What inspired me for my debut novel?
My debut novel, No One Was There, is scheduled for release on May 16, 2026.
After three years of working on this book, writing those words feels surreal. And now that I’m in the middle of figuring out how to promote a book and myself, I get asked one specific question a lot: what inspired me to write this book?
Where the seed was planted.
Strangely enough, ever since I can remember, I have been surrounded by all sorts of stories. Some I’d hear about on the news, in documentaries, on shows or movies, some would even come from my family history, which I would hear when adults talked about that long-dead uncle who did questionable things. All those stories had one thing in common: they involved stepping away from the straight and narrow.
Growing up, I was that polite and well-behaved kid who never did anything wrong. Even as a teen, I didn’t rebel against anything, but I wrote about rebellious teens. I wrote fan fictions, full stories, and short episodes about teenagers involved in organized crime. They led their own gangs, rivaled cartels, and more. And it truly excited me. That’s when I realized I was really interested in all kinds of stories about the mafia, organized crime, and everything people do when they sidestep laws.
The idea for No One Was There.
Initially, No One Was There was just part of the many stories, events, and characters that had been living rent-free in my mind since I was 15. Back then, my main character, Lana, was already the lead of the story, except she was younger and more naive. I didn’t know how to plot or what a story structure was. I just didn’t know how to reach the end of a story, so I wrote beat after beat with a beginning but no conclusion.
I was frustrated with everything and didn’t know how to develop a story. That’s when I started watching AuthorTubers and reading articles about writing a story from start to finish. I even bought a few books, including Save The Cat and Anatomy of Story, but I never fully committed to reading them. Still, I set out to figure out a plot for my story. During my second attempt at NaNoWriMo (or Novel November now), I decided to work on No One Was There, and for that, I needed to do some research. I don’t know where that instinct came from, but I somehow realized I needed realism to make it believable.
My first idea was to watch a lot of shows about mafia, cartels, organized crime, and so on. Then I remembered something: there’s an Italian show that stuck with me for years—Gomorrah. It was a raw, cold, and cruel—but realistic—depiction of the Italian mafia, and through some research, I found out the book it was based on: Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano. I bought it, and after reading the first few pages, a scene with a container full of dead people stuck with me. This day, after vividly imagining that scene as I read it, I decided I wanted to turn No One Was There toward the topic of human trafficking.
But why such a dark topic?
This is the second-most-asked question I get. I understand it’s not a topic for everyone, nor is it common (at least in France). With my piqued interest in all kinds of organized crime subjects, it genuinely felt normal and instinctive to orient myself toward a dark topic for my story. Don’t get me wrong, I do love a good rom-com, a lovey-dovey romance, I even watch kids’ shows, but no matter what, what I create will always have that darker shade to it.
The main reason I chose this topic was to explore how a character could still stand after experiencing the most traumatizing events one can face. And for me, a plot about human trafficking seemed like the terrible situation my characters could face. To me, this is the worst hardship I can think of. This is based solely on my perspective, and the terrible situation factor will be different for others, of course. No One Was There is and will remain a work of fiction where I, the author, explore my own vision of the world.
While this story isn’t a happy one, it is not a sad one either. My main goal is to write about what comes after the hardship. What do we do after the storm has passed? We assess, we figure out how to rebuild, and if we can’t rebuild, we’ll build anew, somewhere else, in a different way. And I guess that’s what I personally went through while I was writing that story. I did not go through the same ordeals I wrote about, but I did face my own hardships and questioned how to build my life, how to heal, and how to grow as a person. I did find my light somehow, and that idea has stuck with me for a while now, to the point that it became the dedication in No One Was There. I may put my characters through hell, but I’ll always help them find themselves again, as I did for myself.
To everyone going through hard times, the storm will pass, and the sun will shine again.
We got this!
Love, Andy.