Steph Post's Blog
April 19, 2022
Etc.
Published Short Fiction, Poetry and Articles
"The Difficult Art of Ending a Crime Fiction Series" CrimeReads Feb. 2020
"Tips for Making it Work" LitReactor Jan. 2020
"How it Happened" The Thrill Begins Dec. 2019
"Fairy Tales are Just Hard-Boiled Crime Stories" CrimeReads May 2019
"The Greatest Sideshow Cons and Gaffs Imagined" CrimeReads March 2019
"13 Novels Set in the World of Myth" LitReactor March 2019
"Sideshows and Circuses" LitHub Feb. 2019
"Finding Juno" Garden&Gun August 2018
"Grit Lit" CrimeReads May 2018
"The Star Thief" Nonbinary Review March 2018
"Surviving a Book Tour" LitReactor March 2017
*Nominated for a Rhysling Award* "Alice/Ecila" Nonbinary Review- September, 2016
"Mercury's in Retrograde or Quit Blaming a Fucking Planet When You Can't Get Your Shit Together" The Underpass- June, 2016
*Nominated for a Pushcart Prize* "The Pallid Mask" Nonbinary Review- November, 2015
"Champ" Vending Machine Press- June, 2015
"The Birthday Orange" Kentucky Review- May, 2015
"Pinpricks" Foliate Oak- April, 2015
"Nixed" The Gambler- March, 2015
"The Blue Diamond" Stephen King's Contemporary Classics: Reflections on the Modern Master of Horror- November, 2014
"Promise Me" The Round Up Writer's Zine-Flasher Edition- November, 2014
"A Heart of Bone" From the Depths from Haunted Waters Press- June, 2014
"Never Enough" Flash Points Critique on Flash!Friday- June 2014
"Ain't That Something" Flash!Friday winner- May, 2014
"The Blue Diamond" in Go Read Your Lunch from Alternating Current Press- July, 2013
Me!
Need some Info? I've got you covered....
Email: stpostvegas@gmail.com
Twitter: @stephpostauthor
Instagram: @stephpostauthor
Facebook: Steph Post
Goodreads: Steph Post
Bio:Steph Post is the author of the novels Holding Smoke, Miraculum, Walk in the Fire, Lightwood, and A Tree Born Crooked. She graduated from Davidson College as a recipient of the Patricia Cornwell Scholarship for creative writing and a winner of the Vereen Bell writing award for fiction. She holds a Master’s degree in Graduate Liberal Studies from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her work has most recently appeared in Garden & Gun, Nonbinary Review, and the anthology Stephen King’s Contemporary Classics. She is a regular contributor to CrimeReads and LitReactor and has published numerous book reviews and author interviews. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, a Rhysling Award and was a semi-finalist for The Big Moose Prize. She lives in Florida.
Walk in the Fire
“Steph Post is a great new discovery. Her stories carry a dark pulse that keeps the perfect beat in a world where people put everything they’ve got on the line. Walk In The Fire is going to put Steph Post on the map.” ―Michael Connelly
Life hasn’t gotten any easier for Judah Cannon. He may have survived the fiery showdown between his father, the tyrannical Pentecostal preacher Sister Tulah, and the Scorpions outlaw motorcycle club, but now Judah and Ramey, the love of his life turned partner in crime, are facing new and more dangerous adversaries. It will take all of their cunning and courage, their faith in one another and some unexpected help to give them even a shot of making it out alive.
In attempting to extricate the Cannon family from the crime ring they are known and feared for, Judah finds himself in the sights of Everett Weaver, a cold blooded killer and drug runner in Daytona Beach who shouldn’t be underestimated and doesn’t take no for an answer. Threatened by Weaver, saddled with guilt from his recovering, but now pill-popping, younger brother Benji and pressured to use his head and do the right thing by Ramey, Judah quickly arrives at a breaking point and things soon begin to go south.
Meanwhile, Special Agent Clive Grant, who has been unwillingly sent down from ATF headquarters in Atlanta, arrives in town to investigate the fire at Sister Tulah’s church. Clive, looking to prove himself, becomes obsessed with Tulah and her iron grip on Bradford County and is determined to take her down. His search leads him to Judah’s door and soon the Cannons are caught up in an increasingly tangled web of violence, lies and retribution spanning both sides of the law. Backed into a corner, but desperate to protect his family, Judah finds himself walking a dangerous path that might cost him everything or might win him it all, if only he can walk through the fire and come out on the other side.
"Post combines classical genre tropes with a touch of Harry Crews–style Southern gothic in this terrific crime novel.” ―Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
“Sizzling...Post has a real knack for creating a complex plot that maintains its drive through sweat-slicked settings that range from raucous Daytona Beach strip clubs to the kind of lonesome roads where nothing good happens.” ―Tampa Bay Times
“Fascinating...a solid actioner with some tasty trimmings.” ―Booklist
"Walk in the Fire slings the Cannon family back on the page like a Molotov cocktail through a window. Few writers could coax a cast of characters this vast onto a single stage and orchestrate their story with such mastery. Post own the genre of North Florida noir."―David Joy, author of Where All Light Tends to Go and The Weight Of This World
"Steph Post’s Walk in the Fire is a wonderful accomplishment, teeming with a refreshingly unexpected cast of characters, and an original story in an unlikely setting. It’s a wild ride through the dark side of the sunshine state.”―David Swinson, author of The Second Girl and Crime Song
"With wicked dexterity Steph Post gets at the deepness in living and loving, as well as the good and bad within us all. Unputdownable crime fiction with a Southern twist, Walk in the Fire will continually surprise you with the speed of its plot and the mythic proportions of the story it unfolds.”―Natalie S. Harnett, author of The Hollow Ground
"WALK IN THE FIRE is the best book by an author rightly compared to Harry Crews and Larry Brown, but who blazes a path all her own. You do not know the dank heart of the great state of Florida unless you've read Steph Post.” ―Kent Wascom, author of The Blood of Heaven
Lightwood
"Brilliant... Lightwood solidifies Steph Post as the official voice of working class literature in Florida." -Brian Panowich, bestselling author of Bull Mountain
January 24, 2017Polis Books
Judah Cannon is the middle son of the notorious Cannon clan led by Sherwood, its unflinching and uncompromising patriarch. When Judah returns to his rural hometown of Silas, Florida after a stint in prison, he is determined to move forward and live it clean with his childhood best friend and newly discovered love, Ramey Barrow. Everything soon spirals out of control, though, when a phone call from Sherwood ensnares Judah and Ramey in a complicated web of thievery, brutality and betrayal.
Pressured by the unrelenting bonds of blood ties, Judah takes part in robbing the Scorpions, a group of small-time, meth-cooking bikers who are flying down the highway with the score of their lives. Unbeknownst to the Cannons, however, half of the stolen cash in the Harley saddlebags belongs to Sister Tulah, a megalomaniacal Pentecostal preacher who encourages her followers to drink poison and relinquish their bank accounts. When Sister Tulah learns of the robbery, she swears to make both the Cannons and the Scorpions pay, thus bringing all parties into mortal conflict rife with deception and unpredictable power shifts. When Judah’s younger brother Benji becomes the unwitting victim in the melee, Judah takes it upon himself to exact revenge, no matter the damage inflicted upon himself and those around him. Judah becomes a driven man, blinded by his need for vengeance and questioning everything he thought he believed in. With Ramey at his side, Judah is forced to take on both the Scorpions and Sister Tulah as he struggles to do the right thing in a world full of wrongs.---
"(A) gritty, propulsive crime novel... Lightwood keeps up a headlong pace as the Cannons, the Scorpions, Sister Tulah and other forces clash brutally all around Judah and Ramey. You might not want to visit Silas in real life, but it makes a fine setting for this twisted and compelling tale." ―Tampa Bay Times
"Post paints a large, vivid cast...Post's Florida is rather farther north than the world of Carl Hiaasen's fiction, but they share the dark comedy, intricate plotting and strong sense of paltry sin and mordant evil. Readers who like Hiaasen should find Lightwood well to their taste."―Wilmington Star-News"In Lightwood, Steph Post shows a flair for delving into the dark side of small towns and the even darker drive of families. While most of the realistic characters in Lightwood are not likable, Post makes us care deeply about what will happen to each, much as authors Daniel Woodrell and Elmore Leonard have done in their works."-Sun Sentinel
"Steph Post is the fiery new voice of Florida grit. This is not your grandmother's Florida of white beaches and seaside resorts. Lightwood reveals the haunted heart of the state, where leather-clad bikers blast through scrub pines and the Holy Ghost descends like a storm, and the spirit of the land is the slightest spark from being set alight."-Taylor Brown, bestselling author of The River of Kings
"A good choice for fans of grit lit that emphasizes blood ties and redneck justice; this will also attract readers who prefer their suspense very dark and filled with violence." -Library Journal
"Steph Post’s prose is lyrical and evocative. Her depiction of hardscrabble life in rural Florida is so effective, you’ll wanna lock the doors and crank up the AC. But where Lightwood truly excels is in illuminating the ties that bind―and stretching them well beyond their breaking point."―Chris Holm, award-winning author of The Killing Kind
"Grabs the attention and offers up some memorable lines. (Post) proves that even a former prison inmate can rise up to be a strange, yet believable hero."―Suspense Magazine
"With spot-on characterizations and dialogue, Post explores the strength of family, religion, and vengeance in an absorbing literary mystery."―Booklist
"In the best possible way, Steph Post’s Lightwood is reminiscent of Wiley Cash’s A Land More Kind than Home and Brian Panowich’s Bull Mountain. However, Post’s novel is unmistakably feminist, in the sense that its strongest and most memorable characters are women. The result is a kind of country-noir crime novel that is both satisfying and original."-Kevin Catalano, author of Where the Sun Shines Out
"There has been a lot of buzz around Lightwood and Steph Post, and it is well deserved. She weaves a strong story about families and what people will do for theirs. Pay attention to Post. She’s going places."-Crimespree Magazine
"Not only a badass modern love story, Lightwood is engaging and unpredictable...the best of the southern crime and southern gothic, and rises above the genre.”―Atticus Review
---Lightwood in... Tampa Bay Times Wilmington Star-News Sun Sentinel Booklist Library Journal
The Florida Book Review Crimespree Magazine Atticus Review Largehearted Boy
Literary Hub Alternating Current Creative Pinellas Jules Just Writes Scapegoats and Sacred Cows Vending Machine Press My Book, the Movie This Blog Will Change Your Life Fabulous Florida Writers
Black Guys Do Read Writer's Bone Monkeybicycle
Bad Citizen Corporation The Next Best Book Blog Read to Write
Unlawful Acts
Miraculum
"In Post's cinematic fantasy novel, fear and power are the sideshows, while hellfire and destruction are the main attractions." -Entertainment Weekly, #4 on the Must List
"This is a tale brimming with imagination and rich in melancholy as it pits the natural against the supernatural and touches on what it means to be human." -Kirkus Reviews
2019 SIBA Okra Pick
Order: Indie BoundAmazonBarnes & NobleAudible
Read an Excerpt from Chapter One in Entertainment Weekly
The year is 1922. The carnival is Pontilliar’s Spectacular Star Light Miraculum, staked out on the Texas-Louisiana border. One blazing summer night, a mysterious stranger steps onto the midway, lights a cigarette and forever changes the world around him. Tattooed snake charmer Ruby has traveled with her father’s carnival for most of her life and, jaded though she is, can’t help but be drawn to the tall man in the immaculate black suit who conveniently joins the carnival as a chicken-biting geek. Mercurial and charismatic, Daniel charms everyone he encounters, but his manipulation of Ruby turns complicated when it’s no longer clear who’s holding all the cards. Daniel is full of secrets, but he hadn’t counted on Ruby having a few of her own.
When one tragedy after another strikes the carnival―and it becomes clear that Daniel is somehow at the center of calamity―Ruby takes it upon herself to discover the mystery of the shadowy man pulling all the strings. Joined by Hayden, a roughneck-turned-mural-painter wrestling demons of his own, Ruby engages Daniel in a dangerous, eye-opening game in which nothing is as it seems and everything is at stake.
"Post has the innate storyteller’s gift, and a knack for creating fictional worlds." -Ben Steelman, Wilmington Star News
"Post's Miraculum is a studied, nuanced, psychologically complex journey into the world of a 1920s carnival." -CrimeReads
"...Evokes the world of circus and sideshow...glittery showmanship and dark desires..." -Colette Bancroft, Tampa Bay Times
"Miraculum is a wonderfully fresh take on folklore in American." -Crimespree Magazine
"Old-fashioned storytelling at its finest." -The Rumpus
"You won't find many writers with more momentum than Steph Post." -BookRiot
"...Post's rich, atmospheric prose and displays of dark magic..." -Booklist
"Miraculum is the first must-read of 2019 and perhaps the best of Post's impressive career." -Writer's Bone
"This wonderfully odd supernatrual tale, full of myth, dark magic and more than a hint of Southern gothic will entrance readers." -Criminal Element
"Fans of Erin Morgenstern's Night Circus will inevitably find this a cousin... readers of Katherine Dunn's Geek Love or Neil Gaiman's American Gods are likely to enjoy it." -Library Journal
Full Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews
Crimespree Magazine
Wilmington Star News
Deep South Magazine
Monster Librarian
LitHub
Book List
Do Some Damage
Criminal Element
BookBub
Interviews:
Entertainment Weekly
Tampa Bay Times
BookRiot
Lost Angeles Review of Books
Writer's Bone
The Rumpus
The Coil
Writer's Tell All
Writer Types
A Tree Born Crooked
(Back in Print and Now Available from Polis Books!)
James Hart, with a tough-as-nails exterior and an aching emptiness inside, does not want to go home.
Yet when James receives a postcard from his mother, Birdie Mae, informing him of his father’s death, he bites the bullet and returns to the rural and stagnant town of Crystal Springs, Florida, a place where dreams are born to die. James is too late for Orville’s funeral, but just in time to become ensnared in the deadly repercussions of his younger brother Rabbit’s life of petty crime.
When Rabbit is double crossed by his cousin in a robbery-turned-murder, James and a local bartender, the unsettling and alluring Marlena Bell, must come up with a plan to save Rabbit’s skin. A whirlwind road trip across the desolate Florida panhandle ensues as James tries to stay one step ahead of the vengeful Alligator Mafia and keep his brother alive. With bullets in the air and the ghosts of heartache, betrayal and unspeakable rage haunting him at every turn, James must decide just how much he is willing to risk to protect his family and find a way home.
"Like a double-shot of fine bourbon, A Tree Born Crooked grabs you in the back of the throat and only makes you crave more the more you consume. Steph Post's simmering crime saga is a relentless pulse-pounder of a tale that shows survival and salvation rarely go hand-in-hand."
-Anthony Breznican, Entertainment Weekly senior film writer and author of Brutal Youth
“Into the land of lacquered baby gators and oxycontin stashed behind the fridge--where even a plastic Santa in the lawn has been kicked over and wears a dented-in cheek. Steph Post brings a big heart and a close eye to this gritty story of ill-fated plans to knock off the safe house of a local mob. The result is a breathless chase through trailer parks, bars and motels that sweeps you in as you spiral down. Think of Flannery O'Connor writing season two of True Detective.”-Will Chancellor, author of A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall
"A man reluctantly returning to his small, rural hometown; the legacies of the past impinging on the present; crazy men with guns -- this is compelling Florida grit with echoes of the late great Harry Crews. Steph Post's A Tree Born Crooked is a wonderful debut."-Leonard Chang, author of Triplines and staff writer for FX’s Justified
"With A Tree Born Crooked, Steph Post delivers a 12-gauge blast of country noir from the gun-shaped state, a grit-rich tale of blood and citrus sure to have you recalling the rough beauty of Daniel Woodrell's work."-Taylor Brown, author of In the Season of Blood and Gold
"What is important on this journey, and throughout the novel, is Steph Post’s perfect pitch representation of her characters’ dialogue, desperation, and determination along a stretch of nonstop action."
-Florida Weekly
April 17, 2022
Holding Smoke
"Steph Post is a big, bold and welcome fresh voice in this world. Her authentic tales of those living in a whirlwind of chaos and violence is a game-changer." ―Ace Atkins, New York Times bestselling author of The Shameless
The final novel in Steph Post's acclaimed Judah Cannon trilogy
Judah Cannon. Sister Tulah. It all comes down to this.
Before the final showdown with Tulah Atwell, the Pentecostal preacher responsible for his father’s death and his own return to a life of crime, however, Judah still has a few more fires to walk through. The dust may have settled after the shootout that left a string of bodies―including that of ATF agent Clive Grant and drug runner Everett Weaver―in its wake, but that doesn’t mean a quiet life is on the horizon for Judah, his girlfriend Ramey, and his two brothers, Benji and Levi.
A power struggle within the Cannon family soon erupts, placing Judah in debt to Sukey Lewis, a crime matriarch from across the creek, just as an irresistible scheme to steal a thoroughbred stud stallion falls into the Cannons’ lap. Trying to solve all their problems with a single heist, Judah agrees to trust Dinah, an enigmatic drifter, even as Ramey’s faith in him begins to waver.
While Sister Tulah returns to her old tricks, running a swampland scheme and intimidating everyone in her path, and Brother Felton returns to Florida a changed man with a mystic mission, Judah finds the foundation of his family crumbling and only hard choices in sight. Will Judah and Ramey survive Sister Tulah―and the darkness within their own hearts―or are such dreams impossible in Bradford County, nothing more than holding smoke?
"Terrific...A born storyteller, Post expertly weaves these disparate plot strands into a wholly satisfying if inevitable ending." ―Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"A pedal-to-the-metal tale of Southern gothic noir...Post keeps the reader guessing who, if anyone, will come out of this wild ride alive." ―Colette Bancroft, Tampa Bay Times
"Post draws the Judah Cannon trilogy to an appropriate conclusion here, with her trademark crisp dialogue and action-packed, dark-edged storytelling again providing the appeal." ―Booklist
"Post... takes the raw material of the Rough South theme and handles it as adroitly as any of the he-man writers in the genre." -Ben Steelman, Star News
