Introduction
The spark for this book’s main character and title ignited before I even had a plot in mind. While serving in the U.S. Military, during one of several overseas deployments, I met a dear friend who shared my passion for horror stories, chilling movies, and the art of storytelling. When I discovered he was born on April 1st, I couldn’t resist the endless jokes about how everything might go horribly wrong on his birthday.
Before long, we began brainstorming a story about an anti-heroine who was doomed by fate to be born on April Fool’s Day. We instantly agreed that her name had to be April. As we sketched out the plot, my creative juices flowed, and that process became an escape from the harsh realities of deployment.
I still remember watching a TV movie in 2010 about the notorious Josef Fritzl—a father whose unspeakable abuse of his daughter in Austria, a country known for its peaceful reputation, left me utterly revolted. I devoured the story in one sitting and felt a deep need for retribution on behalf of the survivor. In our work as writers, we transform our darkest emotions into art. Thus, crafting April’s story became my own version of lex talionis—a way to give voice or an outlet to those who have suffered mental, sexual, and physical abuse.
The narrative evolved around a girl, once abused, who blossoms into a vengeful Goddess determined to take down the worst of pranksters on April Fool’s Day. Not just any pranksters, but those ruthless souls who leave a trail of bodies and yet receive nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Growing up, I was captivated by horror classics like Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween. I always wondered why these films typically depicted middle-aged men relentlessly chasing innocent women and children to inflict pain. Was it a twisted portrayal of midlife crisis at its worst?
Over the years, I’ve seen countless horror films where women are cast as the scream queen, the vixen, the witch, the superhero, the supervillain, the final girl, or even the anti-hero—but none of these characters resonated as deeply or left a lasting mark like icons such as Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers. With April, I wanted to change that. She isn’t your typical monster. Instead, she targets only those truly deserving of her wrath—guilty fools who dare to cross the line on April Fool’s Day.
Inspired by the visceral thrill of horror classics and driven by a desire to redefine what it means to be an anti-heroine, April’s story is 100 percent fiction… or is it?
