The Awakening is a tale of immortals, ancient gods, and a Detective who doesn’t believe in any of it. Detective Ben Stanford is forced to come face to face with theology, mythos and everything he refused to believe in as his world is turned upside down by Mark, the immortal Gospel writer, who requests the detective’s help in finding his missing companion, Judas Iscariot.

As Ben dives deeper into the world of broken Theology, ancient religions and terrifying Greek gods, he’s forced to come to terms with the world where vast forces struggle in their endless game of power. He must make his way, with the help of companions he doesn’t believe in or trust, to try and stop a potential global disaster.

• What are the main themes of your book? The main themes of my book are Urban or Contemporary Fantasy, mythology and theology.  It presents a twist on all forms of religion and beliefs.
• Who or what inspired your story? Well honestly I got my degree in medieval theology, and one day we were discussing certain aspects of religion and this idea popped into my head.  I wrote it out, cramming the entire idea into one book, but as time passed I realized that it would be better as a series.  I scrapped the first novel and almost ten years later revisited it and was able to start all over, presenting it as series fiction.
• What do you like best about your primary characters? I like how different they are.  Ben is a sort of sarcastic, hard-line guy, but he’s got this really open nature buried deep down.  Mark is exhausted, having experienced everything there is to experience in his two thousand years, and Judas is sort of mad, unable to stay sane in all that time he’s been alive.  I just find in them something different but also inherently lovable, and they’re really fun to write.
• What are their worst peculiarities? Well for Ben, he’s got this incredible ability to try and rationalize nearly every crazy thing presented to him.  Watching a gun fly out of his hand and into the hand of an old Greek god, he still tries to find a way to give a scientific explanation for it.  Part of Mark’s ability is that no matter what happens to him, no matter what he goes through, he just stays perfectly rational and sane, which in itself is a sort of torture.  In book one I don’t really get into Judas much, but in book two you get to really see his sort of melancholy side, and it’s really kind of interesting to explore someone as old as Mark yet his polar opposite. 
• How does your main character evolve? Ben does the most evolving, and it’s not that he becomes a believer, but he reaches this place where he can no longer deny the supernatural things going on around him.
• What’s the principal message you want to send to your audience? That belief isn’t everything, but neither is the absence of belief.  No matter how much you know about yourself, there’s always room to grow, learn and experience.
• What’s the nicest thing anyone has said about your book? “Angella Graf has a huge talent in story-telling and even more so in writing. Her words flow so easily and effortlessly and captivated my attention easily.”  — When I read this part of the review I was really touched.  The review is much longer, which you can see if you click the link, but this part was probably the nicest thing someone’s said to me in a while.
• Where can we purchase it? It’s available at Amazon and at Createspace for the paperback.

Angella Graff resides in Tucson with her husband Joshua, three children, Christian, Isabella and Adia, and their two cats, Archive (Ivy), and Lasciel. She prefers to spend her days writing, gardening, and reading non-fiction theology theory books. Angella is also an avid, if not fanatic fan of Doctor Who and BBC Sherlock, which tend to dominate her dry, sarcastic humor, a lot of which is apparent in her writing.