I first met Lorina Stephens some years back when I joined SF Canada, the organization of Canadian professional science fiction, fantasy and horror writers and publishers. Lorina was already the publisher of Five Rivers Publishing, a highly successful small book publishing house out of Neustadt, Ontario. What I didn’t know at the time was that she is also a consummate landscape artist, using watercolour to create evocative art. And, of course, a consummate storyteller.

Here’s Lorina’s post:

The last collection of short stories I published was in 2008. It’s an eclectic mix which I entitled And the Angels Sang, named for the lead story. To my delight, it’s met with quite a bit of positive reaction from both readers and reviewers.

In the ensuing years, I’ve crafted a number of other short stories in between operating a publishing house and all the demands of being an administrator in our other business, one which pays the bills. A lot has happened during that time: our son married his life-buddy, three major surgeries, a failed attempt at elder care, renovating this old stone house which was built c1847, and as I write this, into the second year of a global pandemic. 

And somewhere in all that still writing, still exploring ideas and what-ifs. I do have to admit a reluctance to writing short fiction. The literary form seems so restrictive to me, perhaps more having to do with the fact I have too much to say and want to make an epic out of everything. But short story writing is good discipline.

Having said that, I’m giving you 10 short works of fiction in this collection [Dreams of the Moon], spanning the boundaries of science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy, magic realism and absurd fantastica. Apparently, I don’t much like writing in just one genre, either. Creative fences drive me batshit crazy, although I do very much appreciate fences around this sanctuary we are privileged to call home. But there is a theme to this collection, a common thread I think you will find through all the stories. What it is, I will leave up to you to decipher, and thus we will have a silent communication.

I’ve arranged the stories in some loose graduation of dark to light, and again have chosen to use the lead story as the title for the collection. But the title Dreams of the Moon is more, because as a child, and then an adolescent, I firmly believed if I arranged myself just so in the bed, so that when the moon shone in my window, something wonderful would happen. It never did. But I still felt compelled to answer the call of that pale, eerie light. 

And then there were all the moonlight walks in the deep of the night which took place well into adulthood. Wonderful moments. Moments I remember with clarity and wonder, whether moonlight so bright on a winter’s night that the trees by the river cast indigo shadows across the snow, or a brace of geese rising up and across that silver face. And as with all things, there is the dark side of the moon: a sleepless night fraught with sorrow and a desperate attempt to rescue someone I dearly loved.

All of these moments influence and underscore what I write. It’s there in these 10 stories. Darkness and light. Wonder and sorrow. The ambiguity, sometimes, of reflected light. Dreams of the Moon.

The third story in the collection, Gravity, slides from the horrific to a quieter, perhaps oppressive literary piece of speculative fiction. As in At Union, the second story in the collection, Gravity deals with the loss of a child, in this case a daughter who dies while on a scientific mission at the edge of a singularity. 

I do like playing with anachronisms, because somehow they are a metaphor for many of the ironies in our lives. So it is in this story the main character is a woman of age who is a maker of old world automatons, and in this case she’s working on a silver niello owl. 

I chose an owl because of both the dark mythology which often surrounds owls, and because of their sheer beauty. They are amazing raptors. Silent. Deadly. Reticent creatures. Amazing fliers through dense forest. 

There is also an eerie spring in the story, which is inspired by a sulphur hot spring not far from our home. It flows at a constant temperature 12 months of the year, which is remarkable given our geographic location. It’s also a very eerie spring to view. The water is a pellucid turquoise, flowing with force out of a deep funnel, and in which nothing grows. There is just this volume of warm, clear water fountaining up out of the bowels of the earth and spilling out into the Saugeen River complex.

Of course, you’re likely scratching your head at this point wondering how the hell did I weave together the death of a daughter, a singularity, a mourning mother, a hot spring, and a clockwork owl? Well, at the risk of being coy, you’ll have to read the story in order to find out.

Dreams of the Moon is available in trade paperback and ebook, either directly through my website or through your favourite online bookseller wherever you live in the world. It’s also available through elibrary services globally. 

The Art of Lorina Stephens

Lorina tells us that the two watercolours featured here “are both part of a series I’ve been exploring the past three years since my mum died,” says Lorina. “Painting was one of the few things we shared throughout a difficult and often shattered relationship. So, in this series in particular, I have been trying to capture the sense of peace, of belonging to the planet, of harmony.”

Lorina primarily paints in watercolour: “I prefer to use transparent pigments, carefully glazing from warm, light pigments to cool, dark, which allows light to travel through those microscopic films of colour. I think that creates a clarity of colour, which then adds to the sense of luminescence I want to imbue into most of my art. I do also work in oils, acrylics, and pen and ink, as well as pencil and pastels. But my heart lies in watercolour because it’s such a precise, unforgiving, technical medium. It makes me slow down, consider. And I like that meditative process. It’s also something I do in my writing: think a lot. That’s essential to being creative, at least for me.”

Lorina mostly works in landscapes, often with lakes and rivers, icons of a water-rich nation. “We are such a remarkable land of water,” she says. “Our geography is breathtaking.”  Atmospherics—weather—fascinates Lorina. “I love the challenge of bringing that sense of fog, or mist, or rain, or even crisp, clear air to a painting, of making the viewer feel they are there, without resorting to magic realism. I like to tuck my work somewhere comfortably between realism and impressionism.” 

Biography on Lorina Stephens

Lorina’s short fiction has appeared in literary and genre publications, novels under her own house, Five Rivers Publishing, non-fiction under Boston Mills Press and an anthology co-edited with Susan MacGregor, Tesseracts 22: Alchemy and Artifacts.

Mostly Lorina is an introvert. You won’t find her at conventions. On social media she mostly lurks. If you really want to know what Lorina is about, read her work. It’s that simple. If you’re curious, email her at: lorina@fiveriverspublishing.com