Midnight Writer Publishing / Midnight Writer Author's Page

Shay Stephen was born of a mother who believed that kitchen knives are safer if they're dull and a father who was born on Friday the 13th. At an early age she fled. (On foot).

Raised by wolves, she grew up carnivorous, non-superstitious and sharp. At the age of four she was given a pair of red ballet toe shoes. And at the age of seven--not knowing the full job description, but based on the glitzy attire--she decided to become a stripper when she grew up. And although she didn't start her dancing career until after college she remembers the story, The Red Shoes, in which the dancer put them on, became possessed by the dance, and eventually begged to have her feet amputated in order to be able to quit dancing.

Shay considers this a warning.

If you dance for a living the time to start thinking about getting out of it is the day you start. Luckily Shay Stephen is trained in both portrait and commercial art. And owing to the fact that people really are interested in the skin trade and don't believe strippers are as one dimensional as Hollywood depicts them, the book is doing well.

Photographs of Shay