Category: reading

Lucia and the Saints: Volume Five

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There are so three reasons I’m excited about the release of my latest creation, Lucia and the Saints: Volume Five. (1) It’s my 30th published book! (2) It’s the second to last in the series, and (3) It helped me get over my writer’s block, and get out of my dry spell.

Volume Five is the step before the conclusion of the Lucia series. It also brings us closer to the next Valentine series, Valentine R. Should you read Lucia before Valentine R comes out? Not necessarily, but it may help to understand the story a little more. Whenever I write a companion or “spin-off” series, I try to make it stand alone. So, you can read it along with the original series, or you can read it by itself. Lucia works the same way. You can read it, without reading any of the Valentine books first, but it you do read both series, you will recognize the connections between the two.

Lucia Vol Five Cover

Volume Five sees the Lady Saints in action. They’re about to do something that will earn respect from several of the businesses in their area, and reveal another side of Lucia. The girls have a better understanding of who they’re working with, but they’re about to learn even more. Plus, an important person in Valentine’s life will be introduced.

Lucia and the Saints: Volume Five is available in ebook form, on Amazon. Look for it in paperback form by the end of the year.

Lucia Vol Five on Amazon

The Top 12 Books That Influenced My Writing

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Every writer can look back at some point in their life, and recognize the person, place or thing that encouraged them to start writing in the first place. Or, something that had an impact on their style of writing. For me, there have been many, many books which have influenced me. The number one book: Bunnicula by James Howe. My second grade teacher read it out loud to my class, and I was instantly hooked. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was receiving a lesson on personification (giving human attributes or qualities to a non-human object). I was already creating short picture books for myself, but this book made me want to be a WRITER. 

The actual list of influential titles is too long to post here, so I managed to narrow it down to 12. I still feel like it should be 15 strong, but we’ll stick to 12, for time’s sake. Here it is, in no particular order:

  1. Bunnicula and Nighty Nightmare by James Howe (couldn’t have 1 w/o the other)
  2. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz (all 3 in the series)
  3. Hellsing (manga series) by Kohta Hirano
  4. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
  5. Revolutionary Girl Utena (manga series) by Chiho Saito, Be-Papas
  6. The Spiral Dance by Starhawk
  7. Grey by Pete Wentz
  8. Just Kids by Patti Smith
  9. Sailor Moon (manga series) by Naoko Takeuchi
  10. Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers and Emo by Andy Greenwald
  11. The Haunting of Grade Three by Grace Maccarone
  12. Odyssey from River Bend by Tom McGowen

this book made me want to be a WRITER. 

It’s a pretty eclectic list, isn’t it? Childrens’ chapter books, Japanese manga, horror stories and fiction. I have to give an honorable mention to Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman as well. 

So, which books would make your list? Feel free to share in the comments below!

New Theme For October

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NovocaineImage

With September drawing to a close, and October just around the corner (that corner is literally next Tuesday), I decided it was time to update the theme on this blog and the Woolaston Entertainment site. When most people think of October, they think of Halloween. Businesses and homes begin to display their Halloween decorations, and everything seems to be pumpkin flavored. I’m not a fan of pumpkin flavored anything, however, I will admit the Cheesecake Factory has a pumpkin flavored cheesecake that’s pretty good. But, back to the point of this post…(damn, now I want cheesecake…)

Halloween is one of my FAVORITE holidays. I watch horror movie marathons, wear a lot more black than usual (I wear a lot of black anyway, but during this time of year its more legit), and focus on anything scary. Last year, I released my first holiday inspired book, Erin Michaels: Spooky Bitch, which features Erin from the Our Lady of Righteous Rage series. So, Erin, my little feline Goth queen, is W.E.’s official mascot of the month of October. You’ll be seeing much more of her during the next few weeks. 

To celebrate the month, I’m having a special sale on copies of Erin Michaels: Spooky Bitch and The Witch of Fulton Lane. Plus, I’ll post some more snippets from the upcoming Age of the Daughter, the sequel to The Witch of Fulton Lane. And if you want to share any info about the things that scare you, feel free!

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What Do Your Characters Sound Like?

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When you sit down to create a character, whether it’s for a book, short story, or a graphic novel/comic, what comes to mind? Your character’s appearance? Their behavior? What about their voice? What does your character sound like?

Every chapter is an episode, and I’m just watching them and writing all the details.

I mentioned this on a previous post, but I’ll say it again here. I’m a visual person. When I write, I picture the story taking place in my mind, and basically write what I see, the same as you would if you were watching a TV show or a movie and writing down all the events taking place. For me, Fortune’s Wing and Valentine aren’t just books, they’re TV series. Every chapter is an episode, and I’m just watching them and writing all the details. This means, all of my characters not only have a physical appearance, they have voices, too. So, I’m going to share some of the voices I hear, whenever one of my characters speak. This would serve as a potential cast list, of any of my books ever become animated movies or series.

Fortune Oyama
Valentine

Fortune Oyama of Fortune’s Wing: Leonardo DiCaprio. I dunno why, but each time I sat down to work on FW and I wrote Fortune’s dialogue, that’s the voice I heard.

Demetri of Fortune’s Wing: Orson Welles. Yes, I know he passed away in 1985, but he would have made a perfect Demetri. His voice also would have worked for John Rafferty of the Valentine series. Both characters are large men, and they’re both villains. I first heard Orson Welles’ voice in Transformers: The Movie (the animated one from 1986). He provided the voice for Unicron. I was enamored with how deep and booming his voice was, and he actually inspired both Demetri and Rafferty.

Valentine of Valentine: Charlize Theron’s voice has always been in my head for this character. She’s actually the reason I made Val so tall in the series (she’s between 5 foot 9 and 5 foot 10).

Dee Seybrook of Our Lady of Righteous Rage: Taraji P. Henson would HAVE to be the voice of Dee, if this book series became animated! Hands down! Her voice is perfect for Dee: the voice of a petite female who doesn’t take any crap.

Aidan Sirci of Our Lady of Righteous Rage: Ryan Renolds. Period. Tall, good looking, and sarcastic….pretty much describes Aidan, too!

Of course, your characters’ voices don’t have to belong to celebrities. Mine just happen to. Since I modeled Nyda Summit of Our Lady  after my mother, I tend to hear my mother’s voice when Nyda speaks. And Erin Michaels of Our Lady? That’s all me.

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June E. Parris’s Author Pages

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I recently updated my mother’s (and fellow author) author pages on Goodreads and Amazon. She just wrote her third book, A New England Serial Killer, and I’m editing it and preparing it for publication. With that being said, I wanted to be sure all of her pages are up to date. You can visit her Amazon Author Page and Goodreads Author Page to check out her books and follow her! 

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How Will “Lucia and the Saints” End?

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Earlier this year, I released the first four books of a new series, Lucia and the Saints. This series is a prequel to the Valentine series, and traces the begining of John Rafferty’s entrance into the Syndicate. It also tells the story of the woman who hepled him rise to power, Lucia Milazzo. You could play Six Degrees of Separation with the other characters in the Valentine series, and you would end up at Lucia every time.

So far, Lucia has managed to introduce John to some key people, help him secure a few night clubs, and make some money. Plus, there’s some other important issues at play: the Lady Saints in New Orleans trying to maintain the business they started, and the connection between Lucia Milazzo and Lucia Calderon. With all of this, how is the series going to end?

Lucia Vol One Cover

If you’ve read the Valentine series, then you know, Lucia isn’t mentioned anywhere. No one says her name, no one ever brings her up in a conversation. This can only mean, by the time Val goes on her roadtrip to Cali, Lucia is nolonger a part of John Rafferty’s life. So, how did they part ways? On friendly terms, or not so friendly terms? And where do the Lady Saints fit into all of this? The final book in the Valentine series reveals how Rafferty’s story ends, so one has to wonder, if Lucia will have something to say about that…

The final two books in the Lucia and the Saints series will be available late this Fall.

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“Summer Reading” Shouldn’t End With The Summer

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We’re all familiar with the phrase, Summer Reading. You probably became acquainted with it while you were in school. The school semester would come to an end as the Summer season began, and you knew you had a few blissful weeks until the Fall semester began. But, you were expected to read. Maybe there was a list of specific books, or maybe you just needed to read something during your Summer break, and be prepared to write a book report about it when school started again. Either way, you knew you needed to read something.

Summer Reading can go one of two ways: either students look forward to it, or they can’t stand it. I have always enjoyes reading, even since childhood, so Summer Reading didn’t bother me. But there are some students who would rather do ANYTHING than spend any part of their Summer vacay reading a book.

I think part of this relates to what students are being asked to read. My generation had The Scarlet Letter and As I Lay Dying. Don’t get me wrong: the classics are still good books. Students shouldn’t be limited to only reading the classics. Nowadays, students need something they can relate to. I’m happy to see books like Wonder and The Fault in Our Stars make the lists. Even books from the Percy Jackson series have been considered.

Summer Reading shouldn’t end when Summer ends. Its already difficult to grab a student’s attention, let alone maintain it. My opinion: we need to keep students interested in reading throughout the year, and not just during the Summer. While I’m all-for teachers choosing books for their class to read during the semester, I think it may help to include the students in the decision. Ask them what they’re interested in reading. Maybe, mix it up a little” use some of the classics along with the modern books. This way, they’ll see that reading doesn’t have to be painful and boring.

Of course, if you’re looking for new titles to add to your reading list, you can always check out Woolaston Entertainment