Athanasios Galanis

Athanasios Galanis

About

In third person to add a note of deluded self importance.

Athanasios works in Montreal as a graphic/video artist, illustrator & writer in dvd production & film. He has been researching & crafting Mad Gods: weaving in factual & rumoured history for over ten years.

Athanasios has been interested in religion & faith since childhood. This led to studying a bewildering variety of beliefs from pagan, wicca, judaism, christianity, islam, to hindu, buddhism, shinto, luciferianism & much more. The interest made its own momentum & brought Mad Gods. 

His other interests include most entertainment, from film, to television & books. He won't try video games for the same reason he doesn't keep his favourite booze in the house; he would do nothing else. There was a short time that he was into World of Warcraft but that became the obsession he knew it would be. He had to leave it for a deeper & more engrossing one: Mad Gods.

Friends in High Places

Friends in High Places

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Description

<p>FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES<br /><br />At barely nineteen, Angelica Donovan became one of the more successful winners of the T.V. show Our Next Super Model. The world assumed she was destined for a happy, fairy tale life as ‘Angel,’ the beautiful girl who was living the dream; sadly, that wasn’t to be the case. As the years passed, she flashed her million dollar smile to all her fans and fought to stay on top in a profession where you never knew who it was safe to trust while the fashion industry took big bites out of her heart and soul. And trust was a constant challenge for Angel due to the painful childhood secret she guarded as carefully as she did her heart. As a result, she never did find her true love on earth.<br /><br />When she wakes up ‘dead’ from a heart condition a month before her thirty-fifth birthday, Angel is at first relieved to find there is no death, just a change of state, like ice to water, and then she’s scared because her biggest and most important adventure is about to begin.<br /><br />Angelica is chosen to be an angel in training as a spirit guide for three souls on earth! Her assignment is to help two women to gain the courage and confidence to find, recognize and embrace the love that had eluded Angel in life. But her biggest challenge will be to save a very special little girl from the same evil experience that had poisoned Angel’s own earthly happiness and altered the course of her life.<br /><br />Will Angel be able to heal her own shattered soul in the process? And will the three souls she is guiding be able to recognize her, not as a ghostly threat, but as one of those ‘friends in high places’ we all have; the kind who often end up earning their wings.<br /><br /> </p>

Story Behind The Book

grew up being scared out of my wits by the Exorcist & the Omen. They were released in theatres in 73 & 76 respectively, which made me 9 & 12. This was in my formative years before I began thinking for myself & got out from my traditional Greek parents beliefs. I wanted to go past those fears & began looking into whatever was known about the two characters therein: Satan & his darling son. The further I looked into it the more scared I became so I left it alone for a while. I didn't even consider it apart from giving myself the willies every couple of months when I gave both some thought. The idea as to how much fear they caused stayed with me. I didn't like it but I knew it was powerful. As I grew older though I thought about those strong fears, especially the Antichrist. I re-watched the Omen and the sequels and thought: why would anyone want to be the reason for the destruction of the world? That made me fear the Antichrist less and made me think he was getting a bum wrap. So I began crafting a story for myself. The whole time that I had been writing I also lived my life in low end jobs. Cook & then manager in family restaurant, comic book store clerk, sports card collectibles store clerk, busboy, waiter, illustrator, graphic artist, video/dvd graphic artist/editor. I kept returning to Mad Gods and kept putting it off because I wanted to relax when I got home. So my lax attitude got me back into writing because I thought that would be a perfect reason for somebody else not to do what he feels destined to do. The Antichrist doesn't follow Revelation because he likes his entertainment too much. He wanted to see the next great movie, another week's shows, the next cool film or read another book.

Reviews

<span style="font-family:verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;line-height:normal;font-size:small;"></span><div><span style="font-family:verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;line-height:normal;font-size:small;"><strong>By Dr A. Nyland </strong>(Australia)<br /></span></div>I personally found Mad Gods Redux to be very good indeed. It was in the vein of Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian with a little bit of Garth Nix's Abhorsen. <br /><br />The imagery is profoundly evocative; the story is complex yet accessible and very well researched. <br /><br />The intriguing plot, the wonderful descriptions of the settings with which the author is clearly initimately familiar and the excellent research make this novel captivating, powerful and compelling. <br /><br />It will appeal to readers of dark fantasy, Templar history, and anyone interested in the Illuminati, the paranormal or the occult.<div><span style="font-family:verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;line-height:normal;font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;line-height:normal;font-size:small;"><strong>By Mr. Aman S. Anand</strong><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;line-height:normal;font-size:small;"><strong><span style="font-weight:normal;">Mad Dogs Redux takes its reader on a spellbinding journey that spans different continents and time periods. The author seamlessly weaves as intricate plot that connects an array of fascinating characters that propel the momentum of this wonderfully ambitious narrative. <br /><br />It is clear that the author has put a lot of research into the book, but thankfully these details never weight down the book; instead, they add a layer of richness that significantly adds to the reading experience. And without giving too much away, the author also takes the reader to some incredibly exciting locations that I have longed to encounter in fiction. <br /><br />The book is well-written and illustrates the diversity of the author's talents - he is equally adept at writing dialogue and evocative descriptive sequences. Despite the constant shift of location, the author always conveys the subtle differences of the various locations he leads the reader through. <br /><br />In Kosta Peleogos, the book has an intriguing protagonist who joins the reader in uncovering the secrets of a hidden world. <br /><br />Mad Dogs Redux is an addictive read that will immensely satisfy its readers </span><br /></strong></span></div>