Meet the IWOTY Finalist: Stephanie Reisner

How did you conceive the idea for your latest novel?

My work in metaphysics brings some really bizarre emails to my inbox. In recent years I’ve received several threatening emails, allegedly from various secret societies/Satanic cults, that promise everything from curses to bodily harm. So naturally, when I received the most recent one last summer, I called up one of my friends, read her the email, and said, “This is the gold in my inbox right here. I need to put my MC up against some ridiculous Satanists who’ve been playing too much D&D and reading too many GOR novels!” We laughed and she agreed. Thus was born the fifth and final novel of my OTS series, where occult crime/mystery-solving magician Elizabeth Tanner goes head-to-head with a Satanic doomsday cult known only as the Dark Diocese.

Are you a plotter or a pantser? 

A little of both. I plot things loosely, discover halfway through that my characters are going to do whatever they want with my permission or not, then I gently prod them back on track to the ending I had envisioned. Unless, of course, they come up with a better idea, which occasionally happens.

If you were a taco or a pizza, what kind of taco or pizza would you be?

I would absolutely be a taco pizza because I can’t pick just one. This mimics the fact that I couldn’t pick just one pen name or one genre to write in. I’m not indecisive—I just love many things. I try to live by the saying “Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.” There’s a lot to love in the world.

If you could describe your entire catalog of books in a single sentence, what would that sentence say?

Sexy epic adventures and supernatural tales sure to terrify, delight, and satisfy.

If you had to start your career over again from scratch, what would you do differently?

I would have had more confidence in myself and my work earlier on. I would have told myself to go for it and to keep going, and I probably would have saved myself a four-year hiatus from writing.

What is your favorite thing about RMFW?

My favorite things about RMFW are the people I’ve met and the friendships I’ve made. Having a writing tribe has made the journey so much more rewarding. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many talented authors who have been willing to share their knowledge and offer support.

 

Stephanie Reisner makes her living as a full-time writer/publisher and is published both traditionally and independently, but with focus on her successful indie career. With four pen names, she has over 18 published novels in various genres to her credit. She is the author of the independently published, bestselling Gilded Lily series, which started with Training Amy—a book that has sold over 50,000 copies. She is also multi-published in both shorter fiction and nonfiction (with over 30 nonfiction books to her credit). Most of her work is independently published at this time, excluding one novel and a handful of short stories. In 2018 she independently published two novels, one nonfiction book, and one novella. Her independent novel Thirteen Covens: Bloodlines Part One was a 2018 CIPA EVVY Award winner and has spurred some interest from an independent film company. In spring 2019 she released Illuminated Darkness, the fifth and final book in her acclaimed OTS (urban fantasy/mystery) series. She also runs Darkerwood Publishing Group, a micro press that publishes six additional authors under two successful imprints, DB Publishing (nonfiction) and Midnight Fantasy Press (erotic romance fiction).

Stephanie has been a member of RMFW since the early 1990s. In 2018 she was the RMFW IPAL Liaison. In the distant past she served as the RMFW Webmaster, and more recently as a Colorado Gold contest judge. She has sat on numerous RMFW committees over the years, including the committee to create IPAL and the IWOTY selection committee, and she headed the member committee that studied the 501c3 issue in 2018. She also participated in RMFW critique groups on and off over the years, was a regular blog and newsletter contributor 2016-2017, and continues to help run the IPAL-sponsored NovelRama and the Arvada/Westminster IPAL Coffee Klatches. She has presented and sat on panels at several Colorado Gold conferences over the years. She is both a PAL and an IPAL member and was an IWOTY Finalist in 2017. Outside of RMFW, she has mentored independent authors both privately and in larger groups.

Beyond her writing life, Stephanie is an acclaimed esoteric teacher, a plant wrangler, and a cat herder. She enjoys superhero movies, collecting edged weapons, reading graphic novels, watching horror films, hiking, and yoga. She lives along the front range with her husband and three pampered house cats.

Visit her website for more information.