We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Stephanie Pearre a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Stephanie, appreciate you joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

My mom and dad really raised me to the best of their ability, giving me love, patience and kindness as well as helping me persevere through difficult times. When I was in kindergarten I absolutely loathed reading, I never wanted to sit down and open up a book and to be honest, I just wasn’t great at school in general. I think a lot of people assume children are born with a certain set of skills when it comes to academics, sports, music, etc. and some parents would have thrown up their hands and hoped I’d excel in sports. However, my parents rejected the idea that I was just destined to not like reading, not do well in school and dread basically eight hours of my day. They both went out of their ways to encourage a love of learning.
I remember watching the movie “Aquamarine” and finding out it was based on a book. As a young girl who loved swimming and had “mermaid” in her first email address, I wanted to read the book so badly after seeing the movie. My parents looked at the book and knew I would get frustrated with it if I read it by myself. Worried that this would hinder a love of reading, my dad sat down with me every night and helped me read the book. When I was older, and fell in love with every tween’s obsession- “The Twilight Saga”- my dad agreed to take me to the midnight release of “Breaking Dawn”, where moms, a bunch of teenage girls and my dad sat giddily waiting for the final book in the series. In addition to encouraging a love for reading, my dad encouraged all of my studies. When I was learning how to count change in school- he’d allow me to keep all of the change he had in his pocket if I could correctly total it. Later on, there were plenty of late nights I would wake him up to help with Algebra or Pre-Calc homework. Even though he had to get up for work the next day, he never complained and would always gladly (and groggily) help me stumble my way through the math homework. He masterfully blended STEM with the arts, long before STEAM was “a thing”, being both an engineer with two patents to his name and a poet and songwriter, showing me that not only can the two studies go together, but they should.
Growing up an only child, my mom wanted to make sure I would be sociable and able to handle myself in large groups. She often brought me to events at the library, allowing me to meet new children and adults, talk with them and encouraging me to not hide in corners. This allows me to talk to people now, network and feel comfortable in rooms. She also emphasized the importance of learning, renting educational tapes from the library and playing them on long drives so I could learn the early fundamentals of math, language and fables. She also encouraged my love of reading, with countless trips to the bookstore and allowing me to read whatever I wanted. My mom encouraged me to be fearless in my drive to do what I wanted, and was always interested in listening to my opinions and ideas. When I was younger, I loved Taylor Swift, and my mom took an interest in the singer as well- allowing and encouraging me to become my own person. Her masters in linguistics was able to help with my essay writing once I became older, and I think she’s who I can credit most for helping me understand editing and the importance of it.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Currently, I’m an acquiring editor for Raw Dog Screaming Press (RDSP), an independent publisher that focuses on horror that may not otherwise get published. I met the owner of the press by going to an event called “Halloween Hangover” at Libby Place Barnes and Noble. From there we decided to form a local chapter of the international Horror Writers Association together. Our relationship developed from there, where I expressed interest in learning how to edit, and all the ropes of the publishing business in general. RDSP has been publishing phenomenal novels, novellas, poetry, and collections for over 20 years and I am so honored that I am part of the press now, and that I’m able to learn from some of the best in the industry.
I’m the most proud of my co-edited, upcoming anthology titled “Beyond the Bounds of Infinity”. This anthology focuses on diverse writers, from marginalized backgrounds, authoring short cosmic horror stories. It took a little over a year to put together, including a crowdfunding campaign, an open call for stories (where anyone could submit a short story and we went through all the submissions and selected what would appear), editing, formatting, cover design, and finally PUBLISHING! It will be available July 10th. There are authors like S.A. Cosby and Mary SanGiovanni who contributed stories to the anthology, alongside authors who are debuting in the anthology. I’m so incredibly proud to present these stories to the public, as well as help broaden the field of cosmic horror. My co-editor, Vaughn A. Jackson, and I are thrilled with the pieces we’ve selected and felt honored to receive so many open submissions where authors entrusted us with their work. We’re fortunate to have had this path paved for us by so many other amazing authors, editors and supporters. Seeing the massive support from the community with the crowdfunding campaign, all the way up to the early reviews for the anthology has been a phenomenal and humbling experience.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I love anything to do with independent books- that includes independent authors, independent presses, independent bookstores, etc. I think we’re in a fantastic age where so many creative people have access to more tools than they have before. I hope that doesn’t change anytime soon! My biggest goal is to help keep the independent book scene thriving- whether that’s by helping get books out there by editing them, or talking to authors that need advice. I really want to be a little piece in the big puzzle that is the entire industry. One of the most important goals to me, is encouraging newer authors and helping them feel safe and supported within the community. I also want to keep diversifying your bookshelves! I want to make it easier for readers to find all different kinds of stories written by all different kinds of authors.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When I first started editing, I definitely needed to unlearn how critical I could be. Since a lot of editing is done via text boxes, something that might come off as fine in person can come off very harsh in text. I was somewhat fortunate that I began editing for a friend of mine. On his first novel, I left a lot of remarks that I thought would help him with characterization, plot, and dialogue. However, the way I phrased those remarks wasn’t encouraging and came off as if I didn’t like or appreciate his story. Since this was the first time he had shared some of his writing in a while, it was very discouraging. I say I was fortunate because this friend was able to give me feedback on my feedback! I don’t know that I ever would have realized how those comments came across if it hadn’t been for him talking to me about it. To this day, I’m so thankful he had the courage, wherewithal and patience to direct me to be a better editor going forward. I never want to hurt someone’s feelings or discourage them from writing, so I now take extra time and care to make sure I’m editing in a way that comes across as kind.