So much of writing is a risk—exploring your emotions, putting a piece of your inner life on paper (or the screen), and sharing with others to dissect and digest. It’s been said by so many writers that the truth of it gets lost: it feels like the nightmare of standing naked at school has come to life.
Yet, sending stories out into the turbulent waters of public opinion is necessary for them to live. They must be sent out. Imperfect. While I hold my breath and hope they will be found, like a message in a bottle, and understood.
While I’ve submitted a few short stories to contests and shared my longer writing with a few select readers, last month I waded into deeper water.
An opportunity to submit a short story to an agent for a potential screen adaptation became available. Two months to create a short story (around 40-100 pages) in a genre I didn’t normally write … cue mild hysteria.
Pulling inspiration from my short story The Monster Within, I created an expanded story concept. It has three timelines, each telling the story of a different woman, woven together. Each explores how the corruption of their surroundings changes them.
The completed project, The Death Ledger, is still considered a short story. But at seventeen thousand words (65 pages) it sits at the edge of novella length. To complete a project of this magnitude in a compressed time period is a personal milestone. The positive feedback from beta readers left me proud of the results.
When I looked for comparative titles, I struggled. My story shares many attributes—a similar Southern Gothic vibe, bringing in supernatural beliefs from ancient cultures, and the killing of young women—with True Detective (season one).
When I tried to find shows that featured female leads, especially ones who were not in law enforcement, the options narrowed significantly.
While I think my story has strong crossover appeal for fans of Sharp Objects, I struggled with this as a companion comp. The villain twist of Sharp Objects fits with its thriller roots, while the reveal at the end of The Death Ledger is different by nature and more in keeping with the genre blend. The generational family trauma and female villain also didn’t fit well.
Mexican Gothic emerged as a solid secondary comp until I discovered its screen adaptation had been dropped. I hope this is a temporary setback.
The Haunting of Hill House was recommended, but I found it to be too much of a ghost story, and its multiple points of view didn’t fit. Hereditary was too intense with graphic, visceral horror. I liked many aspects of Dark Wind as a comp, but it overlaps heavily with True Detective which I thought was a stronger fit.
Finally, I decided to take a risk and go against the convention of staying within the same genre registers. In my opinion, the protagonist shared many characteristics with the junior version of Lara Croft in Tomb Raider (2018).
The final description landed as:
With the atmosphere, pacing, and psychological descent of True Detective (Season 1), THE DEATH LEDGER infuses Southern Gothic horror-thriller with the supernatural echo, ancient artifact, and the tenacious female protagonist of Tomb Raider (2018).
As I prepared to submit, that’s when the idea of a pen name surfaced.
I have several books identified and outlined. Most fall into upmarket fiction. But others fall into a dark fiction category. While all books share underlying threads, the divergence in readership was enough to justify submitting under J.A. Hartig—the darker half of Julie Hartig.
Creating this “alter ego” has been fun. Some things are better in the dark.