S.M. Stevens's Blog, page 2

Alice Meets Dorothy; The Hippo; and Local NH Appearances

Come see me this Saturday or next Wednesday at a local author event, or — if you’re not in southern New Hampshire or northern Massachusetts — I have a few other ways we can get to know each other better. But first, a funny. I don’t know who created this or I would gladly give credit. A friend shared it, and I knew I had to re-share as it hits all the literary, great character and twisted sense of humor notes that I love.

Manchester Craft Market (NH)

I love meeting readers at author events. Events are a low-key way for people to interact with their favorite authors, and if you happen to have read my books, I love getting direct feedback.

This Saturday, May 24, I’ll be with a dozen other authors at the Manchester Craft Market (MCM) in Manchester, New Hampshire from 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM. If you haven’t been to MCM before, it’s well worth a visit. I was blown away the first time I went. This store is filled with crafts, art, food, jewelry, clothes, books and more, all from regional artists and creators. Free admission of course. Manchester Craft Market is at the Mall of New Hampshire, 1500 South Willow St., Manchester, NH. (Note: Not in Manchester, Mass.)

The Hippo, which is New Hampshire’s biggest weekly entertainment magazine, ran this article today about the MCM and the author event. Article is on page 20, or here’s a screenshot:

(And if you missed it, here’s an interview with me that The Hippo published last year.)

Hancock Town Library

Then, on Wednesday, May 28, from 7:00 – 8:00 PM, I’ll be doing a free reading from Beautiful & Terrible Things at the Hancock Town Library. I’ll thrilled that I’ll be joined by my good friend and fellow author Dawn Reno Langley, who is in the midst of a book tour to launch her new novel, The Mystic. I’ve loved all of Dawn’s books, and had the honor of being an early reader on this one. It’s set in 1950s Malden, Mass., and explores racism and moral dilemmas with the pace of a thriller.

My latest, as you may know, explores racism, immigration and mental health. Dawn and I joke that we should have called our joint appearances “Books With Issues.”

After we read from our novels, we’ll take questions from the audience. Hope you can join us if you’re in the area! The library is at 25 Main Street in Hancock, New Hampshire. (If you do, note that parking is behind the library.)

Other Upcoming Events

I’ll also be at several Pride festivals in the coming weeks, in Portsmouth, NH; Manchester, NH; and Windham, Maine. Check out my full Calendar for details.

Why Pride? Because Beautiful & Terrible Things, while not an LGBT-themed novel, includes a nonbinary person and a bisexual in its diverse cast of charcters. Those representations, and the book’s overall quality, have earned it two LGBTQIA+ awards including a Gold in the Reader Views Reviewer’s Choice Awards.

Further, my award-winning novelette, The Wallace House of Pain, is the story of a young man coming out to his straight-laced father. And the second book in my Young Adult Bit Players series has an LGBT theme as the gay lead in the school play is the subject of homophobic bullying.

Connect With Me

If you don’t live in my region, never fear — there are more ways to connect with me than you could ever need! I do post regularly on Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky, if you’re active on any of those platforms and want to follow my more frequent news there. I also post on TikTok but not as regularly as I hate being on camera! Making videos of myself is not my forte, but I am trying to get better at it.

My social media posts cover everything from what I’m working on now and book news (including new reviews), to topics related to my books (e.g. May is Mental Health Month), literary fun (witness Alice and Dorothy), to glimpses into my life (see the black-and-blue finger below – just trying to keep it humble haha!)

My own clumsiness amazes me sometimes! This little beauty is from using a pair of scissors. Yep, that skill we all learned in elementary school….May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Depression and bipolar are themes in contemporary novel “Beautiful & Terrible Things” and I am honored that so many readers find those depictions authentic and heart-rending. If you need help, please reach out to one of the many organizations offering free support. In honor of Frank Baum’s birthday, May 15, here’s a hilarious take on an imaginary meeting between Baum’s Dorothy and Lewis Carroll’s Alice

Here are links to my social pages, if you care to follow:

InstagramFacebookBlueskyTikTok

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1 Day Sale – Sunday, May 4 – Beautiful & Terrible Things for 99¢

If you’ve been waiting, now is the perfect time to pick up your ebook of award-winning novel Beautiful & Terrible Things because my publisher, Black Rose Writing, is putting it on sale for just 99¢. Note that this is a one-day sale on Amazon, tomorrow only, Sunday, May 4.

Buy Now

The contemporary story has now won seven awards, in categories such as general fiction, contemporary fiction, LGBTQIA+ fiction and social issues fiction. But at its heart, it is simply a friendship story, so if that appeals to you, be sure to get your sharply discounted copy tomorrow.

Don’t Take It From Me

Before I go, here’s what Ray B. posted about the book in a recent review:

Beautiful and Terrible Things is a beautifully written novel that explores the full spectrum of human emotion—grief, hope, love, and resilience—with unflinching honesty. The author has a rare gift for capturing life’s messiness without losing sight of its meaning. The characters are authentic and deeply relatable, and their struggles feel incredibly real.

What makes this book stand out is its balance—it doesn’t sugarcoat pain, but it doesn’t sink into despair either. It invites you to sit with both the beautiful and the terrible things life throws at us and find something human and redemptive in the tension.

Highly recommended for readers who enjoy emotionally rich fiction that lingers long after the final page.

More Information and Where to Buy

Order the book for 99¢ and read more reviews on Amazon here.

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Video Fun

It’s time to take a break from reading and watch some videos! I know — that’s heresy coming from an author. But videos, as we all know, can be informative and FUN. So enjoy this small collection of videos, some of which are new and some of which are oldies but goodies. They are a mixture that includes a video on how, as a White, straight, CIS woman, I write diverse characters; a video review of my new novel from a popular podcaster; and a reading of excerpts from my kids’ chapter book Shannon’s Odyssey.

And be sure to check out USA Today bestselling author Amy Vansant’s new “cozy animal mystery” — see details at the end of this post.

Milestones

But first, a quick and heartfelt thank you to all who helped me reach two big milestones since Beautiful and Terrible Things was published last summer: More than 1,000 subscribers have signed up to follow my books news. The number is actually more than 1,300!

And I am closing in on 100 reviews on Amazon. (I had hoped to be there by the time this post published, but I’m at 95.) Read the newest reviews here. (I recommend skipping the one by Sundance Kid, not because it’s two stars — I’m OK with mixed reviews and no one book is right for everyone — but because it has a major spoiler, and a lot of inaccuracies…)

I thank each and every one of you who have subscribed and/or reviewed the book. Or as Ted Lasso would say, “I appreciate you.” (I finally got myself Apple TV so I could watch the show everyone raves about!)

Fun New Videos

Now on to our video fun!

As I mentioned in my last post, I was honored to be the guest on Karen E. Osborne’s podcast What Are You Reading? What Are You Writing, which aired April 1. (Watch the full episode here.) Below is a short excerpt from that interview, containing Karen’s Book Review of my Beautiful and Terrible Things, which she reads as an intro to our discussion:

This next video contains my conversation with Karen about cultural appropriation in literature and the use of sensitivity readers to achieve authenticity. I like to call this video: How the Heck Does a CIS, White, Straight Woman Write Diverse Characters Such as Bisexuals, Black, Immigrants and People with Mental Health Conditions?

And this video answers the burning question, What the Heck is a Novelette? — the genre my book The Wallace House of Pain falls into.

Oldies But Goodies

Our video fun continues with a few older ones. In this video, I relate a quick story about How A Reader Made My Day at a book event last year:

I would be remiss to not include the Official Trailer for Beautiful and Terrible Things in this collection of videos, in case you haven’t seen it yet:

Finally, if you’re interested in children’s books, this video is a virtual reading I gave to a Rhode Island school, of excerpts from my Middle Grade chapter book, Shannon’s Odyssey — complete with fun animal pictures. Shannon’s Odyssey is an adventure story featuring a spunky 11-year-old, animal communication and a touch of magic.

New Read from Bestselling Author

Just in time for Easter, USA Today bestselling author Amy Vansant has released Pineapple Easter Egg, which is full of hidden “Easter eggs” for you to spot, adding to the fun of the story itself. The brand new book is already at #15 on Amazon’s list of “cozy animal mysteries.”

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Meet Buwan: Character Profile & Excerpt

Before we jump into Buwan’s profile, mark your calendars for my interview with podcaster and author Karen E. Osborne, airing on Tuesday, April 1. You’ll be able to watch the show, called “What Are You Reading? What Are You Writing?” after 9:00 a.m., on Karen’s YouTube channel. (And check out her just-released murder mystery, Justice for Emerson, which I loved!)

This is the last of six character profiles to introduce you to the group of friends in Beautiful & Terrible Things. Award-winning author Cam Torrens had this to say about the friendship aspect of the story:

“Stevens left me with the lesson that we are born as we are, but live lives shaped by the transformative power of friendship.”

Character Profile: Buwan

Meet Buwan Bakunawa: Buwan, or “Bu” as his friends call him, is a 31-year-old, straight, Filipino-American man. He is an unemployed artist who suffers from Bipolar 1 Disorder. His name means “moon” in the Tagalog language.

What He Represents: Our instability

Personality in Brief: The Artist

Personality in More Detail: Buwan is a happy-go-lucky individual on the surface, but he bears the weights of racism due to his bronze skin and of his mental health challenges. In some ways, he is the glue that holds the group together, reminding them of what matters most in life with his casually dispensed nuggets of wisdom.

A reader favorite, he has a habit of pointing out that “there are two kinds of people in the world” – for example, those who, as adults, continue trying to please their parents, and those who don’t.

His Challenges, Hopes & Dreams: Buwan’s mental health struggle is significant enough that his goal in life is merely to hold down a job or sell his artwork.

What Others Say

How the Friends Describe Buwan:

Charley: A sprightly figure with bronze skin, short black hair, and a huge smile burst from inside with a bang of the screen door. A Chinese-looking dragon tattoo emerged from the sleeve of his black T-shirt, encircling much of his left arm, and tattooed bracelets of various geometric designs encircled his right forearm.

How Reviewers Describe Him

“Buwan [wages] a heartbreaking war to be someone other than himself.” (Booklife)

“Bu, perhaps the most challenged, is the heart of the group and the story.” (Carla on Goodreads)

What Buwan Says

Quotable Quotes:

“I’m not really an introvert. I like being around people. I only like being alone when I’m in my studio. But technically, I go both ways, social and anti-social. High and low. Officially. Medically.”

“[Depression is] a sickness. When you get a cold, no one tells you to decide you don’t have one. They don’t say it’s the food you eat or your attitude making you sneeze and cough. But when someone’s got a mental illness, people say you should just get over it or decide to be normal. If it was that easy, a lot less people would be depressed.”

“There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who seek the love they need, and those who seek people they think need them. Wanting to help people doesn’t make you bad. But don’t forget to think about what you need.”

“If we don’t stand by our friends, we’re nothing.”

Excerpt: Buwan

Buwan had put his prescription away after making plans for this weekend with Xander, first because he was tired of feeling sluggish and foggy-brained, and he missed the power of creativity rushing through his veins; second, because Xander had said he’d bring a few female friends, and Buwan needed his sex drive back to normal, just in case.

He lay on the living room floor, trying to lure Fred into play. Fred stood, stretched, yawned, and padded down the hallway where he nudged Xander’s door open. Buwan heard the dog settle on the floor inside with a grunt.

“Traitor,” Buwan mumbled while pacing the living area. His energy had increased throughout the day, his long-suppressed vitality returning in an ebb and flow pattern, and now he was jazzed. Giving in to the house’s silence, he retreated upstairs to his parents’ room, where he flopped onto the bed and lay spread-eagled, his eyes tracing the swirled architectural detail on the ceiling.

He’d been mildly depressed when his parents first suggested he invite friends out to their summer home for the weekend more than a month ago. Then he ran into his old high school friend Xander before a therapy appointment in the city, and he’d asked Xander to come to the summer house basically to make his parents happy. But over the next few days, Buwan repeatedly flashed back to how stable and strong he’d been in high school, and he got excited about the weekend, thinking it might bring some surety back to his life. Excitement turned to frustration when he realized merely thinking about his better years wasn’t going to return him to the physical and mental state of that time. In particular, his weight bothered him; he fluctuated from paunchy when taking his meds reliably to skinny when the mania was stronger than the meds. Reliable muscle tone was a thing of the past.

Convincing himself he would stop the meds only long enough to lose a few pounds and regain some energy before the weekend, he went cold turkey. Sure enough, a few days ago he’d felt life surging through his body, albeit still sluggishly and in bursts, and his appetite abated. His brain cleared, his thoughts crispened. His confidence returned from the dark closet where it had been biding its time.

And now, man, he had so much energy. He jumped off the bed and moved to the master suite’s spacious sitting room, which his parents had re-purposed as a studio with a daybed for him. Both the studio and bedroom pulled the water view in through massive picture windows in daytime. At night, the studio window resembled a gaping, pitch-black abyss, until Buwan flicked on the light and tamed the view. He picked out a primed, four-by-five-foot canvas from a stack in the corner and set it on his easel. He wheeled over two small tables, one holding palette paper, his favorite palette knife, and a clean rag. The other held dozens of acrylic paint tubes, several large tin cans full of brushes, and a glass jar, which he filled with water in the bathroom before replacing it on the table.

He selected a large brush and faced the easel. The nighttime window reflected the back of the easel and canvas, and Buwan, paintbrush hovering in the air. Susurrant water sounds filtered through smaller, open windows to the sides of the picture window. He closed his eyes for several minutes. Upon opening them, he tore off his T-shirt, revealing a series of moon tattoos trailing down his spine, starting with a waxing crescent at the top, building to a full moon in the middle, and ending with a waning crescent.

His tattooed arms took off in a frenzy of sweeping motions like a symphony conductor guiding his musicians. The sinuous dragon on his arm rippled as if it were a muse guiding the creation. Buwan blazed broad trails of color across the canvas, jabbed blobs of paint as accents, and slowed to a concentrated pace to refine hue, line, and intensity to his liking.

Three hours later, arm and wrist muscles throbbing, he dropped face first onto the daybed, paintbrush clutched in one hand. The paintbrush dropped, smearing an inch of rich black paint on the light gray wooden floor. Drool slid out of the corner of his mouth as he snored, smiling, into the sheets.

Where to Buy

Beautiful and Terrible Things is available in paperback, ebook and audiobook, on all major sites. Click here to get to most of them; it’s also available on Walmart and Target.

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Best Literary Fiction Book of the Year, and Musing on Genre

I’m pretty excited to tell you that Beautiful and Terrible Things has won another book award! And this time, it’s a first-place win, as opposed to the finalist and honorable mentions received to date. My contemporary novel was named “2024’s Best Literary Book of the Year” in the Indies Today Awards.

And, hot off the presses, my novel has been awarded the Gold in the Reader Views Reviewer’s Choice Awards, in the LGBTQIA+ category!

The book has now won awards for General Fiction, Social Issues Fiction and LGBTQ+ Fiction. But Indies Today is the first to recognize it as award-worthy Literary Fiction.

But if I’m being honest, I don’t even consider my novel Literary Fiction. Why not? Read on.

What is Literary Fiction?

First, if you don’t follow the publishing industry, or aren’t an author yourself, you might be confused by the fact that Indies Today even has a category called Literary. Aren’t all books literary? Well, it depends on how you define it.

“Literary” means related to literature, so yes, in a sense all fiction could be considered literary.

But the publishing industry — literary agents, editors and publishers, writing contest organizers — use the term “literary fiction” to refer to sophisticated, what some would call high-brow, writing. Think of Pulitzer Prize-winning works, or the novels you were assigned in high school English class — the ones that either made you groan due to their length, lack of action and verbose style, or lick your lips in glee if you were one of the rare teens who loved nothing more than getting lost in a thick tome. Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby might come to mind.

While “commercial fiction” focuses on a fast-moving plot, literary fiction focuses on character development. The lesser emphasis on plot and action is what leads many readers to classify these books as simply “boring.” It all depends on your taste.

But another differentiator between commercial and literary fiction is the language. When an author’s words make you stop, back up and re-read a passage just to appreciate the beauty of the words again, that’s most likely literary fiction. That has happened to me with the opening pages of Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, and pretty much anything by Toni Morrison.

What About Commercial Fiction?

But can’t a commercial novel have beautiful language, you ask? Of course! Dean Koontz wraps his supernatural thrillers in lovely language and dense description that leave me in awe. But his stories also have fast-paced plots.

Many consider commercial fiction to include thrillers, mysteries, horror, romance, science fiction and fantasy — stories that have wide appeal and follow a fairly predictable pattern, although they leave plenty of room for skilled authors to shape original stories. (Further confusing things, many in the industry call this type of book “genre fiction” instead of “commercial fiction” but we’ll stick with “commercial” lest this post get too messy.)

General & Mainstream Fiction

But what about those stories by, say, JoJjo Moyes or Kristin Hannah, that don’t fall into one of those commercial genres, but — incredible as they are — don’t seem to fall into the literary fiction genre either? Now we have some choices: General Fiction, Mainstream Fiction or Upmarket Fiction.

General and Mainstream typically refer to novels that can’t be slotted into one of the commercial genres like mystery or sci-fi, but aren’t as “sophisticated” in writing style as true literary fiction. If you really want to get into the weeds on the genres mentioned so far, check out this excellent article by Mark Malatesta on Literary Agent Undercover.

So Moyes and Hannah could be shelved here, or they could be considered…

Upmarket Fiction

On Jane Friedman’s excellent blog, literary agent Carly Watters defines the relatively new genre of Upmarket Fiction as writing that blends elements of literary and commercial. How and what they blend varies by book, but in general, upmarket fiction has a fast-paced plot and ample character development, along with artful writing. (If you want to dig further into the differences between commercial, upmarket and literary, read the full article here.)

This need for a genre somewhere between commercial and literary led the Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE) to create a “Fantabulous Other” category for their Book Awards!

Do Readers Even Care?

At the end of the day, most readers don’t really care if a novel is considered literary fiction or something else. And most (but not all) bookstores have a Fiction section that combines Literary and General, so the average person doesn’t spend too much time thinking about this. The commercial fiction genres like romance, westerns and mysteries usually get their own sections.

I find readers tend to consider other aspects of fiction to slice and dice the books available to them, such as:

Time Period: Is it historical, contemporary, or futuristic?

Target Age Range: Is it written for “Young Adults” i.e. 13-18, or the relatively new genre of “New Adult” i.e. ages 19-29? Or it is “Adult Fiction” and if so, at what age does “adult” start? I find these categories helpful but slightly problematic because there is so much good fiction in all of these categories that transcends age group. I find it funny when an older person says they won’t read a book about a 25-year-old. Really? Weren’t we all 25 once? Is it so hard to relate?

Level of “Sophistication”: Some readers wouldn’t be caught dead with a “cheap romance” novel in their hands, while commercial fiction fans would rather shove toothpicks under their fingernails than be subjected to another long, wandering book like those assigned in high school. Others cross easily between genres, enjoying the best of both worlds.

But it does help to have some idea what type of book you’re picking up, so you’re not disappointed.

A Word on LGBTQIA+ Fiction

While I consider Beautiful and Terrible Things LGBTQIA+ fiction (and am very proud and grateful that it has won two awards in this category), it is not LGBT Romance, a genre that focuses mainly on romantic/sexual relationships. The fact that different characters in my novel have differing sexual preferences is “normalized” i.e. not the main plot point, in an attempt to mirror real life. Yet sexuality does figure fairly prominently into at least one character’s arc (shhhh, I’m not saying which one), but as part of a larger quest.

But LGBT Romance typically has hot and heavy sex scenes, which my novel does not. (None of my books have heavy sex; I prefer the “closed door” approach to romance, in which you feel the sexual tension between characters but the actual doing of the deed is left to your imagination.)

So What Genre is Beautiful and Terrible Things: A Novel?

Well, now that you know why I don’t consider Beautiful and Terrible Things to be literary fiction, what do I consider it?.

I believe it falls into these genres: Upmarket, Contemporary, Women’s Fiction to some extent (I’ve always had a problem with that genre title as I blogged about here), LGBT Fiction and Book Club Fiction.

How Do You Choose Your Books?

Thus ends our quick tour of the vagaries of literary genre. I’d love to know, how do you choose which books you’re going to read? Do you seek out a particular genre, or just crack open a book with no prior information and take your chances? Do you gravitate toward bestsellers or award-winners, or care more about recommendations from friends or online sources? Let me know in the comments.

Photo Credit: PexelsP.S. – Plot Devices

(Can you have a P.S. in a blog post? What the heck, it’s my blog, right?)

While we’re on literary topics, those of you who write fiction or want to write fiction might be interested in this article that appeared recently on The Rauch Review, in which I am quoted a few times. It’s all about plot devices: the different types, how they can be useful or detrimental to your story, and tips on how best to use them.

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Meet Jessica: Character Profile & Excerpt

This is the fifth of six character profiles to introduce you to the group of friends in Beautiful & Terrible Things, about which reader Erica D. says:

“This book reminded me of [the TV show] Friends, but with a more diverse set of characters that dealt with major issues…I absolutely fell in love with the six friends.”

Character Profile: Jess

Meet Jessica Delgado: Jess is an ambitious, often tactless 30-year-old straight woman of Columbian descent, who works as a corporate accountant and has been friends with Xander and Sunny since college.

What She Represents: Our ambition

Personality in Brief: The Executive

Personality in More Detail: Jess does better with numbers than with words and interpersonal communications. While caring, she is often so blunt that she’s tactless. And she’s so into efficiency that she refers to her friends by their first initials, i.e. Xander is “X” and Charley is “C”.

She is a second-generation Colombian-American, her parents having emigrated to the U.S. as adults before Jess was born. But she pushes away her heritage thinking that passing as white will help her career at the city’s biggest real estate development company.

Her Challenges, Hopes & Dreams: Jess’s focus is one-hundred-percent on her career and someday becoming a Chief Financial Officer for a major company.

What Others Say

How the Friends Describe Jess:

Charley: An attractive woman with short, asymmetrical brown hair and a huge smile descended the steps to the driveway. She wore a sleeveless red blouse and black Capri pants.

Terrance: Jessica had intense brown eyes and subtly highlighted short hair that reached to the bottom of her earlobe on the left and to her chin on the right. Olive skin, strong eyebrows, a perfect nose, rosy lips, and a cleft in her chin combined for a striking visage.

Xander: Being a raving capitalist and having a big heart are not mutually exclusive.

What Jess Says

Quotable Quotes:

Other than Xander and Sunny, all her friends were married, getting married, pregnant, getting pregnant, or recently pregnant. Jess did want a husband and kids someday. Just not yet.

“I’m not denying my heritage. It’s just not relevant to everyday life.”

“I don’t waste time hanging out with people I don’t like.”

“Why do I always have to be the only practical one here?”

Excerpt: Jessica

Jessica Delgado had a choice to make: which of her three standard breakup reasons to give Thomas—a sought-after investment banker, one of the city’s most eligible bachelors, and her Caribbean holiday companion for the last ten days.

Just as they touched down on American soil, Thomas casually announced he wanted to make their thirteen-week-old relationship exclusive. Jess had busied herself with her carry-on items, as if suddenly her pocketbook and computer bag had unorganized themselves. Now, options revolved in her head like the baggage carousel she and Thomas stood before. She calculated having twenty minutes at most to make her decision. Not ideal for someone used to digesting numbers and facts ad nauseum before recommending a course of action.

Telling the truth—that her focus remained solidly on her career for two more years minimum—had proved frustratingly ineffective with the last few men, who acted as if they knew her better than she knew herself. Right. Telling the man she simply wasn’t ready to commit was futile. He would say he’d hang on until she was ready. But she refused to continue a relationship in which the parties’ objectives weren’t aligned.

That left option number three, the strategy with the highest success rate of late.

“I’ve met someone else,” she blurted as her brown-and-black patterned suitcase plowed through the heavy plastic fringe separating outside from in. Thomas turned to her, mouth open, eyes hurt, luggage forgotten. She jutted out her lower lip and blew a puff of air up to shift her long side-swept bangs out of her eyes. “What I mean is, I ran into an old boyfriend right before we left. I can’t stop thinking about him. I’m so sorry, I didn’t plan this. You’re an amazing person who will make someone else very happy. Very soon.”

She stepped away to retrieve her suitcase from the carousel.

“Can we talk about it?” Thomas asked.

“I’m sorry. There’s nothing to talk about. Thank you for coming. This was a great vacation.” She rolled her luggage outside while Thomas tactfully ducked into the men’s room to avoid an awkward wait together at the taxi stand.

Fifty-two minutes later, she arrived home to the apartment she shared with two roommates. Rifling through her pile of mail, she was accosted by two wedding invitations from high school friends and a baby shower invitation from a colleague.

Why, she wondered, did people insist on spending three percent of their wedding budgets printing and mailing invitations when an evite would suffice, freeing up cash to be funneled into other aspects of their events while doing something good for the planet? Unlike the brides-to-be, whom she’d grown up with in one of the city’s more affluent suburbs, Jess prided herself on demonstrating more economy. She bought her fine-quality clothes at discount stores and websites. Rather than rent a posh high-rise apartment closer to downtown, she lived here, in this cheaper but less convenient neighborhood that allowed her to bank two-thousand dollars a month toward a down payment on the city center condo she planned to buy in the near future.

At least the reason for the hard-copy shower invitation was clear, if annoying. When Jess opened the card, a flurry of pastel pink and blue confetti in the shape of baby booties and rattles spilled all over the floor.

“Fred, no!” she cried at Xander’s dog, who licked up a few pieces of confetti before Jess towed him away. She tossed the invitation onto the table and collapsed on the couch. Other than Xander and Sunny, all her friends were married, getting married, pregnant, getting pregnant, or recently pregnant. Jess flicked a tenacious baby blue bootie from her leg. She did want a husband and kids someday. Just not yet. 

Where to Buy

Beautiful and Terrible Things is available in paperback, ebook and audiobook, on all major sites. Click here to get to most of them; it’s also available on Walmart and Target.

The post Meet Jessica: Character Profile & Excerpt appeared first on S.M. Stevens.

4 Freebies: Ebooks, Audiobooks & Serialized Memoir

Today I bring you 4 freebies — free offers for ebooks, audiobooks and a serialized memoir, and I bring you an update on Beautiful & Terrible Things. (Feel free to forward this email to friends you think might be interested in the offers.)

World Day of Social Justice

But first, I want to mention that February 20 is the United Nation’s World Day of Social Justice. This day of celebration, education, advocacy and mobilization puts forth the idea that increased social justice through better national and international policies enables societies, countries and economies to function better.

Social justice is one of two major themes in Beautiful & Terrible Things. (The other is friendship.) I’ve tried to contribute to this ideal in my own way through jobs in renewable energy and wildlife conservation, and by supporting charitable organizations. As with most social initiatives (think recycling), every little bit matters, right?

Beautiful & Terrible Things Named to the Sarton Award’s Shortlist

Beautiful & Terrible Things has been named to the shortlist for the 2024 Sarton Award from Story Circle Network! My new novel is one of four books shortlisted in the Contemporary Fiction category. For almost 30 years, Story Circle Network has been “dedicated to helping women of all ages share the stories of their lives through memoir, poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama.” The prestigious Sarton Award recognizes books that honor the lives of women and girls. The winner will be announced in April. Fingers crossed…

NOW ON TO THE FREEBIES!!Horseshoes and Hand Grenades – Free Ebook & Audiobook for Survivors

I am giving away free copies of my contemporary novel Horseshoes and Hand Grenades to any survivor of incest, sexual abuse or workplace sexual harassment.

Why? Because a therapist recently told me that she gave a copy of the book to a client, an incest survivor, and it gave me this idea. Because I wrote the story to help victims and survivors, especially those who experienced “mild abuse” and are struggling to accept that what happened to them matters. And because I care far more about helping survivors than making money with this one.

So if you or someone you know is a survivor and would like a free copy of the novel, please email me at info@authorsmstevens.com. I will email you back the ebook as an epub file, or an Audible promo code for the audiobook. Be sure to let me know which you prefer.

There are no strings attached. There is no limit to how many books I’ll give away (although I don’t have unlimited audiobooks, and I reserve the right to discontinue this offer at any time). I won’t keep your email address, and I won’t ask for anything in return.

Free Substack Subscriptions for Unconditioned Memoir

The days of serialized fiction à la Charles Dickens are back! Novels, memoirs and short fiction increasingly are being shared in installments through services like Substack.

One such book is Unconditioned, a memoir by Christine Destrempes. I have the good fortune to know Christine, and the equally good fortune to have read Unconditioned, which offers a compelling story wrapped up in poignant, elegant prose. The memoir is the story of an intuitive girl’s unrelenting quest to overcome the shame of abuse inflicted by parents with unresolved trauma. After years of trial and mostly error, she breaks the chain and creates a life of love, creativity, and contentment.

This beautiful memoir — you’ll laugh, you’ll cry — is being delivered in one very digestible chapter per week on Substack, and I have five, free, one-month subscriptions to Christine’s Substack to give away to the first five people to email me at info@authorsmstevens.com. That gives you access to the first, and possibly second, chapter, so you can decide if you want to keep reading. (I’ll update this post to say when all five have been awarded.)

You can also check out the first chapter for free here.

Beautiful & Terrible Things – Free Audiobooks

My publisher, Black Rose Writing, has three free copies of the audiobook of Beautiful and Terrible Things for me to give away to U.S. readers. I’m using a giveaway tool for this one so I can choose three winners randomly. That means you have to do something to enter, so I made it easy: Simply visit my Facebook or Instagram page. Click here to enter.

By the way: I am not promoting this offer on my social media; I am only mentioning it in this email to you and in the actual blog post, so your chances of winning are excellent!

The Wallace House of Pain – Free Ebook

If you received this post in your email, and are a follower of my News, don’t forget you are entitled to a free ebook of my award-winning novelette, The Wallace House of Pain, which features the same characters as Beautiful & Terrible Things (but is a completely different story). The Wallace House of Pain focuses on Xander but all six friends make appearances. As Julie Sara Porter of Bookworm Reviews recently wrote in a review, The Wallace House of Pain “is a small thread in the tapestry of the larger work, but a very important one.”

Upon signing up, you were sent an email with a password to access your free ebook along with other Bonus Materials. Here’s information on the Bonus Materials should you need it, here’s a link to the password-protected Bonus Materials page again, and let me know if you need the password re-sent.

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Meet Xander: Character Profile & Excerpt

This is the fourth of six character profiles to introduce you to the group of friends in Beautiful & Terrible Things. Award-winning author Kathy Maresca describes the camaraderie between the six this way:

“Imagine the 90’s sitcom Friends in 2024.”

And she is not the only one to compare my crew to the Friends crew — several other reviewers have done the same.

Today, we meet Xander.

Character Profile: Xander

Meet Xander Wallace: Xander is a 28-year-old white, bisexual activist working as a community organizer for an environmental organization.

It’s funny how some readers love Xander, while others…not so much. I think this is because in his passion to defend equal rights for all, he sometimes oversteps and annoys people. I’d love to know if you liked him or not, in the comments.

What He Represents: Our passion

Personality in Brief: The Idealist

Personality in More Detail: When he’s not passionately defending equal rights, Xander is chill, Zen, and quirky, spouting haiku poems as he goes through life, and using a broad, somewhat formal vocabulary because “there are more than a million words in the English language, each awaiting its turn in the spotlight.” Despite his sometimes abrasive personality, he truly cares about his friends; in fact, he is the catalyst that brings the group of six friends together.

His Challenges, Hopes & Dreams: Xander strives daily to make the world a better place. When the book starts, creating equality and standing up for disenfranchised populations is his focus in life. Does he change by the end? You’ll have to read to find out.

On the home front, Xander struggles to tell his father he is bisexual. There wasn’t room to include that part of his story in Beautiful and Terrible Things, but you can find it in The Wallace House of Pain, an award-winning, short book featuring all of the six friends from Beautiful and Terrible Things. Read more about The Wallace House of Pain here, and see formats and purchasing options here. (And if you follow my News, then you have access to a free digital copy.)

What Others Say

How His Friends Describe Xander:

Charley: He was about her age, tall and wiry, with a mess of dirty blonde hair almost reaching his shoulders, blue eyes, a thin, slightly hooked nose, and a short beard glistening with a few apparently unfelt raindrops. He spoke in a laid-back style bordering on a drawl, in complete contrast to his stilted, formal words.

What Reviewers Say:

I’m quite drawn to Xander who is so quirky and full of life. (Sonni Chullan on Goodreads)

Xander’s infectious energy becomes a catalyst for Charley’s transformation. (Sublime Book Review)

A charismatic activist…Xander’s exuberance and compassion offer a glimmer of hope. (Readers’ Favorite)

The scholarly speaking, eccentric environmentalist is quirky and charming, and Charley can’t help but feel drawn to him and his motley crew of friends. (Reader Views)

I wouldn’t necessarily condone some of Xander’s behaviour. (Chat About Books)

…the charming and eccentric Xander, using words like “salubrious” in everyday conversation and freestyling poetry, barrels onto the scene. (Booklife)

Xander, the quirky idealistic leader of the group, is a real standout. (Author Gail Ward Olmsted)

What Xander Says

Quotable Quotes:

“Life is fleeting, my friend. Drink the wine, eat the dessert, and buy the books.”

“[My haiku are] meant to be savored fleetingly and by whomever I am with, and perchance the universe if it’s listening. Writing them down would diminish their essence.”

“For discrimination to end, against any disenfranchised population, oppressors must travel along a spectrum of change.”

Excerpt: Xander

Xander woke with his promise to the world’s disenfranchised populations echoing in his head: Today, I will make a difference. Today, I will do my part and demand change and equality.

His participation in the afternoon’s march and rally was mandatory in his mind. The more individuals who turned out, the greater the mass and the more powerful the impact.

Every body counts had been his mantra since attending his first protest at age sixteen. His social studies teacher had taken a small group of students to Washington, D.C. for a protest challenging a bill that would classify undocumented immigrants and those who helped them as felons. As he chanted with the other protestors, something fresh and meaningful stirred in him. The awkwardness and insults that defined high school melted away, replaced by the passion and courage required to demand change and the confidence required to think you can make a difference. Gone for the moment was the angst attached to his bisexuality and the imagined reaction from his father if he ever dared to come out, pushed aside by a keen worldview and more holistic sense of purpose.

The bug got hold of him and never let go.

He arose, stretched his wiry arms to the ceiling, ran a hand through his unruly dirty blonde curls, and combed his short brown beard with his fingers. The familiar buzz he lovingly called protest fever began to surge in his veins. He grabbed his shorts and headed to the bathroom.

Where to Buy

Beautiful and Terrible Things is available in paperback, ebook and audiobook, on all major sites. Click here to get to most of them; it’s also available on Walmart and Target.

Side Note: Crows & Ravens

Xander is a treasure trove of animal factoids, for reasons explained in the book. In Chapter 13, he explains the amazing characteristics of crows to Charley. I am a huge fan of crows and ravens, finding them intriguing and incredible rather than dark and scary. Check out my list of “The best novels highlighting the amazing abilities of crows and ravens” on book recommendation site Shepherd.com.

Illustration credit: WebP

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How to Vote Anonymously for AllAuthor’s Cover of the Month

Beautiful and Terrible Things is now in Round 3 of AllAuthor’s January Cover of the Month contest! Competition promises to be fierce in this round. Only 24 of the 50 covers in the running make it to the final round and some of the leaders clearly have a massive following voting for them.

If you agree that the cover of Beautiful and Terrible Things is a winner, please vote before Round 3 ends in a few days. Here’s how you can vote without creating an AllAuthor account. (If you already have a free AllAuthor account, or don’t mind creating one, that works too of course!)

This “anonymous voting” option, as AllAuthor calls it, is in beta and although it really is quick and easy, at the same time it can be a little tricky finding the right places to click.

So, here are the two ways I’ve found that you can vote anonymously, with detailed instructions.

Note that you can only vote for 24 covers total. Of course, voting for just a few books or only Beautiful and Terrible Things helps those books more than voting for a full 24…

Method #1 – Sign In with Facebook

This way seems to be the easiest, if you have a Facebook account:

Go to: https://allauthor.com/cover-of-the-month/If on a computer, click on SIGNUP at the top. If on a phone, the Signup option will appear in a pop-up window.A window will pop up asking you to enter information including a user name and password. You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to create an account. Instead, you can click on the little Facebook icon at the top of the popup window. (See image to the right.)AllAuthor will then either ask you to confirm your Facebook account, or log into your Facebook account.

That’s it! You’ll be able to see all 50 covers and vote accordingly.

Method #2Go to this page: https://allauthor.com/cover-of-the-month-voting/. (You can also get there from their homepage by going to Contest at the top and choosing Anonymous Voting from the dropdown menu.)You will be shown 2 covers and can vote for your favorite or pick both. However…If you don’t want to flip through 25 sets of covers, or want to see all 50 covers at once, click on the orange button (see image below) that says View All Fiction Covers.You will go to a page showing all 50 books. Simply scroll down to vote for the ones you want.Let Us Know How It Goes

Because website navigation is not a linear affair, I can’t promise this is exactly how it will work on your computer or phone with your browser. But it should be close enough that you can log in with Facebook if you want, or vote anonymously in the Cover of the Month contest using Method #2. If you have any issues, feel free to let us know.

And thank you again for the votes and support! Let’s make it to Round 4!!

The post How to Vote Anonymously for AllAuthor’s Cover of the Month appeared first on S.M. Stevens.

Like My Cover? Please Vote! And Other Random Updates

I’ve lost track of how many readers and authors have said they love the cover of Beautiful and Terrible Things. I love it too, and am so grateful to the design team at Black Rose Writing for the incredible work that captures the diverse cast and the book’s “vibe” so well. If you agree the cover is gorgeous, please consider casting a vote for it in AllAuthor’s Cover of the Month Contest. It would be much appreciated; details are below.

2024 Highlights & New Updates

So, a new year is here. I don’t want to spend too much time looking back, but the launch of Beautiful and Terrible Things was incredible, thanks to the support of so many including you, my followers. The contemporary novel has a 4.7 rating on Amazon and has won 4 awards since being released in July.

On to new news (is that redundant?): Book review blogger Julie Sara Porter of Bookworm Reviews, who reviewed Beautiful and Terrible Things for Reedsy Discovery, named the book the best contemporary novel of 2024!

And, the book has made the “long list” for the Somerset Awards in the Chanticleer International Book Awards. CIBA bestows awards in various categories. The Somerset is for outstanding works in the genres of Contemporary and Literary Fiction.

New Book Reviews

Beautiful and Terrible Things and some of my older books have been getting lovely reviews from readers and professional reviewers. I’ll share bits from those reviews for those of you who aren’t familiar with the stories.

The Winter 2025 issue of Review Tales magazine, a traditional magazine and e-magazine sold on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, includes a review of Beautiful and Terrible Things. That review includes this bit:

“Set against a diverse and dynamic cityscape, Stevens unfolds a tapestry of interconnected lives, illustrating how human connections shape, uplift, and sometimes fracture the lives they touch. Stevens’ writing is poignant yet accessible, skillfully pulling readers into the lives and emotions of her characters.”

Shannon’s Odyssey, my middle-grade adventure story, has new four- and five-star reviews on Amazon. Incognito wrote: “The story is full of surprises and teaches about being brave and never giving up. It’s also a little magical, which makes it extra fun to read. I liked it a lot. It’s exciting, has a great message, and is perfect for those who love adventure!” (Buy it here.)

Bit Players, Has-Been Actors and Other Posers, the first in my series set in a high school drama club, was reviewed in December by KC on Amazon, who wrote: “It captures the excitement of a high school drama program, where student ambitions are mixed with teen emotions. It follows Sadie, a determined young actress, through friendships, rivalries, and the staging of a musical inspired by Twilight. Fast-paced, the plot has its moments of humor, suspense, and heartfelt reflection. You’ll like this if you enjoy passion and perseverance high school stories.” (Buy it here.)

AllAuthor Cover of the Month Contest

I don’t usually try too hard when my books are entered in cover contests, if I’m being honest. In my experience, it’s usually romance covers showing headless, bare torsos of hunky men who win, and who can compete with that?

But this time around, I have had SO much positive feedback on the cover of Beautiful and Terrible Things that I’ve decided to go for it. But that means enlisting the help of people willing to vote for the cover. So here’s the deal:

My cover has already made it to Round 2 of AllAuthor’s Cover of the Month Contest. Round 2 ends this Tuesday, January 14. Of the one hundred covers in Round 2, only the top 50 will make it to Round 3. (Each round lasts one week.) If you agree the cover is a winner, please consider casting a vote and helping me get to Round 3. It would be very much appreciated, and how fun would that be to actually win recognition for the awesome cover?

I won’t issue another newsletter/blog post asking for votes in Rounds 3 and 4, if I make it to them, because I don’t want to pester you. But if you follow me on any of my social media (Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky), I’ll post reminders there when the time comes.

Go to this page to cast your vote now. You can vote for as few or as many covers as you want (up to 50). Best of all, AllAuthor now lets you vote in the Cover of the Month Contest anonymously and without creating a free account.

Thank you in advance!!

More Info on How to Vote

Here’s more info on how AllAuthor’s anonymous voting works, from their website:
– When a visitor lands on the voting page, two covers will be displayed at random.
– The visitor can choose one cover that looks the best.
– Or they can skip if none of the covers appeals to them.
– Once the visitor makes a selection, they will be shown two more different covers to choose from.

Or, if you don’t want to scroll through all the covers, but prefer to simply vote for my book, you can sign in using Facebook rather than create an account.

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