Exclusive Interview: Stephen Kozeniewski Talks 'Looney!' and Horror Inspirations

I’m excited to share something special with you today! I had the chance to interview Stephen Kozeniewski, a talented author who co-wrote the horror book Looney!. He’s also involved in publishing as the Editor and CFO of French Press Publishing. 

You can find Looney! for sale on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle versions. 

Now, let’s jump into the interview and learn more about Stephen! Enjoy! 

When did you become interested in storytelling?

Oh, I’ve always been. I know that sounds impossibly trite but I’ve been telling stories since before I was old enough for them to make sense and I’ve been writing them down since a time, far off in the last century, when typewriters were still the norm. Actually, I wanted that to make me sound sort of old, but I just realized that might have accidentally made me sound ancient, so let me clarify by saying when I was six my parents gave me an old typewriter to play with because computers had taken over the workplaces.

What was the title of your first published book/story?

My first published story was called Clockwork Offal. My first published novel was Braineater Jones.

What inspired you to write Looney!?

 

Gavin Dillinger suggested that we collaborate and Looney! was his brainchild, predating that discussion. I think his original pitch was to address the essential horror of ‘30s and ‘40s cartoons, which, in the way that they bent logic and physics, made their characters akin to Lovecraftian entities. He also wanted to unblinkingly address the inherently problematic elements – racism, sexism, etc. – of cartoons from that era. I was on board. I did a lot of worldbuilding once we began but I can’t claim credit for the initial conceit.

What character in Looney! is the least or most like you, and in what ways?

 
Oh, man, that’s a tricky one. Considering how deliberately broad most of the cartoon characters in Looney! are I’m not sure I’d want to compare myself to any of them in particular. Actually, they’re all kind of horrible or evil. Maybe I’m similar in some ways to the offscreen character, Jim Khuki, a troubled creative.

What is your favorite part of Looney!?

 
I know we didn’t exactly write House of Leaves here, but I was very excited about the idea of sprinkling in bits and pieces of the backstory as interstitials. We could, I suppose, have had a moment where the main character discovered a book outlining what was going on or, perhaps even worse, have revealed it all directly in dialogue between characters. But I very much liked the idea that the audience would gradually piece it together while the poor main character would never have any idea what was really going on.

What was the hardest part to write?

The hardest part, and I hope that we handled it well, was projecting a real human into a universe dictated by cartoon physics and emotional laws. It was the sort of thing that sounds good when you first propose it, but then in execution there are countless little issues which crop up.

If you weren't an author, what would be your ideal career?

 
Well, author is hardly my career. I’m very much still hoping to achieve that one day. It’ll be quite an achievement, frankly, just to make money, as right now writing is still just an expensive hobby for me. So, I mean, honestly, that is my ideal career. What I’d like to do is quit my day job.

Do you read reviews of your books? If so, do you pay any attention to them or let them influence your writing?

 

Of course. I know there’s this great supposed pride that people take in claiming they “don’t read their reviews,” but I can assure you with absolute certitude that anyone who claims that is full of shit. I happen, by a series of very strange events, to have personally witnessed one of the bestselling authors in history reading one of their reviews. I sort of wish we, as authors, could just give up this tiresome conceit that we don’t read our reviews, but since this is the world we live in, suffice it to say that yes, I read my reviews and, yes, sometimes they hurt my feelings (but not much), and, yes, of course I take valid complaints into account for my future work.

What well-known writers do you admire most?

 

I am perpetually astonished and impressed by Jason Pargin (née David Wong.) His books are philosophical, madcap, and aggressively readable.

Do you have any other books/stories in the works?

Nope. This was the last one ever. Don’t look for anything else from me again ever.