The post-deadline malaise (plus C2E2 & Can*Con news)
I turned in a revised draft of my next novel, Every Room a Hunger, last Monday. I spent the four preceding days ensconced in a cheapish hotel here in Queens so I could hyperfocus on getting through my long to-do list of edits that looked something like this:
![A checklist from the Notes App. It says: Part 2: Chapter 7: Melody’s unhinged writing prompt. Chapter 7: specify what Leo does with the hidden pages? Chapter 8: better transitions in first part, when C’s stretching and thinking. Chapter 8: Add Rose the Parrot. Chapter 8 (fix/finish Mother Hunger section. Chapter 9: reword Aimee’s bitch moment. Chapter 9: figure out the name. Chapter 9: Add Frankie reactions for [brackets]. Chapter 9: double check all the truths. Chapter 10: Add mention of Rowan looking in from the outside when everyone is ignoring them. Chapter 11: Finish! Chapter 11: Add more propulsive chapter send us off into the rest of part 2 (Open House). Finish Chapter 12 - transition to the next chapter](https://assets.buttondown.email/images/79f523c3-33fc-47ce-95b7-ea1baf6c5155.jpg?w=960&fit=max)
After turning the book in, I spent the rest of the week in a state of collapse. I had pushed all my anxiety about the current state of the country/world to a little fenced off corner in my brain while the rest of it was consumed by FINISH BOOK, and once that was done, I got hit with 2 months of it all at once. I had my first panic attack in years while cooking dinner because my stupid, feckless, greedy government has decided to flex its nuts by advocating for a war with Canada and Mexico.
Ironically, one of the things I was working on in this draft was making it funnier and more hopeful.
I’m generally known as a writer who tries to balance horror, humor, and the absurd territory between them. The first draft of this book tipped over into purely grim, which didn’t come as much of a surprise. It’s about a group home for troubled teens, and the main POV characters are 1) a closeted evangelical girl, 2) a trans guy sent there by transphobic parents, 3) a kid sent there on juvenile diversion, based on the cash for kids scandal, 4) a nonbinary teen recovering after a suicide attempt.
The world of the story, like this world, does not have a lot of faith in justice. But YA, as a genre, is a realtor trying to sell a house with good bones. It needs to sell its audience on the world, give them a place to practice being human.
I don’t know if I nailed that balance in this draft, even if I did add a weird parrot and someone doing Ariana Grande’s “yes, and?” dance. I tried though; tried to remember how it felt to be younger, falling in love with a world that kept disappointing me. The world is a shithole, but it could be beautiful, right? We can make this place beautiful.
NEWS
If you’re in NYC, I’ll be doing an event this week with fellow YA horror writer Justine Pucella Winans at Astoria Bookshop, talking about their new book How To Survive a Slasher. Come chat horror tropes and play Kiss/Marry/Kill with your favorite movie slashers! Thursday, 3/20, 7pm.
I’ll be at C2E2 for the BATTLE OF THE TROPES panel! Come find me arguing that the Chosen One is bullshit with DL Taylor on Fri, Apr 11, 11:00 AM-11:45 AM, in room S401-ABC.
I’m participating in Virtual Can*Con in April. Tune in to listen to me, Georgina Kiersten, Faye Gabriel, and Derek Newman-Stille on the “(Re)Claiming What We Love” panel, Saturday, April 12, 10:00-10:50 AM EST.
And the requisite plug for my stuff:
Buy my books here: https://ninocipri.com/booksmerch/
Rate/review my books at Storygraph or Goodreads
Kick me a few bucks at Ko-fi or Patreon (where I mostly post cat pictures)
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