I am thrilled to have interviewed author Julian Font, who shared with us details of his writing life, his book ‘Look Away‘, which was released on 29th January 2024, and answered a few fun questions. This post contains affiliate links.

Julian Font is the author of rockstar romance best-seller, Write My Wrongs, and the epicparty novel, Night After Night. Amid his rapid ascent in the literary world, Font clings on to one unwavering truth: He’s here to tell stories for as long as he lives.

Font’s chilling and twisted thriller novel, Look Away, was released back in January of 2024. With its exploration into very dark and controversial themes along with its unique writing format and use of graphics, Font’s psychological thriller is one that has been said to disrupt the thriller genre in its entirety.

The inspiration for Look Away came to me while on the road. I was driving home one day and got stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. As I inched forward, I noticed that the traffic was caused by an accident on the side of the road. It didn’t have an impact on the people driving by whatsoever, and I was curious as to why so many people were slowing to see what had happened.

When I got home, I looked up the reason for this and learned that this inability to look away from disaster or tragedy is called “Morbid Curiosity,” a survival instinct that humans have developed by means of survival. I knew, then and there, that I had a thriller book concept worth exploring.

I planned out my plot the way I always do. I start by writing out the plot in a single sentence. I then turn the single sentence into a paragraph, then I write a more detailed version of the plot as a full-page summary. From there, I turn the full-page summary into a chapter-by-chapter breakdown and write from start to finish!

Funny enough, I had the title and cover made before I even started writing. When I discovered that the plot was going to revolve around morbid curiosity, humans’ innate desire to be drawn to tragedy (to rule out whether or not that tragedy will harm them), it became apparent that my protagonist would need to get people to “look away” before they succumb to their own morbid curiosity, which inspired the name: LOOK AWAY, The Book for the Morbidly Curious.

Joseph Verita is the male protagonist, whose first name is based on my cousin and last name is based on the Latin root meaning, “Truth.” Throughout the novel, Joseph spreads truth in a world full of lies. Nora Fictus is the female protagonist, whose first name fit the profile I wanted for her and last name is based on the Latin root meaning, “Lies.” Throughout the novel, Nora spreads lies through a TV show that aims to increase their viewership by releasing a show rooted in morbid curiosity.

I always immerse myself in the fictional world I’m writing about by engaging nearly all of my senses. While in the writing and research phases, I listened to podcasts and music that would be prevalent in my characters’ environment. I watched documentaries and traveled to the places where my characters exist. And I interviewed friends, family, and strangers alike to make the story one my readers can experience as if it were first-hand.

I chose to write a thriller because I had just come off of a romance release, and given the difficult time I was going through back in 2023, my mind and heart were itching to channel the darkness I endured into writing. I knew that writing a thriller would help me cope with the loss and pain I was experiencing, then it became my mission to pull the light from the dark in a way that would entertain, educate, and enlighten my readers.

It took me eight months to complete my book: 6 months to write, 1 to edit, and 1 to format and publish! For the most part, I keep everything, from the ideas stage to publishing, between myself and my team. I’ve found that with outsourcing the stages, I lose control of my narrative, whereas if I keep it close, I dictate how quickly and efficiently it’s written, edited, formatted, and published.

Look Away can be described as sick, twisted, and true.

In my opinion, the hardest part of being a writer is finishing the first draft. It’s unbelievable how easy everything comes together during the revision stage, when I was just struggling to put together the first draft. I’ve heard that “real writing is done in revising,” and I never saw it any other way. So now what fuels me to finish the first draft is the excitement that comes with revising.

Readers should pick my book up because it serves as so much more than just a book. I dedicated this book to the ones who question whether or not their lives are worth living, proving to them through the writing that they were born to live. In addition to combatting the growing rates of suicidal ideation, my aim is to reveal morbid curiosity to the world. It lives within us, and we have to control it before someone else finds out how to. In all, readers are going to gain a whole new perspective on life in addition to the fast-paced storyline and plot twists!

I don’t have a writing buddy, although I’m always writing in public so I’m open to making a new buddy every time I set out to write!

I’m a big time coffee drinker (straight-black coffee), and typically only write in cafes. Another interesting quirk is that I always grow my beard during my first draft phase, so anytime my readers see me with a beard, they know I’m working on a new book!

I write in cafes! I’m always hopping from one café or coffee shop to another. A tiny hope of mine is to become credible enough for the coffee shop to take credit for giving me the space to write my best-seller.

The plan is to turn all of my books into movies and play the main characters, and if not, then secondary characters. This chapter of my life will be the most exciting and one I know my ten-year-old past self will be very pleased with. It’s only a matter of time!

“Hoo hurt you?” Oscar asks from the corner of my room.
I look up from my laptop. “What do you mean?”
Oscar flies over my bed and lands at the edge of my desk. “Look Away… I don’t think I’ve read a book more messed up than that. Only way you could come up with such a topic is by being hurt. So, hoo hurt you?”
“I don’t…” My eyes drop to my laptop keys. “I don’t really know. I just wrote it, I guess. Didn’t put much thought into where it came from.”
Oscar hops across my desk toward me. “You can dig deep and find out where all this pain is rooted within you, or you can just bury it under the romance novel you’re working on now.”
I fixate on the screen. Oscar is right. All of my books have been products of a past problem, trauma, or insecurity that I’ve never addressed head on. Instead, I’ve poured it all into my writing, funneling every negative thought and emotion into characters who embody the cruelest components that make up my life. I need to find out who hurt me.
I look at Oscar.
“Bury it!” we both shout in unison.
With a smile on my face, I keep writing.

A big thank you to Julian Font for sharing his writing life with us and for a wonderful interview.