How Jonathan Parks-Ramage Sits Down & Writes
'Yes Daddy' is a fast-paced, deeply chilling debut that you won't be able to put down.
Jonah Keller moved to New York City with dreams of becoming a successful playwright, but, for the time being, lives in a rundown sublet in Bushwick, working extra hours at a restaurant only to barely make rent. When he stumbles upon a photo of Richard Shriver—the glamorous Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and quite possibly the stepping stone to the fame he craves—Jonah orchestrates their meeting. The two begin a hungry, passionate affair.
When summer arrives, Richard invites his young lover for a spell at his sprawling estate in the Hamptons. A tall iron fence surrounds the idyllic compound where Richard and a few of his close artist friends entertain, have lavish dinners, and—Jonah can’t help but notice—employ a waitstaff of young, attractive gay men, many of whom sport ugly bruises. Soon, Jonah is cast out of Richard’s good graces and a sinister underlay begins to emerge. As a series of transgressions lead inexorably to a violent climax, Jonah hurtles toward a decisive revenge that will shape the rest of his life.
Riveting, unpredictable, and compulsively readable, Yes, Daddy is an exploration of class, power dynamics, and the nuances of victimhood and complicity. It burns with weight and clarity—and offers hope that stories may hold the key to our healing.
Yes, Daddy is perfect for readers looking for an unputdownable queer gothic thriller.
We spoke with Jonathan about writing something you’re passionate about, the differences between writing a novel vs. a screenplay, and starting Yes Daddy with a prologue.
Q: Where do you like to write the most?
I love to write in my office! I’m a creature of habit, so I like having one sacred space where I can always work. I’m surrounded by my books, which give me the most inspiration. I’m also usually flanked by piles of research for whatever project I happen to be working on at the time. If I’m traveling while working, I’ll carve out a tiny corner of my hotel room that can serve as my office-away-from-home.
Q: When do you like to write the most?
I always prefer writing in the mornings, after I’ve had a very full glass of cold brew to get my brain up and running. I tend to lose steam by early afternoon, so those morning hours are crucial to my productivity. Very occasionally I will get a mid-afternoon or evening spurt of energy and inspiration, but those instances are definitely rare.
Q: When it comes to drafting, do you prefer writing on a computer or freehand?
I always do my drafting on the computer. For me, it’s easier to back up my work and keep things organized on my laptop. If I’m really stuck, I will occasionally freehand to access my subconscious and try to work through a particular block. But I’m also a fast typer, so I can almost feel like I’m freehanding when I’m really in the groove and just letting the words flow.
Q: Are you more of a plotter or pantser?
I’m definitely a bit of both. In the early stages of a project, I am typically more of a pantser, when I’m still finding the characters and the plot of the book. But once I’ve hooked into the central characters and the basic concept, then I tend to outline. It helps me to have the plot structure in place, so I don’t have to worry about it while I’m writing and I can just explore my characters’ thoughts and feelings within that structural scaffolding. And my outlines also definitely change as I write! I always think of an outline as a living breathing document. When I discover new things in my draft that change the direction of the manuscript, I then definitely revise my outline to adjust for these new plot developments.
Q: Stephen King has a great line in On Writing that says “the scariest moment is always right before you start. After that, things can only get better.” That scary pre-start moment often inspires procrastination in writers. Suddenly, you have to clean your entire house, do the laundry and play Candy Crush for an hour before you can actually start writing. Is there anything you need to do before you can actually sit down and work?
I don’t clean my entire house, but I definitely need a bed that’s made and a kitchen that’s clean. I cook avocado and egg toast every morning for myself and my partner, so I definitely dirty up the kitchen! And if I just had a mess sitting there the entire day, it would drive me absolutely insane and I would not be able to concentrate. So that’s my little bit of procrastination built into every day: breakfast and clean up. But it is worth it, to have some delicious avo-egg toast!
Q: Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what music? Is your choice of music inspired by the project you’re working on?
I always listen to music while I write. The type of music I listen to is usually dictated by whatever scene I happen to be writing. I often listen to film scores, imagining that the score I am listening to is the score for the scene I’m writing. It helps me access the mood and momentum of the scene.
Q: Some writers believe you have to write every single day. Is that true of your process? How often do you write/how long for each session?
I don’t believe you have to write every single day, though I will say there are periods of time where I most definitely am. I think it’s helpful to stay immersed in a project while you’re writing it, especially if it’s a piece of work that is as long and involved as a novel. But I’m also a journalist and a screenwriter, so there will be times when I’m working on multiple projects at once. During those periods of time, I’m just trying to juggle it all!
Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d give an aspiring author?
Write about something you are passionate about. Don’t write something just because you think it is “commercial” or because you think a particular agent or editor or imagined audience might like it. Because if you’re writing from a cynical place like that, the work is bound to feel cynical. People are much more likely to respond to the work if they can sense the passion, if they can tell that this is something that the writer deeply believes in.
Q: Where do you normally find story inspiration?
When it comes to novels, I pull inspiration mainly from my own life and my own experiences, then filter those through a fictional lens. I also compliment my personal experience with comprehensive research about whatever issues I happen to be exploring in my work.
Q: As a screenwriter, how was your drafting process different for writing a novel vs. a screenplay?
Screenwriting is a very different animal than novel writing, mainly because there is a set structure and length to most screenplays. Typically you’re working within specific parameters in terms of length and structure. There’s a lot of creativity and innovation that can happen within those limits, but there is something more finite about what you can do with a screenplay versus what you can do with a novel.
With a novel, there are truly no bounds in terms of what you can do with the narrative, prose style, characters, plot, structure, and themes. Also, for me, novels require much more focus and hyper-concentration than screenplays. Screenplays are a blueprint for a film shoot. But novels are finished products in and of themselves. Novels are also judged on a sentence level, whereas the general public rarely even reads screenplays.
The two are both fun and challenging to write for different reasons!
Q: Yes Daddy has a prologue that is in the third person and it's chilling and it feels like it is giving away the story before it begins (it doesn't), what made you decide to start with a prologue?
I wanted to start the book with a scene that represented one of the most pivotal moments in my main character’s life. It’s a scene that explores, in a very short length of time, a lot of the central themes that I return to throughout the book. As you mentioned, it’s a very dramatic scene that gives the reader a hint of the story to come, without truly giving anything away. I wanted to create a sense of mystery at the top. I hoped to leave the reader wondering: how did this character get to this point? How could he make the horrific decision he does in the opening pages? Then, once those questions are established, we go back in time and start answering them. The narrative tension and mystery created by the prologue, propel us into the narrative with powerful momentum.
Q: There are many power dynamics at play in Yes Daddy, and it's a deeper look at how power imbalances can be used for harm. What compelled you to explore this in your novel?
The main character, Jonah, is a young broke aspiring writer, who desperately wants to make it as a playwright in New York City. He also happens to be a gay man from a traumatic religious background, where he was subjected to the horrors of conversion therapy. The combination of past trauma, poverty, and a lack of a family support system, make Jonah uniquely vulnerable. When he meets a much older, wealthy, and famous writer named Richard, the two begin a passionate affair. Jonah thinks all his prayers are answered. He thinks he has found a father figure who will take care of him. But instead, he has found someone who plans to manipulate him and pull him into a web of sexual abuse and assault.
For me, I wanted to create a narrative that explored the #MeToo movement through a uniquely queer lens. The media representation of sexual assault and rape all too rarely focuses on stories of queer and trans people who have suffered this abuse. I hope that my book can be part of a larger cultural narrative where we bring these LGBTQIA+ stories out of the shadows and into the light.
Q: The pacing in Yes Daddy makes the book hard to put down. It's like a full-speed train coming at you. How did you take pacing into account when you were drafting?
I think there is an inherent urgency to the subject matter that propels my narrative forward. I also think that character is a huge driver of story. Of course, plot is important too, but character is where it starts. If we don’t care about the characters, we aren’t going to care about what happens to them. So for me, pacing starts with creating strong characters that we feel attached to. Then you put those characters into a plot that is tightly woven.
Pacing is also something I continue to work on throughout the editing process. It’s about trimming the sentences down so each word has a purpose, so there is no filler prose. If you’re spinning your wheels to include an overly florid phrase or paragraph, the reader will lose interest.
Q: Amazon Studios is currently adapting Yes Daddy for television. What are you looking most forward to seeing play out on screen?
I feel very lucky to have a group of queer collaborators on the project, who truly understand what I am trying to accomplish with this narrative and are approaching the subject matter with the necessary sensitivity and respect. I’m looking forward to bringing these important themes to a larger stage, in hopes of creating an even bigger dialogue.
Q: What's the last book you read that you absolutely couldn't put down?
I loved Let The Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993 by Sarah Schulman. This nonfiction book is an essential documentation of a crucial chapter in the history of AIDS activism. Schulman combines hundreds of interviews and meticulous research to create a comprehensive and urgent portrait of this era. Though the book is nonfiction, it moves with the narrative urgency that the best novels possess. It also received a rapturous review in the New York Times, so I am not alone in my fandom for this incredible book!
Grab your copy of Yes Daddy from IndieBound, Bookshop.org, or Barnes and Noble.
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