Saying I've been absorbed in my work-in-progress would be an understatement considering I only this week caught up with The Audiobook Review's post on Horseshoes and Hand Grenades! Their thorough review of the audiobook version of my novel was posted in February. (The audiobook was released in January 2021.) Nothing is more fulfilling than having … Continue reading Audiobook Review: Horseshoes and Hand Grenades
In today's post for Book Launch Week, here's the first of many excerpts I'll be publishing to give you a glimpse of the plot for Horseshoes and Hand Grenades (and hopefully encourage you to buy it). In this short but telling bit, Shelby is musing... I was twenty-two when I let the memories in. They’d … Continue reading Excerpt: Shelby Remembers
Doing a live radio interview for "The K-Zone Lunchbox" with Travis at WPKZ-Radio (105.3 FM/1280 AM), in Fitchburg, Mass., last Friday was a blast! It was my first chance to talk about Horseshoes and Hand Grenades on the radio, and Travis was an amazing interviewer. I've sat in on many a radio interview over the … Continue reading #HAHG Radio Interview from the K-Zone “Lunchbox”
A dear friend who understands the incest and sexual harassment themes of Horseshoes and Hand Grenades is allowing me to publish her original poem here on my blog. <3 Portrait My brother lifts the blanket off my feet. His fingers climb my inner thighs. I am eight. He tells me to be quiet. I flatten … Continue reading Poem: Portrait
How do you define success for a novel? I expect the answer differs for readers and authors, but maybe not as much as you would think. Whichever hat I'm wearing, I want the novel to entertain and to provoke thought. I have additional goals for Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, as I say in this recent … Continue reading Defining Success for A Novel
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 … Continue reading Renowned Poet Endorses “Horseshoes and Hand Grenades”
I am so pumped that author Laura Davis is endorsing my forthcoming #metoo novel, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades. Laura, as you may know, is co-author of The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse. A groundbreaking self-help book when it was first published in 1988, it remains in print today, … Continue reading “Courage to Heal” Author Endorses “Horseshoes and Hand Grenades”
Driving home in the car two days ago, surfing the radio stations per usual, I caught an NPR story about the connection between emotional and physical pain in adults suffering from chronic "medically unexplained pain” like Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and fibromyalgia. The notion that emotional and physical distress and pain are all connected will … Continue reading Childhood Emotional Pain is the Source of Some Chronic Adult Physical Pain
Today marks the very quiet, unpublicized launch of the S.M. Stevens author website and blog. It's being kept quiet because there is little to say, except for this one thing: MY NOVEL IS BEING PUBLISHED!!!!! Pardon the emphasis, but other aspiring writers know of what I exclaim. TouchPoint Press is going to publish my first … Continue reading Day One