Title: ‘Nephilim’ Mercy’s Little Angels, Book 1
by
SA Collins and Francesca Donatella
Release date: December 15, 2018
Cover Artist: Michael Broderick of hottlead.com
Blurb
Set in the roaring disco age of 1976, Elliot
Donahey, a boy with a huge secret identity finds his world growing darker and
less stable. He foolishly thought high school was hell on Earth, how little he
knows - Lucifer is just getting started. With his ragtag collection of friends,
outcasts, the fringe of high school strata, give or take a drag queen or
cheerleader, Elliot must sort out his place in the world and choose whether to
accept the mantle being passed to him, or deny it and risk losing everyone he
loves by walking away.
Guest Post
Nephilim
– the very word conjures a conflict of imagery and mythos. There are only
a few passages within Biblical text that refer to them. Nephilim, quite
literally, means “the fallen ones.” The fall in this case is not the one
Lucifer took, but rather, its meaning comes from “the sons of god” copulating
with the “daughters of Adam” – the divine paternity transforming (or
falling) into the human condition, albeit a human with near god-like capabilities.
The biblical texts, when they mention the Nephilim (Genesis 6, Ezekiel 32, and Numbers 13), are often aligned
with the Rephaim (or “dead ones”). Why there are two associations with these
godling creations is not clear. The dead ones, scholars tell us, are people
who’ve ascended to a pseudo-sainthood status. But the God giants, the Nephilim
(Anaqim, Og and Goliath) have but one united purpose – to oppose Israel and
die. It is this usage that conflates the Nephilim word.
So, that’s
the angelic history of the word. But does it have to be the definitive one?
That was the question that continued conversations between authors SA “Baz”
Collins and, fan of the original series this release stems from, Wendy Stone,
writing as Francesca (Frankie) Donatella – a pen name that has its own ties to
the series (but we’ll come to that in a bit) decided to rebrand Baz’s queer
romance Angels of Mercy series as a
paranormal YA lark adventure with all the things that go bump in the night.
We’re very
happy to be able to share a little bit about our boys, girls and drag queens as
well as the very talented Michael Broderick’s (of Hottlead.com) amazing work with you, our potential readers. Given
that all we kept saying to him was “vampires, werewolves, witches, angels,
demons, high school kids who listen to disco and drag queens”, we think that he
really captured the essence of what our story is about! Big shout out to
Michael for his brilliant interpretation of our ramblings!
So, let us
tell you a little bit about how we, Baz and Frankie, collaborated to give the Angels of Mercy characters an alternate
story within the realms of the supernatural hammered out in the pages of Nephilim.
Baz: So, why don’t you tell peeps how
you and I got to where we did with it all?
Frankie: It all started when you wrote Angels of Mercy and I read the work. I
was an instant fan. I love these boys HARD! So much so, that I connected with
you and we started a journey over the space of a year or so where we would
discuss that world as you built it leading to this rebranding of that world. In
fact, to separate it from the original work we even, off-worlded it. Being the
dorks that we are, we wondered what would happen if we took the whole crew of
Angels characters and re-casted them as a real paranormal – instead of inferred
as you did with the original. It was either going to work out or be the dumbest
hare-brained scheme of all time!
Baz: Well, the jury’s still out on that
one … (laughs). And you even decided to adopt my character of Francesca
Donatella (Sforza) as your pen name. So, there’s a tie into the original work
from there as well.
Frankie: I loved her. It’s great that I can
be as kick-ass as she is in the books! Well, in my head at any rate. (laughs)
We’ve taken them out of the queer romance contemporary world you had them in
and thrown them into an alternate earth, in the roaring 70s disco era back when
the tech era hadn’t quite happened yet and added tons of paranormal to this new
version. Our queer Scooby gang are
essentially upper classmen in a Catholic high school set in the town of Mercy,
California where things appear picturesque with the rugged northern California
coastline complete with steep cliffs and the iconic windswept cypresses that
give that part of the world its dramatic appeal only to discover that things
are becoming murkier with each turn of the page. Maybe this would be a good
time to tell everyone a bit about the thruple at the center of it?
Baz: Fair enough. Well, without being
too spoilery of the original work as it’s been picked up by NineStar Press to
be repackaged next year, what we can say is that the main pairing in Angels of Mercy – which I played
with the idea of falling in love with a guy who you didn’t know had an
identical twin and what could come out of it, to actually putting the twins
front and center and seeing how the three of them would navigate their growing
relationship while contending with other supernatural creatures. I guess we’re
taking a page out of Joss Whedon’s Buffy-verse and using the same metaphor of
the heightened drama springing from those often horrific years of high school
and the demons kids wrestle with only making them real demons, ya know?
Frankie: Yeah, and I guess it’s worth
mentioning that the three boys from Angels
all bear angelic names and, in our case, we’ve taken their namesakes quite
literally:
Elliot Donahey, (our Nephilim) who goes by his middle name,
we discover his first name is Cassiel, the angel of regrets and
tears. Then we have the identical twins: Marco Rafael Sforza, the
archangel – he probably has one of the most pivotal roles in this new version,
and Pietro Azreal Sforza (the avenging angel who sits in judgement).
The focus on
the first book is to set up this alternate Earth and how it deviates from our
own, but with enough similarities that our readers should feel comfortable
understanding what we’re throwing at our characters this time around. In Nephilim, it is primarily the journey
Elliot takes to discover what he is before the darkness that is slowly
spiraling around him and his friends.
Baz: Exactly, and while each book will
have its own beginning, middle and end, it will still contribute to the larger
arc of Elliot not only choosing whether or not to pick up the mantle he’s been
given, or choose to set it aside at the peril of those he loves most dear, but
if he does pick it up what personal cost will he have to pay then?
Frankie: It should make for one helluva
journey, that’s for sure!
We hope you
all will join us as we discover what Elliot and his ragtag clan get into as
they navigate the murky waters of Mercy High starting with Nephilim – Book One of the Mercy’s Little Angels Series.
We want to
express our deep thanks to Diverse Reader
for allowing us this little space to do our cover reveal and hope people will
be intrigued enough to pick it up!
IMPORTANT MESSAGE
A portion of the proceeds of the sale of each book will be
donated to our dear friend Paul Berry, who is fighting cancer and also struggles
to pay for his cancer medication.
He’s been a long-time supporter of our LGBT book community
as the blog owner of Gay Media Reviews, a reader and a friend to all. We want
to give something back to him in a way that can ease some of his burden.
We are having an event on the RGR MM and LGBT Book Events group on the 23rd
(Black Friday) to hype interest in the release and will be giving some
special items away that have been donated by several authors, publishing
houses and artists. For readers to enter for the giveaway they will be
making a donation to Paul’s PayPal to help him with the cost of his
medication. Sending me a screen-shot of the donation will enter them in
the giveaway.
Here’s the link to the group if you need it…
About The Authors
SA “Baz” Collins hails from the San Francisco
Bay Area where he lives with his husband and an exotic cat named Zorro. A
classically trained singer/actor (under a different name), Baz knows a good
yarn when he sees it.
Based on years of his work as an actor, Baz specializes in character study pieces. It is more important for him as an author that the reader comes away with a greater understanding of the characters, and the reasons they make the decisions they do, rather than the situations they are in. It is this deep dive into their manners, their experiences and how they process the world around them that make up the body of Mr. Collins' work.
You can find his works at sacollins.com, violetquillredux.com and as a co-host of the wrotepodcast.com series.
Based on years of his work as an actor, Baz specializes in character study pieces. It is more important for him as an author that the reader comes away with a greater understanding of the characters, and the reasons they make the decisions they do, rather than the situations they are in. It is this deep dive into their manners, their experiences and how they process the world around them that make up the body of Mr. Collins' work.
You can find his works at sacollins.com, violetquillredux.com and as a co-host of the wrotepodcast.com series.
Links:
Francesca Donatella aka “Frankie”
Was born when a fan-girl needed a pen name and one of her
favorite authors generously donated a character for her to become.
New to the world of writing, she’s been part of the LGBT
book community for several years. Finally finding the courage to believe in
herself enough to share the stories in her head.
Links:
Giveaway
Thank you for supporting these fantastic authors...they are amazing people. can’t wait for this book!!
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