Feral Ink Exclusive: Jude Lucas and Simpatico Publishing on Psycho Cage—A Psycho King's Grin Unleashed

Feral Ink: Jude, Psycho Cage just dropped, and it's already making waves—readers are calling it a "sexy, chaotic tumble into a killer's soul." What sparked this feral beast of a book?

Jude Lucas: This book's been clawing inside me since 2022. I wrote this whole draft—agent loved it, wanted to sand down the edges, make it marketable. I almost sold out. Then I hit this point where I was just like, fuck that noise. The real Ethan wasn't some watered-down teen anti-hero. He's a fractured mind, a kid whose reality is splintering. I shelved it, moved on to other shit, but Ethan kept scratching at the back of my skull. So I pulled it out this year, read it, and fucking cringed. The sanitized version wasn't the book I needed to write. So I tore it apart, rebuilt it raw—no apologies, no safety net. Ethan's a psycho king with a bloody grin who owns his chaos, and I wanted readers to live in that twisted head of his, not watch from a safe distance.

Feral Ink: Simpatico Publishing, you're a small press, but you're making noise with this release. Why take a chance on Jude and Psycho Cage?

Simpatico Publishing (Rep): Jude's voice is a gut-punch—we knew it the second we read the manuscript. Psycho Cage doesn't play safe, and neither do we. We're a tiny outfit, but we're all about giving indie authors a platform to scream their truth. Jude's book is jagged, sexy, and unapologetic—exactly the kind of story we want to champion. The world is in a perfect state for a book like this—readers everywhere are hungry for something that bites back, especially with everything that's happening right now.

Feral Ink: The Florida setting is intense—sweltering heat, pools, skate parks, suburban decay. How crucial was that environment to Ethan's story?

Jude Lucas: Florida's not just a setting, it's a fucking character. I wanted somewhere hot and sticky, where the sun beats down relentless, where your skin crawls with sweat and your thoughts move slow. There's something about that heat that makes people unhinged—you get this pressure cooker of teenage hormones, boredom, and this sweltering environment. Perfect storm for violence to erupt. Plus, Florida tries kids as adults in their court system—that harsh reality was essential for Ethan's spiral. The contrast of perfect swimming pools and manicured lawns with the rot underneath—that's America. That's Ethan's world. The gators are always lurking just below the surface.

Feral Ink: Jude, the book's structure is wild—it starts as a gritty narrative, then fractures into this jagged, line-by-line spiral. What was behind that choice?

Jude Lucas: That's Ethan's mind cracking open. I was deep in research on killers like Bundy and Dahmer, but I wanted to push it to a younger perspective. When I hit that murder scene, the prose just started fragmenting naturally—sentences getting shorter, more repetitive, this staccato rhythm taking over. By the time we get to "The Spiral" section, Ethan's completely lost grip on reality. The words on the page had to mirror that breakdown. Sure, I was nervous readers might bail on the style, but once you're in it, you're in it—the rhythm becomes almost hypnotic. His psychosis has a pulse, you know? You can feel his heart slamming against his ribs with every "fuck yeah" and "psycho fire burns." The words aren't just telling you he's unraveling—they're making you unravel with him.

Feral Ink: The triangle between Ethan, Willa, and Kayla drives much of the action. What were you exploring through these toxic relationships?

Jude Lucas: These are teenagers with undeveloped brains—their pre-frontal cortex is still forming, so reason goes out the fucking window. Ethan knows he's causing damage with this love triangle, but he feeds off the drama. He loves watching Willa get pissed, loves blaming her "witchy hexes" for his dark impulses—it's always someone else's fault, never his. The girls have this love-hate thing—they're pulling each other's hair one minute, giggling in corners the next. Kayla's the cheerleader who needs to be the center of the universe; Willa's the witch who wants to control everyone like puppets. And Ethan just wants to fuck shit up. None of them understand consequences—they're playing with fire and gasoline, and they're too caught up in their own egos to see the inferno coming. That's teenage life, amplified through Ethan's broken lens.

Feral Ink: The prison sections are intensely claustrophobic. How did you get into that headspace?

Jude Lucas: I lived and breathed jail life for months. Watched videos, read accounts, learned the difference between jail and prison—how much more violent jail is while people await sentencing. Ethan's underage, so even though they're trying him as an adult, he's in solitary. Think about that—an already damaged kid locked in a cage 23 hours a day. It's psychological torture. That's why those sections get so fragmented, so raw—"cell hums—bars bite—stink claws—fuck"—it's the rhythm of his mind eating itself. Researching that shit changed me, made me an advocate for prison reform and ending this practice of throwing kids into adult courts. We're creating monsters, then acting shocked when they come out more broken than when they went in. Ethan's story isn't promoting violence—it's showing how violence breeds violence in a system designed to perpetuate it.

Feral Ink: Simpatico, what's next for Psycho Cage? Any big plans?

Simpatico Publishing (Rep): We're just getting started. Psycho Cage is out in ebook and paperback across all major platforms. We're working on an audiobook through Findaway Voices to get it on Spotify, Kobo, and the major audio platforms. The world's burning—everywhere—and Ethan's rising with it. We want his grin in every reader's hands, every listener's ears. This book isn't for everyone, but for readers who crave something that cuts deeper than the sanitized mainstream offerings, Psycho Cage delivers.

Feral Ink: Jude, last word—what do you hope readers take from Psycho Cage?

Jude Lucas: I want them to feel uncomfortable. I want them to question why we treat mental illness the way we do, why we throw kids into adult prisons, why we ignore the warning signs until it's too late. But I don't preach that shit—I throw readers into Ethan's psycho cage and let them feel it. This book's a middle finger to safe, mainstream fiction. It's for readers who want to explore the darkest corners of the human mind, who aren't afraid to stare into that abyss. If you're looking for redemption arcs and tidy morals, look elsewhere. If you want to feel something raw and real and dangerous—step into the cage. Ethan's waiting.

Psycho Cage by Jude Lucas is available now on Amazon.

Gail Weiner writes under the pen name Jude Lucas