The Monsters Made Her Do It

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Pop the champagne, toss the rose petals, and give a standing ovation! It is debut day here on Jungle Red. We love love love debut authors, and we are so pleased to welcome Sarah Reida today!

 

She describes her new book, NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH as “an adult debut dark comedy thriller.” SO great! Adult, check. Debut, love. Dark, perfect. Comedy? Yes, I read it, and it is hilarious. (Darkly hilarious.) Thriller. Yes, indeed. And it just got a STAR from Kirkus!

 

(Oh we interrupt this program for  BREAKING NEWS: Don’t forget the Reds and Readers Happy Hour Facebook LIVE at 5PM ET today! Join us on the Red and Readers page—and remember you have to join the group to join the fun. So click here.  And I will approve you instantly. Then come to Reds and Readers Facebook Page at 5PM Tuesday! ANd yesterdays winners from the Reds and Readers tests are Laurie Hernandez and Janice Harris. Message me!)

But right now, let's get the scoop from Sarah! And she reveals she had some unusual help for her wonderful debut novel. Monsters.

 

My Monsters Wrote My Book For Me

by Sarah Reida

 

As many writers know, it’s rough to write when the process is protracted. If you’re constantly pulled away to deal with something (like, I don’t know, literally wiping someone’s behind), the issue isn’t simply that it takes longer. The time you’re actually spending isn’t being spent well. You have to re-read what you’ve written before starting again. Get back into the flow.

 

No one knows this better than a mother. Gawd, I love my little monsters, but they sure are a demanding handful. (In fact, as I write this–at 9:22 PM on a Friday night–I’m ignoring thumps and screams from the floor above. Apparently, our nightly exorcism was unsuccessful).

 

Interestingly, however, my children are the reason my adult debut dark comedy thriller, Neighborhood Watch, came to be. I had this great idea–Desperate Housewives, only more stabby (which is totally a legitimate verb)­–but I only had a grand total of four and a half hours every day to write. And this is assuming that I could let my house go to filth and also put off my work duties.

 

Then, there was my attention span. This was a get-er-done-or-it’s-not-happening kind of situation. I felt that in my bones.

 

I’ve never written for grownups before. Before I had kids, I spent ten years on agented submissions to publishers with a series of middle grade books that didn’t sell. This was my first foray into this area, which was probably why I was able to write Neighborhood Watch without second-guessing myself. I didn’t expect too much of myself. I just had fun with it (and the awful, awful characters I created and then murdered).

 

So, by writing two short chapters a day–and by always having a definite stopping point–I finished a 320-page novel in two months. And, seven months after beginning the book, I had a traditional publishing deal.

 

It’s all because of the monsters. I never would have approached a project this way if not for them. I molded my writing process to fit into my schedule as a mother, and miracle of miracles, that’s how I finally got my traditional deal.

 

The best part is that now I can share this publishing experience with them. I can show them what it’s like to not give up on a dream. To have proof that something can come through when you least expect it.

 

This leads me to the question I have for the writing community of ladies: how do you balance it? Everyone has to, and everyone does it differently. They say there’s no wrong way–though the mommy guilt is real, and constant–so share your story in the comments!

 

FYI, a monster has wandered downstairs. Rather than lead him back to bed, I’ll take the photo op:

 

HANK: Awww.... Great question, Sarah! Not only how do you all balance, but what are the monsters that interrupt YOUR day?

And a copy of NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH to one lucky commenter!

 

Sarah Reida is an attorney who works with veteran businesses performing contracts with the federal government. While she was traditionally published once in the middle grade genre, Neighborhood Watch is her debut in the adult thriller genre. In a starred review, Kirkus Reviews referred to this dark comedy thriller as “immersive and compelling.” Sarah and her husband Scott live in the Atlanta area with their small children and many rescue cats. Follow Sarah on Instagram here.

About Neighborhood Watch

 

A killer terrorizes the morally bankrupt residents of an upscale neighborhood, leading them to turn to—and on—one another to survive.

The neighborhood of Oleander Court is the poster child for suburban bliss. The residents compare lawns beautified by hired help. They monitor home values. They toss perfect furniture because they wanted tapioca, not beige.

But when a string of murders rips through the neighborhood, suspicions abound as new secrets come to light. And as more and more bodies are taken away, it becomes clear that the killer is strategically selecting each and every victim, picking off the shallowest, most wasteful of the lot in spectacular fashion and leaving everyone in the neighborhood to wonder: Who’s next?

While most of their neighbors scatter like well-dressed cockroaches, a small group of the neighborhood ladies team up to solve their local mystery and restore their once-peaceful lives. But is this ragtag collection of amateur sleuths truly a united front? With reputations, freedom, and personal sanity on the line, the ladies must unmask the killer . . . even if the killer is among them.

Links to Buy:

Amazon

 Barnes and Noble