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A WHITE ROOM
At the close of the Victorian Era, society still expected middle-class women to be "the angels of the house," even as a select few strived to become something more. In this time of change, Emeline Evans dreamed of becoming a nurse. But when her father dies unexpectedly, Emeline sacrifices her ambitions and rescues her family from destitution by marrying John Dorr, a reserved lawyer who can provide for her family.
John moves Emeline to the remote Missouri town of Labellum and into an unusual Gothic house where her sorrow and uneasiness edge toward madness. Furniture twists and turns before her eyes, people stare out at her from empty rooms, and the house itself conspires against her. The doctor diagnoses hysteria, but the treatment merely reinforces the house's grip on her mind.
Based on historical trends of the era and inspired by Victorian novels The Yellow Wallpaper, The Secret Garden, and Wuthering Heights, author Stephanie Carroll has taken women's empowerment in fiction to an all new level in this inspiring debut.
WOW this is a captivating story … My feelings for the main character Emeline vacillated between pity and admiration as the story unfolded. Each character is interesting, some evolve with time, some I hated others I loved - the sign of a well written book. Each character was believable in their own way and came alive with the telling… The further you get into this story the more it captivates you. -
Amazon UK Review
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Inspiration for A White RoomThe Yellow Wallpaper in A White Room
The History behind A White Room
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As some of you may remember, in 2015 I had a short story called Forget Me Not featured in Legacy: An Anthology. (Discussed below.) Well in 2017, I got the copyrights back and figured why not publish the short story as an ebook sold on it's own for $0.99. So I did!
ABOUT FORGET ME NOT
Originally published in LEGACY: AN ANTHOLOGY, "Forget Me Not" is set just after the turn of the century in Colma, California, a city where the dead outnumber the living. It follows Lauraline Rosland, a young woman who knows on the day after her 30th birthday, she is going to die. She has three days left and is determined to do something - anything - worth remembering.
Read an Excerpt of Forget Met Not!
Read an Excerpt of Forget Met Not!
The Short Story Featured in this Book is Available As a Single.
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LEGACY Features 14 Authors Writing on the Most Human of Questions . . .
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WORKS IN PROGRESS
Title, characters, and story-line may be altered on works that are in-progress.
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LEGACY Features 14 Authors Writing on the Most Human of Questions . . .
What will you leave behind?
"Carroll takes a different approach to legacy through her short, "Forget Me Not." It takes you on a roller coaster ride, starting with anger and frustration ... to sadness and regret to even smiles and warm content. It was ultimately a sweet story that closed with a sort of perfection ..." - Tif Talks Books On "Forget Met Not" featured in Legacy: An Anthology
Long after we've left this world, our legacy remains. Or it doesn't. If you had a choice, what mark would you leave?
In January 2015, Velvet Morning Press and the The Book Wheel blogger Allison Hiltz challenged fourteen fiction and nonfiction authors to sit down in the month of January 2015, shut out distractions and write on this transcendent topic, all the while Tweeting about their efforts. The resulting fiction and nonfiction stories fill the pages of Legacy: An Anthology.
In January 2015, Velvet Morning Press and the The Book Wheel blogger Allison Hiltz challenged fourteen fiction and nonfiction authors to sit down in the month of January 2015, shut out distractions and write on this transcendent topic, all the while Tweeting about their efforts. The resulting fiction and nonfiction stories fill the pages of Legacy: An Anthology.
The book includes stories from Kristopher Jansma, winner of the 2014 Sherwood Anderson Award for Fiction, New York Times best-selling author Regina Calcaterra, 2013 USA Book News Best Book Award recipient Stephanie Carroll and Canadian best-selling author Marissa Stapley among others. Read about all the contributing authors on Velvet Morning Press.
Within these pages, there is laughter, pride and hope. There is romance and rock and roll. Certain messages are eerie, while others bestow a sense of peace. The collection, through the discerning lens of each writer, runs the gamut of the human experience.
Within these pages, there is laughter, pride and hope. There is romance and rock and roll. Certain messages are eerie, while others bestow a sense of peace. The collection, through the discerning lens of each writer, runs the gamut of the human experience.
Legacy: An Anthology debuts April 17 and will be available on Amazon. Proceeds from online book sales will go to the reading program Paws for Reading. Digital ARCs are available in mobi, epub and pdf formats.
Forget Me Not
Historical fiction author Stephanie Carroll's piece "Forget Me Not" is set just after the turn of the century in Colma, California, a city where the dead outnumber the living. It follows Lauraline Rosland, a young woman who knows the day after her 30th birthday, she is going to die. She has three days left and is determined to do something - anything - worth remembering.
Author proceeds from anthology sales will be donated to Paws for Reading, a program that allows children to read aloud to a therapy dog (or cat, or bunny!) in order to improve reading and communication skills.
About #30Authors
In September 2013, The Book Wheel blogger Allison Hiltz launched an event where 30 authors posted book reviews on 30 blogs in 30 days and spread the word via the #30Authors hash tag. The event was such a success, The Book Wheel teamed up with Velvet Morning Press to launch an anthology using the #30Authors concept to challenge authors to write a piece in 30 days. "Can you avoid your own fate? Four sisters struggle with coming to terms with a family legend. Superstition and a little mystery surround this story about sisterhood, soul-searching and forgiveness, I found this story very unique and touching." - Mom's Small Victories On "Forget Met Not" featured in Legacy: An Anthology
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WORKS IN PROGRESS
Title, characters, and story-line may be altered on works that are in-progress.
THE BINDING OF SAINT BARBARA
(In Progress)
A Little More About the Characters
in The Binding of Saint Barbara
Gertrude Durston, has spent her life serving the less fortunate within the cold stone walls of Auburn Prison, and she has gained a level of authority she values more than she even realizes, but she is ready to risk it all. She is so determined to save William Kemmler's soul that she is ready to sacrifice anything, including her marriage and public ridicule by breaking a prisoner out of Auburn Prison so he can testify on Kemmler's behalf.
The actions of these individuals will not only change the course of history but the course of each of their lives.
Desperate to help her family, Caraway and JayBird decide to risk criminal charges and their lives to help the only people she has ever truly known.
Their journey will not just determine who they are to one another. It will change everything . . .
Read about how I was inspired to write S0L M8.
(In Progress)
Inspired by and set amidst one of the most controversial decisions in American history—the first death by electrocution—The Binding of Saint Barbara follows the story of the people who came to know, fear, and love the condemned ax-murderer during the year he awaited his death in Auburn Prison in 1890 New York.
Charlotte Durston hasn’t stepped outside the walls of the
castle-like fortress of Auburn Prison since she was a child. Her overprotective
father, the warden, makes sure everything she needs is provided, so she has no
need to go out nor does she have a need to interact with the inmates until now.
At seventeen, she is desperate for a normal life and for people to treat her
like an adult. Her parents agree to send her to Bernard College in Manhattan
where she can have a proper coming out in society, but first she must prove she
is responsible and can manage herself even around the worst sort of people.
Her father tasks her with ministering to the newest
inmate, the first man condemned to the electric chair. However, in an effort to
impress the man she loves, Guard Daniel McNaughton, Charlotte gets too close to
the cell, and the prisoner reaches through the bars and strangles her until she
loses consciousness. The trauma should have ended when Daniel pried the
prisoner’s fingers from her throat, but from then on, Charlotte is plagued by
panic attacks intermingled with flashes of memory—someone leading her through a
lightning storm in the middle of the night.
Charlotte is still determined to leave her cloistered
life and begs for another chance, but the next inmate she meets not only has
information that could determine the outcome of the electrocution appeal and
save the man who tried to kill her, he also knows something about Charlotte, a
secret about a lightning storm that happened over ten years ago. As the
memories become ever more vivid, Charlotte realizes that night is the answer to
why she cannot break free from her prison and that it must hold the key to her
escape.
Experience one of the most
controversial decisions in American history – the world’s first death by
electrocution – through the eyes of those who witnessed it and the man who
endured it.
Incorporating historical newspaper articles and the battle between Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and Nikola Tesla—Stephanie Carroll mesmerizes readers by interweaving history and intrigue to create a seamless exploration of the good and evil in us all.
A Little More About the Characters
in The Binding of Saint Barbara
Experience one of the most
controversial decisions in American history – the world’s first death by
electrocution – through the eyes of those who witnessed it and the man who
endured it.
Charlotte Durston is a
prisoner in New York’s Auburn Prison – but she isn’t a criminal, she’s the
warden’s daughter. Under the thumb of highly moralistic parents, she hasn’t
stepped outside the walls of the castle-like fortress since she was a child.
It’s for her protection, or so they say, but at 17, Charlotte is desperate for
a normal life in the adult world. In order to prove herself, she sets about
ministering to the newest inmate, the first man condemned to the electric
chair, a good deed she will come to sorely regret.
Guard Daniel McNaughton
sees everything from his post outside Kemmler’s cell. Though slowly falling for
the one woman he’s forbidden to love, he can’t deny the oddness of Charlotte’s
bloody fingers or the ghosts in her eyes, nor can he turn a blind eye to the
unsavory advances of one of the inmates toward her. He is also all too aware of
the war within the warden’s family and the battle going on in Kemmler’s soul.
As he fights to help the condemned man find salvation, Daniel also confronts
his own weaknesses, praying to find the strength and steel to protect those he
loves.
William Kemmler is the
first man to walk through the prison’s gates who will not leave again. Fighting
an addiction to alcohol, a looming death sentence and his own personal demons,
he unwittingly sets off a chain of events that not only determines his chances
at redemption, but leads Charlotte down a dark path of visions and panic
attacks intermingled with flashes of memory that may or may not be real,
causing everyone around her to question her sanity.
Warden Charles Durston is posed to make history when as
the first warden to oversee an electrocution, but a terrible secret from his
past haunts him as he fights for the legality of this so-called “humane” method
of execution.
Inmate Michael Bradley is
a survivor. Struck by lightning as a boy, he is more than he seems. This
two-bit con man has information that could determine the outcome of the
electrocution appeal and knows something about Charlotte, a secret that is key
to why she can’t break free from her prison. As the only person that holds the
key to her escape, he wields more power than anyone suspects – a position he
intends to use to his full advantage.
Read about the history of the first death by electrocution!
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S0L M8: A LOVE STORY
(In Progress)
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| Google Glass by wilbertbaan |
2153, the world is dead, the air toxic, the sun searing, terrestrial life wiped out. Humanity has survived by retreating to encapsulated houses, all of society geographically dispersed but electronically connected. The only time humans leave the safety of their homes is to be placed with their soul mates, chosen for them by the United Continents genome algorithm.
Caraway Pearman met her soul-mate JayBird when she was five years old, and there is no doubt in her mind that he is her one and only. That is until they meet a couple online, Geyser and Chrysalis two people who were matched but who are clearly not soul mates. The algorithm is not perfect and there is no mechanism for re-selection. Caraway and Jay’s arguing suddenly becomes a terrifying possibility.
Caraway seeks the assistance of her mother, but in the middle of their conversation, there is screaming and shouting and then the connection is gone. Caraway and JayBird learn the Human Operated Robot Network or HORNET authorities have placed her parents on informational lock down and house arrest, but what's more is that they have removed her twin siblings and her 17-year-old brother Carob from the house and transported them to a nearby facility. It's a consequence so severe it’s unheard of and no one will tell her why.
Caraway Pearman met her soul-mate JayBird when she was five years old, and there is no doubt in her mind that he is her one and only. That is until they meet a couple online, Geyser and Chrysalis two people who were matched but who are clearly not soul mates. The algorithm is not perfect and there is no mechanism for re-selection. Caraway and Jay’s arguing suddenly becomes a terrifying possibility.
Caraway seeks the assistance of her mother, but in the middle of their conversation, there is screaming and shouting and then the connection is gone. Caraway and JayBird learn the Human Operated Robot Network or HORNET authorities have placed her parents on informational lock down and house arrest, but what's more is that they have removed her twin siblings and her 17-year-old brother Carob from the house and transported them to a nearby facility. It's a consequence so severe it’s unheard of and no one will tell her why.
Desperate to help her family, Caraway and JayBird decide to risk criminal charges and their lives to help the only people she has ever truly known.
Their journey will not just determine who they are to one another. It will change everything . . .
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