This piece was first published on Quiet Radicals in October 2016
“What I love is either make people think or make people smile – that’s my happy place and I want other people to be happier too.” – Stephanie Shields
Stephanie Shields has long harboured a dream to share her work with the world and to make the world smile. Now, with the publication of The Star Princess and The Kitchen Witch she has fulfilled a life-long dream of having her own work in print and read by others.
From her days as the creative mind behind the popular Princess of VP blog, with its substantial Twitter following, Stephanie began writing flash fiction and found her feet in writing 100 word stories.
“My 100 word stories made me believe I’m a writer,” she explained. “So now I can turn my musings, thoughts and suggestions into something that’s not just words on the internet I feel like a real writer. I don’t care as much about money as much as I care about there being something on a bookshelf with my name on it.”
She added: “It took a very, very good friend having faith in me, actively having faith in me and being really invested in me and talking eloquently about something I’d written, which made me realise my dream. It was one person at the right time properly investing in me.”
Born in Wingerworth and educated at St Mary’s Primary School, Hunloke Junior School and St Mary’s High School; Stephanie was a precocious child with a voracious appetite for reading, consuming everything – from the wide array of books her parents stacked their home with – to cans of furniture polish and cereal packets. Her literary education was filled with childhood staples of J R R Tolkien, Noel Streatfield, AA Milne and Tove Jansson. She said: “I always will be inspired by what I read as a child – I will always carry them with me.”
It was this upbringing that fostered a passion for stories in Stephanie.
She said: “I’ve a very soft, childlike heart. My parents gave me a very, very childlike heart – very light and very lovely Polyanna aspect to me which I don’t ever want to lose. If I can retain that through very, very horrid things in life I’m keeping it thank you very much.”
But in keeping a childlike heart she is clear that her stories aren’t just for children, certainly not just for girls.
“I’m not just passionate about writing for children,” explained Stephanie. “I’m passionate about writing, for everyone. This world of princesses, school teachers, dogs having adventures with pirates just pours out through my fingers. Just because my stories involve characters that are childlike doesn’t mean that they are just for children – I think even adults need that idea of we’ve all gone on a fabulous adventure and now we’re coming home for tea!”
She added: “I’ve written a story about a princess which is illustrated by a boy and girl so this book is definitively for boys AND girls – it isn’t “just a girls book” – but I know there are people who won’t let their boys read a story about a princess.”
The idea for the book, published by Cynefin Road, is inspired by real-life kindness. Stephanie explained: “I asked Twitter for some courage – and someone quite literally sent me some vials of courage – magic spells in bottle. I still have the bottles and they live by my laptop.”
The book tells the story of the Star Princess, a girl who has been alone so long in a tower close to the sky that people have forgotten her name, and how the Kitchen Witch weaves a spell to help bring her back to Earth. Her book is charmingly illustrated by Cameron Patrick, aged seven and his sister Jessica, five, and has already been well received by readers on Amazon.
Stephanie is now at work on an anthology of a hundred 100 word stories – drawing her back to her writing roots – alongside more children’s stories and a handful of romances being pulled together for publication.
She added: “I don’t think I’ve developed a masterplan as yet. I’m so lacking in discipline!”
So, why should readers pull a copy of the Star Princess and the Kitchen Witch from the shelves?
Stephanie replied: “Because it’s about hope, it’s about courage and it’s about doing something for someone else for no other reason than it will make their life better. It is about magic – if you believe in magic, proper magic, then the world is already a better place.”
* For more information on Stephanie Shields follow her on Twitter @princessofvp or visit her Cynefin Road author page
Just Real Ruby 