Have you ever had a book that just sort of fell into your lap at the right time? Maybe you connected with a particular character, their personality, or their plight? Maybe you were bored out of your mind, and then some book with a kick-ass, fast-moving plot came along and spurred you into action. Maybe it was just vibes… that’s a thing.

For the writers following along, I wonder if you ever find yourself WRITING the book you need. I think that’s consistently been happening to me, but in ways I didn’t intend. Only in hindsight do I see that I’ve been making meaning of different eras of my life.

This summer, THE CARVER turned 8 years old, which is wild. I have to confess I a weird, strangled sort of relationship with this series now. It will always have my heart because of the doors it opened for me. It guided me to my first publisher, who mentored me, saw my potential, and revealed a whole world I otherwise may never have found. When I travel to conventions and book signings, THE CARVER consistently sells out, and it’s always the first book to leave the table. This makes my heart soar, but then privately, I sigh and wish the first-time readers would have grabbed something else–something that has a little more of my heart and skill.

The thing I want people to know about THE CARVER is that it represents a time in my life when I had infinite optimism, and when writing was purely about joy and escapism. It was the lovechild of my PERCY JACKSON obsession, ONCE UPON A TIME phase, and grad school ennui. It’s not particularly deep, which more so disappoints the people who went to school with me and expected to see my thesis, but it was never supposed to be profound. It was supposed to be fun, because that was what I needed in 2015. I hope people find that same sense of adventure and escapism when they pick it up.

ROSES IN THE DRAGON’S DEN was an unexpected surprise for me. I had finished my trilogy and thought, “What if that’s it? What if I can never write another thing again? That was my dream, and now it’s just . . . over?” I started to learn how to pull threads together from everyday spaces. My love of family. My niece had been born around that time. I was deep into the UNCHARTED video games and thirsting to write a Nathan Drake sort of character. I was on the couch with a dumb fever one day, and I saw Bear Grylls on Man Vs. Wild. My mom said, “This is always so dramatic. Like they’re actually gonna let ANYTHING happen to him.” And my fever brain concocted a scenario where Bear doesn’t know what he’s doing. (“Like what if a fire breathing dragon just showed up and he just had to deal with it? LOL.”)

ROSES will always have another giant wedge of my heart. If a Netflix producer approached me and said, “Pick any one of your books to become a show,” I’d point them to ROSES. Diego, Charlie, Karina, Zid, and James will forever be among my favorite characters to write. The story is the kind of fun, snappy adventure I wanted to watch with popcorn growing up, and heck, I STILL do. And around that time, I was also writing for my niece, for myself, and for my community. I was writing about making the most of bad luck, about the magic of familia, and about Oreos.

A THOUSAND DREADFUL CURSES was another surprise for me. No joke: I wrote the whole first draft in about two weeks. There had been threads in my head–an Italian folktale and a Halloween aesthetic–but that was all I had until I dreamed of Prince Jack. Once I found him, everything fell out of my head and onto paper. And I needed that, too, because we were on lock-down. CURSES was my pandemic escapism and joy, but it was also all I knew how to say about love in 55,000 words. It became my love letter to things that made me happy: pizza, The Killers (who get an alias in CURSES because copyright and stuff), fall, ice cream, nice families, and happiness for gay characters. It’s not widely read, mostly because of the seasonal appeal, but I LOVE this one.

This brings me to GODFATHER DEATH, M.D. This one’s going to my editor in a few weeks, to design shortly after that, and to shelves next year. Some of you will find it too broody for my name and my happy-go-lucky brand. I expect this, and that’s ok! This one’s NOT about pizza or The Killers. It’s literally about Death, both capital and lowercase. It’s not about the act of dying, gore, or anything that would give me nightmares. It’s more about everything that follows, which is complex and messy–letting go, hanging on, moving forward, looking back, wondering “What if,” and so on.

So, why this one, and why now? That’s difficult to answer… I’m not really dealing with any sort of fresh grief right now, but this story weighed heavily on my mind on my 33rd birthday. (Don’t get me wrong, it was a great day, and I know I’m still young. It didn’t hit in a “death is looming” sort of way. Sometimes birthdays just ache around the fringes. I still don’t quite know how to articulate it, but I’ve seen some good articles that capture it well.) There’s a pretty big cast in GODFATHER DEATH, and the characters all have different vibes. I hope everyone has a friend like one of Danny’s, or a family member. I thought a LOT about the Grimm siblings recently, and I thought about the five senses. Scents can really pack a punch, especially when it comes to memory. That’s a big part of the book too. So, if and when you pick it up, know this: It will ache around the fringes, but ultimately, it’s also there to hold up simple pleasures and joys.

Also, is anyone getting into ONE PIECE lately? Because I had never read a manga before this, but it was totally the book and TV show I needed right now! Obsessed.

Readers and writers: Tell me about a book that fell into your life at the right time, and why it sticks with you!