Stella Fosse Author Headshot
Stella Fosse

Stella Fosse Author

Stella Fosse champions older women’s creativity by leading imaginative workshops in seasoned romance, erotica, and memoir writing. Her book, Aphrodite’s Penencourages ripe women to explore erotic writing as a joyful practice. She models this playful approach in her own fiction, including her novels, Vampires of a Certain Age, Brilliant Charming Bastard, and her story collection, The Erotic Pandemic Ball. 

Stella blogs about topics of interest to women after midlife, including creativity, media representation, and finances. She draws on her background in biotechnology to write about older women’s health. Stella encourages guest blogs on her site by other Women of a Certain Age.

Stella appears on podcasts to talk about vivid life in the Queenage years. She also guest blogs for other writers. She lives with her partner in North Carolina.

You can find all Stella’s books here

You can sign up for a FREE online writing class.

Stella wishes you joy exploring! 

The "Why" - Stella's Manifesto.

A decade ago, I was not surprised to read an article by a romance author in her fifties recommending to her sisters that we disguise ourselves and our characters as young. Her reasoning was that young sex gets published and old sex does not. Why not pass, borrow the privilege of youth, and make more money? But the flip side of passing is the lost opportunity to expand our horizons and educate others. When we let people assume we are different than who we are, we allow them to continue their denial. We make a tacit agreement: "I won't rock your boat and you won't treat me as less-than."
 Passing is helpful in the short term, but it has costs: in attitudes that don't change, in lost opportunities for personal growth. Still, we must choose our battles. For example, I’m not ready to let my hair go grey. I am not prepared for the uphill slog of proving to each person I meet that I remain vivid and capable. Plus, why shouldn't I have the same right to dye my hair as a younger woman? I respect women who choose to go grey, but it’s not my fight.

Publishing sexy characters past midlife, and encouraging others to do the same, is my chosen battle. This is our voice. This is our opportunity to let others in on the "secret" that women past midlife are vibrant and alive. That when we live in sin, we are blissfully sinning; that when we marry, we want more than a companion; that whether single or in relationship, our sexuality is our innate birthright.
To write past midlife is a fun revolution: a creative way to thumb our noses at the dominant narrative. We write vibrant characters who share our complexity: humans who have lived full lives, loved much, desired much, and experienced much. And what we do when we break stereotypes is part of the larger struggle for equality. As we push back on gendered ageism, let us support our Sisters of a Certain Age who also face ableism, racism, homophobia, fatphobia, and antisemitism.
Let's be brave and fearless and sexy, let's find our voices, take our paths, strut our stuff. Let us be each other's biggest fans. Let us read books by and for older women. Let us write fearlessly, read joyfully, and love passionately.

If not now, when?
If not us, who?

Keep the pen moving (and the keys clicking)

a hand writing on the page of a journal

We Want YOU!

...to get involved: send us your blog or article for publication on Stella's site.

Thank you for your interest in submitting a guest blog for the Stella website. We typically feature a guest essay by a woman over fifty on the tenth of each month. Here are the key guidelines.

  • Submit the draft text of your proposed piece. We prefer plain text, with a length of 750-1200 words.
  • Please send only material that has not been published previously, including on your own blog.
  • Your topic should be related to Stella’s themes:
    • Creativity (especially writing)
    • Sexuality and sensuality after midlife
    • Women’s health after the onset of menopause
    • Finances and housing options for older women
    • Being a mother and grandmother
    • Submissions from women authors with new books are especially welcome!
  • Please send a headshot in jpg format 800 pixels on the long side, standard ARGB or SRGB
  • Please provide your byline – or pseudonym – if you use one
  • Also provide your real name and age (decade is fine!)
  • Submit a short bio (up to 100 words – we may edit it for length)
  • Your email address
  • The link to your website (if you have one)
  • Also send a link to your blog (if you have one)
  • And send links to social media accounts you would like us to include in your blog.

We may edit your text for clarity and length.

We cannot guarantee publication in a particular month, but will do our best to accommodate time sensitivity when authors are promoting a new book.

Email your draft text, head shot and brief bio to writers [at] stellafosse [dot] com and we’ll be in touch.

Very Soon!
Thanks!

All That Legal Stuff

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Stella Fosse, Author

Mailing Address:  125 S Estes Drive #4311, Chapel Hill, NC 27514.
Email Contacts:
Stella: stella [at] stellafosse [dot] com
Web Problems: webmaster [at] stellafosse [dot] com
Press, PR, speaking, book club 
scheduling, operational issues, etc., etc: graham [at] stellafosse [dot] com

Hi, I'm Stella Fosse.


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Stella Fosse