Denver author’s thriller takes readers on a deadly cruise

A review of If You Lie by Caleb Stephens

By Jeanne Davant | November 7, 2024

Olivia Miller claws her way to consciousness. Grabbed by an assailant while she’s on a morning run and strangled until she passes out, she has been stuffed into the trunk of a car. She manages to find a release, pops the lid and jumps out. Olivia takes off running, pursued by her captor who’s armed with a knife and obviously intends to kill her. When she slips and tumbles down an embankment, she thinks she’s a dead woman. But just in time, a police car arrives and shoots the man looming over her.

That’s the way If You Lie, Denver author Caleb Stephens’ third thriller, plunges the reader into Olivia’s story. There is much more terror to come.

I was recently interviewed by The Colorado Sun regarding my Colorado Book Awards Finalist The Girls in the Cabin.

I’m excited to announce that I have a new novel on the way. My darkly-humorous urban fantasy novel Soul Couriers will be releasing in summer of 2025 via Dark Matter INK. It was an absolute blast to write. It's one of those books that just flowed. It's ridiculous and funny and full of heart, and I really love how it turned out. Seriously, I can't wait for you to read it.

I was just on The Creatives Getting Coffee Podcast. I really enjoyed chatting about world-eating monsters and writing perseverance with Joey Powell. It was a lot of fun. If you’re up for it, you can listen here.

I recently sat down with the wonderful Brett Mitchell Kent from the Cutthroat Queens Podcast. We chatted about horror books, my upcoming speculative horror thriller novel Feeders from Timber Ghost Press, and life in general. It was a great conversation, so pull up a chair and have a listen here.

So, this is pretty cool. I was recently nominated by a reader in the UK to curate my very first suggested book club list. Let me just tell you, it’s pretty much an impossible ask. There are so many incredible books out there, to even begin to name a few is overwhelming. But I took a shot. These were just a few of my favorites (with a couple of my own thrown in for good measure, of course).

I chat with the We Bleed Orange and Black podcast about emotional drive-bys, broken characters, night terrors, skin-walkers and slide-rock bolters. It’s an episode you don’t want to miss.

So, I sold a novel to Joffe Books recently. This one is a psychological thriller full of family tension and wilderness survival. It has some serious Misery vibes as well. I’m really excited to get this book out there. I think (hope) the readers are going to enjoy this one.

I had the pleasure of spending a few minutes with Antony Frost, who is a wonderful author himself, on his podcast show Terrify Me! Have a listen here. Extra bonus — he speaks in a rich, warm UK accent that is guaranteed to soothe your ears and lower your blood pressure.

I’ve been severely remiss in adding this post. Last month I sat down with cosmic horror author, PL McMillan to chat about my dark fiction collection If Only a Heart and Other Tales of Terror. We had a good time and discussed some of my inspirations for the stories. If you have a few minutes to spare, give it a listen here.

Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the upcoming release of If Only a Heart and Other Tales of Terror! For those who may be unfamiliar, how would you describe the collection’s overall premise, and what (or who) was its inspiration?

I was recently interviewed by The Dread Machine for their upcoming anthology Mixtape:1986. I was lucky enough to land a story in this anthology and am very much looking forward to reading the book when it’s published early next year. There are a LOT of great authors in this one. But I digress. Please read on for my interview:

Hi! Hello there! It‘s been what, a mere two years since I last posted anything? Longer? A lot has happened in that time frame, with me primarily focused on writing more and blogging less. (Which is to say zero. I haven’t posted a damn thing.) So, with that said, I figure it’s time for a quick update.

“Eighty percent of U.S. books are produced by the Big Five publishers, but with each passing year — and with a stable small number of annual releases — independent presses are earning more of the literary conversation, gaining frequent articles and reviews in the New York Times, the Guardian, the New Yorker, and more.”

- The Atlantic.

Growing up, like many people, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I just thought, hey, I’ll go to college and everything will work out. That’s what my parents told me, anyway. So I did, and things sort of did. I partied a lot, studied a bit, and made some great friends. Graduated. Then came the real world. Ugh. A failed stint in financial planning. Retail banking — disgruntled customers and high-pressure sales. Shove the loans down their throat if you have to…

It was terrible.

Dear Writing,

I hate to be dramatic, but we need to talk. There are some things I need to get off my chest, things I’ve been meaning to share with you for some time now, but haven’t had the balls. The truth is, I’m afraid it will run you off, and I can’t imagine my life without you in it.

As the Assistant Editor for Hinnom Magazine, a bi-monthly publication of excellent weird/dark fiction, I get the pleasure of reading a lot of short stories.

One of the benefits of so much reading is learning to spot the little things that hold a story back. Things that, if corrected, can take a story to the next level. And they often really are the little things — just enough clutter to send an otherwise great story to the rejection heap. In today’s post, I’m going to discuss the dreaded info dump. 

I’m sure many of you are familiar with this term. For those who aren’t, imposter syndrome is the deep-seated feeling that you are a fraud, that you are faking it in some, or all, aspects of life.

Show, Don’t Tell

You hear it a lot as a writer: show, don’t tell. It’s one of the first things you learn. It sounds easy. It sounds straight forward, right?

It’s not.

As the Assistant Editor for Hinnom Magazine, a bi-monthly publication of excellent weird/dark fiction, I get the pleasure of reading a lot of short stories.

And I do mean A LOT.

One of the benefits of so much reading is learning to spot the little things that hold a story back. Things that, if corrected, can take a story to the next level.