Nostalgiamares

I’ve written a book titled Nostalgiamares: Phantom Delivery. It is the first installment of a quartet of books about a 38-year-old woman so fed up with the life of and adult that she is transported into the world of Deadmares, the Young Adult horror series she adored as a tween. I started writing it with the intention of honoring (and lovingly satirizing) all of the YA and Middle Grade fiction that proliferated throughout the 1990s. It’s got all the cool stuff you would expect, plus a stalker with a pizza cutter, a serial killer who looks like Cindy Crawford posing as a substitute teacher, a psychic named Madame Skye who can travel the multiverse, a self-aware interactive story element, and a bunch of other fun things I can’t wait to share. During the process, it grew into something unnervingly personal about the importance of presence and the folly of idealizing the past.

Sounds a bit academic, no? Well, I think creative people see their work differently than the audience. For anyone kind enough to check out my books, they will (hopefully) come away thinking it was a fun, meta throwback to the days when R.L. Stine’s slim and riveting volumes dominated the shelves of kids everywhere. This was my intention. However, being the author, I can’t help but include elements from my own life and struggles with anxiety and mental health.

I mention this to let folks know that these books are not intended for young readers. These books were written for those of us who remember being young readers. The kids who hated to read but found themselves lost in stories about bug people, haunted masks, and new kids at school with a dangerous reputation. They’re for individuals who look back at those early years when the days lasted long beyond their expiration date, the future was a lifetime away, and Saturday nights were reseved for Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and want nothing more than to go back there. I wrote them, I suppose, for me.

That being said, I have a hunch that there are more people like me out there. Thus, I wrote them for you. I hope you enjoy.