Epistolary fiction is nothing new—Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is told through letters, while Bram Stoker’s Dracula uses letters, journal entries, newspaper clippings, and telegrams—but it’s also something you don’t often see. Mainly because it can be difficult to tell a story this way, especially one that’s meant to be suspenseful.
Many years ago, working as an editor at a magazine, I had the idea for a story told all in cover letters from a writer sending stories to an editor. Like all writers, this writer wanted to get published, but as the story went on, it became clear that the writer was so obsessed with getting published that it put the editor and his family’s life in danger.
(That story, by the way, was called “Persistence.”)
With Dear Seraphina, I wanted to try something a bit different, telling the story entirely through letters, email, and progress notes. I wanted to play with readers’ expectations and emotions, while, at the same time, I wanted to add in a few good twists.
I had a lot of fun writing this novella, and I hope you, dear reader, have a lot of fun reading it.
A.B.