ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and a new book seeks to tell the story of the man who inspired the holiday, St. Valentine.
The book, “The Legend of Valentine,” written by Sheldon Collins, follows the story of Valentine, a once fearsome warrior reborn from the brink of death, who sheds his violent past for a new destiny inspired by his blind lover, Agatha. Amidst the ruthless rule of a merciless emperor, Valentine undertakes a clandestine mission – uniting couples in secret ceremonies and defying imperial decrees that threaten to obliterate the Christian faith. As Valentine’s covert acts of defiance grow bolder, he challenges the tyrannical order, planting the seeds for a celebration of love that will echo.
Collins said the book took a while to put together.
“I actually have to work backwards – it came out last year in audiobook edition and print. Prior to that, I was directing and producing the audiobook, which overlapped a little bit of everything. I actually got started with the audiobook and casting and everything even before finishing the book, so everything's a little bit scattered because I serve two different roles,” Collins said. “The audiobook production was a 14-month process, and then writing the novel was probably about a year and a half writing. However, the novel I had originally written as a feature screenplay several years prior – back in 2012 I had written the novel as a feature film, and we got very close to getting it made with a big studio, but it never got made. That was one of the reasons I picked up writing novels, I wanted to go back to that subject matter because I really believed in it. I picked it up, and it was about a year and a half of writing and researching and all that kind of stuff combined, and developmental editing and working with, you know, his, my fact checkers and all that kind of stuff through the through the writing phase of it.”
Collins, who is a bit of a history buff, said the inspiration for the book came from a friend of his.
“I've always been fascinated by history and historical dramas, but it really wasn't in my wheelhouse as a writer when I was screenwriting early on. Early on in my career, I was focusing more on writing and directing for television, and I was more known for comedy and some drama. A friend of mine was attracted to the St. Valentine story that sits in public domain, and when people look up who is St. Valentine, it comes up how he might have been a healer,” Collins said. “My friend was drawn to these stories about how Valentine could have been a healer, so he brought his ideas to me, and he said 'I'd really like you to write this as a screenwriter, and go out and try to make it as a movie,' but I warned him that process isn't exactly easy. I liked historical peer period pieces and historical subject matter. It required a lot of work at that time to develop it into a feature screenplay, and my writing partner and I at that time thought it was something could be marketable, but then it all ultimately fell out. I circled back to it years later, and it just kept really bugging me as a writer, and I really wanted to dive deeper into the story.”
Shortly after that was when the official writing began, Collins said.
“Going through the process of writing the novel forced me to go much deeper than I ever did a screenwriter, because you're getting into all the thinking patterns of the characters and so forth, not just describing the external world. It also pushed me to get my facts straight that are related to St. Valentine's story, because there are multiple aspects that walk a fine line between a mythical retelling and historical retelling,” Collins said. “I had my fact checkers who are historians – one who was in the U.S. and one who was in Italy since a lot of the story is rooted in ancient Rome, and they went through my manuscript after I did all my research, and it really led me down a rabbit hole. It really started almost 20 years ago from a friend pointing me in that direction, then it got a little bit further developed with the screenplay process, and then it got even further developed through the process of really working on it for almost a year and a half.”
And as the process went along, Collins said he discovered multiple differences between screenplay writing and novel writing.
“When I envision stuff, I'm very visual in terms of the way I see stories, think about stories, and even write stories. When I sit down to write a novel, which was the first time I did this in a very long time, and now I'm excited about continuing to do it,” Collins said. “It really forced me to think more about what all the characters are thinking, and to get into their thoughts and further dissect their backstories. In a screenplay, we mostly see the characters where they are in that moment and don't get as much backstory. When you get into a novel, those details come out a lot more in terms of the backstory of the characters, the thoughts of the characters, the feelings of the characters, and so writing all of that is an interesting challenge. There are so many aspects that are similar, yet many things that are different too, and that required me to study more, and I enjoyed the process.”
Collins said he was excited to finish the novel, and added it can be found in multiple places.
“It's an amazing process writing a historical fiction novel. I was a rhetoric major at Berkeley, and I thought that was a lot of work, turning in 10 or 15-page papers and taking sides of arguments and stuff like that every week, and that's how it felt through the whole process because every chapter was about 10 to 20 pages, and it was one after another after another, until I got up to about 32 chapters and had a fully fleshed out novel,” Collins said. “And historical novels go so much further because you have to honor history, or at least honor the mythical retelling of history – in this case, especially with it being more of a legend, and you have to get as many of your facts right. I was very careful about that, and it felt amazing to finally finish. It was really like finishing a marathon, just the writing process of it, but my ambitions in getting the story out are far greater than just the novel itself. The novel is available almost everywhere online, either on Amazon, or they can also go to my Web site, sheldoncollins.com. The audiobook just came out in October, and it won several wonderful awards, which we were blown away by. I directed 20 different cast members from all over the world who all did their recording in their studios from home. At the end of the day, this story has a strong message about love. It's been really amazing to see the reaction of the audience.”
Overall, Collins said, he is excited to continue seeing readers’ reactions.
“This is really a story about love, but I think there's a little bit in there for everybody. If you appreciate history, there's a lot of history in there. Some aspects are very clear and grounded in history, like emperors and politicians, but Valentine and the legend of what he did and why we celebrate Valentine's Day today is really interesting because it developed over centuries,” Collins said. “What the book does is pull everything together, and it gives readers this beautiful story with romance and some action.”
