Narcissia Netal (she/they), formerly Andi Galupa, is a writer from Lockport New York, and at eighteen years old, has already published eight to nine books (depending on what you count), at the time of writing this! Her goal is to write and publish a book a season and build worlds out of these books.
AUTHOR LINKS:
Instagram: @narcissia_netal
Threads: @narcissia_netal
YouTube: @NarcissiaNetal
Book: The Coldest Star (B&N)
Elastic Stage: narcissiasdiscordantdiscography
Bandcamp: andisdiscordantdiscography
Book Pitch for Readers/Book Clubs:
An uncomfortable story about classism and power from the perspective of an elite with no remorse.
Your story The Coldest Star is a piece of flash fiction based on the ‘Christmas.Inc’ world. What is Christmas.inc for those who don’t know, and how old were you when you started writing these books/how long have you been developing these ideas and characters?
Christmas Inc came out when I was eighteen, back in Winter’s publishing run. I publish every season, and it was the first novel in the “potential” world of Christmas.Inc. That was explicitly a “Literary Middle Finger” to what Christmas has become and corporatocracy/the death of meaning, explored through a rather extreme analogy.
When I started wanting to do Flash Fiction, this was a story I kinda sat on for a bit and it came out A LOT more violent. George Hulture went from a scummy salesman to a terrible human being.
This piece is an explicit critique of power, wealth, and classism – how has your experience growing up in New York as Gen Z influenced your writing and your perspectives?
So although this is a valid critique, I would rather like to point to my own trauma rather then just New York and Gen Z. A lot of my inspiration always comes from my own experience.
Narcissa voluntarily discloses the nature of her trauma here. Reader Discretion advised.
A lot of my inspiration always comes from my own experience, having survived extreme child abuse from my father, domestic abuse, bullying, a suicide attempt- so honestly, I’ve seen the worse of man. Having gone through everything, it really changes you. I have a short film, self filmed- more of a video essay, “4, 13, 2007” which is more of a good example of what I’m talking about.
So I pull a lot from my own discomfort with – for lack of better words – existence. Being trans, having to live with these memories. I feel we always run away from them, or dissociate or distract, but I’m alive because I face it. I “integrate” it, and learn to become better. Now living in a time where abject meaning has died, and commercialism and comfortability is worshipped, it makes me feel obligated to pull from these darker expierences to talk about these things we refuse to acknowlegde.
Who better to tackle the uncomfortable then the uncomforted you know?
Tell us about your main character, George Hulture’s journey, and how his psychology was developed. What was it like to delve into the mind of a character like that, and what drove you to create him?
You know, it was terrifying. George Hulture as a character really evolved in this piece of writing. He’s not supposed to be liked, and I never intended him to be. He’s a terrible human being, and when creating him originally for “Christmas Incorporated”, I made just a scummy CEO. With this piece, written to be a psuedo-prequel, he’s become much more terrifying and horrible, with his mindset on “classes” and his overall view of wealth and power being summed up in the quote, “Power is not dictated by statistics. It’s dictated by what you’re willing to do, despite the statistics.”
Diving into a character like him is terrifying, because he is morally corrupt with what he does. Having grown up in wealth, having all of this power, he doesn’t see people as humans. So you have to pull yourself into that mindset of “What if people are just toys?” which is… scary. A lot of times with myself, given how much I had thought and done in my past or seen, I pull out individual expierences or maybe take an emotion or thought and change it drastically (or not, depending) to make a character. For his psychology, he basically sees himself as god.
He’s essentially a narcissist, with a grand delusion of being invincible. In this short story/mini book, he’s told how his “confidence will be the death of him” and later that becomes true in this world. He’ll never understand empathy, because he’ll never have to. He’s had everything handed to him, and even his trauma affected his world view.
Spoiler for Hulture’s trauma – Reader Discretion advised
He’s had everything handed to him, and even his trauma with what his father did with his mother (having her lobotomized, coercered/threatened her life just to give him a heir, selling her out to other men after the lobotomy) affected his view, because Hulture grew up with a man who practically owned the world, and a brain-dead passed-around toy at this point (disgusting to even type that).
He’s the type of character that I “love” to write, not because I enjoy it in the moment or after- quite the contrary, but because their importance as characters serve to the higher narrative or critique. I quite hate him, and to even talk about him as a character disturbs me a bit, but thats the point of his character. He’s not meant to make you feel good.
What representation will readers find in your books, and why is this rep important to you to include?
I treat representation a lot differently then I think most people do. I remember growing up, I’d read novels where a character would be trans, or autistic, or gay and that would be all they had. Or even that being the selling point. And I guess thats fine, but even today I ranted a little bit about it because it shouldn’t be a selling point.
Though that sounds weird, I shouldn’t have to yell at you that I’m trans, or representation shouldn’t be about watering down a character to a label. There are minority characters in my books (genderfluid, trans, lesbian, and more). I don’t make it a selling point. Because it’s not. They’re human beings, and with the respect they deserve, they will be expanded past their identity. What they stand for, what they want, what they think. Their identity will play a role in a sense, but they’re a human being. They’re always going to be treated as such.
Representation is handled as it should. Showing these people are normal human beings, treating them with the respect they deserve, and telling their stories – whether it be explicit to their identity or not.
What content notes would you give readers, and can you tell us why you write about these topics?
This book is… honestly very dark. I’m gonna say Sexual Abuse, Violence, Murder – there’s A LOT in it so understand that this is not going to be an easy read. I write about this topics because there stuff I’ve witnessed and experienced. Earlier, I talked about trauma, but also from that comes a lot of philosophy and psychological things I read up on.
I feel that with everything I’ve been through, I can accurately write these things, and I feel that when they’re typically written, they’re not respected. Horror wasn’t about some scary killer in a mask, it was about the violence of man. The things we deny, the horror of our own mind. Our mind fabricates monsters and these fictional creatures that we, until recently, believe in. So I want to pull from that.
When we start censoring things like murder into “unalive” and rape into “grape”, we abandon any sense of urgency with these words. You shouldn’t feel comfortable when even reading this book. I don’t want you to be. I’d be concerned if you where. These characters serve a narrative, but I have to put you in their shoes to see this bigger picture, this critique. That’s honestly how I’ve survived, by always facing the world and its uncomfortability, or even my own with my own mind and my own body.
How does this flash fiction piece fit into your wider worldbuilding, and what is your vision for your books going forward?
I’m not sure. I said this in a Motivated Savages spotlight, but none of my books and stories “start or end”. It all depends if I can come back to this world for a good reason. Whether it be a purpose, or a reason, or a character. I have a couple ideas for Christmas Inc, revolving Jack and Walter, but nothing actaully planned. If it happens, it happens. I keep myself very loose and not restricted.
I will say that Face To Face, or the “Omnipresent” world should be getting possibly two flash fictions/mini books like this.
The Madness Of Middle Class MAY get one and MAYBE a sequel down the line.
But the longer running and planned series I would like to point people to is “The Sorry Soul Chronicles” as they are kinda different stories from different characters, the first one being “Alcoholic Abandonment” from Greg Hoff’s POV (possibly).
What can people look out for in the future – what is your next project?
Flesh Prison is the BIG SUMMER BOOK! I’d like to mention that each book has a soundtrack and Flesh Prison will have illustrations and fancy little things added. Flesh Prison is coming out summer equinox.
A sequel to A Poem For A Sorry Soul is coming out September 21st. It’s literally done, I sat on it for a while, and it just needs a soundtrack.
December 21st will have a sequel to Christmas Inc (can’t talk much, not even started) And 2027 will be focused on a three book series, each book potentially being 600+ pages each. Can’t say much, but remember the series title and the character name; “A World Without Weakness”; Austin Shroeder.
Like This? Try These:
June Sales & Bundles
Get in on THREE (3) Pride Month Sales this June! Don’t Miss Out! Find out more about the eBook sale offers and grab a load of LGBTQ+ books.
Author Spotlight: Queer Gothic author Alice G. Brooks
Discover queer Gothic romantic tragedy, THE INK EATER, by Alice G. Brooks. It has a sentient house and ace rep!
Author Spotlight: Black Sapphic Vampire Romance author Liza Wemakor
Meet Liza Wemakor (she/they), author of paranormal vampire romance, LOVING SAFOA, out now with Neon Hemlock. This multi-POV novella spans continents and eras, and Cynthia & Safoa’s romance stands the test of time.
Author Spotlight: Gothic Weird Fiction author Nikoline Kaiser
Meet Gothic Weird fiction author Nikoline Kaiser (she/her) and her novella THE DREAMING OF MAN, out with Neon Hemlock.
Author Spotlight: Paranormal Ecohorror author S.M. Mack
Meet S.M. Mack (she/her), author of DEATH VALLEY BLOOMS. Find out more about this queer ecohorror novella and how it came about!
Author Spotlight: British Gothic Horror author Laura Clarke Walker
Discover a new seaside town of Gothic secrets – COLDHARBOUR, by Laura Clarke Walker (she/they). Meet this British author and find out more about her work.
Leave a Reply