Interview with Steff Deschenes, author of “The Ice Cream Theory”

By admin, on September 27th, 2010

About Steff Deschenes

Despite a failed attempt at majoring in ice cream in college, Steff Deschenes is a self-taught ice-cream guru. After publishing the now twelve-time award-winning The Ice Cream Theory, she began exploring food on a more universal level. As a result, she now photo blogs daily herself at dinner and the challenges of being a vegetarian in a predominantly seafood-oriented state. Steff also writes two articles a week entitled “Maybe It’s Me” (personal essays and reflection on life and the living of it) and “Fact Is Better” (real life conversations she couldn’t make up if she tried); all of which can be found at www.steffdeschenes.com. You can also visit her at www.theicecreamtheory.com.

Could you please tell us a little about your book?

The Ice Cream Theory is a charming, tongue-in-cheek exploration of the parallels between human personalities and ice cream flavors. Utilizing humor and satire, it brings together anecdotes from my own adventures with broader-reaching social commentary to help others recognize the wisdom and joy inherent in a beloved dessert. In the same way people have ice-cream preferences, people also have people preferences. Like ice cream flavors, social preferences shift based on age, experience, even mood. There are exotic flavors that one craves when feeling daring, comforting flavors to fall back on, flavors long-enjoyed that eventually wear out their welcome, and those unique flavors that require an acquired taste. Like people, no ice cream flavor is perfect every single time, and it’s in this realization that the crux of the theory lies.

Who has influenced you throughout your career as a writer?

Other artists. I have friends who are potters, musicians, chefs, photographers – they’re all so talented in ways I could never be. And they’re all following their own path. It’s beautiful! And, it’s been fun helping in any way I can to get them to where they’re going as an artist; and, they’ve been amazing resources for me as I get to where I’m going as an artist. That community feeling is critical I think to thrive, create, and persevere.

What is the most important thing in your life right now?

Every year since 2006 has had a theme. Last year, for example, was themed “The Year of Self Discovery.” Really early on in 2010 I realized that this year was going to be entirely about me finding balance. So, that’s what is most important to me right now: balance. And love! Losing myself in loving life, and the entire journey The Ice Cream Theory has taken me on, and the unbelievably amazing people who I’m surrounded by!

Is there an author that inspired you to write?

William Goldman really helped me define my literary voice. His works (specifically The Princess Bride and Which Lie Did I Tell?) encouraged me to embrace satire, my erratic thoughts and fragmented sentences, and most importantly, the ability to manipulate a true encounter and create it into something where the truth becomes questionable.

What are some of your long term goals?

I recently started writing my next nonfiction book about my adventures as an alcohol spokes model, and it would be just incredible to have it done by next summer. Other goals include possibly taking my current foodie blog and making some sort of sassy, smart, vegetarian cook book with it. I really enjoy editing and proofreading other people’s work as well, so that might be an interesting direction to take my writing life in.

What do you feel has been your greatest achievement as an author?

The Ice Cream Theory has won eleven awards. Eleven awards! That’s huge! When I won the first one, I remember thinking it must have been a fluke or that the judges were just throwing me a bone. But ten awards later, I know without a doubt that there’s something very special about The Ice Cream Theory and it’s being recognized and appreciated by people from all different walks of life.

What do you feel is your biggest strength?

My brutal honesty!

Biggest weakness?

My brutal honesty.

What do you feel sets this book apart from others in the same genre?

I never intended to write a self-help book. I mean, I’m a sassy, emotional twenty-something who shoots from the hip half the time. Who am I to tell people how to live their life? All I was trying to write, what I tell my friends and family, was a “super cool collection of almost true, but slightly inaccurate anecdotes from my life.” But that genre doesn’t exist (yet), so I got lumped into self-help, which is really unfortunate given that the market is inundated with these books.

I feel really blessed, though, that I had a tremendously unique concept – like comparing people to ice cream flavors – to share with the world.

Friends, and even reviewers who’ve never even spoken me, say that it reads like you’re having a late night conversation with your best friend. This excites me! I definitely had hoped for that! More than anything else, I want not only want my readers to find the book relatable, but also be able to take something away from it that will inspire or encourage them.

I think most self-help books force some very opinionated central theme down the reader’s throat, which, in my opinion, makes it counterproductive. The Ice Cream Theory, I think, does an exceptional job at letting the reader interpret, digest, and gleam what they specifically need to from it which sets it apart.

If you could go back and change one day, what would it be?

I wouldn’t. I love this question, because I genuinely am one of those people who wouldn’t change a single thing about my life lived to this point. Every moment happened to get me to where I am now. I actually look back at specific days and just thank God that somehow I miraculously did what I was meant to do which would then help set off some necessary chain of events.

Are you a different person now than you were 5 years ago? In what way/s?

I have bigger bags under my eyes than I did five years ago, but they are well deserved! In all seriousness, five years ago I was twenty and living in Spain. It was the first and only time I ever kept a journal in my life, which I never read after writing. And The Ice Cream Theory was just one chapter (“Strawberry”) which I had only written to please my high school creative writing teachers (one of which told me that I was awful and nonfiction – kinda funny in retrospect!).

Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

Thank you so, so much for this opportunity! I can’t believe how well-received both The Ice Cream Theory and myself have been. I look forward to watching this part of my life continue to play out!

About The Ice Cream Theory

The Ice Cream Theory is ice-cream guru Steff Deschenes’s charming exploration of the parallels between human personalities and ice-cream flavors, a tongue-in-cheek celebration of the variety inherent in a well-lived life.

The Theory was hatched when Deschenes was trying to make sense of her first heartbreak. In the midst of that grief, she realized that, in the same way humans have ice-cream preferences, humans have people preferences. Like ice cream flavors, social preferences shift based on age, experience, even mood. There are exotic flavors that one craves when feeling daring, comforting flavors to fall back on, flavors long-enjoyed that eventually wear out their welcome, and those unique flavors that require an acquired taste. Like people, no ice cream flavor is perfect every single time . . . and it is in this realization that the crux of Deschenes’s theory lies.

Deschenes neatly brings together anecdotes from her own adventures with broader-reaching social commentary to help others recognize the wisdom and joy inherent in a beloved dessert.

With its cheeky self-help slant, The Ice Cream Theory is an endearing and light-hearted addition to any bookshelf. It’s a must read for anyone bruised by life’s tough lessons and in need of a cheerful pick me up.