DAQ or FAQ?! (Or: Del Asked Questions Before Dawn)
Spoilers, secrets, and snark. Proceed with caution.
What's up with all the umbrellas?
It’s a nod to The Curious Savage, where “Don’t forget to take an umbrella” means “I love you.” In NGM, the umbrella becomes its own shorthand for love—usually the kind Evie and Nick aren't quite ready to say out loud.
What's an interrobang?!
It’s a punctuation mark (?!)—part question mark, part exclamation point. In this book, it’s basically the Owens family crest.
Supranatural or supernatural?
“Supranatural” is intentional. I use “supernatural” casually in the book, but “supranatural” for the angels—they exist beyond the natural world without quite fitting the ghosts-and-monsters sense of supernatural.
So how do you pronounce 'Aloysius'?
al-oh-ISH-us. Like a Catholic schoolboy with secrets and sarcasm.
What's up with the mountain lion in Chapter 8?
It was part of a larger plagues-of-Egypt thread I originally planned to develop further. The thread survived—frogs, blood, and all—but eventually I became much more interested in Evie and Nick than in raining biblical chaos on Southern California.
Why are the words in italics and brackets?
The angels don’t always communicate in language that translates neatly into human speech. The bracketed phrases are Evie’s brain supplying the closest English equivalent for concepts she understands without quite having the words for them.
What was Al doing to Evie on p. 307?
Al was making Evie feel the true weight of the war instead of merely understanding it. In the original edition, the text expanded and contracted across the page in the shape of angel wings. That formatting didn't entirely survive the remaster.
Was Evie dead when she was talking to the angels?
Yes.
DAQs, not FAQs.
This page began with my sister Del, who read the original edition in one sitting
during a graveyard shift and came out of it with questions.
These were hers.
Some of the answers changed with the remaster.
Some of the questions disappeared with the scenes that inspired them.
The ones that survived are still here.