An interview with JC Spark – conducted by Mara Levin
Shortly before the end of the year, I sit across from JC Spark over a cup of tea. Outside, darkness has already settled over northern Denmark; inside, sticky notes cover JC’s desk – the one she gently steers me away from after a quick glance. There is nothing embarrassing about it; it just looks like an enormous amount of work. And that’s exactly why we’re talking now about how JC Spark is experiencing this final sprint to year’s end, and why she is taking time for this conversation right in the middle of production stress.
Mara Levin: JC, when you look at the next few weeks until the end of the year – with Space Time and Curly Thoughts on the table – how does this phase feel for you?
JC Spark: It feels like the last few hundred meters at the end of a marathon – except that somewhere along the way the marathon spontaneously turned into an obstacle course, for example because of the unplanned move this year. I can see the finish line very clearly in the calendar: Christmas for the Space Time e‑book, New Year’s for Curly Thoughts. But I’m not sure I can actually get everything done that needs to be done by then.
Mara Levin: Let’s look at Space Time first. Where is the book right now – in concrete terms?
JC Spark: As far as the text is concerned, Space Time is currently completely outside my control. Both the German and the English version are with the copyeditors. All I know is that the manuscripts are expected to come back at some point in the next two to three weeks. When I do the math and realize that there may then only be one week left until Christmas, things obviously get tight.
Mara Levin: What are you already doing for the book in this phase nonetheless?
JC Spark: The part that is entirely on me are the illustrations. That’s what I’m actively working on now. I’m designing the illustrations so that they represent the second book thematically and, in terms of style, match both the illustrations from Book 1 and my new art style for Space World. In the first volume there were about 34 illustrations, and I expect Space Time to end up with a similar number.
The third aspect is the layout. I can only tackle that once the text is final, meaning once the corrections are back and have been incorporated. I also do the layout myself. With the first book it took quite a long time; I’m hoping it will go faster this time, because I already know where the pitfalls are.
Mara Levin: You said the text is currently completely with other people. What does that mean for your work on the books?
JC Spark: Depending on other people’s work generally feels awful to me. I’m a control freak; delegating is very hard for me – which is the reason I have this huge pile of to‑dos. High up on my agenda for the new year is delegating more, or at least building systems that take some of the load off me so that I dedicate more time to the creative part of being an author.
At the moment, the only thing that really helps is the fact that I have so much on my list that I don’t even get the chance to think about when the corrections will come back. I work on everything that is in my hands.
Mara Levin: You said you want to delegate more or build systems that take work off your plate. Is there something right now that you would most like to hand over?
JC Spark: If I could choose right now, it would probably be the layout at the very end. That will be quite… Oh, wait a second!
Maybe it’s not actually that difficult; maybe there really is something someone could help me with. Right now I have to upload each individual scene separately and format it after uploading – including placing the illustrations in the right spots. With 133 scenes, that takes quite a while. Alternatively, I could do the extremely time‑consuming work of pre‑formatting the entire manuscript and then hope it can be uploaded cleanly in one go. I might be able to get help with exactly that step: pre‑formatting the Word document so that I can upload the complete manuscript and only have to touch it up afterwards. Hm. I think I may have just decided that I’ll get help with formatting the manuscript.
Mara Levin: How does that moment feel, when you realize: “Okay, at least for part of this – for the formatting – I can get help”?
JC Spark: I’m at heart an optimistic person, my first reaction is to hope that it will be helpful. It’s an attempt to get a pre‑formatting done relatively quickly. If it works, it will take a significant amount of work off my shoulders and save me time, and if it doesn’t work, I won’t have lost much time and will at least know that this route isn’t viable.
I just have to set a strict rule for myself: one attempt, two at most – but under no circumstances spend three hours trying to get something pre‑formatted that I could have uploaded myself in the same amount of time.
Mara Levin: If this support with the pre‑formatting works well – where would you notice the space you gain first: in your head, in your scheduling, in your energy, or very concretely in a particular task?
JC Spark: If I’m honest, sadly probably not at all right now, because I would immediately pull the next task from that huge pile. But every task that currently runs smoothly is a little cheer on the inside, because I feel that in these first two years as an author I’ve produced a long series of failed attempts. Not when it comes to the writing itself, but everything around the writing. File it under “learning curve”. And that has sometimes been quite tough – but I’m not letting it discourage me.
Mara Levin: What from your learning process so far is helping you now specifically with Space Time?
JC Spark: Very simply: I’ve already done all of this once with Book 1 – illustrations, layout, self‑publishing process. The first time, every failed attempt came with the panic that maybe it wouldn’t work at all, that I just couldn’t do it. That fear is gone. I now know that the work is worth it, that I can pull it off and that the result lands well with readers.
That doesn’t solve the time problem, but it is a safety net. The part where things could still fail is the deadline – not my fundamental ability to finish the book. I know I can do it.
Mara Levin: Let’s talk about Curly Thoughts. Where is that project right now?
JC Spark: Curly Thoughts is planned as an e‑book for New Year’s. Of the 24 vignettes, 14 are still missing, and all 24 need illustrations. I recently came up with the idea for the guiding motif of the illustrations – that helps enormously, because it gives the whole thing a clear visual direction.
The layout here is considerably less complicated than for Space Time, and the book as a whole is less extensive. The focus is on setting a standard: Curly Thoughts 2025 is meant to be the start of a series that I want to publish every year from now on. This first book is meant to show where the journey is headed.
Mara Levin: What does that mean concretely for the next few weeks?
JC Spark: Quite practically: write the missing vignettes and create the illustrations. Every completed vignette and every finished illustration is its own task, and every tick on the list is a small success. The good thing about this phase is that there are many small steps.
Mara Levin: When you’re juggling two projects in parallel – how do you decide what to work on on a given day?
JC Spark: I always work on whatever is most conducive to progress at the current point in the process – in theory. Ideally, I start with tasks I can complete. For the near future, that means: writing vignettes for Curly Thoughts and finishing illustrations for Space Time while I wait for the corrections.
Every finished text, every completed illustration is one step closer to the goal. It doesn’t change the fact that the mountain is high, but it makes it more structured.
Mara Levin: For readers, one question is particularly important: From today’s perspective, what can they realistically expect around Christmas and New Year’s?
JC Spark: For Space Time, the following holds: My goal is still to deliver the illustrated edition of the e‑book by Christmas, in German and in English. Which version I work on first depends solely on which corrected manuscript comes back first. While I’m waiting, I work on the illustrations and prepare everything I can that does not depend on the text.
For Curly Thoughts, my goal is to deliver the e‑book by New Year’s. I can’t promise how many buffer days reality will actually grant me in the end, but every day I do the best I can to make it happen.
Mara Levin: Some readers are not only waiting for Space Time and Curly Thoughts, but have already pre‑ordered Continuum, Book 3 of the trilogy.
JC Spark: Finishing Continuum is what I’m looking forward to most in the new year. But Space Time and Curly Thoughts have priority right now.
Mara Levin: If you could give readers one thought for the final sprint of the year – what would it be?
JC Spark: Maybe like this: Right now I’m juggling two projects, tightly packed deadlines and a head full of further ideas. But my focus is on getting Space Time and Curly Thoughts over the finish line this year. I can’t speed up the return of the corrections or make the day any longer, but I can do my best every single day. And that’s exactly what I’m doing – so that you can have the books in your e-readers as soon as possible.
Editor's note: Just before going to press, we received news that the German manuscript has been returned from proofreading. This will likely result in further adjustments to the schedule.
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