S.M. Stevens

After many years as a business writer, S.M. Stevens found the time to pen her first novel when a pelvis broken in 3 places absolved her from housework and chauffeuring the kids around for several months. The result was her middle-grade novel Shannon's Odyssey, written for adventurous animal-lovers. A year later, while in treatment for cancer, she wrote the first of the Bit Players series to fill the void of fiction for music and theatre-loving teens. The YA series now has three books, and appeals to all teens not just drama-loving ones. Her first adult novel (thankfully not prompted by another health crisis!) was Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, published in 2019. The story is a coming-of-age tale about two young women starting their careers in Boston while dealing with past and present demons. Her next novel, Beautiful and Terrible Things, will be released by Black Rose Writing in Summer 2024. For a taste of that, read the short story "Two Kinds of People" published on Smoky Quartz. You can also meet the characters through the novelette, The Wallace House of Pain (available on Amazon).