Heather R. Parker, Author

𝑬𝒏𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒅 💀

The spectre looked at me again, as if seeing me for the first time. “Child, you must leave this awful place! There is evil here…” She drifted closer, her ethereal face shifting from melancholia to desperation. “You must leave! You are a Beacon! He will find you here!” Her voice grew to a shout, jagged with despair, and I cowered against the cobweb-laced wall, Lafe and Darkfall oblivious to my otherworldly conversation.

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝑯𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒃𝒚 𝑯.𝑹 𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒓

𝑨𝒓𝒕 𝒃𝒚 𝒎𝒆

🎄𝕸𝖊𝖗𝖗𝖞 𝕮𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖒𝖆𝖟 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝕳𝖆𝖕𝖕𝖞 𝕳𝖔𝖑𝖎𝖉𝖆𝖞𝖘 🎄

I hope you all have a wonderful and joyful season! Eat, drink, and be merry 👻 I appreciate you all so much for your support throughout the year, through thick and thin. Much love to you all! ❤️💚

As an extra holiday treat, I’ve dropped two Yuletide themed episodes of The Revenant Hunters on 💀🥀💀 Head to the link in bio to check them out!

Image: creepy old Victorian Christmas card sourced from Pinterest

👻 New episode day! 👻

In today’s episode, the headmaster questions Ellefair and Zephyr about the “mutated” revenant they saw in Windriver. How will Elle face this new threat? Head to the link in bio to find out! 💀First ten episodes free! Use my special link to get 30 free coins to binge your heart out. And be sure to check out all the other amazing stories in the platform! I’m reading .r.donaldson’s vampire thriller, The Dark Council’s Blade 🧛🏻‍♀️ Highly recommend!

Any great reads you recommend? Drop them in the comments! Extra points for indie picks ☺️

❄️ 𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝒆𝒑𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒅𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒚! ❄️

Happy Saturday! I hope you all had a good week ⛄️

I’m today’s episode, “Glaciers in the Snow”, Ellefair gets to know Zephyr, copilot of The Vëtta, a little better after sharing some whiskey to keep them warm in the frozen wilds of Windriver. As an Elemental, Zephyr is usually uncomfortable around Paranormals like Ellefair, but Ellefair is determined to make him feel like one of the gang.

Come climb aboard The Vëtta and learn a little more about Revenant’s new character, Zephyr 👻

The Revenant Hunters, out now on ! Link in bio ❄️☃️

Art: Valentina Remenar

❄️ 𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒚! I’m very excited to announce that my short story, “Soul Harvest” will be published in the Mythic Winter anthology, published by Mythic Norse Press! Many thanks to fellow author and editor, .r.donaldson, for including me on this amazing project! This anthology will not only feature stories by Mythrill and .io authors, but it will also include awesome original AI art for each story ☃️ If you would like to back our Kickstarter, head to the link in bio, and stay tuned for release dates for the print, digital, and NFT versions 🌨️ Support indie authors and publishers! Any new projects in your horizon? Lmk in the comments and let’s catch up! 💙🤍

👻 𝓝𝓮𝔀 𝓮𝓹𝓲𝓼𝓸𝓭𝓮! 👻 In Episode 37: The In-Between, Ellefair is trapped in the clutches of Verastus. Even Taamasa can’t break her free. But she does get help from an unexpected source. Visit the link in bio to find out who helps her from the clutches of Verastus! Also be sure to check out the new episode from Wednesday! Live now, only on 💀 Image: Created in Wonder

🦊 𝕺𝖓 𝕳𝖎𝖆𝖙𝖚𝖘 🍁 Hello my wonderful friends. Just an update to let you know I will be on hiatus at least until after Thanksgiving due to my health. I’m going to Mayo Clinic in Florida next week to begin the journey to a diagnosis (it’s a complicated autoimmune thing). It’s been tough lately, I won’t lie, but I AM A WARRIOR 💪🏻 Thanks to everyone who has been checking in on me, it means the world! ✨ Note: The Revenant Hunters will still be publishing on Wednesdays and Saturdays, so that won’t change. I just won’t be on socials as much. 🧡💚 I will drop reminders in my stories about new episodes, and I’ll still be checking my DMs if want/need to chat. Take care everyone, and I’ll see you all soon ❤️ 🦔🍄 Art: Created in Wonder AI

“Fire and Smoke” (Poem in caption)

my eyes are shuttered closed
my heart a vaulted chamber
of cobwebs and regret
empty eyes
like hollow corridors
never-ending, ominous
the weight of the world
makes my insides creak
like rotting boards
of a crumbling foundation
strike a match
I’ll go up in flames
I don’t want to be a phantom anymore
I long to be
fire
and
smoke

Original AI art created in

🍂 𝑨𝒖𝒕𝒖𝒎𝒏 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑵𝒚𝒎𝒑𝒉𝒔 🍂 Created in .ai

𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔊𝔥𝔬𝔰𝔱 𝔬𝔣 𝔐𝔶𝔰𝔢𝔩𝔣

I am a ghost of myself
Culminated in cobwebs
of regret and aching memory
The longing of my spirit
cloaks the shadows
in tendrils of secrecy
My voice is a lost, lingering
keen, drifting on hazy clouds
that tiptoe amongst the stars
And I drift, the glimmer
of my former self
an empty chrysalis
with no wings that
will burst forth with light.
They have rotted away
with who I used to be

𝙸𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗 #𝚠𝚘𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚒

“𝒟 𝒾𝓈 𝒻ℴ𝓇 𝒟𝓇𝓎𝒶𝒹, 𝒸𝓇ℯℯ𝓅 𝓈ℴ𝒻𝓉ly 𝓉ℴ 𝓈ℯℯ. ℐ𝒻 𝓈𝒽ℯ 𝓈ℯℯ𝓈 ℴ𝓇 𝒽ℯ𝒶𝓇𝓈 𝓎ℴ𝓊, 𝓈𝒽ℯ‘𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝓊𝓇𝓃 𝒾𝓃𝓉ℴ 𝒶 𝓉𝓇ℯℯ.” 🌲🌳🍁🌙✨ᴀʀᴛ ᴄʀᴇᴀᴛᴇᴅ ɪɴ #ᴡᴏɴᴅᴇʀᴀɪ

✨🦋 𝓑𝓾𝓽𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓯𝓵𝔂 𝓓𝓻𝓪𝓰𝓸𝓷 🐉✨

Happy Tuesday my ghostly loves! 👻 I hope you all had a great Halloween! It felt like summer here so it didn’t feel like Halloween at all lol Nonstory today, as I’m slammed with so much rn. But I’ve been wanting to share my AI art, so I’m trying to figure out a good schedule to post both on here, but I seriously don’t have the time or energy to run two accounts 😅 So here are some of my gothic beauties, created in .ai 🕷️🕸️ I have so much I want to share, and I can’t wait! AI art has been so fun, relaxing (usually lol) and great for inspiration for my stories. It helps calm my mind too, especially when I get anxious ☺️ Stay tuned for more art, stories, and Revenant updates 👻 Link in bio 🦉 What are some hobbies you have that give you a break from writing and help clear your frantic mind?

Happy Tuesday! Taking a break from writerly posts to share some of my AI creations! These are some nice spooky ladies I created in ! I’ve got some other cool series in the works too: horror mermaids, cosmic goddesses, and spooky dryads 😇 But I think they all deserve stories. Working on a fun one rn! How is your week going? Any Halloween plans this weekend? ☠️👻💀

Just wanted to share these lovely babes I created in .ai ☠️ Happy almost Halloween! I’ve been having a great time learning the ins and outs of AI art, and I’m working on some series I can’t wait to share: horror mermaids, cosmic goddesses, and spooky dryads 💀 But those need stories to accompany them 😁 Tune in for more art, flash fiction, and Revenant updates!

Happy Monday! I hope you have a great week! 🥰
This is an exciting post, because it’s my first ever giveaway! I’m making this one easy to enter too 🤗
Enter now to win this little signed book bundle:
1. Fallen Whispers (2018): Published by . This is my first published book! A huge thank you to Marc for believing in an up-and-coming writer and printing this little beauty! This was a limited run of 50 copies, now sold out and OOP. You can’t get this anywhere else!
2. Nightingale & Sparrow Micropoets: The Top Ten (2019): I was named one of the top ten micropoets of 2019 by Magazine 🔥 Snag a copy of this little microchap for my poem and 9 other amazing pieces!
3. Delicate Decay (2021): Published by ⭐️ This was a limited edition pressing, so only 25 copies in existence. It’s now sold out and OOP, so grab a copy while you can. A mental health-themed poetry chapbook. You can’t get this anywhere else!
4. Cyber//Reality (2021) Ez.P.Zine II: Issue 8: Published by . So stoked to be in this collection with two of my writer frens, and .r._malone! There are some unique pieces in here. This fun little antho has my flash story, “Galaxies Gush from Your Eyes 🌌
5. Love Lost (2022): Published by . My latest pieces were published by the coolest little indie press in Florida! Thanks to Dave for publishing my work! This anthology is a collection of global authors (short fiction and poetry), including a series of speculative love poems that loosely form a story.
6. Dead Signals//Lost Transmissions (2022): Published by ⭐️More thanks to Dave for publishing 3 of my sci-fi flash stories, including my favorite, “Claustrophobia”, about a cyborg longing to be free of her restrictive body. Also published with many other incredible writers, including .r_malone !
7. I’ll also include one of my watercolor paintings as a bonus 🥰
To enter:
1. Follow me .r._parker
2. Tag a book buddy
3. Share the giveaway post in your stories
That’s it! Winner will be announced Friday, August 12 at Noon EST! Good luck!

Happy Friday everyone! Today’s blog post on .me is specific tips for worldbuilding in short fiction! Worldbuilding is always a challenge, but when you have limited time words, it can be even more difficult. But not to worry, dear authors! Check out this carousel, then head over to the blog to read the full article to help you craft your story for the 2022 Worldbuilding Short Fiction Contest! Submissions due August 19, 2022, at 11:59 PM EST! Get published, win great prizes, and make some new friends in our Discord! Links in bio 🚀👩‍🚀⭐️

Happy Friday lovelies! I hope everyone has had a great week! ✨

Here's a new article to help you slide into the weekend with some new book recommendations! This week, we take a look at some of the less obvious subgenres of fantasy for a little taste of something different! 🧚‍♀️

If you enjoy this article, read last week's article on the subgenres of sci-fi! Lots of good recommendations in that one too! There's a handy link in this week's new article in case you missed it last week! 🪐🌙⭐️

Hopefully, you'll learn something new and add some new books to your never-ending to-be-read list! 🤓

If you're a reader or writer of speculative fiction, be sure to join us at .me to read or publish your novel for free (and get paid to boot!)

As always, thank you for reading! ☺️
https://fictionate.me/blog/subgenres-of-fantasy

Fictionate.me: Subgenres of Fantasy (That Aren't the Usual Suspects) A look at some of the less obvious fantasy subgenres, with book recommendations for each one.

✨New on the blog! ✨

Happy Tuesday everyone! I just published a roundup on Fictionate.me of great sci-fi and fantasy books to help foster your child's love of reading.

As a former English teacher, I thought about what books were the most popular among my students--the books they just couldn't put down, the ones that constantly stayed checked out. The list includes some great classics of course, peppered with some newer gems that your kids and teens will be sure to love.

I also included a bonus section for each book (movies, sequels, etc.), and an award section if the book won any awards.

Click below to check out some great sci-fi picks for your kids!

🪐Are you a speculative writer or an avid reader of sci-fi and fantasy? Check out .me for their self-publishing platform, to publish your novel or read for free!

https://fictionate.me/blog/ten-sci-fi-novels-for-kids

Fictionate.me: Ten Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels to Help Your Child Love Reading A roundup of ten speculative fiction novels sure to engage and delight kids from elementary up through high school.

“He Leaves On His Hat”
I’m sleeping, suddenly awake.
Eyes fly open, fixed. He’s there, looming.
He’s tall, a shadow. Eyes: miniature specks of light, crimson lasers smoldering.
Fear burns hot in my stomach. Limbs locked, mouth stitched shut. He’s slipped through again, slipped on the time slip. Now he’s here again, a black hole, vermillion eyes, at the foot of my bed.
Or in the hallway, adrift but rooted. To me.
Or looking in the window, when I saw him the first time. He wasn’t brave enough to enter the house just yet.
But even when he comes inside, he leaves on his hat.

🌞Happy Sunday! Trying something different you guys! 🙈As you all know, I write for a fiction self-publishing platform, .me which has inspired me to spread my writer wings. Here is a 100-word flash to push me out of the nest.

Fun fact: Did you know 100-word stories are called a drabble? Isn’t that delightful??

This story (drabble!) is about the Hat Man phenomenon: a nightmare shared by dreamers. The Hat Man is a shadow figure, appearing all black like a shadow, usually with red eyes and a hat. For the dreamer, it feels like a demon looming. For the scientific community, it is a hallucination brought on being caught in between the two phases of sleep and wakefulness. A never-world, in between the spaces we rarely visit.

But people all over the world, across cultures, have witnessed this exact same phenomenon. Why do we all hallucinate the same thing?

Sleep paralysis is a common side effect of panic disorder. My panic attacks usually only happen in my sleep.

The terror of the Hat Man is so real. It can be almost triggering for me to read or watch anything about the Hat Man, because the fear begins to crawl up my spine every time I do.

Whatever the reason it happens, I’m glad I have an outlet to help me through it. I haven’t written or talked about it much, but I think it’s time.

Sleep paralysis. Nocturnal panic disorder. If you’ve experienced any of these, let me know! I’d love to hear about your experiences! Writing about it will be healing for me, and I finally feel ready to face it. 💪🏻

I hope you enjoy everyone! Light and love 💕 ✨🌙💫

Hello friends! After a week off for vacation, and then a week in bed after the second vaccine dose (yikes!!), I'm back with a new book review of Smoke and Summons by Charlie M. Holmberg! 🙂

"In Smoke and Summons, Holmberg’s weaves a dystopian fantasy teeming with demons, their enslaved vessels, and the proverbial puppet master who rules them all. The Numina series is a gritty, raw urban fantasy steeped in Holmberg’s usual exquisite world-building but with more of an edge than her normally ethereal story-telling."

I hope you enjoy! After reading, check out Fictionate's platform to read or publish your novel for free!

https://fictionate.me/blog/smoke-and-summons-book-review

Fictionate.me: Charlie M. Holmberg's Smoke and Summons: A Review A review of Charlie M. Holmberg's urban fantasy, Smoke and Summons, with a close look at the heroine of the series, Sandis.

A few days away does the mind, body, heart, and soul so good. Recharging, connecting with nature, and the words are spilling forth. I can’t wait to publish with my friend at this summer! All new, never read poems about that may help someone else in their dark moments. We’re ✨🌙💫 Until then, enjoy a little micropoetry 🌸 I hope everyone is doing great this week and taking time for self-care! 💕

Fictionate.me: Publish a book online and get a chance to win cash prizes! Are you a writer who wants to publish online on a platform where your audience can read and listen to your fiction stories and promote your book? Join the Fictionate.me contest!

I don’t know about you guys but I’m soooo glad it’s Friday!! ✨🌙Here’s a little weekend uplift if this week has been hard. I feel you and I see you! Keep reaching for the light ✨ Also, happy Poetry Month! 💕

In the wake of COVID-19, we've been looking for ways to connect in more creative ways than ever before.

The Unprecedented Project is a public poetry project that brings together small groups of people with random pages of Boccaccio's The Decameron. The Decameron was written in the wake of the Black Plague and contains a collection of stories fellow hunker-downers told over the course of ten of days of quarantine.

We're living in a historical moment. While we've all suffered in our ways from the pandemic, let's make like Boccaccio and create something beautiful to leave behind in the wake of this current tidal wave of uncertainty.

Not to mention art is great therapy 🙂✨
Some of these pieces are amazing! Take a few minutes to enjoy the art that has been created with words, heart, and soul.

https://www.unprecedentedproject.com/

UNPRECEDENTED In 1353, in the wake of the Black Death, Giovanni Boccaccio wrote The Decameron. In it, ten fictional people—seven women and three men—hid away in an Italian villa and waited out the plague. They passed the time by telling stories. One-hundred stories, to be exact,over the course of ten long day...

Besides writing poetry for my heart, mind, and soul, I am also a freelance content and blog writer. My passion project and absolute love is writing about speculative literature and writing advice for authors on the fiction self-publishing platform .me ✨ I publish weekly blogs on there, as well as guest posts on other sites, so I’ll be sharing links here for that besides just poetry! 💕 Thanks for all your support this far!

My article for the blog this week brings together my love of speculative fiction, strong female protagonists, and the theme of mental illness.

“Many modern authors in sci-fi and fantasy are now creating strong, gritty heroines who battle their own demons with one hand and save the world (or at least their small part of it) with the other. It just goes to show us as readers that we do the same thing every day, just maybe in a smaller context. So maybe we’re not battling with crippling depression while trying to solve our sister’s murder or save a planet from utter destruction, but we have our own battles all the same. Sometimes the battle is just getting out of bed to take a shower.”

The article explores the destigmatization of mental illness in science fiction through the lens of female protagonists.
The following are five novels spotlighting female MC's with mental illness who still show up and slay every day.
💚💚💚

If you are a reader or writer of sci-fi and fantasy (and all those genres in between), are looking for writing advice, or a place to self-publish your novel for free, head over to the link in my blog and check us out at Fictionate!

A little bedtime reading for you...

Happy Wednesday! Edited some old poems for a new mashup. Enjoy!

My new article on Fictionate.me explores the of in through the lens of female protagonists.

The following are five novels spotlighting female MC's with mental illness who still show up and slay every day.



https://fictionate.me/blog/mental-illness-and-science-fiction

Fictionate.me: Destigmatizing Mental Illness in Speculative Fiction Five modern speculative fiction novels that are helping to destigmatize mental illness with neurodiverse heroines.

Thanks you Literary Quicksand for publishing my book review on A Girl Grim Nowhere! Can’t wait to contribute more!

Book Review: A Girl From Nowhere by James Maxwell | Literary Quicksand The following is a guest post by Heather R. Parker. Meet her down at the end of her review! Disclosure – We earn a small commission for any items purchased through the Amazon or Bookshop.org links below at no extra…

You may remember me as Ruby Moon Poetry.

Sometimes we fade in and out. Our shadows become our ghosts that haunt us. Whatever darkness we live through, we come through on the other side, stronger.

can be a real bitch.

I took some much-needed time off from socials to get back to me. To who I was as a person, first and foremost. To turn and face my shadows and drive out the darkness. But not all of it, because we all need some shade.

I also had to reconnect with myself as a writer without the influence of social media. I felt like I had lost sight of who I was as a writer. So I stripped it all bare, only writing for myself, the way it was when I started writing poetry as an angsty pr***en. Only consuming poetry in books, not on a screen, only writing with pen and paper, the blood and breath of a writer.

And during all of this, I was also working on my freelance career. I have officially shifted away from teaching and I’m now proud to say I’m a full-time freelance writer. Pinch me. I’m definitely dreaming.

With that all being said, I want to thank all of you who have still stood by me, when I haven’t been consistent like a “good” content creator should be. Our health, mental and physical, comes first.

And while I still struggle daily with anxiety disorder, depression, and panic disorder, I am in a much better headspace to be here, to share all of my work, and to steep myself in the tea of words all of you so masterfully brew each and every day.

In this space I’ll not only be sharing poetry, but my articles and book reviews as well, so my page will begin looking more diverse. Please click on the link in my bio for some of the exciting things already happening!

And coming this summer: a new book of with my good friend Thom over at Between Shadows Press, who has been a steady friend through all of my ups and downs. Thank you for helping me get back out there friend!

So thank you, those who are here. I appreciate you all more than you know!

Two new pieces posted on Instagram this week! Thanks to everyone for your support! Literary Quicksand Fictionate.me Dumpster Fire Press

Happy Monday friends! I hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoyed this amazing weather!

Over the weekend, my book review for James Maxwell's A Girl From Nowhere was published on Literary Quicksand, a great blog about all things bookish!

Click on the link below to read, and then stay and click around on the site for some great reading recommendations by other great contributors!

Thanks for reading and supporting us in the !

http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2021/03/book-review-a-girl-from-nowhere-by-james-maxwell/

Book Review: A Girl From Nowhere by James Maxwell | Literary Quicksand The following is a guest post by Heather R. Parker. Meet her down at the end of her review! Disclosure – We earn a small commission for any items purchased through the Amazon or Bookshop.org links below at no extra…

Happy Friday friends!

Here is part two of my month long Women’s History series! This one is is a round up of some amazing in sci-fi and fantasy who may have fallen off your radar.

If you’re looking for some great reads for this month, click on the link below!

https://fictionate.me/blog/international-womens-day-authors

Fictionate.me: Choose To Challenge: 21st Century Female Voices in Science Fiction and Fantasy A roundup of ten 21st century female authors who are changing the landscape of sci-fi and fantasy with their new approaches to characterization and representation for women in literature.

✨🌙✨

Step Into the Pages of 'Goodnight Moon' With This Enchanting Exhibition On view at Fort Makers in NYC, the show features 14 artists' reimagined interpretations of objects from the beloved children's book

Part one of my four-part series on in and that paved the way for the rest of us!

https://fictionate.me/blog/award-winning-female-authors

Are you an ? Join us at Fictionate.me to self-publish your own novel for free!

Fictionate.me: Trailblazers: Award-Winning Female Authors in Science Fiction A list of women who broke gender records by becoming the first female authors to win major literary awards in science fiction and fantasy.

Hello everyone! Welcome to my new author page! I hope you will follow and enjoy my upcoming posts on articles and poetry I've written, as well as advice for writers and book suggestions for readers! I'll also be sharing exciting things happening over at self-publishing platform Fictionate.me, where I write blogs on speculative fiction literature and authors. If you're an stop by and visit us for great content, to self-publish your own novel, or read indie books for free!

Heather R. Parker is a freelance content writer and editor, blogger, and poet. She is the author of a poetry collection entitled Fallen Whispers and a writer of poetry and essays on both Instagram and Medium, where she serves as editor of The Partnered Pen. Heather was named one of the Top Ten Micropoets of 2019 by Nightingale & Sparrow Press. Her work also appears in Nightingale & Sparrow’s Top Ten Micropoets of 2019 anthology.

Heather is a writer and editor for the fiction self-publishing platform Fictionate.me and publishes guest posts reviewing science fiction and fantasy literature and authors. Heather also publishes writing advice and recommended book lists for readers. Heather lives in Georgia with her husband, son, and a menagerie of pets. In her spare time, you can find her doing yoga, taking long walks in the woods, birdwatching, or picking flowers in sun-dappled meadows.

You can follow Heather’s writing at instagram.com/heather_r_parker
https://fictionate.me/blog
https://medium.com/

Heather R. Parker – Medium Read writing from Heather R. Parker on Medium. Freelance content writer, poet, mental health advocate, and chronic illness warrior. I dream of endless summers. Instagram: .pink.bird.

Heather R. Parker, Author updated their website address.