Naked Addiction

by Caitlin Rother

  Author’s note

  This book started off as a short story, inspired by a news article I wrote when I was a City Hall reporter for the Springfield Union-News in Northampton, Massachusetts, about twenty-five years ago. After writing more than two thousand news stories during my nearly twenty-year career as a daily newspaper reporter, I’d forgotten those details until I dug up my original author’s note for this book.

  A young woman, who was an old friend of my then-boyfriend, was murdered in New York City and he took me to her wake. That true crime story worked as a creative catalyst for me to create the character of Tania Marcus, who, by the way, is in no way based on the young murder victim I wrote about in the newspaper. For that matter, no character in this book is modeled on a real person.

  The plot built from there in a year of Sunday writing workshops; in fact Tania’s journal entries came right out of those sessions. At the time I had about four years of newspaper experience, only a few years more than my cub reporter character, Norman Klein, who was nicknamed Inky throughout my earlier drafts because of the newsprint ink smudged on his face. As I churned out two to four news stories a day I yearned for a creative outlet and was homesick for La Jolla. And out came my surfing protagonist, Detective Ken Goode.

  Even though I spent much of my journalism career covering government and politics, I was always interested in stories about bizarre deaths, the psychology of the criminal mind, addiction, murders, and suicide. Those interests have continued for me as the New York Times bestselling author of nine books, including a tenth that I’m working on now about the Steven DeMocker case in Prescott, Arizona.

  I’ve been drawn to stories involving addiction not only because I’ve dealt with those issues in my own family, but also because it’s such a devastating problem in our society. Ironically, I conceived of this plot years before I met my late husband, who turned out to be an alcoholic and ultimately committed suicide. Back when I was still working to get this book published, I wondered if I had a strange power to foresee the future.

  Getting this novel into print was not just a goal, it was my dream. I rewrote it countless times, trying to please workshop critique groups, agents, and even an editor who read two versions before I signed with an agent. I was working as a professional writer then, but was still an aspiring and yet unpublished author. Journalism is a good training ground for the kind of rejection you get as a wannabe author, because when one door closes, you go knock on another one. I wanted nothing more than to get a book published, and I was determined to do so.

  As the years went by, I began to worry that this venture was turning into a vanity exercise, so I’d often put the manuscript in a drawer for a while, then send it out again. I would wait for a response, and just when I thought I was getting somewhere, I would get another rejection.

  But time after time, I managed to pick myself off the curb and persist, taking heed of any word of encouragement or positive sign that I should keep going. Sometimes it had nothing to do with me or my writing; it was just part of the learning curve as I tried to navigate a constantly evolving publishing landscape. Circumstances, and even natural disasters such as 9/11, impeded my efforts. The nagging question was how to break in.

  Ultimately, I decided to try writing a non-fiction book to see if I had any better luck, and that turned out to be the way to go. My first book, POISONED LOVE, which was published in 2005, was a work of narrative non-fiction, combining the fiction-writing skills I’d learned through many years of weekends working on my craft with the investigative reporting skills I’d honed as a weekday Metro reporter for daily newspapers.

  After getting two non-fiction book deals and being offered a third, I was finally able to get this baby published in 2007. It only took seventeen years.

  Unfortunately, the publisher didn’t do much to promote the book and I didn’t know how, so it made a quiet debut and went out of print without many people even knowing it existed. Those who did read it told me they enjoyed it very much and wished I’d write more fiction. But having to make a living has always gotten in the way. I’ve spent most of my time churning out true crime books and memoirs I’ve co-authored, working my way onto the New York Times bestseller list with MY LIFE, DELETED.

  Given that accomplishment and seven or eight books under my belt, the publisher agreed to re-release this book with a new cover. I was very excited and hoped my first and only novel would get the attention I’d hoped for it the first time out.

  But that was not to be. The publisher went into foreclosure on the eve of publication and it took me a year or two to get my rights back. My hope was to find a new home for it, or even self-publish it.

  I hope I’ve found something better, and that’s WildBlue Press, a new indie publisher I joined even before it launched this summer. We are a “consortium” of established authors who have multiple books under our belts but can’t make a decent living with just the money we’ve earned from traditional publishers. Our goal is to be able to make enough to continue doing what we love.

  I want to thank fellow author Steve Jackson and his partner Michael Cordova, the publishers of WildBlue, for helping me revive my dream of seeing this baby in print. I also want to thank Renee Yewdaev, who designed this great cover, which never made it into the marketplace for the first scheduled re-release. I also owe my gratitude to Chris Keeslar, the editor who commissioned that endeavor, and recently helped me hook up with Renee to get her permission for this new edition.

  I also want to tip my hat to the original agent for the book, Gary Heidt, who was the first to take on my fiction and get it published, and also to my current agent, Peter Rubie, for helping me get my rights back. I offer a heartfelt thank you to my mother, Carole Scott, for her continuous generosity and support, as well as to Géza Keller for his emotional support and musical contributions to my book parties.

  Along the way, many others have assisted me with the writing and research of this book. There are too many to list here, so I will name just a few:

  I am most grateful to the benevolent bestselling crime author Michael Connelly, who read and critiqued an earlier draft of this book, before I even had a publisher, and also gave me the very nice blurb you see on the cover. I also want to thank Pulitzer-winning author Jennifer Egan for her helpful remarks at Bread Loaf, author Alan Russell for his suggestions on an early version, and Pulitzer-winning editor and friend Susan White for her comments on my early drafts. Thanks also to San Diego PD detectives (retired) Laurie Agnew and Randy Alldredge for answering my police procedural questions.

  So, here we are, and I humbly present you with the revised edition of NAKED ADDICTION. It has a few improvements and modern technological references inserted here and there, but I wanted to preserve most of the original text so those of you who read my later books can see how I got started.

  If this is your first time reading my work, you can see from my more recent titles how I’ve taken my fiction craft and applied it to my narrative non-fiction storytelling. I’ve got eight other books to choose from, with a couple more in the hopper.

  After researching and writing POISONED LOVE, I was able to give the detectives in this novel more investigative techniques to work with, but mostly I focused on fleshing out the characters. I have since learned so much more about killers, homicide investigations, and the criminal justice system in general that I will be able to incorporate all that knowledge and experience into whatever sequels come next.

  I hope you enjoy it.

  About the author

  New York Times bestselling author Caitlin Rother has written or co-authored nine books: true crime thrillers I’ll Take Care of You, Lost Girls, Poisoned Love, Dead Reckoning, Body Parts, Twisted Triangle, and Deadly Devotion, and the memoir My Life, Deleted. Rother, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, worked as an investigative reporter at daily newspapers for nineteen years before deciding to write books full-time. Her work has been published in Cosmopolitan, the Los Angeles Times, The San Diego Union-Tribune, the Chic
ago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast. She has done dozens of media appearances as a crime expert, featured on Nancy Grace, the Jay Thomas Show, Investigation Discovery, E!, Snapped, Greta Van Susteren’s On the Record, XM Radio, America at Night, C-SPAN and various PBS radio and TV affiliates. Rother works as a book doctor and editor, and coach/consultant in publishing and research. She also teaches narrative nonfiction writing and news/feature writing at UCSD Extension and San Diego Writers, Ink. For more information go to http://caitlinrother.com.

  Book club discussion questions for NAKED ADDICTION

  I am hoping that some of you will suggest NAKED ADDICTION as the monthly pick for your book clubs.

  If you have a large enough club or combine forces with another one, I’m open to doing speaker phone or Skype sessions with groups that meet outside my home town of San Diego. You can contact me at caitlinrother@gmail.com to see if I’m available, or if you’d like to arrange for a shipment of signed copies for your club.

  Here are some questions to get your discussion started:

  1) At what point did you figure out who the killer is? Did you think it was someone else earlier in the book?

  2) Addiction is a major theme in this book, with each character having his or her own substance (or behavior) of choice and respective coping mechanism. Identify which characters have which addiction, and discuss the possible seminal causes.

  3) Based on Tania Marcus’ emails and journal entries, some of which are pieces of creative writing by the character, what can you tell about the true personality of this character?

  4) If you have read any of author Caitlin Rother’s other books—true crime thrillers—can you see any parallels to her fiction writing or vice versa? Keep in mind that NAKED ADDICTION was her very first book, most of which she wrote before she’d published any of her other books.

  5) Who is Ken Goode? What type of man is he, and what are his issues?

  6) From an ethical standpoint—and in terms of his ability to solve this murder case—how do you feel about the scene in which Goode and Alison kiss? And also, without giving any spoilers here, what about their interactions later in the book?

  7) One of the author’s favorite scenes is the description of Sunset at Windansea, which she believes is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. What was your favorite scene in the book and why?

  8) Make a list of characters with the most admirable and redeeming traits, and those with the least so, and discuss why.

  9) Who is the most sympathetic character and why?

  10) Were you surprised by what happened at the end of the scene with Norman and Clover?

  11) By the end of the novel, what is the message(s) you take away from the book? Do you agree or disagree?

  12) A heavier question for the brave book club members: Rother lost her husband to alcoholism and suicide after she’d already started writing NAKED ADDICTION, and parts of the book, including the opening scene, were inspired by her personal experience. The novel has these and a number of other underlying themes such as sexual abuse, drug addiction, and mental illness. What if any personal issues did any of these themes bring up for you in terms of events that have happened to you or your family?