Victoria Helen Stone
Author Interview - Victoria Helen Stone
Author of Bald-Faced Liar
Traveling nurse Elizabeth May has a promising new home in Santa Cruz. And another new identity. It’s a pattern of reinvention for a woman escaping her traumatic childhood—and hiding from the decades of notoriety and destruction that followed the Satanic Panic. Invisibility has kept Elizabeth safe. Until now. After all these years, someone sees her for who she is.
Threat by threat, a vengeful stalker is dismantling Elizabeth’s carefully constructed lifetime of lies. And no one in her temporary circle can be trusted—not her fleeting new love interest, not her supportive online friend, and certainly not the police. They’ve never been there for her.
As fear sharpens to terror, Elizabeth soon discovers something about her past that even she didn’t know. The revelation could finally set her on a path of healing and redemption. Or, now alone in the dark, it could be Elizabeth’s worst nightmare.
Author Interview - Victoria Helen Stone
Author I draw inspiration from:
I'm so inspired by the spectacular Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells. The books are sci-fi, following the reluctant adventures of a deadly cyborg who's escaped corporate control but keeps getting entangled with humans. These stories are far removed from anything I've ever written, but I find the strength of her voice so motivating. Just write your dream book even if no one has ever written anything like it before.
Author Interview - Victoria Helen Stone | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
In a shady lounge chair on the beach. Hands down.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
I'd choose Jack Reacher to be stuck in an elevator with. (From the Lee Child books, of course.) Because 1) He'd definitely take care of the situation, and 2) I'd like to watch him take care of the situation.
Author Interview - Victoria Helen Stone | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
I've always wanted to be an author! We didn't have much of anything when I was growing up, but we did have the library! Books were my very first love, and I wanted to build my life around them.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
I'm all ebook all the time now! I can have any story I want in my hands even in the middle of a bubble bath, and I can switch between the three different books I'm usually reading. Best of all, I can pump up the font size after a long day of working on my computer.
For a long time I couldn't do audiobooks. My mind would wander and I'd get distracted. But I started training myself with short podcasts, then longer podcasts, then audiobook novellas. Now I love audiobooks and they’ve brought so much book joy to my life!
The last book I read:
I just finished an early copy of WHO IS THE LIAR by Laura Lee Bahr, which is out in September, and it was definitely a top read of the year for me. The story centers on a young girl whose teenage sister traps a man in their root cellar, claiming he's a child killer. It's a truly creepy treat. Eerie, horrifying, and utterly original.
Author Interview - Victoria Helen Stone | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
I used to handwrite in notebooks and then I'd edit a little as I transcribed every day. But over the years I slowly transitioned to writing exclusively on my laptop. I think the only time I use paper now is when I'm doing research on location.
I'm especially thrilled that editing has moved to digital. I vividly remember the intimidation and downright fear of editing on paper, aided by pages of strange hieroglyphics I'd printed out from helpful websites. Esoteric marks and dots and carets were used to indicate VERY IMPORTANT CHANGES I needed made. And then if you changed your mind about an edit? Oh God. Off to the office supply store to copy more pages and start over. Is that arrow pointing in the exact right direction? I can't fit a whole new sentence in the margins! And what if that squiggly underline should have been a strikethrough? Eek. I'm stressed just remembering it.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
I'm such an introvert that it's hard for me to answer this question. I already have two best friends! My plate is full! And most of the characters I really adore would be a bit overbearing in real life.
I've always known that I'm an introvert, but as I've gotten older, I think I've actually shot past introvert into loner. I do love going to book conferences or signings and spending time with friends and readers. I go to parties and lunches and have a blast. But when I get home I need a few weeks to be a true hermit and hide in my cave before I can even meet a friend for coffee.
Wait. I've just realized my ideal companion. I choose Murderbot.
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
People who know me would find this hard to believe, but I think I would've liked being an accountant. Yes, this seems like the opposite of writing books! But I like doing my taxes. I find it so satisfying to dig through receipts and fill out the forms. I also love doing puzzles, and I think that's probably the same "fit everything together" urge. But hey, I guess if you're doing accounting right, the numbers do tell a story!
Favorite decade in fashion history:
I think RIGHT NOW is my favorite era in fashion. I love that it's just fine to wear really comfortable clothes. I'm also pretty happy about high-waisted pants being back. And I LOVE that style for the younger generations is all over the place. Want to go absolutely over the top with clothing, color, and wild make-up? Yes, do it. Or would you rather wear baggy overalls and sneakers and no make up at all? Yes to that as well!
Style seems very individualistic right now, and I think that's so healthy and affirming. No one with the flattest hair in the world should have to live through, for example, junior high years in Dallas, Texas during the huge-hair era of the 1980s. Not that I'm speaking from personal experience or anything.
Place I’d most like to travel:
I desperately want to stay in one of those over-the-water bungalows in Tahiti! It looks like the perfect blend of luxury, relaxation, book time, and nature
My signature drink:
Every single night I drink Bubly soda water on the rocks with a splash of orange juice. It feels like a cocktail, but it's healthy and hydrating. As for alcoholic drinks, there's nothing I like better than a fancy cocktail menu at a restaurant. I want a lychee fruit garnish, flaming orange peels, sugared rims, a slice of jalapeño, EVERYTHING. I barely even care what kind of alcohol it is, just give me something I'd never make at home, and I will pay the ridiculous tab. If there's nothing fancy, FINE, I'll order a gin & tonic.
Favorite artist:
I'm obsessed with good songwriting, especially story songs. The kind of skill it takes to fit a life into just a few lines? My God. I could never. I need a whole book! Patty Griffin in particular leaves me in awe and makes me weep. "Making Pies" is a song about the woman who makes pies for the diner, the woman who seems like she's always been old:
"Plastic cap on my hair,
I used to mind now I don't care.
I used to mind
now I don't care cuz I'm gray...
Did I show you this picture of my sweetheart
taken of us before the war?
Of the Greek and his Italian girl
one Sunday at the shore.
We tied our ribbons to the fire escape,
they were taken by the birds
who flew home to the country
as the bombs rained on the world."
Number one on my bucket list:
Some of my great-grandparents emigrated to the US from rural Iceland in the 19th century, so I'm really looking forward to exploring the island some day. We'll hopefully make it there in the next couple of years!
Anything else you'd like to add:
Thank you so much for the interview, Ashley! And thank you to readers everywhere for keeping our stories alive.
Find more from the author:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victoriahelenstone/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/victoriadahl.bsky.social
website: https://victoriahelenstone.com/
About Victoria Helen Stone:
Author Interview with Victoria Helen Stone
Wall Street Journal bestselling writer Victoria Helen Stone, author of the runaway hit Jane Doe, pens critically acclaimed novels of dark intrigue and emotional suspense. Her work includes Follow Her Down, At the Quiet Edge, Problem Child, Half Past, and the chart-toppers False Step, and Evelyn, After. Bald-Faced Liar is her tenth suspense.
Victoria writes in her home office in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, far from her origins in the flattest plains of Minnesota, Texas, and Oklahoma. She enjoys gorgeous summer trail hikes in the mountains almost as much as she enjoys staying inside by the fire during winter. Victoria is passionate about dessert, true crime, and her terror of mosquitoes, which have targeted her in a diabolical conspiracy to hunt her down no matter the season.
