C.J. Washington Books In Order

Publication Order of C.J.Washington Standalone Novels

C. J. Washington
C. J. Washington is a writer and a data scientist. He holds a master’s degree in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology and lives in Atlanta with his daughter and wife.

His novel, called “The Intangible”, was inspired by a story that Washington’s dad, an OB-GYN, told to him twenty years before, about a patient that had pseudocyesis (a false pregnancy) a non-psychotic and non-pregnant woman believes that she’s pregnant and displays the signs and symptoms of being pregnant.
When she was placed under general anesthetic, her belly flattened, yet while she recovered from the anesthetic, her belly distended again. It all sounded incredible, and if C.J. didn’t know his dad, he wouldn’t have even believed him. His dad could not tell him what caused it or how it worked or even what happened to the patient because she was referred to psychiatry, and he never saw her again. But Amanda was born that day.

The next seed came a few years later when he went to a young boy’s funeral. While offering condolences to both of his parents, he got to wondering exactly how they could accept the full reality of their child’s death. Not just how could they deal with it, but how could they bring themselves to believe he was gone. That time it was Marissa who materialized beside him at the service. And her sister Jenn came to life after his family, like so many others, was deeply touched by the ravages of drug addiction.

“Phantom Pregnancy”, an early version of “The Intangible”, was the first manuscript he ever finished. He could not find an agent to represent it, so he shelved it in order to work on other projects. Several years and a couple manuscripts on down the line, he sat down with his initial inspiration for the book and wrote an entirely different novel.

Originally, the novel was told from Patrick’s perspective in the first person point of view. He was about fifty pages in before realizing that Marissa and Amanda each needed their own voices to tell the story. From there, they blossomed, and it did not take too long for him to see Marissa and Amanda as the real stars of the novel.

While writing, he grew to feel like he was the most connected to Marissa. He believes we see the very best and worst of her and all she could’ve been had things just happened differently. As she’s profoundly impacted by certain events that she cannot control, she has the strongest agency of any of the characters. For better and worse, she makes stuff happen.

Washington’s own special connection got especially apparent during the revision process. His agent would recommend these changes, and he’d always know just how Marissa would act, respond, and think in new circumstances. Writing her felt incredibly natural.

Shortly after he finished writing the book, he was browsing through a bookstore and he came across “The East End”, Jason Allen’s debut novel. Washington was so impressed by his writing that he sent a query letter to Sarah Bedingfield, his agent. Now he considers “The East End” to be the most serendipitous reading discovery he’s ever found. Sarah replied to his query the next day and wanted the full manuscript. Three weeks to the day later, he signed with her and got on the receiving end of her extraordinary talents.

She would provide editorial suggestions, he did revisions, and four months later, they accepted an offer that came in from Little A. Working with them was simply an awesome experience and things continued moving quickly.

Washington, as he continued writing, pursued his computer science graduate degree at Georgia Tech. His academic studies at the intersection of artificial intelligence and neuroscience wound up being the missing pieces for his pregnancy novel. Distilling those various elements of his own life, he went back to his writing desk.

While in college, he started realizing slowly but surely that he wanted to be an author. He was a biology major, however he was reading a ton of fiction, and he believed it’d be cool to that.

His favorite place to read a book varies, depending on the format. If he has the audiobook, he likes to be outside walking, preferably in Piedmont Park since it’s scenic and quiet. Physical books are best enjoyed at the beach underneath an umbrella.

“The Intangible” is the first stand alone novel and was released in the year 2022. Washington’s riveting debut delves deep into the raw emotions of one grieving mom whose quest to heal from her mysterious condition threatens to unravel all the lives of those that are around her.

Amanda Jackson has forever longed to be a mom. These early weeks of her first pregnancy are a combination of uncertainty, joy, and anticipation while both she and her husband get ready for the journey that is ahead.

But then comes a rather devastating loss. Amanda, despite her doctors telling her otherwise, believes that she still is pregnant. Her diagnosis is a mysterious and rare condition that is called pseudocyesis. Betrayed by her body and mind, with her marriage strained, she turns to a neuroscientist named Patrick Davis to get answers and to attempt to understand the inexplicable.

Patrick can understand the odd turns and twists of the human mind better than anybody. However while he spirals deeper and deeper into her illness, his own home life starts to crumble while Marissa, his wife, struggle to cope with a loss of her own. Marissa’s unique and, some might think, macabre work is actually her salvation, however it’s pulling her increasingly further away from her husband. This is as her latest obsession is inventing and using a novel form of high level math in order to communicate with the dead.

While the two couples confront the intersection of death, human emotion, and science, they venture into the darkest corners of one another’s lives. What they find there just might change them forever.

Washington writes with great humanity, and you find yourself rooting for his deftly created characters that show what it means to long and to love, and to pick yourself up from the wreckage of a failed life onto something more.