Metafiction is defined as fiction where the author alludes to the creation of the text, acknowledges the existence of a reader, or defies whatever conventions of novelization he or she would otherwise use in a story.

A Once Distant Memory has shades of this; there is a story within a story where Jack, the main character, begins writing a novel about the events that took place five years ago, when he and his now deceased wife came home Valentine’s Day night to find Meghan, the babysitter, murdered and their eleven-year old daughter in shock. The murderer was never found. Throughout the novel Jack writes, the audience (us) picks up clues about what happened that night and, much like us, the audience, is able to piece together who the murderer was. It’s more complex than it sounds, actually.

Metafiction has been used quite a few times. Having a reader interact with the audience was actually the basis of one of my favorite books as a child: The Monster at the End of this Book where Grover gets more and more frightened about the prospect of meeting the monster at the end, and attempts to stop the reader from turning the pages. I loved the story when I was younger. Other books where this occurs are Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs, Dave Eggers’ Heartbreaking Work of a Staggering Genius, The Neverending Story, The Dark Tower, Fight Club, The Crying of Lot 49, and others. It really is interesting how often this comes up, a writer writing about a writer writing. It may have become a cliché, but I have not seen much in terms of indie writers doing this just yet.