Who I am and what makes me tic

Well hey there, brave soul. I’m Evie Drae—equal parts chaos gremlin, romance junkie, and certified word witch with a flair for emotionally messy characters and heat levels that could fry a motherboard.

By day, I’m a registered nurse wrangling real-world emergencies. By night? I’m elbow-deep in fictional angst, crafting love stories between battle-scarred men with too much baggage and not enough patience for slow internet speeds. I've been known to pour my heart into spicy LGBTQ+ romance with enough swoon to make your Kindle fog up.

You're welcome.

I’ve won seven RWA contests, snagged a Best of the Best title, and was a dual finalist in the 2019 Golden Heart contest. One of my books even climbed the Amazon charts and grabbed the #1 spot in multiple LGBTQ+ romance categories. I still scream about it into my pillow sometimes. Happy screams, obviously.

I’m married to the love of my life, live with two papillon flooflings named Bacchus and Otter, and have an unholy addiction to good books, true crime, and Sims 4 DLCs. Halloween is my high holy holiday. Pink is my aesthetic. Sleep is a myth. My characters are the cool kids running the show—I just try to keep up and provide snacks.

Pull up a seat, grab a drink, and stay a while. We’ve got some stories to tell.

Where have I been?

Short answer? Life happened.

After three published books, countless incredible reader connections, and more contest entries than I care to count, I hit a wall. A few of life’s unavoidable curve balls came hurtling my way, and somewhere along the path of navigating them, I lost the creative spark that once lit up my entire world. Writing, which had always been my refuge, started feeling heavy. Forced. So I stepped away—thinking it would be for a month, maybe two. That “month” turned into five years.

But here’s the thing about passion: when it’s real, it never truly dies.

And somewhere in the background of all that noise, a story I’d been toying with for over a decade—the beginnings of an epic sci-fi fantasy romance series—kept whispering to me. It started as a spark. A character here. A world there. And then, like wildfire, it consumed me in the best way possible.

That story doesn’t quite fit into the LGBTQ+ contemporary romance genre where Evie Drae made her home. Which is why, for this series, I’ve chosen to write under my real name: Stevie Rae Diehl.

But make no mistake—I’m not saying goodbye to queer romance. I still love it with all my heart, and I fully intend to return to that space when the time is right. For now, I’m fanning the flames of my creativity and letting this new world burn bright.

To those of you who’ve stuck around: thank you. Your support means more than you could ever know. And to those just finding me for the first time… buckle up. Things are about to get star-crossed and steamy.