Steph De Lander wrote a book.
For decades, wrestling books and autobiographies have offered glimpses into the lives and careers of countless professional wrestlers. People like Mick Foley, Bret Hart, The Young Bucks, and more have written down their stories, with various degrees of success. And now, Steph De Lander is adding her name (and story) to the list.
De Lander recently spoke with Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp and explained her motivation for writing a book.
"So I had the idea to write a book, I would say halfway through last year and maybe a little bit earlier. My life is so crazy. I always do crazy stuff and crazy stuff always just happens to me, and I always would jokingly be like, ‘Well, that's another chapter in the book. Well, that'll be another chapter in the book.’ Then I got to a point where I was like, ‘Wait, why don't I just write this book that I've been talking about the whole time? Like, why don't I just do it?’ So I was kind of thinking about it anyway. Then when I first got injured, like this was before I knew I had to have surgery and take a whole bunch of time off. But I just was like, what am I waiting for? Like, why do I have to wait on something when I can do it right now? That's kind of being outside of WWE. I've really tried to capitalize on all the things that I can do that no one can tell me I can't do right now. Because when you're at a big company that has a whole bunch more say over what you can do, even if you do want to write a book, well, there's a whole bunch more people that have to approve things and say yes and say no and it's a much longer, bigger process. Whereas right now, being independent, I can control whatever I want. I can do whatever I want. I can say whatever I want. So I was like, While I can do this and have no one tell me that I can't do this, I'm going to do it right now. So yeah, that was kind of the inspo, and then being injured, I was like, ‘Alright, now I got the time. I'm going to go crazy if I'm sitting on my ass. So let's make this useful.’ Yeah, that's kind of how it happens," De Lander said.
Now that her first book is slated to be released, De Lander has confirmed that she will eventually pen a second book. She noted that she already had many thoughts about the stories she hadn't touched on in the first book. However, the when and where of a second book from her will depend on where her career is.
"Yeah, I'll definitely be doing a round two. Because there's so much stuff from my life, I've already had so many thoughts of like, ‘Oh, I didn't write about that. I didn't write about that. I didn't do this. I didn't do that.’ I'm like, ‘Yeah, because there'll be round two. Again, it also depends on like when, who, how, what, whatever. Like, if I'm working for WWE, that's a different conversation. If I'm working for AEW, that's a different conversation. If I'm still at TNA, you know what I mean? So a decision like that also depends on what sort of contract I'm locked into at that time," she said.
Continuing on, she spoke about the stressors of meeting deadlines for her book while waiting for quotes from individuals like Drew McIntyre, Tommy Dreamer, and Chelsea Green.
"It felt like it took a long time to actually write it. But as I said, it's because I took plenty of periods of not even touching it for weeks," she said. "But the final crunch time came together really, really quickly because it was like, ‘Oh, we don't have a date. I don't have a deadline that I have to have this ready for.’ Then all of a sudden it was like, ‘Well, if we can get this done in the next couple of weeks, we can have them for many a week and that can be the first time that you have them in hard cover.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God, okay, let's do this.’
"So it very quickly went from like, ‘We don't have a deadline,’ to like, ‘We have a really deadline really soon.’ Then the last things that we were kind of waiting for was like we put it through editing, but then we're also waiting for like, ‘cause Matt Cardona wrote my foreword," she continued. "So then, like, waiting for Matt to write the foreword, getting the quotes on the back, ‘cause I got quotes from Drew McIntyre, Tommy Dreamer, Chelsea Green, and Samoa Joe. So also, having to ask people things like, ‘Hey, can you do this? Can you do it within the next week?’ They're like, ‘Hey, I'm on SmackDown, and I'm in Europe,’ but you know what I mean? So it's like, I know that they did that, but you know what I mean? It's like little old me. like, ‘Hey, I need this now.’"
She concluded by saying that while the experience was stressful, she was not surprised she could get everything done in less than a year because that's her work ethic.
"That was stressful waiting for, like, getting all that stuff to tie it up in a little bow and for it to be done-done and then also getting the designs for the covers and all of that. So like that stuff came together really quickly, but I'm also the kind of person that like before I've even fully fleshed out a thought, I've done it or I've started or I’ve sent the email or whatever else. So it doesn't surprise me that I did it within like less than a year because I've, as I said, for better or for worse, and it's definitely been a negative sometimes, but I have like half an idea, and I've already started doing it. So it's just the way it goes."
Steph De Lander's first book, "What's The Best That Could Happen?: My Love Letter To Pro Wrestling," is now available for pre-order. The book will be released on April 18. Learn more about the book here.
Check out the full interview with Steph De Lander embedded at the top of this page.
