In her debut novel, producer/TV writer/playwright/actor Megan Mostyn-Brown brings forth a dark tale of wealth, family, and cannibalism in The Need. Known for the Netflix series Bodkin, the Fox network series Gotham, and others, Mostyn-Brown turns to a unique theme in her novel that follows a family afflicted with a taboo genetic condition on the run.
Judith Erwin: The Need is your first novel. With a successful career as a playwright, TV, and screenplay writer, what brought you to novel writing?
Megan Mostyn-Brown: Well, I wrote short stories as a kid. I was a theater major in college, but I took some English writing classes and always had in the back of my head, even as a kid, that someday I’m gonna write a novel. But I had a professor, who’s a very famous novelist, say, โYou’re not a novelist.โ That sort of crushed any dream of novel writing at age 20. I went on and was an actor, and then a playwright, and a TV writer. Then during the strike [Writers Guild of America 2023], I had an idea for a TV show I was playing with that I slow-rolled to my manager about a family on the run. They had a genetic disorder that was cannibalism. And my manager said, โYou will never sell that as a TV show, but what if you wrote it as a novel?โ My partner is Jordan Harper, who’s a very well-respected crime novelist, so it’s a little like who am I? And I kept thinking about this teacher who said, โYou’re not a novelist.โ So, I started writing it as monologues, just for fun, because I had nothing to do. I was on strike, so I couldn’t really work on anything that was in development. My manager read it, and said, โI told you, it’s a book.โ
JE: Where did the idea come from?
MM-B: I’ve always been sort of fascinated with cannibalism. We’re fine with vampires. They’re kind of sexy. We’re okay with werewolves. They’re kind of weird and sexy also, but there’s nothing sexy about cannibalism. Part of the idea came right before the writer’s strike in 2023. I found out I had hemochromatosis, which is a genetic disorder where your body produces too much iron. So, I just have to be careful about what I eat and check my levels. I have had this genetic disorder my entire life and had no idea. It just happened to be a doctor gave me the correct blood tests because something else was going on, and he stumbled upon the fact that I had this. If I look back, there were signs that I was sick with something. But to not know is sort of where the idea of Naomi came from. A kid who thinks they have everything, who’s been through a real come-to-Jesus with who they are in terms of being non-binary, and then ends up having to discover something else about themselvesโthat they are a cannibal. Hemochromatosis is boring, but cannibalism is not. What if it wasn’t a choice? So often in media, it is a choice people make. What would the story be, if it wasn’t a choice?
JE: You have developed a story with rich characters. Did you envision any actors who might portray them when you were writing?
MM-B: I did not this time around. I have to do that so much for TV and when I wrote plays, because you’re gonna ask people to do readings. During a period of time when I couldn’t work in television, I just let my imagination go. So, I didn’t imagine anyone specifically.
JE: In developing your story and characters, did your experience writing for TV and film give you more to draw upon?
MM-B: Yeah. A friend of Jordan’s said, โHow many points of view are in your book?โ And I said, โSix.โ He’s a novelist, and said, โI don’t know that you can do that.โ But that’s what a script is. A script is a bunch of people’s points of viewโconstantly changing and shifting. I think that helped. You could look at it as a book of monologues, which is not so different from a play. I think I went into writing a novel using the skills that I already had, rather than trying to be something I’m not.
JE: Was there anything particularly difficult about writing the book?
MM-B: Yeah. It’s a lot of words. TV episodes and plays are nowhere near as many words as a book. The ideas in my head were faster than my fingers could write, which I think was really frustrating at times. In comparison to the other formats that I write in, itโs just a lot more. The world is so much bigger, and there was a lot of plotting and planning I had to do. There was a whole 50 pages I threw out because I realized this book was gonna be 4,000 pages long if I took the family in that direction. TV is always collaborative. Once you’re in a room, there’s six to eight other writers who are always contributing ideas. With novel writing it’s just you and the computer. There’s room for doubts to creep in. That doesn’t happen in the other two forms.
JE: What do you want readers to take away from the book?
MM-B: I want it to be a reminder that all are struggling with something, and oftentimes we can’t see what that is. and just to give people grace. I think it doesn’t seem this way, but community is important. I think the book speaks to the fact that isolation is not great, and family first is not always the way to go because these characters definitely have put family first in a way that is almost to their own personal detriment. Talia has isolated herself and her kids in a way she feels like she has to but has actually eroded the children in some way, shape, or form.
JE: Do you have another book in progress?
MM-B: I have. Iโve started a sequel to this one about the intentional community that Dee and Dante grew up in.
JE: If The Need is developed for film or TV. Would you write the script yourself?
MM-B: Yeah, yeah, yes, yeah. If/when it gets developed for TV, I would do it myself, I wrote the book. I’m gonna write the script.
JE: Is there anything more you that you would like people to know?
MMB: I think we covered it. I just hope they like the book, and they come away with seeing that we all have good and bad inside of us at the same time.
Thank you..
Judith Erwin is a retired attorney, journalist, and award-winning author of romantic suspense and crime fiction, including the series Shepherd & Associates. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Florida Writers Association, and the FBI Citizens Academy Alumni Association.
