"One day I thought: What if the intrusive thoughts in my head manifested themselves in real life?"

Debut author K.T. Nguyen on turning grief into grist, dealing with writer envy, and her unsettling suspense novel, YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID

Check out the collection of past Words With (Author) Friends, wherein I g-chat with an author and you get to read over my shoulder, and order K.T.’s dark and disturbing debut!

---

Me: CONGRATULATIONS on your debut!! How are you feeling now?

K.T.: Thank you! I feel a lot better now than I did one month out.

Focusing on book 2 helps a lot.

I am ALWAYS telling people the only way to survive the out-of-your-hands parts (waiting for notes, waiting for sales, querying agents...) is to work on the next thing

like, there are SO many projects inside you

But let's get into YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID—for the uninitiated, can you share a little about it?

I like to describe YKWYD as a cross between The Shining and Celeste Ng. It's part psychological horror and part family drama/domestic suspense.

Following the death of her mother, a first-generation Vietnamese American artist starts to unravel. Her long dormant OCD comes roaring back--but this time the disturbing thoughts in her head might actually be coming true.

It's SUCH a cool and creepy pitch! Where'd the idea come from?

I have contamination based OCD myself. I was walking my dog one day and thought: What if the intrusive thoughts in my head manifested themselves in real life?

chills!

How'd you go about shaping a story around that idea?