Part-time Parkite Honey Parker invites readers back into the undead ride of Sugar Bernstein.<\/p>\n
\u201cV-Life: Blood Relative\u201d is the second book in her vampire\/thriller series that started in 2024 with \u201cV-Life: So It Begins.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d she said. \u201cWhile each book has its own arc, there is a story arc that crosses over all three books.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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, \u201cCoupleCo: Working With Your Spouse for Fun & Profit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would do our interviews in person and tell people that we would show up \u2018with wine and microphones,\u2019\u201d she said with a laugh. \u201cAnd I thought this would be a smart way for vampires to live. People wouldn\u2019t notice if you\u2019re not aging, and you could sleep in the Thule box on the roof.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parker approached the new series as one \u201cgiant math equation\u201d that had three different chalkboards in one room.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the first book I planted some things that, hopefully, didn\u2019t feel like plants, and those things will grow in book two,\u201d she said. \u201cSo 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, \u2018Oh, wait a minute, I remember that person and now I know why they acted that way.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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Honey Parker, a part-time Park City resident and co host of The \u201cCoupleCo: Working With Your Spouse for Fun & Profit\u201d podcast, has published, \u201cV-Life: Blood Relative,\u201d the second book in her comedy\/horror trilogy about a vampire who live in an RV. Credit: Photo courtesy of Honey Parker<\/p>\n
Parker\u2019s big challenge was to refrain from retconning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m 30% into book three, and there have been a few times when I think \u2018I can\u2019t go back and change things\u2019 because the other books are out and people have or are reading them,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, this is as real as fiction gets. You don\u2019t get to change it.\u201d<\/p>\n
By adhering to that commitment, Parker found her narrative possibilities restricted.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to heighten the stakes, but every time you do that you lessen the options,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s a challenge, but we\u2019ve definitely heightened the stakes in book two.\u201d
Some of those stakes, which aren\u2019t wooden, include new things readers learn about Bernstein.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like after you\u2019ve been friends with somebody for a few years and then they tell a story about themselves that you\u2019ve never heard before,\u201d Parker said. \u201cIt\u2019s also like when you meet somebody\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parker filled the casket with some new things about the characters she created while writing the book.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I have spent more time with Sugar and the recurring characters, I find that I have a need to learn more about them, too,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd the way that\u2019s done is finding out that there are certain things that feel right if I look at things in one way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The author is also mindful about balancing horror with humor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always asking myself, \u2018Is it funny enough? Is it scary enough?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s like the movies. In \u2018Jaws\u2019 there are some very funny parts, and then something makes people scream right after. I feel it\u2019s the strongest effect when you can go from such extremes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pacing is part of that dynamic, Parker said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about knowing when to give characters time to have an actual conversation versus something jumping out or something unexpected pulling up,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen 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\u2019m like, \u2018No, because this is the time when you\u2019re ducking and making sure you\u2019re not taking shrapnel to the eye.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Settings also play into the emotional night-flights, and having Sugar living in a RV has been a gift for Parker\u2019s narrative.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the first book she\u2019s in the Mountain West, and I\u2019m familiar with Utah, Colorado and places with active outdoor living,\u201d she said. \u201cIn 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, there isn\u2019t as much skiing in the new book as there was in the last, Parker said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we do end up in snow country, and ski boots come into play,\u201d she said with a laugh. \u201cYou can\u2019t have a vampire book without skiing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parker has lived in almost every area that appears in her books, and that has given her some preternatural insight in setting up scenes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s easy for people to think they have a sense of a place like Park City if they\u2019ve taken a vacation there, but they really don\u2019t,\u201d she said. \u201cLike Mississippi, it\u2019s one thing to hear the southern accent, but it\u2019s another thing to hang out on someone\u2019s porch and hear someone go, \u2018Are you gettin\u2019 cold? Do you want one of mama\u2019s fur coats?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Accuracy also rises with that type of understanding, according to Parker.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a book, you\u2019re describing everything by shorthand, so you need to make sure your shorthand is real,\u201d she said. \u201cFor book three, I\u2019m starting with a challenge because of the kind of place I want to set it. So I believe I\u2019m taking a trip, but I can\u2019t go for just a long weekend and say, \u2018I know it.\u2019 I have to meet the people and hang out and see what their concerns and joys are and all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parker makes sure she\u2019s on track by recruiting her longtime friend, Pamela Wallace, one of the\u00a0Academy Award-winning writers of Peter Weir\u2019s 1985 crime drama, \u201cWitness,\u201d which starred Harrison Ford.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I write a book, I send it to Pamela, who has been good enough to read everything before it leaves the house,\u201d Parker said. \u201cSo 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\u2019t go off the rails.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Parker published her first \u201cV-Life\u201d novel after publishing her \u201cCareful-ish\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn \u2018Careful-Ish\u2019 the characters could relax over cocktails, and there was a lot of hanging out and drinking as many of us love to do,\u201d she said. \u201cBut when I started \u2018V-Life,\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parker knew she had to make Sugar as real as her \u201cCareful-ish\u201d characters, who were based on people she knew.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Careful-ish\u2019 is very much about the human condition, and even though \u2018V-Life\u2019 is about vampires, what it\u2019s really about is that human condition,\u201d she said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parker is currently planning a Park City book signing and will announce the dates in the upcoming weeks on her website, honeyparkerbooks.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m looking at being there sometime in December because, you know, snow and skiing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n For information about Honey Parker and her \u201cV-Life\u201d and \u201cCareful-ish\u201d books, visit\u00a0 honeyparkerbooks.com<\/a> and amazon.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Part-time Parkite Honey Parker invites readers back into the undead ride of Sugar Bernstein. \u201cV-Life: Blood Relative\u201d is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[64,63,457,134],"class_list":["post-138325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-books","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}