LaSalle author wins award with first novel

LaSalle’s Christian Laforet, who writes under the penname C.M. Forest, is now an award-winning author — with just one published novel under his belt.

Forest released Infested via Eerie River Publishing last June after his first novella hit shelves in March 2022.

On May 6, Infested won the 2023 Benjamin Franklin Silver Award for Best Horror Novel, presented by the Independent Book Publishers Association.

He says he was surprised to hear of his nomination in the first place — having been submitted by his publisher.

“It was very unexpected. Especially because it’s a pretty big award,” Forest says.

Infested is a horror novel, which Forest says is the genre he writes in most at the moment.

He says he’s been told it’s quite scary.

“I’m a very visual writer,” he says.

“If someone’s going into a gross room I don’t just want it to be a gross room. I want the reader to smell that room. I want them to see that room. I want them to hear as mold grows on the walls.”

A self-described film geek, Forest says he’s drawn to horror’s ability to evoke response.

He says he’s been flattered by the response to Infested – which currently has a four-star rating on Amazon after more than 100 reviews.

He says, while some might feel fear from seeing this success from their first novel, he’s not scared of meeting expectations. In fact, he says he feels inspired and a little bit validated.

“When you’re writing a book, especially before you’ve had anything published, you don’t know that anything is going to end up anywhere. You feel like you might just waste a year of your life writing a thing that nothing’s going to happen with,” says Forest.

“Now I have a little bit more confidence that whatever I write next will actually be interesting to somebody to pick up and publish.”

Forest says he’s got some exciting things in the works that will be announced in the near future.

For now, copies of Infested are available where most books are sold.