S1E22: Steve Capone, Writer and Publisher

Season 1: The Chateau SeasonEpisode 22: Steve Capone, Writer and PublisherIn this episode, I interview Steve Capone, a writer and publisher from Utah in the United States who lives near the Rocky Mountains. Steve has been teaching for 18 years but has been writing his whole life, getting serious about fiction writing about a dozen years ago after leaving graduate school where he spent seven years studying political philosophy and ethics. He writes primarily horror with a social commentary bent – sardonic, Kafkaesque stories that explore how systems (government, HOAs, social expectations) fail to meet the needs of common people. He started Whisper House Press 18 months ago with a mission focused on transparency, elevating voices that might not otherwise be heard, and revealing mundane but upsetting aspects of society. At the time of the interview, which was in August 2025, Steve had just released his first anthology and was launching a second in October, had signed his first three novella authors (including an Australian writer from outside Sydney, Jordan King-Lacroix), and publishes monthly short stories of 200-1,000 words. He recently won an award for a sarcastic letter to the editor about book banning in Utah and had a screenplay he developed at the Chateau selected in two film festivals. While at the residency, Steve began exploring visual art for the first time with encouragement from visual artists there, discovering it puts him in flow states – though he struggles to make time for it at home since most of his creative time goes to reading books and watching films for review, or reading generally. He consumes about 120 books a year (40-50 with his eyes, 60-80 audiobooks), constantly thinking about stories and structure. His creative process is mechanistic – identifying setting, conflict, and character, thinking through three-act or five-act structure, building scenes, considering character arcs – treating writing as craft with room for the muse showing up in the choices he makes. Steve works in flow states, listening to ambient or Math Rock (instrumental music too complicated to follow so his brain doesn’t track it), visualising the story unspooling in his brain and recording what he sees by typing it out. He needs dedicated writing spaces (basement office, coffee shops, libraries) where writing is the only purpose, working minimum two hours but ideally five to seven hours without pause – every Sunday spending six to eight hours at a coffee house, plus getting up at 5.30-6.00am on weekdays to work at Starbucks before teaching. His advice centres on having many tools in your tool belt and not being wedded to just one or two – different projects need different approaches, and if something isn’t working, try a tool you haven’t used yet. He recommends craft books including Chuck Wendig’s Gentle Advice for Writers, Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, Stephen King’s On Writing, Jane Allison’s Meander Spiral and Explode (about nonlinear plots), and Jeff Vandermeer’s Wonderbook. He emphasises that in small press publishing, making yourself easy to work with – being pleasant, communicative, doing what you say you’ll do – is a superpower that gets you invited back, since the same person is often opening emails every time you submit.Connect with Steve CaponeSteve’s publishing house Whisper House PressOther links: https://linktr.ee/stevecaponejr Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe