Stephen LaFevers

Born in Oakland, CA, Stephen moved to Arkansas when he was sixteen, and has spent much of his adult life in Alaska. He has been a schoolteacher, newspaper editor, EMT, Registered Nurse, Family Nurse Practitioner, and is a Registered Hypnotherapy Instructor. He has written for numerous medical and computer magazines, and produced the Alaska EMS Provider News for eight years and the Alaska EMS Instructor News for seven years. He currently lives in rural Arkansas with his wife of thirty-eight years visit author's site here

Author's Books

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Stephen LaFevers is a full-time writer, but he has worked as a fly exterminator for a cheese plant, a security guard on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, a newspaper editor, a school teacher, an EMT, a Nurse Practitioner, a hypnotherapist and more.

Q—Stephen what do you think is your biggest plus as a writer?

A--I believe my varied background is a real plus. I’ve lived and worked and traveled all over the place and that helps me keep the settings for my stories realistic. All of the different jobs I’ve had make it easier for me to relate to my characters in a realist fashion.

Q—What kind of writer are you? What genre do you like to write?

A--I consider myself primarily a science fiction writer, but none of my works so far has been published as science fiction. Dreams of April Ten was science fiction when I wrote it, but was a medical thriller when it was published by Whiskey Creek. Hypnosis in Healthcare is a non-fiction hypnotherapy handbook, but elements of it were used in Dreams of April Ten. I wrote Dark Moon with Beverley Bateman as science fiction and it is being published as horror.

Q—Where do your stories take place?

A--Having spent 16 years in Alaska and finding it a fascinating place, I have incorporated Alaskan locations into much of my fiction. Dreams of April Ten has a horrific conflagration between good and evil that takes place in Alaska, and in The Last Guardian, due out in January, much of the action takes place in Alaska. I also use the mid-west and pacific northwest quite a bit. Much of Dark Moon takes place in New Orleans and Canada. I thought I was writing science fiction when I penned The Last Guardian, but as usual, it turned out to be something else. In this case, a humorous fantasy adventure.

Q—How do you come up with the ideas for your stories?

A--When writing fiction, I often come up with the title first, then write a book to fit it. I know this is backwards and I suppose I must have the beginning of an idea somewhere in the back of my head that gives me the idea for the title—except for Dark Moon, that was a song title that I thought would make a good book title.

Q—Are you satisfied with the quality of your work and with Whiskey Creek Press?

A--Both of my Whiskey Creek books have finaled in the Eppie Awards. I am very honored by that. Not only does it make me feel good as a writer to have two books in a row final in the Eppies, but it also makes me feel good about the editing, cover art and other work done by Whiskey Creek. When I first joined Whiskey Creek, they were just getting started. Now they are nationally recognized for their quality and integrity.

Stephen is currently living in rural Arkansas with his wife, Jody, and two cats. He is working on another non-fiction title, Paranormal Hypnosis, A How-To Book. And another horror story with Beverley Bateman. Beverley Bateman is a writer of mystery and romance who also has works published at Whiskey Creek.

“Beverley lives in Canada and I live in Arkansas,” Stephen said. “We’ve never met, yet, we’ve written a book together. Before the internet that probably couldn’t have happened. The book takes place both in Canada and in the U.S. It is interesting that I wrote many of the Canadian scenes and Beverley wrote many of the scenes in the U.S.A. although we also wrote scenes that take place in our home country, and we worked to insure that even when writing about the other’s country, we did so accurately and honestly.”

Q—How do you work? I mean some writers are slow and methodical. Others sit down and write a book very quickly. What about you?

A--“It took me 20 years to write Dreams of April Ten. So I guess I’m the slow type. I like to check and double-check my facts and read over everything many times to make sure there are no holes in the story. And I do a lot of research. I researched Niagara Falls for months before writing Dark Moon, and did extensive reading on the physics of energy for that book as well, even going so far as to discuss my theories with then head of Argonne National Laboratories to be sure they made sense.”

Q—Dreams of April Ten is about people having bad dreams and catching fire. And Dark Moon is about the Loup Garou, a legendary creature that inhabits the swamps of southern Louisiana. What kind of research would you need to write those?

A--For Dreams of April Ten, I had to research spontaneous human combustion extensively. I also had to research genetic engineering and dream interpretation, neurosis and psychosis. Being a Nurse Practitioner made the medical research easier, and being a hypnotherapist helped since a prominent character in the book is undergoing hypnotherapy. The book takes place in a very high-tech world, a main character runs a dot com corporation, so I had to learn all about computer and internet technology to make sure that what I was writing was not only cutting edge, but possible. That was one of my biggest problems in taking so long to write the book—the technology kept changing and the book and I had to keep up with it—stay on the leading edge of it. I had my characters doing things with computers that couldn’t be done when I was writing it, but that was old hat and ancient technology by the time the book was published, so I had to keep updating it.

The Loup Garou is a human who changes into a beast under the full-moon. How this is possible had to be explained in the book, that’s why the research was so important. First I had to learn all about the Loup Garou, that lead me to research the Cajuns and their origins, which led me to Canada and werewolves. That research led me to research European shape-shifter legends. Since the Cajuns were originally from Canada, having Beverley as a co-author was a real plus.

Q—Do you have a blog?

A—Yes. Writingmadehard.blogspot.com