Stephenson, Lynda 1941-

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Stephenson, Lynda 1941-

Personal

Born December 31, 1941, in Shamrock, TX; daughter of Thurman (an attorney) and Jerome Stanley (a grade-school teacher) Adkins; married Carl Gene Stephenson (a math teacher), June 8, 1963; children: Amy S. Patterson, Tom A. Stephenson. Education: Attended Trinity University (San Antonio, TX); Oklahoma University, B.A., M.A, A.B.D. (English). Politics: Democrat. Religion: Presbyterian. Hobbies and other interests: Reading, collecting art, home design, travel.

Addresses

Home—Edmond, OK. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Educator and author. East Central University, Ada, OK, professor of English composition, literature, and humanities, 1965-89.

Member

Oklahoma Writers Federation, Oklahoma City Writers.

Awards, Honors

Oklahoma Book Award finalist, International Reading Association Notable Book designation, and ForeWord magazine Book of the Year Award honorable mention, all 2006, and Kappa Delta Gamma Book of the Year designation, 2007, all for Dancing with Elvis.

Writings

Dancing with Elvis (young-adult novel), Eerdman's Publishing (Grand Rapids, MI), 2005.

Author of one-act play One Sunday Morning, produced in San Antonio, TX. Contributor of short fiction to periodicals, including Byline, and of humorous essays to Edmond Sun newspaper.

Sidelights

Lynda Stephenson told SATA: "I grew up in the small Texas Panhandle town of Shamrock during the 1950s, and I have written all my life, beginning with poetry at age four. As an undergraduate at Trinity University in San Antonio, I wrote a one-act play titled One Sunday Morning, which was performed by the drama department, and I also wrote poetry published in student periodicals.

"After receiving a B.A., and M.A., and A.B.D. in English from Oklahoma University, I taught English composition and literature at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, for over twenty years. Much of that time, I served as the faculty sponsor of The Originals, the university's art and literature magazine. Also, I wrote church-related literature, essays, short stories, art reviews, and poetry.

"My husband, Gene, and I moved to Clarksville, Arkansas, in 1989, and as the president's wife at the University of the Ozarks, I served as head of church relations and helped write and edit various college publications.

"When we moved to Edmond, Oklahoma, I served as a volunteer docent at the Western Arts and Heritage Museum and started a Books and Culture reading group at the First Presbyterian Church. While taking a creative writing class from University of Central Oklahoma artist-in-residence Rilla Askew, author of The Mercy Seat and Fire in Beulah, I began writing in earnest. Over the next few semesters I enrolled in several creative writing classes.

"Dancing with Elvis started out as a short story, which I read to a fiction seminar at the Calvin College Festival of Faith in Writing in 2002. After my presentation several workshop participants told me my story wasn't finished. They wanted to know what would happen to the main character, Frankilee Baxter. I decided to stick with Frankilee and see her through her troubles, and the young-adult novel was the result.

"I wrote about a self-conscious, unattractive but privileged girl growing up during the 'fifties, a time of enormous historical importance. Thus, the book is about teenaged angst set against the backdrop of racial tension sparked by the 1955 Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling. I wanted to say, ‘Hey, the fifties weren't a happy time for everybody.’

"Although I write mostly to educate and entertain, I also want to challenge myself. With every writing project, I think, ‘Let's see if I can do this.’ I've known for a long time that I could write fairly entertaining poetry and short stories, but with Dancing with Elvis I wanted to see if I could write a novel. After finishing it, I wanted to see if I could sell it to a publisher. Then I wanted to see if I could promote it. Now I want to see if I can write another novel, and start the same process all over again.

"My writing habits are erratic. I'm constantly writing in my head, and scribble on scraps of paper frequently, sometimes late at night and sometimes in public places.

When I'm at the computer, I spend big blocks of time working, occasionally from eight to ten hours at a time. I'm fairly lazy and procrastinate often, but when I'm into a project, I work until I'm exhausted.

"Dancing with Elvis was influenced in style, subject matter, humor, and depth by the coming-of-age stories of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Mary Karr, J.D. Salinger, Carson McCullers, Harper Lee, and Frank McCourt. Others who have influenced me include Kent Haruf, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Conner, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, and the authors of the ‘Nancy Drew’ mystery stories.

"If I were to give advice to another writer, I'd say ‘Take classes from professors you trust, and listen to their criticism. Be prepared to rewrite everything you've written. Join a writers' group of people who have published and will appreciate and understand your work. Most of all, write because you love to write and enjoy the challenge. Send your work out but expect nothing. Then you'll be surprised when something good comes your way."