About the Author : Janet Raye Stevens / Evie Kelley

I’ve always loved to read. How could I not, when I grew up surrounded by, buried under, and tripping over books? My mother defined the term voracious reader, and I eagerly followed in her footsteps, haunting every book store, bookmobile, and public library within a 50 mile radius.

At the age of 10, I decided I wanted to do what the authors of the books I loved did – write. My first story was for a 6^th grade class assignment, “The Day My Teacher Wore a Miniskirt to School.” I got a C minus. I also got a lot of laughs, and that was all the encouragement I needed to keep going.

Now I write under two pen names, and it’s fortunate both personas get along. As Janet Raye Stevens, I pen short stories and novel-length fiction of the mystery, history, and time travel kind. As Evie Kelley, I scribble romantic sci-fi adventures for both young adult and adult readers and the occasional coming-of-age story set in the 1970s era of mood rings, platform shoes, and the eternal debate of who’s cuter, Starsky or Hutch.

I live with my family in Massachusetts, where I indulge in drinking copious amounts of tea while creating fictional worlds filled with humor, heart, and kick-ass women saving the day.

5.5 Random Facts About Me:

1. I have a collection of odd and unusual teapots. I mean, what tea fan worth their Oolong doesn’t have several teapots cluttering up the house? I don’t know the exact number and don’t want to know. I like the surprise of opening a cupboard and stumbling across a teapot.

2. I love studying history and learning new stuff about the past, particularly the WWII era, so it’s no surprise Casablanca is my favorite movie. My love of history is why I write time travel; it gives me an excuse to poke around in a time period not my own.

3. My husband makes the most amazing (and enormous) chocolate chip cookies. I know that’s not a fact about me, but I’m happy to bask in his success. And eat the cookies too.

4. Mr. Stevens and I raised two handsome, creative, and supremely sarcastic sons who I love and adore and who patiently listen to my rambling stories of seeing the original Star Wars in theaters for the first time.

5. I met the Three Stooges and the Queen of Bhutan. Not at the same time, of course, though that would’ve been a hoot to see the queen taking on the Stooges in a pie fight.

5.5. My experience growing up in a public housing project in a blue collar, industrial city at the heart of New England informs my work in all ways. Whether I’m writing a mystery set in WWII, an adventure in a galaxy far, far away, or even a memoir-ish story about my high school years, my characters are resilient, tough, and always fighting the good fight, where, as we know, humor is the best defense.