Chuck Palahniuk upon the death of a patient to whom he had grown attached. Palahniuk began writing fiction in his mid-30s. By his account, he started writing while attending workshops for writers that were hosted by Tom Spanbauer, which he attended to meet new friends. Spanbauer largely inspired Palahniuk's minimalistic writing style. When he attempted to publish his novel, "Invisible Monsters", publishers rejected it for being too disturbing. This led him to work on his most famous novel, "Fight Club", which he wrote as an attempt to disturb the publisher even more for rejecting him. Palahniuk wrote this story in his spare
Damned (Palahniuk novel) with his mother's death from lung cancer in 2009. Palahniuk has described the novel as "if "The Shawshank Redemption" had a baby by "The Lovely Bones" and it was raised by Judy Blume." and "it's kind of like "The Breakfast Club" set in Hell." Damned (Palahniuk novel) Damned is a 2011 novel by Chuck Palahniuk. A sequel to the novel, "Doomed", was released in 2013. The novel opens with 13-year-old Madison "Maddy" Spencer waking in Hell, unsure of the details surrounding her death. She believes she died of a marijuana overdose while her celebrity parents were attending the Academy Awards.