S.M. Stevens's Blog, page 12

Fun Photo Friday: Paddle Boarding Santas

Love today’s Fun Friday Photo of paddle boarding Santas in Portland, Maine. Good to see Santa remaining active to counteract all those Christmas cookies left by the kids!

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Short Story Published in Smoky Quartz

I am honored to announce that Smoky Quartz has published my short story Two Kinds of People in their Fall 2021 issue.

Two Kinds of People was a labor of love for me, a way to breathe life into a character that otherwise would have been left comatose after my forthcoming novel was cut for length. I wrote about that in an earlier post, if you’re interested in the background.

Otherwise, I invite you to read the short story, and let me know what you think. It’s a modern story dealing with some modern and some, sadly, timeless issues. And similar to the old-school short stories I love, it has a twist ending.

Smoky Quartz is the online journal of the Monadnock Writers’ Group and has been showcasing poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, art and photography in its pages since 2012.

The Monadnock Writers’ Group “is a non-profit organization established by a group of writers from the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire in 1984…[We] offer fellowship and support to professional and novice writers alike. We are committed to raising public awareness of the literary talent in the region. Please visit our website at www.monadnockwriters.org.”

You can read the short story on the Smoky Quartz website here.

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Free Reading Guide for Book Clubs

I recently put together a Reading Guide for a local Book Club whose members were reading my novel Horseshoes and Hand Grenades. Compiling a list of the questions that were floating around in my mind when I wrote the book, plus the ones that actually drove the manuscript, was a lot of fun.

Even more fun was attending the Book Club’s meeting, and not just because it was my first time out in a while due to COVID! Sitting with a group of very intelligent people and chatting about their observations of the novel and how it relates to their lives was incredibly satisfying and thought-provoking.

Are you looking for an author to participate in your Book Club? Because I’d love to do more of this.

Here is the Reading Guide for Book Clubs that I put together for the recent session. Have a look and if Horseshoes and Hand Grenades seems like a good fit for your club, let me know and I’ll join by Zoom (or in person, if feasible).

Contact me using the form at the bottom of this page if you’d like me to email you a pdf of the Reading Guide.

Not sure if this is the book for your club? Check out the short video on this page to see what others say about it.

And thank you for supporting books, authors and reading in general through your Book Club!

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A Sad State of 280 Characters

I had a harsh moment of self-awareness recently when I realized our world’s sad state of addiction to Twitter-length “stories” of 280 characters had firmly entrenched its hooks in me.

I have always loved to read, since I was a little girl. As an adult, with grown kids and more time on my hands, I read anything: novels, nonfiction, magazines and newspapers. Even the backs of cereal boxes and nutrition labels. But for some years now, I’ve gotten the majority of my news off my phone, scanning stories over my breakfast that at most come in at say eight or ten paragraphs.

Then I decided I needed to start reading The Boston Sunday Globe again. I missed the indepth journalism, the commentary, and the crossword puzzle. But I can’t get it delivered to my home in New Hampshire–we’re too remote. So I trekked to the grocery store last Sunday to pick up a print edition of the paper.

A Horrifying Look in the Mirror

Then something horrifying happened. I settled in at the kitchen table with my breakfast, opened the paper to start reading, and my brain went, “This article is far too long–I don’t have time to read this.”

I nearly gasped into my Heritage flakes. In fact, I did have time. I just didn’t have the mental stamina to read a full-length news article. What had I become?

I adjusted my attitude, telling myself it was like reading a magazine. I read magazine articles all the time and have plenty of patience for the 5- to 15-minute commitment they require. So having reset my expectations, I was able to fully digest, and enjoy, the newspaper.

Is It Any Wonder?

No wonder print news is struggling, being subsumed by digital, online media. If I had to re-train myself to read an in-depth story, it’s a safe bet that those who aren’t readers by nature or find magazines too wordy for their busy schedules aren’t flipping any newsprint pages these days, preferring instead the brevity (and probably the immediacy) of news delivered in 280 characters or similarly short form.

I can’t change that. But I did change my mindset and am enjoying the results. Even if it takes me all week to work my way through the Sunday paper…

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Queenie Lives: A Short Story Success

Short stories are a new frontier for me. They require special skills that novel-length works don’t necessarily, and I am still working on my “craft” in this area. So, drumroll please, I am thrilled to announce that I have placed a short story in the online literary journal Smoky Quartz.

The publication of Two Kinds of People, as the story is entitled, is special to me not only because it is my first short story to be published. It’s also special because it allows my character Queenie to live on in print. Let me explain.

I had to cut down my work-in-progress novel, tentatively titled Beautiful and Terrible Things, due to length. Some of the scenes to “hit the cutting room floor” centered around Sunny, a biracial, nonbinary and very Zen person, and her friendship with Queenie, a homeless woman. Sunny is one of the novel’s six main characters, so she made the cut obviously.

But Queenie was reduced to a bit role. I believe her story is important, and am so grateful that the Monadnock Writers’ Group, publishers of Smoky Quartz, agreed.

Their exact words in an email to me were: “We all love Queenie; we’re honored that her story will appear in our journal.”

I can’t tell you too much about the story without giving away the twist, but I can say it touches on timely topics including homelessness and police violence.

Two Kinds of People will be published in the journal’s Fall issue, which comes out in late November.

(The flower image in this post is from the Spring 2021 issue of Smoky Quartz, and was taken by Maxwell Irwin.)

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Fun Photo Friday: Typo Humor

I’m in editing mode today so this meme with “typo humor” feels like a relevant Fun Photo Friday post!

(Meme stolen from author Joseph Carrabis and whomever he got it from.)

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Happy Birthday to Shelby & Astrid

Yes, I’m saying Happy Birthday to imaginary characters. If Keene, NH can hold a birthday party for Harry Potter, then I can do this.

I can’t believe that as of Sunday, Sept. 26th, it will have been two years since the novel one reviewer called “an insightful and compelling tale showing the strength of the female psyche” was published. I’m talking about my book Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, which is available in paperback, ebook and audiobook.

More important, though, is my recent discovery that the story of Shelby and Astrid, two women dealing with past and present demons, is helping victims heal. A reader who is a psychiatric nurse practitioner told me she gave copies of Horseshoes and Hand Grenades to two of her clients because she thinks it may help them address their trauma. That’s the #1 reason I wrote the book – to help other victims validate their own experiences. There is no compliment that could mean more!

So Happy Birthday Shelby and Astrid, and may you be in print for many more!

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Fun Photo Friday: Catchin’ Flies

Maybe you have to be a dog-lover to appreciate today’s Fun Photo Friday post, which is actually a video…Below is my dog Korra just-a-catchin’ flies. To be accurate, horseflies. Can you blame her? It’s either that or let them dive-bomb and bite her.

Apologies to any entomologists offended by this blatant display of destruction. I consider it an act of self-defense.

The Venus flytrap has nothing on my Korra!

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Audiobook Review: Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

Saying I’ve been absorbed in my work-in-progress would be an understatement considering I only this week caught up with The Audiobook Review’s post on Horseshoes and Hand Grenades! Their thorough review of the audiobook version of my novel was posted in February. (The audiobook was released in January 2021.)

Nothing is more fulfilling than having a reader “get” your book. So personally, I love this review.

Below is an excerpt, and here’s the full review on The Audiobook Review’s website. Very happy that my wonderful narrator, Jamie Lynn at North Loop Productions, and my amazing illustrator, Natalie Simone, both get shout-outs in the review.

“Horseshoes and Hand Grenades by S. M. Stevens is a novel that will likely stick in my mind for years to come. 

“Two different approaches to the theme of sexual and emotional abuse, handled delicately by the author. It could be easy to slip into a heavy-handed approach, but I think S. M. Stevens’s way of delivering the story gives it more power.

“Overall, a great story about… I want to say overcoming hardship, but that doesn’t seem like enough. Growing stronger and being more than just a victim and strong friendships that can help empower and guide you through the darkest of days. Well recommended.”

obook

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Fun Photo Friday: Scorpion Petting

Today’s Fun Photo Friday features an image hysterical to most authors I know. Hopefully others will enjoy it too! Scorpion petting. Who came up with that? But it’s so spot on.

It’s hard to quantify how important reader reviews are to authors in this Internet day and age. In fact, some book-focused newsletters and websites will only allow you to promote your book with them if it has a set number of reader reviews. So THANK YOU to all who take the time to post reviews.

Sometimes I wonder if the huge-name authors still appreciate reader reviews. My hope is, although it’s harder for them to read them all, most of them are still humble enough to be grateful when an individual takes the time to let others know how they feel about a book they’ve recently read.

(Nicely done, Liana Brooks and Debbie Ridpath, for creating/sharing this image!)

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