Freeze Frame follows a teen with PTSD who struggles to separate film and reality at times as he works through his trauma and makes new friends. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?

“When quarantine started, I was living in a room with no windows. It definitely psyched me out at times, not knowing if it was light or dark, rainy or sunny. The mind can sort of wander in a place like that. I remember having these vivid daydreams after a while, and after one of them, it took me a minute or two to figure out if the daydream had actually happened. That’s when this image appeared of a boy who was constantly jumping in and out of reality. I had spent a lot of time working at a Free Mental Health Clinic in medical school, and that paired with my own mental health battles helped shape the boy’s story. Almost instantly, I knew I wanted to tell a story about a vulnerable boy overcoming trauma while highlighting key issues of youth mental illness today (social media, peer pressures, anxiety/depression).”

Will wants to be like the other teens at his high school but knows he is different and struggles to battle his mental illness while moving forward. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?

“Certainly Will’s battle between passion and personal guilt drives the story and his development as a young man. When the thing that makes you happy is the same thing that’s tied to your worst memory…it can weigh heavily on your mind and how you move from the past. Ultimately, I chose to make the Coreless his saving grace because I believe it can take a village to help someone work on their own mental health. We may not be able to directly heal others who are struggling, but we can certainly offer support and love to help them get to where they wish to be. As a society, we’ve made incredible strides at de-stigmatizing mental illness, but we still have a ways to go. People often feel they must carry their burdens on their own, and my hope was through Will readers might feel more open to sharing their struggles and leaning on others for help.”

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

“In my opinion, children are the most vulnerable members of our society, a society by the way that runs at a sprint driven by social media. Children are surrounded by social pressures very few of us can even fathom. And I really don’t mean to say social media is bad. In fact, when used properly, I think it has the power to be our saving grace. But anything powerful can be destructive. I think sometimes we don’t think about just how much power a child with a phone wields, and neither do they. We don’t just need to teach children how to use these tools responsibly, but there needs to be better guidance behind the tools themselves to protect kids. Like I said, the tools aren’t bad inherently. A hammer isn’t bad. It can build a house. But it can also end a life. So that’s where the antagonist was born to combat these counterculture kids. I thought it would be really fascinating for a group of kids with today’s technology and interests to choose to make a movie in a more classic fashion. Setting their work as a competition against social media platformers just made the story more intriguing. It definitely gets meta at times, with a filmmaker losing his grip on reality and seeing films play out before his eyes. But writing the story from Will’s perspective in that way really allowed me to highlight how everyone lives out their own trauma in a unique way, and hopefully readers will see that.”

What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?

“I am currently working on a new children’s series that is sort of a “Magic Tree House” meets “Medicine.” More to come on this later, but each book will focus on a new bacteria or virus the way Magic Tree House focused on a new time period for each story. I’ve currently written a good portion of Book 1 with a few others outlined. It may take some time until it is available as I am finishing up medical school at the moment, but I hope for the first book to drop in the next year or two.”

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