SA “Baz” Collins hails from the San Francisco Bay Area where he lives with his husband, and a Somali 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 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 this website 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 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 this website and as a co-host of the wrotepodcast.com series.
My Influences …
These books influenced not only my writing, but saved me during my impressionable teenaged years. The M/M genre tends to sugar coat and try to protect adolescent youth from knowing about sex and their burgeoning sexuality, but from my own experiences we gay boys are very clever to find our own ways to get to the meat of the matter. In this heady information age, I am sure it is far easier to sort out and discover that you're not alone (though sadly, some still do still feel that way). The works I cite below were my go-tos, my anchor to this world. I am deeply indebted to these brave, brilliant men in my life - even if I never met any of them. While I cite only two author’s works below, there were several others - Felice Picano, Andrew Holleran, Paul Monette, and Edmund White to name a few, who were instrumental in forming my young queer boy life. I owe them SO much in keeping me sane during a turbulent time in my youth.
At the tender and inquisitive age of 16 this book changed everything for me.
Gordon Merrick's Peter and Charlie Series - The Lord Won't Mind
For the first time I could read about men who felt as I did. The struggles they faced, the love the had for one another. I purchased it at a bookstore in a mall while my parents were elsewhere shopping. I snuck it back home and promptly made a book cover for it from a paper bag.
This book has such sentimental value to me. It told me that I was going to be okay. That I had the possibility of happiness. That there were other boys like me in the world. Probably saved me from going crazy, or worse.
I can't tell you how many times I read the entire catalog by Gordon Merrick. I adored his work, because he kept me sane in a very upside-down time.
Sorry Mom and Dad, you may have given me my ethics and morality that I carry to this day, but these two men gave me my grounding in my life as a gay man.
Gordon Merrick's Peter and Charlie Series - The Lord Won't Mind
For the first time I could read about men who felt as I did. The struggles they faced, the love the had for one another. I purchased it at a bookstore in a mall while my parents were elsewhere shopping. I snuck it back home and promptly made a book cover for it from a paper bag.
This book has such sentimental value to me. It told me that I was going to be okay. That I had the possibility of happiness. That there were other boys like me in the world. Probably saved me from going crazy, or worse.
I can't tell you how many times I read the entire catalog by Gordon Merrick. I adored his work, because he kept me sane in a very upside-down time.
Sorry Mom and Dad, you may have given me my ethics and morality that I carry to this day, but these two men gave me my grounding in my life as a gay man.
The second book to influence my teenaged desire to find out about what being gay meant for me, was John Rechy's remarkable and provocative book 'The Sexual Outlaw.'
It was gritty, it was moving, it explained to me that being a man meant that I'd have these types of desires - perhaps not to the extent that John did, but that they would be there nonetheless.
John Rechy was my teacher of what was out there, what it meant, and what to look out for. Rechy's book gave me a primer for the darker, seedier side of a gay man's life. I was transformed by it.
It was gritty, it was moving, it explained to me that being a man meant that I'd have these types of desires - perhaps not to the extent that John did, but that they would be there nonetheless.
John Rechy was my teacher of what was out there, what it meant, and what to look out for. Rechy's book gave me a primer for the darker, seedier side of a gay man's life. I was transformed by it.
Numbers was the most dangerous book I've ever read. Mostly because this book dug deep within - making me look at my own lust, what satiated my own burgeoning desires in men. There is a dark part like this book in every man. The desire for lustful conquest, of seeking out that next good fuck. Numbers was intoxicating and gratifying in the extreme. No other book since has rattled what I knew about myself like this book.
Lastly, it was John Rechy's City of Night. Another brilliant, brilliant and deeply honest work. It was a world I had no knowledge of but was able to safely and with a solid eye to my own destiny, live vicariously in this remarkable and substantive work.
While Gordon Merrick satisfied my heart, Rechy satiated my lust.
I am deeply indebted to these remarkable and notable authors.
General Disclaimer - As I write fictional literature with a decidedly queer perspective, I want to make it abundantly clear that I have used imagery of male models that I feel help me convey the vision I have in my head and in my works, but in NO WAY does it imply, construe or insinuate the nature of the male model's proclivities or personal orientation. They are intended merely as a representation as near to I can come to visually describe the men in my works. All copyrights apply to their original content owners (where applicable). I make no such claim.