The Debutante Ball welcomes our latest guest debutante Amy Dressler to the party. Her debut novel How to Align the Stars (Egret Lake Books) takes the stage June 2024.
I write contemporary fiction featuring heroines who wrestle with their emotional baggage while maintaining a sense of humor. My debut novel, How to Align the Stars, is a contemporary, feminist retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.
Born Bookish
I inherited my love of books. My grandfather was a literature professor and my mother read so voraciously that my sister and I are still working our way through the TBR pile she left when she passed away in 2006. I, too, have never been without a book in my bag. I was a literature major in college, then went to grad school to become a librarian. The love of books was always there. The confidence to tell my own stories took longer to arrive.
In my twenties, I was blogging just for fun and as a way to stay in touch with friends, but my posts caught the attention of someone looking to bring on writers for a pop culture website. Soon I was being paid to write reviews and articles about TV. If that sounds too good to be true, that’s because it was. After about a year, the site stopped using freelance writers.
Even though the paychecks didn’t last, that was the boost I needed to understand that there might be a place out there for my voice. I also missed the creative outlet. I signed up for a creative writing certificate program and started writing a truly terrible semi-autobiographical novel about a young librarian who moves from Seattle to Miami. A month before the course ended, my hard drive crashed, and I lost most of my work. Writing fell victim to a series of big life changes but remained a glimmer in my peripheral vision. I’d catch a glimpse and think, “Oh, it’s you. Hi. Someday.” I always knew it was something I’d come back to, even if I didn’t know when or how.
Someday came in 2019. I drafted my first completed novel, then outlined How to Align the Stars during the Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference that fall.
Reimagining the Bard
The idea for the Shakespeare Project series came to me when I wondered why we don’t see as many playful takes on his comedies as we do Jane Austen’s novels. The line about Beatrice being “born under a merry star” gave me the idea to cast her as an astronomy professor, and my own background as an academic librarian provided the perfect vocation for Ben. After that, I was off to the races.
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. When I combine that with modern situations and sensibilities, I can weave the familiar story in a fresh new way.
I originally intended to write a much more straightforward romantic comedy retelling of Much Ado, alternating between the Beatrice and Benedick character’s perspectives, with the Hero/Claudio storyline thrown in really just to give them conflict. This is mostly because, really, I have never liked the way the play treats her. It might be much ado about “nothing” for Claudio, who gets exactly what he wants at the end of the play after just a little heartache, but Hero ends up married to a man who didn’t believe in her and was quick to reject her in an abusive way.
By the time I was working on this book, I felt much more grounded as a women’s fiction author; I am interested primarily in the heroine’s journey. While I think Ben does have emotional resonance in my book, I realized I could make the Hero character’s story much more interesting, and that my version of that character didn’t have to sit down and take the humiliation she endures. When I locked in my vision for a dual-arc story focusing on the female cousins, story beats flew out of my pen.
I knew right away I wanted Bea’s story to be body positive. I was influenced by Jennifer Weiner’s Good in Bed and other stories of women who didn’t have to change their bodies to get a happy ending. That’s my story, too. It’s important to tell stories about women who don’t measure their self-worth by their appearance. In a way, I wrote Bea as a role model for myself. Even though she has some insecurities—she wouldn’t feel real if she didn’t—she reaches for what she wants unreservedly.
I hope readers love this book as much as I loved writing it. It comes out in early June and is just right for vacation reading.
You can preorder an ebook now for Kindle, Nook, or other platforms. Paperbacks will be available on the release date.
Read more from Amy at her Substack, A Little Qwerty, or find her on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Threads.
And a wonderful introduction it is! I love stories like Amy's - people who accidentally find their niche by following their passion. Tease us all with a short clip from your book. Your concept is phenomenal!