There’s something I’d like to share with you all—an announcement about my upcoming novel, and a little about that novel. It’s something I’ve worked hard on over the course of a long time, from the initial writing, to the many stages of editing, to—now—the design and publishing process.
On July 30th, 2020, I finished the first draft of my novel The Family Condition. Up until that book, I hadn’t written a full-blown horror novel in several years, despite how much I’ve always loved the horror genre.
I have a strange relationship with horror. I discovered my love for it at a young age, having been introduced to movies and books that scared me at a younger age than I was probably—technically—ready for. The person doing the introducing was my dad. To this day, horror is something he and I bond over. He introduced me to many lifelong loves, such as the original The Twilight Zone, and Stephen King (when I picked up IT, on his recommendation, and I was forever changed). And as much as I love the darkness of the genre, it can be a lot for me sometimes. I take breaks from it occasionally. Many people become case-hardened, which has happened to me but only to a small extent; I remain sensitive, and a quality horror novel or film is typically a visceral experience for me.
This is why writing a horror novel, especially one as weird and disturbing as The Family Condition, was a difficult task for me.
Needless to say, 2020 was a strange year for all of us, in so many different ways and for so many different reasons. When it came to my personal life, 2020 began horribly—which ended up being a stepping stone to some of the most beautifully formative and eventually happiest stages of my life up to that point. I’d been writing The Family Condition for a few months, but then—for several weeks—simply stopped. The weight of life demanded my full attention for that span of time, and the book was full of such strangeness and darkness, I couldn’t quite manage to plunge back into it.
When I did return to it, it was with a vengeance.
I was once a writer whose knees trembled beneath the weight of self-doubt, but something happened with the writing of this particular novel that I have since taken as a valuable lesson. It’s simply this:
I had so much fun writing it. Once I felt ready to face its darknesses again, I went all-in. Writing novels will always be incredibly hard, the difficulty varying depending on the stage of the process. But I learned how much fun you could have with it, and that’s something I want to be true of every book I write, going forward: I want it to be, first and foremost, fun.
It’s my hope that this will be reflected in how the book reads: that it’ll be fun.
I’m currently working on another novel, approaching the halfway point, and am having so much fun with it. So I’m happy to report: so far, I’ve managed to hold on to the lesson I learned in the writing process of The Family Condition.
My last novel was published in 2019. I was a younger and very different person—and very different writer, especially—when I wrote those first three books. I look back on them and cringe, a little, while at the same time I feel proud of what I accomplished, and that the books were published.
I’m tempted to write that I hope this novel will feel like a blank slate to both myself and to anyone who’s read my writing in the past. But I know that isn’t how it works. So, if you’ve read my work in the past, I hope at least that—no matter what you thought about it—you’ll come to this new one with an open mind. I’ve come a long way since my writing was first put on display for the public, and I feel so filled with gratitude to be here to do this now. It’s a process I don’t think I was fully prepared for back then—to the extent that anyone can ever be fully prepared for such a thing. But I feel prepared now, and I’m nothing but incredibly excited to share The Family Condition with you.
In my next post—forthcoming—I want to talk a little about the plot of The Family Condition. I also want to tell you the mundane yet delightfully bizarre story of how the idea first came to me. In a sentence, it’s the weirdest book I’ve ever written: a love story of fathomless desire and dark curiosity, and a story of twisted family dynamics and the horror people are capable of when given the power to dehumanize other people.
The Family Condition is likely to be released in a couple months. If all goes according to plan, it’ll be available perhaps late September or mid October. Possibly a little later, but I’ll keep you all updated. For a better look at the working front cover, click on the BOOKS section at the top of my website. Stay tuned for my next post about it. And thank you so much for your time and attention.