Some time last year, I got an email from an author who'd just got a book accepted by my publisher Vagabondage Press. She wanted to ask a few questions etc, and we corresponded and it seemed rude not to invite her over for a cup of tea and slice of cake to celebrate the release of that book, Day for Night. So...
Welcome to my blog Stacey. Although we've been emailing for a while, I don't know much about you - so tell me a bit about yourself? And your book?
Stacey: Thank you for inviting me to your blog, Annalisa! I'm very happy to be here.
Hmm...let's see. Well, I was born in San Francisco but my family moved to Los Angeles when I was about five or six. I still miss San Fran and its atmospheric moodiness compared to the eternal yellow sun of L.A. I write about the annoying "beautiful weather" a lot, and I'm sure people who have to live in blizzard conditions would like me to shut up. I lived in New York for several years, where I met my husband in Brooklyn. He's also a writer. I haven't had a pet in at least 20 years, and I really miss having a cat.
My novel Day for Night is based on a short story I wrote several years ago that I had a lot of fun writing, so I extended it into a novel. It's about a wannabe actress in L.A. who stumbles upon an alien abduction taking place in the laundry room of her apartment building, and her life turns upside down from there. Then, worse, she discovers the world is populated with vampires also. In order to "fight back" against the aliens, she takes some extremely hard-core actions, making very important decisions while being dead drunk. It's all tongue in cheek and meant to be comical; it's how I would react if I suddenly discovered how paranormal the world really is.
A: So, do you have a plan for the zombie apocalypse?
S: I not only do not have a plan for the zombie apocalypse, I would probably be one of the first ones to be ambushed and consumed. No doubt I'd be reading my kindle somewhere, and one of them would just walk up behind me and tear my jugular out.
A: I'm not sure I'd be much use either! At least you'd be doing something you loved :-)
S: Yes, I might die with a smile on my lips!
A: Is this your first novel, or do you have lots of manuscripts squirrelled away under your bed/in the attic?
S: I have four other novels, but the first three were all hand-written during high school. I haven't even looked at them since then. I'm afraid of what I'll find. The fourth one, though, isn't too terrible; I wrote that one during college. It's about a girl with anorexia nervosa. My husband read it years ago and said it was one of "the most relentlessly depressing" things he's ever read. But he didn't say it was bad!
A: That's interesting because I'm working on a novel that was recently rejected on account of it being 'relentless depressing'. I'm trying to make it less so.
S: It's hard to do; when a topic isn't very cheerful, it's hard to "make it less" depressing somehow.
I guess Cormac McCarthy was famous enough to get "The Road" published, because from the minute you open that book to the day you close it, it's depressing beyond all understanding!
A: What was it about Day for Night that made you want to query it? And how long did you query before Vagabondage Press accepted it?
S: The short story Day for Night was quickly accepted and the editor said that everyone there loved it. I enjoyed writing it because it wasn't depressing, and this along with the magazine's response to the short story was enough encouragement for me to expand it into a novel and send it out.
My dreams ended very quickly once I began to query agents, though. I think I queried for over a year and received maybe two responses back, both of them positive, but ultimately saying, "But, uh...no thanks!" Eventually I gave up on agents and just queried publishers that accepted unagented manuscripts. Four accepted me within a three-month period compared to the year of no answers from agents.
A: Wow, FOUR. You have just made every single one of my readers (and me) jealous! Was there anything about the publishing process that you didn't anticipate?
S: You know, I haven't been surprised by anything. It's sort of gone the way I imagined, all of it. Except for the social media part. Even though I knew ahead of time that I'd be expected to help with marketing, it didn't prepare me for the depths of my incompetence in that area. I was basically "off the grid" until the publishing process. I wasn't even on Facebook anymore. I was on it years ago but it felt like opening a door to a dark room and having bats fly out at my face when people from the past would pop up and say hi. It's been a challenge readjusting my thinking in that area. But evidently, writers can't be hermits anymore these days!
A: I totally get that! What are you working on next?
S: I was working on a sci-fi story, but it's proven to be more difficult than I think I'm ready for right now. Hard-core sci-fi definitely is NOT my forte; I think you need to do it justice by being accurate and doing lots of research. And then I also read a lot of advice on the internet about sequels that said, basically, "You need to be writing your sequels...NOW." So the sci-fi is on a back burner while I map out Day for Night II or whatever it'll be called, and probably several more. It feels a little premature to me, like how can you start writing sequels when nobody's read the first book yet? It feels arrogant. But I guess preparation can't hurt. I'm probably over-thinking it.
A: I think writers have to be a little arrogant. We have to assume people want to read our work, or we wouldn't even get started! And finally, do you have any little rituals, foods, music etc that you need in place while you write?
S: I actually can't write with music playing, unless it's instrumental only, and very low in the background. I wish I had some elaborate and interesting rituals that I could tell you about like I have to be sitting high up in a tree during a lunar equinox with a pad and a special pen that a Tibetan monk gave me in order to write, but I don't. I just need quiet more or less, and a bag of potato chips will never be rejected!
A: Sometimes, simple is best! Thanks so much for joining me today, and good luck with your book.
S: Thanks for taking the time and having me on your blog, Annalisa. That was a lot of fun!
When reality TV star Rae
Miller is kicked unceremoniously to the curb by her back-stabbing cast mates,
she quickly realizes that revenge fantasies and unemployment are the least of
her problems after she witnesses an alien abduction in broad daylight. Worse,
after escaping a terrifying almost-abduction herself, Rae succumbs to a sexy
Nosferatu’s silky assurances, becoming undead in order to up her alien Ultimate
Fighting skills. Life is hard as a 38-to-40-something aspiring actress in L.A.
Thank God for Jack Daniel’s and denial.
Vagabondage Press // Barnes&Noble // Goodreads // Amazon
Stacey was raised in the
San Fernando Valley but born in San Francisco, where she left part of her
heart. She has worked on a dude ranch, coached gymnastics, and captions for the
hearing impaired. Her work has appeared in several literary magazines in New
York and L.A., including Ginosko and The Rag. She is currently working on the
sequel to her novel Day for Night. She lives in “beautiful downtown Burbank,”
as Johnny Carson used to say, with her husband who is also a writer. Visit her
at https://staceyebryan.wordpress.com
It's been a busy day for me today - not only has Stacey Bryan shipwrecked me on a deserted island with a villain, I've been signing books at my local library.
