Becoming Bobbie is R. J.'s first published novel. 

 Hailed as a "stunning debut novel" and "haunting."

 It has also been called a "poignant coming of age

 story told in a unique narrative voice."

"This is my story, but I'm not much of a storyteller... the memories just seem to get jumbled up. It's a funny thing about memories...

you bury them. You bury them so deep that you think you've forgotten them. But you haven't. Sometime, somewhere, something happens to trigger them..."

Growing up as a bona fide tomboy in the shadow of her fashionable, ladylike mother, Bobbie lives for three things: cars, music and

time with her uncomplicated, mechanic dad.  She doesn't need much in the way of friends.  Her best girlfriends are on the radio--women

with names like Aretha, Janis, and Diana.  And she loves the cool logic of working on engines--the simple joy of finding the part that doesn't

work, of fixing what's broken.  But what's broken beneath the shiny facade of her family is something beyond Bobbie's control, a shattering

secret that tears her family apart and sends Bobbie into a spiral of anger and defiance that she finds echoed only in the electric pain of rock 'n' roll.

Moving from school to school as a Professional New Kid and all-around lover,  Bobbie wonders if she'll ever fit in anywhere, especially as uncomfortable

new feelings begin to surface  Shunned by her peers, abandoned by her disapproving mother, Bobbie finds herself drawn to  her sympathetic English teacher,

Agatha Claraday.  It is her undeniable attraction to the lovely, enigmatic Agatha that changes everything and starts Bobbie on a life-altering odyssey of

self-discovery--from the Dark Side of the Moon to Your Little Secret and beyond-- on a redemptive search for love, for a place in the world. and for a space

within that feels like home... where becoming Bobbie means everything about being herself.

In her second novel, R.J. Stevens shines a light on the complex, fast-moving realm of emergency services. In this world of never-ending

fires, car accidents, robberies, and all manner of medical crises, Stevens spins a fascinating narrative about four extraordinary women.

Tori Pataki loves her work as a police officer, no matter how many partners she has to go through before she finds one who will accept

her for who she is: a woman wholly dedicated to her children as well as her lover of ten years... Shelby Tucker is a veteran paramedic

who seems to have everything under control. Her confidence is staunchly unwavering when it comes to her children, her patients, and

her students. But beneath the surface, Shelby harbors persistent questions about what--and who--will finally make her life complete...

Chris Adams is a stunningly beautiful firefighter who knows what she wants--and she's used to getting it. Everybody wants her, but it

seems she may have finally met her match in the young and beguilingly innocent Laura Deerhart.... Laura Deerheart is uncertain about

what she wants to become. She knows next to nothing about emergency services, and she had never really given it a thought before

Chris walked into her bookstore and proceeded to turn her life upside-down. Bewildered by unfamiliar feelings, Laura embarks on a

spiritual journey that will ultimately teach her that the only way to hold a Siren is to let her go.

Meet the women of Emergency Services: paramedics, cops, firefighters, mothers, friends, lifesavers, and lovers.  On the job,

they're the ones who know what to do, the ones who put themselves in harm's way every day.  But off the job?  That's another story. . .     

Spend some time with. . .

Tori Pataki.  She's a damn good cop.  If it's going down, Tori's on the scene.  But her sixth sense can't tell her how to handle her rebellious teenaged

daughter or how to keep the spark going with her lover of ten years. . .

Shelby Tucker.  The experienced paramedic seems to have everything under control--her kids, her patients, her students.  She's the one everyone turns

to in a crisis.  But who can she turn to when she faces a terrible crisis of her own?

Chris Adams.  Brazen, beautiful, strong--this in one firefighter who has it all, especially her pick of women.  Everybody wants Chris, and for once,

Chris wants someone . . . a woman she can't resist or forget. . .

Laura Deerhart.  Young, sweet, unsure of herself and her life, the bookstore owner knows nothing about Tori, Shelby, and Chris's world--until the

day hers is turned completely upside-down. . .

Inside the adrenaline rush of Emergency Services, amidst the turmoil of the life and death, four women are about to discover there's nothing riskier

than decisions of the heart or more essential than the bonds between friends.