Today we’d like to introduce you to Darrell C. Scott.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I guess I’ve been a writer since I was a kid. I just didn’t know it. I wrote my first book at 12-years-old, but I didn’t realize it until my parents found it in my computer and told me. I went on to pursue a nursing career my first three years in college. During my sophomore year in college is when I discovered that writing could actually be a career. I didn’t act on it right away.
Three years in, I realized that nursing wasn’t for me and eventually transferred to the University of Houston-Downtown, where I earned my bachelors degree in English-Creative Writing concentration. After I graduated in December of 2019, I published my first novel, Manstress Diaries on Valentine’s Day of 2020. Currently, I am writing the second book in the series, to be released in 2022.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Nothing about this journey can be described as smooth. Aside from the obvious challenge of having to write a full length novel and finding readers for my book, I was doing it while still in school and working full-time as a manager at a mental health outpatient clinic.
I often struggled with time management, motivation, and self-doubt. There were times where I felt like I would never finish my book and that I would never be the writer I aspired to be, and there were times where I felt like I would never graduate. For a while, especially after Harvey, everything just sort of seemed pointless. But through series of events and with the support of my family, friends and my partner, Chris, I was able to persevere.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I write LGBT fiction novels. Currently, I am writing the Manstress Diaries series, which is a drama detailing a tragic love affair between a married addict and a novice therapist. I published book one on Valentine’s Day of 2020. It is available at Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, and of course via my author website, DarrellCScott.com. I am now writing book 2 in hopes of releasing it in the first half of 2022.
What I love most about my current project is it’s emphasis on the importance of mental health. My main character battles anxiety, depression, and PTSD, whilst his love interest battles addiction—some issues that hit home for me. As such, it has been a cathartic experience writing it. Working in the mental health field, I see the harsh reality of poor mental health every day, which is one is my main motivators for writing, along with my own personal struggles with anxiety.
I also run a music blog, MOAIM (Memoirs of an Imperfect Manstress), which is dedicated to discussing/reviewing Mariah Carey‘s catalog. The title is inspired by her 12the studio album titled, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel. Lyrically, it is one of my favorite albums.
Mariah is my favorite singer/songwriter and one of my biggest influences as a writer. Some of the chapters in Manstress Diaries, are named after some of her song titles that inspired the story. I guess you could say I found a healthy outlet to express my fandom via my writing. It’s fun to interact with other fans and connect with each other by our shared taste in music. And if they have read my book, I love it when they tell me about moments in the book inspired by song that only a fan of Mariah‘s music would be able to find. It just makes me smile!
Can you talk about how you think about risk?
Anxiety makes risk-taking that much harder! I immediately jump to the worst case scenario most of the time, which makes me not want to do anything and sit idle sometimes. I would say I take risk in my writing but not very many in my personal life. I value stability, so I’m very calculated for the most part. I like things to be planned.
Writing in my particular genre is a risk in itself. However, in my writing, I feel like that is where I am safe to explore my imagination, express myself and take risk. For example, I spent a year mulling over whether or not to include love scenes in my books, especially because they are love scenes between two men. A lot of the time, that sort of thing can limit the kind of audience you would have reading your books.
So, for a while I struggled with finding the balance between acceptable and smut. I didn’t want people to think my books were all about sex because they are not. Sex just happens, but it is important in the way that it impacts the characters psyches in the story. Eventually, I went with what I would want to read. And what I wanted to read, I feel it was a little risky!
Overall, I am happy with the way that some of the scenes turned out and I am looking forward to improving as a writer of these kinds of stories going into my second book.
Pricing:
- Signed Hardcover Book: $19.00
- Barnes & Noble: $19.99
- Apple Books: $4.99
Contact Info:
- Email: AuthorDarrellCScott@gmail.com
- Website: https://www.darrellcscott.com/shop
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darrellc.scott/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000034986137&__xts__%5B0%5D=12.AboOY2EeRZRwbJnGSvC1KcQJrkWwcFctHWwjG4GkDBooJ5ClHDmnWj2RDHrMmyAWqIm-jn8aFUV4tO2rCiDHdyjCuziP9sDvyrA6CKIkxSSKbZFRvR8vYzbZ9olhKtCgtFKx9kNhDAyow1COaIN1lEOahWjaxwbXn8FtIOE2db-F0fPWMUFccP83bQEJSwWp4DFas7bvETt_Yv20svTZ7FxoRzkjZk-PbOKfDyF_mxpfCPD1BWlirtYfgl1tLpjo16EB5Mx5sVzz_ei2Mh0T4VtuC9c1s2yJ36hWs4G9TTSCNArxX7xML00tnQ6u_scYlUqPvcuFLzwF2dWsHFyDKFQK
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/darrellc_scott?lang=en
Image Credits
Author photo in front of UHD sign: Shot by Christopher Burns, @texasCreole on Instagram.
