Write Now with Stacey Lee

Who are you?

Stacey Lee, writer, Bay Area, California

What do you write?

I’ve been writing since I could hold a pencil. Other kids played tag and dodgeball; I wrote stories. My sisters and I were the only Chinese kids at school, so I learned early what it feels like to stand at the edge of the circle. Composing stories in my head was a way to step out of the stare and into a world where I got to decide what was possible. I’m also a chronic observer — I watch people, try to make sense of why they do what they do — and that impulse translates naturally to fiction.

I do love what I do. Being paid to do something I would do anyway feels like a life-tilt I do not take for granted.

Where do you write?

Mostly in my home office: a standing desk and a glorious second-hand extra-large monitor that has changed my life. But I migrate — desk to lounge chair to floor — because I can’t think in one posture. I keep a physical notebook for scene sketches and stray sparks. Writing something by hand organizes my thoughts in a way no app can.

When do you write?

I don’t set word counts or timers. There is a constant tug between wanting the process to stay organic and knowing the electric bill exists. I do my best work at night, which means I send emails at hours that used to embarrass me. My publishing team is now fully acclimated to 1:47 a.m. subject lines.

Why do you write?

Because story generates empathy, and we’re not exactly oversupplied. Stories let us connect sideways into lives we might never meet. In HEIRESS OF NOWHERE, Lucy begins as someone radically untethered — a girl of mysterious origins who literally floated into a stranger’s world — and then she is thrust into a position she never asked for when that stranger dies and leaves her everything. I return over and over to themes of hidden belonging, chosen family, and the shock of discovering you were woven in all along.

How do you overcome writer's block?

I walk. That’s it. Movement kicks the gears. I start with the knot in my head and at some point, mid-lap, the knot loosens. When a solution lands, I text it to myself so it doesn’t evaporate.

Bonus: What do you enjoy doing when not writing?

There’s a tiny fabric shop near me that opens twice a month and sells reclaimed remnants and furniture-store samples. I go to pet the fabric, help tidy the piles, and bring home pieces to sew into book sleeves I give out at events. I’m offering them with preorders of HEIRESS OF NOWHERE through my local indie, The Linden Tree — one sleeve per preorder while they last.

My thanks to Stacey Lee for today's interview.