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Stefan Bourque

Author profile

born

Haverhill, The United States

gender

male

genre

Literature & Fiction

influences

Early influence:Stephen King, Later influences: Norman Mailer, John Up ...more

About this author

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Those fortunate (or unfortunate depending on your philosophy or mood) people to be born under the sign of Gemini are known for their passionate relationships. Passionate is often a euphemism for, as Norman Mailer once put it, that old standby of the headshrinkers, the love/hate relationship. I’ve long since tempered this type of relationship romantically, though it was no small challenge. The passionate affair I’ve had with the English language, or more specifically, the creation of sentences to form an idea, long or short, has and still remains such a relationship. There are so many quotients, so many alternating emotions and ideals and dare I say, even identities involved in this life-long affair that at times I cease to understand even w...more Those fortunate (or unfortunate depending on your philosophy or mood) people to be born under the sign of Gemini are known for their passionate relationships. Passionate is often a euphemism for, as Norman Mailer once put it, that old standby of the headshrinkers, the love/hate relationship. I’ve long since tempered this type of relationship romantically, though it was no small challenge. The passionate affair I’ve had with the English language, or more specifically, the creation of sentences to form an idea, long or short, has and still remains such a relationship. There are so many quotients, so many alternating emotions and ideals and dare I say, even identities involved in this life-long affair that at times I cease to understand even who I am. With that, how can I ever deem to know who I am as a writer? It’s only recently that I’ve come to realize the answer is simple–I can’t.

Fair enough, I suppose. So this will explain to you, if you’re still reading by this point, why in my earliest years I wrote hundreds of thousands of words in what is known these days as genre fiction, more specifically, the horror/suspense/thriller genre. I started the adult portion of my love affair with words in this genre for several reasons, none which I’ll state here. It seemed only natural that I would rise to my adulthood with plans to stake my claim in the macabre. This understanding of personal and writer identity stayed its course until my early forties when, after a lengthy break from wordsmithing I returned to find that I had changed since being away. What I thought I once wanted had become something much different, much more intricate, much more difficult to perform. The challenge of telling my stories, of answering these great unanswerable questions that I had squeezing my mind with relentless force, needed a more finite, a more human stage on which the characters could perform. As I thought differently, I read differently, and as expected, I wrote differently. I realized the boogeymen of my nights was no different than the haunting of my days. Indeed, looking back over my vast body of work, I see that even when I thought I was writing a simple, chilling story, I was reaching for larger answers–the bigger picture. The concept is littered everywhere. One has but to look to see it.

While my work may appear eclectic (if you are being kind) the heart of the matter has not changed much. Perhaps, in the earlier days, when a soul would cry out for compassion or redemption that soul might go unanswered, so fearful was I over the arbitrary nature of life and death. Where once my approach was exorbitant, I now choose subtlety. Where violence stood brightly in splashes of blood, reason now strolls with reserve and love. Where once I simply cried out, “Why?” I now seek more deeply to better understand the very question itself. There aren’t always answers, but there is always the journey. Always, the opportunity. Always the dream of redemption.

No. The questions haven’t really changed. They are as they were. The only difference is: now I know what they are.(less)

combine editions
Books by Stefan Bourque

Average rating: 4.21 · 42 ratings · 8 reviews · 4 distinct works

	My Name is Joe 4.14 avg rating — 28 ratings — published 2010 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Darker... 4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2003	My rating:
	Juggler 4.00 avg rating — 7 ratings — 5 editions	My rating:
	Heartburn 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2011	My rating:

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Writers and Readers : General Fiction	2	16	Sep 27, 2011 08:07am
Around the World ...: Virginia	6	26	Apr 04, 2012 08:04pm
Making Connections: 7. MY NAME IS JOE By Stefan Bourque	9	80	May 09, 2012 01:46pm
Goodreads Authors...: * Welcome Literary Fiction Authors and Readers!!	116	394	May 21, 2012 01:10am
Writers and Readers : * Introductions	558	353	May 30, 2012 10:50am
Indie Book Collec...: * Introducing Yourself	697	846	12 hours, 28 min ago

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