Since she was a little girl, Becky Wills wanted to write a book, and she made that dream come true with her debut novel, “Stun: A Novel in Pieces,” which was published this spring.
“When I was 8 years old, my parents bought me a blank book with blank pages, and I wrote my ‘autobiography.’ I glued my school picture to the front of it and gave it to my third-grade teacher to read,” she explained, adding that her novel “feels like the grown-up version of that.”
“I think I’m so lucky to have never wondered what I should do with my life,” Wills said. “It’s always been writing since I can remember.”
Wills, who now lives in London and teaches poetry as an associate lecturer at the University of Surrey, recently spent a day with students and teachers at Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park as part of its visiting writers’ series.
She called the day memorable, especially because she’s the first alum to be invited. She graduated from Sandburg in 2011.
“Going was dreamlike. It was one of the best days of my life,” she shared. “It was amazing. It was surreal to have in my workshop my three English teachers, so that was a real kind of full-circle moment.”
Her mother and father were able to attend, which made the event special as well. “My parents are extremely supportive, and it meant a lot to have them in the audience at Sandburg,” she said.
Wills remembers her time in high school fondly. “Sandburg was such a safe space for me – it really was. I was so well-looked after there. It was a lot more than just going to classrooms. That building is really special to me,” she said.
The visit was arranged thanks to her relationship with Sandburg English teacher Kathryn Guelcher, who organizes the visiting writers series and was Wills’ junior year English teacher.
“She’s a close friend and I have stayed in touch with the three most important English teachers I had at Sandburg, so it seemed kind of natural when the book came out that I would be involved,” Wills said.
Her visit is the first time the visiting writers’ series has returned since the COVID-19 pandemic. “It was the perfect opportunity because we had it in our budget,” Guelcher said. “She’s been an important person in my life. We’re always in contact. I said you should be our visiting writer when you publish a book.”
Between 150 and 200 students and teachers participated in the event, which featured Wills giving a talk, reading portions of “Stun” and having a question-and-answer session. She also judged a student fiction contest and ran a two-hour writing workshop.
“What we focused on in the workshop was writing about emotions and memories authentically. That was a big thing,” Wills said.
A note from Guelcher on a bad day that she’d kept since high school – featuring a funny story meant to cheer her up but that actually “spoke to what was upsetting me that day” – helped Wills illustrate the importance of emotion during her speech. “I talked about the power of story and how the reader will find meaning if they want to and what they need the most.”
She also had some advice for aspiring writers: “Write for yourself first and focus more on the experience rather than the final product,” Wills shared. “And write what excites you because the reader will care about what you care about.”
Guelcher called Willis’ visit “spectacular,” adding that it was a “full-circle moment for those of us who had her and care about her. The kids responded really great,” she said, pointing out that one student “was absolutely enthralled. She was someone who I could feel wanted to be there.”
It was clear to Guelcher from the questions the students asked Wills about her and her writing and craft that they enjoyed the event. “Any time we’ve had visiting writers, it’s magic to see kids connecting to something that’s meaningful to them, something they’ll remember forever,” she shared. “You could see that happening – kids coming alive.”
The moment felt personal to Guelcher because her two daughters attend Sandburg and were able to participate. “They both know her and have grown up with her. It’s beautiful and lucky that the timing worked out.”
In addition, Alyssa Caddigan, who was in Guelcher’s English class junior year with Wills, now co-teaches in the English Department at Sandburg and is in the Special Education Department. “She was so proud and happy for Becky. They spent the day catching up and talking and laughing about a million things,” Guelcher said. “It was the sweetest.”
“Stun,” set in a fictional Chicago suburb, tells the story of a workaholic father and a dysfunctional mother who has a predilection for “Stun,” a fictional prescription drug that often leads to abuse. As their daughter moves through life and its challenges, she realizes she, too, might have a taste for it.
“It explores prescription drug addiction in the United States, the opioid epidemic and the amphetamine crisis,” Wills said. “It is loosely based on my personal experiences, but I would say all of the emotions in ‘Stun’ are true.”
Wills isn’t exactly sure how much time it took to write the book – “I do lose track of time when I’m writing, which is part of the reason I love it so much” – but it was mostly done during a three-year period while she was working on a doctoral degree in creative writing at the University of Surrey as the creative part of her thesis. She already had a bachelor’s degree in English from DePaul University and a master’s degree in creative writing from The New School.
“I couldn’t tell you how much I was writing each day,” she said. “These are themes and stories I’ve been writing about forever. There is a lot of pre-writing that went into it over the years.”
Guelcher said it seemed inevitable that Wills would write a book because she was “such a bright and tuned-in and aware and empathetic person. It seemed like there was no way she wouldn’t be successful in this venture.”
She was able to read the novel before Willis’ visit. “It’s really spectacular. It’s not like anything else I’ve read before. It’s being billed as a ‘novel in pieces.’ It’s not quite in verse but it is poetic,” she explained. “It’s at once super-close observations but minimalist. It doesn’t tell you how to think about it, it just is. It’s really cool.”
Guelcher appreciates the effort it took to write this novel. “I think that she managed to write really beautifully about difficult things,” she said. “With addiction and dysfunction, there is so much beauty there despite the difficulty, and she does that so well.”
Wills also helps others tell their stories via Own Your Life Writing, a UK-based not-for-profit organization she founded that offers resources and tools to give people the skills and confidence to write their own life through workshops and events online and in the London area.
“Writing has always been a positive outlet for me, and I wanted to create a safe space where people with little to no writing experience could explore, process and write their own life stories,” she said. “It was going to be just a one-off seminar, but I saw people really wanted and needed it so I listened to the people and the groups who wanted me. The first group I ever had are still together two years later.”
Not one to rest on her laurels, Wills already is planning her next book. “Lots of thoughts, not so many words yet to reflect that.I am expecting it to relate to ‘Stun.’ I am thinking it will draw on a subplot from ‘Stun,’” she said.
She’ll also be promoting her book again in Chicago by appearing on the show “Preserving Disorder,” a show about books on LUMPEN radio at 11 a.m. June 14. WLPN-LP, 105.5 FM, which broadcasts live from Bridgeport.
“Stun” was published by Tortoise Books and is available on its website, ortoisebooks.com/store/stun, and via other booksellers.
Melinda Moore is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
