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Interview with Amanda Stevens

Amanda Stevens grew up in Bradford, Arkansas, a tiny hamlet nestled between the flat mosquito-infested bottomland of the delta and the rocky foothills of the Ozarks, an area steeped in folklore. Those old legends and an innate fascination for the strange and unusual helped cultivate a vivid imagination.

Amanda considers storytelling a part of her heritage. "Someone once said the South is home to people who love to talk. This is especially true of the rural South where I grew up." Her high school literature classes provided an early influence where she was drawn to the darker stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe, but it was the southern gothic that truly inspired her. The strong sense of place—dusty back roads and moonlit bayous, simmering secrets and fragrant, sweltering heat—provided a powerful backdrop to the despair and desperation of the wayward souls that peopled classic southern literature. Amanda uses those same elements in her thrillers, which can best be described as "creepy, southern suspense."

Before she became a full-time writer, Amanda worked for the United States government and was issued a security clearance at the age of twenty-two. She has also worked in the oil and energy field, has a passion for the eighties and is a self-proclaimed conspiracy theory nut.

Q. How long have you been writing fiction?

A. I sold my first book in 1985, so that’s twenty-two years. A long time.

Q. What inspired you to begin writing fiction?

A. Well, I think initially I wanted to become a writer because I was such an avid reader, everything from fantasy to hardboiled detective novels. But for the longest time, writing, or at least getting published, seemed like a pipe dream. I grew up in a small town in Arkansas (I’m talking really small as in one traffic light), and deep down, I never really thought I had the background or the education to write. So I more or less put the notion aside until I went back to college in the mid-eighties and one of my professors offered an A in the class to anyone who got published. He was writing historical fiction at the time and was very enthusiastic about genre fiction in general. I decided to try my hand at romantic suspense and a year later I sold my first novel, Killing Moon.

Q. Do you write novels only, or do you also write short stories?

A. So far only novels, although I would love to have a go at writing a screenplay. My son and daughter are writing a script together, and they’ve inspired me. But I’m kind of wordy so I’m not sure I can ever write anything shorter than a novel.

Q. In what genre do you most enjoy writing?

A. Psychological suspense thrillers are my passion at the moment. I used a lot of the same elements when I wrote romantic suspense, but I felt much more restricted in that genre because there are certain reader expectations I felt obligated to meet. In the books I’m writing now, I’m pretty much free to do anything I want so that’s been great. The darker and creepier the better, I say.

Q. Who published your first story/book?

A. My first romantic suspense was published by Silhouette Intimate Moments.

Q. How did that first acceptance impact your writing career?

A. It changed my life. I more or less wrote that first manuscript as a lark. If it hadn’t sold, I’m not sure I would have continued writing. I was in college at the time, and I probably would have concentrated on finishing my education and getting a ‘real’ job. Once I sold, though, there was no turning back.

Q. How many hours per day do you devote to writing, and do you write on a schedule?

A. I try to write on a schedule, but I’m not very disciplined. I shoot for ten pages a day, but I’m happy if I get five. Toward the end of a book, I sometimes write as many as twenty pages a day. I love it when I get on a roll like that, but it doesn’t happen very often. Most days those pages are like pulling teeth. Or opening a vein.

Q. Can you describe a typical day in the life of Amanda Stevens?

A. Jeez, do I have to? I’d like to keep some of my mystique! It’s pretty much write, write, write all day, every day for me. Basically, I have no life away from the computer.

Q. Do you work on one story at a time, or multiple?

A. Depends. At the beginning of a story, when I’m just getting my feet wet, I can sometimes work on two at the same time. Maybe one in the morning and one in the afternoon. But as I get deeper into my main project, I have to put the other aside because in order to finish a book, I really have to lose myself the story. Which means I think about it all the time, even in my sleep.

Q. What’s your personal favorite Amanda Stevens story?

A. I’m going to say The Dollmaker because it’s my first thriller and the first book that I was allowed to write without any expectations or constraints whatsoever. It really was the book of my dreams (or maybe nightmare would be a better description, considering the subject matter).

Q. What is it about The Dollmaker that makes it your favorite?

A. Aside from the above, the premise is one that I think immediately captures the imagination. A grieving mother sees a doll in a shop window that looks exactly like her missing daughter. I love it when you can sum up the story in one sentence like that.

Q. Do you have any marketing tips you’d like to share with aspiring writers?

A. Obviously, a good website is pretty necessary these days, but the one thing I’ve found that has helped me the most—and it didn’t cost a thing—is MySpace. It takes some time to build up a friends list, and then, of course, you need to give them a reason to keep coming back to your site by adding fresh content. But the time is well-spent, especially for someone like me who is trying to break into a new genre. Most thrillers readers have never heard of me, but MySpace has been a great way to get some word of mouth going.

Q. Having e-talked with you a little, I think I have an idea about this next question, but I'll ask anyway; what types of books do you like to read?

A. I mostly read in the same genre I write—thrillers. But I also love science fiction, horror, and spy novels. Basically, I love the strange and unusual. But then, you already knew that.

Q. Can you tell us about your book?

A. The Dollmaker was inspired by the old Vincent Price horror classic House of Wax, and by those ‘twin’ dolls that artists create from children’s photographs. I put the two ideas together and came up with a scene of a woman walking through the French Quarter in New Orleans. She sees a doll in a shop window that looks exactly like her missing daughter, right down to a birth mark on her arm and the dress she was wearing when she vanished.

Q. Wow! This is a very intriguing concept! In addition to loving your summation, I also love that your book is set in the French Quarters, which is a hop, skip, and two jumps from where I live. J

How does one go about ordering a signed copy of your book?

A. Email me through my website and we’ll work something out.

Q. Amanda, thank you very much for giving us a glimpse into your life. It has been a pleasure interviewing you and I wish you much success with your book.