Once upon a time, a scared 20-something girl ran away from home and turned up on the shores of the Pacific Ocean with a dream, a rickety car and about $68. That girl was me! Thankfully, I met some awesome people soon after, and they helped me build a business in the entertainment industry. Yes, the same industry that wouldn’t produce the movies I wrote saved my life in another way. A personal assistant to actors was born! And later…a reluctant publicist.
All of my initial clients were on
General Hospital, but financial need dictated that I branch out. In one afternoon about 25 years ago, I gained three new clients, all of them on
Days of Our Lives, a soap I’d never seen even once. One of those three clients is one of my favorite people and dearest friends today.
When my friend Staci Greason asked me to read her novel recently, I went into it with absolutely no preconceived expectations except to know that it was not Christian fiction like what I write, and it probably would not be formulaic because Staci is completely unique. Beyond those assumptions, what I found within the pages was a wonderful surprise. For my Christian friends, I will warn you that there’s some frank language and situations, but what I found in the story of
The Last Great American Housewife by Staci Greason was a really wonderful surprise.
So this week on the blog –
Reader Love Week – I’d like to invite you to sit in on my chat with my friend Staci Greason, former soap star and current writer chick, as we discuss her latest novel.
BIO: Staci Greason starred on the hit daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives as the late Isabella Toscano-Black. She created the weekly food column Dishing for MODE magazine and is the author of the popular blog Anxiety: a Love Story. She lives in Southern California and is currently at work on her fourth novel. SANDIE: Welcome, Stac. I remember
Staci-my-client as a gorgeous ingénue type with killer hair and a fab sense of humor. I liked you so much. Who would have ever thought, all those years ago, that we would end up here?
STACI: Back in the 1980s, when I felt like my mother could no longer handle the bulk of crazy mail from soap fans, you came onboard. With finesse and charm you managed to keep things (like my publicity) running smoothly! But mostly, I remember your infectious laughter in the dark dressing room hallway. And the fact that my mom loved you.
SANDIE: I loved your mom right back, too! I have to mention here that you were on the cover of every daytime magazine in existence back then. What was the thinking behind leaving a successful acting job to become a writer? Do you regret the move, or is there something you would have done differently?
STACI: I tend to think of life in terms of goals and experiences. I probably got this from my salesman father! Every day I worked on the show, I was grateful to be there. Some people take a lot for granted, but I did not. It was like a dream. Unfortunately, I grew tired of the long hours. I wanted to stay home in my jammy-pants and just write.
SANDIE: I myself am a big fan of the
jammie uniform for writers! High-five!
STACI: I wanted to take on a new challenge. The show offered to give me time off to recuperate from an illness, but I was ready to move on to my next adventure. Of course, if I’d known this writing journey would not (yet) include that nice comfy paycheck…Well, this is what youth is for – adventure!
SANDIE: Were you a big reader when you grew up? Were there authors and books that impacted you and steered you toward writing?
STACI: My formative years were only Laura Ingalls Wilder, Nancy Drew and light romance novels. I loved words and stories, mostly through music or musicals. It wasn’t until my late twenties that I became a serious reader. My favorite writers are Jose Saramago, Cormac McCarthy, John Fante and Raymond Chandler. Favorite poets are Mary Oliver and W.S. Merwin.
SANDIE: How long did it take you to write this novel? And for my writer buds who love to know such things, what’s your writing process?
STACI: It took six years. The first draft (400 pages) took a year, and it was about a group of young eco-terrorists in Northern California and the end of the world. I gave it to my writing mentor, Jim Krusoe, to read. When he returned it, he said, “Lose everything but the housewife.” Ha!
Kate was in one chapter. So I set the story aside and worked on a TV pilot,
The Diva Diaries, with a friend for two years. I had already written two other novels and needed a break from the long, solitary hours.
A couple of years later, I woke up in the middle of the night and a voice said, “The last time I saw my mother alive, she was standing outside of Ahab’s All-Night Mart. A seventy-one year old heartache.” And bam!
Kate was back and the book was on. This is usually my writing process, if you call it that. A character shows up and demands that I tell his or her story. And so my job is to really listen and see the picture better.
SANDIE: What inspires your creativity?
STACI: A good piece of music. A great film. An art show. I have to feed my artist or she won’t work.
SANDIE: I’m the same way! … When I first started reading your novel, I thought it was going to be about a woman going off the deep end. It evolved into something else entirely, and I sort of fell for
Kate. How much of you is in her?
STACI: Well, we all go off the deep end at some point and then we find our way to a new shore. That’s life. If it hasn’t happened to a person yet, it will.
I don’t think I’m anything like
Kate. I’ve never been married. I don’t have children. I don’t live in the suburbs. This is where my former training as an actress kicks in. The emotion is mine, but I’m creating another human; seeing life through her eyes.
SANDIE: As you know, I’m not one who advocates divorce. At the same time, I’ve been through it. I did spend a good bit of time wondering why
Kate didn’t just leave her husband.
STACI: We all suffer from the delusion that a person or thing outside of us is supposed to make us happy; whether it’s a dashing husband or a published book. This delusion is what makes us unhappy, not the boring husband or the unpublished book. It’s crazy, and yet we all cling to some hope that there’s something “out there” that will save us. It’s why I love romantic comedies.
SANDIE: And I thank you for that!
STACI: I don’t have a judgment about staying married or getting divorced. I just wanted to write about a woman who “Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost.” --The Divine Comedy.
Life gets super interesting in the middle. I’ve had several male readers who were very angry with
Kate. One wrote a long email to me about how he was so tired of middle-aged women blaming men for their unhappiness but then he got to the end and was happy. Overall, men love this book. This was a big surprise for me.
I wanted to write the antidote to
Eat, Pray, Love.
SANDIE: This may seem strange coming from an advocate of happy endings, but one of my favorite things about your book is that it isn’t one filled with very pretty, perfectly-scripted people whose stores are tied up with a pretty bow.
STACI: I’m only interested in what it means to be fully human. We’re so busy judging each other. It’s heartbreaking because we’re all the same. We could use a lot more compassion in this world. It might open a path for real lasting peace. When I can recognize myself in a complicated person who once seemed “unlovable” to me, then I know I’m growing. And I believe we are here to grow. This is what I wanted
Kate to do. It’s what I hope for all of my characters.
SANDIE: I don’t want to give too much away, but you wrote a particularly powerful scene where
Kate wakes up on the kitchen floor. How much of you is in that side of
Kate?
STACI: That is definitely not me! I do not drink and clean. If I have a glass of wine, I fall asleep in front of
30 Rock – which is very
Liz Lemon of me.
SANDIE: If you could sit down with the
Kate we meet at the opening of your novel and tell her one thing, what would it be?
STACI: I would take her hand and say, “You’re going to be fine. But there’s no way around this journey. Take it.”
SANDIE: What’s next for you, Staci? What are you working on, and what are your future plans?
STACI: I just finished a draft of a television pilot with my writing partner Joe Gironda. We’re hoping to sell it to TV Land. It’s an idea I had after my mom said, “There’s nothing good on TV anymore. It’s all too racy.” Our show is sort of Tina Fey meets
The Golden Girls, with
Archie Bunker. But that’s all I’m going to share for now. I wrote a show my parents can watch because I love them. But also one that interests me.
I’ve also started work on a new novel:
Love, the Final Frontier. But the main character
Alice (a screenwriter who can’t stop writing scenes where she kills her ex-husband) is really taking her time opening up to me.
SANDIE: Where can readers find you out there on the Web?
FACEBOOKTWITTER: @stacigreason
BLOG: Anxiety, a Love StoryAMAZONSANDIE: Thank you so much for joining us today, Staci. I’m excited to share your work with any of my readers who like a book that takes them on a journey, completely out of the usual box. Love you.
STACI: xxoo
I found this photo on the internet, and it looks like what I remember Mom's cake to look like. Swoon-worthy, yes?
