Stacey Jay

Debut author Stacey Jay is a workaholic with three pen names, four kids, and a decidedly macabre sense of humor. She loves zombies, creepies, crawlies, blood, guts, gore, and of course, romance. “You are So Undead to Me”, Stacey’s debut paranormal Young Adult Romance featuring Zombie Settler, Megan Berry will be a January 22nd 2009 release from Razorbill books.

About YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME

Megan Berry’s social life is so dead. Literally. Fifteen-year-old Megan Berry is a Zombie Settler by birth, which means she’s part-time shrink to a bunch of dead people. All Megan wants is to be normal–and go to homecoming. But someone in school is using black magic to turn average, angsty Undead into flesh-eating Zombies, and it’s looking like homecoming will turn out to be a very different kind of party–the bloody kind.

On to the interview. If you had to give your book a movie rating: G through Rated R, which one would you give and why?

Hmmm…I’d have to say PG for the romantic situations, and PG13 for language and graphic zombie smack-downing.

YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME

What topics, issues, or themes does your book address? What drove you to write about them?

Who doesn’t feel like a fish out of water when they’re fifteen? It’s a very dramatic time. Throw in some zombies, a top secret society, death threats, magic, and true love and hopefully you have a very exciting book. That’s what I wanted to write, a truly entertaining read that would make you laugh, hide under your covers, remember what a first kiss feels like, and maybe even make you think a little bit about your own mortality. But only a little bit.

Name three examples of readers who would identify or like your book.

• People who laugh hysterically when they’re scared.
• Anyone who’s ever thought they saw dead people.
• Those wondering what it feels like to fall in love for the first time while fighting zombie hordes out to wreck a very important school dance.

List a few statistically improbable phrases or sentences one might find in your book. These are phrases or sentences you might never find anywhere else.

• There was a dead person on my porch.
• “Don’t call me Schmeg!” I yelled after him as he drove away, my heart beating as fast as it had been when I’d arrived at Mount Hope, but for reasons much more mystifying than having a dead person’s arm in a garbage bag.
• Why did the first guy to see me in the buff have to be dead? It was so unfair and potentially emotionally scarring.

How can your book be used in the classroom? Or if this book isn’t that kind of book, tell us why you think this book is different from the rest.

I’m the kind who thinks anything can be used in the classroom, and the less the book/movie/etc seems like a “classroom tool”, the better. “You are so Undead to Me” asks a lot of questions in between the zombie slaying and first-kissing. It would be interesting to see if teenagers could point out the underlying themes in the book. (I’d totally list their answers on my website. That would be very, very cool.)
Now tell us about other already-published books that readers of your book might enjoy.

• If you liked “Twilight” but wished is had more jokes, you’ll love “You are so Undead to Me”.
• If you enjoyed the “Cirque du Freak” series, but wished it had more kissing and a protagonist who was female and older and occasionally used swear words, you’ll probably enjoy “You are So Undead to Me”.
• If you hated the last romance you read because there just weren’t enough zombies attacking your heroine, there is no doubt you will love “You are So Undead to Me”.

Now whet our appetites with a teaser. Please provide the first few lines or opening paragraph of your book.

The cold wind swept across the hill, whistling through the headstones that poked from the ground like dozens of crooked baby teeth. In the sky, a sickly yellow moon transformed the graveyard’s bare trees into guardians made of old, white bone and somewhere in the distance, an animal screamed.

Call me crazy, but I figured whatever was going to happen next wasn’t going to be fun.

Are you offering authors visits to schools, libraries, or other organizations?
My time is limited-due to raising four children, one of them not quite three months old-but I love talking about books (even mine). Presently I’m presenting at the Arkansas Literary Festival and will be chatting at my local library, but I’d love to broaden my scope.

Are you willing to speak nationally?
As long as airfare and hotel are paid for, I’ll speak anywhere. I love traveling.

List a few example titles of presentations, talks, or workshops you might give for an author visit.

• Genre blending for writers: taking an apple and an orange and making a yummy literary cocktail.
• Organization: It’s not just for nerds anymore! How to write ten books in three years and get at least half of them published.
• Ten things I wish I’d known about books before I wrote one.
• Living on the fringe: Heroines who live outside the normal world…and learn to like it.

This concludes our interview with our latest author, Stacey Jay. We wish her much success with her debut novel YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME.

To see what Stacey is up to these days, visit her website at http://staceyjay.com or her blog at http://staceyjay.blogspot.com.

Related posts:

1. YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME by Stacey Jay
2. AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: Megan Crewe, GIVE UP THE GHOST (GIVEAWAY ALERT NOW – 12/15/09)
3. Publishers Weekly highlights upcoming books about the undead
4. Author Spotlight: J.E. MacLeod, WAITING TO SCORE (Giveaway Now-03/04/09)
5. AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: C.J. Omololu, DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS (GIVEAWAY ALERT NOW – 12/08/09)