Too Many Stones was the winner in the Literary Fiction category in the 2025 IndieReader Discovery Awards, where undiscovered talent meets people with the power to make a difference.
Following find an interview with author Rodney Nelsestuen.
“I am incredibly humbled by this honor, especially knowing the quality of books submitted to the IndieReader Discovery Awards each year. My deepest thanks to the judges who found Too Many Stones to be a book they could not only recommend, but to give it the honor of winning the Literary Fiction category in 2025. Finally, thank you to IndieReader for both your efforts and the quality of your work in support of the literary community. What you do truly matters.”
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
Too Many Stones, published January 29, 2024
What’s the book’s first line?
“Just a few miles west of the farm, over the ridge, the storm begins to form.”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
From IndieReader’s Review: “TOO MANY STONES is an emotionally powerful novel… …A luminous pastoral novel about how a young teen’s sexual awakening and rape drastically change her life and those of everyone close to her… …TOO MANY STONES stretches from the Great Depression to the Vietnam War, but the challenges it presents are timeless… …sure to encourage deep conversation… …It deserves to be discovered and discussed on many levels.”
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
This book was initially inspired by a relative’s experiencing abuse as a young girl at the hands of another relative, becoming pregnant, and being forced to marry the man, all taking place around 1930. Other than that, everything in the book is fictional. In addition, the setting for the novel is in the region where I grew up, and holds a personal, almost spiritual attraction for me with its pastoral nature. The combination of the event, the setting, and the era (1930s onward) were what compelled me to write this book.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
Resilience is the distinctive element of Evelyn’s character. She finds a way to move forward regardless of what life throws at her. I view Evelyn as representative of women of the early-mid-twentieth century (my own mother included) and the roles forced on them, roles they carried with grace, dignity, and how they ultimately succeeded in creating a life worthy of honor, which they seldom actually received.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
With its setting and era, the historical time allows readers to experience the challenges and battles of life at a time when clarity was easier to behold, and with that in place, a reader can find a way to apply that time and those events, along with their outcomes, in today’s more harried atmosphere, giving insight that is often clouded by the rush of twenty-first century daily life.
If they made your book into a movie, who would you like to see play the main character(s)?
I am a huge fan of Meryl Streep and would see her as the adult Evelyn. As for playing Evelyn as a young girl, there are likely several young women in movies today that could do the role well.
When did you first decide to become an author?
My first short story was written in seventh grade. It was a science fiction story of how a hole in the ozone layer was threatening to kill us all. Luckily, we survived… Then, for decades, I wrote on and off again, finally getting serious in the year 2000 when I first started writing short stories and began novels, including writing parts of Too Many Stones. Along the way I obtained a master’s in fine arts degree with an emphasis on fiction. Since 2000, I’ve published more than a dozen short stories in a variety of literary journals along with four novels.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
Yes I would. The support for an independent writer is somewhat scant. Even writing groups and membership organizations vary in their ability to provide meaningful feedback and direction and for that reason I’ve dropped out of all groups, especially once I finished my MFA. (I do maintain membership and support several literary organizations financially.) I read voraciously and especially award-winning novels and long or short-listed works for the Pulitzer, National Book Award, Booker Prize, any Nobel laureate authors and literary best sellers. I read them for enjoyment of course but also examine them critically to see what is working and why, how the author approaches issues of setting, character, dialog, point of view, plot, etc., and to follow how the literary novel is evolving among leading writers. But there’s no denying that having professionals in one’s corner would offer a new level of learned engagement and a growth opportunity for the writer.