Overnight, Fruit Fly became the hottest book in publishing.
As soon as I heard about it, I stopped into a bookstore and the clerk basically laughed at me. “Good luck, sis! It’s sold out.” So I did what anyone else in my position would: dusted off the Kindle I’ve literally never touched (sorry, Dad!) and read the PDF. I tore through it, which seems to be the case for everyone. It’s so good.
If you’re not familiar with the story: A woman is desperate to write another best-selling novel. She finds a Reddit post that tells her to write something gay and dark… So she makes a Grindr profile and uses photos she takes of her husband while he’s asleep… chaos ensues… READ IT!
How are you feeling?
Completely blitzed, honestly. It’s all happened so fast — I was a nurse eight weeks ago. I’m getting email after email and half the time I have no idea what any of it means. It’s exciting.
How did your nursing coworkers react to all this?
When it all got announced they were basically like, “what the fuck, off you go!” which I loved — they were genuinely excited for me.
I was working with a small team of four women, and I love them so much. They’re incredible nurses. We drive a lot for home visits, so we all listen to audiobooks in the car — after I left, they listened to Fruit Fly.
What did writing this book look like?
I wrote a lot of this book parked in my car on my lunch break.
Some writers do what’s called a draft zero, just getting the ideas down to rework later. I can’t do that. I can’t move on from a chapter until I’m comfortable sharing it with someone else. I’m not big on detailed outlines, but I do know where things are going in my head. And sometimes the characters surprise me — I’ll think, no, they wouldn’t do that, and it shifts the whole plot. That’s actually part of why I changed the ending of Fruit Fly.
Wait — you changed the ending?
Yeah. A week before it went to the proofreaders. I submitted the book, and I went away to decompress — I was still nursing at the time, so I took a week off and went to Italy. I landed and thought, that’s wrong. I emailed my editor and said I need to change the ending of my book.
What’s something you want to get better at?
Honestly — resting. I’m a very chaotic person, fast-moving, always producing, always trying to make something mean something.
Does the chaos ever work against you?
I’m glad I’m more of a push-through person than a perfectionist. I want the work to be good, but I also know a book is never actually finished. I just get on with it and figure it out as I go. Otherwise I’d never finish anything. I have more fun when I’m not trying to be perfect.
Are there authors you look up to?
Getting to sit next to R.F. Kuang was a dream come true. I did an event with her recently in Boston, and it’s moments like that where it all starts to feel unreal. Her book Yellowface inspired me so much.
What was the first tattoo you got?
A lightning bolt. I’d just quit acting and felt like I could finally do what I wanted with my body, so I started getting tattoos. I wrote a YA book called Happy Head and the lead character is obsessed with David Bowie, so that one felt right. After that I just started getting them. I get one for every book now. I’m impulsive, which I’m always trying to manage — I’ll walk in and just point at something and say, stick that there.
What does a perfect day look like for you?
Wake up, coffee — now that I’m sober, caffeine and nicotine are all I’ve got left — breakfast, then drive up into the Lake District, about an hour and a half out, and go for a run through Windlatter Forest. I’ll come home buzzing off the drive, blasting Olivia Rodrigo the whole way.
Is there a movie that means something to you?
I watch Dune obsessively — I watched it again last night, actually. There’s something about the visual quality and the score that Denis Villeneuve does that goes straight into my brain and calms me all the way down.
Any dream casting for the TV adaptation of Fruit Fly?
It’s under contract with A24, so I have to be a bit careful. I know they have people in mind. It’s crazy. It’s so fun.
Developed and scanned in partnership with Nice Film Club
Thank you Adam Eli!
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