Elise Stephens’ storytelling is influenced by a love for theater and a childhood filled with globetrotting. She lives with her family in a house with huge windows, to supply the vast quantities of light she requires to stay happy. Her short stories have appeared in Analog, FIYAH, Galaxy’s Edge, Escape Pod, Writers of the Future Vol 35, and other places, including, of course, Stupefying Stories.
Her first appearance in our pages was “Two-Tone,” in Stupefying Stories 25. With the release two weeks ago of Thyme Travelers, which contains her story, “Remembrance in Cerulean,” it seemed like a good time to catch up with Elise and ask what she’s been doing lately.
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SS: If you could change one thing about the way you write, what would it be?
ES: Sometimes I wish I could write in a more organized fashion while writing a scene. However, because I’m a pretty emotional person, my feelings get revved up as soon as I begin engaging in the mental worlds and goals of my characters and… suddenly my handwriting gets sloppy and my formatting collapses and I can still recall all of the emotional beats afterward, but the messy draft is pretty much always my first draft. Sometimes I wish that I could write with better form so that it doesn’t take me so long to decipher my typos or correct all the extra spaces that my handwriting recognition software has inserted, due to the fact that I wrote it in such an elevated state. Or maybe my artistic process just isn’t tidy and I have this self-directed annoyance because I’ve got a few close friends who are editors and I find myself envious of their neat drafts. Believe it or not, I’m actually an author who plans and architects my stories very carefully, but apparently that neatness evaporates when I roll my sleeves up to write the draft itself. 😀
SS: Of everything you’ve had published, which book or story of yours is the one you are most proud of? Where can readers find it?
ES: Of my novels, Forecast is my favorite. It’s an urban fantasy about family and second chances and a spooky magical ability to see into the future. There’s a secret society and a familial curse and I love the twin teenage siblings.
Forecast is available on all the usual e-book platforms, and in print from Amazon. You’ll find the links here.
https://books2read.com/ForecastEliseStephens
Or you can go to my web site and find links to everything. (Including my free e-book!)
https://www.elisestephens.com/
SS: Do you listen to music while writing? If so, what kinds of music or which artists?
ES: Yes. Instrumental music is my favorite, but there are folk bands with lyrics that I love, too. I think I listened to the Netflix soundtrack from The Witcher on repeat for almost a full year while I was writing a particular fantasy novel. I also really enjoy The Game of Thrones soundtrack, and the work by the band The Amazing Devil.
SS: If you had a theme song that played every time you came into a room, what would it be?
ES: I have about a zillion songs spinning through my head in answer to that, but The Corrs have an instrumental song called “Rebel Heart” (Spotify Link) which I first heard via a friend in high school and then later went on to use it as the bride-walking-down-the-aisle song at my wedding.
SS: Your story, “Two-Tone:” is there anything special you’re hoping readers will notice or appreciate in it?
ES: Art is supposed to cause some degree of an emotional reaction in the people who experience it. I’ve exaggerated that with my emotion-infused paint that’s used in lumastration. I want readers to think about the impact that art has on others and whether the artist might bear some responsibility regarding the kind of art they create, since art can touch and sometimes even alter the hearts and minds of those who encounter it.
SS: What’s next for you? What are you working on now?
ES: I’m finishing up a novel set in the same world as “Two-Tone” — Nerr is also one of the main characters! —and hope to find a publishing home for it sometime in the near future. My agent is pretty excited about this book and I’m hopeful! Wish me luck!
SS: If you could snap your fingers and make one cliché, trope, or plot gimmick vanish, which one would it be?
ES: The writer with Writer’s Block. Bleh. This isn’t the main woe that professional writers face, but apparently that’s what the world thinks is our big hang-up.
SS: Thank you for your time, Elise. And now, just in case we haven’t mentioned it enough times, here’s where readers can find your story, “Two-Tone.”
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