08/06/2025
Check out this great write-up on Dragon Crown's own Sharon Marie Provost in the Nevada Appeal!
Award-winning Carson author embraces life despite cancer
By Scott Neuffer
[email protected]
Four is the number of years
since Carson City resident and
author Sharon Marie Provost received
a cancer diagnosis. Seven is
the number of books she’s written
or co-written since then.
In July, she and her husband,
author and publisher Stephen H.
Provost, ventured cross-country
in a 2016 Chevy Malibu to attend
the Imaginarium Convention in
Louisville, Ky., where, like a feather
in her cap, Sharon received an
Imadjinn Award for best short
story collection.
“It meant a lot,” Sharon said.
“It was just amazing to hear that
somebody else had seen merit in
what I had written and that obviously
it was not just the same old,
same old, that they saw something
different and worth reading.”
The 48-year-old has been on a
prolific literary streak since not
only her diagnosis, but since leaving
her longtime job at the Timberline
Animal Hospital in early
2024 to write full-time. To say
Sharon is “battling” cancer might
be to choose the wrong verb. She’s
been through three sets of chemo
and is monitoring the results, but
she is not waiting for the illness to
set the terms of her life.
“You just got to live every
moment. You can’t just sit back
and wait for things to happen.
You need to make them happen.
You need to go out and live life
whatever way you can every day,”
Sharon said.
She further advised that especially
with somebody sick, “You
need to live life with them now
and intend to keep living life.”
“She’s the strongest person I
know,” added Stephen.
Sharon and Stephen met in a
history tour in Goldfield in 2021.
They married in 2023. Together,
they’ve created a community
for writers in Northern Nevada
through the Authors’ Collective
e-Shop (ACES) and Dragon
Crown Books, the Carson-based
publishing company they run
together.
They each have their own titles
but often research and travel
together and sell books across the
state. They also produce anthologies
for Nevada writers.
Sharon is a horror fan. The book
that won the award is a collection
of scary tales called “Shadow’s
Gate.” She took the cover photos at
Chinese Camp off Highway 49 in
California, a historic area Stephen
was researching.
“I just felt so much energy like
this town still wanted to be alive,”
Sharon said.
In Nevada, the couple has found
similar inspiration. In discussing
their discoveries, they evoked
a desert gothic aesthetic, how
the stark landscape accentuates
arcane structures, artifacts and
characters. Like a ranch adorned
with antlers they found near Great
Basin National Park, Sharon said.
“Just going for a ride, just going
to see Nevada has been amazing
for us — just inspiring as far as
writing but uplifting to the spirit
to see the beauty and nature and
learn about the history of Nevada,”
she said.
The couple has been working on
two volumes of “Nevada Nightmares,”
a Nevada-themed horror
anthology featuring local authors,
as well as their own collaboration,
“Nevada Nightmare’s Eve.”
One of their previous collaborations,
“Evermore,” follows
dark soulmates through various
reincarnations. Asked if they were
dark soulmates, Stephen said,
“We’re light soulmates with a dark
side.”
Sharon said writing has given
her a renewed sense of purpose,
not only through her own work
but in building community.
“I think the biggest thing is you
can’t be intimidated,” she said.
“You just got to do it.”
For information, go to dragoncrownbooks.
com.
