The Grotesque follows three people, each broken in their own ways, who are haunted by childhood trauma and seeking to escape it and control their own futures. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

My original concept was to tell a story about three people who each saw the world in very different ways due to their individual experiences. I envisioned a scene of three people sitting together in a café that sat across from a park. In the park would be a father, yelling corrections out to his young son as they tossed a football back and forth. One of the three in the café might perceive a wonderful father-son moment, something they never had as a child. The second might feel disgusted or angered by the sight of a father berating his son for not being good enough. And the third might feel heartbroken by the sight of the young boy, nearly in tears, trying and failing to please his dad, too afraid to tell his father that he clearly doesn’t enjoy football. The exact same sight, but three different perspectives based solely on individual experience.

Of course, this would be a boring scene to write at length, let alone read. But I loved the idea behind it. And the most interesting aspect, to me, was the exploration of how three such people might have very similar backgrounds but react in extremely different ways due to slight differences in their original perspectives. And trauma seemed a fitting place to start since it would create such a larger, more intricate reaction across their entire lives.

I felt that your book delivers the drama so well that it flirts with the grimdark genre. Was it your intention to give the story a darker tone?

I love the grimdark comparison! Yes – absolutely, my intent was always for this to be a dark, morally ambiguous story. The first image I had for this story was the little boy hiding beneath the bed, which became a recurring theme throughout the story. Things were never going to lighten up much from there.

My characters were affected by childhood trauma—physical and/or emotional. So, while what happened to each of them was definitively wrong, their responses to it would always be much less black and white. They’re each responding to the darkness that shaped them, all while living in a society that never stepped up to help them when they needed it most, so they’re naturally going to be skeptical of the world. While they’re dependent on their own survival instincts, they also feel a responsibility to save others from suffering their same fates, but lack the role models to guide them. So it’s fitting that the story would involve characters who do seemingly horrible things, but for reasons they believe are morally good. And some of their decisions will accordingly go very wrong.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

There are several themes that I hope will emerge from The Grotesque. Family is a big one, both actual and found. Within that, there’s also the theme of self-reliance and how it may be in conflict with our connection to the world, specifically in seeking help when we need it most. These also impact the ideas of perceived guilt and assumed responsibility.

The biggest theme, though, to me, is the question of how we see ourselves in the world. The person we feel we could be versus the person we think we actually are in everyday life versus the person others see. This gets played out a lot in the Frankenstein comparisons within the novel. And it encompasses the entire story as a question of perspective itself and how it shapes the ways we might interpret the world, ourselves, and each other.

What were some goals you set for yourself as a writer in this book?

There were several variations of this story. In converting the original screenplay version into a novel, I wanted two things: to get it on paper, and to explore all the tiny details of every scene – details that you don’t add to a screenplay. That first novel version was a tad boring and overwritten. It was also light on emotion, which was the point of telling the story in the first place.

For the rewrite, I wanted to find a way to dig deeper into the minds of my characters and to really see the world through their eyes. In other words, I wanted to learn to become a much better writer than I’d previously been. I also wanted to ‘find my voice as a writer.’ You hear that phrase a lot when reading books on writing, and I’d never fully understood it before, until I really started to narrow down what it was that I loved about certain other writers.

I also wanted to free myself from caring how my writing might sit with a general crowd. Of course, I want people to like, even love my book, but it doesn’t need to be everyone. I know my writing style won’t be for everyone. And that’s okay. I needed to do what was right for me and for the story I had to tell.

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