Behind The Book With Craig DiLouie

Last year I did a Q&A & Authors In The Media Q&A with horror author Criag DiLouie! Now Mickey Mikkelson reunited me with for a Behind The Book Q&A discussing My Ex, The Antichrist which came out this summer and is available to read now, wherever books are sold!

Q: Craig would you please give a brief description of My Ex, The Antichrist?

A: Thanks for having me back! My Ex, The Antichrist is a horror novel about a young musician who finds herself contending with an ex she learns is the Biblical Antichrist.

Written as an oral history reminiscent of VH1’s Behind the Music, the novel is her and the other members of the Shivers finally telling all about how their pop punk band not only inspired a generation but might have saved the world.

Q: Where did the idea come from and how long did it take you to write it?

A: Every novel has its own genesis story, and this one’s turned out to be fairly simple. The title popped into my head one day, and it really started there. The title instantly promised a fun read crossing The Omen with a very human story of a young woman struggling to find her own voice through music as well as her own identity by getting past her ex.

As far as how long it took to write it, we’re talking a few months. I have a process down now where I pretty much have the story internalized before I start typing. By that point, it’s must a matter of getting it down on paper.

Q: What are the themes and messages you hope readers pick up on, learn and feel once they finish reading the book?

A: My Ex, The Antichrist is primarily just a fun horror story, but thematically it’s about loving people who aren’t good for us, gaining faith in ourselves, predestination, the apocalypse, and of course music.

With music being so transformational, using a rock band as a lens for a young woman finding her voice was an ideal setup. Music has the power to inspire passion, change the world, and stick around in your brain. A good song always seems to come when it’s needed, and it already knows you.

After pinning the premise and big themes, I had to set the story in time. The year 1999 proved perfect for an apocalypse. Nostradamus warned us a “King of Terror” would appear in that year, and then there were the fears of the Y2K bug. Setting the story in the past also worked as music has an uncanny ability to transport us back in time to past places and feelings. This was the pop-punk era, with bands like The Offspring, Blink-182, Green Day, and many others defining the era for millions of young people. The songs were short and punchy, fast-paced, bursting with energy, and had lyrics that spoke directly to the young—the ideal kind of music one would want to play to challenge the Antichrist in a regional battle of the bands with the fate of the world as the stakes.

Q: If you were to write a sequel, what would the characters be doing right now?

A: I honestly haven’t given it any thought as there is no sequel needed or planned, but my hope is they’d be rocking out and enjoying the time they have left on this earth.

Q: If My Ex, The Antichrist were to be made into a TV series or movie, who would be your dream cast?

A: Interesting you should say that, as the novel was just optioned for possible TV adaptation by a producer with an exclusive relationship with a major studio. Unfortunately, I can’t say more as studios generally like to do the announcing themselves, and they haven’t gone public yet. Fingers crossed!

As far as who’d be a dream cast, I think a great actor to play Lily, our main protagonist, might be somebody like Sydney Sweeney (Euphoria). Youth and beauty are prerequisites as the character is barely 20, along with a range of character expression to show a transformation from a kitten to a tiger over the course of the story. I don’t know if she can sing, but if she can, she or someone like her would be my top choice.

As for Drake, the Antichrist, I’m thinking Jack O’Connell would be a good fit. He was fantastic in Sinners, and he has both the devilish good looks and a charismatic, happy-go-lucky sense of menace to pull off playing the devil’s son.