Hello. Please introduce yourself.

Hey there…I am Stephanie Berberick but now a days I go by Stevie B.

How are you doing today?

I am, as always, fabulous!

I understand that friends would go to you for help with writing through out school. How did that make you feel?

It was neat to be recognized for something that is an art, especially when I felt that I was a decent writer but that I was by no means someone that you would ask for advice about the craft from.

You started writing stories in the 6^th grade. What was your biggest influence at that time?

My daydreams fueled my writing storm. It worked in two ways, (1) they were my inspiration - I had worlds unfolding in my brain and each one was twenty times more delectable than what I had around me at the time and (2) I could see how drastically different my life would be if only I could be that best selling novelist or screenplay writer or some such jazz. My muse was set free by realizing that I could give people a world they WANTED to exist in - much like I wanted to exist in the worlds I found in all of the books and stories I read.

What are you influences now?

Everything and anything. The beauty and inspiration behind what I do lies behind the common or often times unnoticed things because details are often lost in the routine.Like today I was walking through a graveyard, and while the graveyard wasn’t an inspiration a certain stone was. It had the names of a husband and wife on it and below it this gorgeous etching of two little lovebirds walking down a path all garbed up in fifties style wear. It was so silent in the graveyard and before I knew it this little skit about a love so deep and infinite that it could whisper through time and surpass death and touch us on a spiritual level that no one could resist and all of that whispering was the two lovers trying to find each other on a plane beyond death and using living people as a conduit to do so.

I think the stories are everywhere - they are just waiting for someone to see them and immortalize them.

Was it hard to get back into the swing of things at college after taking time off?

I felt so warped going back to school at 23 - I couldn’t relate to anyone (not that I could when there wasn’t a five year age difference) and I certainly couldn’t handle all of the hand holding they do for your first two years of college. I damn near died when they gave me tips on how to balance a check book, maintain a budget, and study because these are things I had been doing on my own for years. However, a couple of amazing mentors found me and I really believe they are the reason I stuck with it. It only takes one person to make a difference in your path.

What are you working on now?

Right now my baby is a novel I have been writing since about November. It doesn’t have a name and the characters are surprising the hell out of me each time I sit down at the computer, but the story breaks my heart and gives it hope at the same time. I am hoping that (a) I finish it and (b) it does the same for many other people.

I am also still plugging away at poetry, although it is far less frequent than I would like. I believe I may work on a compilation within the next couple of years that I would be interested in publishing through a local means.

I am also dabbling into photography to accompany a long time love affair I have with telling the story others were too frightened to speak aloud for themselves. What I mean is the story of the folks we notice every day and somehow fail to really SEE. I want to write their stories and show their faces.

You can also catch my more professional writing by doing a pretty damn basic search online. Any more secrets you will have to pay for, though.

Anything coming up soon that we should keep an eye peeled for?

Want a tip? Never make plans, because you can rest assured that they will evaporate somehow in some way. What I can say is this - if you want to keep your eyes peeled keep them open for the stories and the secrets that the world is whispering around you every single day. Maybe one of those stories will be my own and you will know because it will bear my name just like the pages will bear my thoughts and passions.

You have a chance to write a headline for a newspaper that will be seen around the globe…what will it say

Wake Up.

Pepsi or Coke?

Coffee - extra strong.

Favorite super power?

Courage through adversity.

You’re doing what you love, but what is the most taxing thing about your day?

Sitting and stewing on all the things I didn’t get to do or all of the things I could have done better.

You have an open forum to tell anyone with the desire to create something that you will think help them prosper.

You are going to fail. You are going to fall flat on your face and the universe is going to give you a swift kick in the ass to tell you that something you thought was unbelievably wonderful was less than average, and I can guarantee that it will hurt like hell. It might make you want to turn back around, cash out, and say maybe I will play again some other time. Don’t give in. Bask in the failure, roll around in it, use it for fuel. Every time you hear it wasn’t good enough learn from it - take the criticism in and suck it dry for everything its worth. Do this especially when it cuts you. When someone is unjustifiably cruel about your dreams take that in and let it change you - let it inspire you to overwhelm their judgments. That is how we get better - it is how artists improve. They take what they are given and they use it until there is nothing left and then they throw it away and move on to the next tasty treat that may have originally left a sour taste in the mouth. That is the only way you can be better at your craft - that and a lot of practice.

Don’t think it won’t get better or that you won’t improve, because if you try you will.

Be explicit. Be brave. Be colorful or dark. Be whatever you want it to be, but let it come from the heart. If someone says it wasn’t beautiful focus on the people who think it was.Art in any form is relative - meaning that no two people will take the same thing from it.Believe that it may not be for everyone, but it is for someone. Create for that someone and never stop.