{"id":1866,"date":"2016-02-13T13:03:32","date_gmt":"2016-02-13T21:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sacollins.com\/blog\/?p=1866"},"modified":"2016-02-13T13:12:52","modified_gmt":"2016-02-13T21:12:52","slug":"embracing-equality-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1866","title":{"rendered":"Embracing Equality Means …"},"content":{"rendered":"

Embracing Equality Means …
\n<\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Angels<\/a>

Angels of Mercy – Phoenix In The Fire. Release Date: March 2016.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Something has changed. A fundamental shift in what I am doing. You see, I’ve been writing my own life story as a series over at the Violet Quill Redux <\/a>and that has made me question how I see my own works. Not just the fiction works, either, but all of it.<\/p>\n

I’ve had moderate success in the whole Gay Fiction part to my work. Assigning that moniker to what I do seemed to be the right thing at the time I released my first work.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The first book I released on January 2015.<\/p><\/div>\n

It was a pseudo-horror thing I was playing around with. I had been hammering out Angels of Mercy<\/a><\/em> at that point, but HO’M,O – Henry O’Malley, Omega<\/a><\/em> was completed and I desired to have something<\/em> out there that had my name on it. Hell, on the eve of releasing HOMO, I discovered that some other twit “writer” (and I term that very loosely after reviewing their work) ended up snagging my pen name (even though I had the domain, the blog, the wherewithal to publish free chapter reads before I published on January 1 of last year) right out from under me. Originally, I was going to use S.A. Collins and up until I published on New Year\u2019s day 2015, that name was available. Then this idiot swooped in and published a free (it had to be, because the work was atrocious) work using that S.A. name reference. I was beyond pissed. At this point I had a ton of money invested in what my author\/pen name was going to be. I didn’t want to change it. So, gritting my teeth, I removed the periods from each initial and pressed forward. Now, I don’t know if my putting gay fiction out there under that name scared the squatter off, but they haven’t released anything else under that author name. But I’ve still had to go back to numerous distributors and tell them I am NOT S.A. Collins but SA Collins. It’s been a chore.<\/p>\n

\"Angels<\/a>

Angels of Mercy – Volume Two: Marco AVAILABLE NOW!<\/p><\/div>\n

So labeling my shit as Gay Lit Fic has helped me in one respect: I’ve been able to make a fairly good imprint that I am out there as SA Collins – through the WROTE Podcast<\/a>, my works, and just generally hammering away in social media as him. I say him, because he is a fictitious character in one of my future works. So in that sense, I get to put him on, and put him away when I write. I sort of like that about him. I hope he doesn’t think it an abusive relationship, because I do love him and his journey.<\/p>\n

Okay, that is getting too headspacey, even for me.<\/p>\n

The point I am trying to make is that I started out proudly labeling my works as GAY, GAY, GAY. In that way, I am completely unabashedly #QueerProud and make no bones about what I am writing. I want it to be provocative, to press at the edges. I LIKE BEING QUEER.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>

John Rechy circa 1970’s.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

But, something occurred to me: all of my literary heroes never labeled their works as such. Not John Rechy or Gordon Merrick (my literary gods), nor did Felice Picano, Andrew Holleran, Paul Monette, or Armistead Maupin for that matter. They just wrote literary fiction, PERIOD. End of story, no debate. In doing so, they demanded that their works be taken seriously within the greater mainstream. They, too, were unapologetic in what they wrote, BUT, and here is the critical difference, they (and, to a certain extent, their publishers) were no less of a homosexual or queer writer than any of us now. Yet, they were successful at it \u2013 in the mainstream. And by mainstream I am talking best sellers on the list that mattered: the NYT best seller list.<\/p>\n

Even now, I am seeing other works by new authors that are completely bypassing the Gay label on Amazon and simply stating it’s Fiction, letting it stand with everything else, yet not denying that it is profoundly queer. Life on a slant, as it were. Proud outliers but never feeling the need to say I’m Queer, now read my shit<\/em>. It was just – hey, read my shit if you’re interested. And people did. They did it in droves, too. New York Times Best Seller kind of droves.<\/p>\n

\"Merrick's<\/a>

Merrick’s compelling and controversial Peter and Charlie gay romance trilogy.<\/p><\/div>\n

I’ve come to the realization that I, too, am not willing to limit my works to a gay audience. Yes, I’d love it if other queer men liked what I did. I am writing to them. But it doesn’t mean I need to limit the works in that whole M\/M thing that is completely overrun with women writing about us (often as we AREN’T<\/em>). I have no desire to play in that game. That literary house isn’t even mine as a gay man. It’s like I’ve been ousted from it. Yet, in my striving for acceptance and equality, I am not willing to limit the scope of my works or audience. Put it out there and let ANYONE who finds it of interest buy it and read it.<\/p>\n

I will continue to celebrate and champion queer works. I love the community of writers I’ve come to know in that sliver of genre fiction that is currently being labeled as Gay Fiction. I just am not willing to play in that pool anymore. It’s not what I am doing, not even remotely. My works are perception works. I want other people to read and see how these men process their worlds. I am not writing to a HEA (as a rule I sort of fucking despise HEAs (Happily Ever Afters) \u2013 I want realism in my works \u2013 not just in what I write, but what I read as well). I am not opposed to an HEA that makes sense. But to open a book and know already that it’s there is sort of like sitting down to a banquet and you already have been told that dessert is in the making, what it is, how it tastes and what you should expect.<\/p>\n

Boresville, USA population: YOU. Like my queer literary forebears, I can’t go there.<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

So I’ll champion my author pals who want to continue to write in that genre. Yay, team! Go you! But I want equality in what I am doing. My works need to stand with the rest of mainstream writing. I need to see where that road takes me. Maybe nowhere, but I am thinking not. I think it may be a long slog to get noticed in that arena but I think in the long run I’ll be happier that I did this.<\/p>\n

My stories are not genre fiction in the way that gay works are defined now. They’re more than that. They’re decidedly queer. They are threaded with gay men’s experiences I’ve collected over the years. But they are also representational of the greater human condition. I specialize in character studies and perception plays. That is universal. I’m just providing a queer lens for anyone to read and see the world through those eyes. But they’re not gay fiction. Just fiction.<\/p>\n

Literary Fiction.<\/p>\n

I’m good with that.<\/p>\n

Until next time …<\/p>\n

SA C<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Embracing Equality Means …     Something has changed. A fundamental shift in what I am doing. You see, I’ve been writing my own life story as a series over at the Violet Quill Redux and that has made me question how I see my own works. Not just the fiction works, either, but all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[377,552,551,125,270,261,48,216,234,43,584,7,198,3,693,396,145,18],"tags":[773,68,341,769,487,767,768,313,770,87,452,88,771,774,772,728],"class_list":["post-1866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-authors-voices","category-book-promotion","category-book-release","category-epic-failures","category-gay-community","category-geeking-out","category-giving-back","category-journey","category-language","category-life-inserts-itself","category-literature-vs-shit","category-my-what-the-fuck-on-the-media","category-men","category-novel-writing","category-podcast-show","category-the-craft","category-words-have-power","category-writing","tag-andrew-holleran","tag-angels-of-mercy","tag-branding","tag-categorization","tag-felice-picano","tag-gay-lit-fic","tag-general-literature-fiction","tag-genre-woes","tag-genres","tag-gordon-merrick","tag-homo","tag-john-rechy","tag-novels","tag-paul-monette","tag-sa-collins","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/65.jpg?fit=394%2C464","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75tPU-u6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1762,"url":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1762","url_meta":{"origin":1866,"position":0},"title":"Words and Errata – The Vocal Edition – Ep 001","author":"S A Collins","date":"May 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Words and Errata - The Vocal Edition - Ep 001 \u00a0 So our first show is in the can and has been getting quite a few listens (not in the hundreds or thousands yet, but it'll get there. Of that I have no doubt). If you haven't listened to it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Authors Voices"","block_context":{"text":"Authors Voices","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=377"},"img":{"alt_text":"SA Collins - Words and Errata - The Vocal Edition","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biz141.inmotionhosting.com\/~akweko6\/sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/PodcastIcon_SC1400_100pxsac-1024x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1860,"url":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1860","url_meta":{"origin":1866,"position":1},"title":"Embracing the Improbable","author":"S A Collins","date":"February 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Embracing the Improbable It shouldn't exist. I never intended it to exist, yet, there it is. \u00a0 \u00a0 What am I babbling about now? My next release - Angels of Mercy \u2013 Phoenix in the Fire\u00a0(due March 2016). The book ostensibly is a work of fiction in and of itself.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Authors Voices"","block_context":{"text":"Authors Voices","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=377"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/els01_500px.jpg?fit=378%2C500&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1820,"url":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1820","url_meta":{"origin":1866,"position":2},"title":"Five Star Review – and GIVEAWAY for Angels of Mercy Vol 2!","author":"S A Collins","date":"December 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"FIVE STAR review of ANGELS OF MERCY - VOLUME 2: MARCO. \u00a0 \u00a0 Thanks to Paul Gay Berry from GayMediaReviews for the lovely words and the opportunity to share it with the readership out there! #Humbled #DoingTheHappyDance !! BIG GIVEAWAY WITH THIS ONE - There's an opportunity to win the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Authors Voices"","block_context":{"text":"Authors Voices","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=377"},"img":{"alt_text":"Print cover reveal","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biz141.inmotionhosting.com\/~akweko6\/sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/AoM_V2_Marco_CVR_Print2x3blog.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1346,"url":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1346","url_meta":{"origin":1866,"position":3},"title":"What is literature? And where am I in the mix?","author":"S A Collins","date":"February 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"What is literature? And where am I in the mix? \u00a0 -or- \u00a0 The art of crafting the next 'Great American Novel.' \u00a0 \u00a0 So here's the deal: Angels of Mercy is something I've been blogging about for a while now. It is a very long and involved work that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Authors Voices"","block_context":{"text":"Authors Voices","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=377"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cover to Look Homeward, Angel","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biz141.inmotionhosting.com\/~akweko6\/sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/51D8R4NZ2HL.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1652,"url":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1652","url_meta":{"origin":1866,"position":4},"title":"Angels of Mercy – Volume One: Elliot RELEASED!","author":"S A Collins","date":"March 31, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"It's official \u00a0 Angels of Mercy \u2013 Volume One: Elliot (His Summer of Love) \u00a0 is NOW available! \u00a0 (Already labelled a BEST-SELLER in pre-sales!) \u00a0 My first serious work that began over a year ago and I can't believe it's release is finally here! \u00a0 You can find it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Authors Voices"","block_context":{"text":"Authors Voices","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=377"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cover artwork for Angels of Mercy - Volume One: Elliot","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biz141.inmotionhosting.com\/~akweko6\/sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/AoMPrintCoverMaster-300x206.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1744,"url":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1744","url_meta":{"origin":1866,"position":5},"title":"Something Wicked(ly Awesome) This Way Comes…","author":"S A Collins","date":"May 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Something Wicked(ly Awesome) This Way Comes ... \u00a0 \u00a0 Sorry there haven't been any recent posts. I've been busy with Angels of Mercy Vol 2 and Quarrel of Sparrows and something else I am really excited about. AUTHORS! READERS! Lend us your ears! Along with author pals Vance Bastian and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Authors Voices"","block_context":{"text":"Authors Voices","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=377"},"img":{"alt_text":"The podcast banner","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biz141.inmotionhosting.com\/~akweko6\/sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/11203119_1387895444872817_3356750889282128241_n.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1866"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1875,"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866\/revisions\/1875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}