Stephanie Cage

Write from the Heart

Stephanie Cage graduated in English Literature from Trinity College, Oxford University, and has an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University. She is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and a frequent guest on Book It!, a literary show on local community radio.

Stephanie writes part-time alongside a career in administration, and her first novella, Desperate Bid (published in e-book form by The Wild Rose Press), combines her interest in business with her love of music, telling the story of a businesswoman and an aspiring musician brought together by an unlikely online transaction.

As a former ballroom dancer and an avid fan of the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, Stephanie has always loved writing about music and dance. Her first paperback, Perfect Partners (Crimson Romance), follows an imaginary reality TV show called Couples, which could be seen as Strictly meets Blind Date.

Perfect Partners was followed by another e-book from The Wild Rose Press, this time a holiday romance entitled The Santa Next Door, which again touches on a musical theme, with a jaded composer rediscovering the joy of Christmas thanks to the single mother next door and her adorable four-year-old daughter.

Before turning to longer fiction, Stephanie had some success with short stories and poetry, including being shortlisted several times in Writing Magazine competitions. Her most notable competition successes have been winning the Woman’s Own Short Story Competition with her story “Hide and Seek” (described by the judges as “movingly written from the point of view of a child”) and the Yorkshire Ridings Romance Story Competition with “On Top of the World”. Oddly, both stories were inspired by the same location, a country park in Yorkshire.

Apart from writing fiction, Stephanie has also co-written several business reports and journal articles, as well as winning an essay competition run by David St John Thomas and the Alliance of Literary Societies.

Stephanie is married and lives with her husband in the beautiful county of Yorkshire, in the north of England. She loves to travel, and her favorite destination is Australia – she just wishes it was not quite so far away!

• Ready. Set. Novel! — Book Review
  by Stephanie Cage
  Ready. Set. Novel! is the book for you if you are in search of your next novel idea, or have a hint of a concept but are looking to develop it further before you set fingers to keyboard. Co-authored by Chris Baty, Lindsey Grant and Tavia Stewart-Streit, three of the brains behind National Novel Writing…
• The Soundtrack of Your Story
  by Stephanie Cage
  Some writers habitually write with music playing, while others find it easier to focus in silence. When I refer to the soundtrack of your story, I am not necessarily referring to the music that you play while writing, although that also has its place; instead, I am thinking of the music that belongs to your…
• The Sense of Style — Book Review
  by Stephanie Cage
  Steven Pinker’s The Sense of Style is not a typical style guide. Pinker explains in the first chapter that he does not intend to replace classic guides such as Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. Rather, his book acts as a commentary both on the changes that have taken place since that classic guide…
• How to Get and Use Feedback
  by Stephanie Cage
  Feedback is a valuable tool for writers, but not all feedback is created equal. There is helpful feedback, unhelpful feedback, and feedback which would be helpful if you only knew what to do with it. Many people assume the best feedback comes from paid professionals, and that if only they could afford to pay an…
• Finish Every Story You Start
  by Stephanie Cage
  Anyone who knows my writing habits will know that this title is more than a little tongue in cheek. Not only do I not finish every story I start, but I am pretty much legendary among my writing friends for unfinished projects. If I bring the same piece of work to my writing group three…
• Writing Great Books for Young Adults — Book Review
  by Stephanie Cage
  Writing Great Books for Young Adults by Regina Brooks has the rather ambitious subtitle “Everything You Need to Know, from Crafting the Idea to Getting Published”. For the most part, the book lives up to its promise. Regina Brooks covers all the essentials of writing great books for young adults, such as plot, character, setting…
• Benefits of Measuring Word Count
  by Stephanie Cage
  For some time I only measured my word count when writing a piece of a specific length, or taking part in a challenge such as National Novel Writing Month or Book-in-a-Week. Recently, I have begun to explore how measuring word count on a day-to-day basis encourages me to write more and better. There are many…
• How to Prepare for a Writing Conference
  by Stephanie Cage
  It is conference season again and hopefully you were persuaded by my previous article, 7 Reasons to Attend Writing Conferences, that attending a writing conference is a great experience for any writer. But how do you make the most of a writing conference when there are so many choices about how to spend your time?…