THE END!

Undertow First Draft- Horror Novel set in 1992 Los Angeles during the LA Riots.

Today! February 21st 2026! Today is the day! I could write the words THE END.

I got the idea for Undertow back in 2020, but I sat on it for a while. I lived through this event and writing a horror novel set here seemed not only traumatic but also I was afraid of being disrespectful to others who lived it and those who died.

It took me a few years to come around to face what I was really afraid of, and that was not being able to write something scary, poignant, respectful, imaginative, and also true. You know light work. 😏

After some false starts on other projects I couldn’t let this one go. I decided that this was my story to tell, so I was going to tell it. I started writing it late 2024. It’s taken me about 14 months to get this first draft done, but there THE END! It’s messy and needs a lot of work but whew. In celebration I thought I would share a little bit.

Collage moodboard, pictures of scary carnivals, early 1990s Los Angeles, fashion, downtown, images of music, and the LA Riots, abandoned subway tunnels, the pier, and pigeon rollers.

Like the Moodboard that’s kept me on track for all these months and of course the playlist.

In-world the main character has an Aunt, who is fun, charismatic, eclectic and tragically unwell. Her taste in music. is all over the map. Her taped-from-the-radio mixed tape is the background track for the book.

I wonder if you will be able to read the rises and falls in the narrative from the playlist.

Aunt Vy's Mixtape

I hope so…

I’m going to leave this manuscript to marinate in a digital drawer for a month while I do some prep on my next one (a delightfully fun piece of nonsense about Bigfoot and conspiracy theories)

I hope you enjoy the playlist

-Fight the Power!