{"id":1860,"date":"2016-02-05T00:50:46","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T08:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sacollins.com\/blog\/?p=1860"},"modified":"2016-02-05T00:50:46","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T08:50:46","slug":"embracing-the-improbable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1860","title":{"rendered":"Embracing the Improbable"},"content":{"rendered":"

Embracing the Improbable<\/span><\/h1>\n

It shouldn’t exist. I never intended it to exist, yet, there it is.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"AoM_Phoenix_FINAL_2016_500px\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What am I babbling about now? My next release – Angels of Mercy \u2013 Phoenix in the Fire<\/a>\u00a0(due March 2016).<\/strong><\/p>\n

The book ostensibly is a work of fiction in and of itself. Its evolution was predicated on a mistake. I’ve blogged a bit about it before<\/a>. But here it is, in all it’s behemoth glory:<\/p>\n

Clocking in at roughly 639 pages, and 218K words it’s an opus of a book that shouldn’t exist. But you know what? I’m rather pleased with it.<\/p>\n

As I’ve stated many times before and on the podcast, I’m all about the headspace and how perceptions rule our world but we seldom give them credence and understand the prominence they have in our lives. Phoenix doest that, and I think it does it very well.<\/p>\n

Angels, at it’s core, is really about dealing with the physical and emotional fallout from a heinous act of homophobic proportions and how the victim in it decides not to fold but rather rise from the ashes of that terrible beatdown. But in his evolving and climbing out from that hell hole the boys who beat him put him in, there are voices in his head that do their level best to protect him and try and guide him. He is comforted by that inner-gayboy voice that has always been there for him \u2013 warning him, throwing up red flags and cautionary flares whenever that inner-gayboy\u00a0perceived a threat in Elliot’s\u00a0world. It had served him well for most of his young gayboy life, but ultimately that voice failed him when he most needed it. Something had to change for him to evolve.<\/p>\n

Elliot makes mistakes as he emerges, in this he learns to find a steely core in himself (personified by a new internal voice he calls Bitchboi). I use these competing voices (gayboy and Bitchboi) to demonstrate that evolution. What Elliot learns is that it isn’t just one voice over the other, but rather a learned and intentional concert of those two voices that enable Elliot to truly soar above his beatdown.<\/p>\n

Elliot also surprised me as a character. I mean, I know his arc, I know what he’s made of \u2013 he is my invention after all \u2013 but he still found ways to take me on a journey as his creator. In that way, he came to life even more than I ever dreamed he would. I loved his new levels of vulnerability and how he learned to turn those feelings of inadequacy into defensive mechanisms that helped him cope with not only his rising from his attack, but how to turn the tables on those who became new threats to his already fragile world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Angels<\/a>

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

 <\/p>\n

This book truly lives up to its name \u2013 it has risen in my estimation and in my love for the work. A simple mistake of my husband nudging me (erroneously) to redo Volume 2 in Elliot’s voice (instead of the planned POV of his boyfriend, Marco) and I have been completely been blown away by what came out of that. It was a book that, when I realized the mistake of writing it in Elliot’s voice, was doomed for the digital fire as a scrapped piece of prose. It was my husband who saved it \u2013 ironic, isn’t it? He said:<\/p>\n

Why don’t you just release it as a companion book to Marco’s?<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At first I didn’t see the brilliance or the possibilities that it would present. But now I do. Now I couldn’t be happier with this mistake of a novel. I only hope my readers do.<\/p>\n

It isn’t a proper Angels novel. It isn’t a planned part of the Angels canon but it WORKS!<\/p>\n

I couldn’t be happier.<\/p>\n

Here’s hoping my readers agree with that assessment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Until next time …<\/p>\n

\u2013\u00a0SA C<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Embracing the Improbable It shouldn’t exist. I never intended it to exist, yet, there it is.     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. Its evolution was predicated on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[377,552,551,94,598,580,216,234,5,4,199,198,3,32,396,145,18,325],"tags":[68,364,762,67,766,530,318,763,66,651,765,17,764,761],"class_list":["post-1860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-authors-voices","category-book-promotion","category-book-release","category-characters-reimagined","category-cover-artwork","category-gays-in-sports","category-journey","category-language","category-mm-lovefest","category-homoerotica","category-male-feelings","category-men","category-novel-writing","category-pathos","category-the-craft","category-words-have-power","category-writing","category-young-adult-realities","tag-angels-of-mercy","tag-book-release","tag-companion-works","tag-elliot-donahey","tag-evolving","tag-football","tag-homophobia","tag-inner-voices","tag-marco-sforza","tag-mercy","tag-mistakes","tag-novel","tag-perceptions","tag-phoenix-in-the-fire"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/els01_500px.jpg?fit=378%2C500&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75tPU-u0","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1844,"url":"https:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1844","url_meta":{"origin":1860,"position":0},"title":"Poking and the Art of Evolution","author":"S A Collins","date":"January 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Poking and the Art of Evolution\u00a0 I'm a poker. Have been most of my life \u2013 probably since childhood. It starts because something catches my interest. I'm like a crow in that way. I bumble along completely thinking of something else or another and then \u2013 WHAM! \u2013 something catches\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Authors Voices"","block_context":{"text":"Authors Voices","link":"https:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=377"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/AoM_Phoenix_FINAL_2016_500px.jpg?fit=500%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1820,"url":"https:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1820","url_meta":{"origin":1860,"position":1},"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":"https:\/\/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":1866,"url":"https:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1866","url_meta":{"origin":1860,"position":2},"title":"Embracing Equality Means …","author":"S A Collins","date":"February 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Embracing Equality Means ... \u00a0 \u00a0 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. 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I've tugged on my beta\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Authors Voices"","block_context":{"text":"Authors Voices","link":"https:\/\/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-1024x705.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1813,"url":"https:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1813","url_meta":{"origin":1860,"position":4},"title":"BOOK RELEASE – Angels of Mercy – Volume Two: Marco (The Fall of the Sforzas)","author":"S A Collins","date":"November 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"BOOK RELEASE - Angels of Mercy - Volume Two: Marco (The Fall of the Sforzas) Hey all! I know it's been a helluva long time since I've posted. It hasn't been for not wanting to. I've had LOTS to say on stuff. Some of which I did on other blogs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Authors Voices"","block_context":{"text":"Authors Voices","link":"https:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=377"},"img":{"alt_text":"Angels of Mercy - Volume Two: Marco AVAILABLE NOW!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biz141.inmotionhosting.com\/~akweko6\/sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/AoMv2Cvr_Marco_Comp_blogsize500.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1984,"url":"https:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1984","url_meta":{"origin":1860,"position":5},"title":"Angels of Mercy – Phoenix In The Fire (Book Cover Creation)","author":"S A Collins","date":"June 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Angels of Mercy - Phoenix In The Fire (Book Cover Creation) \u00a0 PLEASE NOTE: This post assumes you have a general knowledge (or wish to gain said knowledge) of how Adobe Photoshop functions and makes no attempt to walk you through that process. 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