Part-time Parkite Honey Parker invites readers back into the undead ride of Sugar Bernstein.

“V-Life: Blood Relative” is the second book in her vampire/thriller series that started in 2024 with “V-Life: So It Begins.”

The novel, which is available on Amazon, follows Bernstein as she tries to outrun evil and Jewish guilt while traveling around the country in an RV, according to the author.

“I knew when I started that it was going to be at least a three-book series, based on whether or not the first got traction,” she said. “While each book has its own arc, there is a story arc that crosses over all three books.” 

Parker came up with the living-in-an-RV scenario while she and her husband, Blaine Parker, also an author, spent a couple of years driving back and forth across the country in an RV to do their podcast, “CoupleCo: Working With Your Spouse for Fun & Profit.”

“We would do our interviews in person and tell people that we would show up ‘with wine and microphones,’” she said with a laugh. “And I thought this would be a smart way for vampires to live. People wouldn’t notice if you’re not aging, and you could sleep in the Thule box on the roof.”

Parker approached the new series as one “giant math equation” that had three different chalkboards in one room.

“In the first book I planted some things that, hopefully, didn’t feel like plants, and those things will grow in book two,” she said. “So I had to know what was going to happen in book two and potentially in book three when I wrote book one because I wanted to have those things that would make readers say, ‘Oh, wait a minute, I remember that person and now I know why they acted that way.’”

Honey Parker, a part-time Park City resident and co host of The “CoupleCo: Working With Your Spouse for Fun & Profit” podcast, has published, “V-Life: Blood Relative,” the second book in her comedy/horror trilogy about a vampire who live in an RV. Credit: Photo courtesy of Honey Parker

Parker’s big challenge was to refrain from retconning.

“I’m 30% into book three, and there have been a few times when I think ‘I can’t go back and change things’ because the other books are out and people have or are reading them,” she said. “So, this is as real as fiction gets. You don’t get to change it.”

By adhering to that commitment, Parker found her narrative possibilities restricted.

“You want to heighten the stakes, but every time you do that you lessen the options,” she said. “So, it’s a challenge, but we’ve definitely heightened the stakes in book two.”
Some of those stakes, which aren’t wooden, include new things readers learn about Bernstein.

“It’s like after you’ve been friends with somebody for a few years and then they tell a story about themselves that you’ve never heard before,” Parker said. “It’s also like when you meet somebody’s parents and you can see why your friend reacts or does things in certain ways, or you find out they have a phobia from something that happened to them in the past.”

Parker filled the casket with some new things about the characters she created while writing the book.

“As I have spent more time with Sugar and the recurring characters, I find that I have a need to learn more about them, too,” she said. “And the way that’s done is finding out that there are certain things that feel right if I look at things in one way.”

The author is also mindful about balancing horror with humor.

“I’m always asking myself, ‘Is it funny enough? Is it scary enough?’” she said. “It’s like the movies. In ‘Jaws’ there are some very funny parts, and then something makes people scream right after. I feel it’s the strongest effect when you can go from such extremes.”

Pacing is part of that dynamic, Parker said.

“It’s about knowing when to give characters time to have an actual conversation versus something jumping out or something unexpected pulling up,” she said. “When I see a movie when the hero and heroine run away from evil and end up under a bridge and start kissing passionately with things exploding in the background, I’m like, ‘No, because this is the time when you’re ducking and making sure you’re not taking shrapnel to the eye.’”

Settings also play into the emotional night-flights, and having Sugar living in a RV has been a gift for Parker’s narrative.

“In the first book she’s in the Mountain West, and I’m familiar with Utah, Colorado and places with active outdoor living,” she said. “In the second book, a fair amount of time is spent on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. So the vibe is so different, and that allows different things to be pulled into play for something scary or something full of action.”

Unfortunately, there isn’t as much skiing in the new book as there was in the last, Parker said.

“But we do end up in snow country, and ski boots come into play,” she said with a laugh. “You can’t have a vampire book without skiing.”

Parker has lived in almost every area that appears in her books, and that has given her some preternatural insight in setting up scenes.

“It’s easy for people to think they have a sense of a place like Park City if they’ve taken a vacation there, but they really don’t,” she said. “Like Mississippi, it’s one thing to hear the southern accent, but it’s another thing to hang out on someone’s porch and hear someone go, ‘Are you gettin’ cold? Do you want one of mama’s fur coats?’”

Accuracy also rises with that type of understanding, according to Parker.

“In a book, you’re describing everything by shorthand, so you need to make sure your shorthand is real,” she said. “For book three, I’m starting with a challenge because of the kind of place I want to set it. So I believe I’m taking a trip, but I can’t go for just a long weekend and say, ‘I know it.’ I have to meet the people and hang out and see what their concerns and joys are and all of that.”

Parker makes sure she’s on track by recruiting her longtime friend, Pamela Wallace, one of the Academy Award-winning writers of Peter Weir’s 1985 crime drama, “Witness,” which starred Harrison Ford.

“Every time I write a book, I send it to Pamela, who has been good enough to read everything before it leaves the house,” Parker said. “So the best moment for me other than writing the last sentence, which I always know, is getting the email from Pam who tells me I didn’t go off the rails.” 

Parker published her first “V-Life” novel after publishing her “Careful-ish” trilogy, a satirical look at group of 20-somethings who maneuvered through the COVID lockdown, caring for parents, dating and careers, while maintaining their weekly video-chat and drinking get-togethers.

“In ‘Careful-Ish’ the characters could relax over cocktails, and there was a lot of hanging out and drinking as many of us love to do,” she said. “But when I started ‘V-Life,’ Sugar was not having drinks with people. She was away from her friends and family, and I had to build her world from virtually nothing. So that concerned me.”

Parker knew she had to make Sugar as real as her “Careful-ish” characters, who were based on people she knew.

“‘Careful-ish’ is very much about the human condition, and even though ‘V-Life’ is about vampires, what it’s really about is that human condition,” she said. “I would always come back to that center of truth, even though there were some otherworldly things happening, and find out what a real person would do.”

Parker is currently planning a Park City book signing and will announce the dates in the upcoming weeks on her website, honeyparkerbooks.com.

“I’m looking at being there sometime in December because, you know, snow and skiing,” she said.

For information about Honey Parker and her “V-Life” and “Careful-ish” books, visit  honeyparkerbooks.com and amazon.com.

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