This story put me deep in the doo-wop and R&B sounds of the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s. The Ink Spots. The Penguins. The Dells. I had The Platters on loop. Revisiting classics like “Only You” and “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.” In 2006, I wrote a feature story for Boston Globe Magazine about Herb Reed.

Americans love to think they reinvent everything they touch, which gives us license to make the same universal mistakes. But we do add a uniquely belligerent gusto to our observances that feels like misplaced pagan bloodlust, mistaken for patriotism.

I love a mystery, and cosmic horror is a place where the mysteries are never fully solved. The persistence of our curiosity about monstrous cosmic indifference, or malice, is part of the thrill. Writing this story, I fixated on Carcosa, on the challenge of making it into a compelling character.

I first visited Haw Par Villa as a kid. Weirdly, I was most afraid of the exhibit that shows the “good souls” standing on the silver and gold bridges to cross into paradise. For some reason I interpreted that exhibit to mean that the good souls would be standing on that bridge forever.

I think both the inspector and Gemma are characters who find solace in each other because they are trying to mediate these brutal social forces that they didn’t choose, but were born into, which is something I relate to. How are you supposed to make decisions for yourself, or even just survive, when you inherit a world other people made for you?

I live near the Greenwich Peninsula, which is an area of London crammed full of new-build blocks of luxury apartments, some of which (particularly during the COVID lockdowns) seemed almost entirely empty. I would often notice a single light in the stairwell.

I don’t think going to Mars will save us. Nor will building some godlike artificial intelligence. No—if there is to be a worthwhile, dignified future for human life on Earth, we have to break free of this malevolent cosmology, this planet-devouring maw.

Using a child’s innocent mind, it is easier to take ourselves back to our primal and untainted fears. I agree with you. To add to that, I also think the older we get, the more tethered we become to the world. Reality becomes more concrete; our understanding sheds its infinity. A necessity, but also a limitation. However, with children, the imagination is still free-flying, and writing from their perspective allows for directions usually unattainable.

I wanted to write about a so-called lost writer but also to push that idea into somewhere strange by writing about a writer and book that may belong in oblivion. As my narrator says, “Some things, perhaps, are not and will never be classics, were rightfully neglected or lost for good reasons.” That’s the core concept I was working with. My interest in forgotten writers, the legend of the stone, and the narrative framework coalesced quite well.

Given the modern problems of dating and such, I have my suspicions, but can you tell us a bit about what inspired “Backseat Kiss”? This story went through a few iterations. At first, I wanted to use a relationship to explore power dynamics, and originally the story was going to be about cuckoldry. That then […]