CeCe Lyra

Where did he go?

And most confoundingly, will he ever return?

Jesse knew that they were both feeling stuck, longing for something they couldn't quite name, but was their rut so deep that Norman's only option was to leave Jesse behind?

As Jesse struggles to understand Norman's disappearance, he tries to piece together his new reality.

Is he expected to wait patiently for a partner who may never come back, or is this an opportunity for reinvention?

He is, after all, alone for the first time in his adult life.

Should he return to the classroom, put in a pool, get a dog, call his estranged mother?

What does it mean to be alone when you've always been one half of a whole?

When Norman's sister Lally lands at Jesse's doorstep with an urgent request, Norman's absence becomes even more profound.

Add to Jesse's grief and confusion a conspiracy theorist neighbor, a strange man following him,

and suspicions that he may have had a hand in Norman's disappearance, and Jesse starts to crack under the pressure.

With his husband missing and the world closing in, all eyes are on Jesse.

Before he can understand how Norman could leave it all behind, Jesse must confront what it means to stay.

Dun, dun, dun.

Here come the questions.

yeah so lily and octopus was your debut novel which was considered a form of like magical realism speculative fiction with a blend of emotional realism like imaginative non-realistic plot points i feel like this is your kind of return to that genre they're obviously not in the same way can you speak about that a bit

I don't know about you, but I'm finding each book harder and harder and harder.

And I forgot how much freedom there was in writing a debut because you don't know what you don't know.

And so you just dive in and you just full force.

But as you learn craft and as you learn to become a better writer, you start to overthink things.