Meet Steven Sheiner

WINNER of the inaugural James Patterson Master Class writing contest, Steven Sheiner is the author of the acclaimed thrillers, Running Still and Shot Down, and is currently working on a young adult fantasy trilogy.

Steven grew up in a bookstore, surrounded by stories long before he ever thought seriously about writing one of his own. As a kid, he gravitated toward science fiction and fantasy, and later became hooked on mysteries, crime thrillers, and fast-paced suspense.

Writing, however, wasn’t the career Steven initially chose.

After changing majors three times in college and still having no idea what he wanted to do professionally, he took the safer route and became an optometrist. But the idea of writing never went away.

Twenty years into his career, Steven finally decided to stop wondering what might have happened if he'd pursued writing—and wrote his first novel.

That novel became Running Still, a medical conspiracy thriller about an ordinary man forced into an extraordinary fight to save his family. His second novel, Shot Down, followed—a crime thriller about one split-second decision and the consequences that spiral from it.

Along the way, Steven entered a short story called The Oboe in the inaugural James Patterson MasterClass Writing Contest—and won. That story would eventually become the foundation for an entirely new world and the Joey Winter young adult fantasy series.

Steven lives in South Florida with his family and continues to write stories about ordinary people dropped into situations they never saw coming.