%20(1).png)
INTERVIEW: S.L. Woeppel Loves Books with a Gut Twist
- Christina Boyd
- 7 hours ago
- 4 min read
CHRISTINA: I was delighted to have the opportunity to interview BookLife finalist and psychological thriller author S. L. Woeppel, Stephanie, as her second novel, The Butcher and the Novel, is soon to be released.
When did you first think you had a book to write, and how did you start?
STEPHANIE: As a child in Nebraska, I lived a few blocks from a cattle auction—the sounds, smells and organized chaos of which seeped into my subconscious. Much later, I moved to Chicago’s Fulton Market neighborhood while it was still a meatpacking district. The story was inspired by the confluence of these settings, which lend themselves to a dark and twisty story with psychological thriller vibes.
CHRISTINA: That's a powerful and evocative origin story for your work.
What do you wish you had known before you started writing a book?
STEPHANIE: That writing the book is only about 10% of the journey. No scratch that, I’m glad I didn’t know. I wouldn’t want to have been bogged down by that in the beginning.
CHRISTINA: No kidding! It's a marathon, not a sprint.
What comes first: plot or characters?
STEPHANIE: For me, setting comes first, then characters, then plot. Thankfully, I’ve learned to generate some semblance of each before I begin writing.
CHRISTINA: Do you put people you know, or their characteristics, in your book?
STEPHANIE: No. Not really. I do put in little things, like how my dad always called dogs “old soup hounds” or how my grandmother told me never to get old. I put in partial memories—mostly of people who have passed on. For instance, in The Butcher and The Liar, Daisy has a single memory of her father being her father. One that stands out amongst all the terrible ones of him as a killer. It’s this single memory that keeps her tied to him, keeps her from revealing his true nature to the world. My father was nothing like Daisy’s father, but the memory she has is derived from my own very first memory in life.
CHRISTINA: That’s such a powerful way to write—using fragments of real life, especially those tethered to people we’ve lost. The details you choose to include, like “old soup hounds” or the advice not to get old, speak volumes in just a few words. They carry not just meaning but texture, grounding your stories in something deeply personal. I find it especially moving how you’ve transformed a real memory—your first one—into something fictional yet emotionally true. It’s a testament to how storytelling can preserve not just people, but moments and feelings, even when reimagined. Daisy’s bond with her father, shaped by that one redemptive memory, feels all the more poignant knowing it comes from something real. It’s fascinating how fiction can be the vessel for truths we can’t always say plainly.
Which of your own novels is your favorite?
STEPHANIE: My first—because it’s why I fell in love with writing again. It’s not published, though I hope that someday it will be. It still needs some work first.
CHRISTINA: What do you think makes a good story?
STEPHANIE: Things I love in stories include a great setting without overuse of descriptors, big secrets. I want books with love stories, ghosts, humor, banter, a touch of adventure, high stakes, and a bit of angst. Ultimately, I love stories that give me a bit of a gut twist.
CHRISTINA: Is there a time period you would like to set a future story?
STEPHANIE: I am constantly going back to a book set during the Dust Bowl. I love a gritty, atmospheric setting that serves as a key character in the story. The Dust Bowl is ripe for a magical realism novel. I’ll get back to it someday.
CHRISTINA: It sounds like that Dust Bowl story has its hooks in you—raw, haunting, and just waiting for you to return and breathe a little magic into the dust.
Favorite contemporary author:
STEPHANIE: My most consistent author is probably Amy Harmon. I’ve read everything she’s written, and I feel like I evolved as a reader at the same time and in the same vein she did as a writer.
CHRISTINA: Have you gone on an author pilgrimage or research trip? Where and what was the most memorable moment?
STEPHANIE: My dad passed away in 2022, and I went back to the place I lived as a little kid, the place this book is set, to bury him. I hadn’t been there in years. I stopped by the old cattle auction that is central to The Butcher and The Liar. It had shut down seven years prior. Yet it still stood, dilapidated, the catwalks cordoned off and falling apart—right in the center of town. And I thought about how things change, how something with so much life could simply degrade into rubble, how things in the past, whether good or evil, fade into history, most of it forgotten. The notion was both sad and comforting. I took a few pictures without being able to get too close. The images couldn’t capture what I had remembered. But looking at the image now, I still see the bustle of it. I hear the sound of boots on the steel catwalk and see the colors of that magnificent Nebraska sunset that light up an entire sky.
CHRISTINA: That memory is hauntingly beautiful—how a place can decay yet still echo with life, holding both grief and comfort in its silence.
Best advice for new writers:
STEPHANIE: Having the guts to go for it, no matter the outcome.
CHRISTINA: Writing a book does take guts. So many people say they should, could.
Thank you for your time with this interview. And best wishes on the coming release. Your book sounds fascinating.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
S.L. WOEPPEL gets antsy being in one place too long, so she’s lived in various places across the United States, most recently moving from Chicago farther north for even more cold and snow. She has five great loves—family, writing, reading, travel, and municipal bonds. She has an embarrassingly large supply of those tacky souvenir spoons (like more than two hundred) that she keeps in a box in her closet. She can’t help it; she just keeps buying them every new place she goes. You can connect with Stephanie via her website.
