Imagine you’re driving when suddenly—smash!—your windshield caves in, you feel an impact on the front of your car, so you slam on the brakes and skid to a stop.
“Up ahead, on the opposite side of the narrow road, was the mangled form of a bicycle. The tires, the seat, the handlebars, all out of place, like a puzzle. None of it where it should be. And then my eyes caught the sight in the rearview mirror. There was, similarly, a mangled form of a body. The arms and legs also like a puzzle. Nothing where it should be.”
This is the moment that everything changes for protagonist Conner Robbins, the narrator of the stunning debut novel, I’m the Undertow, by Eric Scot Tryon. Even though it was ruled a freak accident and he was exonerated of any wrongdoing, Conner is plagued by guilt and remorse, and over the course of his story, Tryon explores Conner’s complicated feelings as he tries to find a way out of his emotional morass.
Tryon, a San Francisco writer and editor whose short stories have appeared in dozens of literary magazines and journals, has set I’m the Undertow on the Central Coast, where he spent his formative years. He lived in Los Osos and graduated from Morro Bay High School before going on to UCSB for his undergrad and Chapman University for an MA and MFA. He got the writing itch in seventh grade when he started writing and publishing his own magazine.
Meet the author
Former Central Coast resident Eric Scot Tryon will sign copies of his debut novel, I’m the Undertow, at Coalesce Bookstore (845 Main St., Morro Bay), on Saturday, July 11, from 1 to 3 p.m. The book from Central Avenue Publishing is distributed by Simon & Schuster and available for purchase at the bookstore or through most online retailers.
“I just made up articles,” he said during a recent Zoom call. “I made up interviews. I had my mom go to Kinko’s and print it out for friends and family. It was a silly thing, but the response I got—of course, people were humoring me—but I could take this blank sheet of paper and make people laugh, or make people think about something, make people have a conversation or feel something. That was the core thing. I can create something from nothing, and get people to think differently, or to have an emotion, or have this experience.”
I’m the Undertow will certainly give readers all the feels. For the first 44 pages, we’re inside Conner’s head as he vacillates on his plans. He attended culinary school in San Francisco and is back home with a plan to start a restaurant with his longtime bestie, Travis; he’s got a long-distance girlfriend in Rian, who’s planning to move down with him; but being back “home” isn’t as comfortable as he thought it would be. After the accident, he begins to push away those closest to him but finds some solace after he meets Lauren, the mother of the young man he accidently killed. These two wounded characters are the heart and soul of the story.
“I think I nailed Conner, probably because I’m similar, you know? Gender, age—everything is very similar,” Tryon explained. “I did struggle a little bit with Lauren because I wanted her to feel like an authentic character. Of course, I’ve never lost a child. I’m not a mother. I’m not all these things. I just wanted to stay true to her character. I wrote a lot of things that didn’t work and didn’t make it into the book.”
Eventually, however, Tryon found her voice. He created a character with incredible grace and empathy. She’s able to forgive Conner even though Conner struggles to forgive himself.
“I really wanted to make sure Conner and Lauren felt authentic,” Tryon said.
The novel was more than 20 years in the making.
“The inciting incident, the accident, actually came from a newspaper article I saw in The Tribune 20-plus years ago,” Tryon explained. “I don’t know where it happened, and I think it was actually an elderly man on a bike, and it was a younger kid driving, and it was a complete freak accident. The kid was traumatized but not at fault. And that feeling of guilt lodged itself in the back of my head. I thought, ‘That’s really interesting. I want to know what that’s like to live with that feeling, even though you weren’t negligent, it wasn’t your fault, but you have that burden.’ So, I always put that in back my head and I said, ‘If I ever write a novel, that’s what I want to explore. And I think at one time I tried to write it as a short story and I was like, ‘Oh, this is much bigger than a short story.’”
He also had to start from scratch after he lost all this work.
‘I want to know what that’s like to live with that feeling, even though you weren’t negligent, it wasn’t your fault, but you have that burden.’
—Eric Scot Tryon, author of I’m the Undertow
“I lost a third of the novel completely,” he laughed. “Just lost it. Back in the day, before the cloud and before I was that smart, I had it just on a thumbnail drive, and I lost it. But it was a blessing in disguise because at the time it was in third person, and when I decided to rewrite it, I was like, ‘You know what? I think this needs to be in first person. He needs to tell the story from his voice.’ So I really think that was a blessing because I don’t think it would have been as good in third person.”
Tryon now lives in the Bay Area with his wife, daughter, and “several poison dart frogs,” and is the founding editor of the literary magazine Flash Frog. He still makes it down to the Central Coast regularly.
“I have so much family and friends. I’m always dipping my toe in the Central Coast, you know, a couple times a year.”
He’s also already working on another novel.
“I’m halfway through my next one. It takes place solely in San Francisco. I realized through my short fiction and definitely when I got to my novels that I’m a very California writer. All my good stuff takes place in California, so I’m going to start embracing that. Setting is a very big part of my work. You can’t take the characters away from where they are; it informs who they are.”
I’m the Undertow is quintessentially Central Coast, and it’s fascinating to see our community from a former resident whose time here made an indelible impression on him. ∆
Contact Arts Editor Glen Starkey at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in July 9-16, 2026.
