Ask the Author: Judith Stephens
Answered Questions (7)
Judith Stephens
My grandfather's murder in Kingsville, TX on 1926. I wrote Out of the Firebox about it. Out of the Firebox is available on Kindle.
Judith Stephens
This is a good time to be a writer, although many people will tell you writing is dead and there are no more bookstores anyway. Not true!
What I love about writing is that I can research (and in my imagination, at least, go to) other times and places. After I finish the Yukon book, I'm headed for the Civil War. My great grandfather was an artillery non-com from the beginning of the war until 1864 when he mustered out of Sherman's troops just north of Atlanta. And they had baseball in that war -- I bet you didn't know that! The best thing about writing is FREEDOM.
What I love about writing is that I can research (and in my imagination, at least, go to) other times and places. After I finish the Yukon book, I'm headed for the Civil War. My great grandfather was an artillery non-com from the beginning of the war until 1864 when he mustered out of Sherman's troops just north of Atlanta. And they had baseball in that war -- I bet you didn't know that! The best thing about writing is FREEDOM.
Judith Stephens
I stop trying to write what I ought to write and give in to writing what that part of me wants to write.
Judith Stephens
Find a way to make a living that does not interfere with your imagination. This may be harder than you think.
Working as a legal secretary didn''t tax my imagination, but it certainly exhausted me!
Working as a technical writer used many of the same parts of my brain as fiction, so for 14 years I mainly wrote poetry. But write something!
Working as a legal secretary didn''t tax my imagination, but it certainly exhausted me!
Working as a technical writer used many of the same parts of my brain as fiction, so for 14 years I mainly wrote poetry. But write something!
Judith Stephens
I wake up at 5:30 am and drink a cup of coffee. I usually find a whole bunch of stuff in my head.
Judith Stephens
Hunger, A Tale of the Yukon. I've always been fascinated with the 1898 gold-rush.
Judith Stephens
After my grandfather was murdered in 1926 in south Texas, it was clear that the authorities, for whatever reason, did not want to investigate. They were also not investigating the murders of hobos in the rail yards. The family, in their pain, passed their daddy's death off as "an automobile accident." My father and his grandmother knew the truth, but nobody wanted to admit that something like that had happened, just as they didn't want to admit that Grandma really did know Jesse and Frank James. So the first half of the book is family history. The second half is me trying to make it come out right this time! (the essence of fiction, I think)
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