Episode 84
Amy Dressler Brings Shakespeare's Women to the 21st Century -84
Amy Dressler writes contemporary fiction featuring heroines who wrestle their emotional baggage while maintaining a sense of humor.
How to Align the Stars, Amy's debut novel, is a feminist, body-positive spin on Much Ado About Nothing. It is the first book in the Shakespeare Project, a series in which Amy will reimagine Shakespeare's classic comedies with a focus on the inner journeys of the heroines.
Retellings allow us to explore classic stories more deeply by hanging modern stories on a known framework. Shakespeare’s women are rich ground for this. In the plays, we only get their dialogue and how the other characters regard and interact with them. We see very little of their inner thoughts because they were written for the stage, and to be played by young, inexperienced male actors. This leaves so much room to create complex emotional arcs.
Amy is an active member of the Author's Guild, Women's Fiction Writers Association, and the Pacific Northwest Author's Association, where her books have twice been recognized as contest finalists. She holds a certificate in Popular Fiction from the University of Washington, as well as a BA in English from Whitman College and a Master's in Library and Information Science, also from the University of Washington. She spends her days shepherding government documents but has also worked as an academic librarian and freelance pop culture writer.
Amy’s hobbies include barely running (she’s completed ten half marathons, slowly), cooking and baking, hiking, tending her neighborhood Little Free Library, relaxed traveling, and attending live theater. When she’s not writing, Amy can often be found cozied up reading, eating fancy cheese, shopping for fancy cheese, or cooking with fancy cheese. She lives in the Seattle suburbs with her husband, two senior cats, and next door to her sister. Amy’s love language is jokes.
Support your local bookstore & this podcast by getting your copy of How to Align the Stars at Bookshop.org
A little about today's host-
Kristi Leonard is a modern Renaissance woman deeply rooted in the book world. When she's not immersed in crafting novels, she's orchestrating writing retreats through her business, Writers in the Wild, or lending her voice to non-fiction audiobooks. She leads the Women’s Fiction Writers Association as the president of the board, and interviews her writer pals as one of the hosts of the Author Express Podcast. She will start querying her first book in 2024.
Beyond the realm of words, Kristi embraces the Florida sunshine by hiking with her writer-hiker group and leisurely walks on the beach. She and her husband juggle a couple side businesses and take turns sharing the couch with their goofy Golden-doodle, Maddie. Kristi enjoys travel adventures with her twin sister and living vicariously through her grown children. You can learn more about her and connect at: https://linktr.ee/kristileonard.
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Learn more about our hosts, the guests we've had, and their books -
Transcript
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Kristi Leonard [:Welcome to Author Express. Thanks for checking us out. This is the podcast where you give us 15 minutes of your time, and we give you a chance to hear the voice behind the pages and get to know some of your favorite writers in a new light. I'm 1 of your hosts, Kristi Leonard, owner and host of Writers in the Wild Retreats, nonfiction voice over artist, and president of WFWA. I'm excited to share with you a little about today's guest. Amy Dressler writes contemporary fiction featuring women who wrestle their emotional baggage while maintaining a sense of humor. How to Align the Stars is her first novel, even though being an author has been her dream since 8th grade. She has worked as a librarian, freelance pop culture writer, and in local government.
Kristi Leonard [:As a literature major, theater nerd, and believer in the cathartic power of humor, Amy has always gravitated towards Shakespeare's comedies. Finding ways to transpose those stories into contemporary settings that highlight the heroine's emotional arc is a fun if sometimes frustrating puzzle. How to Align the Stars brings the heroines of much ado about nothing to a cozy campus setting and explores body positivity, romantic and career choices, and mental health with plenty of laughs along the way. Well, hello, Amy. It is so nice to meet you.
Amy Dressler [:You too. Thanks so much for having me.
Kristi Leonard [:Oh, absolutely. So we always start with the same question, but I read something about you that makes me wanna tweak this question a little bit. So the question that we always ask is, tell me the most interesting thing about where you are from, but I believe you said you live next door to your sister. Do you live where you grew up?
Amy Dressler [:I do. Pretty close to where we grew up. Yeah.
Kristi Leonard [:So tell me about how it came about that you and your sister live next door to each other. That would be like a dream.
Amy Dressler [:Yeah. So the fall of 2020, our neighbors we were having dinner outside, and our neighbors shouted over the fence to tell us they were putting our house on the market. And I knew she was looking for a place, so I connected them, and it just worked out. So we call it our family compound. I'm married, and she has an amazing dog. So we all hang out together. And sometimes we were matching pajamas on Christmas and gather at 1 of our houses to watch Christmas movies, so it's just a lot of fun and really nice to be in your family.
Kristi Leonard [:Oh, absolutely. My sister I actually have a twin sister who used to live in the Midwest and I live in Florida and she just moved to an hour and a half away. And while it's not next door, it is phenomenal to have my sister close
Amy Dressler [:to me.
Kristi Leonard [:So I I can't imagine living next door. That would be amazing.
Amy Dressler [:Yeah. We look very similar, and I think some of our neighbors have taken months to figure out that we're not the same person. So that's kind of fun.
Kristi Leonard [:That is hilarious. I love that. So let's get to know you a little bit. So I read more of your bio, and I understand that you have completed 10 half marathons. That's pretty impressive. I also have a little experience with doing endurance races, but it was many years ago. And it's like the thing I trot out when people say, what is something we would never guess about you? And that's, like, my thing that I trot out. So I'm curious if you can tell us about how you got started and if you have a goal to do more.
Amy Dressler [:Sure. So I thought I would just do 1, and I've always been a walker. I take a long walk every morning. So I signed up for 1. It took me more than 3 and a half hours, and then I learned that they did, and I think they're bringing these back, races at Disneyland.
Kristi Leonard [:Oh, yes.
Amy Dressler [:And I really wanted to do 1 of those, so I signed up for the Tinkerbell half marathon. I did it with my sister, but we didn't go together. We split up because we both just have to go as fast as we can when we can to make it in under the time limit. So I did that 1 and then I broke my ankle quite badly and my orthopedic surgeon said, oh, it's a good thing you're not a runner. That made me feel a little contrary. So then I started running, and I'm still very slow. I do run walk intervals. Haven't done 1 since before 2020.
Amy Dressler [:My training slacked off a little bit when I didn't wanna go to the emergency room for a sprained ankle because of COVID. And I just haven't really gotten back on the program for keeping my speed up. I still go on a long walk every day, but haven't been running quite as much.
Kristi Leonard [:So what is the most unique
Amy Dressler [:have you
Kristi Leonard [:done the same 1 over and over again, or have you done, like, unique ones around the country?
Amy Dressler [:So I've done the 1 at Disneyland a few times, and I've done the challenge they do where you do the 10 k on 1 day, and then you do the half marathon the next day. And then I've done some local ones, the rock and roll half in Seattle. And I live near Woodinville Wine Country, which is a winery area in Western Washington, so they've had some races. We have a really nice rails to trail here. So yeah.
Kristi Leonard [:That sounds amazing. So now let's get to the fun stuff. We're all here to talk about books. Let's talk about your book. So I pre warned you. Hopefully, you came prepared. How would you summarize your book in 1 sentence?
Amy Dressler [:Okay. It is a long sentence. It's okay.
Kristi Leonard [:We like run on sentences.
Amy Dressler [:So it's a feminist body positive re retelling of Much Ado About Nothing set in a small college town in Eastern Washington's wine country, focusing on the romantic and vocational tribulations of 2 cousins who are friends, and they're also maybe a little too opinionated about each other's life choices.
Kristi Leonard [:Well, I have read this book, and I somehow missed the part about it being a Shakespearean Oh. Themed book and what you do about nothing. And so when I read that, when I was preparing for the podcast and I read that, I was like, oh, that makes so much sense. It's such a fun book. So I am a fellow English major, so I too took a Shakespeare class as I think we all had to. Mhmm. What is it about this particular play that inspired your book?
Amy Dressler [:Well, I think it is really kind of the original romantic comedy. You have this great story with Beatrice and Benedick who, you know, they have these great bickering matches, but you can tell they kinda like each other. And there's a little line that hints that there's maybe some sort of a history between them, so I wanted to explore that a little bit more. And then I thought there was room for more of a story between the other romantic pairing too, so I wanted to explore that as well.
Kristi Leonard [:Oh, yeah. Absolutely. You did that so well. Now that I can go back and look at it from perspective. Right? Yeah. So which character do you resonate most with? So tell us a bit about her.
Amy Dressler [:So I think Beatrice's story is most close to mine, both her relationship with her body and her body image and also the idea of her getting into her thirties and swearing she'll never get married, which I also did. I was writing a blog called the spinster hood when I met my husband, and then, you know, I thought we'd just go on a few fun dates, and then I kind of fell a little harder. And I thought, damn it. I have to stop writing that blog. So he won me over, and there's a little bit of that in this story too. But there's some of me and Heron as well, the way she grapples with her anxiety and wanting to feel kind of safe and secure. I like to say I give 1 of my problems to each of my characters a little bit of Oh. You get this and you get that and like Oprah but Yeah.
Amy Dressler [:You know not as nice.
Kristi Leonard [:Absolutely. So what do you hope readers take away from reading your novel?
Amy Dressler [:I think that I would like readers to understand that it's okay to change your mind if you have a life plan and the universe presents you with some evidence that that path might not be exactly the right path for you. It's okay to listen, and it's okay to change, and whatever you want, you're not doing it wrong, and you can have your perfect happy life whenever it presents itself to you.
Kristi Leonard [:Yeah. Absolutely. So what chapter of the book or part of the book sticks with you the strongest? Like when you were writing it, what was the 1 that was either the hardest for you to write or the 1 that, that you just felt really compelled that you needed to get out?
Amy Dressler [:Well, I think the most fun chapter was the wedding show. So Beatrice, who is very anti marriage, and Heron, who was recently engaged go to a wedding expo together, and I got to show that from both of their perspectives. So for Heron, it's like Disneyland, and for Beatrice, it's kind of a house of horrors. And I just had a lot of fun with that, and I did I did get 1 over to getting married, but I refused to look at any wedding magazines or go to anything like that. So I had to do a lot of research about what that was like after the fact. Oh. Yeah. If only I had known.
Kristi Leonard [:Yeah. Right. Well, so my experience, my husband and I were actually together for 10 years before we got married. We met in college and lived apart for part of it. But I, before we got married, was a videographer of weddings. Oh, wow. And so I just had, you know, all the Bridezillas and all the expectations and all the pomp and circumstance. And I was like, there is no way that I am going to have a wedding.
Kristi Leonard [:So we were going to elope until he had to tell his mother. So until she found out, and then that was not no longer the case. And I ended up with my dream wedding, which turned into like this fairy tale. It was so the opposite of what I was expecting, and it was amazing. And so I definitely resonated with that part of the the book for sure.
Amy Dressler [:Yeah. I mean, I think there's no wrong way to do it. As long as you sign that certificate, you're married. So
Kristi Leonard [:yes. No kidding. So the book is part of a series. Is that right? You wanna tell us
Amy Dressler [:a little bit about that? It is. So it's part of a series of similar books. So I don't think the same characters will appear. There may be some little Easter eggs, but I am working on set of contemporary retellings of Shakespeare comedies. So I have a draft into my publisher of a retelling of As You Like It. So that will be out, I'm hoping, next year, and then I'm working on outlining a version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. And I have a few other ideas percolating as well. So I'm hoping they'll just be a nice set of these contemporary stories focusing on Shakespeare's women.
Kristi Leonard [:That's amazing. That sounds really fun, actually. I think as a writer, because I'm also a writer, that just sounds really fun to be able to, like, take something and imagine even just more modern, you know, how how you could do it. So I I bet you have a lot of fun.
Amy Dressler [:I do. It's super fun. Yeah. It is, like I said, a puzzle, and how can I take this thing that works on the stage in Elizabethan times and make it something that works in the 21st century Pacific Northwest? So
Kristi Leonard [:there you go.
Amy Dressler [:Yeah.
Kristi Leonard [:And will your future novels also be set in the Pacific Northwest?
Amy Dressler [:I think so. Yeah. Write what you know. At least the ones that I'm working on now. Yeah. And it's such a beautiful area. So
Kristi Leonard [:Yeah. For sure. So we always like to ask if people want to find you. Do you have a website? Do you predominantly on Facebook? Facebook or what where's the best place for people to find you?
Amy Dressler [:I'm pretty easy to find. My website is just amy dresslerdot com, and then I am Amy Dressler writes on most of the social medias.
Kristi Leonard [:Perfect. That makes it easy. And then we always end with the same question, and that is what book or story inspires you the most? And it can be inspiring your writing or I mean, I I'm gonna guess that it's Shakespeare, but I'm probably wrong.
Amy Dressler [:It's not. So I was in my early twenties when I read Jennifer Weiner's Good in Bed, and that was the first time that I got to read about someone who looked like me, who got an ending where she was happy and whole without undergoing a physical transformation. And I thought, maybe I am allowed to just be happy without a diet or a change. And I know that sounds kind of sad, but, I mean, I think that's where a lot of us have been with the way diet culture is and I also thought Absolutely. Maybe someday I could tell stories like that too. You know, it was so funny and smart, and she has also gone on to be such a strong advocate for the merit of stories that center women. So I've admired her other subsequent books a lot too.
Kristi Leonard [:Wow. That sounds excellent. And if you can believe it, we are at 15 minutes. I told you when we started, it's gonna go by fast. We're gonna get a lot in, but it's gonna go by really fast. And we have hit our 15 minutes, and it has been an absolute joy to talk to you. It is a very fun book, so I can't wait to see the next 1 when it comes out.
Amy Dressler [:Great. My pleasure. Thank you so much.
Kristi Leonard [:Thanks for joining us. We hope you take a second to give us stars or a review on your favorite podcasting platform, and we'll be here again next Wednesday. Follow us on Instagram at author express podcast to see who's coming up next. Don't forget, keep it express, but keep it interesting.
