Stephanie Rael
Oyster River Pages: Why did you choose Oyster River Pages?
Stephanie Rael: When I saw the quote by Samuel Taylor Coleridge featured on Oyster River Pages' homepage set against alternating photographs of nature, I felt my story could find a good home here. Even at first glance, there is a stillness and sense of place about ORP. It presents itself in a genuine, unaffected manner. To explore its pages feels very much like the artistic equivalent of walking along the edge of a meandering river.
ORP: What’s your favorite under-appreciated work of art?
SR: All the art that was never created for fear it wouldn't be appreciated or understood.
ORP: What advice would you give someone who has never been published?
SR: Practice. Write every single day. Don't put off writing until there is a good time to do it. There will never be a good time. Write now. Write for yourself, write because it's necessary to your being, write because you have a story to tell. And then submit, submit, submit with the ferociousness of a bat out of hell. You'll be published in no time!
ORP: If you had to do something differently as a child or teenager to become a better artist as an adult, what would you do?
SR: I wish I would have taken more walks. Nothing like an evening stroll to get the creative juices flowing. I also wish I would have sat quietly more often. It is in the throes of boredom that the best ideas are born.
ORP: What is the first creative piece that made you cry?
SR: A novel about a plague. Also, some short stories, one about a ghost who is haunted by another ghost.
Stephanie Rael divides her free time between reading, writing, eating cheese, and delighting in the antics of squirrels and other small rodents. She has a fondness for Central/Eastern European and Russian literature and two of her favorite authors are Fyodor Dostoevsky and Witold Gombrowicz. Stephanie resides in Boise, Idaho, USA. Her work can be viewed at http://stephaniecrael.wixsite.com/stories. Her story “Eight Hearts” is currently featured in Issue 2.