How To Have It All

Hello Friends,

Today we have an interview with Casey Scieszka, who is definitely one of those people that when you see her on the internet you think, man, she really has it all. She is the proprietress of Spruceton Inn, a bed and bar in the Catskills, which I can attest is a GORGEOUS place to get away from it all in upstate New York. She runs an amazing artists residency, which I was lucky enough to be chosen for and where I finished Write Through It, and her debut novel THE FOUNTAIN, just came out last week to rave reviews. If you ever wanted an adult Tuck Everlasting, this is your book.

Casey is also in my writers group and not only does she do all the work that makes the above happen, but she's nice, too!!! Don't you hate it when successful people are also lovely to be around and have smart things to say and are moving though the world with grace and kindness??????!!!! I kid. Casey is all those things and has all these things, not to mention a lovely family. BUT she's the first to tell us that what you see on the internet is just the tip of the iceberg of anyone's life. She's here today to answer my questions about the myth of having it all.

Kate McKean: When someone compliments you on having it all, successful business, beautiful family, debut novel, enviable instagram, what feelings does that bring up inside?

Casey Sceiszka: I hear this type of thing most often when I’m serving coffee or tending bar at my spot, the Spruceton Inn, and usually it turns into a really nice moment with whoever said it where I laugh and tell them I’m glad my propaganda is working and they laugh, too. 

Because of course I’m selling them the dream version of my life when they’re here for the weekend! That’s the whole point of a vacation! 

And then we get to talk about what exactly it is about “my life” they’re coveting—using air quotes here because again, they’re only seeing a purposefully enjoyable sliver of it—and that’s where the truly interesting conversation begins. Maybe they want to move to the country themselves but want to know more about what the all-year-long realities of it look like? Maybe they harbor dreams of writing their own book and we get to talk process? Maybe they’re considering quitting their job to open their own business? Whatever it is, there’s something about the elements of my life that are speaking to their own desires and I’m always curious to hear about those while pouring drinks! (Especially because these kinds of convos are ripe with material, haha!)

K: What ball are you currently dropping?

C: Cleaning the house! I’m a deeply neat person, even when busy. Clutter drives me ragefully bananas. But with all the book promotion and travel and getting the Inn ready to reopen for the season while my husband is also in a high octane work moment, it means our place is dusty AF right now. Doesn’t help that we’re deep in mud season with small children who spend a lot of time going in and out.

K: If you could excise one thing from your life that eats too much of your time–just poof and it's gone and taken care of–what would it be?

C: Travel time. I live a twenty-minute drive from the nearest anything. I’m talking post office, grocery store, school, you name it, and most stuff is even further than that. (Wanna catch an international flight? Just add 4 hours of more travel time to get to the airport, park the car in longterm parking, blah blah blah.) And while I love a good audiobook, I cannot WAIT for teleportation.

K: How do you recharge when your batteries get low?

C: I read! Preferably an entire book in a day, out in the sunshine with a drink in hand that morphs from a coffee to seltzer to something a little stronger. That type of transportation to another world rejuvenates me like nothing else. 

Part of me was afraid that as I entered with book world as a writer, all reading would start to feel like work to me, but I’ve found it to be the opposite. That I’m deeper into its magic than ever before.

K: What's your favorite way to get some writing done?

C: Unexpectedly! Having routines and clearing your schedule to prioritize writing is great, but I love when it sneaks up on me instead. A new idea, an unfinished scene. Sometimes I’ll be writing things down on the literal back of an envelope because something has struck me. 

I used to be much more precious about when and how I wrote before I had children, but that crunch on my available time counterintuitively opened up more time for me. (Twenty minutes til the school bus is back? I’ll take ‘em!)

Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely certain points in a project where I need large swaths of interrupted time, but I’ve come to really appreciate just rolling writing into my day wherever it can fit in, too. 

K: What's one thing in your life that used to feel vital but now you've realized you don't need it at all? What have you let go of in the process of working hard to achieve your goals? 

C: I think the thing I’ve shed the most aggressively over time has been the internalization of other people’s expectations. Like, what you think your life should look like. Certain “milestones" by certain ages, what constitutes a “successful” job. Some of my most unconventional choices have led to the most meaningful parts of my life. 

For example, some people thought I had absolutely lost my mind when I shrank my business after the pandemic. The Spruceton Inn went from being open 7 days a week all year long to just weekends-only half of the year. And yes, it pulls in less money than it used to before, but it still makes enough money to support my lifestyle and—just as importantly if not very much more—this new model allows for all the time I get with family and seasons off to travel, and so much more space for writing to play a much bigger role in my life.

K: Because you are a wonderful writer and we want more books from you: what are you going to do differently as you write your next book, if anything?

C: Aw, that’s so sweet! I think the main thing I’m able to do differently now is trust myself and my process a little more. Before you are published— especially if you are working on a debut manuscript without an agent— it is an enormous leap of faith to tell yourself, “Writing this is worth your time.” But that’s what you have to do. And while I’m not going to pretend that I am suddenly 100% doubt-free in my writing process, I am paying less and less attention to that kind of voice in my head and much more attention to the ones that say, “Your art is worth your time.”

Your art is worth your time!!! Sing it from the mountaintops!

Thank you, Casey, for your thoughts here and the reminder that people who look like they have it all have crumbs all over their floors, too. Everyone go out and get Casey's fantastic book. At her launch event at Books Are Magic, she said it started with the question: if you could live forever, are you sure YOU would do it right? And here's from the back of the book:

"Vera Van Valkenburgh hasn’t been home in one hundred and eighty-eight years. But now Vera, forever twenty-six and able to heal from any wound, has returned to the Catskills. Whatever made her family immortal happened here, and if she can uncover it, maybe she can reverse it. After nearly two centuries—an endless sequence of unnoticed, meaningless lives and a soul-shaking incident in the desert—she longs to be released."

Like, honestly. You need to read this book right now. Available wherever books are sold!

Wanna ask me questions over Zoom? Just preorder my debut picture book PAY ATTENTION TO ME! and fill out this form, and you'll receive a link to an exclusive zoom AMA session, schedule TBA! Want a signed copy? Order if from The Strand!

Oh, and if you're in NYC 0n May 9th at 11am, join me for storytime at the Strand USQ, too!

OXOXOOXOXOX,

Kate