The beginnings of EMBRACE and Violet's exiled angels

As Monday is the official launch day of the new EMBRACE THE SERIES website in the US www.embracetheseries.com I thought I'd post a blog on the 'Beginnings of EMBRACE'. Drop by the site when you get a chance and sign up to receive exclusive updates from the US!

If someone had told me six months before I started writing EMBRACE that I’d soon write a manuscript that would be published internationally and would lead to an ongoing series … I would have, most likely, laughed.

It isn’t that I wouldn’t have loved the idea – but I was raising two very young girls and had recently moved back to Sydney after living a very busy, corporate life, in London.

Moving back to Australia presented me with the first time, since finishing school, where I wasn’t expected to work extremely long weeks and be responsible for not just myself, but a team of staff.

I thought I would revel in it. I’d been so desperate to get home with my family. I dreaded the idea of ever having to return to work. But then, I guess there is work and there is work.

Matt (my husband) and I bought an old home and started to slowly do it up. We also had our second daughter, Winter (Winnie), and I braced myself for the inevitable trials that come with a newborn – but really, she was a dream-baby.

And so, not used to having free time … in my downtime I found myself reading, reading, reading. I also found myself breaking down the plots, the characters, and looking for the pros and cons in each story.

Until one day, I walked into the kitchen, sat up at the breakfast bar and opened my laptop. I’d always loved writing, but I’d never considered it as a potential career. I think in many ways that was the best way to begin because I didn’t put unrealistic expectations on myself. Every word I wrote was because I absolutely wanted to shape and tell this story. That was the day I discovered Violet. And little did I know, that day was the beginning of an amazing journey, which has shaped my dreams, ambition, and my future. Now, I simply cannot imagine doing anything else. I’d go as far as saying that I discovered a big part of myself that day, too.

I wrote the introduction to Violet’s character and developed a feel for her world. Once I thought I had a good grasp on her character I started to explore those around her – and then, the research began. I quickly discovered the world of angels and the scope of knowledge is both rich and very broad. I realized quickly the importance of being selective and committed to what I chose to draw on.

One of the threads of my research (because there are way too many to discuss in one blog) that really stuck with me was the concept of corporeal vs. non-corporeal.

It’s widely agreed that if angels do, in fact, exist – they would certainly be non-corporeal (have no physical form). This enables angels to be in more than one place at one time. To not be confined by physical limitations, to have a broader and greater knowledge and to move with the speed of a thought.

So … if angels chose to ‘fall’ or ‘exile’ to earth and within that choice also came the assumption of a human form – then what exactly would happen to them?

CAN YOU IMAGINE IT?
Having existed for millennia, unconfined, uninhabited, completely free to go where you want, when you want, completely spirit-like – to suddenly be thrust inside a human body, which effectively acts as a prison of flesh.

It’s a mind-boggling concept and one that really excited me for Violet’s story as it gave me so much to work with.


In EMBRACE, Violet comes up against exiled angels, but they are not at all what one would expect because, as I chose to maintain the concept of angels being non-corporeal – then exiles are forced to deal with a lot of adjusting and not just in adapting to physical forms but also to a bodies natural responses to emotions. They would never before have felt a physical manifestation of anger or desire, of delight, or sorrow. You can imagine what an overload these intense emotions could cause, not to mention the frustration and fear that would come from being restricted in a human cage that relied on food to power up and oxygen every few seconds.

Needless to say, it opened up the option of making exiles angels, whilst incredibly powerful, also – incredibly insane.

And that … made for some very interesting characters.


So, this is where it all began. Me with a laptop and an idea about a girl named Violet who finds herself caught up in an ancient battle between somewhat insane exiled angels on earth and the angel-human warriors that defend humanity.

It seemed like a good place to start.


The guys came next …