Today we’d like to introduce you to Steve Capone Jr.
Hi Steve, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Like what must be every other writer, I got my start early. I made imaginary karate and other action movies in my backyard with friends, imagined myself an underwater explorer finding different species of fish at the local swimming pool, and told stories to anyone who would listen. I wrote stories, too. I took a long break for 10 years of university study in Philosophy, which I suspect sets me apart from most other writers—every story I write today is a thought experiment designed to answer a burning question that academic Philosophy couldn’t answer.
I’ve been writing fiction seriously since 2014. Between then and now, I’ve written four or five books and dozens of short stories. I drafted what has turned out to be my debut novel, Max in the Capital of Spies, in 2017 while spending one of many summers in Germany and elsewhere on the Continent—researching and wandering, backpacking for the season. I write in spurts, during breaks from my teaching gig (I’ve been at that for nearly 20 years now), and I often put 50 or 60 thousand words down during summer breaks.
The one exception has been writing Jimmy vs. Communism (currently projected for release from Gibbs Smith in early 2026); I wrote that in four months during a school year (phew!). I’ve also had some luck in creating regular habits of writing short works of fiction, and I try to turn out at least one per month; I’ve sold a few of those stories, too. Let’s not go into detail about the hundreds of rejections I’ve received (I’ve received hundreds of rejections).
My own anxieties are often what marks my fiction: my fears of the tyranny of powerful groups and mob thinking, of silent complicity and standing by while bad things happen, of otherwise normal people doing awful things, and—often prevalent in my short fiction—of losing one’s grip on reality.
All of this derives from my own life experiences, as I’ve spent many years studying the history of political thought, sociology, and cognitive psychology, criminology… and as a teenager, I experienced one mental health crisis after another, and I lost my grip on reality more than once. (It’s about as scary a thing as can be imagined). For these reasons, writers like Ursula K. LeGuin, George Orwell, and Philip K. Dick have always stood out as most impactful and relatable for me. Modern horror writers like Catriona Ward seem to capture that same reality/unreality fear, as well.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Writing itself has always felt like a straight path for me. When I can make the time and space to write, I feel driven by a need. It’s more than wanting to write a story; I must. When it comes to what might be called “success,” there’s nothing straight about the road I’ve traveled. Hundreds of rejections, an acceptance of a book proposal from the same team that rejected another proposal, self-publishing a book that got me a contract (for another book)… finding and losing critique partners and groups.
I’ve just kept at it and have tried to treat the habit of writing as a job (though it definitely is a psychological need for me). The writing has been easy, though. I love it and would rather do nothing else but read and write. It’s the business side of things—necessary to get my story to those with whom I’d have no other means of connecting emotionally—that is difficult. I’ve had a tremendous bit of luck over the years, and I’m grateful for the opportunities.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’ve always been an employer’s best employee—as long as the employer is cool with a lawful-good wildcard. I will not toe the line, bend the knee, or however else one likes to put it. I am what philosophers call a “rule utilitarian” in that I adopt principles for living because they produce the most happiness and good overall, and I don’t really swerve away from those principles. Sometimes this means that I’m difficult to deal with. Most of the time it means that I am reliable to a fault. I’m an oddball of a human, and this applies to my scatterbrained professional career.
I spent ten years in university, and seventeen years teaching learners from second grade through college, am on several nonprofit educational boards, and am generally known to volunteer to help wherever I can, pushing myself to the brink at all times. This isn’t always a good thing for me, and I’m always learning where I can trim and focus. In recent years, my scaling back has always been in the service of my family or my writing.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I’m the picture-perfect example of a risk-averse driver, skier, traveler, and general being in the world. That said, I am all about taking risks for the sake of self-improvement, and I fail regularly. Example: I expected to fail when I sent an advance reader copy of my debut novel to the Washington Post, but I figured I could only guarantee failure by not trying so sent it to their editors. Pretty ridiculous, right? Well, once in a while, these things pan out. I tend to have a lot of irons in a lot of fires, knowing that most of my efforts will produce no results at all.
When something works, I get to reap the benefit of that luck + preparation. I moved across the country on a mission to further my education, have spent months alone traveling Europe, and submit (expecting rejection) my writing dozens of times per year. So while I don’t ride motorcycles anymore (I had my “live through a high-speed motorcycle wreck” experience, and I figure that was my freebie), climb outdoors, or ski narrow lines in bad conditions, I do put myself out there constantly and am met regularly with rejection.
Pricing:
- Max in the Capital of Spies, Hardcover: $19.99
- Max in the Capital of Spies, Trade Paper: $14.99
- Max in the Capital of Spies, ebook: $9.99
- We Are Dangerous anthology, ebook: $4.99
- We Are Dangerous anthology, Trade Paper: $15.00
Contact Info:
- Website: www.stevecaponejrauthor.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_steve_capone_jr/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/stevecaponejr
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevecaponejr
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwSIMLg1cTPp7sXdulnZy9Q
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@steve_capone_jr_author
