Oct 20, 2024
To:Steward McOy
As always, thanks for reading and commenting. It's good to be back.
I've always wanted to do a grand autumnal Americana story, so a lot of these ideas have been kicking around for a while. I don't want to say the ideas ENTIRELY come from me pacing around while in the grip of reefer madness and listening to malt shop oldies...
In all seriousness, a lot of it is working backwards. An asylum being an old house where a woman hanged herself seems Halloween enough and was the original idea. But then why did she hang herself? Because her family died. But then why did they die? Well, I've read some American history books, and X, Y, and Z are good reasons for them to die. And that's how the asylum history gets created. Not that it's easy, but figuring out how to piece it all together is just as fun for me as actually writing the story which helps make it easier.
I've also been on a huge Pynchon kick recently and tangents are very common in his stories (if not his stories entirely). Helps make the world feel lived in and his writing has definitely influenced my own with this
