Colleen Curran: “This is something I’ve always really wanted!”
Out for Stars was self-published by Curran’s Bandstand Island Books.
My three other novels were published by Goose Lane Editions, but when I shopped this new book around, sometimes I would have to wait a year for a reply. I was waiting and waiting until my sister Peggy and I decided to start our own independent press and self-publish.
Peggy was my editor, my friend Bertrand Simard did the graphic design and Diane Labelle O’Neill was our cover artist. It was a great team and my book is a triumph of a small homemade company. When others won’t publish or produce your work, then sometimes you have to do it yourself.
Do you prefer writing novels or plays?
What’s fun about plays is that they are performed in front of an audience, so the feedback is immediate. But I love them both, it just depends on how the story wishes to be told. When I began writing my first book, Something Drastic, I didn’t realize it was a book until I started writing it.
How did your time at Concordia help shape you and your career?
Studying at Loyola was a fabulous experience for me. I took every writing course that I could because I knew I was going to be a writer. There was a lot happening: there was The Actor’s Company, Loyola Musical Theatre and Thé-Arts. I made all these fantastic friends who are still friends today and they all agreed to be in plays I wrote. My first full-length play, Nieces, was mounted at the university a year after I graduated. Some of the best times of my life were at Concordia.
