Writer's Scrapbook: The Making of "Zodiac Pets"

Dear Readers:

I recently posted a short piece about the twenty-year process culminating in my first book, Ring On Deli. As a companion of sorts, this is a slide deck on the roughly two years it took to draft and edit my second one, Zodiac Pets.

Yours ever, Eric

Early research was conducted in late summer 2021 at Casey’s Diner in Natick, Massachusetts (“where the elite eat”), inspiration for the Lion Diner in Zodiac Pets (“where the posh nosh”). Firm recommendation: patty melt with grilled onions and ketchup.

I wrote most of the book in 2022 at the criminally underused public library in nearby Weston, Massachusetts.

Another library, this one at Peace field, the Adams-family homestead in Quincy, Massachusetts. I popped into The Stone Library to soak up vibes for Graham A. (“as in ‘Adams’”) Bundt, the sort-of antagonist in Zodiac Pets.

View across the Gihon River to Maverick Studios (the long, gray building) at Vermont Studio Center, where I finished the novel’s first draft in January 2023 (first floor, fourth widow from the left).

The Zodiac Pets playlist, but swap in Prince for the Elvis for the final draft. In one chapter, “Purple Rain” plays during the climactic “slow dance” at an eighties-style middle-school dance.

Simmer and reduce: voilà, a book.

Time to hit the road! (Tatnuck Bookseller, Westborough, Massachusetts. June 23, 2024)