Unlikely Angels

Today I officially launch my creative fiction, Unlikely Angels, through Taj Mahal Publishing in India. That means today it is available to order on Amazon or through the publisher. Soon I will also have some copies for sale.

During the pandemic there is not much fanfare with a book launch so this announcement is how I choose to launch Unlikely Angels at this time. Let me tell you about the story.

Unlikely Angels is a story about one woman’s search for the pieces of her heart, some hidden in her past with her estranged German grandmother and others in her future with a Native Elder, an infant granddaughter and a terminally ill middle child.

As a child, Emma created and controlled her unfriendly world through her imagination, her happiest days spent alone in the woods with her beloved crows. The crows became her best friends, and, when trauma fractured her mind and the emotions threatened to consume her, it was her friends, both real and imaginary, that kept her from surrendering to the pain and depression that threatened to end her young life.

Growing up, she medicated her pain with alcohol, drugs and sex. Her male partners grew increasingly more dangerous and her attempts to mother the children born from these liaisons were hampered by the abuse. Emma soon realized she had no identity; she had lost the pieces of her heart that would give her the autonomy and purpose she needed to be whole.

Eventually, Emma discovers she has been guided in her quest by many people placed in her path strategically by a Master Plan. There have been numerous unlikely angels watching over her – mentors and guides – like Mr. Grable at Boyce’s Farmers Market in Fredericton, NB; Bryd, a storytelling crow who shares his version of the Creation myth with her; Mig’maq artist Sabian Grey Cloud, and Emma’s gay Spanish friend, Pietro, the philosopher.

In the end, it is her imagination and their stories that save her, return her innocence and set her free. She is re-created as she finds both her voice and a heart that is finally whole.

This tale, with talking crows and “unlikely angels” illustrates how alternative worlds and created characters act as a survival mechanism when trauma presents itself. The notion that re-storying oneself can bring healing is succinctly knitted into the stories that unite each character, and the stories are what connects Emma to her own power.

This book is dedicated to three “unlikely angels” who touched my life: my former supervisor at School District 18 (as it was once called) Nic Plimmer and my two former sponsors Ted Hudson and Cedric Stewart. They have all passed on now but their impact on my life lives on.

Book available at Amazon and Cyberwit

This was a different project than any others I’ve worked on. Unlikely Angels had its beginnings back in the days when I was finishing up my MA in Creative Writing at UNB back in 1999. It was pushed aside for several years and then I brought it out about five years ago and started to rewrite it but it actually saw very little of my attention until two years ago because I was committed to finishing In the Arms of Inup: the extraordinary story of a Guatemalen survivor and his quest for healing from trauma which was released by HARP Publishing in February 2021. So, even though Unlikely Angels was kept on the back burner, the time came when I decided it was finished and needed to find its own place in the world. I knew these were very different times and this was a very different book so I decided to take a totally different route. Unlikely Angels would be published in a totally different country and be distributed mainly online by Cyberwit or through Amazon. Let me tell you a bit about the publisher.

Cyberwit, developed by Taj Mahal Publishers, India, creates a platform, where different nations meet at a single place.

Dr. Karunesh Kumar Agrawal had a dream. He wanted to build the greatest gathering of Creative Artists, to create a better world, so 21 years ago he established a publishing house which he hoped could give an opportunity to new as well as established authors to publish their books.

Cyberwit editor Dr. Santosh Kumar is a poet, short-story writer and an editor from India; DPhil in English; Editor of Taj Mahal Review and Harvests of New Millennium Journals; several awards; member of World Poets Society (W.P.S.); member of World Haiku Association, Japan.

In the beginning, the focus was on poetry. Several renowned poets and writers like Adam Donaldson Powell, Norway (who has 13 books on GOODREADS), Albert Russo, France (who fights racism of all stripes in his work), AZsacra ZARATHUSTRA (Russia) and María Cristina Azcona (Argentina) got things started.

Today there are writers from USA, UK, Norway, Ireland, Romania, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Canada, Argentina, Spain, France, Portugal, Japan and many others.