BCC Shines a Light On: Toni Kochensparger
Name of the piece published by BCC:
When/where was it originally published:
An earlier draft was published in Scribble last year.
Tell us more about your piece! What is the background of the piece? What led you to write it? What’s your process?
“Stay Pony Goldboy” is based on something that really happened when I was a kid--I had a car in the Pinewood Derby, which took place in part of a church, and some kids broke a stained glass window, throwing rocks. The games ground to a halt and the scout leader and one of the priests got up in front of everyone and made us all sit there until someone came forward. The kid who did was really shy and very clearly not the person who broke the window--I doubt he even threw the rocks. In all likelihood, he had gone outside with the other kids, caught up in their excitement, and watched as they broke the window.
Anyway, that happened when I was eight. I thought about that kid for twenty-four years and then I wrote this story.
How did you feel when it was first published and how have your thoughts or feelings on the piece changed from then to now?
The first version was essentially a rough draft, which was disqualified from a really great mag for being uploaded to Reedsy, a website that's supposedly for writers but which requires you to upload your work to participate, something that could be considered publication. I can't not recommend it enough. Then I Googled my name like a psychopath and found out Scribble had put it up on their site.
As for the journal it was disqualified from: I'm very grateful to have worked with an editor, Leanne Phillips, on the piece. We managed to make it through the draft a few times before we realized what had happened with Reedsy (heartbreaking). She works with Kelp Journal and does book coaching and has a really wonderful newsletter. She edited another piece of mine, “I Think So, Fred,” which ended up in Kelp and, in all honesty, did a lot to guide me through a major turning point in the development of my voice. I'm really proud of how both of those pieces turned out.
Is there a specific message you would like readers to take away from reading this piece?
I'm hoping people will wonder if I've written anything else.
What else would you like to tell readers about your writing? (Doesn’t have to refer only to your BCC piece)
I'm interested in the space between memory, as we've imagined it, and how things really occurred. I think we construct fictional worlds to help us cope with being alive and sometimes those are healthy, but often they become cages that keep us from growing. It's fascinating on an individual scale, as well as a collective one. And it's fascinating, how micro and macro delusions intersect.
Where can readers find more of your work? (Website/social media, etc)
https://linktr.ee/gothphiliproth and instagram.com/gothphiliproth
