I wrote Horseshoes and Hand Grenades (being published in September by TouchPoint Press) in the hopes it will help victims of incest and other forms of sexual harassment and abuse give credence to their experiences, and take steps to heal.
So an endorsement like this one from early reader and poet Susan Roney-O’Brien means the world to me.
“For those among us who have experienced sexual abuse or harassment in our lives, the questions of fault, guilt and blame follow us even into dream. S.M. Stevens, in Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, confronts the issues and portrays both the abuse itself and the emotional trauma in its wake with understanding and authenticity.
“Astrid and Shelby are credible; their experiences ring true. Stevens’s writing engages the reader in a series of situations that are honest, strongly and carefully drawn and painfully current. Her novel touches on what is most difficult in the lives of survivors of abuse while spotlighting the kindness and support of those who sustain them.”
Susan Roney-O’Brien, author of Legacy of the Last World, Bone Circle
O’Brien is an immensely talented poet whose books include the two pictured above. As one of her fans says, she has “the voice of a master storyteller and world-builder.”
Her latest collection of poems, Bone Circle, was published late last year and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Like Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, it deals with a family’s “terrible truths”. I can only hope my writing provokes the same emotional response in my readers as O’Brien’s poems do in me.
Find some of her books on Amazon, and read a few of her poems, and more about her, here.
