5 Fun Facts About My Brand New Novel For ‘Black Mirror’ Fans
My new science fiction novel, Forget Her, took me two years to write. I’ve never worked harder on a story (or anything in my life, really) and I’m so excited to announce it’ll be out later this year! It has some Black Mirror / Westworld vibes, but here’s the official description for anyone who’s interested:
“Ari has absolutely no interest in visiting the island resort where traumatic memories are repressed. She doesn’t believe it will give her a stress-free, relaxing vacation like the commercials claim. She doesn’t believe it will give her closure, either.
She would much rather deal with her sister’s death the old-fashioned way. Booze. Unfortunately, she works on a struggling web series in desperate need of views — and her boss thinks visiting the island would make for the perfect story.
Even though her gut warns her to stay home, Ari soon finds herself headed to the exclusive, isolated resort. And it turns out to be even more dangerous than she ever could have imagined.”
I’m so excited to share my story with you soon! Until then, here are a few fun facts about the process of writing my book:
1. While writing, I usually listen to outdoorsy, nature sounds, specifically the rain and the wind. (RainyMood is my favorite website to keep my mind clear!) However, if I had to pick a song to describe my novel, it would be Demons by All American Rejects, which is about running from your demons. One of my favorite lyrics: “Am I even here? Is it still even me?”
2. Most of the names in my novel are inspired by actors and singers I admire (or whose names simply have the right ring to them). For instance, the antagonist of the novel, Rhea, is named after the wickedly talented Rhea Seehorn who plays Kim on Better Call Saul. Meanwhile, Mr. Ritter is inspired by the lead singer of AAR, Tyson Ritter. And Antoni Tan is a combination of two men from Queer Eye. (Don’t worry, none of these characters look or act anything like their namesakes, so you shouldn’t actually picture them while reading. Except for the main character’s dog, Arrow, inspired by my pup!)
3. Even though it took me two years to write this novel, I had been working on a similar book idea a long, long time ago that that just didn’t pan out. I took some small elements from that unfinished story and twisted it into this one. So really, this book was a decade in the making.
4. My book was semi-inspired by Michael Crichton. A while back, I saw a Tumblr post about how he must’ve either loved or hated amusement parks with a passion, considering both Jurassic Park and Westworld took place inside of them. It got me thinking about what other twisted types of parks could be invented, aside from ones filled with robots or dinosaurs. My finished product is about an island resort, not an amusement park, but it has a similar feel to it.
5. If you pre-order my book now, which you can do right here, the first 100 orders come with a matching pin. It’s a miniature, one-inch version of the book cover!