“They’re all heavily fictionalized,” Ivany said. “It’s all inspired either by myself or by people I know or by my friends. Then it’s heavily twisted, distorted, and satirized.” That distance, he said, is essential to the work. “It’s really only emotionally truthful,” Ivany said. Ivany began his career as an actor, but said the shift into writing came partly through necessity. “As an actor in St. John’s, there’s only so much work to go around,” Ivany said.