Update on the book search

Before I give results on the book search I just want to say, woohoo! I just reached the 100/1400 mark in my character creation. Now I can switch surnames. I was using American surnames so I think I'm going to use Belgian surnames for the next 100 characters. This way I get a nice mix.

I ended up going to Borders and Barnes and Noble for my book search. Books-A-Million while closer does not have a good selection and when the customer service rep did a search did not seem to have any books in this category in stock. I was able to find The Mysteries of Mithras: The Pagan Belief that Shaped the Christian World by Payam Nabarz Forward by Caitlin Matthews and The Book of gods & goddesses: A Visual Directory of Ancient & Modern Deities by Eric Chaline.

It looks as though the Mithras book is more about neo-paganism rather than a historical account of Mithras worship I could still find it useful as something to extrapolate, I think that's the word, off of. I'll let you know when I finish the book. I guess that would mean a book review. We'll see how well I do with that.

The gods & goddesses book is a basic list book seperated by religion/region and just says what the major gods are of that religion/region. It's basic, simple, and a good jumping off point. I don't think I'll have any of my characters worship any of these gods or goddesses but it's good see characteristics given to them and what the represented and controlled, good things to know when creating your own gods.

I'm also working on a calander system. My fiance said I should base it on the planet they going to colonize that way when they reach it they will already be used to it. It's a good idea and I'll do it that way but I think I'm going to put off world building that until all my characters are completed.

Weddings and Mystery religions

While I'm not in school I've been getting as much wedding stuff done as I could. Thanks to my maid of honor all of my invitations are done and ready to mail out. Yay! You can follow her on Twitter here.

I've still been working on my novel and I have 80/1400 colonists completed. It can be rather boring but I still think it is important to have a solid foundation to work from. If I don't do now I'll just have to do it later anyway.

I am thinking of others for my novel besides the actual characters themselves. I have decided to have religion/faith in my novel and so I am going to add a mystery cult. Not real sure how much of my population will be affected by it though. I got the idea after reading The Golden Ass by Apuleius and translated by P.G. Walsh this past semester in my Roman Empire class. I'm also going to throw in some mixture of Christianity as well but I don't know how yet.

Finding information on mystery cults is a bit difficult. When I went to Books-A-Million today I had no titles to go by and their ancient history and mythology selection is very thin. After posting on AbsoluteWrite about it. I found that there isn't a lot of information out there. But I did get some great suggestions and I'm going to cruise the bookstores tomorrow for the following titles:

The Mysteries of Mithras: The Pagan Belief That Shaped the Christian World by Payam Nabarz and Caitlin Matthews

The Book of Gods & Goddesses: A Visual Directory of Ancient and Modern Deities by Eric Chaline

Ancient Mystery Cults (Carl Newell Jackson Lectures) by Walter Burkert

The Atlas of Lost Cults and Mystery Religions: Rediscover Extraordinary Traditions from the Dawn of Time by David Douglas

Thanks MaLanie1971. You can visit her blog here. I'll have a link to her blog over in the sidebar. After a suggestion given to me by Medievalist I was able to find a site about the Villa of the Mysteries to help with forming my own mystery religion. Thanks Medievalist. You can find her blog here. I will also have a link to her blog in the sidebar.

I'll let you know the results of my book search and post anymore interesting sites I might find on the web about mystery cults tomorrow. Now I have to read The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane for my short novels class starting the 11th.