Dissecting N.J. Gallegos

Tell about yourself. When did your passion for reading and writing start?

As an only child with my mom working long hours, I found solace in reading early on. Books kept me company and exposed me to a wider world than my small-town Colorado life. I devoured books quickly. One day, my mom handed me Stephen King’s The Stand and said, “Try to read that in a few hours.” Took me a bit longer than that! I’d always harbored dreams of writing a book, and during the COVID pandemic, I hit a massive low with work burnout in the ER. My mental health was NOT good. I started writing to give me an outlet and realized it was like free therapy. At first, I did it for myself, but then wondered if other people would want to read what my mind conjured up. 

How much of your writing is “write what you know” or “researched to death”?

Most of my writing is “write what you know.” I gravitate towards medical horror, and my day job as an Emergency Medicine Physician informs my work. Not to say I don’t research (pretty sure I might be on some sort of watch-list thanks to the weird stuff I look up), but I rely heavily on my education, training, and day-to-day work to build my stories of medical mayhem. 

Do you have a furry friend writing assistant (dog, cat, bird, Hellhound), and how do they help you achieve your writing goals?

I’ve got two furry editors! Two cats, an orange hellion named Wally, and a tabby unit named Cat Bane (named for the Star Wars character Cad Bane). Both boys relax next to me while I work, which I find very soothing. Although truthfully, Wally sometimes is more of a hindrance than a help since he’ll bully his way onto my lap… even if my laptop is underneath him. Hard to write with a cat mashing on all your keys.

How has being an author shaped you as a person?

I’ve become a better person. I started writing at a personal low while struggling with my mortality (COVID pandemic, seeing people my age dying), work burnout, significant anxiety and depression. Writing made me confront parts of myself I wasn’t happy with and made me realize it was well within my power to make changes for the better. I did a lot of work on my attitude, prioritized my self-care, and made connections with other authors/readers, broadening my social circles. I learned how to take constructive criticism (something I’ve struggled with) and (mostly) conquered feelings of inadequacy and Imposter Syndrome.  

Where do you find inspiration for your stories?

Everywhere. My brain works in odd ways. I’ll be taking a walk outside and see a bird’s nest and think what if there were a bunch of human eyes in there? Or at work, I’ll be looking around a patient room and wonder what would I do if they turned into a zombie? My imagination is a bit overactive! A lot of ideas come from chats with my wife. I bounce a lot of ideas off her, and she’s come up with plenty of story ideas. She’s a big true crime junkie and watches reels and TikToks of body cam footage from wild situations. She recounts the human horrors for me and often that’ll spark an idea. 

What drew you to your preferred writing genre?

I’ve always been drawn to the horror genre; I love the mysterious and macabre at baseline. The media I consumed always inspired me in that direction as well. I became a massive Stephen King fan as a teenager, reading all his available works. At one point, my mom and I rented every VHS in the horror section at our local video store! Lots of terrible B movies. Weirdly enough, I find horror comfortable… almost like a security blanket. Writing horror helps me reconcile the bad I see in the world, and at the same time, it acts as an escape from reality. I’m also pretty good at being gross, which lends itself well to the genre. 

ABOUT THE STORIES

As their relationship lurches between passion and distance, Jules begins to unravel. The boundaries between study and obsession blur. Anatomy labs bleed into fantasy. Hunger—emotional, erotic, psychological—becomes impossible to ignore. Every slight feels catastrophic. Every touch feels like a promise. Every rejection fuels something dangerous.

Set within the sterile world of medical training, Eat Your Heart Out explores the seductive logic of obsession and the quiet horror of a mind convincing itself that devotion justifies anything. Desire becomes possession. Love becomes entitlement. Control slips, slowly and then all at once.

Dark, intimate, and deeply unsettling, this psychological horror novella traces the path from longing to fixation—and the terrifying places desire can lead when nothing is ever enough.

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Title: Just Desserts

Author: N.J. Gallegos

Buy Link: books2read.com/Desserts-Gallegos

BHP Link: blackharepress.com/products/just-desserts-by-nj-gallegos

Released: 25th February, 2023

*** 2024 American Legacy Book Awards Winner - Horror: Psychological

Revenge is best served plated, patient, and perfectly timed.

When a high-school reunion summons decades-old cruelty back into the light, Sue Moore realises forgiveness isn’t the only way to survive.

 
Shy, scarred, and underestimated, she has spent twenty years carrying the cost of other people’s jokes.

 
Now the past is inviting her to dinner. 

As memories sharpen and appetites awaken, Sue begins to reclaim control in the most unexpected way—through patience, precision, and impeccable taste. 

Just Desserts is a darkly comic, razor-edged revenge tale about trauma, power, and the quiet fury of those written off as harmless. 

Come hungry. Stay nervous. Everyone gets what they deserve. At the table.

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What sparked the idea for this book?

 

Eat Your Heart Out:

The cover actually! Ruth Anna Evans created the cover as a pre-made, and I had to have it. The cover inspired the story.

 

Just Desserts:

I say that Just Desserts is my take on Carrie; if, instead, she bided her time and waited for her twenty-year reunion to exact her revenge. Growing up, I had an unhealthy rivalry with a friend which provided plenty of inspiration and fodder for the story. Writing Just Desserts helped me work through my complex feelings about that relationship and made me realize that I, too, was part of the problem!

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What challenges did you encounter in finishing it? 

 

Eat Your Heart Out:

It needed a little “punching up,” but I was struggling with how to do it. I met up with my Scream Kings Podcast co-host Nathaniel J. Darkish at StokerCon and had him read through my draft. Boy, did he come through! He’s an English teacher, and his brain works differently to mine, thinking in terms of themes. He offered up ideas on how to make the story even more messed up than I had originally conceived, and told me to learn more about descriptive imagery focused on food and eating. His suggestions made all the difference in the world. Thanks, dude!

Just Desserts:

The editing phase was a bit of a bear. This was one of my first works, so it was difficult for me to get the list of suggested edits and not feel inadequate. It touched on a self-esteem issue within myself and made me feel defensive. Often in medical training, when you get feedback, it’s not delivered in the kindest way. More of “if you mess this up again, someone will die!” I had to change my mindset significantly, which ultimately made me a better person and a stronger writer.  

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Why did you choose the setting of this book?

 

Eat Your Heart Out:

I’d been wanting to write a story taking place in medical school for some time now… medical school is a pressure cooker of anxiety and high stakes. Adding in an obsessive lesbian love story was just icing on the cake!

 

Just Desserts:

I loved the thought of someone harboring a grudge for decades, and, when presented with the opportunity, exacting their revenge long after others forgot about them. What better time than a twenty-year high school reunion for someone to get back at the people who nearly killed them with a childish prank?

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How did you come up with the stars/MCs of this book?

 

Eat Your Heart Out: 

I’m a “pantser” with writing. I have a general idea of what I want to write about, but I don’t do outlines, I don’t do character profiles, I just sit down and write. The characters revealed themselves to me as I wrote the story. Not to get too “woo-woo”, but sometimes when writing, I’ll enter the flow-state, and I feel like I’m tapping into something bigger than myself whether that be Source or the collective unconscious. Jules and Maureen wanted their story to be told, and I’m just the woman to tell it!

 

Just Desserts:

I wanted to write an awkward character, much like Carrie, who never fit in and was ridiculed for her differences. I adore a good revenge story, and I wanted the reader to root for Sue even though she was committing a rather diabolical act. Her foe needed to be someone we all could recognize from our time in school. The girl who got everything she wanted, who was rude to those she deemed “beneath” her, the mean girl. We love when people get their just desserts, don’t we?

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Which of your characters do you relate most to and why?

 

Eat Your Heart Out: 

Jules. When I was in medical school, I was in a toxic relationship, and we put each other through the ringer. We both were damaged people, and while we had a lot of love for each other, we needed to work through our individual issues, and, alas… medical school doesn’t really offer the time or space to do that! I’ll admit, I got addicted to the high highs we’d have together, and I’d struggle through the lows. I was a bit obsessive at times, and sometimes I wouldn’t even recognize myself. I didn’t take it to the level that Jules did, but… I can understand her mindset. I’m also a massive foodie like Jules. My wife and I love cooking meals together, checking out new restaurants, and we pretty much plan all our vacations around trying new dishes. 

 

Just Desserts:

I suppose Sue to an extent. I was never unpopular, but there were times in my life where I was bullied, and I always harbored a resentment about it. This story was a way to work through that… damn it always boils down to those feelings of inadequacy, doesn’t it?

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Is there a particular message that you hope readers will take away from the book?

 

Eat Your Heart Out: 

Be careful with obsession, whether it’s with a person, a substance, or an ideology. It’s all-consuming and oh-so-addictive. It feels euphoric at its best, but at its worst? It can take you down dark paths that are better left untrodden.

 

Just Desserts:

Don’t be a jerk! Life is hard enough. Don’t bully people. And… beware the tiramisu at your twenty-year high school reunion. You never can know what they put in there.

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What’s your favorite scene?

 

Eat Your Heart Out: 

The final confrontation between Jules and Maureen. Jules has been so hopeful about their relationship, more so falling in love with the idea of love, and when she realizes Maureen absolutely does not feel the same way… it’s heartbreaking, but damn is it explosive and entertaining! 

 

Just Desserts:

The scene at the ER when all the people from the reunion start coming in super sick. The way the day flipped from calm and boring to an absolute shit-show is very true to form, and I can imagine how an ER doc would feel seeing all these patients coming in from the same place with these wild symptoms.

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Just Desserts is a 2024 American Legacy Book Awards Winner – Horror: Psychological. How did it feel to win this award?

 

I was shocked! And so excited! Winning an award like this was validating. It helped with the Imposter Syndrome I struggled with, making me realize I did have a knack for writing and others enjoyed my stories. It encouraged me to keep creating without worry of what others might think of my work. I wrote Just Desserts from the heart and nabbed an accolade, so I best keep on staying true to myself because that is what resonates with readers.

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THE STITCH UP

What’s your writing kryptonite? 

Forced writing schedules

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How many half-finished and unpublished books do you have right now? 

Three

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What book from your childhood do you remember the best?

The Andalite Chronicles by K.A. Applegate

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What one thing would/did you give up to be a writer?

Relative anonymity

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What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever researched? 

What does an eyeball taste like?