We caught up with the brilliant and insightful C. S. E. Cooney a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, C. S. E. thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
My mother said, “Develop your eccentricities,” and my father said, “Good things happen around people and food.” My mother wrote poetry like private journal entries; my father wrote poetry like rhapsodies to beauty.
They both read books to my brothers and me when we were children–poetry, picture books, chapter books, novels. When I was older, they shared books with me, suggested them, bought them as gifts, took me to the library, and let me stay there for hours. Even now, when I am an adult, our discussions often center literature. Both my parents also read the books I write (or listen to the audiobook version), which I never expected.
My parents were also always singing: my mother, domestically, in lullabies and folk songs; my father, professionally, but also just around the house, or in the car. They were not afraid of their voices, or the flaws. They just sang anyway. And they both encouraged music in their separate houses, in their separate ways.
My mother sometimes put herself in debt in order to give her children enriching experiences–like travel, or study abroad. My father co-signed my college tuition, and also introduced me to my mentor Gene Wolfe.
I hear stories about artists who were alone in their household, discouraged by their parents. I can only imagine how hard that would be, as being an artist is hard enough, on the bank account and on self-esteem. But my parents, at any rate, ascribed to the “follow your bliss” model of parenting, and I can’t thank them enough for that.
C. S. E., love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m most a fantasy writer and an audiobook narrator. I’ve won two World Fantasy Awards: the first time for my collection Bone Swans, Stories, and most recently for my novel Saint Death’s Daughter, which is about a necromancer who has an allergy to violence. If I’m known for anything in my genre community, it’s for my passion for world-building and a certain playfulness of language.
My other work includes a short novel: The Twice-Drowned Saint, another collection of stories called Dark Breakers, and (in that same Dark Breakers world) my novella Desdemona and the Deep. Top secret: many of my stories and novellas intersect somewhere on the time-line of the same world (Athe), though they don’t always share the same country or era.
As a voice actor, I’ve narrated over 120 audiobooks–mostly cozy mysteries and romances, but I get to venture into non-fiction and other genres from time to time (always very fun). I tend to think of audiobooks as a sort of cartoon landscape in which I, like Mel Blanc in Looney Tunes (or like Nick Bottom in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream), get to play every part. It’s everything my prima-donna-diva-actor self ever wanted.
With music, I mostly collaborate with better musicians to do projects for fun. I have a few EPs and an album out that I crowdfunded for–under “Brimstone Rhine” at Bandcamp, and I love to sing whenever I can, on stages, at salons, and at SFF conventions under the “filk” track.
Recently I’ve gotten into game design with my husband, writer Carlos Hernandez. We’ve created a diceless, GM-less TTRPG called “Negocios Infernales”–“The Spanish Inquisition… INTERRUPTED by aliens!” We love to run our game for people, at conventions and elsewhere. In addition to playing the game, we lead creative writing workshops and salons based on the spooky card deck we created as the main mechanic of Negocios Infernales.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The community. I love being in the presence of vibrant, thriving imagination. I love being immersed in narrative, and music, art, dance, innovation in science and philosophy. I love being a part of the people who help shape the future by envisioning it now.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I started very simply, in the days of LiveJournal. The blogging community was very active and responsive. When Facebook came online, much of the community migrated there, and the blogging community withered, though some of it remains active on Dreamwidth. More recently, newsletters have come into fashion, and I love that format. I update on Facebook and Instagram, and only very occasionally on X or Substack, when I want to reach out more widely than my usual circle.
I love my blog/newsletter from my website the most, though. I know it gets mirrored on Goodreads, and that some people subscribe to it. Otherwise, for those whom I can’t reach, I trust that word of mouth/updates from my community will boost the signals I can’t. My mentor Gene Wolfe once told me, when I was worried about the idea of networking: “All networking means is ‘making friends.'” Which, as a policy, I find very reassuring.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://csecooney.com/
- Instagram: @csecooney
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cscooney
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/csecooney/
- Twitter: @csecooney
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@c.s.e.cooney
- Other: Bandcamp: https://brimstonerhine.bandcamp.com/
Outland Entertainment’s pre-order page for NEGOCIOS INFERNALES: https://outlandentertainment.com/products/negocios-infernales
Shared website with husband Carlos Hernandez: https://hernandooney.com/
Substack: https://substack.com/@csecooney
LinkTree for publications, etc: https://linktr.ee/csecooney
Image Credits
Ballads from a Distant Star (photo with lantern) credit to Nelson Luna
BioPic of author (first photo uploaded) photo credit Marie O’Mahoney photography
Saint Death’s Daughter cover art by Kate Forrester
The Twice-Drowned Saint cover art by Lasse Paldanius
Dark Breakers cover art by Brett Massé
Desdemona and the Deep cover art by Alyssa Winans