Greetings, my Midnight Romantics!!
This is all a formality to update you on some potentially confusing behind-the-scenes changes.
Scarlet St. James has always been home to my angsty contemporary romance—but the Darkborn series is something different. Darker. Wilder. Built in an entirely new world. A pen name change also helps keep things clearer for readers, since there are authors with similar names writing in this dark fantasy space (I’ve already gotten some confusion around it).
So, my dark fantasy stories have their own pen now - meet Harley Blackwell.
Moving forward, my dark fantasy romance will be written as Harley Blackwell.
Other than your emails coming from Harley, nothing is changing about the stories you love—just where they live.
And as an example and thank you for your patience…
Here is another short story in the Darkborn world for your reading pleasure. This takes place 1000 years after the series ends (don’t worry, there are no spoilers). In fact, it’s the perfect entry point into the series.
Bryanna Thorvold is a lorekeeper who catalogues the forgotten. In the sealed lower chambers of the Royal Archives, she finds a box bearing a dead queen’s sigil. Inside she finds scrolls no one has touched in a thousand years, written in Old Nordlic and unsigned, except for a single initial.
The Darkborn were supposed to be a myth. But he was real. They were all real.
Ashkeeper is a prequel short story and your first step into the Darkborn Saga.
DOWNLOAD IT HERE: https://harleyblackwell.com/products/ashkeeper-a-darkborn-story
You can scope out my new website here at www.HarleyBlackwell.com
Don’t forget, Runemarked releases in early May, and Bloodborn releases in July! I can’t wait for you to read them!
I will be in touch soon!
p.s. you can still find Scarlet St. James on my new website. She isn’t disappearing entirely. However, until I write more contemporary romance, she’s on vacation. :)
Hello my Midnight Romantics,
I write to you tonight, on this sweltering spring eve, with a few delicious updates, as well as some goodies for your reading pleasure.
First, a few updates…
Due to some story revisions, I’ve broken book one (Bloodborn) into two books, which bumps the Darkborn Saga up to a series with five installments:
Runemarked - Prequel, written, Releases in Kindle Unlimited May 2026
Bloodborn - book one, written, Releases in KU July 2026
Soulbound - book two, written, Releases TBD
Fatesworn - book three, drafting, Releases TBD
Emberwake - book four, TBD
I’ve just sent Runemarked to the editor and finished my re-read of Soulbound. Starting tomorrow, I dive into Fatesworn.
As you can probably tell, I’ve been writing and revising my buns off since the New Year, and this momentum is addicting. Or maybe it’s just these characters and this story. I’m utterly in love.
When I’m not writing, I’ve been designing all the fun things with a different part of my creative brain. Goodies like series covers for Amazon, as well as an array of maps for the books as the story progresses and the world continues to build. Here’s an early draft of my Rothgard world map…
Created in Inkarnate, a map making and world-building design program.
If you haven’t claimed your free Sylas story yet (he’s the leader of the Darkborn, aka The Wolf of the North) you can download it free here from my bookshop:
https://scarletstjames.com/products/darkborn-origins-a-prequel-ebook
And now…
A little snippet from Bloodborn, book one:
“Learn,” Hel whispers to her creations, though they cannot hear. “Or we are all doomed.”
This line, spoken by the goddess of death as she watches her newly-made champions wreak havoc, perfectly encapsulates the stakes of the story. It’s not just their souls on the line, but the fate of the entire realm, and it establishes a tone of desperate, high-stakes hope.
Find more dark and dangerous reads here in the Darkling Collective - be sure to check it out!
Snag more free reads in the Darkling Collective: https://books.bookfunnel.com/darklingcollective/5a0kmks03n
You can read all four Darkborn beginnings stories in my After Dark Reader Lounge. Join us if you dare.
Hello my Midnight Romantics!
I know Rockhavn is not a character per se, but as much settings do, it plays a huge role in the Darkborn world. This is where they wake after they are turned. These are the people they are sworn to protect AND where they have to learn about themselves... and their hunger.
It makes for an interesting dynamic as the Darkborn struggle to understand what they have become, and as the saga moves through three books, it's the backbone of the story - where relationships are developed and a person's character is tested. It's the warm hearth and heart of the Darkborn's world, and even when they are pull to different parts of the realm this is where they already return. The village is a patchwork of scars and war and famine and love and resilience as much as the characters who live there.
I can't wait for you to visit!
xo, Scarlet
Hello my Midnight Romantics!
I did a thing last month... I went back to the beginning.
Let me back up.
I knew the Darkborn Saga would be a four book series. But loosely outlining the plot-points for each book only carries the writing progress so far when I sit down to get the story out of my head.
Bloodborn came relatively easily, and book two, Soulbound, even more so. But as I started writing book 3, I realized how much my characters had changed and devloped over two completed books, and I needed to go back to the beginning to introduce them to the reader better. I needed my foundation for the series to be as solid as my understanding of the world and characters writing book three.
That's why I went back to the beginning of Bloodborn and fleshed things out. In doing that, I've grown to love my characters all over again, adding little nuances Easter eggs that will come back later in the story and give readers all the feels.
One character that I LOVE in the Darkborn world is Brunhild. She is a human hearth mother who is introduced in the first chapter of Bloodborn. And she comes in sharp as a whip and doesn't put up with freshly-turned Darkborn bullsh*t. In short, she's kind of my hero.
And so, I give you Brunhild of Rockhavn, hearth mother to a village of survivors and refugees... and begrudging keeper of the Darkborn.
She's blunt and ornery and the perfect foil to a bunch of angry vampire-like warriors who brood, have tempers, and wreck havoc (even when they try not to).
I can't wait for you to meet her in book one, Bloodborn, which releases in June (paid members will receive a copy early).
More character intros to come!
xo, Scarlet