The God Fix follows a boy visiting extended family for the summer who discovers dark family secrets, causing him to question his life, faith, and morality leaving haunting impacts on his psyche. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I wanted to write a story that would explore numerous themes of interest to me and to blend character exploration with a suspenseful enough plot to keep the reader engaged. Whilst the plot and characters are entirely fictional, the book does draw on some emotional truths and aims to palpably capture numerous periods in time from the perspective of a young person, which in some ways was a cathartic experience to write.

One core idea that I initially had for the book was inspired by the 1930s Fritz Lang film ‘M’; it was the idea of the moral protagonist becoming the immoral antagonist. Whilst Matthew is to some extent an unreliable narrator (we see the world through his eyes and prejudices), I feel like this core change in character wasn’t pronounced in the final version given the extreme nature of the uncle’s behaviour; it is instead left up to the reader to draw their own conclusions, which fits more with how I want the book to be read.

What are some things that you find interesting about the human condition that you think make for great fiction?

I’ve previously written a speculative/supernatural audio drama podcast, and questions about the human condition were very much at the core of each episode. Any reflection that can challenge the way that one perceives the world is intriguing to me, as well as works that explore values, politics, and power. I think great fiction can be both speculative about worlds unknown, as well as more immediate to us if it is able to expose the intrinsic absurdity of our everyday lives.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

There were a lot of themes that felt important to me to explore in this book. Among them were questions of the limits of forgiveness, the use of religion as a justification or motivation, the value of revenge, the question of how independent our beliefs really are, and fundamentally what we believe to be right or wrong. Given that the characters have their own differing perspectives and interpretations, I think it’s fitting that so should readers, though I hope to have in some way challenged them to consider their own views. Other themes that felt important for me to explore around these were questions of alienation, longing, class difference, and addiction.

What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?

I’m co-writing my next book with Emmelina Gateman. It will be a fun, supernatural young adult horror story called “The Dead Witch’s Song;” it will include interactive and ” Choose Your Own Adventure’” elements. Whilst it will be a very different book to this one, it will still touch on themes of morality, forgiveness, and societal progress.

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Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2024/09/01/the-limits-of-forgiveness/