She's Stuck In Estrogen's Funhouse and Workin' It!

Here recently, I did a book giveaway in honor of my favorite blog turning two...That would be this one in case any of you are wondering. I had the honor of meeting some very interesting and cool people, among them being Shayna Gier, author of Stuck in Estrogen's Funhouse. She did the exceptional thing and helped me get the word out there that my work was being offered for free for awhile and I asked her to guest post on my blog. I think she's a little shy because she opted for an interview instead but then she blew me away with how well she answered the questions; I'm used to people with AS occiasionally being somewhat disconnected or off-the-wall. My most heartfelt apologies, Shayna, for judging a book by its cover. Duly chastised...And well taken.

I think I'll just let Shayna have the floor now...Catch her if you can!



RJ Palmer:

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I noticed in your biography on your website that you were diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. This is something you share in common with my son. How has this affected your writing and reading and more importantly, are you going to allow this to define you as an author?



Shayna Gier:

Asperger’s is very important to me. I was just diagnosed last year, so at the moment it feels like my very being is fundamentally different and controlled by Asperger’s Syndrome. It’s really odd to go from feeling like a misfit to having a bunch of qualities written up on a website by a stranger describe you so perfectly. So I haven’t made it to the place that many of those that have been diagnosed for a while have- where they feel as though “they have Asperger’s but it doesn’t define them.”



That being said, I think it does influence my writing. Since my writing is mine, and reflects my thought processes, then naturally Asperger’s influences what I write. I don’t know exactly how though. While I am rubbish when it comes to social situations myself, my characters seem to be very believable, and they don’t tend to struggle with socializing like I do. In fact, I’ve tried writing an Aspie character and it was very difficult to do. I do still want to publish something with a female Aspie in the future though.



I don’t know if I want Asperger’s to define me as an author, or how I would want it to if it does. I assume as it defines who I am, it also defines my writing, I just don’t know how.



RJ Palmer:

Tell me something about “Stuck in Estrogen’s Funhouse” that you’ve not told anyone before.



Shayna Gier:

Stuck in Estrogen’s Funhouse was my first completed work of original fiction. I dabbled in fan-fiction for several years growing up, and then I had a period of about 50 different story starters that never made it anywhere throughout the later years of my high school experience and into college. After my now ex-boyfriend/best friend broke up with me, I started scribbling notes to the story that is currently not finished but the most-developed outside of Estrogen’s Funhouse, and when I had a bit of a mishap with transferring computers I decided to do NaNoWriMo, which I completed and that basic story led to what you know as Stuck in Estrogen’s Funhouse.



RJ Palmer:

How do you relate to Marti, the main character?



Shayna Gier:

I love Marti! We don’t have a lot in common personality wise, but before my functioning level took a hit, I dreamed of being a bartender. I’ve been a waitress before, and I love the atmosphere of restaurants, but bartenders tend to have better stories so my goal was to become a bartender when I turned 21. My mother, however, did not want me to stay on tip-wages, and wanted me to get a “real job”. I did that, and managed to hold onto waitressing for about 6 months… but I couldn’t do both and had to let waitressing go before I turned 20. If my functioning ever returns to where it once was, I’d love to get back into the business.



RJ Palmer:

I don’t see anything else you’ve written yet. Do you have another novel in the works? Would you be willing to share a little bit about it?



Shayna Gier:

I have many novels in the works… none that are even close to publication unfortunately. You can read about the works-in-progresses on my website, but here’s a quick outline of the plot of a few of them.



My new pet-project that has only notes scribbled here and there with some research currently done:



I really want to write a fictional account of a woman/girl with Asperger’s! I found out about Asperger’s thanks to Jodi Picoult’s House Rules, and once I did I looked and looked for a fictional account of a female- there are none. Rudy Simone writes awesome nonfiction books about being a girl with Asperger’s, but the fictional world is lacking. I want to create a book that has the main character dealing with things girl-aspies deal with, but not in a way that seems instructive or diagnostic, just so that other aspie girls that are undiagnosed may stumble across it and look more into it, and hopefully enjoy a good story at the same time.



Imperfectly Perfect: Callie Harper is a Junior in high school who is faced with a decision to make- should she attend Prom with her best friend (and crush) as “just friends” or go on a date with her 2nd-best friend who actually likes her. How does she choose between hurting a friend, or letting go of her own deepest desire.



Imperfectly Perfect is thought out to be a trilogy following Callie throughout her final years of High School and into college.



Lilianna’s Story: Lilliana Rose Cardosa is a twenty-something year old who just had her first daughter and is holding her when this story starts, though you don’t really get to know Lillianna as an adult until later. When she is holding her child, she is swept back through her life to when she was 4 and her entire world changed. Lillianna’s dad worked as a nighttime forrest ranger, and one night he never made it home. Being a daddy’s girl, whose mom was pregnant with a younger brother, Lillianna’s world was rocked, spending weeks trying to figure out what happened to daddy and why isn’t he coming home—and eventually adjusting to life with only a mother. This was a life-changing event for Lillianna, and where she is narrating the story is the first time she’s actually come to grips with her childhood.



Lillianna’s Story is also slated to be a trilogy, this time divided into elementary years after her dad dies, Middle school/high school where her mom is moving on, and College-baby as she starts to come to terms with her dad’s death, culminating in the moment the trilogy started.



Finally, there’s Lucina’s Gift. Lucina’s Gift is about a young woman who takes handmade dolls to the local pediatric oncology wing of the hospital for Christmas every year since her younger sister died of Medulablastima. The year that the story takes place in, however, she meets a young girl Claire,(4 years old also) who isn’t expected to be alive for Christmas, and who just might impart to Lucina the greatest gift of all.



And, there’s tons of other small works here and there. But if I never start another story I really want to get these four down on paper. In my head they are so captivating and fleshed out… I just have to get the words onto the computer screen without everything falling apart.



RJ Palmer:

I see that your grandmother passed away and I’d like to offer my condolences. I would also like to know, will you use this experience in your writing? I know it sounds somewhat twisted, but some of my best work has come out of my painful past and there is release in the telling. Won’t you give it a try?



Shayna Gier:

Ninny (that’s what I called my Grandma my whole life) was my world. Her death was- and still is very difficult for me to deal with. It’s going to be a year ago in October and the last half of the year has been it’s own level of Hell. I don’t know if I will use it in my writing or not… just because it’s hard to tell. If I ever get Lillianna’s Gift written out, you’ll see a lot of Ninny in her grandma, but as of right now she’s not told me of any deaths. I suppose in a way, her reaction to her father’s death is a little bit like my reaction to Ninny’s… so maybe it will come through there.



I will say that Ninny’s death is a large reason Lucina’s Gift isn’t finished. She really liked the short-story part of Lucina’s Gift, and she made one request to me about the plot, which I can not change. The story isn’t the story without the plot… but anytime I sit down and try to type up the story, I feel like I’m breaking her last request in a way. I am working to get through that though. She was so proud of my writing and would hate that I’ve not written much since her death.



RJ Palmer:

Is there a favorite part of the writing process for you? A least favorite? Which part of the writing process do you love to hate?



Shayna Gier:

My favorite part of the writing process is interacting with the characters. My mother calls them “imaginary friends on crack” (paraphrased) but that doesn’t seem right to me. To me they are like precious children that I get to spend time with. I write in a controversial way- that is that the characters are in control. Before Estrogen’s Funhouse I would “censor” certain things, but I’ve stopped that and I just let the characters take on a life of their own. In this way I truly am the first reader- and I just love it! I say controversial because some writers, and readers, insist that made up characters are dependent on the will of the author and are not “sentient” or able to carve their own story. I insist there’s a dimension of “fictional characters” and they communicate to writers to get their story told in this dimension.



I can’t stand prewriting! Or too much planning. Like I said, the characters drive my stories. The “notes” I refer to above are just bits and pieces that are revealed to me before the entire story starts to play out.



And I love to hate editing. It can be tedious- especially when you are on your 9th edit and rereading passages for what must be the 25th time… but oddly, while I hated the idea of it, and toward the end I hated the process of it- I absolutely love the accomplishment you feel when you make that last edit; when you can finally say “it’s ready for others.” And starting editing was surprisingly a lot of fun!



RJ Palmer:

How do you get geared up to write? Are there certain steps you have to take or certain music you have to listen to in order to kick start the muse?



Shayna Gier:

I try and write daily. Emphasis on the “try”. Since Ninny’s death I haven’t been able to get anything coherent onto the computer, and this has been a struggle and deterrent. Usually though, I just have to write. I could sit and say the story out loud to my husband, but it’s not usually revealed to me all at once, and also I’m far too much in love with the characters to not share them with the world. So when inspiration strikes, I just sit and write as much as I can before it trails off again.



Usually, I end up writing the most after midnight- I’m slightly nocturnal.



RJ Palmer:

Is there anything you would like to say to your readers? Any advice for aspiring authors?



Shayna Gier:

It’s been said before, but write what you know and write often. I think one of the things that is so great about my writing is the realism of it. I’ve been told my characters seem very much like real people that readers either hate, or can really relate to. If you write something that you aren’t familiar with, it’s harder to convey that absolute realism that I think makes a wonderful story.



RJ Palmer:

If you could have cocktails with any one person from history, real or imaginary, who would it be, why and what do you think they’d drink?



Shayna Gier:

Does fictional history count? I’d absolutely love to have cocktails with Georgina Kincaid or Letha from Richelle Mead’s Succubus series. She’s lived so very long, so talking to her would just be amazing. Also, despite her age she’s still sarcastic and witty. She’d have a vodka gimlet as that is her favorite drink of choice. Me? I’d have a Brain Eraser just because I love the name of it.



And then I asked her to tell me a little MORE about herself...



My favorite short and sweet about me is: My name is Shayna Gier and I like to read and write- a lot!



As for the more about-me-ish bio. I’m Shayna Gier, author of Stuck in Estrogen’s Funhouse and Book Reviewer. I’m married, but regrettably have no children yet, and I really spend all of my time either on the computer playing games, reading, or writing. I don’t actually “work” but instead I’ve returned to college to get a degree in Library Science and hopefully become a librarian or museum curator/archivist. In the meantime, while I am struggling to finish stories, I review books for other authors on my website here.



Sooo, all my fellow wingnuts, if you like what you see...I mean, come on here, who can NOT like loving to hate editing??! Okay, okay...Back on track now...Find Stuck in Estrogen's Funhouse here on Amazon and here on Smashwords! Now go and buy the book...What are you waiting for? Why are you still reading this?



Okay, I'll stop. :)