Welcome to the seventh and final post in a series of interviews with the authors of the Second Chance for Love anthology. In honor of Mother’s Day, our publisher, Melange Books, LLC, will have the eBook available for free on Amazon from May 7-9!
Today, I’m going to interview … ME!!
If you discovered a sealed box with “Katie’s memories” scribbled on the side, you’d find a lifetime of partially completed stories, plays and musicals. Katie Stephens has opened that box and writes both non-fiction and fiction, where she happily experiments with all genres. Although her grown children are scattered east and west across the country, she lives solidly in mid-America with two kitties and a husband who keeps asking when she’s really going to retire.
http://www.facebook.com/KatieStephensAuthor
Twitter: @standardishue
The Price of Silence by Katie Stephens
Even though Maggie and Rob are divorced, neither can deny the love they still have for each other. As they wonder why their marriage failed, Maggie’s artistic agent is determined to have her. Grant befriends her children in a bid to make her his wife, but will Rob stand aside and allow another man to take his children … and his soulmate?
STANDARDISHUE INTERVIEW
One of the questions I asked my fellow authors was to choose a favorite passage from any book they have published. This section comes from my story Faceless, about a circus sideshow freak.
I eat my breakfast. The tumors inside my mouth and esophagus make meals . . . unpleasant.
“Can I ask you a question?” Tiny asks.
I swallow through the pain. “Anything.”
“How can you stand it?”
I clear my throat to hide the desperation in my voice. “It is my life.”
Tiny blinks, but keeps his eyes steady on mine.
Soon, we meander back to my trailer. “You want to watch me lift?”
I turn in a slow circle. The beauty of the day dazzles me. People buzz back and forth, worker bees swarming before gathering the honey for their hive. Water spraying from a hose glistens with rainbows in the early sunlight, sequined outfits drape nearby. On the midway, multicolored game booths stand as soldiers, awaiting every fool in town to try their luck.
I stare at the sideshow tent. My eyes water, changing the glittering view from crystal clear to an impressionist painting. Now I lay me down to sleep . . . I pray the Lord my soul to keep . . . If I should die before I wake . . . I pray the Lord my soul to take.
I blink and answer Tiny. “No, you go on. I think I’ll just lie down for awhile.”
Question: Have you ever had the feeling you were being watched?
Katie: Absolutely! Sometimes, I’ll even imagine I see things out of the corner of my eye but when I turn quickly, there’s nothing there. SPOOKY! I’ve found children’s hand prints on my windows (long after my kids moved on with their lives) and every once in a while, something will nudge my chair, as if to say “Stop daydreaming and write!”
Question: If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Katie: Invisibility! I’m an observer, but many people are uncomfortable if you stare at them too long. Well. Enough said.
Question: Tell us something nobody knows about you.
Katie: I dated a foreign prince. Oh, and Leonard Bernstein kissed me after I sang a counter-tenor solo from one of his compositions, “The Lark.”
Question: What do you miss most about childhood?
Katie: The simplicity. I grew up in a time where is was fashionable for parents to sit on the porch after dinner and visit with the neighbors while the kids played on the lawn. Catching fireflies on a summer evening. Going to drive in movies. Actually getting to know your friends face-to-face. Holding hands with Rocky (third grade).
Question: What will you do if you have a time machine?
Katie: I’d be hopping around from place to place and time to time. History is so interesting–I’d love to explore the past!
Who says love doesn’t come around again? Second Chance for Love: Seven stories of single parents finding love, free Mother’s Day weekend (May 7-9) on Amazon!!
standard ishue--Katie 
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