At 19, Marnie plunged into first love with Joe, a guy who was completely wrong for her. Their romance was fast and exhilarating and like nothing Marnie had ever experienced or understood. Just as quickly as it began, it was over, with no explanation. He left her with unanswered questions and unexpected feelings of loss and regret, and a quiet grief she would carry with her for the next fifteen years.

And then he reappears?
When Joe returns, Marnie is a 34-year-old wife and mother to two rambunctious little boys, who is slowly healing from a devastating loss. All the emotions she suppressed from the past fifteen years surge to the surface, threatening to ruin her marriage and destroy her family. She’ll need to confront the one person who hurt her the most to realize that love and loss sometimes go hand in hand… and that you have to live with some of your toughest choices for the rest of your life.

Is this a love story – or a cautionary tale?
A Little Bit of Everything Lost is part coming-of-age/part love story. It’s a story about a woman desperate to make peace with the past. It’s for all women who have ever experienced the magnitude of first love, whether it was a lasting bond or a fleeting moment. Because first love – while it might not have been the best love – is a love none of us ever forgets.

Very true. But we’re going to have to insist that you put your book in a genre box. What is it?
The genre is women’s fiction but it will also appeal to those who love New Adult because it’s told in alternating chapters — the main character’s life when she was 19 and then when she is 34, so it’s got some New Adult feel to it as well.

A Little Bit of Everything Lost will appeal to all women — every woman has fallen in love — and has had a first love that has swept them away. This is essentially a story about that first love and the implications that can occur from that. And how that even though that first love might not be the one we end up with forever, we always remember parts of that first love throughout our lives.

Tell us more about Marnie and how the years changed her.
We meet Marnie when she is 19 and falling in serious love for the first time with Joe, who is just perfect but not right for her. She is the type of girl who will do anything for him and their quick relationship is nothing like she’d ever imagine. She succumbs to him. And then he’s gone. She’s devastated and lost, and changed in ways that she cannot fix.

When she’s 34, she’s a wife and mom, but she’s never been the same person she was before she met Joe. After a devastating loss that brings up memories from her past with Joe, she realizes she’s got to find and confront him to bring her the peace she deserves.

We’re curious if one of these Marnies is based on someone you know very well – you.
Wow, great question. Because I did start writing A Little Bit of Everything Lost based on a relationship I had with a “Joe.” But after I started reminiscing my story was far less dramatic than I thought it had been when I was 19 so while the ‘shell’ of Joe stayed the same, Marnie became her own person.

Have you written any other books that we should read next?
Yes! Please! Another women’s fiction called What She Left Us.

What’s it about?
Jenna and Courtney are dealing with the unexpected death of their mother in different ways. Jenna broke off her engagement to the man she thought she’d love forever, while Courtney headed back to college to take charge of a dorm-floor full of college students as a resident assistant.

Six months later, Jenna is fueled by panic over the news that the sisters may have the same disease that caused their mother’s death and she makes an irrational decision – she packs it up and heads to college to be with Courtney. The timing couldn’t be worse for Courtney, who’s discovering love for the first time with Mitch, a sexy guitar player who may just be off limits.

Emotionally unstable, Jenna wonders if she made the worst mistake of her life by breaking off her engagement with Darren, and when he shows up to make amends, she can’t help but second-guess her decision. But then there’s Clay, the compassionate bartender at Klippy’s who seems to understand everything Jenna’s going through. And those hazel eyes just seem to see right through to Jenna’s soul…
As the girls maneuver through their unpredictable futures, trying to manage their new health risks as well as tumultuous love lives, Courtney finds a disturbing photograph that indicates there may be more to their family than she ever imagined.

This stunning revelation could shatter the sisters to the very core, making them question everything they thought they knew about their family, their faith, their past and, most of all, each other.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I am a freelance writer and I also edit manuscripts for other writers in my spare time, and love doing that! I live in Arizona with my husband of 21 years and my three children.

Do you have a website where we can keep up with your work?
http://www.stephanieelliot.com.

I share books with many others on my FB Fan Page: Manic Mommy Reads & Reviews where I do features and giveaways.

Any other presence on social media?
https://www.facebook.com/StephanieSteinElliot
@Stephanieelliot.

You’ve got a novella named The Cell Phone Lot that we’re very interested in. Tell us about it.
Grant and Bridge didn’t think their chance meeting at the cell phone lot would lead to anything, but after flight delays and a couple of beers, each starts to wonder if they were meant to find one another. But Grant’s supposed to pick up a girl he’s met online, and Bridge isn’t quite over her ex-boyfriend. Is the timing right, or might this possible relationship just never take off?

What’s next?
I’m writing a novel called Welcome to Targetland about a mysterious reclusive girl with spectacular OCDs who may or may not have an infatuation with her neighbor. Past events have affected her and she’s got to break out of her OCDs to become well again, but the events were so traumatic that we’re not sure if she’ll ever be able to leave her apartment. That’s all I can tell you right now because it’s even too mysterious for me!