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Surya Is Published!

September 6, 2018 by scarletdarkwood

I can’t believe I published a Sci-Fi-Fantasy book! That is not my genre. That is not my genre. That is not my genre. So why would I have gone and done it? In junior high and high school, I used to read Sci-Fi. Star Trek was the starter for me. I had two hard-bound versions of the books that had all the episodes you saw on TV. In high school, there was Ursula K. Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness. Those books were enjoyable, and I spent many hours reading.

Somewhere along the way between maturing and settling into the mature age, I stopped that genre and switched to Chic Lit. Nothing would satisfy me more than writing Chic Lit, but I don’t have the light, humorous side to me at all. Reading it, however, is a joy. But I haven’t answered the reason why Surya now exists.

The honest answer is that I fell so in love with the cover that I purchased it. After much thought and soul-searching, I really wrote the story I had always been longing to write, just as much as Chic Lit. A story about Atlantis. Some people don’t believe this continent existed. I do. How can you not believe it existed when there are so many underwater findings in the Atlantic Ocean, where a sunken city has been located?

But this story could not be just about Atlantis as a whole. Why? Because Atlantis didn’t end as a whole. What happened to it was a series of destructions, known as the first, second, and third/final destruction. Before the first destruction, Atlantis was one big land mass. After the first cataclysm occurred, Atlantis broke up into several islands. After the second destruction, many of the islands sank, leaving the largest remaining islands, Poseidia and Aryan, and three smaller ones Atalya, Og, and Eyre. There may have been a few more, but they are not named.

What was once a continent that contained a utopian lifestyle slowly degraded into one of greed and corruption, much of what we are seeing in our own time today. A life where beings walked with gods soon became a life where human connection with spirit dissipated, leaving a godless mass. Don’t get me wrong, there were many good people, but the whole of everything had slipped terribly.

With that continent came a use of the highest technology, some of which we haven’t even re-discovered yet. The use of crystals. Their use in daily life permeated Atlantis. We still have not found out how to used it again. People who were connected to spirit could do things that seemed like magic today. To them, it was a way of life.

When I wrote Surya, I struggled with the start of the book. I really doubted myself and questioned if I had not made a mistake thinking I could write something like whatever it was I was going to write. Maybe I would just have to gaze at the gorgeous cover I bought and enjoy it for an art form. However, I had some good betas and my spouse who helped set me in the right direction. Once I shed the cloak of the genre itself and worried about what it needed to sound like because of the genre, I took off with the story. The plot line became easier to write. It was easier to inject conflict and action. I found myself researching things I never would have dreamed of.

I’ve never studded information on extra terrestrials and how the human race was created to start with. I didn’t study or read about war, but I had to just a little to create my characters. The ideas started to flow, and in the end, I came out with a great book that I’m proud of!

I hope you’ll grab a copy and read about Surya, his journey, and what he hoped to accomplish. More than anything, I hope I can take you a little on a journey of what supposedly happened before Atlantis sank.

You can purchase your copy at:

Amazon: http://ow.ly/paHd30lInZV

B&N: http://ow.ly/D7DR30lIGsb

Kobo: http://ow.ly/fqwz30lIGuQ

Filed Under: General Writing Tagged With: Atlantis, extra terrestrials, Fantasy, Left Hand of Darkness, Scarlet Darkwood, Sci-Fi, Star Trek, Sunken Continent, Surya

Pleasure House Tales On Sale Through Month Of January!

January 7, 2016 by scarletdarkwood

Girl On Bar

In 2015 I re-release all my novels, and included a new one, Taming Bad. That’s quite an accomplishment since being invited into a publishing house. And I’m soon to re-release another book. As a celebration, I’ve decided to offer my books for 99 cents and my full-length novel for $1.99. This is the first time I’ve ever run a sale.

These books aren’t your average read, and though there’s kink, it may or may not be your kind of kink, something that pulls your trigger. But there’s one thing I’ll say: the kink and scenes are tastefully written, their to-the-point, and the whole reason for them is for the character to build trust with her partner and to explore sexuality and all the facets of sex, even the most unusual. Sex is the driving force for self-exploration and the means for healing. The interesting theme in all these books is the world I’ve created, the world of The House.

Throughout time asylums have carried a certain mystique, a horror validated throughout history as the most terrifying places on earth, where nothing is the same but sameness, and the inmate never quite knowing if they’ll survive another day–or maybe fearing they will. The asylums broke your spirit, robbed you of your soul. You entered and never left. If you did, you were forever haunted by what went on. Staff were sadistic, un-caring, and almost reveled in their vile behavior, unchecked by superiors and lacking a moral compass.

Yes, there’s that side of The House, too, but I don’t really talk about that side. It’s dirty, unwholesome, and definitely not sexy. Nothing on that side stirs the lust and kicks in the libido. The staff there are ordinary, average, prudish. Any inkling of sex plays out in darkness, when others may not be looking, or merely turn a blind eye. Sex is forced upon the weak, the defenseless, the feeble-minded who don’t possess the ability to fight back.

On the other side of The House the opposite is embodied with beautiful people, skilled in sex, knowledgeable, and harboring a desire to help and heal those admitted to their care. And let’s face it, most of the inmates (called ‘admits’) are just as beautiful, carrying with them a need to be healed. What a better way than starting at the bottom and working up, embracing the most basic pleasure so the rest of the spirit grows up and out.

That’s the philosophy of the attendants on the other side. Their charges will leave, integrate back into the community, and take their skills with them, using them to their advantage to attract the right people. As they continue throughout life, they will carry that special knowing deep inside them. They will awaken others as they, too, have been awakened. And so the knowledge and enjoyment of sex slowly grows.

In this world nobody is harmed, but activities push the envelope regarding the wild, kinky, bizarre, and devilishly insane. No holds barred, and every opportunity that presents itself is just another opportunity for engaging in intercourse with another person with a different perspective.

Instead of being a series featuring one character on a journey with a goal to reach at the end, my tales are truly a collection, with each character wanting to share their journey and what The House did for them. They entered shy and meek, forlorn and in despair, but they leave changed forever. Each book takes the reader on that journey, allowing them to see fully the relationships and treatment as it unfolds, unabashed, unashamed.

Take advantage of the price of these books and immerse yourself into a dark world that has a light somewhere deep inside it. Let me know what your ideas are after reading the stories. I’d love to hear from you.

 

 

Filed Under: My Worlds Tagged With: asylum, Pleasure House Tales, sale, Scarlet Darkwood, The House

Interview With Author & Screen Aficionado Bryn Tilly

October 26, 2015 by scarletdarkwood

Bryn Tilly2

That’s the beauty of writing. You get to meet fun and interesting people you’d not have met otherwise. That’s how I met fellow author, Bryn Tilly. When our two imprints mingled for the sake of a good book loaded with enticing stories, magic happened, and a book was born bearing the best writing a person could sink their teeth into.

They say that it’s every writer’s dream to see their book made into a movie, and yes, I fantasize too. Bryn , one of the authors of The Animal, just happens to dabble in film, cinematography, and screenplays. His blog focuses on the avant garde, those films that are not necessarily mainstream, but leave a viewer enthralled long after the movie is over. His curated gallery features vivid plotlines of different genres, and I was more than pleased to learn that he has a soft spot for erotica.

His portrayal of erotic films go beyond mere lust and romp, but dig deeply into the human psyche, honoring the base animal nature within ourselves to the beautifully perverse. His choices in erotic films stimulates the brain and leaves you wanting more. Without further ado, let’s learn what Bryn thinks of erotic themes in cinema:

Scarlet Darkwood puts Bryn Tilly on the spot.  

SD: Since your background is cinema, your website features movies of all kinds. They say an author’s biggest dream is to see their book made into a movie. What type of books absolutely DO NOT translate well into movies?

BT: There are no definitive rules as to what works and what doesn’t. There are novels with narratives that feature an ongoing internal monologue, or predominantly deal with intellectual ideas and abstractions, rather than conversational dialogue and action, that don’t translate to cinema well at all. Occasionally there are surprises, like director and co-screenwriter Mary Harron managing to wrestle Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho into an even sharper satire than the novel. But in terms of novels that haven’t worked, I single out Perfume by Patrick Suskind. His novel should never have been attempted. The intense descriptive passages of the olfactory sense at work could never translate to the screen, and that elaborate orgy, and a very disturbing act of cannibalism, just did not make for mainstream movie appeal. While we’re on the subject, at this stage they are safe, but I hope no one ever attempts to adapt Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude or Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves.

SD: It’s clear you are open to erotic themes. Your “Deep Trash” section on your blog is highly erotic and leaves little to the imagination. Many of the movies you highlight feature erotic themes. What is it about the erotic element that fascinates you?

BT: To use a distracting and amusing analogy; it’s like the difference between the pictorials in Hustler magazine and the ones in Penthouse, back in the day. Hustler always shot in cheap studios, were garishly over-lit, and had average-looking girls with too much makeup (or none at all), whereas Penthouse was shot in lush locations, with atmospheric lighting, and featured very foxy, voluptuous women, as opposed to Playboy’s innocent girl-next-door.

Erotic is not just about the sex act, it’s about the surrounds, and the mind-set. It’s about the exotic allure, the naughty tease, the provocative suggestion, the wicked promise, and then the delivery done with a charged sensuality, a slap of mischief, perhaps a bruise of perversity … and, in my books, not a Brazilian in sight!

SD: If you were to create an erotic movie, what would be some of your plot lines that would give Walerian Borowczyk’s  The Beast a run for its money?  

BT: Untamed, about a widowed man who has temporarily gone off-grid and encounters an attractive, but feral woman in the mountains and finds himself in a very primal relationship with her, no dialogue, just body language and wild, animalistic sex. He tries to introduce her to his civilised world, but she panics and escapes. The man abandons his commitments, and searches for the woman. Eventually he finds her, and chooses to give up his former life to live with her in the wild.

SD: Is there a close link between horror and eroticism? What are those elements and why?

BT: Sex and death. As the French call the orgasm, la petite morte, “little death”. In fiction and in cinema a heightened sensuality and threat of the dark nightmarish unknown provoke a similar genuine excitement, think Anne Rice’s novel The Vampire Lestat, or Paul Schrader’s remake of Cat People.

SD: In your opinion why do many men include raping a woman as part of their crime? Why not just take her purse or her jewelry and be gone?

BT: That’s a tough question to try and answer! Rape is more about power than sex. But it is the power to humiliate, and to recklessly harness what they think is masculinity. It must be a testosterone aberration; otherwise more women would rape men.

SD: Some of the movies you showcase mention rape. Why do you think women have rape fantasies, and do men have them?

BT: There is rough consensual sex, and there is BDSM, but if there is no safe word, and the word “No” or “Stop” is not adhered to, then it becomes rape. Crossing this line presents itself as a kind of fantasy danger realm. Within the safe confines of the fantasy no one gets hurt, but there is the thrill of that ever-present danger, the lack of control, the lack of defence. To be honest I don’t know if other men have rape fantasies, as I’ve never discussed it, and whether women discuss them with other women, I’m none the wiser. I’ve included rape in some of my fiction, but I don’t perceive it as a personal fantasy.

 SD: I had the experience of witnessing a man who had some mental issues, and when he became overwhelmingly angry and began expressing this, part of his behavior included masturbatory acts. Does intense fear or anger arouse men sexually? (This isn’t an issue of a man using power, but reacting to a situation that didn’t go his way or finding himself in an unpleasant situation).

BT: I’m sure it arouses some men. But I have no idea what percentage. I enjoy watching horror movies, but they don’t arouse me. I find watching the good ones in the cinema can be thrilling and exhilarating, but there’s a distinct difference. And as a contrast, witnessing violence and rage in reality is very confronting for me.

SD: You’re considering creating a novel from a screenplay you’ve written—about a succubus. Many erotic authors feature these mythological and folkloric creatures. What is it about them that allures you or inspires you to use them as characters in your work?

BT: I’m fascinated by the concept of a sex demon, a powerful nightmare creature like a vampire that sucks the life force from people through the act of sex, but rather than tackle the male version – an incubus – I wanted to tell a story about a female one. I’m also interested in fusing the succubus element with the mythology of Lilith, the woman who preceded Eve in the Garden of Eden, but was cast out by Adam, because she refused to lie under him during intercourse.

SD: How does American cinema and European differ, and why did some or many of the movies you feature on your blog not make it into mainstream?

BT: I’ve always got my eyes peeled for something with a transgressive edge, something that pushes boundaries. Arguably, Euro cinema has been more adventurous than American cinema, frequently more risqué, and often plain darker. That’s not to say there aren’t great American films that push the envelope, in fact many of my favourites were American movies from the 70s, arguably the most interesting and adventurous decade in the history of cinema. The movies that interest me are those of a darker hue, especially noir and horror, but actually, in the last decade horror movies have become part of mainstream cinema, especially with Hollywood’s focus on PG-13.

 SD: What is your ultimate dream?

BT: I intend to become a successful screenwriter of genre movies, and perhaps an occasional novelist and director.

Thank you, Bryn! What a wonderful interview. Definitely insightful. You can visit Bryn’s blog and learn more about his interests and what makes him tick. Definitely check out his Deep Trash section and learn about some of the most unique erotic movies around.

Cult Projections

Bryn Tilly3More about Bryn Tilly, the man from Down Under:

 Bryn was born and raised in Wellington, New Zealand. He began writing creatively at an early age, mostly science fiction and fantasy. During puberty and into his early adolescence he penned dozens of cartoon strips, mostly sci-fi, horror, and violent adventure stories. In his late teens and early twenties he began dabbling in long form prose and short film screenplays. In 1993 he joined a local newspaper as the resident film reviewer and has been a published film critic ever since, currently with his site cultprojections.com. Apart from working as a writer, Bryn has also been a professional DJ since 1993. He has been based in Sydney, Australia in 1997. A few years ago he returned to prose and wrote a gruesome haunted house story. In the last year he has written two more short stories and directed a short film, all of them pushing the fabric of nightmares, real and supernatural. All three short stories are to be published by Booktrope. Bryn is feeling a novel brewing. But for the immediate future he is off to Spain to support a short horror film he made, which is in competition at the Sitges Film Festival. Bryn may be a little longer in the tooth but he has found his calling.

 

Filed Under: General Writing Tagged With: Bryn Tilly, cinematography, Cult Projections, erotic, erotica, film, Scarlet Darkwood, The Animal

Mobi and EPUB Formats Added To Pleasure House Collection!

July 6, 2014 by scarletdarkwood

I finally broke down and took the time to create MOBI and EPUB formats for all my Pleasure House stories. Some of you may not be staunch Amazon or Nook supporters, so OmniLit buyers are in luck! I at least put Mistress Of The House in my Nook Library and in my Kindle library, and it seems everything looks good.

In the future, I want to run contests and giveaways, and being able to present my stories in these different formats will make the prize nicer for the winners. If you want to take advantage of my newsletters, where these announcements will be made, then sign up and be part of the gang! I’ve just added a new newsletter sign-up sheet under “Updates & Fun Stuff.”

If you’ve read Pleasure House and Dance of Desire, don’t forget to check out Mistress Of The House and Master Of The House, where these stories expand on characters mentioned in Pleasure House.

If you have anything you want to share, feel free to comment here, email me, or check out my Facebook page at Scarlet Darkwood Author. I always look forward to hearing from you.

Filed Under: General Writing Tagged With: author, EPUB, Facebook, Master Of The House, Mistress Of The House, MOBI, OmniLit, Pleasure House, Scarlet Darkwood

Scarlet Darkwood Author Has Created A Facebook Page!

March 21, 2014 by scarletdarkwood

As creatures of convenience, we’ll use the tool that’s easiest and . . . well . . . convenient! Facebook is one of those things people usually have a love/hate relationship with, and I’m not that different. But we must admit, that there’s still something alluring about the site. If you’re not careful, it can erode your time, but if used wisely, can be a nice place to network. On the right hand side of the home page of this blog, there is the Facebook badge with Scarlet Darkwood Author. This will be a great way to chat and keep up with each other. So click it and “Like” the page, and be a part of what I want to be a fun-loving, interesting, exciting (okay, I could go on forever!) group.

I created this special page as a place where we can all come together CONVENIENTLY, and chat about different things. No subject matter is off-limits, and as long as there is no abuse, I’m pretty open. You can respond to my posts, or post something of your own. If I’ve set up everything correctly, all posts will show to the left hand side of the page, and if someone presents a really juicy tidbit, I’ll give it a shout-out by sharing it with everyone with its own special post.

My goal is to post regularly, presenting thoughts and topics of interest. I personally think it will be just as fun and interesting if you do too. And as an author/writer, I’ll definitely answer back–though not individually to everyone on every post or reply. But I’m sharing this with you first, and if you know others who would like the page, refer it to them too.

PS: Happy Spring–it finally arrived. Since this is the birth of a new season, so is the birth of my new page.

Filed Under: General Writing Tagged With: author, convenient, Facebook, Scarlet Darkwood, tool, topics

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