Last time, I wrote about how I didn’t set out to write dark fantasy but found myself here all the same, drawn by the arcane, the spiritual, and the broken beauty of stories that don’t look away from pain. I’m still learning the boundaries of the genre (if there are any) and figuring out whereContinue reading “Into the Abyss: Who Is the Dark Fantasy Reader?”
Author Archives: scottatirrell
Dark Fantasy: Rising from the Ashes
I never set out to follow trends, but now that I’m here, I’m curious. My love for the arcane, the spiritual, and the unsettling pulled me into dark fantasy long before I realized that was where I was heading. I’m ashamed to admit, I’m not well-read in it—at least not in the way others canContinue reading “Dark Fantasy: Rising from the Ashes”
What Has My Writing Style Become After 20 Years?
After more than two decades of writing, I’ve started wondering what, exactly, my style has become. It’s not something I’ve spent much time defining, and truthfully, I’m still not sure I could point to a formula or philosophy that guides every decision I make on the page. But the question keeps returning—quietly, persistently—especially as IContinue reading “What Has My Writing Style Become After 20 Years?”
Jezelle and the World That Made Her
I’ve been writing for over twenty years. In the last five, I’ve kicked into overdrive and published multiple novels (7). I’ve built a world—layered, mythic, filled with blood, ghosts, and gods. I redirected from pouring myself into my career and remodeling my house to diverting the flow to writing. Day after day. Year after year.Continue reading “Jezelle and the World That Made Her”
Jezelle updates and Audio Books!
If you’ve been keeping your ear to the cobblestones, you know things have been stirring in the shadows. I’m still working away at Jezelle: Theif of Oaks. It is currently at 53,474 words or roughly 200 pages, and I’m in love with how it is unfolding thus far. Jezelle’s story—raw, bruised, and burning with defiance—hasContinue reading “Jezelle updates and Audio Books!”
A New Look for “The Novice of Thanatos”
If you’ve been following my journey, you might notice something different about The Novice of Thanatos. Yes—I changed the cover! It was not a decision I made lightly. I’ve been promoting the book with the old cover for almost two months. When I first released the book on March 7th, the dark, medieval-inspired design wasContinue reading “A New Look for “The Novice of Thanatos””
A Gentle Invitation to Something Brutal and Beautiful
I don’t love selling. Never have. I’d rather write for weeks in the dark than shove a book into someone’s hand and say, “Hey, buy this. Please.” But I also didn’t spend years building Lucardia to watch it get buried beneath a mountain of AI-generated fantasy and flavor-of-the-month Kindle reads. So here I am, breakingContinue reading “A Gentle Invitation to Something Brutal and Beautiful”
Five Years Later: A Thank You, A Reflection, and a Celebration
Five years ago, I hit “publish” on a story I wasn’t sure anyone would read. It was called the Island of Stone, a quiet horror tale set deep in the woods where shadows whisper and the past never really dies. It wasn’t flashy. It didn’t come with a marketing team or a big budget. ItContinue reading “Five Years Later: A Thank You, A Reflection, and a Celebration”
Sample chapter, but first…
An Author’s Note What follows is a rough draft of the opening chapter of my current work-in-progress—a dark fantasy tale that offers Jezelle’s backstory. For those who haven’t yet stepped into Absolution of the Morning Star (AMS), Jezelle is one of its core viewpoint characters. In Dawn of the Lightbearer, she hints at her traumaticContinue reading “Sample chapter, but first…”
Another Dark Journey Begins
I was speeding along writing The Monk of Thanatos, book 2 of my Order of Thanatos series, when another project tapped me on the shoulder, and went, ahem. I’ve been doing this long enough to know that when this happens, you pay attention. So, I paused The Monk of Thanatos and listened to what theContinue reading “Another Dark Journey Begins”
