• Skip to main content

Victoria Helen Stone

bestselling author of emotional suspense

  • Home
  • About
  • Books
  • Buzz
  • Blog
  • Contact

Victoria Helen Stone’s Blog

Problem Child Is Out Now!

April 2, 2020 by Victoria

Problem Child is in stores now! You can get the second Jane Doe Thriller in paperback, audiobook, and on Kindle!

I’m so excited about this book, and I hope you enjoy taking another wild trip with Jane as much as I did. Publishers Weekly gave Problem Child a STARRED REVIEW, and said “Outstanding… Readers will find vicarious joy in Jane’s petty vengeances and unabashed meanness to anyone who tries to take advantage of her. Stone turns some very dark material into an upbeat tale.”

Upbeat vengeance! How’s that for a treat?

She’s cold, calculating, and can deceive with a smile. Jane Doe is back in the Amazon Charts bestselling series—and this time she’s met her match. Try out the second Jane Doe thriller today!

Filed Under: Jane Doe, Problem Child Tagged With: Jane Doe, Problem Child

Huge News! A TV Deal for Jane Doe!

February 5, 2020 by Victoria

I’m extremely excited to announce that I have struck a deal for the television rights to Jane Doe! Sony Pictures Television will be producing, along with executive producers Seth Gordon (The Good Doctor, Atypical, Sneaky Pete) & Julia Gunn of Exhibit A Entertainment! I can even add that it is currently “in development,” thanks to the hard work of Exhibit A and my wonderful agents Amy Moore-Benson and Conrad Sun of Meridian Artists!

This has been an amazingly exciting development in the Jane Doe series… which is why I completely forgot to post it here for a few months. 😉 Stay tuned for more progress! And don’t forget that your new bestie, Jane is back. The second thriller in the Jane Doe series, Problem Child, will be out March 24th!

Filed Under: Jane Doe

Are Suspense and Romance So Different?

July 11, 2019 by Victoria

I recently wrote an essay for the wonderful CrimeReads site about my experience moving from writing romance to writing suspense. It’s been such a treat to stretch my wings and hone new skills in an unfamiliar genre. But it wasn’t quite as unfamiliar as you’d think.

“Love stories and scary stories are opposites for a reason: They’re flip sides of the same coin. They each tap into the most basic human drives: to survive and to mate.”

I don’t have a good story about the first inappropriate book I read at too young an age. There were so many books around my house from so many genres, I couldn’t even tell you what kind of inappropriate it might have been. It was probably a steamy historical romance, but it could just as easily have been a Stephen King novel or an intense Dean Koontz thriller clutched in my twelve-year-old hands at 1 AM on a school night. My mom loved reading both horror and romance, so I had plenty of access to both…

Click to Read More!

Filed Under: Half Past Tagged With: Half Past, thrillers, writing

False Step is out now!

July 1, 2019 by Victoria

The new Amazon Charts bestselling novel, False Step, is available now! Publishers Weekly calls False Step a “cleverly plotted thriller” and adds “Danger and savage emotions surface as [Veronica] discovers that she’s not the only one whose life is built on secrets and lies. Stone keeps the reader guessing to the end.”

Already a Kindle #1 bestseller!

Get False Step in hardcover, paperback, Kindle, Audible, MP3 or CD.
Read it now:   Kindle | Hardcover  | Paperback | Audio 

False Step Cover

Filed Under: False Step Tagged With: books

Jane Doe Featured on Buzzfeed!

March 6, 2019 by Victoria

Jane Doe was included on Buzzfeed’s 18 Underrated Books to Squeeze in As Soon As You Possibly Can!

“If you’re a woman, you need to read this book. It’s a story about a sociopath who loses the only person she’s ever loved, and the story of how she gets her revenge. This book has suspense, comedy, and a sweet romance element. It’s been a week since I read it and I still go back to rereading sections because this story sticks with you in a strange way.” 

I’m also thrilled to report that Jane Doe was reviewed in the Parkersburg News and Sentinel! “A woman makes herself into the perfect girlfriend for a man — so she can destroy him in “Jane Doe” by Victoria Helen Stone… A deliciously dark story with a chilling heroine, readers will enjoy seeing how far Jane will go for her revenge.”

Try Jane for yourself today!

Filed Under: Jane Doe Tagged With: Jane Doe

My Own Half Past

October 20, 2017 by Victoria

When I started thinking of my second Victoria Helen Stone book, I knew I wanted to write a family mystery, a story of secrets. I just didn’t know what the secret should be. I puzzled it over for a couple of weeks, and then I had a strange dream: I dreamed that my mother wasn’t my mother.

HALF PAST-smallThe dream felt so odd because my mom is the only parent I’ve ever known. My father left before I was born and I only met him once in my whole childhood. Lots of people don’t know their fathers. Lots of people don’t even know who their fathers are, because men can leave before fertilization even completes. But giving birth isn’t exactly a blink of an eye, so birth mother is generally a fairly secure title. I knew I had a great starting point.

That dream was the start of Half Past, but it wasn’t the inspiration. The inspiration comes from my own life. You see, my childhood was a seemingly endless series of halves. Half-siblings, half-families, half-pasts, and strange half-secrets, known by many and forgotten by more.

Me and my mom
Me and my mom

I grew up in a family of four daughters. I’m the youngest. A whole houseful of women! But I’m also an only child, in terms of psychology. My sisters were five to ten years older, so I grew up differently than they did. I also had a different father as I was the only child of my mom’s second marriage.

I had a half-brother too, but he lived on his father’s farm. I did not know him at all. I had other half-siblings as well, my father’s children with his next wife. I heard about them but did not know them. They did not know about me. Another half family and another and another.

My first halloween with my sisters!
My first halloween with my sisters!

During the school year I lived in a crowded house with sisters I loved who helped raise me, but during the summer they went to live with their father, and I lived with my grandparents. We were sent to the same small town three hours from home, but we did not see each other there, not even on my birthday. We had separate families in homes about ten country miles apart. There were no other children nearby. It was just me on acres of land until the summer ended and I went back to my crowded half-family in the city. It only recently occurred to me how odd this all was.

I didn’t know my father, but I knew my paternal grandparents. I’d visit them and my grandpa would take me around town and introduce me to his friends, but when he died, I went to his funeral and no one knew who I was. I’d somehow become a secret baby despite that both my parents were from this small town of 2000 people. You could never write that in a book. It makes no sense. Who would believe it?

Me with half teeth
Me with half teeth

So the feeling of absolutely loving your family but never quite fitting in…that part of Half Past is all me. My sisters are nothing like the sisters in the book. And my mom and I get along fabulously. There’s not one goody-two-shoes in this whole damn bunch of women! We all have a ton of fun when we get together, I promise.

But I was always different from everyone I loved, if only due to outside forces. I was the only sister with no father and no brother, the only sister with a different last name, the only sister somehow born a secret bastard even though her parents were married. My siblings had uncles and aunts and cousins I’d never met. They visited them at Christmas. But my father was an only child. Half of my Christmas was quiet.

My childhood felt like half of everything except love, but the good news is that meant I could fill in the other parts myself. Perhaps that’s the wellspring of my storytelling. I know it’s why I’m interested in others’ lives. I see secrets everywhere. I want to know the complexity beneath the surface. For me, an unassuming stranger is just someone whose story I haven’t heard yet. If I never get to hear it, I can definitely make one up. But I’ve learned that whatever story I tell probably won’t be as interesting as the truth.

As always, thanks for reading!
Victoria

Try Half Past now!

Filed Under: Half Past Tagged With: Half Past, personal, writing

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to Next Page »

Copyright © 2021 · Author Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in