Stephanie Kuehnert:
Author Inspired by Music.
Stephanie's short stories have been published in 10,000 Tons of Black Ink, f Magazine, Hair Trigger, and more. "Fairytale," an excerpt from her novel I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE that appeared in Hair Trigger 27 was awarded Third Place in Traditional Fiction by the Columbia University Scholastic Press Association. She has written and published two novels and is working on a third.
Originally printed in the Spring 2009 issue of Black Oak Presents, pg. 4-7.
Black Oak: Now that your first book, I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE, is in bookstores and your next book, BALLADS OF SUBURBIA, is in the works, how do you deal with the downtime between your projects? What do you do when you aren’t writing?
Stephanie: Downtime? What is this downtime you speak of and how do I get some? Seriously there doesn't seem to be downtime, you are either writing, editing or promoting. I'm constantly busy with one of those things. I'm at work on a third book now, not that I've had much time for it because of editing BALLADS and promoting both books.
When I'm not writing or blogging or promoting or answering email, I'm reading. I have lovely critique partners who read my work, so I read theirs. Also my TBR pile of book is huge. My true relaxation time is spent watching TV admittedly. I used to curse TV and say there were no good shows since stuff like My So-Called Life and Twin Peaks and the X-Files were gone, but now I've discovered that Showtime and HBO both have great programming and I can get them on Netflix.
So that is what my fiancé and I do to chill, watch TV on DVD. Californication and Weeds are our latest favorite shows and we are about to start watching Deadwood.
Black Oak: Last year you booked a successful book tour on the west coast. How did you organize the tour, and what was the response you received?
Stephanie: Basically I went to the cities I wanted to visit where I had friends I missed and wanted to see, namely LA, San Francisco and Seattle. I talked to my former professor Joe Meno who has been highly successful doing book tours and got his advice. He said read with local authors. So I reached out to other YA authors on line or to friends of friends. In San Francisco, which is a very literary city, I checked into local reading series. When it came to venues, I picked the stores I'd like to read at, mostly indies and asked my publicist at MTV Books to see if she could set up an event there.
I have no idea if this was successful in terms of sales, but it was amazing to meet fans and also to meet other authors and booksellers. Booksellers are so supportive of authors and it's lovely to meet them and chat with them. And the authors I read with, I consider to be friends. And the fans… the fans are the best. I love writing YA because meeting kids in their teens and twenties is just so much fun.
Black Oak: A substantial amount of your readership outreach seems to take place online. What would you say is the impact of the internet on new authors today?
Stephanie: The internet is a huge and very important tool. I think a lot of authors are under the (mistaken) impression that their job is to write the book. Then the publisher takes care of the rest. Umm, maybe if you are Stephen King or JK Rowling or Stephenie Meyer that's the case, but for your average author, you need to work to get your name and the name of your book out there.
Going to meet booksellers is a great way, but the best way to directly interact with your audience is online. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, blogging, it's really easy to use these social networks to interact with fans and spread the word about your book.
It can be a time suck so you have to be careful with it and I can't say I've found the perfect balance yet. But it is definitely essential to have an online presence. Plus I think it's fun. I like talking to my fans online.
Black Oak: On your Myspace blog you have a regular feature called “Women Who Rock Wednesdays” where you include interviews or profiles of female artists and writers. What is the purpose of this feature, and what has been the reader response?
Stephanie: The purpose is to spotlight female artists, musicians, writers, designers, creative women of all stripes who I think are doing interesting work and who I think my readers would be interested in whether they have or haven't heard of them. When IWBYJR came out, I did a cyber release party to celebrate it and brought on some woman I thought were amazing and then I realized, I should do this all the time.
Women's contributions to the arts are still really overlooked at times and there are some women and girls out there doing some super amazing things. So it's just me supporting my fellow female artist. And sometimes I get the absolute thrill of interviewing people who are total heroines to me like Melissa Auf der Maur of Hole and the author Cecil Castellucci. Though all the woman I interview are heroines to me, even the ones you haven't heard of because often times they are starting their own business and doing really cool things.
The reader response has been great. I think it helps that I always give out a prize, but I know a lot of people who look forward to Wednesday to read the interview and discover a new artist.
Black Oak: You also periodically feature contests on your website that encourage fan participation. Do you feel that you connect with your readers in a way that goes beyond the usual author/reader relationship of passive consumption?
Stephanie: I try to. I think it's more fun that way. I also think I have some really creative fans so I like to see what they are up to. I will always be as interactive as my time allows me to be. It may be because I come from the punk rock scene, but I don't really see a line of division between me and my fans. We're all just people. I published what I have to say, but they have cool shit to say too and I want to hear it.
Black Oak: Music seems to be an important part of your life. What would you say draws you to punk in particular?
Stephanie: I once heard Kurt Cobain say in an interview "Punk rock is freedom." And I think that pretty much sums it up for me. It has been my outlet since I was like 12 years old. It helped me work through all my angry/sad/messed-up teenage feelings. Listening to it just liberated me. I no longer felt like I had to try to fit in with the "popular crowd" or whatever. I could just be me.
Later on in my teenage years I started to feel like punk had rules of its own for fitting in and being cool, but as I got older, I realized those were just people trying to make punk into something it wasn't. Punk is about being yourself. It is freedom and listening to it gives me an energy rush and just makes me feel better inside.
Black Oak: Along those lines, tell our readers about three or four Midwestern bands they should be listening to but probably aren't.
Stephanie:
- A singer-songwriter named Jenny Hassler from St. Louis. She records solo under the name heilige and then is part of a band called Fictile Shine. She's amazing, I had her for Women Who Rock Weds. She's like Mazzy Star meets PJ Harvey. So good. http://myspace.com/heilige and http://myspace.com/fictileshine to check her out.
- Old Fake from Chicago. Tom, Erica and Colin were all in Office, another of my fave Chicago bands. Old Fake just have 4 songs up on their myspace right now, but they are already my new favorite Chicago band. http://www.myspace.com/oldfake
- The Brass Beans from Niles, IL. Kick-ass female-fronted punk band. Actually this is probably the only punk band on my list. I love the leader singer Aly's voice so much. http://www.myspace.com/thebrassbeans
- My Velouria from Chicago. The singer contacted me because she wrote a song based on my book. I was so incredibly honored because they are sooooo good: http://myspace.com/myvelouriachicago
And because I just can't stop and I love giving props to local bands, I also want to mention Love Raid who I listen to a lot on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/loveraid
Black Oak: Would you say that novel writing has interrupted your pursuit of other projects, or have you continued to work on short stories and other means of expression?
Stephanie: Honestly, I've never been much of a short story writer. They always turn into novels. So novels are pretty much my only fictional outlet. I think blogging provides the only other outlet I need. It's like the modern day zine. Sometimes I miss cutting and pasting shit in with my words, but I reach a lot more people with my blog, no one has to pay postage and I don't have to figure out new photocopy scams.
Black Oak: If I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE became a movie, what actress would you pick to play the main character and why?
Stephanie: Madeleine Martin. She plays the daughter on Californication. She's young, like 16, but if a movie ever got made it would take forever and she'd be the perfect age by then. She just kicks ass on Californication. She has the Emily look, and she plays in a band on that show, so she either knows music or how to fake it and she could be a great ballsy, tough chick.
Black Oak: Describe the event or situation that would make you sit back and say, "Wow, I've really fulfilled what I set out to accomplish with my writing," or do you feel like you've already reached that point?
Stephanie: I don't think you ever reach that point. It's like constantly you are setting new goals. I got an agent and that felt good but I wanted to be published. I got published and then you just want to reach as many people as possible. So I guess there are goals like make the New York Times Bestsellers list and get a starred review in Publishers Weekly.
But, especially the PW thing, that can be so dependent on luck. Emails from readers are usually what make me feel best about my writing, hearing from people who say that my book really helped them or helped them help a loved one. That's what matters most to me. And I think it will matter even more with this next book since it deals with some serious issues like drug addiction and self mutilation.
I hope teens will read it and not feel as alone. That's why I like writing books that will appeal to teens because a story can mean so much to you at that age. And when I hear what my book means to someone, that's the best feeling in the world.
Black Oak: A little bird told us that you recently became engaged to the second coolest person in the world. How did the proposal go? Can we expect a book or short story about it?
Stephanie: Yes I'm getting married in October to the most wonderful guy on the planet. He proposed on Christmas Eve. Brought down champagne on ice in a stock pot, ha! Said "I hope I'm not being too presumptuous with the champagne" and got down on one knee. He makes fun of me because I said yes before I saw the ring.
No books or short stories about it. My fiction tends to be more depressing, ha ha! But I'm doing the girly wedding gush thing on my blog from time to time.
http://stephaniekuehnert.blogspot.com
Black Oak: Can you give us a little preview of your second book, BALLADS OF SUBURBIA? Are you planning a third book in the near future?
Stephanie: Here's the official back jacket blurb for BALLADS: There are so many ballads. Achy breaky country songs. Mournful pop songs. Then there’s the rare punk ballad, the ballad of suburbia: louder, faster, angrier … till it drowns out the silence.
Kara hasn’t been back to Oak Park since the end of junior year, when a heroin overdose nearly killed her and sirens heralded her exit. Four years later, she returns to face the music. Her life changed forever back in high school: her family disintegrated, she ran around with a whole new crowd of friends, she partied a little too hard, and she fell in love with gorgeous bad boy Adrian, who left her to die that day in Scoville Park…
Amidst the music, the booze, the drugs, and the drama, her friends filled a notebook with heartbreakingly honest confessions of the moments that defined and shattered their young lives. Now, finally, Kara is ready to write her own.
If you want a bit more a preview you can read the first chapter at
http://www.stephaniekuehnert.com/ballads/index.html
I'm in the process of working on a third novel now. I'll be sending a proposal to my editor very soon. Fingers crossed that she likes it!
To read more about Stephanie’s writing,
visit www.stephaniekuehnert.com
Interview conducted and
edited by Michael Kleen.
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