S.C. Parris's Blog: News and Information, page 5
November 15, 2016
Vampires & Blood Talk
As I write this from my car in my school's parking lot, the thought of vampires and my YouTube show--Blood Talk--and the recent podcast I've done with J.A. Ironside and M.E. Vaughan has brought to light my love for vampires and all fantastic creatures/monsters.
I'll start with Vampires as that's what I write/talk the most about:
People often ask me why I chose to write about Vampires, and my answer always is: I didn't choose to write about Vampires; they chose me.
As I've said on this blog before, my mother is to blame (or thank) for my avid interest in all things Dark. She would watch all the old horror movies while pregnant with me, and I guess some of it rubbed off on the little premature baby inside.
Anyway, Vampires are hypnotic, sexy, cruel, damned, monstrous, needy, and, I think, necessary.
I believe that's why I enjoy writing about them so much: I see myself--and other people--in their monstrous, damned, blood-needing ways. It's easy to relate to them, at least to me, and I draw from every day experience as I write my brand of Vampire.
They are blood drinkers, they do not deny that, and they move forward as best they can--but most importantly, being the creatures they are.
And that's an important distinction to make, at least for me. They do not try and hide behind whatever vestige of humanity they may have lost in their transition. They are monsters--and it makes me love them more.
Not a "love" kind of love, more of a "these maddening assholes are damaged, ruined, and messing everything up!" ;)
And I'm enjoying the reviews of The Dark World: Book 1 so far where the reviewers have said they enjoy the "otherness" of the Vampires and the other creatures, which just thrills me that it is gotten at all.
I guess as an "other," myself, it comes easy.
Whatever the case, tune in soon for another post on those monsters Vampires hate: Lycans!
With Blood and Love,
S.C. Parris
September 28, 2016
REVIEW: Pretty When She Destroys by Rhiannon Frater
5/5 Stars
What a fucking ride.
I'm so satisfied with the end of Amaliya and group's story, and I love the little opening at the end in case there is ever a continuation. (hint hint wink wink)
I loved Amaliya and Cian's continued love and LOVED that there was no 'confusion' plot that dragged them away from each other amidst preparing for the big battle like there often is in urban fantasy (not that I MIND those plots, I quite love them), but not one to focus on too much on the romance of the characters, Rhiannon balances the action, suspense, and bad guy undercurrents with everything else nicely.
Although it seemed the big bad had a bit too much on their side, (I remember wondering just how the protags would come out on top in the face of all the bad guys had against them) the heroes came out victorious in the end, and in my currently dark state of mind, this is just the ending I was looking for.
Link to My Review on Goodreads
I know this blog has fallen to the wayside in the past few, okay, several months, but I've been dealing with a bunch of changes, none of which I will go in depth with here, just know I'm still alive, still working, and surprise! attending school again!
How is my writing going with all of these things happening? Short answer: It's not!
I've finally reached a point where I can stare at my manuscript and get some desire to continue writing, but inevitably sleep or school work or food takes precedent and I put off the writing until later...which, of course, never truthfully comes.
But fear not, it is always like this when starting a new book for me, at least in this series. This is the book where (gasp) someone very important to the plot of things dies and if you've read this blog through all of its change of addresses, you know who that is (Book 5, people), and if you don't, well, you're just gonna have to read the series to see who gets the axe. :) Sinister ain't it?
I think so.
Speaking of sinister, I've had some lovely sales at my nearest B&N, and my book signing (which I never blogged about and don't think I will now, oops!), was awesome and I plan to do another soon for my next books, and I see that THE DARK WORLD is available in other stores which is always a pleasant surprise.
If you do see a copy languishing somewhere on shelves near you, do take a picture with it and tag me in it/send it to me, hm? I love love love seeing copies of my books in readers hands or just hanging out on shelves it knows it has no business being on. Gets me every time. Well, I'm off to finally get some words down!
With Blood and Love!
And don't forget to pre-order THE IMMORTAL'S GUIDE due out Oct 25th, 2016! Just in time for Halloween!
August 30, 2016
The Dark World is OUT!
It's been a long time coming.
But the day is finally here.
The Dark World: Book 1 is out in the world and I find myself both excited and terrified.
I've been busy getting reoriented back into school hence me not throwing a Facebook release party. I may do one for the release of THE IMMORTAL'S GUIDE, but for now, The Dark World's release has gone wonderfully, at least to me.
The amount of feedback I've gotten from those currently reading their ARC copies is reassuring and humbling.
The questions and emails I get from aspiring young writers like myself has blown me away. I don't consider myself any sort of expert on anything writing at all. (Maybe that's why I'm still in school), but I do want to inspire young authors - namely young women - to reach their goals. Even if one does not have aspirations to write - whatever one wants to do, it can be accomplished.
I've been called a role model by absolute strangers, and I can't help but smile and inwardly scream at these remarks.
The Dark World (the series in its entirety), is me laid bare. All my anxieties, my fears, my struggles with low self-esteem, the need for often constant approval from family and friends and romantic relationships, are represented in various characters, situations, and dialogue. Though one would be hard-pressed to find a character that directly represents someone in my life, they are all there, mixed in my colorful cast of Vampires, Lycans, Enchanters, Dragons, Merpeople, Elves, and Elite Creatures.
I hope those that deal with anxiety and/or depression recognize these ailments in my characters and understand this is not a 'fun, light-hearted journey,' this is a maddening tale, a fairytale I call it.
It explores the bounds of the 'chosen hero,' the 'reluctant hero,' and male and female relationship in terms of power (how power is often portrayed in media), as well as the 'adventure' theme.
There are lessons upon lessons intertwined within the story (and I mean the entirety of the series, not just Book 1), and I hope these reach you just as they are reaching me, healing me, being purged from me.
I hope those of you who do pick up The Dark World can look back on it years from now and find something new within its pages that you did not before.
Thank you for following me thus far, and thank you for pre-ordering, for reading, for being enthusiastic about my success. It means the world to me and more.
I love you all.
I hope you love The Dark World series as much as I do, if not more.
With Blood and Love,
S.C. Parris
June 3, 2016
REVIEW: The Black Seas of Infinity by Dan Henk
As usual, I'm posting my Goodreads review first:
The Black Seas of Infinity by Dan HenkMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a very well-put together read. In hindsight, I feel like I watched an awesome, well thought-out movie. The pacing was excellent, the character was interesting, and you really feel drawn into his world.
The character's thoughts were realistic, and what I love about Henk's work is that while set in the real world, (relatively), there are hints of mysticism and downright out-thereness that just works.
It took me so long to read because I'm terrible with reading things lately, and busy, but it was not the fault of the book in any way, shape, or form.
This was a riveting, sci-fi jaunt, and it makes me want to upload my consciousness into an alien body suit if only to see what the fuck would happen. (And if it's anything like what happened, here, count me the fuck in.)
View all my reviews
If you can't read that, then here it is:
This was a very well-put together read. In hindsight, I feel like I watched an awesome, well thought-out movie. The pacing was excellent, the character was interesting, and you really feel drawn into his world.
The character's thoughts were realistic, and what I love about Henk's work is that while set in the real world, (relatively), there are hints of mysticism and downright out-thereness that just works.
It took me so long to read because I'm terrible with reading things lately, and busy, but it was not the fault of the book in any way, shape, or form.
This was a riveting, sci-fi jaunt, and it makes me want to upload my consciousness into an alien body suit if only to see what the fuck would happen. (And if it's anything like what happened, here, count me the fuck in.)
Dan Henk's Website | Instagram | Facebook
Check his shit out. It will blow your mind.
With Blood and Love,
S.C. Parris
June 1, 2016
MAPS!
I, for one, LOVE LOVE LOVE fantasy maps in books so as I began setting up all the things to prepare for my release, I decided to contact this awesome designer, The Noble Artist, that I'd followed on Facebook about a year ago.
We agreed on what I wanted, I'd sent him a crappy sketch mock-up I did of roughly what I wanted it to look like. And he, ever the amazing artist, sent me this beauty:
I'm gonna make print versions once I get the full-resolution to bring to signings and such since the first book will not have the map inside. (All subsequent books will.)
So there you have it? Do you like The Dark World? Do you hate it?
Confused about something?
Let me know!
With Blood and Love,
S.C. Parris
May 22, 2016
I Realize I Never Did A Cover-Reveal On My Own Blog
How silly of me.
By now, you've seen them, but I think it good to have it in my archive just 'cause.
Here are the gorgeous covers done by Christian for Books 1, 2, and 3 in The Dark World series.
He captured all the nuances of each book beautifully, and his attention to detail to character is astounding. I'm extremely happy with them.
Just so no one's confused, however, I will say that these books follow a group of characters, as such there are scene dividers and threads of everyone's story as the series progresses.
For the first cover, that mean-looking gentleman is Christian Delacroix (note the golden ring on a finger), Xavier Delacroix's brother. Though the story mostly follows Xavier, Christian plays a larger role in the series as a whole and I'm thoroughly pleased he was placed on the front cover for the first book that does, just so you know, take place in London.
For Book 2, the adamant-looking woman with ripped clothes is Alexandria Stone. She is our resident human in this dark fantasy and is being dragged across the Dark World much against her will, but there's a quiet fire to her that lingers just beneath her surface. Also note the paleness of her face from left to right--a beautiful denotation of her struggle and what she's undergoing in this story.
For Book 3 we are blessed with Alexandria Stone again, yet she is notably different. Her face is all but pale, her eyes glow red, and she has a darker glow about her--indeed, the wood she frequents is twisted now, bats spread throughout. This is by far my favorite cover, and my favorite book, as it is the turning point for the characters and the story takes a much, much darker turn. The fact that she is farther away from the cover than previous, and looks on out of the corner of her eye with that quiet fire, that pride shows the truth of her being that is just beginning to form in this book elates me. Dracula's secrets are truly revealed in this book in a horrible way.
So there we have it.
What do you think?
You can read more about these books on Goodreads and add them to your To-Be-Read lists if they catch your fancy.
'Till next time.
S.C. Parris
Monster-Mania Convention | Pre-Order The Dark World: Book 1 and get your bottle of Vampire Wine (Valid 'till June 1st!)
January 31, 2016
When You Should Be Writing But
(Complete Title Here.)
Everything else can get in the way. We know this by now.
I, for one, should be editing my novel (notice the black bar at the top of the page - you can click it you know), but as I've just come home from work, I'm plenty exhausted and just want to relax. So what am I doing? Writing a blog post about how I should be writing.
I feel we owe it to ourselves, as writers, or people who want to be writers or people who are aspiring to be published, to start putting our ideas down seriously.
It's the writer in me, I suppose.
I've been thinking about my series all day, how I will cut book two into two and figure out new books three and four and what I'm doing with those, and I've been itching and eager to write, and now that I'm here, I'm drawing a blank.
I really should start writing all of this down.
I feel we owe it to ourselves, as writers, or people who want to be writers or people who are aspiring to be published, to start putting our ideas down seriously. Sure, we're screaming into a void and it's just as likely no one is listening or even screaming back, but we do it anyway. Maybe because we need to, maybe because it's all we know. Or we're drunk. Either way, it's something we do.
I guess it's what makes us writers.
----
Vampire-related words now:
In keeping with the topic of actually writing about my writing, I will divulge that I am speeding along in the currently titled, The Immortal's Guide, unlike in The Dark World, where I was walking along, trying to figure out how to make the story that I've already written stand out even more in the first book.
I guess it helps to know what you're meaning to write about at all, huh?
I wish I could talk more about the actual plot and characters and such, but until it's ARC season, and I have a cover, I'm afraid I'm keeping the wraps on it unless you've already read the self-published version. If not, fear not, the newer edition shall be satisfying, indeed.
As for my Youtube Channel, Blood Talk, where I talk about all things Vampire, the latest novel I'm reading, or my general disdain for Twilight, I've recently received a brand new camcorder so those low-graphic videos up now shall get even more outdated once I start doing videos soon...which should start again sometime next week if I'm not bogged down by the unforeseen.
And I know I haven't done it in a while (or ever, honestly), but I did get a book that I read almost every day just to keep myself in positive spirits because I do deal with depression and anxiety from time to time.
And it's helped loads. Positive affirmations and whatnot really help, me anyway, and they're always good to focus on. Especially if you write about death and anger and love, like I. It can take you to some dark places.
That's all for now. I'm off to actually do some writing.
You can read more of my work at the following websites
And on The Clash Media where I am a contributor. Click the picture below to read my (as of this blog post) latest article.
---
Recently Read:
The Sons of Thestian by M.E. Vaughan
5/5 Stars
Review To Come.
That may be my next blog post. Who knows. :)
With Blood and Love, I'm
P.S. Custom Funko Pops of the main characters in The Dark World series shall be forthcoming most likely sometime in the summer. I'm super excited to implement this idea. And wouldn't it be cool to have a little Funko Christian Delacroix to carry with you?
December 30, 2015
Blood Talk Episode 3: Dracula and The Sons of Thestian
The Sons of Thestian (The Harmatia Cycle: Book 1) is a brilliant YA Fantasy novel written by the wonderfully talented M.E. Vaughan and I'm still reading it. It's taking me way too long to finish it but that's my fault - nothing to do with the book, though it is long - and that's just how I like them. You can track more of my reading progress for The Sons of Thestian through Goodreads:
The Sons of Thestian by M.E. VaughanView all my reviews
The Prince Jionathan is plagued by visions of death. With the King on his death-bed, and the tyrannical Queen in power, the Kingdom of Harmatia lies in peril. Fleeing the city in fear of his life, Jionathan is shadowed by Rufus Merle, a young, secretive magi tasked with bringing him home. Now, with the help of a fearsome sidhe warrior named Fae, they must traverse a dangerous faerie-wood together. Against bandits, faeries and cursed priestesses, these unlikely friends travel a path fraught with danger, not least from the blood-thirsty Night Patrol and the dark conspiracy that shrouds them.
Inspired by Celtic Mythology and the Arthurian legends this epic tale explores the many forms of love, loss and fear, and follows five characters as they face their demons, both material and metaphysical and struggle to find their place in a darkening world.
You can find out more about The Harmatia Cycle through its website.
In other news, as I've just realized I haven't written about it here (for shame), I am somewhat happy to announce that instead of five books for The Dark World series, there will be SIX, yes SIX, you read right!
Now, because of that, I have to cut down the books' length, (yes, ALL OF THEM), to a more reasonable 100,000 words. So I'm back on Book 1, cutting it down from its 130,000 to a more digestible, 100,000 - meaning it won't be released in February next year, but instead August.
I know, I know, but my publisher has good reason for this. It gives me far more time to basically get the series fresh and how I really like it (we all know I hated book 3 and how that turned out), and it'll be out in time for Christmas next year!
Again, I thank you for your patience, and for your viewing pleasure, I award you with my latest Blood Talk video:
S.C. Parris is back with Blood Talk and shares with you her love of Dracula, everyone's favorite vampire and how the novel shaped the culture of horror as we know it today. She mentions a bit about her vampires in The Dark World series, M.E.
With Blood and Love!
November 6, 2015
Ending Up In A BuzzFeed Article - Writing Excerpt
It’s a thin line to keeping your safety yours and contained and having freedom of expression.
It was weird, being at work and then having a coworker message me via Facebook to tell me I was #11 on a list of things about Barnes and Noble (working there, anyway). I knew it was trouble, immediately (as I still work there), and figured out the author's email. I sent him a polite email and told him to kindly take it down as 1. He never asked me (or anyone else he used in the article I imagine) to use my Instagram picture for his article, which to be fair wasn't even an article, more like a list of other people's twitter statuses and Instagram posts with his one sentence commentary underneath that wasn't even in context of what was happening in the picture.
Whatever, I'm just glad he took it down because the next day everyone at work (well mostly everyone) knew I had been in the article and upon mentioning it to a manager, she said, "Oh man, I wouldn't want anything to happen to you because you still work here." And I assured her I took it down.
This is what troubles me about this age we live in where people just cut and paste, drag and drop the things they want to use, even if those things have little to do with the article in question. And it certainly puts people's livelihood's and relationships in jeopardy. (Just think what would have happened if I didn't have the wherewithal to have the image taken down. The bookstore I work for is huge on things being associated with them, especially when you're on your off days.)
It's a thin line to keeping your safety yours and contained and having freedom of expression.
A line I hope we can solidify soon.
This ordeal has left me feeling creeped out, surveyed, and scared of losing my job (something no one should ever have to deal with).
I'm glad I didn't give into the 'internet fame' mentality that blankets our internet-generation now (I did gain a slew of new Instagram followers thanks to the article, but that doesn't really mean anything in the real world). Sure it may translate to book sales in the future (huge may), but it doesn't really help my present where I have to work for a living and I'm actually excited about my job.
Sigh, I guess there's nothing to be done but send nice emails and continue on.
This has me a lot more observant of what I put on the internet (though I always was), but to be fair, I never put the name of the bookstore I work at in hashtags or anything like that, nor will I ever. It is on this website and my Tumblr page, sure, but it is never mentioned what location I work in or anything. It just boggles the mind how things can be taken, and out of context, at that.
Well, life goes on, as does writing (which has been very fruitful and wonderful, might I add - a certain Alexandria Stone is not taking too well to her new state, as one can imagine - read a mini excerpt below) - and that's what I have to be doing right now before I head to work, so as usual
With Blood and Love,
The Goblet: Book 4 - WiP
She stared down at the dead man below her, the words drifting through her mind endlessly, indeed. She had felt, when she had awoken, that hands, many hands had been pulling her down, down into the dirt; a never-ending coldness surrounding her as the life was pressed from her.
But then she saw him, the Vampire who was always there. Yes, Dracula appeared in-between her time of life and death, his cool brown eyes never leaving her own as she was dragged further downward, his long white hair flying about his head in the wild wind.
She had reached out to him for help, incensed and terrified when he would not lift a hand, merely smile his small, cold smile. That was when she realized he wanted her to be taken under, wanted her to die, indeed, wanted her to become this—
November 2, 2015
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