Author Interview: Stacey Lee and Heiress of Nowhere Giveaway and IWSG Post

Happy Wednesday! I’m so thrilled to have Stacey Lee here to share about her new YA historical fiction mystery, Heiress of Nowhere. I’m a huge fan of Stacey’s. Thanks to Stacey’s publisher for providing me with an ARC of Heiress of Nowhere to prepare for this interview. It was a real page-turner that left me guessing until the end. 

Stacey is also so inspiring as one of the founders of the We Need Diverse Books movement. As an adoptive mom of a daughter adopted from China, I really appreciate that there are now books that kids like my daughter can see themselves in. There weren’t any when she was growing up. 

Here's a blurb of Heiress of Nowhere from Goodreads: 

An orphan races to uncover a killer—who may have come from the sea—when she and her beloved orcas fall under suspicion in this “atmospheric…beguiling” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) historical gothic mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of The Downstairs Girl, Stacey Lee.

1918. Orcas Island, Washington.

Lucy Nowhere has spent her eighteen years working on the vast estate of the eccentric shipbuilder who took her in after she washed ashore in a green canoe as a baby. But she has long wished for a life off the island, and in a matter of days, she is set to leave for college—and, for the first time, choose her own future.

Then she finds her employer’s severed head on the beach. Rumors swirl that a mischievous spirit and its minions, the sea wolves, have struck again. Lucy doesn’t believe in myths. She knows that a human—a human murderer—killed him. And when she is unexpectedly named heiress to the estate, she understands the next target is her.

Her closest friend, the estate’s vigilant young guard, begs her to escape while she can. But Lucy knows the only way she can discover who she is, and free the island of its curse, is to find the real killer—before she becomes the next victim.

 

Before I get to Katie’s interview, I have my IWSG post.  

Posting: The first Wednesday is officially Insecure Writer's Support Group Day. 

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!  

The awesome co-hosts this month are: PJ Colando, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, and me! 

Optional Question: What elements do you include in your book launch? Or what do you have in mind for your future book launch? Or what advice do you have to offer to others planning to launch a book? 

While I’ve never launched a book, I’ve interviewed hundreds of authors who have and have watched many of them launch their books. Here are some tips in case they help you: 

·       Don’t try to do it all. You can’t do everything—if you want any time to write. Many authors recommend choosing the activities you enjoy most and focusing on them.

·       Look for new audiences. When going on a blog tour, try to find sites where you’ll reach new audiences. Don’t just go on a blog tour with friends. Some bloggers organize blog tours for a fee. While you have to pay some money, you could reach readers you don’t know. You’ll get more interaction if you pair your blog tour with a good giveaway, like a $50 Amazon gift card. I participated in Sherry Ellis’ blog tour, during which she received over 20,000 entries in her giveaway contest.

·       Band together with other authors. I’ve seen some debut authors form groups to support each other and help market each other’s books. Finding a small group of authors who write in your genre and are publishing books in the same year as you could open new opportunities for you.

·       Connect locally. Reach out to your local bookstores and libraries to see if they’ll stock your book. If you live in a metro area or there are nearby cities, reach out to them, too. You might also want to network with local nonprofits and offer your book as an auction item (maybe in a reading-theme basket) to reach new potential readers. 

Interview with Stacey Lee 

Hi Stacey! Thanks so much for joining us. I’m so excited you’re here. 

1. Tell us about yourself and how you became a writer.

Thank you so much for having me—Literary Rambles was one of my first interviews back when my first book UNDER A PAINTED SKY came out and I’m so glad we’re both still here!

I honestly don’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing. I was a quiet, shy kid who found refuge in books and was always fiddling with a story of my own—whether it was about my sister’s canker sore, the spotty banana in my lunch, or the mean girl who took my cupcake. 

I grew up wanting to be a writer, but my parents encouraged me to think of it as a hobby rather than a serious career. So I did what many people do: I pursued a practical profession and wrote on the side. I worked as a lawyer for nearly a decade, writing early mornings, late nights, and weekends, sending out manuscripts and collecting rejections, until a publisher finally took a chance on me. Now I write historical fiction for young people, often centering girls who have slipped through the cracks of the historical record—and I’m deeply grateful I didn’t stop writing while I waited for that door to open.

2. Yes, it was a guest post with your agent. I can’t believe how many authors are former lawyers. I understand it as I’m a retired author. Where did you get the idea for Heiress of Nowhere? 

The seed of Heiress of Nowhere began with a question about fate and connection. How much of who we are comes down to chance—where we’re born, who raises us, what we inherit, not just materially but emotionally and historically? From there came the image of a baby arriving by canoe on a remote island, with no knowledge of where she came from, and a young woman who grows up feeling unmoored. Once I placed her on an isolated island and gave her an unexpected inheritance, the mystery followed naturally. Her search for a murderer runs parallel to her search for her own identity. 

3. In your author’s note, you mention that you’ve always written stories that you know, and that Heiress of Nowhere was the first book you wrote where this wasn’t true. Why did you decide to write outside of your comfort zone, and what additional challenges did you face writing this story? 

I never let unfamiliarity with a setting deter me, but with Heiress of Nowhere, I was stepping into unfamiliar territory not just geographically, but tonally. This was my first gothic novel, and gothic thrives on atmosphere, uncertainty, and a quiet sense of unease. 

The biggest challenge was learning to trust that uncertainty—allowing questions to linger and letting folklore and fear exist alongside realism. As a people pleaser, the idea of making readers uncomfortable made me uncomfortable. But I’ve come to believe that a good book should unsettle you just enough—and then reward you with moments of intrigue, beauty, or even delight so you’ll keep turning pages. I had to trust readers to sit with ambiguity rather than rushing them toward neat answers.

4. Well, you wrote a great story. I loved that your book was set in Orcas Island and other nearby islands (some made up) in the Pacific Northwest. What made you choose this setting, and what research did you have to do into the sea life, rare plants, other aspects of the setting, and the 1918 time period?

Setting always goes hand in hand with story for me. I spent time in the Pacific Northwest in my twenties and was struck by how the land and sea feel constantly in conversation with each other. Orcas Island offered isolation and beauty, along with the sense that nature could be both life-giving and capable of swallowing you whole. 

For research, I visited the islands, spoke with historians, naturalists, and artists, and immersed myself in early 20th-century newspapers. I toured a cannery and learned far more than I ever wanted to know about how salmon was processed—knowledge that will stay with me forever, whether I like it or not. I also took educational boat tours focused on wildlife conservation, particularly orcas and marbled murrelets, and learned about native plants and the realities of island life in 1918, including the shadow of World War I and the Spanish flu. All of it helped ground the story in a very specific time and place

5. Wow! That’s a lot of research. Like many of your books, Heiress of Nowhere involves a murder mystery. How did you learn to write them? What advice do you have for other writers wanting to write a murder mystery?. 

I thought it would come naturally because I love reading mysteries. It turns out that reading mysteries for enjoyment and analyzing them to understand how they’re constructed are two very different things. Kill Her Twice was my first murder mystery, and it taught me how to plant clues, build tension, and misdirect without cheating the reader. Heiress of Nowhere pushed those skills further, because the mystery had to operate alongside atmosphere, folklore, and a very isolated setting. 

I’ve learned that a mystery only works if it’s driven by character. The crime has to matter emotionally, not just intellectually. My advice to writers is to work backward—know your ending, understand your characters’ motivations deeply, and remember that suspense often comes as much from what characters fear as from what they discover.

6. I really agree with you that the best mysteries have memorable characters. Not all do. Lucy is a very compelling character that readers can’t help but root for. Talk about how you developed her as a character. Did you pretty much know who she was when you started writing your story?

I always begin with a central truth about a character. For Lucy, that truth was that she felt unmoored—she had no knowledge of her origins and was tired of not knowing where she belonged. That feeling isn’t a personality, so as the story unfolded, Lucy revealed herself through her choices. In the first chapter, she’s alone in a canoe sketching an orca—that told me she was observant, bold, and comfortable with risk. I didn’t know everything about her at the start, but I trusted the story to ask questions that would force her to answer them.

Your Road to Publication 

7. Kristin Nelson is your agent. How did she become your agent?

Kristin became my agent after reading the third manuscript I had queried her with, which is to say—it took time, persistence, and a healthy tolerance for rejection. At the time, publishers weren’t especially interested in stories centered on people of color, but Kristin believed the story I was telling deserved to be out in the world and was willing to take that risk with me. What I appreciated right away was her editorial insight and her long-term perspective. She wasn’t just thinking about a single book, but about building a career, and that belief made all the difference.

8. Since your debut book, Under the Painted Sky, was released in 2015, you’ve published nine young adult books and three middle grade books. Besides writing good stories, which of course is always essential, how have you grown your career as an author? What advice do you have for other authors?

Writing good stories is always the foundation, but beyond that, I’ve learned to pay attention to what genuinely sustains me creatively. One concrete example is writing middle grade novels alongside young adult books—not because it was a strategic career move, but because I truly love middle grade. Those books allowed me to lean into wonder, curiosity, and voice in a different way, and they reminded me why I started writing in the first place. 

I’ve also learned that careers grow unevenly. Some books resonate more than others, some risks pay off quietly, and some take time to find their readers. My advice to other authors is to think long-term: follow the work that keeps you engaged, stay open to learning, and don’t measure success solely by immediate results. A sustainable career is built as much on creative fulfillment as it is on external milestones.

Promoting Your Book 

9. That’s great advice. And I can see why also writing middle grade stories would be a strategic move. I saw on your website that you have a book launch and several book festival events to celebrate the release of your book. How were they scheduled? How has your approach to marketing your books changed over the years?

Most of my events are scheduled with the help of my publisher, publicist, and the wonderful booksellers and festival organizers who support my work. Early in my career, I felt pressure to say yes to everything, but over time I’ve learned to be more intentional about how I show up. For example, I’ve discovered that improv-style events—which require quick banter and thinking on your feet—are absolutely not my natural habitat, and I avoid them whenever possible. 

What I do love are quieter, more meaningful interactions: talking with librarians in signing lines, having thoughtful conversations with readers, and visiting schools and libraries where stories are taken seriously. As my approach to marketing has evolved, I’ve learned that the most effective outreach is also the most authentic—focusing on connection rather than performance, and choosing events that don’t require me to pretend I’m someone I’m not.

10. What are you working on now? 

Right now I’m in the imagination-and-research stage—part dreaming, part very practical investigation. I’m trying out ideas, asking what kind of research they’ll require, how accessible that research is, what’s been written before, and what might still need to be told. It’s less about daydreaming and more about actively chasing stories to see which ones can hold up over time. I just ordered a stack of ship diagrams, which feels like a promising sign—or at least an entertaining one. 

Thanks for sharing all your advice, Stacey. You can find Stacey at: 

https://www.facebook.com/staceylee.author/

Instagram: @staceyleeauthor

Website: www.staceyhlee.com 

Giveaway Details

Stacey’s publisher is generously offering a hardback of Heiress of Nowhere for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of my blog (via the follower gadget, email, or bloglovin’ on the right sidebar) and leave a comment by February 14th. If I do not have your email (I can no longer get it from your Google Profile), you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be sure I have your email address. 

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media sites and/or follow me on Twitter or Bluesky or follow Stacey on her social media sites, mention this in the comments, and I'll give you an extra entry for each. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. This book giveaway is US. 

Upcoming Interviews, Guest Posts, and Blog Hops 

Monday, March 9, I have an interview with Ciera Burch and a giveaway of her MG Olivia Gray Will Not Fade Away 

Wednesday, March 11, I have an agent spotlight interview with Lindsey Aduskevich and a query critique giveaway 

Monday, March 16, I’m participating in the Chasing Rainbows Giveaway Hop 

Monday, March 23, I have a guest post by Aaron Starmer and a giveaway of his MG You Are Now Old Enough to Hear 

Wednesday, March 25, I have an agent spotlight interview with Rob Broder and a query critique giveaway 

Monday, March 30, I’m participating in the Honey Bunny Giveaway Hop 

I hope to see you on Monday!