A behind-the-scenes look at my first book, Those Lights at Night

Out as of Nov. 4!

You’re reading Creativity Under Capitalism, a free biweekly newsletter about reclaiming and sustaining creative joy under tricky socioeconomic circumstances. I’m Adrianna, a journalist and creative writer based in Phoenix, AZ.

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I love getting a peek at how other people’s minds work, and hearing directly from an author about how they came up with and wrote their book is one of the best ways to do that. It’s so fun to learn about what inspired them, how they turned their idea into a complete manuscript, or the weird, real-life details that snuck their way into the story. It’s like the bonus content that came on 90s DVDs.

So, with my very first book, Those Lights at Night, officially out as of this week (order it on Spotify, Apple Books, Libro.fm, Audible, or wherever else you buy audiobooks), I figured it’d be fun to share a little “bonus content” of my own. I plan on sharing a lot of this information via social media in the coming weeks—gotta market this thing somehow, you know?—but I wanted to share it here, with my favorite digital circle, first. Whether you’ve listened to Those Lights at Night already or haven’t heard of it before now, I hope you enjoy!

First, the back-of-the-book blurb…

Bare Buttes is like any other California desert town: hot, dusty, and known best for its tourism. But unlike flashy Palm Springs or hipster Joshua Tree, Bare Buttes isn’t known for pool parties or hiking—its draw is its extraterrestrial visitors.

No one living outside the town needs to know that Bare Buttes’ “alien abductions” are fake, organized a few times each year by its small but spunky Performance Committee. The committee sustains just enough hype to avoid suspicion while keeping tourists interested, which is perfect for Juniper Flatts, the owner of a humble UFO-themed gift shop that she inherited from her mother. But when a series of real abductions occurs—each involving a mysterious flying vehicle not terribly unlike the Performance Committee’s simulations—and Juniper’s best friend and love interest goes missing, she takes it upon herself to find out who’s responsible for the chaos.

Juniper’s head-spinning investigation threatens to unravel the town’s carefully constructed image, and with it, the last thing Juniper’s late mother left her. By working with her neighbors to connect the dots, Juniper discovers the orchestrator behind her community’s biggest nightmare. Going head-to-head with him leads Juniper to a nauseating crossroads: sell out her community, or do the right thing, even at great personal cost.

Basically, if you’re into bizarro desert settings, communities that rally together, a borderline tacky obsession with regional cryptid/supernatural sightings, and cutesy queer pining, you’ll probably like TLaN.

How I got the idea for Those Lights at Night

The “elevator pitch” for my novella is: A California desert town that regularly fakes alien abductions to attract tourists suddenly faces a series of real abductions involving mysterious UFOs. But elevator pitches rarely get to the meat of the story. While Those Lights at Night is a fun and quirky mystery, it’s built on criticism of the growth-at-all-costs tech industry (something I’ve grown intimately familiar with, as a former tech worker and current tech journalist), the leeway modern society has given selfish billionaires, and grief.

Though I can’t remember exactly how the idea conveyed in the elevator pitch came to me, I’ve always been charmed by the American Southwest’s obsession with UFO sightings and alien-inspired artwork. And Joshua Tree is one of my favorite places on Earth: it’s gorgeous, it’s resilient, it’s downright weird. I think a part of me lives out there. So while TLaN’s primary setting, Bare Buttes, is fictional, the space it’s surrounded by is not, and it was all too easy to imagine what it’d be like for UFOs to swoop in from out of nowhere.

Finally, TLaN was my venture into writing something fun. Prior to writing this novella, I’d written a novel driven by what I thought “the market” (that nebulous thing none of us can really nab) would want to see. It had drama, it had way too many characters, and it had social commentary on things I probably had no business commenting on in the first place. It was “serious.” And it was boring. When it came down to editing the thing—my least favorite part of any long-form project—I realized I had zero interest in enduring all of that. So I walked away, promising myself I’d only write stuff I really enjoyed going forward.

Pictures and places that inspired me during the writing process

So, I have no idea where this image came from. It could be from this Reddit post; it could be older. I saw it on Tumblr a few years ago and couldn’t get it out of my head. Not only does this sign imply that alien abductions are normal enough in this area that 3 is simply too many for one week, but there’s a council that can do something about it? 😮‍💨

While most of the places in TLaN are entirely made up, the gift shop my protagonist, Juniper, owns takes after Coyote Corner, a little place in Joshua Tree that looks like it came straight out of the Wild West. Pretty much everything they sell there is a little too on-the-nose, just like Juniper’s wacky curios.

Juniper’s name also comes from an area at Joshua Tree National Park: the Juniper Flats backcountry zone. When I drove past the sign during a visit to JTNP several years ago, I instantly knew the name “Juniper Flats” had main character energy.

What it’s like debuting in audio format

I began submitting TLaN to indie presses late last year, after a few rounds of edits and a handful of very helpful beta reads. In March 2025, with many of those submissions pending and me waiting for the next round of presses to open their inboxes, I saw that Spotify had put out a call for shorter-form genre fiction. I knew my novella would make for a great audio experience, so I submitted it.

Spotify offered me a publishing deal in August. If I’m honest, I was a bit wary at first: As we write long pieces of fiction, most of us dream of one day showing it off in print, and this was a different path. (I’d also just started playing Split/Fiction with my partner and was maaaybe a little worried about a powerful company snatching a bunch of writers’ intellectual property with less-than-savory intentions.) I’m incredibly grateful that I was able to consult with a trusted group of writer friends, one of whom worked for a stint in the publishing industry; they helped me realize the deal’s potential, and roughly a week later, I said yes.

One of the great advantages of debuting in audio format is a complete lack of necessity for patience. It usually takes an author about two years to go from acquisition to print debut, but in this case, it took less than three months for me to graduate from writer to author. I had some input on who my narrator would be and what they’d sound like—go Lindsey Dorcus!—but otherwise, everything was in the hands of my team at Spotify, who (thank goodness) kept me in the loop with every step.

Though of course it’d be fun to sell physical, printed copies of TLaN, I’m fully satisfied knowing how accessible the story will be in audio format. Beyond being free to anyone with a Spotify Premium membership, a single audio copy of TLaN costs less than a market-rate latte, making it an easier sell for someone like me, who hates asking people to spend money on something she made. (Side note: I fully plan on writing an issue about this type of awkwardness, because whew, I’ve been sweating lately.) Plus, people can listen on the go!

And while TLaN debuted as an audiobook, nothing’s to say it won’t take another form in the future… Stay tuned. 😉

Got any questions about Those Lights at Night, novella publishing, or what it was like to work with Spotify?

I’d love to answer them in the comments below!

And don’t forget to snag your copy of Those Lights at Night wherever audiobooks are sold! Most platforms have a 5-minute preview, if you want to try before you buy.