There's a time to write a thing, and there's a time to write about that thing. And that time comes when it's time to talk about that thing. So now's the time to write about Try Not To Die: At Meadow Spire Mall, my new book coming out this fall from Vincere Press. Yeah, this is an announcement, and yeah, you totally want to hear it. I have a new book coming out this October, and horror fans will go crazy for it.
So what's it all about then? Well, for the moment I'm going to keep plot details under wraps beyond mentioning that it takes place in a midwestern suburban mall in 1998, and that it could probably be described as Clueless meets SPOILERS NOPE PROBABLY SHOULDN'T SAY YET. Sorry. You'll get an accurate comp at some point soon, just not today.
I wrote Try Not To Die: At Meadow Spire Mall at the invitation of Mark Tullius, creator of the Try Not To Die book series, which he shepherds and frequently co-writes with an impressive and growing ensemble of horror authors. TNTD books follow a choose-your-own-path format, so that every chapter ends with a decision point for the reader to branch off in a different direction. And this being a horror series, the wrong branches end in... how to put this delicately, the cessation of the mortal self. I took to this interactive storytelling approach--in which readers are meant to be thrown off balance as frequently as possible--with a gleeful determination to write something that wasn't just horrific, but bonkers to boot. I wanted it to be a hell of a lot of fun, and so I threw in everything I love about horror fiction and cinema with a good dose of '90s nostalgia.
The fact that I was brought into the TNTD fold still blows my mind, as is the fact that I was given near-universal creative control to conceptualize and bring to fruition Meadow Spire Mall. Most of my focus for the last year has been on drafting the best damn horror novel I could muster, and amongst a number of other milestones, including my first published novella and short stories published across websites, podcasts, and collections, it's supercharged my writing career in a way I could've only dreamed of a couple years ago.
I've kept myself so busy working through this book, not to mention worrying over all sorts of other writing- and publicity-related things, that I've rarely given myself a chance to step back and reflect on the process of getting through this project. When I turned in the final draft just the other week, I found myself at a loss regarding what to do next. I think this is the right first step. I've turned it in, there's still work to do, but the book's in the bag. I'll share more about my experience writing this story, its core influences, and more, but until then, I'm going to kick back for a moment and share the excitement.
The heat's turned down and it's on to the final simmer. The flavors are marinating. It's in the final stages of coming together. You'll be dining on some '90s-fueled nightmare fuel by Halloween.
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