Featured Interview With Eliza Stopps
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I have lived in the Pacific Northwest my whole life. I currently own a horse, a Great Pyrenees dog, and a black cat. They are all very cute and may or may not feature in one of my books in the future.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I started “writing” books before I actually knew how to write. I would fill up notebook after notebook with just scribbles and pretend to write books! Eventually, I started writing poetry and stories all the time. I wrote my first actual book when I was nine years old and it was about 70 pages long. I was even published in a poetry collection when I was eleven! But I didn’t finish my first real “novel” until I completed NaNoWriMo in 2016 when I was 21. My first book was published a year later!
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I read a lot of indie authors because they are kind enough to send them to me in the form of ARCs. I also listen to a lot of audiobooks and will pick up just about anything that sounds interesting. My favorite genre usually involves a mystery of some kind, but the only thing I don’t read is horror.
I am constantly inspired by everything around me. If I feel like I’m lacking inspiration, I usually take that as a sign that I need to go do something other than write for a while. I’ll paint, go horseback riding, or spend some time out in the garden, and I usually find the inspiration while I’m there.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book is my Kindle Vella story, The Disappearance of Susannah Dane. That book was a Top Faved Kindle Vella story for weeks when it was first released and it even hit the top 20 in its categories on Amazon when I released it on Kindle Unlimited! You can buy the full novel in paperback or eBook on Amazon, or start reading it chapter-by-chapter on Kindle Vella.
This novel is very dear to me because it is set in a small town on the Oregon Coast, where I happened to have my honeymoon almost nine years ago. I have spent a lot of time in that area and there is this haunted, sad feeling to many of the locations. It’s the complete opposite of a sunny, white sandy beach in Florida. It brings a lot of nostalgia for me and I love writing these books. The main character, Paige, is kind of a version of myself in high school (if I had a backbone.) She’s strong and determined to find out what happened to her best friend which eventually leads to a tragic loss. This novel ties into small-town drama going back generations, which I love digging into. It also deals with sensitive topics like teen pregnancy and abortion, murder, and teen drug use.
I spent six months writing and publishing this novel on Kindle Vella, week-by-week, and then another six months publishing the sequel. The sequel, The Absence of Aurelia Perez, is out on Kindle Vella now and will also be available in paperback and KU soon!
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