Links Mentioned in This Episode:

The Exclusion Zone (2025) (Novel)

The Capacity for Infinite Happiness (Novel)

The Resilient Writers Radio Show: Interview with Alexis von Konigslow – Full Episode Transcript

Intro:

Well, hey there, Writer. Welcome to The Resilient Writers Radio Show. I'm your host, Rhonda Douglas. And this is the podcast for writers who want to create and sustain a writing life they love.

Because let's face it, the writing life has its ups and downs, and we want to not just write, but also to be able to enjoy the process so that we'll spend more time with our butt-in-chair getting those words on the page.

This podcast is for writers who love books and everything that goes into the making of them. For writers who want to learn and grow in their craft and improve their writing skills. Writers who want to finish their books and get them out into the world so their ideal readers can enjoy them. Writers who want to spend more time in that flow state.

Writers who want to connect with other writers to celebrate and be in community, in this crazy roller coaster ride, we call the writing life. We are resilient writers. We're writing for the rest of our lives and we're having a good time doing it. So welcome, Writer. I'm so glad you're here. Let's jump right into today's show.

Rhonda:

Well, hey there, Writer. Welcome back to another episode of The Resilient Writers Radio Show. I'm so excited today to be talking to a Canadian author, Alexis von Konigslow is the author of The Capacity for Infinite Happiness. She has degrees in mathematical physics from Queen's University and creative writing from the University of Guelph, and she lives in Toronto with her family.

And her most recent book is The Exclusion Zone, which I'm really excited about. It's about a scientist who studies how people react to fear and the exclusion zone is the area around Chernobyl. Anyway, it sounds terrifying, but I'm looking forward to it. So welcome Alexis. I'm so glad you're here.

Alexis:

Thank you so much for having me.

Rhonda:

So where did the idea for The Exclusion Zone comes from? mean, obviously you're someone who straddles that world of creativity and science, not that science isn't creative. I don't know why I said that. But, you know, they seem like they're opposites. One's very rational, one's a little more maybe intuitive. So where did this idea come from for this book?

Alexis:

That's a great question. I remember commuting to work and I was reading the news on my commute and I saw an article about the sarcophagus around the nuclear accident in Chernobyl and how it was falling apart a bit and they were starting to fix it and I found myself thinking about it all day. And then I got home and I started looking about it, looking it up on the internet and reading about it.

And then I went to the library and I got all sorts of books  and I just, I got so interested and I just kept thinking about it and thinking about it. And then as I thought about it, I started thinking about stories that must be taking place in there. Cause it feels like it's an empty place, but it's not. It's full of life, it's full of nature, and it's full of researchers trying to figure out what's going on.

Rhonda:

Oh wow!

Alexis:

So that's how that started.

Rhonda:

You just got obsessed by something you heard on the news. I love that. And then you went deep.

Alexis:

Yeah.

Rhonda:

So everything, I'm hearing about the book, and I've bought a copy, but I haven't read it yet. So just FYI. But everything I'm hearing about the book is that it is terrifying, like it is very atmospheric and kind of like does the work of generating.  I'm going to say anxiety in the reader, right? So can we talk a little bit about that and how you accomplished that?

Alexis:

That is a great question. I think that sort of bleeds from my own experience. So the more I read about it, the more concerning it got and I got scared and it seemed like a natural place to have a scary experience. But another thing I'd like to say is I've also been reading about climate change and what's happening in places other than the exclusion zone and I'm getting more and more concerned about that.

And so, I wanted those fears to be in the novel as well. So, I wanted it to be a novel about somebody looking at the world and their experience of the world getting bigger and changing with more information and getting more and more concerned. So, I think my fears went into there very much as well.

Rhonda:

Yeah, I could totally see the climate change connection there. What do you think for writers who want to write a book that has that, where the setting itself is anxiety provoking. Yeah. What do you think are the techniques that you're using in your work to kind of turn up the dial on that fear?

Alexis:

That is another amazing question. I feel that observation is important. And I feel that writers, when you're working on something, then your natural observation goes up to a 10. So, you're observing more. And I feel that we should not be afraid of putting those observations in there. And also, people talk about pulling off the band-aid.

So we're often told to be calm and not panic, but as writers,  you have to experience it, I feel, and put your experiences in there. So I feel like pulling off the band-aid and feeling your feelings and having those in there is a good technique as well, or that's something that works for me in any case.

04:55

Okay, that's that old, you know, no tears in the writer, no tears in the reader kind of thing, right? So yeah, but I love that you have to feel it yourself before you can convey it. What's your, I'm fascinated by the physics and the writing, the mathematical physics and the writing. What's your day job, Alexis?

Alexis:

Sometimes I teach technical writing and sometimes I'm actually a technical writer myself. So that is my day job is to understand science and to break it down and to sort of explain it in plain language.

Rhonda:

Wow! Okay. What a great, I mean, what a great day job to then bridge into this novel. That's amazing. How do you, I just asked you the question that so many of us deal with because when we're writing, you know, most writers don't make a full living off of their writing. And so, we've got a man as a day job. We've got kids, we've got households, somebody's got to keep toilet paper in the bathroom. Right. So like, how do you manage to get the writing time in? What are you what are you doing for your own, you know, schedule and process to get the writing done? Because you've done it out. Right, which is that's incredible.

Alexis:

Oh, thank you so much for saying this. I sometimes feel terrible. This one took 10 years to write from the first draft to it being out. And for all of those reasons, I'm struggling with work, I'm struggling with parenthood, I'm struggling with all the petty details of a life. What I've done is I've tried to be very... I've tried to be very good about taking the minutes that I have. I've tried to, I'm not doing it very  gracefully, I feel, but I'm trying to do it as fully as possible. So most of this book was written in the notes section of my phone. So any little second I have.

Rhonda:

Wow. So like when you're commuting or I don't know if you commute, like, when would you be on your phone doing that in those like stolen moments? That's amazing.

Alexis:

Yeah, even just standing in line at a grocery store, I try to use those few seconds.  And I do a lot of thinking. I know this sounds strange, when I'm commuting, when I'm going to and from places, even if I can't use my phone, I sort of, I think a lot about it. And then if I have 10 minutes when I get home, I'll try and sit down and write down anything I thought about.

Rhonda:

Wow, that's amazing. So, and I tell people this a lot, that books are written, you know, with consistency. So that can be 10 minutes and 10 minutes and 10 minutes and 10 minutes. And that's amazing that that's what you're doing.  And so  this novel feels different from the last novel. And so  every, like it feels to me, like every book is its own creature, right? So, you finished the first book and you're like, I know how to write a book, but do you? Because that's fun, right?  So what was the challenge in writing this book? Like, what was the challenge of it?

Alexis:

I think the big challenge that I faced after the last book came out was trying to figure out, you talk a lot about figuring out the writer that you are, and that's something that I really wanted to do. I wanted to figure out what is the kind of book that I want to write? And I did an MFA  and I  worked with such  brilliant writers and the teachers were brilliant as well. And I had to sort of figure out they're doing amazing things, but what is it that I need to be doing? And I needed to connect to the kind of writer I wanted to be and what I wanted to accomplish. So, I did a lot of thinking about that, I think as well.

Rhonda:

And where did you come down on that? Like if I say, what kind of writer are you? What does that look like?

Rhonda:

Exactly what you just figured out. love to talk about science and I like to think about science and I like to, I know it sounds strange, but science is sort of playground too. So, when I'm thinking about these big scientific things, I like to imagine narratives that are happening in them. So really marrying those two worlds of the scientific life that I'm living and the writing life and  the narrative life. So I wanted to think about how to marry those two worlds together.

Rhonda:

I love that. I often think that I remember suffering through science class in high school, right? Like I do. It was something I had to get through. And as an adult, I'm so fascinated by science. Like I want to know all the things. And, you know, and I because I suffered through science in high school. I don't have, I didn't do in college. So, I don't have enough of a grounding sometimes to be able to, you know, engage in some of the dialogues. I'm always very grateful for the people who write like for Discover Magazine and stuff who like break it down.  So, yeah, it's just such critical work.

So, what's, I know you're just out with this book now, but do you have the next book in mind or? Or will you just wait to be obsessed by something else you hear on the radio?

Alexis:

I'm actually working on several other books based on those obsessions. Yeah, I hear about something and I can't get it out of my head. And so, I'm don't know whether I'll be able to complete all three, but I've been working on three of them. And for that same reason, I have this obsession and I can't stop thinking about them.

Rhonda:

Wow. And you're working on three at the same time.

Alexis:

I'm trying. Yes. Yeah.

Alexis:

How do you do that? How do you go back and forth and between them?

Alexis:

Not super gracefully. Whenever I happen to be thinking sort of along one set of lines and I'll work on the one or I'll work on the other, I don't know whether I'll be able to keep this up, but it's been fun while I've been able to maintain it. So this book is out and your previous book also, I think, was out with Wolsak & Wynn.

Alexis:

Yes. 

Rhonda:

And they are a Canadian independent press.

Alexis:

Yeah.

Rhonda:

They're one of my favorite presses. I bought their books for years. I love their stuff. I followed them all the time.  What was your experience like working with them?

Alexis:

I love them. They're such a wonderful team. They're warm. They're welcoming. They're very accepting. Especially when you're trying new things, they're very supportive. I find that they've really helped me try new things and to trust the process.

Rhonda:

That's the I think that's really often the value  of an independent press, isn't it? Because, you know, the big four or big five, know, the intent is a commercial intent. It's like, here's this writer, she's got a book, can we make a million bucks off of her and her book, which is a very different orientation to like, here's this writer, she's got a really interesting thing she's trying to do. And we’re really interested in what she's trying to do and we'd like to support that. It's so different.

Alexis:

Yeah, it's nice too. It's nice that they have this idea of we'll find your audience and that audience doesn't have to be absolutely everybody. So it's really lovely to  think of it as a book that can be placed, not as a book that has to have wide market appeal.

Rhonda:

Right. Yes, exactly. And  how do you navigate this being out in the public. It's not,  know, for many of us, we'd rather be writing the books, but then the book gets launched and you've got to be out there talking about the book, publicizing the book, doing the thing, you know,  and many of us feel this, I think it's a pressure to like be on social media, talking about our books, building the air quotes  author platform, right? How do you navigate that space between the writing and the promotion of the writing?

Alexis:

I find it a struggle. I'm also a very, I'm very shy person, so I'm finding it difficult. I think that teaching has helped a little bit because there's a teaching persona and  there's a working persona as well. So I'm using that to try to help, but I do find it difficult.

Rhonda:

Yeah, I feel that. I think for those of us who are introverts and just want to be creating the stories and writing the books,

Alexis:

Yeah.

Rhonda:

Promotion, the book promotion side of things feels, I don't know, awkward. Let's say awkward. Yes. Yes. So, I wanted to ask a little bit about how you how you came to be writing novels. Were you writing something else first? Like, did you start out like many do with a short form or did you go straight into the novel?

Alexis:

I went straight into the novel. And I've worked on short stories, but they always read like the first chapter of a novel. And so I just sort of went with that. I am a novelist. Here we go.  Although this project, strangely enough, started out as a play. I don't know how that happened or why that happened, but I wrote a full play and then I thought it would probably read better as a novel. So, I changed it over.

Rhonda:

Wow. So how do you...How do you do that? Because a play is dialogue and stage directions, but a novel has all of that interiority and so on. So, wow, what was that like, moving from changing something from being a full completed work as a play to a full completed work as a novel?

Alexis:

Well, I wrote the play and then I read it and I thought that it needed exactly that. It needed the interiority and it needed the descriptions and I thought that it would work better as a novel.

Rhonda:

Okay. And you mentioned, you know, I love this hearing about it on the radio and getting obsessed. I find that's where a lot of poetry comes from for me. So what was the research process like? Because I'm assuming you didn't grow up in Chernobyl. It's not like, you know, it's not something that most of us are exposed to. how did you how did you do the research? Did you, did you go? Did you travel or was it all online and books? How did you do the research for this?

Alexis:

I considered going, but I did not. I read as much as I could. I watched there lots of documentaries. I read a lot of the narratives of the people who were there and I was just obsessed.

Rhonda:

The scientists or the citizens or both?

Alexis:

Both. There's more...there are lots of eyewitness accounts of citizens who were there and who had to suffer through it and who had to deal with the aftermath.  And I read as much of the research as I could, because there's still research coming out of there. People are still researching the plants and the animals and what is happening to the natural life there. So I just read as much as I could. And in fact, I'm really happy that I got a novel out of it, because it would have been really hard to explain otherwise, just this constant reading of this.

Rhonda:

This is my hobby. I'm in. Yes. I totally got it. Wow. Yeah. I didn't realize that all of that was available. What's the status of things today? You've made me curious. Like, is it a place you can live? Like, people still living there?

Alexis:

There is, and it's called an exclusion zone. So, there is an area where you can't live. And the people, you can go and study for shorter times, and you can work there for shorter times but you still can't live there and you can't, you shouldn't be drinking the water or eating the vegetables. From what I understand, I'm not an expert. I read as much as I can, but I'm not an expert. But there is still an area that won't be safe for hundreds of years.

Rhonda

Wow. So that is the literal exclusion zone that the title of the book comes from.

Alexis:

Yeah.

Rhonda:

Okay, wow. This is fascinating. It's really fascinating. I can understand why you're obsessed.

Alexis:

Thank you.

Rhonda:

So of the three projects that you've got on the books now, are they also all rooted in some aspect of science? Like, is it still this bridging? Like you talked about being the writer who kind of bridges these worlds, is that still the case?

Alexis:

It is, it is. So I will read about something exhaustively and then I will start to sort of think about it and imagine what could be happening in and around it. And so that seems to be happening again. And I feel good about that. I feel like I'm connecting to the kind of writer I would like to be, which is not the same as everybody else. But it's what I do. And I think that's OK, too. There's room for lots of different ways of doing things.

Rhonda:

Yeah, absolutely. But I think that's a fun way to do it, which is get obsessed and read exhaustively, like to really geek out on something and enjoy it.

What do you, I'm fascinated by this idea of, you know, becoming the writer that only you can be, right? Writing the book only you can write because I think that there's, there often is pressure to like, what does the market want? And let me write the book that the market wants, but that's, that's a losing game because you don't have a crystal ball. You don't know what the market wants, know, or it's kind of want. So, and you mentioned doing a lot of thinking about that, like, what is that investigation, that conversation with yourself look like? What kind of questions are you asking yourself to try to understand what kind of writer am I really?

Alexis:

For me, it came a lot out of fears and worries about climate change. So I feel like I got to a place where I had to be very careful. don't, I really feel like anything that I put out there has to be not really, not worth the paper it's printed on, but kind of worth the paper that it's printed on. So, I have to have a reason that I want other people to read it. And so that, I think the conversation for me came out of that. So, I had to really connect to what I wanted to do and what I felt like I can contribute to the conversations happening right now.

Rhonda:

I love that. So, you're thinking about, you know, what are the things that concern me? What are the things that I obsess about, you know, naturally, and there's my material, and that's what makes me the writer I am. Yeah, that's good advice. That's really good advice. Because I think it's something a lot of people struggle with. Right? Because even if you're writing something that's a more commercial genre, you know, if you pick up any, you know, if I pick up two romance books by two different authors, you know, they're different because of the concerns and the obsessions and the way of being of that writer. So, I love that you went through that process of like, you know, just consciously, who am I as a writer? Yeah, I wish all writers did that.

This has been such a great conversation, Alexis. Thank you so much for being with me today. So, for everyone listening, the book is The Exclusion Zone. It's out as of May 2025. You can pre-order a copy if it's not quite out yet when this airs, but it should be out super soon. And I'll put a link to it in the show notes. Thanks so much for being with me, Alexis. I appreciate it.

Alexis:

Thank you so much again. I really love this. Thank you.

Outro:

Thanks so much for hanging out with me today and for listening all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed today's episode of The Resilient Writers Radio Show. While you're here, I would really appreciate it if you'd consider leaving a rating and review of the show. You can do that in whatever app you're using to listen to the show right now, and it just takes a few minutes.

Your ratings and reviews tell the podcast algorithm gods that yes, this is a great show, definitely recommend it to other writers. And that will help us reach new listeners who might need a boost in their writing lives today as well. So please take a moment and leave a review. I'd really appreciate it. And I promise to read every single one. Thank you so much.