We chat with author Casey Scieszka about The Fountain, which is a propulsive and deeply moving novel about eternity and mortality that asks what it would mean to live forever.
Hi, Casey! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’m a born and raised Brooklyn girl who turns out to have a soft spot for the country. I’ve lived in places as far flung as Beijing, San Francisco, Fez, and quite literally Timbuktu. In 2013 I moved to the mountains and opened the Spruceton Inn: a Catskills Bed & Bar with my husband artist Steven Weinberg and I’ve been running the show there ever since. I love chatting up guests at the itty-bitty bar and hosting our annual Artist Residency. My debut novel THE FOUNTAIN comes out March 17th.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I can’t remember a time I didn’t love writing and stories! Probably helps that I grew up in a very bookish household— my dad, Jon Scieszka, is a kids book writer (THE STINKY CHEESEMAN AND OTHER FAIRLY STUPID TALES, THE TRUE STORY OF THE THREE LITTLE PIGS), so my childhood was full of stories being read and written all the time.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: CLEMENTINE’S WINTER WARDROBE by Kate Spohn, a kids book about a cat getting dressed layer by layer for a snowstorm. I remember reading it with my mom and picking what we would have chosen for ourselves from the cat’s collections. I still read my old copy to my daughters now.
- The one that made you want to become an author: That’s probably THE TRUE STORY OF THE THREE LITTLE PIGS by my dad because watching it go from a draft on a yellow legal pad to a real book demystified the process for me in a way that I don’t think the average kindergartener gets to see, haha! But as far as a novel for adults that artistically inspired me in such a way that made me want to write my own? That would probably be MRS DALLOWAY by Virginia Woolf. Her artistry on a sentence level, the way she crammed a whole world into one day— reading that in high school English class brought me somewhere I hadn’t experienced before as a reader and longed to go as a writer.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: OPEN THROAT by Henry Hoke. It’s a slim, hilarious, thought-provoking novel told from the POV of a mountain lion who lives under the Hollywood sign. It will get anyone out of a reading slump!
Your debut novel, The Fountain, is out March 17th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Home, immortality, family, power, love.
What can readers expect?
A story that might sound dark on its surface— a 214 year old “young” woman returns to her hometown in the Catskill Mountains to figure out what did this to her so she can reverse it and finally die— but is ultimately a propulsive romp about love and community and connection and what makes a life meaningful no matter the length of it.
Where did the inspiration for The Fountain come from?
I read TUCK EVERLASTING by Natalie Babbitt in 5th grade which follows a 10 year girl named Winnie who stumbles upon a magical spring of eternal life and is kidnapped by the immortal family who guards it because they don’t know what else to do with her while a mysterious man in a suit hunts them all down so he can bottle up their secret source for his own profit, and basically, I couldn’t stop thinking about it to the point that twenty something years later I finally had to write my own grown-up version!
I was also deeply inspired by the Catskill Mountains where I live.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I worked very hard to NOT have the main character Vera’s life be one long string of witnessing Important Historical Moments because a) that’s too much coincidence and b) I think it’s always so much murkier in reality, knowing what will and won’t wind up becoming a pivotal moment. All this said, one of my favorite scenes to write was between three immortal characters who are reminiscing around a bonfire about all the stuff they’ve experienced over the past two hundred-ish years and to allow myself to really lean into that kind of silly fun for a scene. To have them laughing and bonding, asking each other stuff they never get to talk about with other “regular” people like, Where were you when we landed on the moon? What about when Lincoln was assassinated? Where did you take your first car ride? Remember life before matches, and what about those horrible sanitary belts?
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges of writing a debut is worrying that it will never become anything. That you might just be completely crazy for spending all this precious time typing away some bananas made-up story that no one will ever see. The only solution to that is to simply get over it and keep going!
What do you hope readers might take away from The Fountain?
That reading can be thought provoking and FUN. I’d love for THE FOUNTAIN to be the kind of book that someone finishes and thinks, Damn, I’m so sad that’s over. I need something else to read right away! It’s all too easy to get sucked into our to-do lists and our screens, to think of reading as some kind of difficult chore. But the more we read, well, the more we then read, because it becomes a rewarding habit.
This is your debut novel! What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?
A real zigzag! I’ve been an English as a second language teacher, a sociology researcher, a freelance writer and graphic designer, and twelve years ago I opened a little hotel in the mountains that I still run today! The Spruceton Inn: a Catskills Bed & Bar and artist residency. In 2010 I wrote an illustrated young adult travelogue with my now husband about the handful of years we spent living abroad right after college called TO TIMBUKTU which was so much fun to do and I learned so much from the process. But debuting as a novelist for adults is turning out to be its own completely different world!
What’s next for you?
Hopefully more of the same, in the best way! More writing, more running the Inn, more travel and fun with my family.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?
I always have a bajillion books on my TBR list, but I’m particularly excited about my husband Steven Weinberg’s fully-illustrated 200+ page how-to tome THE FLY FISHING BOOK: AN ARTFUL GUIDE TO ANGLING (out May 5th) and his stunning new picture book I AM THE MOUNTAIN (out June 9th).
I’m also sooo psyched to read the following books these amazing talents who were all Artist Residents at the Spruceton Inn:
- RETRO by Jessica Goldstein about a failed actress who becomes a time travel agent. Think bachelorette parties in Nashville… in the 1800s wild west! (June 23rd)
- MURDER BITES by Mimi Montgomery, a zippy, funny mystery about the murder of a dog walker. (August 4th)
- THE SCOOP by Erin Van Der Meer a hilarious satire about a journalist working the nightshift at a gossip mag. (April 21st)
- And I’m also eagerly awaiting 2027 for Angela Garbes’ memoir about female midlife and Carmen Maria Machado’s new story collection A BRIEF AND FEARFUL STAR!
- Plus THE PARISIAN HEIST by my dear friend Jo Piazza which is going to be your fun summer read: 90s Paris and Van Gough’s sister-in-law who took his at-the-time-of-his-death-worthless paintings and made him famous. (July 14th)
- And AMERICAN RAMBLER by another great pal Isaac Fitzgerald where he follows the footsteps of Johnny Appleseed where you’re right there with him walking, pondering, and cracking up. (May 12th)
