Stephanie Amox attended the University of Texas at Arlington, where she met her husband. Her life did an about-face in January 2009 and the future of her career looked bleak. Her husband encouraged her to follow her dream and finally write the story which had been buzzing around in her head for a number of years, thus The Lumina Saga was born.
These days she spends her time in Flower Mound, Texas with her husband, two children and a couple of crazy Jack Russell Terriers. When she's not writing she enjoys spending time watching her son play hockey or visiting her daughter at Oklahoma State University.
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Two teenager's lives become not so ordinary...
Caitlin and Leah are content with the slow and steady pace in their small Texan town. They have the typical challenges of any American high school - evil girl cliques and oppressive ex-boyfriends. They see themselves as painfully ordinary...but that soon changes. The arrival of two newcomers at school sets Caitlin and Leah on an explosive path of magic, betrayal, secrets and forbidden love. The discovery of Caitlin's true identity causes tremendous upheaval in her painfully ordinary life. Caitlin must learn to embrace her birthright and trust in her friends or she risks endangering them all.
Wailea, Maui would be a paradise by just about anyone’s standards. Caitlin and Leah are no different. They are living like rock stars with Talon and Jace in one of the poshest hotels on the island. Just when they think things can’t possibly get any better—everything falls apart. Their short lived paradise is ripped out from under them. Once again, they are on the run.
A mysterious man appears and attempts to drive a wedge between Caitlin and Talon. He whisks her away to an ancient world where she is treated like a princess yet held completely against her will. She is shown events, consequences and affairs she never dreamed possible. Will the secrets of her family destroy her happiness, or will she rely on her instincts to find a way back to the life she found with Talon?
What happens when the extraordinary fades into ordinary?
Caitlin awakens to find herself back in the normal life she shares with her best friend, Leah, in their small Texas town. Caitlin has no memory of the fantastic events of the last several months save a mystery man who haunts the shadows of her dreams. Constantly taken aback by strange occurrences: the sudden attention of the two most popular guys in school; Caitlin’s toe-to-toe showdown with Tami; and the constant coincidental run-ins with two mysterious strangers, keeps Caitlin’s nerves raw and on edge. Will she solve the mystery behind the strange events, or will the dreams be all that remains?
Q) What inspired you to write this story?
It was a combination of several things. One was the lack of YA books with stronger heroines. I wanted my heroines to be able to stand on their own two feet and not be totally dependent on their love interests. I got a lot of the personality for my main characters from watching my daughter and her friends when they were in high school.
Q) How long did it take you to write?
That’s a really hard thing to quantify. I had the basic storyline, at least the beginning of it, in my head for a long time. Once I actually put pen to paper, it probably took me about a year to finish. Then there are a couple of months of editing once the story is finished.
Q) What is your favorite thing about writing?
I love it when my storyline takes an unexpected detour – when the characters end up doing something I hadn’t originally planned on. Those are some of my best storylines.
Q) What is your least favorite thing about writing?
I hate writer’s block more than anything. No amount of determination can make it go away. You simply have to step back and wait for your muse to return.
Q) If you could be any famous person for one day, who would you be and why?
There are so many choices, I’d have a hard time choosing just one. I would want to be them for different reasons (and at different times in their life). For example, I’d love to be Gelsey Kirkland back when she was dancing with Baryshnikov, or perhaps Debbie Reynolds (circa Singing in the Rain), honestly – there are way too many to try to list.
Q) What is the oldest thing in your fridge and how old is it?
That’s actually a scary question. I have a tendency to put leftovers in Tupperware containers then they get pushed into the back of the fridge until you can no longer tell what it originally was. This is usually when my husband begs me to clean out the refrigerator.
Q) What can readers expect from you in the future?
I’m trying to stay focused on writing the fourth book in the series. Right now it’s titled Rushing Calm. I keep telling myself that it will be the final book in the series, but then again – Painfully Ordinary was originally just one book and it grew as I wrote. Who knows if I will be able to wrap up all the loose ends in one book or if it will spill over into a 5th. I’m also getting a lot of feedback from fans of my adult romance who would like to see it turn into a series. There are also two additional works in progress, but they will be single books and are quite a bit darker than my other works.
