Stephanie Fletcher

Biography

Biography (29 10 2012)

I am a Mother and best friend to three girls. I truly love my life and every person who has ever touched it with unconditional love, and I am grateful for all their support in my endeavours. I am now a grandmother for the first time in October 2012 and I am sure inspiration will come for some children's stories! I have a website for publishing my writing and poetry. The web link is http://www.stephanie-fletcher.co.uk

I started writing seriously after having a traumatic event in my life and having a nervous breakdown to boot. My physical and mental health suffered greatly and now six years later, hand on heart, I can honestly say I am not the self-driven OCD perfectionist I was before.

I had a spiritual enlightenment, counselling, and time, lots of time on my hands. I could have quit, and sank deeper into depression but I didn't. I am lucky enough to have three wonderful caring and considerate daughters who witnessed my decent into hell and back, and a family who never left my side. I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and hit life head on again like the Taurean bull I am.

I had always written a journal of sorts, spasmodically, and the days of staring into thin air became times of inspiration. At first I was scared to show others my work. The last thing I needed was criticism that cuts you to the soul. I needn't of worried, only but a few people gave me critique that knocked my confidence and I began to grow as a writer.

I am not very well educated, only secondary school and college at forty doing a creative writing course and gaining a certificate in counselling skills. I read a lot, anything and everything and I take notes everywhere, for use later in my work. I collect idioms and sayings, inspirational quotes etc and they all help. A voice recorder is handy for those nighttime ideas and I also read my work out loud, recording them and then playing back, as it is easier to see where something doesn't work. I have a programme called ‘dragon speak’ which types up my recordings and saves a lot of frustrating keyboard time, which does my arthritis no good! I like to do my original work long hand so I have a lot of A5 notebooks needing attention.

Writing is never dull, or a job, I enjoy everyday I spend writing and often surprise myself at what comes out. I am now attempting my first Novel, called ‘Time Tells Tales’, a synopsis is on my website and the first book of the five tales is published as an e-book on Smashwords.com and is called ‘Alfred's Tale - Dead in a Ditch’. I have three collections of poetry and two short, novella type stories available as well, one of which is free, so go help your self to a copy!

Smashwords Interview

When did you first start writing?
I first started writing seriously after a traumatic event in my life in 2008 which severely affected my health and mental well-being. During the sleepless hours I would write poetry, something I had done in my teens. I also kept a journal which became my hiding place from the world. I recorded my daily activities and feelings but it grew into something much more. It was an outlet – more an outburst of pent up creativity and imagination I forgot I had. Therefore more notebooks were acquired and I unleashed the beast that is my imagination for everyone else to share.
Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?
Besides the ones I remember writing as a child, the first story I wrote and published was called, “Where there is light, there is understanding.” I am a spiritual being and wanted to share my insights and idea’s accumulated from many a sleepless night, reading about all things esoterical. I introduced these new ways of thinking into my writing. This particular story was about Mother’s love, the most unconditional love I believe there is, comes from a parent for its offspring. But not all mother’s or father’s feel this way initially due to circumstances of life and the experiences we go through that lead us to this point. It is the end of our own childhood and the beginning of understanding what life is all about beyond our selfish wants and needs. I wanted to show that love is available to all if only you struggle through and conquer the emotional or physical hurt you have suffered. Everyone can get there with effort and understanding, and there is nothing more satisfying or completing as the look of love between a parent and their child. I have three wonderful girls and now a granddaughter, and as single parent myself, they are my world and reason for living on through all my nightmares and physical trauma’s. This is what I portrayed in this short story.
Read more of this interview.

Where to buy in print

Books

Season's of the Heart - Autumn
Series: Novella's and Short Stories, Book 3. Price: Free! Words: 25,140. Language: English. Published: June 11, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Romance » General
Seasons of the Heart These four stories reveal to us the four stages of ‘LOVE’ throughout a year in the lives of four very different couples and their experience of love at a certain stage in life. This book is about Autumn. The autumn of one’s life is the time we expect to have got everything together and now is the time to reap its rewards.
Seasons of the Heart - Spring
Series: Novella's and Short Stories, Book 1. Price: Free! Words: 20,400. Language: British English. Published: May 8, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Romance » General
Season’s of the Heart These four short stories reveal to us the four stages of ‘LOVE’ throughout a year in the lives of very different couples and their experience of love at a certain stage in life. Spring tells us of a first love, of puppy love, of a crush, and the ending of such love, as a person grows with experience and they learn more about their relationships.
Alien and the Girl
Price: Free! Words: 14,030. Language: English. Published: April 19, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
(1.00 from 1 review)
Planet Earth, a crashed ship of unknown origin, and an Alien. One young woman, a famous lake in England and how she tries to save the planet. These two characters battle it out with a war of words. Who will win?
Time Tells Tales - Tale Five - A Gift For All
Series: Time Tells Tales, Book 5. Price: Free! Words: 63,900. Language: English. Published: April 18, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Historical » Paranormal, Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical
(4.00 from 1 review)
This is the final Tale, set in 2008, in both England and Ireland. This Tale is about Angela's special gift, and how she learns to use it. How it helps to brings to a conclusion to all the secrets, scandals and lies which intricately wove the lives of these three family histories together. Angela finally un-wraps the mystery that she had begun with her Granddad Jim, who sadly passed away.
Seasons of the Heart - Winter
Series: Novella's and Short Stories, Book 4. Price: Free! Words: 9,600. Language: English. Published: October 2, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Romance » General, Fiction » Inspirational
These four stories reveal to us the four stages of ‘LOVE’ throughout a year in the lives of four very different couples and their experience of love at a certain stage in life. Winter takes us to the time couples all dread - who will leave first on their final journey across the veil.
Time Tells Tales - Tale Four - Jim's Tale
Series: Time Tells Tales, Book 4. Price: Free! Words: 48,680. Language: English. Published: August 25, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Graphic novels & comics » Graphic novel, Fiction » Inspirational
(5.00 from 1 review)
Set in 1994 in England this Tale is about Jim Middleton and his wife Serena, nee Rooney. Serena dies prematurely from bowel cancer at the age of 58. Serena and Jim have one child, Paul, who met June Bennett, legitimate daughter of Catherine Bennett, at university and they marry. They have a gifted child, Angela, who Serena got to hold, cruelly for a for a brief moment before her passing.
Time Tells Tales - Tale Three - Theresa's Tale
Series: Time Tells Tales, Book 3. Price: Free! Words: 48,680. Language: English. Published: July 5, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Inspirational
(4.00 from 1 review)
Theresa's Tale tells of forbidden love. She is the illegitimate daughter of Catherine and Alfred. She is raised by catholic nuns in an orphanage in county Kerry where she was born, taken from her mother before she had chance to even glimpse her bastard child.
Time Tells Tales - Tale Two - Love, Loss, Lust and Lies
Series: Time Tells Tales, Book 2. Price: Free! Words: 26,250. Language: English. Published: March 6, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Romance » General, Fiction » Plays & Screenplays » European
(5.00 from 2 reviews)
This is the sequel to Tale One - Alfred's Tale, and tells the story from the perspective of Catherine, the love of Alfred's troubled life. Here we meet this young girl, Catherine, on the verge of womanhood, who has to deal with the unexpected death of her Mother under suspicious circumstances and the fallout of her Father's grief and the interference of the Catholic Church.
This 'N That - A Poetry Collection
Series: Poetry Anthologies, Book 3. Price: Free! Words: 5,200. Language: English. Published: October 8, 2012 . Categories: Poetry » U.K. Poetry, Poetry » Spiritual
(5.00 from 2 reviews)
A collection of poems written over the years which are varied in theme and style. From a trip up a Volcano to the depths of Insomnia, there is something for everyone. This is the third and last book in this series. Book one - Family and Pets book two - Inspirational poems
Time Tells Tales - Tale one - Dead In A Ditch
Series: Time Tells Tales, Book 1. Price: Free! Words: 16,440. Language: English. Published: October 7, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Plays & Screenplays » European, Fiction » Inspirational
(5.00 from 4 reviews)
Time Tells Tales - A Novel In Five Tales Set in Ireland in the early 1900's, this is a collection of five tales told over time, exploring the relationships between three interconnected families. They are intricately woven together by love, birth, death, and marriage and spiced up by religion, scandal, abuse, heartache, and spiritual intervention. The first is Alfred's Tale - Dead in a Ditch.
Inspirational Poetry
Series: Poetry Anthologies, Book 2. Price: Free! Words: 4,820. Language: British English. Published: October 2, 2012 . Categories: Poetry » Spiritual
(5.00 from 1 review)
This is a collection of Poems that I have written over the years, during the good and bad times, and found that writing them helped to keep me sane. There are two with the same title, Love begins with me, as they are poems entered to an Invitational competition with that theme. One in 2010, I came first, and in 2012 I had a honourable mention. Some are experimental - so enjoy!
Family and Pets - A collection of poems
Series: Poetry Anthologies, Book 1. Price: Free! Words: 6,430. Language: English. Published: July 12, 2012 . Categories: Poetry » U.K. Poetry
(5.00 from 1 review)
This is book one in a series of three, all on different topics. Book one poems are about family, children and pets. All are easy to read and well written.
Where There is Light, There is Understanding
Price: Free! Words: 5,990. Language: Commonwealth English. Published: July 9, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Inspirational
(5.00 from 2 reviews)
Holly is struggling to keep her life together, juggling with grief and a new sixteen day old baby. Will history repeat itself? Can she cope or will she opt out like her own mother? This is a short story with a big lesson for those who are open enough to understand.
Seasons of the Heart - Summer
Series: Novella's and Short Stories, Book 2. Price: Free! Words: 10,480. Language: English. Published: July 6, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Romance » General
(4.67 from 3 reviews)
Seasons of the Heart. These four stories reveal to us the four stages of ‘LOVE’ throughout a year in the lives of four very different couples and their experience of love at a certain stage in life. Summer love, a time when you expect to have it all, kids, marriage, true love, but it doesn't always work out that way.

Stephanie Fletcher's tag cloud

abuse    afterlife    alien being    alzheimer desease    autumn years    autumn years of life    babies    being a bastard child    catholic church    catholic priest    child psychology    child slavery    childrens homes    childrens poetry    coping with a baby    crime    death    death of a parent    depression    different    disillusionment    divorce    domination    drugs    elopement    end of school    enlightenment    everlasting love    exile    faith    family    family abuse    family and relationships    family and religion    family bereavement    family breakups    family death    family heritage    family relationships    family revenge    fear    feeling desperate    fibromyalgia    first crush    first love    first true love    forbidden love    foster care    funny    gay love    general    good and bad times    grief    heart attacks    holidays    hope    humerous poetry    inapropriate love    insomnia    inspirational    lack of communication    lies and deception    life experience    lonliness    loss and grief    love    lust and sex    memories    mistakes    mystery    new baby    nightmares    old age    orphan    paedophilia    peadophiles    performance poetry    pets    positive thinking    post partum depression    poverty childhood    power of prayer    pregnancy    prison    prostitiution    puppy love    questions unanswered    rape    rape and its aftermath    recovery    relationships    religion    religious dogma    revenge    romance    romance historical romance    sad    school    science fiction    seasons of the heart    second sight    secrecy    sexual abuse    sexual assualt    spaceship    spiritual    spiritual inspirational    spiritual intervention    spring    spring love    stephanie fletcher    suicide    summer love    survivor    teenagers    ten minute poet    tenerife    thought provoking    tug of war    unconditional love    unique    violence    volcano    war of words    winter love    young love   

Stephanie Fletcher's favorite authors on Smashwords

Smashwords book reviews by Stephanie Fletcher

  • Mr. Pumpkin-Head And Other Poems on May 01, 2012

    I have read all these interesting and quirky poems which are suitable as children's poems or for the child in all of us. I especially appreciated the 'What to Do Today' poem and 'Taking my own advice' both struck chords within me. I would love to see more of this author's work in the future. Well Done.
  • Witchlet on July 12, 2012

    Loved this story about a young witch and her trials and tribulations as she struggles to gain acceptance. A story that emphasises the difficultly of crosses boundaries and preconceptions, well written, descriptive and captures the imagination. I hope there is more to come about this little young witch! Well done Tori!