Stacy Lee - Storyteller of Resilience and Strength of Family

0:00Welcome. You are listening to Cover to Cover, hosted by Mary Elizabeth Jackson, a show featuring lively conversations with cutting-edge authors from around the globe. From debut to multi-award-winning to inspirational, you will find a new author and book to love. Mary is a special needs advocate, educator, speaker, and an award-winning author who brings that edge to dive deep into the writing world, sharing the journeys behind the stories and tips and tools for all things in the writing world. Now, here's Mary. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Cover to Cover on the Brushwood Media Network. Every Saturday in Sunday, 12-30, Easter in time, and on Saturdays and Sundays, I'm so excited to always be here and bring you amazing authors. The genre we are discussing

1:00today is romance suspense. So, I mean, I feel like you have suspense when you're reading a romance, though, because you're like, okay, just kiss already, right? Or just say yes, right? So yes, we have romance suspense today, which I'm excited about. And up my guest is Stacy Lee. Now, before we get started, please join me on social media and say, hi, let me know what genre you're reading. If you have an author that you'd love to hear on the show, let me know and I'll do see what kind of magic I can work to get them on. And don't mind my website, MaryEachaxon.com. I have some new things there. And I hope you're having a great day, night, or evening wherever you are in the world. And I want to prompt a question for you. So, if we are the tree of life, then, you know, because all of us are a branch somewhere, right? So, what do you bring to the table? I've asked this question before I'm asking again, what do you bring to the table of life? Not only just for you, but those around you. So, I want you to think about that, you know, you want to get a journal on and start writing. I'm a writer, I love journaling, and it's so beneficial

2:04for us. I want you to do that. Now, also, I am working on a project called The Deep Feelers, which I've been talking about recently, and it's about raising the highly intuitive sensitive and empathic child in a loud world. And so, for any of you empathics out there, you highly sensitive people, you HSP's, if you're like me, who's an HSP, raising HSP's, life is very interesting. That's a positive way to put it, right? So, you know, the world's getting louder, it's not getting quieter. And we are trying to fit into this world and make it very beneficial. So, we are thriving and that our children are thriving. It's important for us to do that for our kids so that they have very successful futures. And so, you know, that's what I'm working on. So, I hope you will join me on that journey. And, you know, tell me your stories. As a highly sensitive person, how did you know? And what do you feel has worked for you in your life, right? And with your children. And now, we will get started

3:04with Miss Stacy Lee because she's got a lot going on. All right. She's an award-winning author from New England, best known for her Nubble Light series and prickly pan investigation series. Now, if you don't know Stacy Lee, I want you to go look her up. I want you to read about her. And I definitely want you to grab a copy of her book. We always ask you to leave a nice review. It's very important for authors. Her novel Operation Super Glue 1, her first place in private investigator fiction at the book fest. It was featured on a billboard in Times Square, New York City. So cool. Stacy is also the director of client education and marketing at legacy care law firm, her family's business, and a lifelong storyteller who weaves love, resilience, and the strength of family into every book she writes. So, we are soul sisters. So, you can find out more about her and she'll let you know that also. So, Stacy, welcome to Cover to Cover. How are you? Good. Good. Thank you for having me on. I am so excited that you're here. Okay. So, did you know I don't get to ask this question to every author I interview, but did you

4:08know your whole life? This is what you wanted to do, right? Yes. Yes. Way back even in elementary school. I learned early on that my imagination was a world that I had complete control of. So, you know, even sitting in math class, being overwhelmed, I would just go somewhere else. And then of course playing dolls in my room. That's how I feel now when I write. But when I went to college, I went to college to be a teacher. Didn't start writing right away. I was a teacher for 15 years and I taught third, fourth, and fifth grade and I especially enjoyed writing, teaching the writing. Nice. So, now you are, you have, you say here that your legacy care law firm is a family business. So, tell us about that. Yes. So, my father is an estate planning attorney.

5:11I do the marketing and I'm the director of client education for his law firm. Yeah, five offices in the New England area. I do the marketing. My sister, Kate, does the online marketing from Nova Scotia, Canada. So, we all work together. My mom, we call her the comptroller. So, it's nice. It's nice getting to know the clients and being able to use some of the creativity and marketing. I hadn't realized until I started doing that. How my creativity can be used in marketing and I market estate planning. So, I mean, we have to get a little creative, but we do a lot with legacy. Oh, nice. Yeah, that's a good angle to go for because the estate planning can be really challenging. Not the funnest stuff to write and talk about, right? Not the funnest stuff to talk about, but our core values are family and integrity and legacy.

6:15So, those are fun things to market. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so you have got the prickly pin and bustigation series and we're talking about PN, not PIN. And so, what inspired the idea for it? And it's set in Arizona. So, you know, you live in New England. Is Arizona someplace that you love? So, I mean, it is now. I had never been over there. A few years back, I needed to head out that way to actually search for a family member. And with that, I had to hire a private investigator. So, that's how this all unfolded. I became friends with the private investigator and I collaborate with him on these books. And the family lives looking in the middle. Oh my, what a cool story. Yeah, the family member that I was looking for, he was out in Arizona and that's how I got the ideas.

7:22So, in the prickly pin investigation series that you start to learn about it in Operation Superglue, I talk a lot about the gang life out in Phoenix, the underground communities, the homeless communities, and missing girls that have gone kidnapped. And the reason that I know about that is because I was searching in those communities. Wow, that's tough. But I'm really glad that you're kind of bringing light and awareness to those communities because they need to have that put on them, don't they? Yes. And I'd like to do some work with advocating for mental health, the books, the prickly pin investigation series. I feel like I'm going to use those. I'm working on the third one now. So, when the three are done, I might use them to make money for mental health. Oh, that would be really nice. Okay, so this is not, this is a family member of your own. This is not

8:23like, okay, so I'm sorry, at first I was thinking that you were, you know, you're working on somebody's estate planning and completely separate projects. Okay, okay, okay, gotcha. Okay, so what do you feel like set your books apart from because you've got your genre that you're writing in and, you know, so what sets it apart from romance thriller mystery genres? Or they all just, does it touch on a little bit of all that? So, and it's interesting because I just recently got some feedback on this, just a couple of days ago, a reader stopped by my booth at a pop-up event downtown and she had met me and then she came back and she had red book one and she came back for book two and her feedback was that she can't believe how I'm able to call out some of these issues that are so strong today and they're so prominent in our lives, like the underground trafficking and the homeless community, easy and mental health in a way that is still fun and funny at times and how this romance that I

9:33created between John and Lena, it deals with real heavy topics in a light way. So, I mean, this couple is divorced and she's working for her ex-husband and he's the private investigator. So, it's not Sunshine and Rainbows. She has to learn to trust him again and I think what makes my books unique is that I'm able to tie in these family values and real life issues, but also in an entertaining way and their fast paced reads, they move quickly and the plot twists are very surprising. So, I hear that a lot too. I hear I read it quickly and I never saw that coming. That's always good. Yeah, they're written from multiple perspectives in the action toggles back and forth between the past and the present. So, in Operation Super Glue, you're reading about

10:36John and Lena and how their relationship came to be and then it toggles back to the present when she's working for him as a private investigator and she's actually undercover in a high school, housing as a teenager, trying to help him find these missing girls. So, there's a lot in there about how high school is so different today than it used to be, current events and whatnot, even inside the school. Yeah, high school is very different than it used to be. I kind of wish we were back. I grew up in the 80s. I think it's were a lot easier than they are today and I think there was a lot, you know, there was awareness, but still a lot of innocence that was still going on in the sense of just, I don't know, let's roll the time back. All right, you know, I would be great. So, all right, how did it feel to see your, now, was it your picture and the book cover or was it like the graphic that was up on Times Square? I'm going to make

11:42you laugh. I actually didn't go see it because we were on a cruise. Wow, was somebody took a picture, right? Does somebody take a picture for you? Yes, yes, I have pictures, but it was actually kind of complicated to organize the date. So, my book won first place at Book Fest and I had an option right to promote my book on the Times Square billboard. So, it kind of went across with the other books that had won. So, they did that for me. They got the picture for me since they had plans. Yeah, but it was great. Every time something like that happens, it's just so surreal that it doesn't really click. I know, but obviously it almost isn't registered. And then you go, oh, can I pick my groceries up, you know, or yeah, even just like just big things like that. My son is leaving for college in two weeks and I just I kind of think how did this happen? It's the same feeling. How do I have this published book? How did that happen? I wrote that. So, it's just it's sort of

12:47that same feeling. It's just a little bit surreal. Yeah, right? Absolutely. Well, I mean, how exciting that is for you. I love that. I've got some friends who have a publishing company and they do anthologies with other women. And so, they got to have some of their covers up there on Times Square once. And I guess in the last six months, so that was exciting. I was very excited for them. So, it's great. Yeah, yeah, that is awesome. Okay, so you have you said you're planning three for this series, right? Yes. Okay, and do you have all three titles? Yes, yes. So, Operation Super Glue is book one. And that that has been released as well as Operation Cactus Blossom. Those are the first two. You do you do need to read them in order. I have another series that they're more one off. They stand alone. You do not have to read them in order, but this I recommend. And then the

13:49third title that I'm currently working on is Operation Desert Blues. Okay, all right. Are you doing BLUS or BLUS? BLUS. Okay, all right. Well, very interesting. So, you know, what what are your favorite themes to write about? Like, and do you try to kind of spin off it, then you're kind of dragged back, you know, like you're you're you're a little writing spirit says, you know, we got to write about this. It's funny. You say that little writing spirit, because that's a real thing. Yeah, it is. Every single one of my books has an underlying romance theme. That's my genre. I like to read about it. I like to write about it. And also I would say every single one of my books needs to have a plot twist that you just don't see coming. Okay, so far I have seven books and I have accomplished that. It's very rare that somebody says, I think I figured it out. Oh, I

14:51would say romance and romance is spent. So even in my earlier series, one of my romance stories is a suspense because suspense romance because it has a kidnapping. So I tend to always kind of go back to that. Okay, I like to write about romance. And my stories have these family value themes and family is everything and following your heart. I'll be writing and all of a sudden we'll just go somewhere else. And I always say my stories tend to just take on a mind of their own and I'm along for the ride. Yes, yes, it's so funny because I've interviewed authors for about nine years now. And I there are authors who yes, that's their experience. And then there are others that sit down and go, I have no idea what's going to happen. I sit down and write. And that's what happens. So it's really, I love there's such a variety among all of us. When writing and that, you just never know with the author, what is your favorite time of the day or evening or night to write?

15:54When do you feel most productive? So not the morning. I do know that not the morning. And not late at night either. It sort of just depends on how the day the day is going. I work, I work from anywhere. I have my laptop with me and I'll work from a coffee shop. I'll work. I'll work in my house. I'll work. I've worked from the bleachers of my kids track meets. So I understand that. Yeah, it's really just I kind of kind of my my creativity right now during this time in my life has to sort of come second. And I have to make really strict deadlines for myself. Right, I gotcha. That's your writing process. Now, do you you know, do you do where you have post-e sticky notes everywhere with all the ideas and thoughts? Or do you keep a journal or do you like write things and keep them in files on your computer? Like what is your process there?

16:58A little bit above. So I keep a notebook. When I do sit down, I'll I'll have a plan. So like today my goal was to get through chapter eight. So what I did last time I wrote was I wrote out chapter eight and I wrote your basic. Who what where when why? Yeah. And I had that filled out while I was already my mind was already warmed up from chapter seven. And so today when I sat down for chapter eight, I was able to just take that out and say, Oh, okay, that's what that's what we're writing about today. It doesn't always go according to plan in that way. But it's it's a way. It's a way to get started. Aside from that, I text myself a lot during the day, especially when I'm driving. Voice text and especially if I'm in the middle of a big project and I'm doing some revising, I will text myself and I'll say remember in chapter six, Lena already told Daphne that she could

18:04borrow her dress like just little things like that because you know when you go back, it's really easy to notice things that you had left out right. Well, into kind of close those holes up and and things that you don't think about. I was just I was just talking to somebody about that today who wants to write and I was saying the project that I'm working on right now, the proposals been, you know, I've turned it over and I'm waiting for feedback from it. But but the thoughts about things I'm writing about haven't stopped. And so I've got a list of notes, you know, put this in the introduction, make sure this goes in chapter one, make sure this goes in chapter two. I want to really discuss this here, you know, so that we don't forget because we, you know, there's so much happening as a creative that, you know, I think it's hard for us to remember those things that come and just go, oh yeah, I can remember that. I don't need to write it down, but really we do have to write it down. Yes, yes. And then when when I'm inspired and I have an idea and I swear it's always when I'm in the shower, I just I write it down as like just a voice memo as fast as I can until

19:07like the recap of my phone. So I do, I do a little bit of everything. Awesome. Okay. So how do love family and forgiveness play into your characters journeys? Yes. So second chance romance, it that's a trope that always creeps into my books. And my first, the first book that I published is titled the hundredth time around because of second chances. Okay. And in this series, in Operation Super Glue, especially, Lena needs to learn how to forgive John. And this is something that is a very sensitive topic. And one of my readers actually just told me that she has been through something similar to what Lena and John went through and she thanked me for handling it so carefully. She she's like, you just you did such a great job like because it's a balance, you know, they'll be readers that say, yes, we should forgive and everybody deserves

20:08a second chance. And then there are people that are just like, absolutely not. So I need to paint the picture and I need to show. And that's why I do the past, the past perspective because I want them to be able to appreciate their entire story. So the big, awful thing happens to them. The readers can see how and why Lena is willing to get from such a dark place to putting herself out there again. And again, this whole series has been been written as life experience as the muse. And I think that's why it comes out in such a clear way. It's authentic. And I like the series because it is it's so real. Well, so how do you feel like that? We're in your writing, do you see me like it comes from to give you that edge to keep people guessing so that they don't figure it out ahead of time. It's almost like you have doubts, aren't yourself, right? Yeah, it is.

21:12Because a lot of that comes from when I'm writing, a lot of that comes from just asking what if I used to teach my element just students that all the time, what if like what if and then think really big, great, like what if this, what if that, what if this and I learned when I was learning doing some screenwriting, a colleague of mine, his name is Alan and he sat with me once a week for a year on Zoom and coached me in screenwriting and taught me hide it in plain sight. Hide it in plain sight. So okay, and I do that. And I get so like I get so like giddy and excited about it. And people will come to my table and they'll start opening the book. And I'm like, they're gonna see. Like no, don't read that chapter. Don't read that chapter. You need to be surprised. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So that's that's pretty much how I learned to do that. But I mean, storytelling

22:18has just been something that has come naturally to me. Well, that's wonderful. Yeah, and it does really come very natural to some people and some people. It's a little bit more struggle. You know, to do I I'd like to almost be on the fly with stories. Like I always if I've done it with my children growing up and even now I still like to to do with my kiddos and and that's where some of the creativity comes for writing about kids and stuff and I don't want to say now, think about story. I just want it to sort of just come for me, you know, and let it take some journey when I'm taught not when I'm writing. Yeah, you know, telling a story. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And and I'm the worst in real life. Telling somebody how something happened. I need to tell them the beginning and the middle of the end and I need to put it like wrap it up in this nice package of the Stacy. I just really wanted to know what happened. That's so fun. So, you know, you okay, so your readers are telling you that their your books

23:20are comforting and they're empowering and I mean, do you think one is is more important than the other? You said empowering and comforting comforting. Yeah. Because I don't do you think one resonates more with them or the over the other they both they find value in both of those things, you know, best what keeps them coming back and wanting to read. It's interesting and I haven't really thought of it this way until this moment. I feel like my first series, the Noble Light series, is more comforting. Okay. And the prickly pen investigation series is more empowering. There's a little bit of both in both, but I but if I had to pick, I'd say I think that my newer series is more about empowering, especially empowering women. Okay. But it is comforting also in a sense because she does overcome so many challenges and and I feel like sometimes women just need to

24:24see other women going through similar battles and that turn is comforting. So I feel like they kind of go in and hand. But if I had to choose, I would say empowering because it's you can get comfort from like a cup of coffee. Sure. Yeah. The empowerment you hear from coffee is that that you're away. Sometimes it doesn't work. So no decaf. Right. Right. Right. So okay. So you have your Noble Light series was off coastal Maine and then the prickly pen investigations is in the Arizona desert. When you're thinking of the future, do you already know where you want to write about something else next? Yes. And right now, the tension I'm trying to balance is I'm, you know, I've contracted from my three book series. And I love working with speaking volumes. The first series that I wrote I published independently. Okay. And then the second series I wrote

25:26with a publisher. Okay. So prior to working with a publisher, I could do whatever I wanted to do right. And I am loving writing the third book in this series. I'm having so much fun. But I have another project that's just kind of like whispering at me all the time. And I've had this idea for quite some time now. And it's difficult to not just want to dive into it. Oh, yeah. I want to do nothing else except write this story because I feel like there's so many different ways that can play out. And I really just want to sit down and start writing it so I know where it goes. Yeah. Oh my gosh. How exciting. Okay. Tell everybody where they can find you. We got to wrap it up. And I we could continue talking. I love this. And and your creative brain is amazing. And I can't wait to see where you go. What's coming in. And yeah. So tell everybody where they can find you. So my website is stacyleather.com and I spell it stacy why le author.com. And when you go on my site,

26:33you'll see that you can find my books where books are sold. They're on audio books, ebooks, and paperback for the most part. Some of my books are available in hardcover. And then also my social media is stacyleather as well. And you're on Facebook and TikTok. Yeah. I was just going to say you are on yes, Facebook, Insta and TikTok. And so you know, I thank you so much for being here today. And I love sharing your books and your journey. And we want everybody to go out and get a copy of the prickly pin pen investigations. And it's Operation Cactus Bloss. Yeah. The first book, the first book I have here, it's Operation Super Blue. It looks like Operation Super Blue. Yes. Yes. That's what you said. Operation Cactus Bloss. I miss second. I love it. I love it. All right. Well, thank you so much. And remember everybody, think about this. What do you bring to the table of

27:34life in your life and everyone else's life around you? And we also, so we always want to be the positive light in this world. We don't want to be things that are dragging other people down. But we also want to nurture ourselves and self-care is important. So have a blessed day, night or evening wherever you are. It's easy. Have a great day and go get a copy and leave a nice review and I'll be back to see you.