Question 1

Do you have some favorite authors?

Accepted Answer

I would cite Salinger as a major influence, however I also love Nabokov, Dostoyevsky, James Baldwin, Hemingway, Donna Tartt, Bret Easton Ellis, Lorrie Moore, Graham Greene, and John Irving.

Question 2

There seems to be a lot of cinematic influences in your books. Do you have any favorite films or film directors?

Accepted Answer

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is probably my favorite movie of all time. There’s nothing before or since that mixes tragedy and humor so gracefully. But I’m a horror movie nut and a Criterion nerd. I love the French New Wave (Godard, Truffaut,  Melville) and a lot of Japanese New Wave films, old and contemporary gangster films, anything Kubrick, and Wong Kar-wai.

Question 3

Where can people buy a signed copy of your books?

Accepted Answer

From Books of Wonder. Note your personalization preferences in the “order comments” box.

Question 4

What inspired you to write Scream All Night?

Accepted Answer

Partly, I think, my whacked out time at Yale Drama. And also my (fairly limited) time on movie and TV sets as an actor. I was inspired by Hammer Horror. They were this British production company that made classic monster movies in the 50s and 60s (although, technically, the company still exists). Hammer introduced the world to actors like Oliver Reed, Peter Cushing (from Star Wars), and Christopher Lee. Lee would always play Dracula wearing this cheesy silk cape. He was great, though. Very moody, but not particularly scary. He always looked more like the maître d’ at a steak house in New Jersey than a vampire.

Question 5

Can you tell us a bit about your second book, Swipe Right for Murder?

Accepted Answer

It’s a spiky, pulse-pounding, darkly comic Hitchcockian thriller about a gay teen on the run from a terrorist cult, as well as the Feds, after an epic case of mistaken identity. But at its heart, the novel is a character study.

Question 6

People seem to be very intrigued by your third novel, A Darker Mischief. How did it come to be, and are there really that many easter eggs in it?

Accepted Answer

I think Dark Academia is trending right now, which is probably why there’s been a lot of foreign rights interest and tv/film interest in this book. I started writing it in 2017, without thinking about trends at all, and I think people just tracked my progress with it and how long I was taking to write and perfect the story. The novel went through so many incarnations. Also, there isn’t a lot of queer DA out there. It was inspired by a now-infamous black binder a close friend gave me documenting his time in a real secret society at Yale. The one in ADM is modeled on the one at Yale, so readers will get a real glimpse of what it’s like to be in one of these secret societies, their rituals, catechisms, all that sweet stuff. The book is an homage to those sprawling Vintage International novels that some of us came across as kids in the 90s. Discerning readers *may* see brief nods to many classic books: Catcher in the Rye, The Sheltering Sky, The Secret History, Brideshead Revisited, A Clockwork Orange, The Natural, Old School, to name a few.

Question 7

Were you in a secret society when you were at Yale?

Accepted Answer

No, I was in the Drama School earning an MFA in acting. But it was my connection to the school that ultimately led me to getting THE INFAMOUS BLACK BINDER.

Question 8

Does having worked as an actor inform your work as a writer?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You have an innate understanding of conflict, high stakes, you understand the structure and rhythm of dialogue, and the complicated, tangled psychologies that make for great characters.

Question 9

I know you briefly worked as a DJ. Did you come up with a playlist for  A DARKER MISCHEF? Do you listen to music when you write?

Accepted Answer

There is a Spotify playlist specific to the book, yes, I’ll have to release it at the right time and on the right platform. Generally, I favor hazy dream pop, dreamy jazz, and atmospheric electronica when I write. Some favorite artists include Boards of Canada, The Radio Dept., Teen Daze, Burial, Wild Nothing, Aphex Twin, Beach Fossils, James Blake, Lil Yachty, J Dilla, Jessica Pratt, Leo Takami, Miles Davis, and Beach House.