Romanticide

The new novel I've just completed is called Romanticide. It's the story of a wealthy group of NYU grad students who fly to Taiwan and the abandoned Sanzhi Pod City in an attempt to terrify one another in their annual ghost story competition - the Romanticide.

The group, spearheaded by their unofficial leader, Harris, gives itself the name Neo-Romantics, as they are wholly obsessed with Romantic poets such as Byron, Keats, and Shelley. They look to reenact the famous ghost story competition held by Byron, Percy Shelley, and Mary Shelley, the one in which the timeless tale of Frankenstein was born. The year before the story takes place, Harris, Kendall, Jordy, Nadia, and Mackenzie hold their first competition at North Brother Island in New York, a location made famous by Typhoid Mary. The Neos propose to get a little more exotic with the second, travelling to the haunted, ill-omened Death Pods in Sanzhi, pictured above. They definitely should've gone back to North Brother Island and its eerie Riverside Hospital, pictured below.

Harris gives the crew the rundown on the pods in a history lesson stemmed in tragic deaths, especially when it concerns pod number 47. Nadia, a stunning, elegant redhead who speaks fluent Mandarin, even tells the group how unlucky the numbers 4 and 7 are in Chinese culture, which adds an ominous mood to their initial decent to Taiwan. Each member is given plenty of time to come up with their own tale, and each of them are eager to tell something good enough to dethrone Nadia, who won the year before.

Romanticide was inspired by many different elements. A few of my inspirations come in the form of three of my favorite contemporary horror films in Hell House LLC, Starry Eyes, and Darling. The rest come from 1990 gem Flatliners, and the Gothic literary sensibilities of the novels Frankenstein and The Picture of Dorian Gray. My novel is essentially a modern retelling of the infamous ghost story competition, but the psychological damages of the five characters ultimately causes their unraveling. The story itself inspires a proposed movie within the book, cast with five actual actor who either look a lot like how I imagine them, or least carry some of the same traits.

Harris is the creator of the Neo-Romantics and the one who spearheads the group trips to isolated, macabre locales. He is a graduate student in the English department at NYU who looks down on anyone else who's basically not him. He is callous, cold, and manipulating, your best friend one minute and your mortal enemy the next. He has a checkered past, or what he refers to as a checkered past, and will keep it under tight wraps at all costs. He is handsome and often dresses on the formal side, making it a point to speak with perfect grammar and a Regency flair. He did his undergrad at UConn, and is a vital part to every group meeting, though there's something a bit evil about his personality. They don't get much more sarcastic, or toxic, than Harris. He's inspired by Byron, literary figure Lord Henry Wotton, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia nihilist Dennis Reynolds.In the proposed movie version, he is cast with Josh Duhamel, whose claim to fame around the time the novel takes place was Transformers.

Nadia is Harris' moral equivalent. She thinks very highly of herself, beautiful, smart, and fluent in French and Mandarin. Her father works for the Beijing consulate, which gives her the proficiency she needs in the Chinese language. Nadia, who is likened to Molly Ringwald, Ginger from Gilligan's Island, and Jessica Rabbit, has sort of a love/hate relationship with Harris. There is a definitely an attraction there, but neither would ever admit it in front of the other, or to anyone else for that matter. Nadia is the fashionable, cultured primadonna, and surprisingly the most comical of the group, even if only in a sardonic way. The University of Albany graduate likes Thai White Lady gin drinks, Chinese culture, and draping the boys of the group around her broad shoulders like they're mink coats. She works in the Linguistics department and often complains of the horrid language packets she has to grade while sipping her Earl Gray tea. She hates riding the Metro, but hates driving in the city even more. A chance run-in with an old Chinese man before their departure sets the tone for her visit to Taiwan, and shows her that perhaps it's better not to completely immerse yourself in one culture over all others. She is cast with Scarlett Johansson in the proposed movie, titled Pod 47.

Kendall, like Harris, is part of the English department of NYU's graduate college, though he did his undergrad at the University of Western Michigan. He's perhaps the most interesting character, or least the most fun to write. He's based on a college friend I had. Kendall is a self-proclaimed metrosexual, a lady's man in his own mind, and he's just quirky enough to speak prim and proper within the confines of his own mind. He's built himself a legend, which is hard not to do when he looks up to Harris in every way. Nadia calls him a pawn and a toady to Harris, though he dismisses it and turns it into self-constructed sexual advances. Kendall would do anything to have Nadia, but she wouldn't give him the time of day. Though he sounds like a clown, Kendall speaks German and is a scholar of Scandinavian folklore. His roots are Scandinavian and Germanic, and he attempts to look the part with his flowing, long blonde locks and beard. He has a tendency for exotic women, absinthe stupors, and over-committing to fashions or ideas. He's probably a dangerous person to be around, but he's a lot of fun to write. He's obsessed with every woman whose path he crosses, including Nadia, Mackenzie, the Senegalese waitress at the gin bar the group frequents, and a cryptic Chinese girl name Shui. He is cast with Cloverfield and Texas Chainsaw Massacre actor Mike Vogel.

Jordy, who did his undergrad at the University of Wyoming, is probably the character who is the most like me, or at least, the most like I used to be. I added a few more quirks to his character, such as his dependency and his need for a steady routine. He's an INFP living all alone in a creepy old apartment in the East Village, and his only lifeline to home in the Midwest is starting to outgrow him and move forward with her life. Jordy is supposed to mimic Percy Shelley in Harris' OCD quest for recreation, but he's actually more like John Keats - meek, kindhearted, and thoughtful, even when it could be detrimental to him. He spends his days teaching and grading papers, and his nights dining alone in the eerie silence of his apartment. Tolstoy, expository books on the Mongol Empire, and philosophical podcasts occupy his nights, especially the ones in which he's not out with the Neo-Romantics. He wants to be wanted and needs to be needed, which sometimes pushes people away instead of reeling them in. Anton Yelchin tragically passed away three years ago, but he would have been a great Jordy in 2008, the year the novel takes place.

Rounding out the group is Mackenzie, a graduate of Colorado State University. Mack is extremely knowledgeable in the regions of the world and their relations with one another. She's been carrying on with her assistant professor, redefining the grad student-professor protocol, all to the amusement of the Neo-Romantics. The professor is separated but still married, and has just recently reconnected with his wife, which leaves Mack in the cold and in need of a quick fix. She's a bit cynical and clinical, but she's grounded, always concocting a plan for the next phase of her life. She was looking forward to spending more time with the professor and less with the Neo-Romantics, who she not-so-affectionately refers to as the Neo-Semantics. She wants a good reason to 86 herself from their clutches, but reluctantly stays the course until something better comes along. She has a strained relationship with nearly all except for Jordy, whom she has for all intents and purposed placed into the friend zone. Mackenzie is cast with Rachael Leigh Cook.




I started writing Romanticide long before I saw the horror films Hell House LLC, Starry Eyes, or Darling. They are three of my newer favorites, and at the completion of the book, I noted how the three films served as unconscious inspirations. Hell House is about five friends who take over an abandoned hotel with a checkered past, converting it into a haunted house experience for paying customers. Of course, the occult activity attached to the history of the hotel turns things on its head. I came up with my five friends a year before Hell House came out, but the dynamic of the hotel and the traumatic history of it surely inspired the Taiwan Death Pod experience of Romanticide. My characters' own pasts and presents haunt them, ala Flatliners, but Hell House LLC created a haunted, psychologically sinister element that helped me shape things, even if only subconsciously.


Starry Eyes came into play when writing the character of Nadia. Protagonist Sarah will do anything to become a leading actress in Tinseltown, even if it means making key sacrifices to herself and her friends. Nadia is never attempting to become an actress, though she is willing to sacrifice in order to achieve success, in the Romanticide competition and in other aspects of life. She doesn't have many scruples, and the ones she does have don't stick around long enough to weigh into her already flimsy conscience.

Darling inspires Jordy's short story in the competition, as well as the whole final fourth of the novel. Though it oozes with classic sensibilities, Darling was released in 2015, a monochrome psychological horror-fest from the mind of indie maestro, Mickey Keating. Darling takes place in a black and white, netherworld version of New York City. Romanticide also takes place in the Big Apple when not dipping into death curses in Sanzhi, Taiwan. The mansion featured in the movie is a massive, eerie, old city brownstone building, one teeming with ghosts and occult terror. The movie also displays the classic notes of Audrey Hepburn, a famous actress of yesteryear whom Nadia adores and patterns herself after.

I have long been intrigued by the idea of an elite group of intellectuals who look to recreate something monumental. I had somehow come across the Death Pods and decided to put two and two together. In junior college, I studied the Romantic poets, especially Byron, the Shelleys, Keats, Coleridge, and Tennyson. I was immediately captivated by the poems and by the ideology behind the Romantics. Lord Byron was not a very moral person, something like Lord Henry Wotton in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Both are a bit cynical and welcome excess in all its many forms. Both of these characters heavily influenced Harris, who likes to push limits, to feel untouchable and important, and to be the king of his own castle. He's OCD in his quest for reenacting the ghost story competition of 1816.

Percy Shelley, a radical and known atheist, left his wife in England and ran away to Europe with Mary Godwin, the daughter of poet/philosopher William Godwin and women's right activist Mary Wollstonecraft. Shelley looked up to William Godwin immensely, and fell in love with Mary probably just as much that she was Godwin's daughter as he did with her herself. William disapproved of the match, so that sent Percy, and Mary, who was already calling herself a Shelley by the time they arrive in Europe, on an extended vacation.

At the Villa Diodati on the outskirts of the Swiss Alps, the two, along with Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, met up with Lord George Gordon Byron. Byron was thrilled to see Percy and to meet Mary, but annoyed that they had brought Claire, whom Byron had had a fling with back in Merry Old. The four had an invigorating time together, sailing and chatting and reading one another poetry. In the Villa Diodati, a massive mansion Byron had rented, they came across a volume the macabre with thunder, lighting, and rain pounding the exterior and the glass of its windows. They were in the midst of summer, but this was the "year without a summer," which featured chilly weather, gales, and incessant storms. It was almost like it was meant to be. Once the gang had exhausted the book of ghost stories, Byron suggested they create their own, and challenged the rest of the group to a friendly ghost story competition.

The night thoroughly creeped out Shelley, who had mixed opium with his brandy. Opium tends to make one hallucinate, and being that they were in the midst of a terrifying contest in which the rain poured and the thunder roared, he claimed to have seen some horrific things outside the window. The gang came up with stories, and in the aftermath of the competition, the bones for Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) and The Vampyre (John Polidori, Byron's personal physician), were laid. Both went on to become champions in the Gothic horror genre.

Fast-forward two hundred years and you have a carefully-constructed group of Romantic poet fanatics seeking to replicate the experiences in new, chilling locations around the world. I like recreations, which is maybe why I'm at least interested in movie remakes. Most of them are awful, but some are actually worthwhile. Maybe this is also why I like to do simulations in the school setting, to set up scenarios in which students play a particular part. It's really the same concept of the famous ghost story competition and the Romanticide, brimming with its plethora of influences.