Local author Stephanie Logue isn’t quite sure of the moment she wanted to start writing professionally.
“It’s cheesy, but I feel like I’ve always had a pen in hand,” she recalled. “I remember enjoying writing assignments in elementary school, and I liked piecing together people’s motivations, even if I didn’t realize what I was doing.”
Logue sees everything as a story—it might not have much of a plot, per se, but she sees everyone living “a million tiny stories a day.” Observing others and pondering the reasons of why people do what they do intrigued her.
“In junior high I started what a friend dubbed my ‘never-ending novel’ about kids my age experiencing life with friends, family, first love, etc.,” said Logue. “My friends read them, and because I wrote straight through math class, I usually had an update by lunch. I liked that I could spur excitement and give people something to look forward to via something that I loved.”
By college she was writing a lot of creative nonfiction, both for her creative writing classes and also for her own enjoyment. The author wrote and rewrote parts of her first novella Yes. Every Single Day. “probably 20 times over the years,” and during the Covid pandemic Logue had the drive and inspiration to do something with what she had created.
“It’s been all systems go since,” said Logue.
INVITE STEPHANIE TO BOOK CLUB!
Logue is available for Zoom visits and in-person meetings within 100 miles of her home (she’s especially partial to the Black Hills).
Bonus: She’ll also bring reader giveaways. For more info, email stephanielogue.writes@gmail.com.
The contemporary fiction and creative nonfiction writer has released three pieces of work, including her latest, The Right Kind of Light. A Young Adult (YA) novel, the story follows Ginny Merchant, who just graduated from high school in Aberdeen. Merchant is dealing with writer’s block, particularly due to her best friend cutting her friendship off before college.
Logue’s stories are made for girls and women “who feel like they never quite fit in.” Her other works include the book Not Without You—an adult novel about mental health and coping with loss and love in college—and the novella, Yes. Every Single Day., which is about losing a “first-love-future.”
Readers can also follow Logue on her weekly Substack, The Eldest Daughter Says, which features free creative nonfiction essays in the same themes of her books: stories about accessible love, recovering from loss, and “true girlhood.” Find out more about the South Dakota author (and stay tuned for her next book in 2027).
My vibe is…
probably very basic. I mainline lattes. I have a little library on the corner of our property with a tiny yellow brick road that I can see from my office window that makes me ridiculously happy. I’m a sucker for strawberry lemonade slushies and the kind of summer rain that’s hot falling from the sky and smells like life when it splashes into dirt. Yellow and hunter green are my favorite colors. Our house will always have a golden retriever living within it.
My newest book is…
set here in South Dakota in my hometown of Aberdeen. Specifically, a great deal of it is set at Storybook Land which is near and dear to my heart, both from the storytelling legacy of children’s fairy tales and The Land of Oz (due to L. Frank Baum’s time in Aberdeen), but also because I worked at the attraction for four summers in college.
“WHEN YOU SPEND A HUNDRED SUMMER AFTERNOONS RUNNING DOWN A YELLOW BRICK ROAD AND WATCHING THE WIZARD OF OZ EVERY THANKSGIVING, AND YOUR HOMETOWN IS A QUAINT, SELF FUNCTIONING PLACE A BIT OFF THE BEATEN PATH, A GAL COULD START TO WONDER WHAT THE POINT IS IN LEAVING.”
The Right Kind of Light is available…
at all the places people buy books online, though I always encourage folks to start at bookshop.org because a portion of every sale goes back to your choice of indie bookstore.
The YA genre…
has my heart, for sure, especially when it dips into literary YA. Something about a poetic take on a person just starting their life and capturing that optimism and hopefulness, coupled with mild terror, thrills me.
FOLLOW STEPHANIE
Instagram | @STEPHANIEL_WRITES
My writing stands out because…
I’ve been told that my dialogue is spot on. I’ve met readers who are surprised to find that I’m old enough to remember the sound of a computer connecting to the internet, if you catch my drift, so don’t ask me how I can still talk like a teenager. Dialogue tends to be the first thing I write, too.
Themes I explore in my books are…
showing girls as we are—flawed, as wrong as we are right, beautiful, creative weirdos. There’s so much depth and nuance in girl and womanhood, and I don’t want a bit of it to be lost. The other thing is mental health. Depression and anxiety are pieces of my own life that I navigate daily, but they aren’t all I am. It’s been a slow shift, but I feel like we’re getting to a place where talking about therapy and asking for help aren’t the butt of a joke anymore. Again, I wish to be a part of that conversation, laying down my own experiences (via my fictional characters) to keep us moving in the right direction of empathy and support.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT STEPHANIELOGUEWRITES.COM+
