“In 1959, after years
of abuse from her father, thirteen-year-old Rosalind Ann Stump finds a way out
of the house from an unlikely source-her drug addict mother. Rosalind is
whisked away to a nearby town where she finds that her parents weren't unique
in their transgressions, and that those who claimed friendship weren't really
friends at all. Follow Rosalind as she meets new people in a new town, tries
desperately to embrace the normal life she never had, and does her best to deal
with an old wound that returns to threaten her new existence.”
The above is an excerpt from Steve Paden’s first novel Rosalind.
In 2006, Steve began a friendship with The Hand That Rocks The Cradle actor, Kevin Skousen. Steve
explained,
“He [Kevin]
showed me a picture from the movie that was more of a prop (it was the picture
on Julianne Moore’s desk). When I saw her, a character formed in my head named
Maggie. I began writing a novel called Hollow Hill about a woman who never got
along with her mother, but she didn’t know why. I was about 285 pages when I
realized why: her mother was not her real mother. Then I asked myself, who is
her mother? It came immediately: a thirteen-year-old girl from the back woods
of Kentucky named Rosalind. I closed that document, opened up a new one, and
wrote 80 pages that night of what would be the first version of Rosalind.”
When asked where he gathered inspiration from this book
Steve elaborated, “I was not living in an ideal situation. Verbal abuse,
watching parents kill themselves with drugs, living very poorly while finishing
my B.S. When you read the book, you will see what I did to the characters
modeled after my parents, and the home we lived in. It was very therapeutic :).”
Steve went on to explain, “It is a dark book dealing with
sexual abuse and incest. It is, after all, just a story, but this kind of thing
does happen. I did not get too explicit with the two scenes that are in the
book because it would not have pushed the narrative. Writing this book was a
terrible experience. I just had to get the story down.”
Currently, Steve is working on finishing Maggie and is currently on version 5 or
so. You can purchase Rosalind from Amazon, CreateSpace eStore, or at Sarah
Etzkorn’s desk (while supplies still last)! Be aware, the digital version available on Amazon contains a different ending than the unabridged, physical copy.