Staci Greason: Author, Actress and All Around Cool Chick!

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.

Her novel The Last Great American Housewife is available on Amazon.

Kate Miller, the heroine of The Last Great American Housewife, finds her greatness, like a reverse Isabel Archer, by going into the wild. And also completely unlike Henry James, Staci Greason gives us endangered trees, men of nature, light drug-taking, plus sweetly wry humor, all served up in this redemptive and completely charming novel. -- Jim Krusoe, Toward You

Why do you write?

I’ve always turned everything into a story. It’s the way my mind works. (Ask my poor friends who get stuck with me on the phone!) Also, when I’m very sad or life isn’t going well, I write. I find I can move forward in my life in spite of circumstances if I’m focused on a writing project.

For example, I finished my first novel while suffering from a serious illness and working full-time at a grinding, low-paying job. I came home every night (and on the weekend), sat down and worked on my story. That novel Job’s Daughter landed me my first literary agent. Last year I built my blog Anxiety: a Love Story, fueled mostly by a bad relationship and more illness and humor. (In Buddhism we call this turning poison into medicine.)

When I was a kid I wrote love songs on my guitar and some fairly awful poetry. In my teens and twenties I studied singing and acting and wound up working on television. Just before I turned thirty, my artistic desire morphed back into writing. I couldn’t wait to stop being in front of the camera and spend all day locked in a room getting to know my characters.

Fast forward twenty years, I’ve written three novels (most recent The Last Great American Housewife, several screenplays and two television pilots. I also work as a ghost writer helping clients turn their ideas into marketable book proposals that get publishing deals. And then I write their books. I love learning how people think and live.

My next adventure is to get up on stage and do storytelling.

Describe the thrills, the frustrations and how you feel when you’re on a roll.

When I’m not writing, I’m crabby, I complain, I’m horrible to date and I feel like my life is going nowhere. Then, I start writing again.

There have been times in my writing career when I haven’t written anything worth a damn for a year. Or several years. Sometimes, the right partner makes the burden of finishing a script easier. Writing is hard work. Projects that start out great sometimes end up going nowhere. And then it’s like “oh my God, I can’t get those five years back.” Neglected children hidden in drawers make a lot of noise. I miss them. Novels nobody wants break my heart. It’s horrible.

There is no secret to writing except for rewriting. And little tricks you can play to get yourself writing again. Usually, I only feel better about writing when I’m done.

Last November, I had an amazing first as a writer: I sat down with a friend and created a treatment for a television pilot in one week. Bam. Done. And then I wrote the pilot script in under a month. It’s crazy when it happens like that.

Perhaps that’s what years of training have taught me: do the work.

What authors/genres do you read?

Many! When I was a kid my mom took us to the library every week. It was my favorite thing. I wanted to be a librarian. I loved Nancy Drew, Laura Ingalls Wilder and romance novels, of course.

Shortlisted: I love gritty, salt-of-the-earth writers. My favorite books are: Ask the Dust, All the Names, The Shipping News, and All the Pretty Horses. I love those “life is rugged, tough and people are raw and beautiful” writers.

Jhumpa Lahiri’s short stories are gorgeous. The poets: Mary Oliver, Naomi Shihab Nye, Bukowski and Merwin.

I also love the fantastic mind of the writer Jim Krusoe. (Who, thankfully, also happens to be my teacher.) More people should read his books. Check out Blood Lake & Other Stories.

And for a curve ball: Bridget Jones’ Diary is one of the funniest, laugh-out-loud, smartest books I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading aloud to man in bed.

What is your next project?

No talking about it while writing because it will change anyway.

What is the best part of being an author?

Telling the truth through fiction. There is no one way to live a life. I always hope to shine a light on what it means to be a human being. We are all the same. We could help each other a lot more.

The worst part of beiing a writer?

Cash flow.

Why are books important to you?

They are the many worlds I can travel within our world. And the way to expand myself as a person.

What advice do you have for new authors?

This is the advice I was given by a fairly successful writer friend:

Just sit down and write it. Don’t read any books on how to write. Don’t go to college to learn how to write a story. Just write. Then put it in a drawer and start your next story or book. You get to where you’re going by going there.

Looking back I am happy that I followed his advice. At first I could only type five sentences before I needed to leave the house for the day. Over time, I learned to stay inside and write for hours. If I had pursued an MFA writing program I might have more connections and possibly be making a hell of a lot more money - but I’m not certain I would have retained my own style and voice. My confidence was too shaky. I thought writers were people who were way smarter than me.

I once took a storytelling class at UCLA. We had to show up with a piece already written to perform for the first class. I was pretty sure my piece was fairly awful. Eight weeks later, I was asked to perform that piece in the final class show- not any of the pieces I had written during the class. So, it was money well-spent to learn an important lesson.

Trust your own voice.  I do like being in my writers’ class now because it gives me a deadline. (Trick your writer.)

You have to decide how you work best for yourself.

Fun Fact: Once a soap opera star, Staci Greason turned 40 in her parents’ unfinished basement. Someday, she’ll finish a story about it.

Life Philosophy: Do what you love. Be prepared to fight really hard for it. Don’t give into your own inner negativity. Work harder than everyone else. Nobody really cares about whether or not you accomplish your dreams but you. Maybe one day people will pay you well for your work. If it never happens, at least you can die knowing, “I have done my best.”

Follow Staci on Twitter: @stacigreason

From Kimberley:

I was so pleased that Staci agreed to let me interview her. I never had the pleasure of working with or even meeting her in the seven years I appeared on Days but I was a fan of the show from the age of nine. Isabella was one of my favorite characters. Staci and I met via Twitter and I wish to thank her for being a part of my blog. Now, go buy her book! :) 

What It Was Like To Work On Days Of Our Lives

In 1977, when I was 9 years-old, I was flipping through the channels one weekday afternoon and happened upon a scene on Days Of Our Lives where two teens were about to engage in first time sex. The house could have caught fire and you would have had to pull me away from the TV. I was hooked and thus began my twenty plus year relationship with the show. Ironic that thirty some years later, I wrote a book about first time sex. 

In high school, I would watch it when I was home sick and on holidays. I turned many of my friends on to the show too. When we got a VCR, I got to record it and was back to watching it every day.

As with most soaps, many of the characters remained the same for decades. As a viewer, you feel as if these characters are part of your family. It doesn't matter that some of the plot lines are completely insane or implausible. It doesn't matter that continuity is often only a theory. Bo, Marlena, John and Maggie were my family. I cared about them and couldn't wait to see what would happen next.

When I was 20, I worked in a department store selling perfume near the NBC studios in Burbank where the show was taped. Many of the Days actors would come in. There were also a number of fragrance models I worked with who were also actors and they worked on Days. My mother worked as an extra on the show a few times before landing her role as Eliana, maid  to the evil Stefano DiMera.

When I was 21, I decided to pursue an acting career. I studied the Meisner Technique with Wayne Dvorak in Los Angeles. It was important to me that I understood what I was doing before I stood in front of a casting director. If I was horrible, I would surely only be remembered as the six foot blonde who didn't know what the hell she was doing. So, for two and a half years, I concentrated on honing my craft. When I graduated, my coach decided to create The Professional Level. Actors had to be voted in and we would continue to study as well as meet with casting directors and agents.

My mother, Ann Werner, also studied at Dvorak & Company. She graduated about a year before I did. We were both in the professional class when we heard Wayne knew Fran Bascom, the casting director for Days. We both hounded him to get her into the studio. We finally wore him down and Fran came to the studio with her assistant Ron Sperber. They hired pretty much everyone. I knew the entire back-story to my audition scene and felt like I had a leg up. I could tell they were impressed and they booked me. I was so excited. Not only had I booked my first national television show, it was DAYS! And to make it even better, two of my other classmates, Maria Kress and Kevin Molloy appeared in the scene with me. I played Marsha, a bitchy model. Maria was also a model and we were doing a photo shoot with Sami, Will, Carrie and Austin. I had several lines but the one I remember (and my favorite line of all time) was in reference to Will, Sami's son. I said "Life is hard enough without being born illegitimate."

It was December, 1995 when I first walked on to the set, I felt immediately comfortable. Even though everyone was a stranger to me, I felt like I knew these people. Everyone was friendly and I got to see the sets. I was so surprised at how much smaller everything looks in person Including the stars. Keep in mind, I am six feet tall, so I am usually the tallest person in any given situation but in the acting world, female height is rare, especially in soaps.

When my episode aired, I was happy with my performance. A few months later, they called me back. This time, I didn't have the safety net of my classmates and got very nervous. It showed on camera and to make matters worse, I looked directly at the camera while they were taping. They aired it. They are on such a strict schedule that things like that slip in. I am sure if I were one of the stars, it would have been re-taped. I was humiliated.

Time passed and lo and behold, they called me back to play a reporter. Once again, I worked with Sami and Carrie. My acting buddy Maria and I did the scene together.  I had another great line. I pointed to Sami and yelled to the newspaper photographer "Get a shot of her crying!"

About a year and a half after the first time I worked on the show, they called me in again to play a police officer and that was my character until my last day in late 2002. I worked more frequently and had the opportunity to really feel like I was a real part of the show, even if the role I played was a small one. I was part of the Salem PD. There were jokes made about the lack of intelligence of the Salem Police Department, primarily by the actors playing the cops. We called ourselves The Keystone Cops and laughed a lot. On one episode, we were searching for the all important murder weapon. One of the officer's lines to the head of police after being instructed to keep the search going into the wee hours of the night was something like "But it's dark." Oh, how I loved being a part of that show!

One of the other more memorable experiences I had was a day that we were shooting a Gala. I was an under-cover cop and got to wear a gown. The day was long and grueling, We were all on set early and taping until midnight. Deidre Hall aka Marlena (The Diva of Days) was in the scene and after rehearsal, we took a quick break. She pulled me to the side and gave me pointers on how to stand to get the most flattering light. She made an effort to help me even though she and I really didn't know each other. I was so touched. Everyone's moods were wearing quite thin and people started to get punchy. She, like the rest of us, wanted to go home and this was not the time to get sloppy, She scolded the naughty ones, I was grateful that someone took control. We all were very tired. I will never forget the kindness she showed me.

For the most part, I had a wonderful time on the show. Of course there were some people who were not so friendly and I will not name names. As with any line of work, some people are nice, some aren't. There was only one person on the show who was quite nasty and said things about me behind my back. I was alerted by someone in the make-up crew. I was not surprised by this because I'd overheard this person talking poorly about another actor on the show. But that is what happens with human beings. It didn't have a negative effect on my experience. Now, I can say that a soap star talked sh*t about me!

The last little story I will include is about my police uniform and my hair & make-up. The uniforms were designed for men and never quite fit me properly, especially in the hips. Men tend to have slimmer hips than women and with the holster I  wore, the pain would often be intense. Add to that the pants were always too short and on the day I complained and asked for longer ones, I was told they wouldn't shoot my whole body. Well, guess what? That was one of the episodes that my high-water pants were glaring. On top of all of that my hair and make-up were insane! They would often put my hair in a french twist and it felt as if I wore a pound of make-up. I certainly didn't look like your average female police officer. Though I did almost fool Ken Shocknek, an NBC news anchor. We were both having lunch at the NBC commissary and he was sitting by me. He kept staring and eventually asked me if I was a real cop to which I responded, "I'm not a cop but I play one on TV."

Growing Up In Los Angeles

                              

                                                                                                     

In 1977 my single mother moved us from Baltimore Maryland to Los Angeles California. I was nine.

At first, I was upset. I missed my family and friends. It didn't take long for me to acclimate to the gorgeous weather and glitzy lifestyle though. We lived in Brentwood, an upscale neighborhood. Most of my friends had wealthy parents. I remember the first time I had a sleep-over at a friend's house. Her parents worked for Sasoon Jeans and I couldn't get over that they had five bathrooms. It was a mansion.

My mother had several different jobs and one of them got us the opportunity to go to celebrity softball games. All the stars of the hit shows played in the games: Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy and several others. I loved every minute of it.

When I was a teen we lived in the South Bay. The ocean was the backdrop. My girlfriends and I would leave school at lunch and drive to the beach where all the construction guys were and we would flirt and laugh. My life was good. I had a lot of friends and fun.

In my early twenties I lived in Hollywood. My neighbor Mic is a professional dancer and I hung with him and the dancer crowd. Mic had more luck and energy than anyone I've ever met. For fun, he would shoot and edit videos of pop songs that were popular at the time. Total bubblegum music and not my first choice but I was often the lip-sync star. Mic would get a bunch of his professional dancer friends together, we would all find a location, they would come up with some choreography and I would pretend to be the lead singer.
Mic would then edit it to look like a real video. It was an arduous process and he would play the same part of a song (loudly) over and over and over to get the music matched up to the footage. His neighbors had to endure the monotony but no one ever complained. The end result was always entertaining and I loved being part of it. I only have some of those videos on tape. They are old and the quality sucks. I hope that one day he puts the footage on disc. I know I won't.

I soon got bitten by the acting bug. I studied at the Dvorak & Co. acting studio and another chapter began. I met a lot of interesting people and was fortunate enough to appear on a soap for seven years. I started watching Days Of Our Lives the summer before I moved to L.A. The first day on the set, I had the good fortune of doing my first national television appearance with two of my friends from the acting studio. I already felt like I knew the cast. It was an amazing experience. I always enjoyed being on the show, even when the hours were grueling. Deidra Hall (Marlena) had always been one of my favorite characters and she took a bit of a shine to me. One day when filming, she took me aside to make sure I knew they best way to stand so that I would be in the most flattering light. I will never forget her doing that. She had no reason to.

I attended many A & B-list Hollywood parties. My biggest regret is the time I went to an A-list party alone. Bill Maher walked by me. I knew who he was but I wasn't too familiar with his work on Politically Incorrect. I made no attempt to say anything to him. If that opportunity presented itself to me now, I would definitly say hello. I can only imagine what that crazy converstaion would be like.

After the better part of a decade, I decided I no longer wished to pursue an acting career and got into sales. I worked in various industries for another decade until the economy took a dump on everyone. I moved to Northern California on September 26, 2009. My two year anniversary has just passed and I feel torn. I miss things about Los Angeles. It's a unique place to grow up. There are a lot of things about L.A . that are horrible: The traffic, the air, the plastic, but it also has a of diversity, beauty, creative people and fun things to do.

Just before I left L.A. I wrote this note on Facebook. I recently re- read it and all the crazy memories flooded in. L.A., will we ever live together again? Time will tell...

Ciao City Of Angels

Since 1977 I have lived all over Los Angeles.

Brentwood, Laurel Canyon, Beverly Hills, Silverlake, Hollywood, Torrance, Hollywood again and Glendale.

I know these streets in and out.
I have had so many crazy, fun, scary and amazing times here.
I have been friends with the extremely wealthy, the poorest of poor and everything in between.

Some highlights include:

Dvorak Acting Studio

Rich, Denise, Kara and Gage. I LOVE(D) THEM!

Recording a song for a movie for the Smithsonian Institute with Ricky Nelson's sons.

Hanging in Malibu with Nicole, her crazy Mom Phyllis and the band Chicago.

Working on Days of Our Lives for seven years.

Woody Harrelson's birthday party. It seemed as if every celebrity in Hollywood was there. He had a stage where Melissa Ethridge performed. There was a tee-pee and inside was the man with the pipe. Joan Collins was there too, along with Glenn Close and Danny DeVito.

The Derby (the nightclub featured in Swingers) and Jack's Sugar Shack - two of the most fun bar/clubs ever.  One night close to Christmas, my friend Maria and I went to Jack's. A parade of dirty Hollywood Santas entered the bar. One leaned over a candle and caught fire! Earl, a Jack's barfly, was enjoying himself one evening. A singer who called herself Pearl Harbor came over and shook her giant tits for him and he fell off the bar stool and broke his hip. As soon as it healed, he was back and telling everyone of his crazy night with Ms. Harbor. True story!!!

As a teen I remember walking on Vine just up the block from where Jack's was located. Spray painted on a parking lot wall was "Agnes Moorehead is God." It would get painted over but eventually someone would write it again.

David Lee Roth kissing me at the Rainbow.

All the Hollywood parties Kathryn and I went to.

Working as a street vendor on Venice Beach with my mom. We sold leg warmers and beaded tee-shirts and that's how my mother earned her living for about a year.

Mic Thompson and all the fun times we shared, making videos and having "coffee."

Going to Griffith Park Observatory the first weekend of my senior HS year to watch the laser Zepplin show, taking shrooms and winding up at Hollywood Presbyterian on a Saturday night with all the stab victims.(My mother had to drive 50 miles to pick me up. That was fun!))

Getting drunk with Mom and Sweevie after acting class. Steve wore one of my dresses and I put on my Prom dress and we played ding dong ditch at 2 am.

My date with hunky ABC newscaster Phillip Palmer after I sent him a snail mail letter and got that date!

Working with Stacey and eating at El Torito.

Stalking Magnus and John with Melanie singing "Blaze of Glory" and "If I Could Turn Back Time" at the top of our lungs!

There are so many memories I hold dear. This Saturday, I will leave this crazy, horrible, hilarious, fun, vapid wasteland. I am grateful for the unique experiences this city has given me. I am also grateful to be leaving while I am still young enough to start over somewhere new and beautiful. I don't know what lies ahead. I hope it's good. I am finished with Los Angeles and though I see it through jaded eyes and am mostly disgusted, I realize it helped make me who I am. The good, the bad, the ugly - and the beautiful.
Good-bye Los Angeles. It was a wild ride.

So You Want To Publish Your Book! What Do You Do?

People often ask me about publishing their book independently. They ask me for advice. They want to know if it's difficult. It's time consuming to answer each person individually so I have decided to blog about it.

First and most importantly: It's easy to self publish. It's difficult to "make it" as an author.

In the last two years, the self publishing wave has continued to grow and evolve. eBooks are changing the face and rules of publishing in many ways. Before I go into that I will begin with how to get started.

Do a Google search of self-publishing and you'll find a plethora of information. You have numerous choices. Createspace, Lulu and Smashwords are a few of the more popular options. I use Createspace. I do not utilize their editing, formatting or cover art. My mother and I created our own publishing company, ARK Stories, and she handles our editing and formatting. Ralph Faust is an artist who does all of our cover art and logo artwork. Each author must decide which route to take. Because we do all the heavy lifting ourselves, the cost is minimal. We pay for expanded distribution, which means our books are available internationally on Amazon as well as other online booksellers. Recently, we have also started to utilize Smashwords. They allow for customers to purchase your eBook for any application such as NOOK or iPad. You will have to investigate each one and decide which you will go with.

Once you have a book that is ready for purchase, the next phase of marketing begins and frankly, it's the most difficult. Social media opens a lot of doors but it needs to be worked day in and day out. You must be focused and have a plan. The plan may change but you always need to be researching and looking for your audience. When Twitter is used correctly, you can target followers by following them first. For example, if your book is available on Kindle, follow people who follow Kindle. Most follow back. Get personal with them. Engage people, ask questions, reply, retweet and  blog, blog, blog. If Twitter mystifies you, Google "Twitter Tutorial" and you will have a much better understanding of what you are doing.

Facebook is also a great way to market but is less targeted. It is important to be yourself. If all you do is post what you're selling, you'll quickly be ignored. It's a delicate balance of engaging and making people aware of your work. No one wants a hard sell.

Finding reviewers of your genre is extremely important. It is time intensive. Look online to see bloggers who review books, read their review policy and if your book falls into their purview, have a professional and friendly pitch. It's best to include a photo of your book and preview chapters. Be prepared for an honest review. Reviews are opinions and not everyone will love your book. Some may not like it at all and as much as that can sting, it's part of the process. Even Stephen King gets bad reviews.

Also look for bloggers who blog on your topic and see if they are interested in featuring you as a guest blogger or doing an interview. The more you can get your name, your book and your brand out in the world, the better chance you have of attracting people.

Create a website. Wordpress is a great free way to display your books and blog. It's free but it takes time and patience to navigate. It's not intuitive. You have to play around with it. If you don't have the time, you can find someone to help set you up for a fee. These people are all over social media. Find one you feel comfortable with.

Everyone wants to make it big. You are not the only one. There are a few independent authors who have hit the big time quickly. They are anomalies. Most authors must be patient and accept the fact that it's usually a long road.

Media is interested in what's hot. They are bombarded with proposals. Your book could be the best book ever written but if you are not a name, most of the time you will be ignored. You need to build your own buzz.

Research other authors who write your genre and see what they do. Follow them on Twitter, read their blogs. They have found a way to success and have information that you can apply. John Locke and Amanda Hocking are two who found huge success within one year. Locke signed an unprecedented deal with a big publisher allowing him to keep all the rights to his eBooks. He is helping independent authors immensely with this deal.

Realize that there are literally tens of thousands of people who are jumping on the self-publishing bandwagon. You are an ant in the mix. It's up to you to figure out creative ways to reach YOUR audience. There is no surefire way to success. This picture has been circulating on Facebook and it fits in perfectly here.

If you are looking to hit it big quickly and expecting that right after you publish, the pot of gold will immediately fall into your lap, you are setting yourself up for major disappointment. It really depends on how much you want to be an author, no matter the financial outcome. If it's your passion, you stick with it. It took Dustin Hoffman ten years to finally find his break as an actor. He never gave up. I am sure he was met with people in the industry, as well as friends and family, who discouraged his efforts but he believed in himself and stayed the course.

If you would like to check out my works, please visit Arkstories.com.

The Elusive Male Psyche

                                                

                                     Women, do men confuse you?

Men have been confusing me for YEARS!!!!!!!!!! Just when I think I understand something or get a handle on one of them, they do something to make me scratch my head and run back to the drawing board to start all over.

In November of 2010, I was talking with a girlfriend of mine. Of course, the topic was men. Both of us sat there discussing, analyzing and trying to see if between the two of us, we could figure out the one she was seeing. She had just gotten back together with her boyfriend and we talked about how men handle break-ups differently than women. She said to me "That should be your next book!!!" Initially, I agreed but forgot about it until she said it again. I thought about it, discussed it with my mother and partner, Ann Werner, and decided that it was an amazing idea.

What do men go through when they lose love? How do they handle it? As women, we can sit and analyze all day long but wouldn't it be better to have MEN tell us?? The answer was a clear and resounding YES and the search for men to share their stories began.

We started looking for men to interview in December of 2010. The stories were slow to come in. I started to worry because that's what I do. My mother assured me that after the holidays, stories would come in at a swifter pace and like usual, Mom was right. They didn't pour in like they did for our first book The Virgin Diaries but they did come. In a five month period, we collected thirty-eight stories as well as observations about how men deal with a broken heart from therapists, bartenders and psychics.

Even though some of what these anonymous men shared was not surprising, so much of it was. I was shocked to learn that a great deal of them abstained from sex, sometimes for years after suffering a broken heart. That was indeed the most eye-opening piece of information that I took away.

I wondered at first if the stories would only come from a bunch of "sad sacks" and fortunately I was wrong. I was so moved by each one. They are all so different. What really got to me was that in these tales of woe, there was an underlying message that came through in each and every one. These men were not only telling us about the heartbreak they suffered, they showed us how they love. They expose the deep vulnerabilities men have when they open their hearts. Once they fall for someone, the feelings they have are monumental. Their ability to love is so deep.

In the book, we touch upon the fact that society, especially American society, frowns upon men openly expressing pain, considering it a sign of weakness. The result is men holding their feelings in and trying to navigate through their pain alone. Women know very well that when we are in distress for any reason, we can get on the phone with any number of our friends and talk it to death! We have the luxury of releasing our feelings.

It reminds me of an episode of Sex and The City where Carrie talks to her friends at nauseam about her break-up with Big. Eventually they had to shut her up but they were there for her as she dissected every little aspect of her relationship. She NEEDED to, she was in pain and her friends gave her the time and love she needed to move on.

In Ain't No Sunshine: Men Reveal The Pain Of Heartbreak, you can read about the man who was dumped because his fiance got huge fake boobs (click here to watch the video!)the Marine who got a "Dear John" email while serving in Iraq, the married man who had an affair with another man but doesn't feel he's gay and the guy who was left at the altar. I would bet good money you will be surprised at what these men disclose. The anonymity provided the perfect canvas for them to paint the picture without fear of being called a wuss.

Curious?

Click here to read  Two Stories  from the book!

And here to read the Reviews.

It's available in print and is only $.99 on Amazon Kindle. Click here to start reading it now!