Stephanie Kelley

I’m a newbie to the world of published fiction.  I’ve always written, it’s just who I am. My two short stories featured in Smut are my first ever published works.

In high school, I filled my schedule with as many creative writing courses as I could fit into my schedule.  If I didn’t have a few pages for my friends to read on the bus home, I wouldn’t hear the end of it until one of us got off the bus. Those short scribbled stories for my friends often ended up as part of our annual high school literary magazine.

I went to college for Journalism. I had a radio show for three years, worked behind the scenes on our college television news program, and was the photographer and copy editor for the college paper. Whatever my class schedule, I always managed to sneak at least one creative writing class. I had a few instructors that I butted heads with creatively, and it always made for interesting classes

I’ve kept up writing through the years, but nothing was ever finished. I decided last year after some prompting from a dear friend, who is an amazing best selling author in her own right,  that I needed to buckle down,  finish something and put my own stories out there.  I realized I was hiding. I’d been hiding for years behind fear of failure. And I was tired of hiding behind fear. I grabbed onto the quote from Erin Hanson “Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?” and did my best to fly. I told myself, I’d have something out by the end of 2016. Now I have two short stories in Smut, and a full length novel that is currently on track to be released in January 2017. It’s been a journey this last year, and I have a lot of amazing people standing behind me that have been a great support system.

As far as my stories featured in Smut, they were both fun little pieces for me to write. By the Moon came about when I was scrolling through Pinterest while looking for inspiration for a painting that I never ended up doing. I came across a silhouetted graphic for Beltaine, also known as May Day, of a couple. The girl had a crown of flowers while the guy had antlers like Pan. I kept coming back to that graphic, I wanted to know their story.

Red is my take on the Red Riding Hood tale. This story actually came about because I was having a lousy day and was venting to my best friend from childhood. Somewhere in my rant that day I made a comment about Red Riding Hood. My bestie stops me and says, “That’s it. That’s the story you need to do. You said it, you can’t back out of it.”

I don’t know what she saw in me that I didn’t that day, but when you’ve been friends with someone for over 30 years, it’s best to listen to them. And I’m glad I did. I’m quite proud of this little short, and looking forward to what else is in store for Poppy and Harkin.  Keep an eye out on my Facebook page for updates on my projects.

My first full length novel, Steal the Sun, I am looking to release mid to late January of 2017. This is the first book in this series.

Steal the Sun is a supernatural story set in Alaska at the end of gold mining season. Something has caused towns folks and miners to go missing, but the disappearances are not what the Sesi family is used too and their gold mine could be next. The Sesi family has kept the supernatural population in lower Alaska in check since before the Alaskan gold rush, but like any family, they have their secrets from each other too. Secrets that could put them in harm’s way or tear them apart.

If you’d like to read something that’s not your typical garden variety shape shifter with a flirty merman thrown in, follow my Facebook page for updates regarding the upcoming release.

It was just supposed to be one night last summer, just a fling with him at his welcome home party. Just one hot, delicious, drunken romp in his truck was all we agreed on. Except we couldn’t keep our hands off each other and it turned into all night.

Rome was the guy all the local girls wanted; good family name, easy on the eyes,  skilled with his hands.  And I didn’t need linked to him.  I didn’t want to be in the shadowed spot light that was his life.

Now that man, who swore by the moon in a drunken confession that he was a witch, was at my library, silently waiting for me when I left work. I didn’t know what he wanted but he’d promised me magic that night last summer.  I didn’t believe in magic, but I knew the way he looked at me made me want to go back on my word.

Dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair…  Wait, that’s the opening for my favorite Eagles song. Probably shouldn’t be drinking and telling you this, but it kinda sucks to be the wolf with no Red Riding Hood to seduce when one is in a mood,  wait,  I mean chase… chase, that’s it. That is, until he shows up with flaming red hair and lots of muscles.

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