Making A Book | The Dawn of Eternal Winter

"You can still kill the emperor": Veronika Sizova on recursive historical injustice, poetic prose, and the pleasure of reading negative reviews

In a new series titled “Making A Book”, we delve into the experiences of students who published a book through the course WRI420: Making A Book. This is the first of many fascinating conversations with the student-authors.

WRI420: Making A Book is an advanced 12-week course in the Professional Writing and Communications (PWC) program at the University of Toronto Mississauga. The course examines principles, procedures and practices in book publishing. Students, working collaboratively, collect material for, design, edit, typeset, print and assemble books. Students consider the philosophical, aesthetic, and economic factors that guide publishing, editing and design decisions. The course culminates in each student publishing a book. 

Veronika Sizova took WRI420 in the winter semester of 2023 (January—early April). She published her debut novel The Dawn of Eternal Winter on March 31, 2023. A daring psychological thriller with romance, fantasy, and suspense, The Dawn of Eternal Winter synthesizes past and present, beauty and terror, insurgence and war. Set in a fictionalized version of pre-revolutionary Saint Petersburg, this tale of loss, grief, and betrayal becomes a window into the cold authoritarian world where love and freedom are against the law, but the fire of hope burns.

Veronika is a bilingual writer born in Yekaterinburg, Russia. In 2021, Veronika moved to Canada to study English and Professional Writing at the University of Toronto. Her plans include working in the field of digital humanities and continuing the path of a novelist with the sequel to her debut novel set for release in 2024. You can find a portfolio of Veronika’s creative work (poetry, short stories, literary and film criticism) in Russian and English at her website, The Waves of Poetry (www.thewavesofpoetry.com).

I’ve known Veronika since we were both first year students in the PWC program. It was my pleasure to chat with her about her writing. 

Veronika signing copies of her novel at the New Writers Series book launch on June 5, 2023 in Toronto, Canada. In the corner, I scroll through my phone while waiting for her to sign my copy.

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W. V. Buluma: Why did you want to make a book? There’s two parts to this question. First, why did you want to write a book? And why did you choose to do it through the course?

Veronika Sizova: I wanted to write a book because the idea just came to me. After the [Russian] invasion of Ukraine started in February 2022, I had this dream about two women being on a train trying to escape Russia; it was cold, scary, and so on. I thought it's a good idea for a short story. And then I started writing and it became more than a short story. I realized it should turn into a book. But I didn't know how to do it.

On my own, I was so scared and insecure about my writing. But I feel that if someone makes you do it, or gives you a deadline, it will push you to finish it, and that’s what I did [through the course]. To be honest with you, I don't think the novel would have been published traditionally, because of how people look down on new authors, especially international students. So this course gave me the confidence to do it. 

That’s something I hadn’t considered. Within the course there's structure and guidance, and you’re doing it in a group. 

There's so many parts you have to deal with. You not only have to write the book, you also have to edit it thoroughly, and have some proofreaders. I got free proofreading from other students in the course, and also free editing from the same students. My professor had previous students who had completed the course and turned into actual professional editors, who gave us discounts. I made new connections. It was fun and engaging. I also got to typeset the book myself, which I wouldn’t be able to do without the course. 

If you were to create a genealogy of your novel, what would you include? Think of The Dawn of Eternal Winter as a complex, ancient organism—where does its evolution begin?

It actually begins with poetry. Which is unsurprising since I am a poet and I read a lot of translations of Marina Tsvetaeva, who was a Russian poet at the beginning of the 20th century, the time I am writing about. She had this special romance with another poet, Sophia Parnok, an older woman. It was the only lesbian relationship Russian people talk about, culturally. She had this cycle, Girlfriend, which is a great cycle, with love, everyone’s gay, so much passion, so much drama. Sophia had femme fatale vibes. I felt I should definitely incorporate this into my book. It inspired me. 

A lot of symbols from Marina’s poetry are in The Dawn of Eternal Winter. There’s this opal ring that Sophia was wearing that Adeline [a character in Veronika’s book] was wearing. They [Marina and Sophia] also broke into a church at night and they wanted to steal the Virgin Mary. [A similar scene occurs in Veronika’s book.] Many scenes in the book are from Sophia Parnok’s and Marina Tsvetaeva’s romance. 

An anonymous Russian fan holds up Veronika’s book at The Summer Garden in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Since your inspiration comes from poetry, why did you decide to write the story in prose rather than poetry? 

I’m being very realistic here, no one will read poetry. Maybe my best friend, because he is a poet. Actual people nowadays don’t like poetry that much. And also to be realistic with myself, I cannot write a hundred pages of poetry. The idea came to me as prose, in that the dream was more prosaic. Poetry would make it complicated and vague, and I needed more certainty in my writing. But many people have noted that it’s almost too poetic, that it reads like a poem.

In terms of your strengths—I know you’ve said that you’re a poet—but would you say you’re stronger at writing poetry, or prose, or what you’re doing now which is more poetic prose.

I think it’s poetic prose for now. Since the war has started I haven’t been able to write poetry at all. I started writing poetry in Russian, and it’s always been something I associate with Russian. [Veronika published a poetry collection in Russian called The Door to Eternity in 2016.] I associate prose with the English language. Right now, I feel like I’m going to write prose for as long as the war is going on. Then, maybe poetry. But, I don’t want to put any timeframe on it, or restrict myself to one or the other. I think it’s a good idea to mix them—maybe the sequel will have more poetry.

At the beginning of each chapter [of The Dawn of Eternal Winter], the first line is actually a verse from a poem. If you put all of these lines together, you’ll have a poem that’s on my website. It’s like a secret. 

There’s so many layers to this book. It’s interesting to hear that your choice to write prose is both stylistic and political. 

What’s your writing workflow like: how do you draft and edit? What kept you going in difficult moments? 

The deadline kept me going in the course. The story was screaming inside me; I had to get it done. I even had a lot of nightmares associated with the book and the plot itself. I guess my subconscious was working on it even when I wasn’t actually drafting it. It got to the point where the characters started speaking to me. I thought I was going insane, but it was just the characters. Especially Adeline; she wouldn’t shut up. After I finished it, I felt so much relief. I’d gotten it off my chest.

Would you say that [hearing character voices] happened more during the drafting stage or while you were editing and polishing the novel? 

Hearing the voices was how I wrote the novel in the first place! So I was writing the dialogue directly from what they were talking about in my head. It sounds insane, I know; then, when I edited, of course I “heard” them again, talking over each other…. This is why I needed a professional editor—someone who couldn’t quite “hear” the characters the way I did. 

I got more motivated once I got most of the novel done. When I was drafting, I told myself, “No, I don’t think it’s any good, I don’t think I’ll ever finish it.” But once you start, you cannot stop working. You just keep going. And then I actually had to cut 40% of what I wrote, because my editor told me it was too much, I had to stop with the descriptions. I wrote most of the novel in two months.

How did you balance writing the novel with all your other responsibilities: your other courses, your employment, other demands on your time…

It was hard. I balanced it in an unhealthy way. I didn’t sleep much. For most of February and March I slept for two, maybe three hours a day. I survived by thinking about the result, knowing that in April I was supposed to publish. 50% of the book was done in January, then I rewrote it for three months. Sometimes I skipped dinner to write. I don’t recommend it. It was really hard on my mental health. Right now, I would recommend spending three hours just writing per day—not more—you don’t want to end up insane like me. 

What surprised you as you went through the publication process? What’s the most valuable thing you learned? 

When I received my proof copy. I remember opening the Amazon package and realizing it was an actual thing in my hands. It felt like I had just given birth. It was the first time I cradled my child in my arms. Seeing your writing on the page really changes how you feel about it. It becomes a real thing, not just someone talking in my head. It was surprising because I did not expect to feel this way.

90% of what you’re doing as a writer is not writing. It’s promoting your work. I didn’t expect I’d need so many marketing skills, to film TikToks for instance, which was so embarrassing. Posting about my book on social media, I felt like one of those embarrassing Instagram moms going “oh, look at my child.” It’s so embarrassing to give a book so much attention just because you wrote it but also you have to do it to help people learn about your book. 

A good strategy: pretend to be someone else. Pretend to be a Hollywood star and take on a different personality. It helped me to feel less embarrassed about self-promotion. It’s good to have a website where you can post about your book. It’s also good if you have a community of writers. Also, buy Amazon ads. If you don’t, your book won’t even show up in the search.

An anonymous Russian fan holds up Veronika’s novel at The Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

What’s one thing you know now that you wish you’d know before you started the publication process? 

Typesetting. I wish I knew it before because I made so many mistakes. I had to order like four proof copies before it even looked okay. 

You have to take your time proofreading. I read my entire book back-to-back four times in one night. I was so tired of my writing I couldn’t open my novel again. So it actually has a typo in it. 

Challenge to the readers: buy Veronika’s book and find the typo. While you’re at it you should also read the poem from the chapter titles. 

I’m sure you found the typo because you’re a good editor. 

Don’t worry, I’ll keep your secret. 

Moving back to content, you described the novel in the author’s note as “a recollection of the past that comes full circle in the present.” I assume that’s related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Can you speak a bit more about that?

I chose to make the novel alternate history. I put the entire current situation with Russia and Ukraine in the past. I feel like putting something into a different perspective makes people almost relate to it more. It’s easier to have a more relaxed perspective about the past.

The history of Russia keeps repeating itself. A few years after the setting of the book, the Russian revolution occurs. This gives people hope that things can change. They can go from thinking “oh, everything is falling apart, everything is terrible” to “in the future, there’s hope, you can still overturn the government, you can still kill the emperor.” I think it’s beautiful to put past and present and compare them and learn from your past mistakes in the present.

I definitely picked up on that. Your novel is very concerned with revolution, and change.

And then it never happens. 

Everyone’s talking about it, but it never happens.

Margarita [the protagonist] keeps talking about revolution but also keeps running away. She has her own drama, which she’s distracted by, and she assumes Misha [the leader of the revolution] will take up the fight for freedom. 

The sequel will be more complex, historically.

It’s striking that, as much as the situation is politically charged, people are also just trying to live their lives, immersed in their personal drama. There’s different scales of conflict, the interpersonal conflict, and the national—existential—crisis.

It was the funniest part for me to write. Margarita is living in historical times. We had Covid for instance—I think we all can relate that you can still have some personal drama going on. The world can be falling apart and you’re still worried, “Will she text me?”

The North Wind plays a critical role in the novel, almost like a character in and of itself—

It is a character. I had a person in my life who was obsessed with the North Wind. She liked to say, “I’m married to the North Wind, I don’t need anyone.” 

Before that, I watched a movie called The North Wind back in Saint Petersburg in 2021. The Russian actress/director Renata Litvinova is very extravagant, she’s bi and openly in a relationship with a woman. And she made this movie [The North Wind] about a family of powerful women and how they lived in Siberian forests and did witchcraft. She always said that the North Wind is always here, it’s like a secret power that’s speaking to you in a different language. So it [the novel] was inspired by the film obviously.

I really wanted to show the spirit of Russia. It [the North Wind] has its spirit, its own soul, its own language almost, separate from the government and all the political forces. It will find you even if you escape.

Speaking of setting, could you share why you chose to set the novel in Saint Petersburg? 

At the time [early 20th century] Saint Petersburg was the capital of Russia. At first, I wanted to set the book in Moscow, but I decided that it would be too complicated. 

One of my other inspirations for the novel was Fyodor Dostoevsky, who is very popular and very depressing to read. He wrote The Adolescent about this young university guy who falls in love with a much older woman, and it ruins his life. The novel is also set in Saint Petersburg and has beautiful descriptions of the city, and the city is its own character. This is where I got the idea to make the North Wind its own character. 

Saint Petersburg is my favourite city. It’s very beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. It has all these palaces, and churches, like Saint Isaac’s Cathedral, which is on the cover of the book. I visited Saint Petersburg about five times, so I’ve been to all these places myself, and I had a lot to write about it. It’s also historically significant for that time, since the emperor lived in Saint Petersburg. It’s also very significant for me, my personal safe haven—now not so safe—but I really wanted to capture that magical world at the time, which is impossible in any other Russian city to be honest with you.

An anonymous Russian fan holds up Veronika’s novel at St. Isaac’s Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

I noticed there’s a lot of class tension in the book. Margarita interacts with upper class people and feels like she doesn’t fit in, but at the same time she enjoys the trappings of wealth and status. The leader of the revolution is an upper class man. What was going through your head as you wrote about class? 

A lot was going through my head. At that time [early 20th century Russia], class tensions were at their height. There’s the peasant class who feel very much at war with the upper classes. Margarita feels like neither—she’s in the middle class, the new workers, her family lives in Siberia, with the steel factories and so on. She doesn’t fit in with anyone. She enjoys both. She enjoys the ballet, opera, and so on, but she also enjoys simple things like nature. She can never find her place anywhere. And it was very interesting to me since my family is middle class. 

I hoped I could capture the class tension, and also Margarita’s friendship with the upper classes. You never see her having friendships with the lower classes, which fits her character. She’s a little bit of a bitch. You can see that she’s always wanted what the upper class have, but also she can never relate to it.   

The upper class man, Misha, is the leader of the revolution. It’s really funny because the actual leaders of the revolution often come from the upper class. The revolution has to start at the bottom, but the real revolution has to start at the top, from the inner circle. And Misha is in the inner circle. 

Speaking of Margarita, it seems like you’re drawing from your own experiences to write her. How much is she based on you? Let’s broaden this question—for your characters, how much are you drawing on personal experience and people you know? 

Most of the characters are based on real people that I’ve actually met and had relationships with. They can recognise themselves. However, it’s all fictional still. How much of me is in Margarita is for the reader to decide. We are all changing, Margarita is changing, in different ways. Someone had said (I don’t know who) that every character in the author’s book is always a reflection of them. You can agree with it, you can disagree with it, maybe I have a split personality…nonetheless it’s all based in reality, but you have to keep in mind it’s fiction. 

Elif Batuman writes in her novel The Idiot that “[w]hatever you write with so much care and intensity has an image of You in it.” I think that’s true.

It’s like an Alice in Wonderland reflection, a little strange. I’m almost you but not you. 

Even if you give a character every single characteristic you have, just the setting alone will make some difference…

That’s true. I really enjoyed writing the characters. It’s like playing The Sims almost—you can make them do whatever you want, and have fun with it. 

Which leads me into my next question…what was the most fun part for you?

The fun part was having strange dreams at night about my book and trying to write about them—making the plot and seeing how it unfolds. At the start, I didn’t know how the book was going to end. It was supposed to have a completely different ending. It was fun to see how my mind would come up with different ways to end it. My life experiences also changed the way I wrote it. 

Plotting was the most difficult part. I usually write poetry, and poetry has almost zero plot. This is very new for me. It was very interesting and fun to see how I came up with it without even trying. 

And it was fun at the end where people were reading it and recognizing themselves. 

In that vein, can you speak to the reception of the novel? How does it feel to see your book in the world?

I’m really proud of myself. I have something I can show and say, “Look, I made this thing.” 

I received reviews from people I didn’t know at all. Some of them hated the book. I love reading negative reviews, because people are having a strong emotional reaction to the work. I almost prefer negative reviews, because the book touched them so much, they had to give it two stars and remark on how empty it is. 

I think it’s important for the Canadian public to read about how it is in Russia, how it is to be on the inside of the aggressor country. I really wanted to capture that feeling, and most readers got it. My soul was being understood. I felt seen, in a good way. I was worried about exposing myself in this way, but it helped me to accept my own feelings. 

I’m really grateful to all my readers.

Is there anything else you’d like to mention before we wrap up—we’re nearing the end—something you desperately want out in the world?

About my book? 

It could be about anything. It could be about sandwiches, if you have strong feelings about sandwiches.

I actually got free sandwiches because of my book. It’s like when you write something, you manifest it into existence.

I hope I can manifest some of the positive aspects of what I’m writing into people’s hearts and minds, and reality too. I really hope that my readers will want to know more about the conflict [Russian invasion of Ukraine] and want to know more about how people have been living in Russia all this time, facing homophobia, lack of basic human rights, and all that. I believe I can make a positive change in reality through my writing.

What are you working on currently, or what are you looking forward to working on? 

I’m working on several projects. Besides the sequel, I’m doing an independent studies course. I will try to write nonfiction about being a young person living in Toronto. I hope it will also help people in abusive situations gain the power and knowledge to escape. [Veronika left an abusive living situation.] I am also working on completing the translation of Marina Tsvetaeva’s Girlfriend cycle, because she keeps haunting my dreams.

I’m hoping to finish the sequel by 2024 and publish it, maybe even traditionally.  

An anonymous Russian fan holds up Veronika’s book at the Elisseeff Emporium in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

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Read the rest of the series here. More to come soon!