We were lucky to catch up with Stephen Weinstock recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Stephen thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

After many years as a theater and dance composer, I had an idea for a novel. A novel where in each chapter there was a deja vu, accruing to a past life narrative. Rather than do what a budding novelist ‘should’ do, and research what genre I wanted to write and all there is to know about it, I took the (unwitting) risk of diving deep into my idea. It expanded into a Scheherazade-inspired structure, where in each chapter a main character would recount a past life story they recalled. The concept expanded further into a fantasy series where 1001 past life tales are recalled, now accruing to a vast karmic history of a group of souls, a qaraq. The series became The Reincarnation Chronicles.

After a few years and a first book, The Qaraq, I looked into book marketing and realized I had created a multi-genre book difficult to categorize. Or market. My agent encouraged me, but let me go during the Recession of 2007. I followed the self-publishing trend, hired a consultant, but continued to write the next books in my series. At some point, the consultant stated that unless I drastically reduced the scope of the series, I would never interest a traditional publisher or a small press and would struggle finding a ‘multi-niche’ readership.

This was the worst of a string of dark nights of the soul for me. The book she was suggesting did not interest me in the least. My joy was in the scope and complex structure of the series. This kind of complicated epic was my favorite sort of book, regardless if it was genre or experimental fiction. My books lay somewhere between those extremes. After months of processing all the ridiculous risks I was taking, I realized this was the only book I wanted to write.

Now that I’ve stopped my music career (which had its own joy), I can focus on out-of-the-box marketing, and helping readers through the complexities of the series in whatever ways editors suggest. But I embrace the risk fully. I may never have a wide audience, but I am working toward finding a small, devoted readership who can bond over the intricate layers of The Reincarnation Chronicles.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

For years, I worked on new theater works, accompanied modern dance classes, and taught aspiring music theater creators. When I had the idea for my fantasy series, The Reincarnation Chronicles, I thought I was prepping for a pastime during retirement, radically different than my music life. My fantasy series is full of ‘wildly imaginative’ (Barry Jay Kaplan) stories about the characters’ past lives. Friends that know me and start the book sometimes say, “Who are you?” when they read what crazy Worlds and ideas I offer. Others are challenged by the complex structure and multiple layers of the series, a reading challenge I love to undergo myself with big epics. This is what The Reincarnation Chronicles offers: imagination, complexity, and genre-busting freedom.

As I look back, I didn’t ever leave my musical life, I re-purposed it in the fantasy novel realm.

My most applauded theater work, Mt. Quad, was a performance piece where three sound designer/composers operate a mountain of sound equipment onstage, creating a reality for a sound-driven city, where you cannot have breakfast without the sound of sizzling bacon. It was an uncategorizable ‘wildly imaginative’ evening of theater. I’m still doing that with my stories.

What I loved about working in and teaching musical theater was the complexity of how you meld music and words, theater and dance together. Everything I learned about how to move from speaking to singing I employ in how the book moves from present time narrative to past life story. I’m still bursting into song, but as a reincarnation. The multi-disciplined form of music theater is structurally complex, and I love working within that kind of complexity in my fantasy series.

The best thing about accompanying modern dance for me was that I got to improvise. The one time of my day where I wasn’t stuck in my head (see imagination and complexity above). The dance teacher says “5-6-7-8” and I have to watch the dancers and make up whatever music comes out. This freedom of expression is what happens when I chase these past life stories and their connection to my characters down the novel’s rabbit holes.

That’s what I love about writing The Reincarnation Chronicles. It gives a free rein to my imagination, I can conjure up complex, interwoven narratives, and I’m free of any genre-bound requirements. It’s musical, if I may say so.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In 2024 I began the sixth book in my fantasy series. At the same time, I had chosen to re-publish the first three books in a new edition. I was also meeting with my editor who did a thorough slog-through on Book Five of The Reincarnation Chronicles. This all happened after twenty years of working on the series. On the train to work, on free hours at my school job, on the weekends. Now I was retired and theoretically had all the time I wanted to write.

But it was too much. I found I was working less than when I had a full-time job. Book Six stared me down, letting me know it would be the longest of the eleven books. My editor and friends comforted me with the question, “Why does it have to be 11 books? What about 7?” And the goal of the new edition was to try a new marketing strategy, something that felt as difficult as learning how to ride a bike. In the snow. Plus I had brain fog. Long COVID? Too much overthinking? My work practically ground to a halt.

But I had been pushing through for twenty years. On a series that took too many risks. I had to keep going. A marketing coach, Kimberly Grabas, cheerleaded me through the re-launch of Book One. My editor gave me his last note, I organized them and put them away for (much) later. And I began Chapter One of Book Six.

I’m halfway through Book Six now and am working as much as I ever have. I realize that after twenty years of work I had arrived at the halfway mark of the series. I could be proud of what I’d accomplished, but it was daunting to know I had just as much work left. Looking at the top of the mountain, knowing I still had to climb down, had weighed me down. But now I see, if not the light at the end of the tunnel, then a little light IN the tunnel. I feel ready to finish my life’s work. So that’s resiliency.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I have gained great benefits from working with Kimberly Grabas and her company that helps independent authors with their marketing. Her work, The Writer’s Platform, is a series of online articles and programs about using social media, business sense, and author branding.

I first was aware of Kimberly when I started self-publishing and found her articles incredibly comprehensive and clear. I collected them over the years, but when I wanted to wrap my paltry marketing around a new edition of the first books of my fantasy series, I decided I needed a human to coach me. I couldn’t do it on my own. Kimberly works as a coach in a variety of ways, so we started working together these past few years. Her generosity of what she offers is astounding. Her flexibility in meeting your needs is helpful. And her branding sense is compelling and clear.

Recently I attended a writer’s retreat that she and a writing coach, Kevin Johns, held in Ottawa. It was inspiring and highly motivating. Kimberly offers a wide variety of tools and events like this that really goose productivity and marketing choices.

So the generalized lesson is to not do it alone if you’re an independent business. Finding resources online is great, but opening your needs up to an expert human is invaluable. And if you can work in person, wow! Getting help from a coach like Kimberly Grabas or attending retreats or conferences are all great boons.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.qaraqbooks.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drstephenw_/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SWeinstock1001
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/stephen-weinstock-04a70b90
• Other: Podcast Interview: https://www.kevintjohns.com/2025/02/01/writingcoach214/

Image Credits

Book Cover design – Jason Heuer

The photos were taken by myself, there is no other credit.