Chevy Stevens

My eighth novel is another standalone thriller. I never like to reveal the title until the book is completed. (I’m superstitious!) Hopefully this one will be a smoother process for me.

STILL MISSING, NEVER KNOWING, and ALWAYS WATCHING are linked, but you could also read them on their own. The others are all standalones.

All of the towns in STILL MISSING are fictional. The locations in NEVER KNOWING are real places on Vancouver Island, same with ALWAYS WATCHING, but the hospital where Nadine works, St. Adrian’s, is fictional. The towns in THAT NIGHT are real, but Rockland Penitentiary is fictional. THOSE GIRLS, NEVER LET YOU GO, and DARK ROADS are set in fictional towns. I find it easier in many ways to just create my own communities. 

Okay, grab a map, find Canada, and look to the left—waaaaay to the left. See that big island on the west coast? That’s us! We are an hour and a half ferry ride from Vancouver—or fifteen minutes on a float plane. The island is 460 kilometers long (290 miles), with a population of over 800,000.

It depends on the character, and how I hear them in my head. Annie in STILL MISSING was very angry, rightfully so, and so she swore a lot. Sara in NEVER KNOWING didn’t swear as much, neither did Nadine in ALWAYS WATCHING. In THAT NIGHT, Toni definitely swears a lot, but she spent fifteen years in prison and learned a few things along the way. It truly depends on the character and how I feel they would naturally speak.

No, but I share aspects with them. Sometimes they are who I used to be, or how I have felt, or who I would like to be, if I had an alternate life. For example, Nadine has a passion for Bonsai trees and has traveled the world and is a psychiatrist. I think Bonsai trees are fascinating and I admire the patience and skill it takes to cultivate one, but I don’t have a green thumb. One day, I hope to travel more, and if I ever went back to school, I’d like to study psychology.

Toni in THAT NIGHT is way cooler than me. She has a fauxhawk and tattoos and doesn’t mind breaking the rules. I was not a rebel in high school like she is, and I didn’t connect with the love of my life until I was thirty-five, though we did go to high school together.

When I wrote Annie in STILL MISSING, it was a very angry time in my life, so I was able to work through my own pain and struggles as her character developed. We did share a career and we had a few other similarities, like our sarcastic voice.

Sometimes my characters are a way for me to express a current passion or interest of mine.

I would love them all to be turned into movies, but Hollywood is a slow process. Many of them have been optioned at various points. One day I hope to be able to share good news.

The rights have sold to different publishers around the world, and they all have their own production schedule. Sometimes they take longer because of the translations. My books are always released in Canada and the States at the same time. 

I’m sorry but it’s too complicated to figure out return postage etc. from where I live, and I don’t send out autographed photos.