Why Your Next Vacation Should AVOID The Beach
This has all the makings of a perfect spooky season read. It’s fast-paced, unsettling, twisted, and delivers a heart-wrenching take on the vampiric monster mythos.
The coming storm destined for Six Mile Island has the small population heading for the mainland, except a select few, including the local authorities. But more than the storm sweeps across the island.
A horde of beings from the deep has ridden in its wake.
The best way I can describe this story is a faster-paced, more viscerally atmospheric, and violent version of Salem’s Lot, with a complex creature swimming around its core.
P.S. READ THE EPILOGUE. It’s very worthwhile.
What If Vampires Walked Out of The Sea?
AJ: I like to think every story starts with inspiration. Whether it’s a line from a song, an abstract idea, a personal experience, you name it. So, what would you say was the inspiration for Lovely, Dark, & Deep?
MS: I was heavily inspired by 30 Days of Night. I wanted to write a story about a town isolated by both geography and a natural phenomenon, and a creature that utilized that natural phenomenon to prey on them.
The summer before I started on LD&D I was in the Dominican Republic and someone there told me that one of the islands was just ten miles from end to end, so I loved that idea of a small town-vibe on an island. I knew I didn’t want to do vampires, but make my own spin on sirens/mermaids. It just kind of took off from there. Originally my island story was going to be something different, but I ended up merging concepts.
AJ: From inspiration, to the physical copy in your hand, a journey took place. How was your journey, Megan? Did it go according to plan, hitting all the stops? Was it tumultuous? Did you get lost? Were there setbacks?
MS: Oh, it never goes according to plan…
What plan!? I actually wrote LD&D pretty easily. Some stories are harder to write for whatever reason, usually it’s life and not the fault of the story at all, but this was one that just kind of wrote itself for me. I am a procrastinator so I didn’t buckle down to finish it in time, ended up having to push the release date out. This story along with my newest release, Pink Neon, have been the two easiest books for me to write.
AJ: I always wonder, did you know your final destination with the residents of Six Mile Island’s story, or did you find it along the way?
MS: I didn’t know where most of them would end up. The fate of one POV character happened exactly like I anticipated, but those who made it longer surprised me.
I initially had an idea of who was going to survive, and what happened at the end… but it didn’t go that way. That happens to me a lot. I truly am just along for the ride when I’m writing sometimes.
If the ending I initially had in mind had panned out, it would have changed how everyone felt about one character in a bad way. I think the ending that ended up unfurling was better all around in comparison to the one I thought I was headed towards.
AJ: I think, like any journey—hiking, driving, cross-country skiing, spelunking, magic ring disposal—writing a story almost always has a point, whether it be on day one or day one-thousand-and-one, where the thought of quitting and turning back comes to mind. What was that moment like for you? Was it brief? Was it difficult?
MS: I am my own worst critic and I have a lot of moments of uncertainty and self-doubt with every single project I do.
My worst moment with this book actually came after publication. I released the book in February 2024, and the previous fall I had watched the television show The Fall of the House of Usher. I really enjoyed it, and had enjoyed Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House as well. My husband had a film event in LA and Flanagan was in attendance, so we were in a mood to go through his filmography.
I had never watched Midnight Mass. I thought it was a religious horror show in a different way, so when we sat down to watch it after my freshly released island story featuring vampiric creatures… It was kind of a gut punch, honestly haha. The similarities end there, of course, but I had this moment where I thought if I had watched this before I had written LD&D I would never have released it because of the combination of two unusual concepts that were so similar.
AJ: I don’t think I’ve ever gone on a trip, a journey, without losing something…might be a me thing. But I know we all lose something when writing a story. Often this is called “killing your darlings” in the editing process. What did Lovely, Dark, & Deep lose that ultimately served it for the better?
MS: You’re in good company, I lose everything. I honestly don’t kill many of my darlings though. It’s a terrible way to do things, but I write a single draft and publish after edits so I don’t get a chance to go back and decide to do any hard cuts.
It’s a necessary evil for me, because of that self-doubt mentioned previously. If I read back over my stuff, I’ll never put it out there. With LD&D I think the only things I took out that kind of hurt were: a longer epilogue (it was a few chapters in length) and a prologue that explained the body on the beach belonged to Barbora’s boyfriend (and Liam’s father).
I thought the longer epilogue took away from the ending and finality of the main story, and the prologue answered questions that I felt weren’t necessary. I wanted to jump straight into the salt-bedazzled corpse.
AJ: And through it all—especially editing—the story changes and our daily lives bleed into the writing, whether it be through prose, narrative, or something entirely different. I call this the “soundtrack” to a story’s progression. What would you say was going on in your life, the world around you, that served as the soundtrack to this storm and the arrival of those that came in its wake?
MS: I operate mostly on vibes. Although this book was set on an island, I wrote this through the winter months which I think helps me when I’m writing in an isolated setting or with a moody atmosphere.
Sometimes I think you can tell where I am mentally by the overall tone of a story too, not necessarily in content but just the way it feels. My lowest points are often in the winter so a lot of times those books come out pretty bleak and, strangely enough, more purple prose-y. I don’t pretend to understand how it works.
AJ: Now, if there were an actual soundtrack in existence that might best accompany reading Lovely, Dark, & Deep, what would it be?
MS: I have a ‘muse playlist’ for every book I write. Sometimes the songs make sense and sometimes they’re just vibes from the melody or whatever. I usually pick ten songs. Here were five of the songs on my playlist for LD&D
“You’re Somebody Else”, by Flora Cash
“Room of Angel”, by Akira Yamaoka
“Hands in the Sky (Big Shot)”, by Straylight Run
“WASTE”, by KXLLSWXTCH
“Something in the Way”, by Nirvana
AJ: As you continue to develop new projects, do you believe there is a reason to revisit Six Mile Island or any of its citizens for a future tale?
MS: I do think a story about the sirens from the setting of a ship could be fun, but if I ever did that it would likely be a period piece and the only shared aspect would be the monsters.
I feel like the story on Six Mile Island is done, and I don’t foresee writing any other stories based there or spin-offs or anything. I will likely mention the island in other works, as I like to have a shared world, but as far as doing another related story I don’t anticipate that happening.
AJ: Finally, would you like to offer any advice to future travelers of The Authors’ Journey?
MS: “Just do it” is easier said than done.
Trust me, I know.
But there will always be something standing in your way, and usually it’s just you. You can’t wait for the path to clear and the sun to shine, you just have to start. Don’t let anyone tell you how to define your own success. If you write ten words a week, if you publish one book a decade, if all you do is short stories… I’m proud of you.
Whether you’re still taking notes on napkins at the airport or holding that finished book in your hands, I am so proud of you. This ain’t easy, and everyone’s journey and destination looks different.
Write, have fun, and don’t let anyone else tell you how to do it. It’s easy to look at someone you admire and try to emulate their methods, or to buy a course that tells you “how” to write “correctly”. You may feel jealous or inadequate or discouraged, but there’s no right way to write.
You are a writer as long as you’re writing. You’re also human and there is life going on beyond the computer screen, so give yourself grace.
You don’t have to be a 2k a day machine. You don’t have to have a plot board. You don’t have to have a clue what you’re doing.
Enjoy the writing, take time to live life, and it’ll all fall into place the way it is supposed to for you.
Megan Stockton is the author of several novels including, Lovely, Dark & Deep
Lovely, Dark, &Deep by Megan Stockton
*Please Note, This is AJ's Copy,
He Has Not Been Trying To Eat The Giveaway Copies
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