Author Interview Series: Letters to the Purple Satin Killer by Joshua Chaplinksy

True Crime, Serial Killers, and Epistolary Writing

Today in The Madhouse, I’m hosting Joshua Chaplinksy, author of  The Paradox Twins, Whispers in the Ear of A Dreaming Ape, and Kanye West—Reanimator. His short fiction has been published by Vice, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Thuglit, Severed Press, PMMP, Expat Press, and Broken River Books.

I originally met Joshua when I was writing for LitReactor, and when he reached out to me about his upcoming project Letters to the Purple Satin Killer, I was beyond excited to give it a read.

Here is a quick summary to whet your appetites:

Jonas Williker is considered one of the most sadistic serial murderers of the modern era. This epistolary novel explores the aftermath of his arrest and the psychological trauma of those who lived through it.

The Pennsylvania native brutalized his way into the zeitgeist during the early part of the new millennium, leaving a trail of corpses across five states before his eventual arrest. All told, Williker was responsible for the rape and murder of 23 women, and is suspected in the deaths of dozens more. His calling card—a torn piece of fabric found on or inside the bodies of his victims—helped popularize his now ubiquitous nickname.

The Purple Satin Killer.

In the years following his arrest, Jonas Williker received hundreds of letters in prison. Collected here, these letters offer a unique glimpse into a depraved mind through a human lens, including contributions from family, the bereaved, and self-professed “fans.” They represent a chilling portrait of the American psyche, skewering a media obsessed culture where murderers are celebrities to revere. What you learn about the man from these letters will shock you, but not as much as what you learn about yourself.

Scary stuff, right?

I flew through this book and couldn’t put it down, and since all these months later, I’m still thinking about it, I knew Joshua and I needed to sit down and have a chat, which you can read below. In the meantime, please be sure to follow him on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok at @jaceycockrobin.

SW: Hi Joshua! Welcome to my author series, which I affectionately call The Madhouse. Since this is your first time joining us here, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what drew you to writing (specifically crime fiction) in the first place?

JC: Hi Stephanie, thanks for having me.

My name is Joshua Chaplinsky. I was the Managing Editor of LitReactor.com from 2011-2023, and I’m the author of The Paradox Twins, Whispers in the Ear of A Dreaming Ape, Kanye West Re-Animator, and the forthcoming Letters to the Purple Satin Killer, which is out from CLASH Books on August 6.

I loved reading as a kid, and because of that, the first vocation I can remember aspiring to was writing. If anyone asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, that’s the answer I would give. But for all my talk, I didn’t actively pursue this dream until sometime in my early 20s when I became obsessed with movies and screenwriting. I spent the next 10 years writing for an audience of none, filling my desk drawer with unmarketable scripts, before finally coming back around to my first love, which was fiction. I’d been the Managing Editor of LitReactor for a few years at that point and I realized, I’ve got this great community at my fingertips—I should be participating! Someone might actually read my work!

As for crime fiction, I wouldn’t say I’m drawn to that genre specifically. More so anything dark and weird. I honestly can’t say why. Can any of us? It’s probably because that’s where all the risks are being taken, and as a reader, I’m constantly looking for something to rearrange my brain chemistry.

SW: What was your writing process like while writing Letters to the Purple Satin Killer? When did the idea for the novel take shape?

JC: It started out as a short story, which was originally published in the esteemed pages of Thug Lit magazine. I never intended on turning it into a novel. But a few years later, after my first novel, The Paradox Twins, had come out, I began to reconsider. I’d hit a wall in my WIP at the time and needed a break. But I didn’t want to lose momentum. I wanted to put something new out. So I decided to expand LTTPSK into a novella and put it out as a stopgap release until I could finish my next novel. Well, 90,000 words later, LTTPSK is my next novel.

I actually wrote most of LTTPSK out of chronological order, which I do NOT recommend. The timeline became a nightmare and I spent many a month sequencing and resequencing the novel until my brain turned into mush. All’s well that ends well, but yeah, the process wasn’t always enjoyable.

SW: This book is an intense and disturbing read. That said, once I started it, I couldn’t put it down. Can you talk a little about how you took care of yourself while writing this? Any little self-care tips you can share for other horror writers tackling similar issues in their writing?

JC: I don’t really have a hard time writing disturbing subject matter. I feel like I get so caught up in the technical details of the narrative that I don’t really get emotionally involved. Not like when reading someone else’s work. It’s way easier for someone else’s writing to elicit those feelings in me. It takes another author to fuck me up.

SW: I read a lot of true crime when I was younger, and while I read it less now, I still pick up a handful of books a year and move through them. Something I’ve found myself doing recently though is seeking out memoirs by involved parties, for instance The Phantom Prince, My Life With Ted Bundy by Elizabeth Kendall¸ A Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming by Kerri Rawson, or A Father’s Story by Lionel Dahmer.Now this book is all POVs from involved/interested parties. How did you settle on your list of characters? Were any of them especially different to write?

JC: I would say the characters in this book fall into one of two categories: There are the main characters, like Jonas’ mother and Ginny, who do most of the narrative heavy lifting and supply the emotional backbone of the story. These are the characters that get the most page time and keep the reader anchored. Then there are the supporting cast, the one-offs—characters that act as a vehicle for a specific idea or piece of research. Those were the spaces where I could really cut loose and get weird.

The “main characters” came first. I ported them over from the short story and added to their ranks. Expanded their contributions when necessary. Then I started to fill in the blanks with the supporting cast. Again, it wasn’t necessarily the best way to go about writing a novel, but I got there in the end.

SW: I’m a huge fan of epistolary writing. What initially drew you to that format to tell the story? Do you have any favorite novels you could recommend to readers who are looking for more narratives following that style?

JC: It’s been a while, so I might not get all the details right, but I came up with the idea for the short story while watching Making A Murderer on Netflix. There’s a part where Steven Avery gets engaged to a woman he “met” while in prison. There are scenes of them talking on the phone, and I started thinking about the flow of information, the difference between what they told each other and what they learned about each other through the media. Conflicting information that might cause conflict between them. I thought that premise would make a good story, but I didn’t want to write it as a series of phone transcriptions. Of course the perfect format was staring me right in the face.  

There are so many great epistolary novels, especially in the crime and horror genres. Big ones that influenced Letters to the Purple Satin Killer were The Collector by John Fowles, The End of Alice by A.M. Homes, and The Sluts by Dennis Cooper.

SW: True crime, as a genre in general, is especially popular. There are sections dedicated to it at bookstores, a new documentary out every other week, and Gypsy Rose is already on her second Lifetime series since she’s been out of prison. I’m curious if you think there is a line to be drawn here in regard to desensitization or glorification since we’re dealing with real people here, and people who have taken lives and whose families are still out there having to relive this every time Netflix rears its head. 

JC: I mean, that’s part of what I’m trying to explore in LTTPSK. Is our fascination with such macabre subject matter healthy? Are we turning other people’s trauma into entertainment? Content to be consumed? With fiction, there’s the argument that confronting our fears in a controlled environment is psychologically beneficial, no matter how horrific, but when real people are involved, people that are still alive, it becomes more complicated than that. Like anything I suppose it’s a matter of execution, a fine line to be walked, but let’s face it—I don’t think sensitivity is always the top priority. Still, I continue to watch.

SW: Who are you currently reading? Are there any books you’re looking forward to adding to your TBR list?

JC: This list will probably be outdated by the time people read it, but some recent reads I really enjoyed were The Employees by Olga Ravn, I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman, In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien, and Good Night, Sleep Tight by Brian Evenson. I’ve currently got The Grip of It by Jac Jemc, Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle, and Coup de Grace by Sofia Ajram on my nightstand.

SW: What’s next for your readers?

JC: I’ve got another short novel that’s almost finished, something I’ve been working on for a while now. The aforementioned WIP I put on hold to write LTTPSK. I’d describe it as a Lynchian horror novel full of ambiguous identities and shifting timelines. Hopefully I can buckle down and finally get it done.

Bonus Questions:

SW: The character of Candance Bennington gave me Harley Quinn vibes. Was that intentional or a coincidence?

JC: Totally coincidental. In fact, this is the first time it’s been brought to my attention. I feel like Candace is more calculating and Harley Quinn is more capricious in nature, but I can see the similarities. Referring to an earlier answer, the idea of her, if not her personality, was inspired by the woman Steven Avery “met” while in prison.

SW: Which Thomas Harris book is your favorite: Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, or Red Dragon?

JC: I’ve actually never read Thomas Harris, although I’ve seen most of the movies. If it’s movies we’re talking about, then Silence, all the way.

Blurbs:

"This book. It made me wince, cringe, chuckle, guffaw, check the locks on my doors, shake my head, and maybe utter a few swears at the author. Letters is a unique satire of an American nightmare." —Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World

"Chaplinsky breathes some much-needed life into the serial killer genre, taking the unique and utterly brilliant angle of turning the focus onto us, and our morbid fascination with these depraved individuals. This book ought to come with a bottle of bleach, to dip your soul in after you're done." —Rob Hart, author of Assassins Anonymous and The Warehouse

"Akin to Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer fucking Les Liasons Dangereuses, then strangling it, this sadistic epistolary novel reads like a crime scene smattered in the DNA of Richard Chizmar and Thomas Harris. Better wear rubber gloves when you crack open this brutally captivating book." —Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters

"Remnants of Dennis Cooper and Bret Easton Ellis at their finest, Letters to the Purple Satin Killer is Chaplinsky's best book yet. Cleverly inventive and perfectly perverted, it is deceptively difficult to put down once you get started. Clear your schedules and silence your phones. You've just found your next obsession."—Max Booth III, author of Abnormal Statistics and We Need to Do Something

 “Letters to the Purple Satin Killer is a morbidly intense and psychologically thrilling page-turner. Once I started it, I couldn’t put it down.” —Stephanie M. Wytovich, Bram Stoker award-winning author of Brothel

“Joshua Chaplinsky’s Letters to the Purple Satin Killer is the freshest, most inventive, and easily the funniest serial-killer novel in years. It says something scary and profound about America itself.” —Nick Kolakowski, author of Absolute Unit and Love & Bullets

"A wicked feast of serial killer psychosis, Letters to the Purple Satin Killer steeps us in the lives of those who accidentally, and purposefully, love a bad, bad man. Told in blistering letters that heap hope, blame, lust and insanity on a monster, Joshua Chaplinsky’s haunting new novel will dazzle and trouble you in equal measure. An elegant and horrific epistolary of murder." —Brian Allen Carr, author of Bad Foundations

"A fascinating flip of the script here, think In the Belly of the Beast in reverse, where a reader doesn't satisfy their morbid curiosity from an incarcerated killer's insight, but instead derives a more dubious satisfaction by stealing the monster's mail. All the expected epistolary pleasures are intact, but here it's highlighted by a more perverse voyeurism, as well as some surprising character arcs from the obsessive penpals and rubberneckers, maybe less an arc but more like that inevitable trajectory that curves down down down into the cognitive gutter." —David James Keaton, author ofHead Cleaner

“Filthy, shameful, and so much fun, like an ill-advised late-night tryst with your favorite toxic, psychotic lover. Letters to the Purple Satin Killer is a monster in the glossy black mirror reflecting our collective disease, and Chaplinsky catalogues humanity’s mordant cruelty with acerbic aplomb.” —Chandler Morrison, author of Dead Inside and American Narcissus

"The range of emotions that seep into these letters—hatred, love, vengeance, desire—makes for a fascinating (and unsettling) epistolary novel. Transgressive and depraved, funny and sweet, it's Dracula via Chuck Palahniuk with a Jack Ketchum chaser." —Richard Thomas, Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson finalist

“By turns frightening and funny, Chaplinsky twists the true crime format into an immersive exploration of celebrity worship and humankind’s addiction to being heard.” —B.R. Yeager, author of Negative Space and Burn You the Fuck Alive

“Unlike any other serial killer novel you’re likely to ever read. Brutal, original and unflinching, it holds the mirror to who we have become, and who we choose to obsess over.” —Todd Robinson, Author of Rough Trade and The Hard Bounce