Blood, guts, gore ... and romance?

Maumelle author's debut book unites love for paranormal, young-adult fiction

By Elizabeth Sharp

LITTLE ROCK — Critics have likened her debut novel to novelist Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga and late-'90s hit TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

But Maumelle author Stacey Jay (who uses the pen name Jay when she writes) said that the inspiration her first young-adult zombie romance novel didn't come from other pillars within the paranormal literature genre. In fact, the idea for Jay's first young adult romance novel, You Are So Undead To Me, came to her while listening to Radio Disney in the car with her two stepdaughters.

"The song 'Drama Queen (That Girl)' [from Disney's Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen] came on," Jay said. "And I started thinking, 'What if real things happened to her?'"

And for 31-year-old Jay, a long-time fan of the paranormal - vampires, werewolves and the like - "real things" meant more than just regular teenage fare. What if a zombie showed up on this fictional girl's doorstep?

That exact scenario became the opening scene in You Are So Undead To Me, which tells the story of 15-year-old Megan Berry, a zombie "settler" - "a part-time shrink to a bunch of dead people with a whole lot of issues," according to Jay's Web site. Released Jan. 22, You Are So Undead To Me has garnered a lot of praise for Jay in the world of young-adult literature, and she even has two more books set for release in 2010.

"I try to write to myself as I would have been as a 12- or 13-year-old girl," Jay said of her writing. "I don't want to preach to the kids; I want to entertain.

"I hope [my writing] does have a positive influence, that it teaches kids, 'I can take control of my own life and be powerful and strong and have fun doing it,'" she added.

The zombie-loving Jay moved to Jonesboro when she was 8 years old. After graduating from Jonesboro High School, she enrolled at Ithaca College in Ithaca, N.Y. More than a thousand miles from everything and everyone she knew, Jay pursued a bachelor of fine arts in acting. But her studies weren't confined to standing in the limelight; instead, Jay also cultivated her playwrighting skills, working in experimental theater and even penning a one-woman show thatshe performed herself. Although it was a far cry from young-adult literature, what Jay wrote for the stage during that time marked her introduction into the writing world.

In 2000, Jay graduated and went where so many young actors go, New York City, to jump start her acting career. Unfortunately, Jay said she arrived in the midst of the 2000 commercial actor strike, making finding work difficult if not impossible.

She was eventually able to find work "off-off-off Broadway" and doing regional theater.

But Jay said the lifestyle was a "lonesome" one, often taking her to place for only a few weeks for a show before having to leave each location's growing familiarity and newfound friends behind.

In 2002, Jay followed what she believed, at the time, to be her true calling, moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career on the silver screen. Between auditions, Jay continued to write plays and even participated in a guerrilla film festival, which required her to write a screenplay in 24 hours and execute a film based on it in just as much time.

And although acting gigs were few and far between - alot of it ended up on the Sci Fi channel, Jay said, laughing - the experience made her realize her passion for writing in all its forms.

She started writing You Are So Undead to Me three years ago, when she and her husband Michael - who works full time with the National Guard in Little Rock - three years ago.

"I always read a lot of paranormal romance," she said, regarding her choice to focus on zombies. "I love the vampires, I love the werewolves, but I wanted a different kind of scary."

And as for choosing her demographic, young-adult literature, which always been a favorite for Jay, was a natural choice.

"I never stopped reading it," she said. "It's the most imaginative, groundbreaking, innovative writing. You don't have to settle on one genre within it. You have so much freedom to mix it."

Since Penguin Books released You Are So Undead to Me in January, Jay said she receives seven or eight e-mails a week from fans - typically 12- and 13-yearold girls - with words of praise about her book. She said hearing their reactions is one of the most rewarding parts of the writing process.

"I love that people can connect to [protagonist Megan Berry]," Jay said. "They say, 'She was the funniest, or 'I totally feel like her.'"

Although she's pretty tightlipped about Undead Much?, the next installment in the Megan Berry, Zombie Settler series set to release on Jan. 21, 2010, Jay said it will have "more supernatural mayhem and a threat to the heroine's newfound childhood love." Jay's also set to release My So-Called Death, which is geared toward younger readers and which her Web site calls "a tale of zombie intrigue at Dead High, a school for the genetically undead," in spring 2010.

Between writing from home full time, caring for her two children, one of them a 7-month-old boy, and two stepchildren, and spending time with her husband, Jay's schedule is a pretty full one.

But Jay said she wouldn't have it any other way.

"It's wonderful to be able to stay with my kids," she said. "And this is the most I've ever made.

It's empowering to know I can provide for my family." - esharp@ arkansasonline.com

River Valley Ozark, Pages 137, 143 on 06/21/2009