1. Your bio states that you began writing novels after a long trip without a good book to read. Can you tell us more about this?
At the time I was a stained glass artist. I was building stained glass dollhouses (one of which is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of the City of New York). I also made the furniture of glass and it was very hard on my hands and my back. I also felt that each piece had to be better than the last one, harder, more intricate. By the time we took that vacation I was tired, most of my fingers were sporting band-aids, and all I wanted was to be transported by a good book. When what I’d brought along didn’t do it for me, I let my imagination go. The first several pages of my first novel were written on hotel stationary. On the way home I offered my husband and son a pool table and told them they could put it in my studio, that I was done with glass and was going to write novels. The whole family told me to go for it. And the rest, as they say, is history!
2. How long after the decision to write did it take to complete and sell your first manuscript?
Well, I didn’t sell the first manuscript, nor the second one. I started writing in 1991 and didn’t sell a book until 1994, but after that I wrote and sold 8 books in five years!
3. Your new book, Who Makes Up These Rules, Anyway? is a Harlequin NEXT, February 1, 2006 release. Without giving too much away, please tell us a little bit about it.
It’s the hilarious story of Teddi Bayer, a Long Island housewife who thinks she’s going crazy. Anyone with kids can identify. Anyone with a mother like June Bayer can identify. Anyone with a too-handsome-for-his-own-good husband. . . you get the point!
4. Who Makes Up These Rules, Anyway? is set in Long Island, New York. Is there a particular reason you chose this locale?
I grew up on Long Island, met my husband there (we were high school sweethearts) and after college and law school we returned there to raise our kids. They say you should write what you know. Teddi’s house on Gregory Lane was our house on Gary Road. Her kids walked to the same Genovese Drug store that my kids walked to. And Teddi and I both felt we didn’t belong there.
5. What are you working on at present? When can we expect your next book to be on the shelves?
More Teddi Bayer books! After WHO MAKES UP THESE RULES, ANYWAY? Teddi goes on to become a decorator who unwillingly becomes an amateur sleuth. Think Jessica Fletcher meets Desperate Housewives on Long Island. In WHAT GOES WITH BLOOD RED, ANYWAY? (NEXT August 06) her first client is murdered. In “Who Needs June in December, Anyway?” a novella in NEXT’s Holiday anthology, temporarily titled HOLIDAY WISHES (December 06) her mother appears to be kidnapped. I’m now working on one due out in January 07.
6. You’ve written eight historical romance novels for Dell and HarperCollins. Do you plan to write more historicals? Do you prefer to write in a particular time period?
For now my days of writing historical romances are over. I’ve moved from them to writing hysterical mysteries. Someday I may go back—who knows. For now I’m having a ball writing first person, present tense humorous stories.
7. Your historicals were written under Stephanie Mittman. You’re now using the pen name, Stevi Mittman. What, if any, are the reasons authors choose different pen names when writing in either a different time period or when crossing into another genre?
I didn’t want someone to pick up one of the new novels expecting another Stephanie Mittman sweet historical and be disappointed. I wanted them to expect something different from Stevi—something edgier, because that’s what they’ll be getting.
8. What type of writing schedule do you adhere to when working on a new project?
I love writing. I do it as often as I can. Some days I’ll write ten hours. Some days I’ll go shopping. Now that I’ve got deadlines I write a lot more than I shop. In fact, my husband has taken over the food shopping to give me more time at the computer.
9. What advice would you like to share with our readers, whether they’re published or unpublished? How do you maintain a balance between family and career, especially when faced with deadlines?
My advice for readers who want to become writers is to never give up. It took me six years and innumerable revisions to bring Teddi to the bookstores. I could have given up at any point. We didn’t need my income, and I’d have made more doing anything else, anyway. But I persevered. Often the difference between the published and the unpublished is as much about perseverance as talent. Luckily, I have both!!
As to balance, I’m very lucky—my husband is my biggest supporter, my best cheerleader, my hero. He wants me to be happy. He’s also busy with his work. But we take time to snuggle, to talk, to be together. We recently got a hot tub and every night we go out there (even in the snow!) and we talk with no distractions. He is, without question, the most important thing in my life—and I never let him forget it.
10. Off the subject of writing…I understand that you also create stained-glass pieces. In fact, one of your Victorian Doll Houses is part of the holiday tradition at the JohnsonMuseum at CornellUniversity. I found this so interesting. Please tell us a little bit about this.
I mentioned the houses in my answer to your earlier question. I took up stained glass when my children were babies because I wanted to do something permanent. So much of motherhood is thanklessly repetitive—you cook and the meals get eaten. You do the wash and the clothes get dirty again. You change the diapers. . .you get the point. Stained glass seemed to me to be finite. You made your piece and it was done. It didn’t have to be done again the next day. I started with picture frames and the like and with a year I was making these major constructions. I made the first doll house for the Washington Square Art Show, a big exhibit on the streets of Lower Manhattan. My father used to take me there as a kid and we’d both say that someday we were going to be in the show. He and my mom moved to California and one day I called him and told him I’d been accepted into the show. His response was to ask if I planned to win it. I then had to do something spectacular. With little child ren a doll house seemed like a cute idea. The doll house won Best in Show for Crafts and First Place for Stained Glass. My father was very impressed. He was thrilled when it wound up in the museum.
My mother would have been ecstatic about my writing career. She was a huge romance fan.
They’re both gone now, but I know they’d both be proud of me, and that’s a great feeling.
About the Author
Ithaca resident Stevi Mittman, known to romance readers as Stephanie, has penned her first novel for the brand new NEXT line of entertaining stories about women looking for what’s next in their lives. Mittman is known for her 8 sweet historical and contemporary romance novels written for Dell and Harper Collins. Now, she’s crafted a humorous, uplifting contemporary novel about a Long Island woman whose family and events conspire to drive her crazy. Teddi Bayer is convinced there are rules on Long Island that everyone but her lives by and seeks answers to the question “Who Makes Up These Rules, Anyway?” - The title of Mittman’s February release.
Mittman lived on Long Island and struggled first-hand with these rules before moving to Ithaca in 2001 where all the rules changed! Like the women in her novels, she is on to a new chapter of her life. After winning several awards for her romance novels, she decided to create a new story line, one that resonates with NEXT readers who believe, “There’s the life you planned, and there’s what comes next. She is now writing a mystery series for NEXT with “detective” Teddi Bayer, teaching writing and every-so-often creating large stained glass houses for museum exhibitions, a craft in which she excelled for years on Long Island.
She has a loving husband, who works at Cornell University, and they have two children, a television writer in Santa Monica, California, and an art history professor at Arizona State University. They also have two cats who insist on walking across her keyboard and playing with her mouse.
Please visit Stevi's website at: www.stevimittman.com
Stevi will be doing a blog on e-harlequin for the month of February at: http://community.eharlequin.com/WebX?14@799.P951aW3NMhO.0@.4a8320b1
