Stepanova Tatyana Yurievna: general information
- Full name: Stepanova Tatyana Yurievna
- Date of Birth: 1966
- Place of birth: –
- Height: –
- Weight: –
- Brief biography: Tatyana Yurievna Stepanova is a Russian writer, author of detective stories, including mystical ones. Some of Tatyana Stepanova’s books have been filmed. The author’s novels are in demand not only by domestic readers – some books have been translated into foreign languages and received numerous positive reviews from foreign readers.
- Education: In 1988, she graduated from Moscow State University and decided to enter graduate school at the Institute of Law.
Bibliography
- 1996 Star for one role [= For the smell of blood]
- 1997 Wedding with fear [= Return to darkness]
- 1998 Death is in my hand
- 1998 Sacrifice [= Farewell to Nightmare]
- 1999 All Shades of Black
- 1999 Dark Instinct
- 2000 Gates of the Night
- 2000 Invisible Mirror
- 2001 To a rendezvous with a shadow
- 2001 Chimera’s Smile
- 2002 Gothic collection
- 2002 Mirage Key
- 2003 29 Poisoned Princes
- 2004 Silence of the Sphinx
- 2004 Orange blossom — the scent of mourning
- 2005 Fine Ladies Rodeo
- 2006 Sword of Damocles over the starry throne
- 2006 Farewell, Byzantium!
- 2006 Dark God Ranking
- 2007 Dream over the abyss
- 2007 Kingdom of Flora
- 2008 Dragons of the Night
- 2008 Prediction – End
- 2009 Black & Red
- 2009 Sunset Feast
- 2010 DNA of unearthly love
- 2010 Three goddesses of fate
- 2011 Dark Soul
- 2011 The one who will come for you
- 2012 Valkyrie in black
- 2012 Demons without angels
- 2013 Nine incarnations of a cat
- 2013 When the gods close their eyes
- 2014 Poison chocolate
- 2014 Bride of Eternity
- 2015 Chariot of Time
- 2015 Fallen angel behind the left shoulder
- 2016 Ghost of the Nameless Lane
- 2016 Landscape with monster
- 2017 Sins and myths of the Patriarch’s Ponds
- 2018 Chaos Constellation
- 2018 Clock running backwards
- 2019 A bright path to nowhere
- 2019 I will die with you
- 2020 Cyclops and Nymph
- 2020 Last truth, last passion
Characteristics of creativity
Tatiana Stepanova’s novels are the case when you don’t have to choose between an exciting plot and a great style. The author’s detective stories are really good literature, which will be highly appreciated not only by fans of this genre, but even by lovers of classical literature.
The characters of the novels are very believable – there is not a drop of falsity in anything the author writes about. The skill of the author makes the characters your good friends or worst enemies. For the first your soul hurts, the last you are ready to tear to pieces with your own hands, if you have such an opportunity.
Another feature of Stepanova’s work is Moscow and the Moscow region described with great love.
The author has always leaned towards the mystical detective genre. In recent books, this characteristic has increased significantly. Thus, the plot of the novels Dragons of the Night (2008) and Three Goddesses of Fate (2010) is built around the theme of life after death. The novel BLACK & RED (2009) features werewolves as characters, while A Feast at Sunset is a novel about vampires.
Stepanova Tatyana Yurievna biography
Stepanova Tatyana Yurievna was born in 1966 in a family of law enforcement officers. In 1988, she graduated from Moscow State University and decided to enter graduate school at the Institute of Law. For this, it was required to work out 2 years in the police. In 1990, the institute of law was in a deplorable state, so Tatyana’s postgraduate studies never took place, but work in the authorities became her main profession.
Her debut in literature took place in 1994, when her first detective story “The Leopard” was published in the magazine “Police”.
The main literary work of Tatyana Stepanova is a detective series about Ekaterina Petrovskaya, written in the genre of a mystical thriller. The main characters of the series: Nikita Kolosov (head of the homicide department), Katya Petrovskaya (correspondent of the press center of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate), Vadim Kravchenko (Ekaterina’s husband) and Sergei Meshchersky (friend of Vadim, Katya and Nikita) are investigating terrible crimes that are only dreamed of in nightmares.
To date, Tatiana Stepanova works in the press service of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Moscow Region, has the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Tatyana is also the author of more than two dozen novels written, by her definition, in the genre of mystical thriller. Favorite authors are Stephen King and Thomas Harris. With the latter is in personal correspondence. Of the Russian writers, N.V. Gogol enjoys indisputable authority. It is actively translated and published abroad. Two of her books were made into feature films: “Dark Instinct” and “Bay of Fear”.
Fantastic in the work of Tatyana Stepanova
Stepanova’s books have always stood apart in modern detective literature. All of the author’s novels are solid thrillers, shocking with their plot, which the author leads with cruelty unusual for women, thanks to which Stepanova’s books have never been attributed to female detectives.
The mystical component of the works is one of the recognizable features of the author. Moreover, if in most of her novels at the end of the work any mystical event could be somehow explained from the position of realities, then in the last novels, the author’s turn towards fantasy is observed. The last four novels of the author, despite the detective story, have a clearly defined character of the novel in the horror genre. So in the novels “Dragons of the Night” (2008) and “Three Goddesses of Fate” (2010), the storyline is built around the theme of life after death, in the novel “BLACK & RED” (2009) – the main storyline is tied to werewolves, and in the novel ” Feast at Sunset” – around vampires.
Stepanova Tatyana Yurievna in social networks
Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/tatjana.stepanowa
Vkontaktehttps://vk.com/t_stepanova_official
LiveLibhttps://www.livelib.ru/author/146614-tatyana-stepanova
Interview
Hello, Tatyana Yurievna! They say that writers are not made, they are born. But it is important to realize your purpose in time. Please tell us how it all started and how you manage to describe the work of the investigating authorities so reliably?
The profession of an investigator is familiar to me because my mother worked as an investigator for almost 10 years at Petrovka, 38. Both she and my father were employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, so this profession was familiar to me from childhood.
I graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University. Lomonosov, but at first she wanted to choose an academic career at the Institute of Law, to enter graduate school, and for this it was necessary to work on the “ground”. And dad then suggested to me: “Go to the Khimki Department of Internal Affairs as an investigator for a year. You will study in absentia in graduate school and work.”
As a result, I worked as an investigator in Khimki for 4 years, and then my life changed: I discovered the newspaper On Guard.
It was such a glorious police department of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Moscow Region, with an excellent team, and everything was so interesting there that the Institute of Law, forgive me, the staff there, seemed to me such a boring thing.
And then I went to work in the Press Center. But that four-year experience of my independent work as an investigator was not forgotten, however, it helps me a lot in writing books.
In your books, which are rather harsh, echoes of high-profile modern crimes are sometimes guessed. Where and how do you come up with the idea for a new novel?
Well, first comes an idea, some kind of sketch. Something hurts you, and you think – but this might turn out to be interesting. Then everything starts to take shape. And I want to tell it cool, so that readers would be interested.
I myself am a big fan of well-told stories – not necessarily detective or mystical. I am always happy when I hear or read.
And now I want to offer something of my own to dear readers.
In the new book “Demons without Angels” you turned to the topic of Chernobyl, what is the reason for this?
You know, I have a lot of Japanese friends on Facebook. Recently, a friend came from Japan, we talked a lot. The events at the Fukushima nuclear power plant for her and her family are today’s reality, everything has changed there – the country, the people after this accident.
They also remember Chernobyl. And it seems to us that so many years have passed, everything is already so long ago, far away. And I thought: the children who were born there that year – they are already adult young people. How do they live? How could their life turn out?
Well, that was the beginning, the initial idea, and then a detective appeared.
Are the main characters of this novel fictional characters or do they have prototypes?
The main characters are fictional.
But the truth is that Chernobyl, after all, has not ended, it is still there, it exists, it smokes under its sarcophagus.
And through the destinies, through the hearts of people, he walked like a wheel. And all this happened in our memory, in our presence, we are witnesses to all this.
Although we think that we have already forgotten about everything. Have you forgotten?
Adopted boys – the characters in the book “Demons without Angels” – are treated kindly and surrounded by the love of foster families.
Shusha, the deputy’s daughter, on the contrary, considers herself deprived of parental love.
And they all become criminals.
In your opinion, what influence does parental love have on the formation of a child’s personality? And is the environment in which it grows so important?
Parental love for a child is a whole world. And what else does a small child have besides parental love? Children who have received sincere love and care from their parents are happy children.
In the novel, I was hooked by the phrase: “The Bible has answers to all questions. You just have to be able to find them.” Do you agree with this statement?
They say that the Bible has answers to all questions. But in general, who will check it? First, you need to make a complete final list of questions. Is this possible?
The novel is called “Demons without Angels”. Probably, an eyeless creature sits in each of us and directs our actions, but for some it becomes a conscience, and someone lives at the behest of a demon. Is it possible to overcome the demon in yourself and how to do it?
To overcome the demon in oneself… Yes, for one desire, you only need to immediately award an order.
You work in the genre of mystical thriller. In your opinion, are mystical forces external manifestations or our dark desires and thoughts?
I must say right away that I don’t believe in mystical powers (in any). But I have heard so many stories from people: someone believes in these forces as external manifestations, someone considers this to be our dark subconscious. I am a writer, every time I take from all these interpretations what I need for my book.
The love line of the main character of your books, Katya Petrovskaya, is very complicated, her relationship with her husband is often on the verge, and in the last books, Katya is already thinking about divorce. Do you have an answer to the question, what is the secret of a long happy family life? And does it exist at all – a long and happy family life?
A long happy family life exists. I say this because I know this for sure, on the example of my parents. They had a marriage that can only be envied.
Recently there was a stormy controversy about modern men on our website. The police profession is one of the most masculine and courageous. Do you think that modern men differ from their peers twenty years ago?
Honestly, I’m not sure that modern men are somehow different from their peers twenty, forty, a hundred years ago.
They wear different costumes, drive different, modern cars, use mobile phones instead of telegraph.
All these men’s chips change – yes, but they themselves are unlikely.
What qualities do you value in men?
What I value most in a man… Um. When a man, and even a fool – it’s such a bore, such a suck.
Many passing female characters in your novels are successful, rich, well-groomed and beautiful – in a word, the dream of glamorous girls. And yet, in most cases, these are unfortunate women. What do you think makes a woman happy?
Oh, female happiness… This is such a blue or golden bird…
What at first seems to be purely feminine happiness – such a small cozy world suddenly becomes cramped.
When a woman realizes that she is a person, that she is the mistress of her own destiny, that the whole world is in front of her and the choice is hers, she is free in her choice of how to live, then she is happy.
But still something is missing. There is always something missing for complete happiness, right?
Almost every book of yours contains erotic scenes. When do you think they are appropriate in a work of art?
Erotic scenes in the book…
Yes, this is such a bright paint in the writer’s palette. This is a method of emotional impact on the reader. How about without erotic scenes?
Is creativity for you a pleasure or sweet flour?
To be honest, writing is a great pleasure for me.
Of course, I am terribly lazy, and sometimes I really don’t feel like sitting at the table at the laptop, laziness is mother… the weather is so good… and in general…
But all this fades as soon as you “enter” there, into that world that you yourself create on the pages of a new book.
Do you know the concept of “creative crisis”? And how do you deal with it?
The concept of “creative crisis” is completely unfamiliar to me. So many stories in stock – to have time to tell.
Which of your novels do you consider the most successful? Why?
Of all my books, I myself most appreciate “Sleep Above the Abyss”.
For me, this is a milestone, a new stage, when I discovered new possibilities of the genre for myself.
I know that the name of the writer Tatyana Stepanova is known not only in Russia. In what other countries are your books published? How and when did cooperation with foreign publishing houses begin? What novels are the most popular there?
My books are published in Germany, Bulgaria, Poland.
Five of my novels have been published in Germany, judging by the German websites, “A Star for One Role” and “Death in My Hand” are especially popular.
The Germans themselves chose five of my books for translation in our Eksmo publishing house. Judging by the reviews, the translator there is excellent, the readers liked it.
Two of your novels were filmed. These are “Dark Instinct” and “Gothic Collection”, on which the series “Bay of Fear” was filmed. What does the author feel when he sees his characters on the screen?
I liked the adaptation of “Dark Instinct”.
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya – and I’m a long-time fan of her voice – so accurately played the opera singer Marina Zvereva.
There the script was written by Borodyansky, and he is the master.
And the director was a wonderful, now, alas, deceased – Mikhail Iosifovich Tumanishvili.
“Bay of Fear” is also okay, but everything was dragged out there for 8 episodes. How is this possible in a thriller, where there is “suspense”, I have no idea.
In general, when an author sees his book on the screen as a film, he rejoices like a child just because such great artists play your characters.
In “Dark Instinct”, for example, Irina Skobtseva played. And Stanislav Govorukhin appeared in a small episode. Yes, I bow to them. You can, of course, grumble, but do not believe when writers say that “I did not like the film.” They watch everything from the beginning with bated breath, glued to the screen.
Then, of course, they begin to criticize – this is not right, this is not right, they distorted the idea. But writers must forgive this weakness.
You are great, I would even say, poetically describe the places where the action of your novels takes place. After reading the book, one really wants to immediately go to the Carpathians, which were discussed in the book “Dream Above the Abyss” or to the Curonian Spit, where Katya and Vadim rested in the novel “Gothic Collection”. As a last resort, take a walk along the Moscow boulevards or sit in a cafe on Frunzenskaya Embankment. Are you a city person by nature, or is your heart given to the suburbs?
By nature, I am a typical city dweller. I was born, raised and live in Moscow.
I love Moscow very much. But, of course, part of the heart belongs to the Moscow region, I still worked for twenty years in the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Moscow Region.
Wherever we went! Such places, such beauty and so many secrets, such an aura for thrillers in some places – breathtaking, goosebumps. And it seems quiet, dachas, one word – Moscow region.
Your heroine Katya Petrovskaya loves a beach holiday, her husband Vadim Kravchenko is a fan of the active, and their friend and colleague Sergei Meshchersky is the owner of an extreme tourism agency. What type of vacation do you prefer? Where do you like to relax the most?
I don’t like beach, extreme or outdoor activities.
I love, you know how: to fly, for example, to Rome and feel that you are at home there, as if you never left Moscow. That’s how I love.
What do you read in your free time? Who is your favorite writer and what explains this choice?
I am a devoted fan of European thrillers and mystical thrillers,
but it’s more professional.
Resting, I read plays. I love Tom Stoppard very much. I went to Arcadia to the Theater on Malaya Bronnaya twice, only to hear the text from the stage, by the way, they staged a wonderful performance.
Someone from the “studios” like put his “Invention of Love” – I will definitely go.
Your heroine Katya Petrovskaya loves and knows how to dress well, is aware of all fashion trends and brands, and what style of clothing do you like? Do you love heels as much as your heroine?
I love high heels, but I mostly wear ballet flats.
I love jeans and white T-shirts. And dresses!
And in general, sometimes I get sick with shopping. And then it all hangs in the closet.
And which of the pets lives in your house?
A pet… A sad topic of loss.
For 16 years, my family and I shared shelter with the smartest wonderful creature – our turtle Skull. He himself came to us at the dacha with a pecked shell and stayed for 16 years.
He was so cool, independent, knew everything, roamed everywhere. He ran as fast as he could to the call.
Alas, he died. And now it is simply impossible to bring someone in his place, because the memory of the Legendary Skull is still alive.
You are a talented and successful writer, doing what you love, your books are published abroad, and series are based on them. And yet what are you dreaming about now?
There is always something to be found. No, I won’t.
And the last question. As an old reader of yours, I cannot help but ask: will one of your heroes return from the Caucasus – the charming head of the homicide department Nikita Kolosov, who has long and unrequitedly been in love with Katya?
Oh, people always ask about Nikita Kolosov.
Yes, he is in the Caucasus, there is a lot of work there. Like all men, he is ambitious, dreams of ranks, career growth, awards, exploits.
Wants to be a general.
He told me here – he completely forgot about Katya … well, almost forgot. Ah, ah, that’s life.
Well, it remains to wish him bigger stars on shoulder straps, but luckier fate!
Thank you for agreeing to answer my questions. And I look forward to new interesting stories.