My new novel, The Influencers, is now available.
From the Back Cover:
IT’S OSCARS DAY
TWENTYSOMETHING Instagram influencer Kennedy Thorne recently had a small role in an Academy Award–nominated indie film. Oscars day begins quietly—with a meeting with up-and-coming fashion designer J-Sean Laurentius for one final dress fitting. But long before the after parties start, Kennedy’s life will be changed forever.
The Influencers is a darkly comic modern literary thriller set in an LA that is at once timeless and simultaneously caught in yesterday's trends.
The trajectory of writing this book was an odd one. I wrote the first two chapters nearly three years ago, shortly after finishing the first draft of my last novel, The Dissection of Vertebrates. But then I was hired at Paleo Magazine, and for two years didn’t have the capacity to write much fiction—most of my time was spent editing the magazine, and when I wrote, it was always journalism or other non-fiction.
But then, in June of 2019, I was let go from the magazine (which, I’m sad to see, appears to be in the final stage of its lifecycle). After a few days wondering what I was going to work on next, I revisited those first two chapters, and over the next six months I wrote the rest of the novel.
But here’s the thing: I finished The Influencers near the end of last year, pre SARS-COV-2 and COVID-19. Pre quarantine. Pre the shutdown of all of Hollywood. Pre Gal Gadot and her friends’ tone-deaf social media rendition of “Imagine.” Pre fashion influencer Arielle Charnas documenting on Instagram her retreat to the Hamptons with her family after testing positive for the virus and refusing to self-isolate.
I’m afraid the world described in this novel doesn’t exist anymore. And it probably never will again. The world is currently at a standstill, but when it starts moving again, it’s going to change—fast. The Influencers, it seems, is a relic, a fossil. I don’t know what celebrity and influencer cultures are going to look like going forward, or whether they will even exist at all.
Give the book a read and then let me know where you think the world is heading.
Purchase The Influencers:
Paperback
Ebook
By the way, I know it’s difficult to get print books right now. Amazon won’t even ship orders of this book for at least two weeks, maybe three. That’s why I’ve priced the ebook version at just $4.99. I want the book to be affordable for anyone who’s in need of some escape right now.