Christopher M. Tantillo

Hello Ninjas,

I hope everything is going well for you and you’ve been excited about my release next month, like I am. In case you haven’t subscribed yet, please consider signing up for my newsletter here on my website. It’s a neat way to keep up-to-date with me, my writing, and receive exclusive discounts/contests/giveaways/sneak peaks. I’d appreciate it!

For those of you new to me or my writing, it’s probably about time I tell you a bit about myself and my upcoming debut novel, The Night I Spent with Aubrey Fisher.

My name is Christopher M. Tantillo, and I write dark YA coming-of-age romance. I’m preparing to release my debut YA novel on May 23, 2023 and am so excited to share it. I originally wrote this book back in 2015 while I attended grad school to get my MFA in writing from Seton Hill University—it was my thesis project. It took me about a year and a half to finish/revise it. I started working on a 2^nd project to be completed before my graduation in 2017 while looking for agents to represent me.

To save us all a very long and boring story, I would submit it on and off for the next 7 years (with a few rough moments where I almost gave up writing altogether) before I made the choice to take back control and self-publish. I loved this story. I loved these characters. I believed in it so much that I took a bet on myself. Flash forward another year and here we are.

It’s been my dream to be a full-time writer ever since I was a little kid reading Goosebumps by R. L. Stine for the first time. While my background has always been in horror, I gravitate toward young adult stories with darker themes and subject matter. Maybe one day I’ll write a horror novel, but until then, I am more than happy to write darker stories for teens. I hope you enjoy them too. Darker themes of growing up helped me out when I was younger, and I hope they do the same for others out there.

The Night I Spent with Aubrey Fisher came at a time in my life where I needed help but didn’t know how to ask for it. Gray was very much a representation of me. Aubrey was very much the hope I was desperately clinging to. Depression and anxiety and suicidal ideation had been with me for a while, and Gray embodied what I was feeling. While Gray is not an exact copy of me, he is a likeness of my fears and hopes and dreams and the inner demons I battled and continue to battle every day.

While I would love to share more with you, we will have to wait until after the book comes out.

As for right now, I am preparing to release this book, revising my 2^nd project, outlining a 3^rd one, and considering releasing a collection of poetry. While it’s still too early to release any info about those projects, I promise that there WILL be more to come in the future.

Thank you SO MUCH for taking a chance on me and joining Gray and Aubrey on their journey. I hope you’re anticipating the release as much as I am. I hope reading does for you what writing it has done for me. More info to come in my newsletter and on my blog on my website here. Until then, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

If you or anyone you know is suffering with thoughts of suicide or self-harm, please seek a professional, or call/text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You are never alone.

Take care of yourselves.

(Benji napping after a long day of being a doggo)

Until next time, Ninjas.

Best,

Christopher