An Interview with Stephanie Fidis

My name is Stephanie Fidis. By day, I work as an inside sales rep for Dover Publications, but by night I’m a writer, a cozy girl-gamer, an amateur cook, a runner, and a cat mom. I have my bachelor’s in creative writing as well as an MFA in writing from Albertus Magnus College. I reside on Long Island with my fiancé and our cat, Cooper.

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What inspired you to start writing this book?

They always say to ‘write what you know,’ right? I met my now-fiancé on a video game a couple of years ago.

Tell us the story of your book’s current title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

Games in Love definitely took a bit of brainstorming, but ultimately, it just combined the two main themes of the book. It’s a romance between two gamers.

Describe your dream book cover.

I know they are very controversial, but I love those almost cartoony style romance novel covers. I just think they are so fun and make for a cute, eye-catching experience as you browse in a bookstore or library.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

Hmmmm, I honestly never really thought about a soundtrack for my book. But that would be fun to do!

What books are you reading (for research or comfort) as you continue the writing process?

Everything!

A little Jane Austen, poetry collections from Lang Leav, books dealing with addiction (for personal reasons), cozy mysteries…everything!

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I’ve worked in the airline industry, online retail customer service for both children’s and adult clothing brands, and now publishing! What’s insane for me to think about is that I have been in this industry for seven years now!

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

I’ve always been a writer. I remember the first school handwriting assignment in kindergarten. We had to draw an image to go with it. It was very short – ‘The cow drinks lots and lots of milk.’

Factually, incorrect, but when you’re five…what do you know? But I’ve always kept journals, too, and I write in them constantly. When I got my first email address, back in the days of AOL (I’m dating myself, I know), that’s where I first discovered the website fanfiction.net. I would go to the store with my grandmother and buy those tiny little pocket marble notebooks, and I would take them with me everywhere and just write stories about my favorite characters.

Where is your favorite place to write?

My favorite place to write no longer exists. It was this fabulous coffee house chain in New Haven, CT – Blue State Coffee. Now, I’ve grown to love writing in my home office, but also while lying on the floor of my home library.

What advice would you give your past self at the start of your writing journey?

Just write the thing.

Don’t worry about getting it right on the first try. Just get the words on a page until you hit that point where you say, “That’s all.”

You can’t possibly get anything ‘wrong’ in fiction, and it’s impossible to please everyone, so don’t try.

What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?

Something that I’m doing with my book is breaking all of those standards of the tropes in romance novels. I want this story to show a real and raw relationship, with the ups and downs, but handling situations in a realistic way. I can’t stand the way romance novels handle couple issues. I sit there, reading, and I’m like “a little conversation would go a long way right here.”

So, I guess what I want to stick with readers is perhaps some of the lessons in managing relationships, because I fear the generations are getting their advice from romance novels.

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Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.