Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gregory Grosvenor. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Gregory, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

In the arts, and especially for me as a writer, the process of learning seems the opposite than in the sciences. In the sciences, you start with technique and then, through a series of successes, gain confidence.

In the arts, you arrive as an explosion of delusional self-confidence. You’re fresh. You’re excited. You’ve written a story or the first chapter of a novel or pages in your notebook. One of my favorite lines in my notebooks from my early twenties was all confidence, and it was an absurd quadruple negative: “I always knew you’d fail. Your father didn’t think you wouldn’t, but I never didn’t.” Swish – I had mastered writing!

But of course I hadn’t. Confidence gave my work some tricksy lines, but technically I wasn’t great at writing, you know, a story. Good writer. Bad storyteller. So, in 2019, I decided to learn basic techniques. Things like balancing scene and summary, increasing and decreasing tension, even character development – these were all new to me. And this is after having written two completes manuscripts, a play, and countless short stories. Yikes!

Technique paired with confidence led me to my debut novel Second Pocket First, which I began in 2014 and was published by the terrific small press Black Rose Writing in February 2025.

Gregory, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My stories aspire to the highest forms of stupidity and bad taste. I adore art that is seriously composed but doesn’t take itself seriously. As a fiction writer, I want to write the story version of Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now.” It’s this perfect puzzle of joy and outrageousness, simplicity and absurdity.

My novel Second Pocket First is about a slow-witted, though fashion-forward burglar named Issey who goes to Vermont to restore his self-esteem. It’s a celebration of all my favorite people. Freddie Mercury, Nate Bargatze, Will Arnett, Martin Short, Alyssa Edwards. Some readers have reached out to say that it reminds them of Schitt’s Creek with a criminal element. And that’s about right. The novel embraces community, love, positivity, stupidity – all threaded through Issey’s criminal acts.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Oh, boy. I came from a generation where self-destruction was sexy and mysterious. “Alcohol is part of the job.” “Every night is a party.” “Midnight is when the day begins.” The mentality that the best writers are alcoholics was something I embraced until I also became an alcoholic.

My last drink and my last cigarette was on May 30, 2019. What was supposed to be a week in a writer’s studio turned out to be a Hall of Fame low point. That was the morning of an especially violent hangover from an even more violent night. I had been removed from a lot of places. I was 41 years old and awful.

Writing without alcohol or cigarettes was challenging. These were part of my daily and physical practice. Since the late 1990s, I had written with a cigarette in one hand and a bucket of wine in the other. I fooled myself into thinking I was loose. But my worst writing was alcohol writing. I wasn’t getting any better. I wasn’t interesting. I was just drunk all the time and bloated.

That was exactly six years ago, and today I couldn’t be happier, more clear-minded, and loyal to narrative craft. I wouldn’t have the novel out. And I adore this novel!

But I’m still working on the bloating. I’m in my forties, guys – it takes longer!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Every day, an artist is living in a creative act. Even on bad days when nothing is working and I wonder if I’m the world’s worst writer, I’m still near creativity. Creativity and art are the most valuable things in a society. They provide joy, harmony, and love. You don’t want to murder “Don’t Stop Me Now.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.gregorygrosvenor.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregory.grosvenor/

Image Credits

Book cover & design: Raúl Lázaro
Black & White photo: Craig Kimberley