Interview with Stephanie Kuehnert

I hosted Stephanie Kuehnert on In Bed With Books back in 2009, and it's a pleasure to interview her now!  She's the author of I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE and BALLADS OF SUBURBIA, and she recently relocated to Seattle with her husband.  You might be familiar with her writing through Rookie, the mag run by wunderkind Tavi Gevinson.

Read on for more about Stephanie and VERY SUPERSTITIOUS!

--

1. VERY SUPERSTITIOUS is a charity anthology to support the SPCA. What does supporting this charity mean to you? 

Animals have been a huge part of my life since I was a kid. Both of my cats are rescues and I regularly donate to local animal shelters. When I was still living in the Chicago area, I was part of a community group who cared for feral cats, rescuing the kittens and finding them homes, and neutering the adult cats, getting them medical treatment and keeping them feed. I feel very strongly about protecting our furry friends, so I was honored to donate my story to this cause.

2. You're known for your gritty, realistic novels. How did it feel to write something more fantastical? Do you think your fans will enjoy this story? 

Yes, I generally write contemporary realistic fiction. However, I am a huge fan of shows like Buffy, Supernatural, and The X-Files as well as urban fantasy authors like Melissa Marr, Jeri Smith-Ready, and my amazing VERY SUPERSTITIOUS contributors, and magical realism by people like Nova Ren Suma and Francesca Lia Block. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at writing something fantastical, ghostly, or with a little twist on reality. Also, I really loved the lore in my hometown, Forest Park, Illinois, which is home to more dead folks than living! I enjoyed playing with all of this and probably will do some more dabbling. In fact, the characters in my ghostly VERY SUPERSTITIOUS contribution do make a cameo in my next contemporary YA project. I think my fans will still love this story because it is edgy and music-driven like I know they expect from me.

3. In addition to your novels, you're also a staff writer at Rookie, a columnist for Forest Park Review, and a contributor to Ms. Fit. How do you regularly come up with interesting topics to write about?

Well, I moved to Seattle this summer, so I no longer writer for the Forest Park Review, though I have been trying to document my Seattle journey on Tumblr (seattleboundwritergrl.tumblr.com). But with that and with FPR, those were very much about place, and if you’ve read my fiction, you know I adore writing about place, so writing about the real spots I love is natural for me. I write personal essay for both Rookie and Ms. Fit, and that is something I’ve been doing since I was a teenager. It’s like a natural extension of journaling or making ‘zines for me. Plus, Rookie gives me so much room to write about everything I love from soap operas to Star Trek: The Next Generation to the Savages along with my personal essays on things like self-injury, so really I’m never running out of ideas. I love reflecting on what I’ve been through and writing about stuff that gets me excited.

4. Do you believe in any superstitions? 

I was born on Friday the 13th (which I consider lucky, same for black cats), so yes, I am very superstitious. I probably can’t even name all of my superstitions. One of my writing superstitions is not publically speaking of my WIP’s titles until they are officially going to be published, like it might jinx them or something.

5. What would you say to someone to convince them to read VERY SUPERSTITIOUS? 

 It’s almost Halloween (my absolute favorite holiday, by the way). Isn’t it the perfect time of year to read some spooky tales by some of YA’s best writers (I am seriously *honored* to be included among them!) AND the proceeds benefit animals. It’s a win-win!

Review: Very Superstitious: Myths, Legends, and Tales of Superstition

Second Annual Month9Books Charity Anthology
Proceeds for first 5,000 sales go to SPCA Internation
Edited by Georgia McBride
Stories by Shannon Delany, Jackie Morse Kessler, Jennifer Knight, Stephanie Kuehnert, Mari Mancusi, Michelle E. Reed, Dianne K. Salerni, Pab Sungenis
Available now from Month9Books
Review copy

VERY SUPERSTITIOUS contains an excellent lineup of authors, which is what first caught my attention.  I was particularly excited to see a story by Stephanie Kuehnert, who hasn't had a fiction release since 2009's wicked good BALLADS OF SUBURBIA.  (Bonus: I got to interview her!)  Plus, it's a charity anthology!  How could I resist spreading the word about a book that helps animals?  I have a rescue dog, and he's the best ever.  (Okay, Patton is my mom's, but I'd steal him in a heartbeat.)

I wish the theme of VERY SUPERSTITIOUS were slightly more coherent.  Some of the stories involve animals, some don't.  Some are mythology, some folklore, some the Bible, some urban legends, some children's stories, you get the idea.  With only eight stories, so many different sources means stories with very different feels.  I like that they aren't all the same of course, but I wish there was more of a thread holding them together than "superstition."  (And sometimes that thread is very light indeed.)

I also wish that more of the sources were non-Western.   "Chupacabra" by Jennifer Knight draws on the Central American legend and is set in Puerto Rico, and was one of my favorites in the anthology.  It's a tale of revenge, hard choices, and the way human emotions can create the worst monsters.  It felt like a small piece of a larger world, which I appreciated.  "Midhalla" by Michelle E. Reed draws on Egyptian mythology, so it doesn't make much sense to have a title punning on Norse mythology.  [Edit: Reed contacted me about the title and said, "Midhalla is the Arabic word for umbrella, which is why I chose it for my story."] It was probably my least favorite story in the anthology.  It's core is extremely goofy, and the end is dark and sudden, jarring completely with the setup at the beginning of the story.  It never coheres.

I think most of these stories are one offs, which is nice.  "Thirst" by Jackie Morse Kessler does tie into her Riders of the Apocalypse series, but given that it's a retelling of Noah and the flood, it's easy to follow even without knowledge of that series.  I enjoyed it, as well as the stories from Shannon Delany, Stephanie Kuehnert, and Dianne K. Salerni.  And props to Delany's kids, who convinced her to change the story's traditional ending.  VERY SUPERSTITIOUS contains many unhappy endings, but at least it contains no unhappy ending for animals. Mari Mancusi's story plays with "The Gift of the Magi," a story that's been played with so much that it would take something really clever to get me excited about it.  Not bad, but standard.  Pab Sungenis's "The Silverfoot Heretic" played with The Wizard of Oz.  I thought the story went somewhere interesting, and touching, but I almost didn't finish the story because the beginning didn't capture me at all.

VERY SUPERSTITIOUS is a fine anthology for fantasy readers looking for something slightly creepy for Halloween reading.  I didn't love all of the stories, but there are some good ones by popular authors.  If you're a fan of any of these ladies, I'd pick it up.  Plus, you're helping out animals!  It's hard to resist books and animals, isn't it?