I\u2019m pleased to share Gabriel\u2019s guest post\u2026.<\/p>\n How I Wrote About Addiction in Meeks<\/strong><\/p>\n By Gabriel Tait<\/p>\n When I wrote my first novel, Meeks<\/em>, I had to let a person I\u2019d come to care about make a terrible mess of his life. I could have stepped in at any point. I was writing the book, after all. I think the hard part was leaving Ranleigh alone long enough to see what he would do.<\/p>\n Ranleigh Meeks is a character I made up. I fully understand how he gets himself into the mess he\u2019s in, and that gave me a great deal of empathy for him. I could see why something that looked like a terrible idea from the safe distance of my cozy writing nook might look like the only thing that made sense to him right then and there. I wanted the reader to get close enough to see that as well.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been sober myself for 25 years. I\u2019ve had my own experience with addiction and hitting rock bottom. Ranleigh\u2019s story and my own follow a similar arc, though our lives are very different. I wanted to tell his story straight, as honestly as I\u2019d want somebody to tell mine.<\/p>\n I also had to be careful about how much hindsight I gave him. Sobriety has given me a quarter century to look back and reflect on things that were totally beyond me then. Ranleigh is still in the middle of it all. If I gave him my perspective while he was making his decisions, it would ring false, and the reader would know it. I went back to those days when my addiction was still unfolding and I had no idea of the catastrophe that was waiting around the corner for me. As the writer, of course, I knew exactly where Ranleigh was headed. That was a bit tricky to pull off.<\/p>\n So I let it get bad. I let him make the next decision and live with what came of it. I wanted to stay close to him even when what he did made him harder to be around.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve heard many stories of recovery, and I\u2019ve known many people who didn\u2019t make it. Between what I\u2019ve lived through and what I\u2019ve seen in other people\u2019s lives, I suppose I got used to how bad it can get. It still shocks me when a reader tells me how harrowing parts of Meeks<\/em> were to read. My first thought is usually, well, that\u2019s par for the course.<\/p>\n Book:<\/strong> Meeks<\/em> (psychological thriller \/ literary fiction; published September 14, 2023)<\/p>\n Set in Toronto in 1997, Meeks<\/em> follows Ranleigh Meeks, a man trapped in a dead-end life who escapes into vivid dreams in which he is a successful novelist. As addiction tightens its grip, the line between the life he has and the life he imagines begins to disappear.<\/p>\n Gabriel Tait is an independent novelist based in Toronto. He began writing fiction at fifty and is the author of Meeks<\/em> and The Ranleigh Tapes<\/em>. His fiction explores addiction, identity and self-deception. He celebrated twenty-five years of sobriety in October 2026 and is writing Echo<\/em>, the final book in the trilogy.<\/p>\n Author website:<\/strong> https:\/\/gabrieltait.com<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/betweenthelinesbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/guest-post-2.jpg\")
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Meeks on Goodreads:<\/strong> https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/203184079-meeks<\/a>
Instagram:<\/strong> https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gtaitbooks\/<\/a><\/p>\nThanks so much for reading…<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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