#meetthebookstagrammer interview with @stephaniereads

Not long after I started The StoryGraph’s Bookstagram account, I ran a month-long Taylor Jenkins Reid readathon. The first book we were going to discuss was ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’, and for the accompanying live show I was concerned that we’d only have people raving about the book, making for a rather dull discussion. Luckily, I saw that Stephanie (@stephaniereads) wasn’t as enthused about the book as everyone else, and I was so happy when she agreed to come on my show.

People like Stephanie make Bookstagram great — it didn’t matter that she didn’t know who I was and that I didn’t have a big following: she was keen to just chat books with me. Since then, I’ve loved following her account, and I was excited to find out more about the woman behind the chalkboard reviews and yellow walls.

Nadia: You recently posted on Instagram that your favourite animal was a manatee. I had to Google them to figure out what they were, though I did recognise them. How come they’re your favourite?

Stephanie: I just like to see them. We have a zoo here (in Columbus, Ohio), and they have a big thing where they rehabilitate the ones that have been injured in boating accidents in Florida. And they’re just so peaceful! They bob around and eat their lettuce!

Nadia: What brought you to Bookstagram? How did you get started?

Stephanie: I had a friend, @cityofamber is her handle. She had started to ‘Bookstagram’. She was into a lot of the fantasy and sci-fi stuff that I read too, so we had overlapping tastes…and I’d been a little bit aware of this whole other Internet book world..so one day I just decided to start! It was pretty abrupt. I went: I’ll just do this and see what happens!

Nadia: And how long has it been now?

Stephanie: About two years.

Nadia: Cool. Now, before you had your son, Xavier, you ran a tutoring centre. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Stephanie: Yeah. That was my one and only job post college. I was there for four or five years. I started out just tutoring and worked up to assistant director there. I was teaching kindergarten through to 12th Grade: reading, writing, and math. I did a lot of ACT English and Reading prep too for older kids, and Spanish! Plus there was handling parents and learning plans. It was a nice big job.

Nadia: What’s the number one thing that you miss the most?

Stephanie: Probably the students. There were some parents that were great but some of the best parts involved interacting with the students. Some kids would be there for a couple of years. You got to know them, their families, and what was going on in their lives.

Nadia: Awesome. And you’re also a novelist! How did you get into writing?

Stephanie: That was from when I was a teenager. I was writing on and off as a kid, and I got serious in high school. Especially once I got into the National Novel Writing Month. I don’t know how I came across it, but one year I decided I was going to do it — and I jumped in. I started doing that every November and it’s incorporated itself into the rhythm of my year now.

Nadia: And have you done it every year since?

Stephanie: No, I’ve probably done it 10 or 12 times. Definitely skipped some years.

Nadia: How many novels have you written over that time?

Stephanie: Oh, well, I have a lot of drafts. I wrote a lot of fantasy stuff as a teenager. I’ve moved away from that now. But, NaNoWriMo is great way to get through many drafts as it’s set up to help you write a lot very quickly. Some years I did rewrites. I’ve definitely spent more time working on rough drafts, rather than finished pieces. I’m trying to transition into working on finished pieces, but that’s a whole new learning process.

Nadia: It must be interesting to see how your writing and practices have changed over the years. How much do you write outside of NaNoWriMo and how many hours do you write a day?

Stephanie: During NaNoWriMo it depends on how much you drag your feet. Per day, the challenge comes to about 1600 words, four or five pages. Which, if you’re a quick typist and writer, you can do in one hour. Beyond NaNoWriMo, I definitely do not subscribe to the school of writing where you have to write every day. There are seasons of life where that’s true and necessary, but not all the time. So right now, I’m not writing at all.

Nadia: Where do you get your ideas from?

Stephanie: Hearing something while people are talking is what usually sparks an idea. It’s fairly rare though. I know lots of writers have whole notebooks filled with ideas of what they want to write about, but I think I come up with one every couple of years that I want to really spend time on.

Nadia: And what is it about an idea that makes you say “this is something I want to focus on”?

Stephanie: I think it’s where something in your imagination starts to percolate and you start thinking about what would happen if this situation were to play out. What would those relationships look like?

Nadia: When you have an idea, do you do outlines? Storyboards? What’s your process?

Stephanie: My rough drafts are mainly done during NaNoWriMo. I like the energy of the community. There’s so many people doing the same thing, so it’s so easy to tap into that energy and do word sprints, getting the words down. Usually I try to stay a little bit ahead of myself with regards to planning, so typically when I start something I’ll have the first third thought out, maybe a couple of major scenes towards the middle and the end, but usually I don’t know where it’s going overall. So, part of that is the writing is exploring and seeing where it takes me. And as I go through it, I’ll be thinking of what’s going to happen in a couple scenes in the future.

Nadia: When you’re writing, how does it make you feel?

Stephanie: Um, it is very satisfying or very frustrating. There’s usually very little in between. A lot of writing can be romanticised: you need to have your rituals and certain places to put things and all that, but I think a lot of it is just sitting down and doing a little at a time — just like anything else!

Nadia: Your son is six months old now, right? What’s been the most surprising thing for you about motherhood?

Stephanie: Oh, it’s really hard. I know people say that but it’s given me a whole new perspective of friends that I’ve had who’ve had babies before and I thought I was being supportive by bringing people food, but now I’m like: I wish I had done a lot more! Especially the newborn days — they’re very challenging. It’s definitely equal parts hard and sweet.

Nadia: Six months in — are there different challenges? Has it gotten easier?

Stephanie: Oh, so much easier. He’s much more fun. It gets a lot more fun once they can start smiling. In the first days, they’re mushy things that you’re scared to break, and they just cry — but now he’s much more fun. You can play, and he sleeps. Everything is better when people are sleeping.

Nadia: How, if in any way, has having your child affected your writing and reading?

Stephanie: Well, writing is non-existent. Hopefully I can get back on board with that soon. I had a lot of people ask me when he was first born, trying to catch me out almost: are you still reading? And well, yes! I read a lot of Harry Potter, books four and five, during his first months of life. There were a lot of times that he would not sleep unless he was being held, and so it was like: oh, I have a lot of time to read something! So, it comes and goes, but it’s also very centering — when I have time to read and use my brain like that, whilst changing a lot of diapers or rocking him to sleep.

Nadia: How much do you think your reading habits have changed throughout your adult life?

Stephanie: Oh, quite a bit and none at all. I started as a fantasy/sci-fi reader, which I still read a significant amount of every year. I’m definitely moving more towards contemporary fiction and literary fiction now though.

Nadia: Right — time for quickfire. You ready?

Stephanie: Yes!

Nadia: One book at a time or multiple?

Stephanie: Multiple.

Nadia: Mood reader or strict TBR follower?

Stephanie: Definitely mood.

Nadia: Fiction or non-fiction?

Stephanie: Fiction.

Nadia: Print, digital or audio?

Stephanie: Print.

Nadia: Favourite light-hearted book?

Stephanie: ‘The Flatshare’.

Nadia: Favourite heavy/emotional book?

Stephanie: ‘Three Women’.

Nadia: Favourite unexpected favourite?

Stephanie: This one’s harder! The Louise Penny ‘Three Pines’ series.

Nadia: All-time favourite book?

Stephanie: ‘Middlemarch’.

Nadia: That’s your ultimate number one, right?

Stephanie: Yeah, I didn’t have a favourite book until I read it last year. Before that, there was never a book that I could say was my favourite.

Nadia: Wow. If you could have any career in books or publishing, what would you do?

Stephanie: I’d probably pick writing.

Nadia: Favourite thing to do outside of books or reading?

Stephanie: The favourite thing we do is finding trails while hiking.

Nadia: That’s lovely. And now three shoutouts. A book?

Stephanie: The author I’m obsessed with right now is Lucy Knisley, the graphic memoirist. I’ve checked out everything that she’s written that my library has and I’m working my way through that!

Nadia: A Bookstagram account?

Stephanie: I saw today that it is Kerry’s Bookstaversary, @linesiunderline. It’s hard in social media to make someone feel like they have your full attention — she makes people feel very cared for, I think.

Nadia: Something non-book related?

Stephanie: The other thing I’m a little bit obsessed with right now is ice cream. We have Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams over here. They have this cold brew and coconut cream ice cream, which I’m constantly trying to get!

Nadia: Well, thank you so much, Stephanie. This was a lovely conversation. I really enjoyed it.

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