An interview with David Stevens, Rebecca R. Gruszka, and Grace Regan.
Our first round of publications included work by David Stevens, Rebecca R. Gruszka, and Grace Regan. All our authors put such hard work into crafting their chapbooks, so we wanted to talk to them about it. We sat down with them (virtually) and asked them some questions about their chapbooks, their writing, and the inspirations behind their work.
David Stevens is the author of Senescence.
Rebecca R. Gruszka is the author of Trying to Choose Joy.
Grace Regan is the author of All the Things That Hide in the Woods.
Question: What was one of your favourite parts of writing this book?
David: For me, it was the ending section. Without spoiling anything, it was the talk of asteroids specifically that I loved. I had that scene planned out first, and it was the first thing that I had written down. I put a bit of heart and emotion into it, because that’s what drove me to write it in the first place. So writing that section of the book was my favourite. That being said though, I did quite like writing the rest of it, because it was a bit like a puzzle trying to figure out how to fit it all together.
Rebecca: Exploring the imagery and finding ways to paint the picture with words.
Grace: I just had a crazy rush of inspiration when I sat down to write. I wrote The Visitor first and I tinkered around with that idea in my head for a couple days, then sat down to write it. It took a while to get it right, but once I did, the overall theme for the collection just came together: creepy things in the woods. From there, I just sat down and typed for the whole day. Like, from morning to night. And I wrote the first drafts for the other three stories. I didn’t plan much, just wrote what came to me. Of course, I edited it and improved my spur-of-the-moment writing, but that magical burst of creativity and productivity was amazing, and writing those three stories was my favourite part of this.
Question: What is something that you uniquely like to do when you're writing?
David: I don’t know if it’s unique to me, but I always try to write how I talk. Like even now, as I write these words to you, I write as if I’m speaking to you. It’s a bit weird, and I don’t always do it, but I do it most of the time. But what’s interesting is that it also isn’t truly how I would speak to you. Because you would be in front of me, reacting to what I would be saying, and that would affect what I would say. It’s weird and hard to explain. But I think it’s what makes my dialogue solid when I write.
Rebecca: I like to write my first draft in a notebook. This ultimately makes the writing process longer but helps during the editing process.
Grace: I have a lot of fun naming my characters. If I’m writing and a side or minor character enters the scene, I always find myself clicking away, furiously googling things and browsing baby name websites until I find something that suits. I love naming characters after mythological beings and using history to determine names. For example, in The Bonewitch the main character is named Deianira after a princess in Greek mythology. In The Visitor, the bean-sidhe is named Ann after Lady Ann Fanshawe, whose written firsthand account of encountering a bean-sidhe inspired the physical description of the bean-sidhe in my story.
Question: What helps you get in the zone and keep you there, especially during these times?
David: Music and isolation. It’s what has always kept me in the zone when writing. Sometimes I’ll pick a set of songs, or songs from a certain genre and listen to those. Sometimes I’ll listen to just one song, on repeat, for hours while I work. It just keeps me focused and can help me keep the feel of what I want to write. Video game music is particularly good at this by the by. Isolation ensures I don’t get interrupted. Because interruptions are no good. It was proven recently actually, that constant interruptions to your work raises your stress levels, and lowers productivity.
Rebecca: Music is a huge inspiration and gets me in a writing mood. I curated a playlist that I listen to when I’m writing with some of my favourite jams from Fall Out Boy, Halsey, and the Hamilton soundtrack. I also consume a lot of comedy and podcasts and it has gotten me through a lot of dark times in my life.
Grace: For me, once I get into it, I’m in. I’m talking don’t look at me, don’t speak to me, don’t try to get me to move away from the notebook or laptop kind of concentration. I can sit and write for hours when I’m in that state. But getting there is the hard part. I have to be excited about what’s next. If I write a scene or a piece of dialogue, I have to be invested in what’s coming, the next scene after this one, or else I’ll lose steam. I’m a just keep writing kind of person. I can’t edit as I go. My mentality is that anything that’s off or just plain sucks in my writing can always be fixed later. And trust me, I do a lot of fixing. So for my own productivity, I just keep going and sit down to edit afterward.
Question: What draws you to chapbooks and their format?
David: Chapbooks are very DIY. It can be made by anyone and that is the appeal for me. I like indie things, I like things that allow themselves to be creative and unique. Chapbooks allow for this kind of freedom. Plus chapbooks lend themselves really well to short stories and poems. And while it is nice to sit down with a 500-page novel, it’s just as nice to warm up to a small short story that gives you a small glimpse into a world. It sticks with you. I also think it’s because they are rarer and produced in smaller batches that make them nice too. Finding one is like a valuable treasure because you know only a few limited number of people have read what you just have. I had a chapbook I really used to like published by Lost Object. “Something Something Saki.” (Cup of Saki?) Ironically I lost it. It’s made me sad.
Rebecca: I love the DIY aspect of chapbooks and the collaborative nature. I love creating and storytelling and chapbooks facilitate these in an amazing way.
Grace: It’s such a sweet spot for length, in my opinion. Literary magazines and journals usually take on very short fiction and one or two poems, which is amazing, but there is also something special about having more of your work collected in one place, even if it doesn’t reach novel or even novella length. Beyond that, there is something really empowering and community-oriented about the handmade, DIY ethos of chapbook making. It’s empowering because anyone can do it and there is such a satisfaction in seeing your work in print. Since I also designed the cover and did the layout for my chapbook, I felt very involved in the creation process and I see just how special each and every detail of a chapbook is.
Question: What is one of your favourite genres to work in and why?
David: I like to jump genres a lot, honestly. It’s a lot more fun to challenge yourself with something new than it is to stick with what you know. That being said, I suppose I find myself working on a lot of Sci-Fi works. I could possibly provide an answer as to why, but I doubt an individual answer would be really accurate. It’s probably for a whole host of reasons. But I do quite like writing in it.
Rebecca: I love writing stories with fantasy elements because of the freedom to experiment with characters and setting. But I always love writing poetry because of the ways I can express myself.
Grace: I love writing everything, honestly. Poetry, scripts, fiction, creative nonfiction. Now that doesn’t mean I’m particularly skilled in each category, but that is the beauty of writing: not everything needs to become a polished, publishable piece. I like experimenting and having fun. I’ve even gotten into coding visual novels on RenPy. But my favourite things to read and write will always have some kind of fantastical element to it. Magical realism, high fantasy, folklore, fairytale retellings, science fiction, dystopian, speculative, urban fantasy. I love anything that departs from the real world. I’m drawn to works that go in-depth on characterization and can read just about anything plot-wise as long as the writing and characters draw me in.
A big thank you to our wonderful authors for such amazing and thoughtful answers. You can learn more about our authors and read their bios by clicking here. David, Rebecca, and Grace also all created playlists to accompany their chapbooks, which you can learn more about and listen to here. All three of our author's chapbooks are available in our bookstore. There are limited quantities, so get them before they're gone!