stick to historical fact

Robin Hood, starring Russell Crowe

As a history buff and novelist, I respect history. I love historical fiction – how a writer weaves a fictional story amidst historical fact. But when that fact is fudge for dramatic effect – well, I have a problem with that.

Take the latest contribution to the many Robin Hood flicks starring Russell Crowe. The story is a prequel to the Robin Hood tales depicted in other films and shows – sort of telling how Robin became “Robin Hood”.

The whole Robin Hood story is just that – a tale. Historians have tried to find a “real” Robin Hood, but all we know is that the tales, legends, folklore, ballads and stories began being told not at the turn of the 12th century when they take place, but in the 15th and 16th centuries. Robin Hood was a literary creation.

One thing all the Robin stories have in common is that Robin was a friend and loyal subject of King Richard I of England, aka Richard the Lionheart. Richard spent many years fighting in the Crusades in the Middle East and on the way home, stopped to reconquer Normandy in France.

The latest Robin Hood movie starts at this point with Robin serving in the King’s army storming a castle in France. It has the king dying in battle. That’s where they fudged the historical fact for drama’s sake. King Richard did die in France, but in a castle he had already taken over. He was walking one morning without his armor and was shot with an arrow by a boy seeking revenge for his father’s death during one of the castle plunderings. Richard’s mother was there and he died in her arms on April 6, 1199.*

Robin’s mission in life was to avenge the poor from Richard’s tyrannical brother, John. Hollywood has told the story and will continue to do so since that period in history with knights and ladies in peril will always be romantic. But, please, stick to the historical facts – since Robin’s story is fiction, it can be twisted around for dramatic effect, but history is history.

After seeing the latest Robin movie, I watched some of it’s predecessors – some for the first time and some again with an open mind.

Here’s a short list of Robin Hood movies:

Robin Hood, starting Russel Crowe, 2010

Robin Hood, TV series, 2006

Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner, 2003

Robin Hood, Men in Tights, starring Mel Brooks, 1993

Robin Hood – made for TV, starring Uma Thurman as Maid Marion, 1991

Robin and Marion, starring Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn, 1976

Robin Hood, TV series, starring Richard Greene, 1955-1960

The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn, 1938 – this particular DVD set has a documentary on the history of Robin Hood movies.

Robin Hood, starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., 1922 – the one that started it all

They all vary in one way or another, but here are some stories that most have in common:

• The poaching of the king’s deer
• The river fight with Little John
• Saving Maid Marion or a maiden from life of servitude and marrying her true love. In the case of Marion, Robin was the true love.
• Jumping from a castle tower into a hay cart.

Not all have a Friar Tuck, not all have Marion as Robin’s love interest. One thing, they are all fun to watch and wonder if there ever was a Robin Hood or was it all really just folklore.

Giselle
Soli Deo Gloria
www.giselleaguiar.com

*Wikipedia

Ancient Roman Gladiators alive and fighting in Spain

A few weeks ago I watched a 60 Minutes report on two brothers who are bullfighters in Spain. In doing research for my novel, I’ve become an expert of sorts on the Roman Empire and it astounded me how similar today’s bullfighting is to ancient Rome’s Gladiator battles. Everything from the arena/coliseum to the crowd of people enjoying a good fight between the matador (which means “killer” in Spanish) and the bull. Then I started thinking… what is it that the crowd likes to see? What about boxing and wrestling? The arena is different and it’s to humans fighting rather than human vs animal. Oh and don’t forget alligator wrestling? Why do people want to watch violence? Then you have horror movies – blood and gore.

What does that say about human kind. We haven’t changed since the Romans?

The Apostle Paul gave a follower of his, Timothy, some sage advice that if we didn’t know that he wrote it in the first century, it describes mankind today:

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God–having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.  ~2 Timothy 3:1-5

God Bless,
Giselle

E-mail: deovolente.love1@gmail.com
www.giselleaguiar.com

Confessions of a history buff

As I watched an A&E movie about the Revolutionary War this afternoon and they showed various locations, I remembered as a child visiting historic places with my parents. We’d take road trip vacations and go to places like Fort Ticonderoga. I think we’ve must have visited every place that claimed “George Washington slept here.”

Today, I received my pictures from my trip to Italy that were still at my Mom’s in Puerto Rico. When I moved from PR to Miami, I took the negatives with me. At least I thought I got them all. But looking through them, I was missing pictures of Pompeii. I knew I took took pictures in Pompeii. Well, I’ve got them. I’ll post them on my website and on Flicker this week.

I will never tire of watching historical movies or doing research. History has untold lessons to teach us. Hopefully we’ll learn from them otherwise we’ll repeat it.

God Bless,
Giselle
E-mail: deovolente_love1@gmail.com
www.giselleaguiar.com/novel1 

Why I chose the setting of my novel

I’m a naturally curious person. I read something and start asking questions. My stories stem from the possible answers to those questions. In the book of Acts, after the Apostle Paul’s shipwreck he arrives in Italy:

After three months we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island. It was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux. We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days. From there we set sail and arrived at Rhegium. The next day the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Puteoli. There we found some brothers who invited us to spend a week with them. (Acts 28:11-14)

He spent a week there with believers. I’ve watched every movie and documentary on the Apostle Paul and not one of them fictionalizes what that week was like. Who were those believers? Did they start a church? Did Paul baptize anyone there?

Puteoli is located on the northern coast of the bay of Naples, south of Rome on the Via Appia. Though Ostia was Romes major port, many shipments came through Puteoli. Pompeii and Vesuvius lay southeast.

I attempt to answer these questions in my novel. It takes place in 69 A.D. Paul supposedly landed there in 65 A.D. and was executed by Nero in 67 A.D. In my novel, I have a flashback and my one of my main characters, Anthony, remembers what it was like meeting Paul and how Paul helped him convert and commissioned him to start the church in Puteoli.

Today, Puteoli is called Pozzuoli and its buildings are uninhabitable because of cracks in the foundations from frequent tremors.   Here’s a map. Note the close proximity to Vesuvius.

http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=m&lat=40.828101&lon=14.542312&zoom=10&q1=Pozzuoli%25252C%252520Italy

God Bless,
Giselle
E-mail: deovolente_love1@gmail.com
www.giselleaguiar.com

On Historical Research: Seeing People in a New Light

I am American. I am also Puertorican because I was born there. I am a New Yorker, because I was raised there. I am Portuguese because my great-grandfather Aguiar was came from Portugal. I am Spanish because the rest of my great-grandparents were Spaniards.

Other than the Native American Indians, everybody else here in America—or their ancestors—came from somewhere else. However, since I started the research on my second novel, I have discovered that nationalities are not that cut-and-dried. Part of my second book takes place in the Iberian Peninsula (what is now Spain and Portugal) in the second century A.D. which the Romans called “Hispania” and I’ve learned what true “melting pots” are.

New York has always been known as America’s melting pot. I lived for some time in Miami and you could say that about South Florida also. Forget that! All of America is one big melting pot!

My eye-opening research came when I was studying the native Iberians. I needed to know who my characters were, what they believed, their customs, culture and who their ancestors were. What I learned surprised me.

For instance, I always thought that Celtic equaled Irish and Irish equaled Celtic. How wrong I was. The Celts came from northern Europe and spread all over Europe and Asia Minor. They looked more like Vikings—tall and fair. Did you know that the Galatians of biblical fame were a Celtic tribe that came over the Balkans? I didn’t. For me they were all Middle Asian or Greek.

When the Celts invaded the Iberian Peninsula, they mixed with the Iberians who had migrated from northern Africa. They were short and dark. They became the Celtiberains. That explains the difference in complexion between many Spaniards. (I always thought it was the Moorish invaders in later centuries that brought the darker skin tones).

But the Celtiberians didn’t have the peninsula to themselves for long. Soon the Phoenicians came seeking new resources for trade. Later the Carthaginians and the Greeks arrived. All three settled and founded various cities on the coastline. Then along came the Romans. By the early second century, Rome had control of the whole peninsula. The Romans drove the Celts out of most of mainland Europe (except for a small area in northwestern France) and let them stay in the northern British Isles. That’s where we get the Celtic/Irish analogies.

Therefore, I’m back to me again. I have dark hair, dark eyes and light skin that tans nicely. Do I have Celtic blood in me? Maybe. I somehow think that I must have Roman blood in me. As a child, when I would tell folks that I was Puerto Rican, they would say, “You don’t look Puerto Rican.”

My reply was, “What does a Puerto Rican look like?”

They then said I looked Italian. That was fine with me—I’ll be Italian. Several of my best friends growing up were Italian. Consequently, I spent more time hanging out with Italians then Hispanics. I love Italian food—more so than Latin food. I had the opportunity to work with Italians on a cruise ship years ago and tour Italy. I even learned the language with relative ease being fluent in Spanish. However, in Italy, I started to mix the two of them. I created my own language of “Spantalian.” Somehow, I managed to be understood. I would relocate to Italy in a heartbeat. (Maybe after I sell a few books, I’ll get myself a nice villa overlooking the Amalfi Coast. Hey, I can dream, can’t I?)

The novel also takes place in Alexandria, Egypt. That was another melting pot in the second century. Talk about a cosmopolitan city. It was a Greek city in Egypt ruled by the Romans—three very different cultures. It boasted the greatest library of ancient times with copies of scholarly writings from all over the known world. Unfortunately, it burned down in the 600’s. The city was wealthy because of its strategic location at the center of trade routes between Europe, Asia Minor, Africa, India and the Far East. Beside the Greeks and Romans, there were people from all those areas living in Alexandria. Of course, they intermarried.

So who are our ancestors? A few years ago, I started doing my family tree. I recommend that everyone try to go back several generations to better understand who they are. Culture is handed down from generation to generation and one’s environment plays a part in it. Invaders and immigrants all bring in their own culture and customs and blend it with the culture and customs that are already there.

As a result, if I’m “people watching” at the mall or when I hear a foreign last name, instead of judging the book by its cover, ­­I now consider that if we go back far enough, we all may have the same ancestors. We are all our own little melting pots.

So what am I? That’s easy—I am American.

God Bless,
Giselle
E-mail: deovolente_love1@gmail.com
www.giselleaguiar.com