Reptile Files Pt.1
Welcome back! This is the first edition of the Reptile Files, our little monthly feature where I answer your questions, talk about my writing process and the journey of what I’ve written, give you guys updates, and a little life check in. This is the first one so there aren’t any questions to answer; instead I’m going to tell y’all a little about myself to address the basic questions anyone would have.
A little about me, let’s see…I’m from Queens, New York, where I live with my incredible wife. I’m 27, and I started writing seriously in 2018. Here’s some things I like: Auntie Anne’s pretzels, biking, music, learning about animals. I like and dislike a lot of things, they’re both huge lists. My favorite color is purple. If I could have a celebrity boxing match, I would fight T-Pain.
On a serious note, this book has had quite the journey. It came from a page long story I’d written in 2015. I had a dream about a white face in the hallway of my parents’ apartment and turned it into a little story. I’d posted it to a message board on IGN of all places, and no one really saw it, so I forgot about the story until maybe a year later. On a whim I showed it to my mom and she said it was really good, so I decided to give writing another try. The book was originally going to be a collection of short stories but, well, I guess you’ll all have read it to find out what the finished product is like.
The journey was anything but easy. I was in school for the majority of this story’s gestation period, for lack of a better term, so I wasn’t working on it that much. As time went on I started getting stuck with certain parts of the story, and working on the story out of sequence and then going back. I’d started a few other projects; writer’s block was whooping my ass. Honestly one thing really spurred me on to finish this book: money. Not making money, but spending money. I thought being able to see my characters would help, so I paid one of my good friends who happened to be an incredible artist to do art and character design work. As much the investment put the battery in my back, I think actually breaking the story down to someone who could critique it well really helped. Hearing the story out loud helped me decide what I did and didn’t like. The result was a pretty substantial rewrite, a much more streamlined finished product, and motivation. It’s been a good ride, and this is only the first loop-de-loop.
My parents are probably the biggest reasons for this book, in the sense that they fostered my love for reading, horror, and fiction in general. My mother used to buy my brothers and me a book of our choice as an extra present every Christmas and birthday. As an avid reader and author herself, she instilled a similar love in us. My dad is a big comic book fan and he introduced me to the world of things strange and super. The comics influenced me a lot, and then I got into manga, which also played a fairly big role in shaping my style. He also loved movies, especially 80s and 90s action and horror movies. He introduced me to a lot my favorite films ever, like The Thing, Alien and its sequel, Predator, Halloween, etc. A lot of the works that inspired me to write this book were in some way, shape, or form related to my parents and all I can be is grateful.
I imagine that having a kid is a similar feeling to creating and putting out a piece of art. You have this thing that you’re proud of for all its qualities, good or bad, and you want to present it to the world. Everyone has an opinion, but its mere existence is a miracle. I am so happy that I will be able to present something I worked this hard on to anyone, anywhere. I hope people can connect with the characters and enjoy the story. The stories are really good. Trust me. So to anyone that ever looks at anything I’ve written, thank you. My dream for all this is just that people will enjoy it. That’s all. And maybe an animated show. And the T-Pain thing. Maybe. I can dream right?
