My second novel, Kissing You is Like Trying to Punch a Ghost, is a bit of an anomaly in my catalog. It was a NaNoWriMo entry, for starters, which means I wrote it entirely in the month of November, a feat I haven’t attempted again since. I think at the time I was burnt out on taking so long to finish my first book, A Chemical Fire, and wasn’t excited about heading back out into that war. So when National Novel Writing Month came around, I decided it would be a good exercise in speeding up my process, forcing me into daily rather than long-term goals. It worked, a little too much so, leaving my head spinning on a daily basis. Since then I’ve landed on a speed somewhere between the two and that seems to suit me.
It’s also an anomaly because it’s not a horror story, and barely science fiction. The truth is I hadn’t fully embraced my genre writer nametag at the time, and was still feeling my way around to find where I fit in. I do that to this day, but at least now I’ve written enough books to have an idea of where that might be. I had literary dreams, inspired by Chuck Palahniuk, Craig Clevenger and Denis Johnson. It took some time to stop trying to be the next them and instead be the first me, for better or worse.
KYILTTPAG is probably the book of mine that’s been read the least, yet the title people have commented on the most. I see it as my Snakes on a Plane, my When the Pawn Hits, half of its value in the title, the rest in trying to live up to it. If you find your head spinning by the time you reach the last page, know that I was right there with you.
Christopher is an odd-job man, making a living doing the chores no one else wants to. He doesn't drive and he just may have a crush on the sword-swallower girl who performs down on the boardwalk.
When he agrees to be the test subject for an experimental drug named ReQular, a transdermal patch with unknown effects, things begin to change. Between reporting to the three scientists who lead the research, he becomes wrapped up in the lives of various people- Eddie, a man who lives on the street, Jeanie, a spoiled rich daughter, even the Sword Girl, who regards him as a stalker as she draws him close then pushes him away. Most dangerously, he becomes obsessed with destroying the life of a random man he passes on the street, for reasons even he himself can't be sure of.
Through stranger and stranger turns, Christopher gets wrapped up in a world of questions: what is ReQular, who are the mysterious Murphy Group, and who can he trust?
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