116. SHANNON J. SPANN: Crafting a theatre-based fantasy world & finding your own voice

This week on LiteraryHype, debut author Shannon J. Spann joins me to talk about her dark fantasy novel, A Stage Set For Villains. This book hit the New York Times, USA Today, Indie, and Sunday TImes Bestseller lists, and a studio purchased the film rights. We're talking all about the emotional moment she got that news, her journey in publishing to becoming an author, finding your own voice and so much more. Get ready to laugh and be sucked into Theatron.

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Transcript

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00;00;03;03 - 00;00;19;18
Unknown
Hi, and welcome to Literary Hype. I am Stephanie, your literary high forward back with another author conversation for Literary Hype Podcast. If you've been around here before, you know that I love introducing you to debut authors and that is what we have today is a debut author in the dark fantasy space

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Unknown
Shannon J span is the author of a stage set for villains, which is a really fun theater, Greek mythology based fantasy, where they are in a traveling playhouse.

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Unknown
So we're talking all about theater, finding yourself and crafting fantasy magic.

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Unknown
So without any further ado, here's my conversation with Shannon J. Span.

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Unknown
welcome to literary hype. It's so exciting to get to talk to you about your debut novel. A stage set for villains. Look, you, before we get diving into this story, I want to talk a little bit about you and your background because you have, like, a unique ish journey into publishing. You work for a publisher, and a lot of people have this misconception that it's a lot easier for you to get published when you work for a publisher.

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Unknown
Oh, my gosh. Like, what do you mean? You know, just, like, walk up and be like, hey, publish my book and it works. Oh, I wish that be nice. But so talk a little bit about your journey to getting this book out onto shelves.

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Unknown
when people ask me about, like, how is it different?

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Unknown
And, what did the journey look like? I would say, like, I am on both sides of the fence now and they are very different experiences. And so what I would say, I think the the bonus that it gave me from working in the publishing industry is I was very desensitized to the idea of rejection by that point.

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Unknown
So I was so used to what the process looks like. It's certainly helped me. During the publishing cycle of the book, I was used to seeing, like how hard it can be to like, promote a book and to get it out there and how brutal reviews can look for the average book like it is. Everyone is subject to like the good, the bad and the ugly, and there's not really any exception to it.

00;02;08;24 - 00;02;32;14
Unknown
I think it helped three navigate, better, but it didn't really lower the bar any, is what I would say. So I had to go through the same like querying process as everyone else. I had a spreadsheet, and the rejections on that spreadsheet are devastating because there was a lot of them. And there was there was a pattern to, why the book got rejected over and over again.

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Unknown
And the the pattern was essentially a lot of agents who, they I'm convinced they were just trying to be nice to me. So, like, take this with a grain of salt. But they were like, I really loved this book, but I think it's too risky to take to a publisher. Because it's a theater book and it makes a lot of unconventional choices.

00;02;49;21 - 00;03;02;27
Unknown
So that was like the rejection that came over and over again and again. I think they were just trying to be nice to me. A lot of these agents were probably just like, this is the worst thing I've ever read, and I'm trying to be nice. I got a lot of rejections, and, I kept a spreadsheet.

00;03;02;27 - 00;03;28;11
Unknown
And on that spreadsheet, anytime I got a rejection, I. I was really specific about how I was going to handle it. So instead of, like, putting the name in red and, like, writing rejected, by that agent's name, whenever I got one, I would instead grade the name out and I would just write, not my agent. Because I think that is something I've learned from this industry is like, you don't need everyone to say yes, you just need the one.

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Unknown
Yes. And I kept going until I found an agent who loved my book and was willing to take, you know, that that risk on maybe an unconventional story stage make some unique choices. It turned some tropes upside down, things that readers may or may not react in a positive way to. And she took to the read really fast.

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Unknown
She really loved it. And that was that. And we went on set up and fortunately, stage did find a really great home and a publisher that really believed in it, not in spite of its uniqueness, but because of its uniqueness. And I was really, really grateful that I got that opportunity. But yeah, I think like the, the other side of it is when you do work in publishing, you are so aware of the good, the bad and the ugly that you sometimes wish you didn't know things.

00;04;18;05 - 00;04;40;14
Unknown
And I found myself with that a lot, like, oh, I wish I actually had less information about how the industry works and things like that, because I'm so keyed in on good signals and bad signals and in between signals and things around the book. So I think it was it was just a very interesting and insightful experience in a lot of ways, a super positive experience.

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Unknown
I have a publisher who made me feel very supported, and I'm really, really fortunate for that. But yeah, I think it's one of those things where like, sometimes you can be like, oh no, I have too much information about how this works

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Unknown
was the ability to handle the rejection and knowing that the rejections were part of the process.

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Unknown
The most valuable thing for you that you took from your publishing side, or is there something else that was like, I am so glad I know this piece of the puzzle.

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Unknown
I think being desensitized to the ups and downs of the industry is probably the most valuable thing. Like I am so used to seeing just every version of how a book can play out, and every version to how campaign can play out from any house out there, because I've just watched every book come out for the last, you know, seven years that I've been working in the pub industry, I think, and it sounds kind of wild, like what don't you think you

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Unknown
brought, like, skills from your job and things like that. And I did like, I work in marketing. So obviously I ended up bringing that voice that I use in my marketing to like, craft, like, who am I on the internet? And the truth is, I'm just a silly person on the internet, and I don't have a whole lot of plan strategy around it.

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Unknown
So I didn't end up getting a lot of the skills. My content isn't really like pre-planned or anything. It's just I'm having a good time on social media, to be honest with you. But as far as, yeah, as far as the thing that I took, I think it really was the I was so used to sometimes things are great and sometimes things feel discouraging and sometimes things feel just quiet, and that's so normal.

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Unknown
One of my friends told me, while I was querying, and I was feeling kind of down about some rejections. She was like, the thing about nerves is to expect them. And I was like, oh. And it just kind of like flipped a switch in my brain for some reason. Like, yeah, the things about the thing about knows is to expect them.

00;06;27;22 - 00;06;51;29
Unknown
It's like, this is just part of it. You know, would you would you want everything to be easy? Would you want to like, pursue your like, maybe some people would, but would you want to pursue, pursue your biggest dreams and have everything just fall into your lap? Like I think it's part of the process. I think going over those obstacles, I think each rejection makes you like a little bit of a stronger person.

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Unknown
Not that it feels good, but I think it's just part of building who you are and building that resilience. And you have to be resilient in certain creative industries. I think this is one of them.

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Unknown
You touched on your your social media and marketing, which you are a hoot on the internet. So scared. So how do you maintain your sense of joy in something? Like they say, don't make your hobbies into work. How do you make sense of joy with now that your hobby and your work are overlapping in multiple ways?

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Unknown
It's actually a piece of advice that I give to authors that I work with, to be honest.

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Unknown
A lot of authors are like, I have to be on TikTok because everyone's on TikTok and I have to like, do the trends and the dances and all the things I'm like, actually, you don't like. People can tell if you are not having a good time doing what you're doing. Like if you are forcing yourself to just put out content because you feel like you have to, and putting it out every day.

00;07;46;08 - 00;08;09;16
Unknown
I have always been a quality over quantity person. You will always like, that's how I write. That's how I do social media content. I will always choose like what is a quality thing to put out here versus just a quantity thing. Every single day. And I think if you hate TikTok but you love Instagram, go on Instagram. If you hate Instagram but you love writing on Substack, go put your energy into that.

00;08;09;18 - 00;08;22;00
Unknown
I think do the thing that feeds your soul, because you're going to get more out of it at the end of the day. But if you feel like you just have to chase every trend, then you're going to tire yourself out. You're going to be frustrated because you're gonna be like, well, why aren't the views up? Why why isn't this working?

00;08;22;00 - 00;08;47;26
Unknown
And it's it's the push, push, push that I wish authors would give themselves a little bit more grace on because you don't like I know it's 2026 I want everyone feels like they have to market the heck out of themselves, but I think you can torture yourself a little bit in the process like you are enough. And I think with me, anytime I get to the place where I'm like, content plan, schedule this, I have to schedule that.

00;08;48;02 - 00;09;08;04
Unknown
I realize, like, I've already kind of defeated myself and that's always the stuff that performs worst on my page is like the pre-planned stuff. The stuff that always works best is like, I was in a bookstore and I had a funny idea, and I executed it right then and there. It's not perfect, it's not polished. But I have fun and I feel like people can just like, feel that is, it's when you're just having fun.

00;09;08;04 - 00;09;19;10
Unknown
So, I think something I've always valued on social media is especially like, I like to brag, I have the funniest readers on the planet like they are so clever.

00;09;19;13 - 00;09;32;24
Unknown
So it's honestly just a good time every time I log on and see people sent me new memes or like hilarious crash out videos of them like getting to the end of the stage, super villains, and all of these fun things.

00;09;32;24 - 00;09;44;27
Unknown
It really is like a joyful experience for me. So I'm on there so much because I legitimately just. And I'm just having fun. It doesn't feel like a chore at all. I don't consider my social media marketing, quote unquote, like a chore.

00;09;45;01 - 00;09;53;01
Unknown
This book is so fun. So for anybody who hasn't seen it online, everywhere or in their bookstores, what is a stage set for villains all about?

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Unknown
Oh, my elevator pitch. I can do that. Okay, so a stage for for villains. It's for fans.

00;09;58;10 - 00;10;18;03
Unknown
And we say it's for fans of readers of One Dark Window and Caravel. It's a Greek mythology inspired dark fantasy, that follows this girl who is desperate to break this curse that is slowly starting to kill her, and so in order to do so, she infiltrates this deadly competition that takes place in a magical traveling theater called the Playhouse.

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Unknown
And there she meets and strikes a bargain with its lead player to save her life.

00;10;23;06 - 00;10;39;29
Unknown
I love all of the theater nods and references and how it influences the magic system and everything. Like Chef's Kiss for Thank You. I get all of this out. What was your process like in figuring out like, oh, I can pull this element of theater into the story in this way?

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Unknown
Or like the magic is the craft and stuff like that.

00;10;43;10 - 00;11;00;18
Unknown
I've always been convinced that there is like some sort of unspeakable magic to theater. And I think, like everyone who's ever been in a show or had that like sense of community with a cast backstage, has felt this sense of magic behind the curtain when you're waiting to go on stage.

00;11;00;20 - 00;11;17;09
Unknown
And I think that was the thing that really drove me while writing, and something I came back to over and over again. So it really felt like an organic and natural part of the process, because theater already felt like such a magical thing to me at least. But I wanted to bring that feeling to an entire book.

00;11;17;09 - 00;11;37;29
Unknown
So, like the moment you step inside the playhouse, how can I capture this feeling of like, whispers down a dark hallway and, like, beautiful, ornate, decor all over the playhouse? And this feeling that the playhouse is kind of alive has its own character. I was just going after that ghostly magic and this idea that there is magic in every theater.

00;11;38;02 - 00;11;56;27
Unknown
So I think when it comes to, like the the premises of certain types of the like world building magic and like how the players use their magic, that stuff kind of came from a couple different places. I would say the big one was this, like the research I did on the history, on like the beginnings of theater.

00;11;56;27 - 00;12;19;07
Unknown
So, theater started in Athens. I took it very seriously, and I was really fascinated with that when I was researching. So like, for example, the actors on stage used to wear these really exaggerated masks. So expressions like really big smiles or really sad frowns. And it was so people in the farthest parts of the theater could see their expressions from afar.

00;12;19;10 - 00;12;43;22
Unknown
And so that's like why the the players have these really exaggerated faces. It's like a nod to the history of it. Another place that I drew some of that is like mimicry, like you put on a costume. What if you put on, like, a completely different face and looked like someone else? Or we've all seen, like, the dramatic death on stage and it, like, really hits us when we're sitting in the audience and we're like, oh my gosh, this character has just passed away.

00;12;43;22 - 00;13;05;20
Unknown
But like, what if what if the actors actually died on stage? What does that look like? So I think I just I took everything that I found fascinating about theater, and I pushed it to a magical extreme, and that ended up being a guidepost as I went for the whole world building and magic system around this. So I had a really fun time with it, to be honest with you.

00;13;05;23 - 00;13;32;05
Unknown
I mean, I had a fun time reading it every time something would come up, like Below the cut. And I'm just like, it was so painting. You notice those things, those little, little features or little nods to the theater world was such a delight. But you also read with theater in the structure of this book. So talk a little bit about deciding to do the act structure for it, as well as blend script with prose.

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Unknown
Okay, so I get asked about this a lot, and it's always really funny to me because we were like, pretty to get this idea. And I was like, this is just always been how it was structured like that. It it never even occurred to me to structure it like a normal book. It just felt like the natural medium for this book was that it would be like X1, x2, x3, and the intermission, I'll admit, is newer.

00;13;53;17 - 00;14;14;05
Unknown
That was something I added because I thought it would be really funny if when the show goes wrong and they leave the Playhouse kind of spoilers, but not really like what it's like halfway through the book. But when something goes wrong and something unexpected happens. Intermission. Like we're now, we're now like in an unexpected part of this.

00;14;14;05 - 00;14;25;19
Unknown
And it feels like maybe we're taking a little break from the main storyline, but are we really go grab your popcorn? I think the idea of mixing script dialog with

00;14;25;22 - 00;14;37;05
Unknown
the regular dialog, the script tags, you mean? Right, like character name and then like their lines. So it was a little tricky to blend is what I would say, because some of them are script tags and some of them aren't.

00;14;37;06 - 00;14;49;06
Unknown
The only thing will say here is that it's intentional when it's not. And I can't really go more into that without getting into like some spoiler territory, but it was all intentional and it was really fun.

00;14;49;09 - 00;15;02;25
Unknown
so smart to do that because I was just like, okay, that and now we're flipping, okay, what's going on here? So for the reader, it does help to like raise that little flag of like, maybe I should be paying attention to what's going on. Yes.

00;15;03;03 - 00;15;09;11
Unknown
Pay attention to everything you might. You might find some little clues that you'll notice on the second second read through.

00;15;09;11 - 00;15;10;11
Unknown
If you decide to go back.

00;15;10;18 - 00;15;22;22
Unknown
Little clues in this and I could be very off base. I probably am, but I, my friend and I when we were reading this, we were like, is she a K-pop fan?

00;15;22;25 - 00;15;38;02
Unknown
Because BTS's has a song for Dionysus or as I say, do you? And he says, oh, really? One of the guys from Stray Kids is Lino, and so it's spelled, they often spell it like and. Oh, and so we have a character. I'm guessing that line is

00;15;38;04 - 00;15;38;26
Unknown
like this. Yeah.

00;15;39;03 - 00;15;40;01
Unknown
Is this Lee? No.

00;15;40;01 - 00;15;41;24
Unknown
Is she referencing Lena?

00;15;41;27 - 00;15;57;18
Unknown
Sometimes I get conspiracy theories, like is this a reference to this? And I always love hearing them. I have to I have to admit something very embarrassing to you, which is I've never like, I've never explored the K-pop fandom of things. And clearly I've been missing out because everyone I know is obsessed with it.

00;15;57;18 - 00;16;07;23
Unknown
But, no, I, I have to suddenly tell you it's not a reference. Well, now's a good way to get into K-pop with BTS coming back. Clearly.

00;16;07;27 - 00;16;09;22
Unknown
it's just more time to discover this.

00;16;09;29 - 00;16;22;21
Unknown
Yeah, we were like, I'm sure this is just us being K-pop fans and seeing K-pop in everything we do, but I feel like it's when you like, you learn like a new word you've never heard before, and then you see that word everywhere.

00;16;22;23 - 00;16;37;06
Unknown
It's like that, like your brain starts like finding things. But I love that people will take away, like Easter eggs or things that were not intentional on my part and like, tie it to something that has meaning to them. Like, I hope that people do that. I think that's so great.

00;16;37;08 - 00;16;40;20
Unknown
Now you need to do some fan edits to diagnosis.

00;16;40;22 - 00;16;53;22
Unknown
Clearly, I'm surprised no one sent me one send you that that, the YouTube of them performing because it's so theatrical and like, it's, it's top tier. I'm sure I would eat that up place. And that's just you.

00;16;53;24 - 00;17;06;22
Unknown
This book has so many really great lines. Some of my favorites where life is a performance, you might as well get applauded for it. And you can be a great many things to your heart, but you cannot be fewer.

00;17;06;24 - 00;17;25;22
Unknown
So talk a little bit about your process on the line level of crafting these like really emotional, impactful lines. Oh that's fun. I've never had someone to ask me that before. I think with with stage in particular, a lot of people think of stage as like a very plot driven book. And I hope people like, get to think of this book however they want to.

00;17;25;22 - 00;17;43;17
Unknown
But for me personally, this book has always been extremely character driven, with just a lot of plot around it. And a lot of it has always started like a lot of the characters and their motivations and the way I see them, a lot of the time it starts with a line like that and I'm like, what kind of person says this?

00;17;43;19 - 00;18;02;28
Unknown
And, I'm trying to think of like some examples, but I know that for me as an author, a lot of the time characters kind of say things to me like, well, I'm doing something really boring, like washing dishes or going on a walk. I'll just hear like a little bit of a whisper in my mind. I'm like, oh, that's interesting, and I'll write it down.

00;18;03;01 - 00;18;23;16
Unknown
So most of those lines were written while I was actually seated at my laptop typing away a scene. It was more like I heard Jude's voice say this line, and I wrote it in my notes app, and I was like, I'm going to find a place to put this because it feels like it belongs here. I think with with you can be a great many things to your heart, but you cannot be fewer.

00;18;23;16 - 00;18;45;26
Unknown
That was that's my favorite line in the book. Personally, it's something that I wish I had read when I was a teenager especially. I was like, if you're if you're a teenager and everyone is telling you like, by the way, you're too much, you feel too much, you talk too much, you are too much. I think that too muchness grows into, like, the person you're going to be, right?

00;18;45;26 - 00;19;05;10
Unknown
Like you are still molding and being shaped. And there are times where I wish I could go back to being a teenager, because I think I was so much less limited by my own beliefs about myself. So, for example, like when I was a teen, I could always sit down and like, write an entire novel without much trouble because I was so creative.

00;19;05;10 - 00;19;29;10
Unknown
Like, I didn't understand limitations of the world at that point. And then you become an adult and maybe you're more tolerable to the world at that point, but you are far less like you're not the unhinged teenager that you once were. And sometimes I wish I could go back and like to that that person who was always told that you were to too much and be like, actually like you are a lot of things and that's great.

00;19;29;12 - 00;19;47;21
Unknown
And I hope people, especially even if you made it into adulthood and people are still telling you you are too much like, I think that's great because that just means you get to be so many different things. So that was a line that came a little bit later in the process. But once I did, I was like, that is like going to be a theme in this book.

00;19;47;23 - 00;20;12;17
Unknown
Because in 2026, it's like it's it's cool to be unbothered and it's cringey to feel emotions like it's cringey to show emotion and all of these things. And I just think there's so much space for people to be themselves in a world where everyone wants you to be, to appear a very specific way, or else risk being considered.

00;20;12;17 - 00;20;18;28
Unknown
Cringe on the internet. And I just kind of wanted to explore all of those things.

00;20;19;01 - 00;20;27;22
Unknown
I think like also, it ties into theater. Like theater is always like compare theater acting to like film acting. Theater is always going to be a lot.

00;20;27;22 - 00;20;29;06
Unknown
Right. So

00;20;29;12 - 00;20;45;14
Unknown
this idea that life is a performance, you might as well make it like a really grand spectacle one. And that was always something that came back with stage while I was writing. So I had a lot of fun with those themes. But those, those big lines always usually tied in with like some message that I was trying to kind of hammer home.

00;20;45;21 - 00;20;56;22
Unknown
And there's a line from riven where she's talking about, like, she's always been so tall men taller than everybody else and tried to like, shrink down, but then when she's with dudes, she wishes she was taller

00;20;56;28 - 00;21;12;06
Unknown
So talk a little bit about the essence of helping her explore finding herself in finding yourself through this character and your place in the publishing world, through someone who's been trying to shrink down and is now blossoming.

00;21;12;08 - 00;21;29;04
Unknown
Oh, what a fun question. First of all, I have to ask, how tall are you? I have seven, five, eight somewhere in there. You're tall girly, I love it. I'm not a tall girly. Actually, I am a short girly. I thought we were about the same height. Maybe I just thought, wait, what am I saying? How tall are you that I'm five?

00;21;29;04 - 00;21;36;14
Unknown
Four? Why am I? I could have sworn we were like, very similar. I guess you were sitting down. Oh, a lot of

00;21;36;14 - 00;21;48;17
Unknown
people think I'm tall as well. I would say a lot of people big and tall. I think a lot of people read revered as tall and think that it's written by a tall person. So when I was writing ribbon, as I always wanted ribbon to be a tall girl.

00;21;48;24 - 00;22;12;27
Unknown
Don't get me wrong, I love like reading the protagonist, who's like, very short. She's small girl and she gets picked up by tall boy. Like, I love that. But, I really wanted to see a tall girl on the page. And ribbon was. It was always so natural to her character. To me, I think of like. So my little sister is ridiculously tall.

00;22;12;29 - 00;22;36;29
Unknown
She's like 510. And she, when she was growing up, like, it was hard for her to grow into that because she always told me, like, she felt like she took up too much space. Whether she wanted to or not. Like, that was like something that she would say often is like, if she has no choice but to feel like she's too big for any given room, and we can go into this a step like the societal standards and what role patriarchy plays in that and all that.

00;22;36;29 - 00;22;58;10
Unknown
But she that, you know, at the end of the day, she constantly felt like she was viewed as like too tall for her room. And I was thinking about that quite a lot. And I also think of like the absolute like, magnificent performer she became. She is a musician, and she now like, when she takes up a room, she takes up a room in a really positive way.

00;22;58;16 - 00;23;17;00
Unknown
Like she absolutely owns the space. She owns a stage. When she walks on it. She's a singer now. She used to try and shrink herself down, but now it's like just part of who she is. And I don't know, I think I like to switch. She's a tall girl and that girl on stage every time she gets on.

00;23;17;03 - 00;23;41;18
Unknown
But I think, like, when it comes to this idea of growing into who you are as a person, both physically and also like just in a more metaphorical way. So a lot of people don't know about me that I started in bookstagram and, I got noticed by the publisher I work for now. Also, I should specify I don't stage is not published by the same publisher I work for.

00;23;41;20 - 00;24;11;24
Unknown
Those are very separate things. So the publisher I worked for noticed me on Bookstagram because I was a very out of the box person. They were looking for a content creator, a social media manager, and my bookstagram was always known for being wildly unhinged. I was like, I was like, I am on the internet today, which was still just very silly, but I've never, especially on the internet, which was like a space where I could be creative and kind of be myself with fewer consequences in terms of like people being like, you're weird.

00;24;11;24 - 00;24;33;28
Unknown
Like, I can just block this, but I could just be myself. And, I was doing that in my own way and my publisher, instead of instead of viewing that as, like, too much. They were like, oh, she's really creative. She's really out of the box. We should talk to her because we're looking for someone who's going to bring like, a fresh take on, you know, what we're doing over here with books.

00;24;33;28 - 00;24;53;18
Unknown
And I had already such a passion for books. It was like a really easy fit. But, they took that risk on me and similar, you know, years later, stage was a little bit of a risky book that a publisher took a risk on because they believed in it for its uniqueness and originality. I think, like sometimes we view it as a weakness.

00;24;53;21 - 00;25;15;05
Unknown
Like, this isn't like everything else. And that's bad, when in reality, I think there are so many beautiful gems out there that are just waiting to be picked up and it's this idea that everything has to be like, what? What am I trying to put into words here? I think sometimes with books were a little bit like, give me the same thing, but different, and there's space for that.

00;25;15;12 - 00;25;31;09
Unknown
I think it's okay to be like, you know what? I really like reading these tropes. I like knowing what I'm going into. I just think there should also be space for, I don't know what I'm going into. And this is like, not exactly what I expected. And that's fun and interesting, and I hope that we see more of that in the future.

00;25;31;09 - 00;25;51;27
Unknown
I hope agents are encouraged to like, take a little bit of a risk on a manuscript that they pick up that doesn't feel like everything that they've read before, and that we see more books that are, those hidden gems that I know are out there. But, you know, we we hear about it all the time, like the market shows, like the market chooses this, and this is what's popular right now.

00;25;51;27 - 00;26;22;10
Unknown
And does it fit into this specific genre romantic box. So all that to say, like, yeah, I think clinging on to who who I am as a person and letting that be something that propels me into success instead of holding me back from being successful because I'm trying to be like everyone else, has been a little bit of a superpower for how I've moved forward in life, and also it's something I want to encourage other people to do through, you know, through Raven's character arc.

00;26;22;10 - 00;26;35;22
Unknown
I think she's someone who grows into this person that she's meant to be versus, like, she's trying to be a completely different person for the first half of that book. She wants so badly to shrink herself down, to be like everyone else, and she's just not.

00;26;35;25 - 00;26;48;08
Unknown
But you're also really fun when you meet people because you love to doodle in the books. As I've seen some photos on, on Instagram, mine was not. And I feel very gypped now.

00;26;48;10 - 00;26;53;26
Unknown
But granted, if you have to ask or you have to ask me to doodle, did your first signing too.

00;26;53;26 - 00;26;58;02
Unknown
yeah, I probably wasn't. I wasn't in my doodling era at the time.

00;26;58;06 - 00;27;00;26
Unknown
No. What's your favorite thing to doodle in people's books?

00;27;00;29 - 00;27;12;04
Unknown
Oh, my recent favorite thing is to sign the book from the entire cast. So go through and sign it from all the players and like different fonts and stuff too.

00;27;12;04 - 00;27;33;17
Unknown
So, like, Parrish signs her name, the little heart dudes. Just like very swoopy. Titus's signature is a mess. Like, I kind of developed a little style for each of them. I like putting quotes in in the book here and there. I like to, there's a piece of foreshadowing towards the end of the book that I sometimes like to go up the page.

00;27;33;19 - 00;28;02;01
Unknown
Sometimes I'll just, like, circle a chapter and be like, I had fun writing this line, so it's my favorite. I should start going and be like, this is my least favorite scene. I just have fun with, like, dropping secrets and more and things. I did a giveaway for an Arc, a little while back, and I did a like, I annotated the arc and I just went through and, like, dropped secrets and lore and like, something that was cut from the book and, like, stuff like this, and it was so fun.

00;28;02;01 - 00;28;24;17
Unknown
So I just like sharing the behind the scenes behind the curtain. Haha. Stuff with readers. And it's been fun because it's turned into a thing where, like, I'll leave graffiti copies at bookstores. Bookstores are always really nice about letting me, like, decorate my books. And sometimes people attack me when they go like, find the copies. I did a thing with free little libraries.

00;28;24;20 - 00;28;41;11
Unknown
Recently I put a couple of, like, secret copies in a free little library, and someone went out and brought it at, like, midnight was really cool. So I like creating this treasure hunt because I don't know, like, ever since the raid went out, it feels like this. This book has always been extremely like community, focused.

00;28;41;11 - 00;29;03;26
Unknown
Like the readers are all, like, sharing their thoughts and their, memes and their, like, beautiful artwork and creations. And they're also, like, tagging me when I go on these treasure hunts to go find the books. Like, it's always been such a fun community experience. And I just like finding ways that I can, like, give those special moments to to the people who have been so supportive of this book.

00;29;03;26 - 00;29;07;15
Unknown
So I'll probably continue to do little scribbles and graffiti and things like that

00;29;07;21 - 00;29;26;14
Unknown
with the response, like not only from readers, but you're also getting the response in, like the New York Times list and the Sunday Times list and movie right options. What does it been like for you to get all of this, this good news and see how this book is impacting people and inspiring?

00;29;26;17 - 00;29;44;08
Unknown
for someone who works in the pub industry, like I would understand a lot of like numbers and things, but I specifically didn't want them. So I was a very much ignorance is bliss for the entire campaign. On a stage set for villains, I didn't look at or ask for numbers.

00;29;44;08 - 00;30;03;03
Unknown
I didn't look at a like, I never looked at reviews like I never I never wanted to know anything. So I was I was extremely in the dark about it. And then when the list came through for New York Times, I was finishing up book tour, and I was in the airport, and I knew the list would come through.

00;30;03;05 - 00;30;21;26
Unknown
I had my phone on airplane mode because I was worried, like, if I did hit the list, someone would text me and spoil it. But I was like, okay, I'm just going to get it over with. I'm just going to go look at the list. So I took myself into a little corner. And I, I took my phone off airport airplane mode, and I went and looked and I recorded my reaction.

00;30;21;28 - 00;30;42;21
Unknown
And I, I don't know what I was expecting to, like, feel like whether it was on the list or whether it wasn't on the list, I wasn't sure how I was really going to react. I try to like, especially if I'm uncomfortable. I try to make things funny. Titus got that tweet from me. My way of, like, getting through life has always been like a good sense of humor.

00;30;42;23 - 00;31;02;07
Unknown
And, I hope it was number one. And I have never burst into tears so fast in my life. Like I just started sobbing in the middle of the airport. And the stupid thing about the video that I filmed is I had I filmed it on TikTok and I forgot. TikTok adds that beauty filter when you're when you're filming.

00;31;02;10 - 00;31;09;02
Unknown
So it looks like I'm sobbing without tears. But like, I promise you, there were some tears.

00;31;09;05 - 00;31;25;26
Unknown
And I sat there just, like, sobbing in the airport. And I told the first guy I saw he was a total stranger. He was chasing his, like, toddler around. She was like trying to get some energy out before a flight. And he was walking by and I was like, sir, can I tell you something?

00;31;26;01 - 00;31;45;23
Unknown
And he looked at me like, I'm sobbing. He want to me like, sure. And I was like, I'm the number one New York Times bestseller. I just found out my book hit the list and I have to tell somebody. And he, like, he came over, high fived me, started asking about the book. It was a really, like, nice moment with the stranger.

00;31;45;26 - 00;32;01;13
Unknown
His daughter came over and she's like, what are we talking about? It was like, oh, my book just hit the New York Times. So she had it up on Instagram with like three seconds. And then the guy next to us took his headphones off. He was like, did I just hear? And it was like this really nice moment at the airport.

00;32;01;13 - 00;32;28;02
Unknown
But to answer your question, it was, the best, like surprise possible. And also like one of those dreams that feels like a pipe dream, like, oh, that's impossible. That doesn't happen. Especially like a debut. Like it's it's challenging out there. Right? It's very hard to, like, get notice on a book in a very like big market. So it was the it was the craziest and coolest experience.

00;32;28;04 - 00;33;00;18
Unknown
Sunday Times I wasn't expecting at all. It made the indie list. My editors have been so supportive of it. The USA today bestseller list like it? Just each time one of those things came through, I was like, this isn't real. This isn't real. Someone pinch me. But I think, like, you can you can hit the New York Times list and the book can go quiet a week later and I think what I've been especially grateful for is like, there's there's the cool, like, badge of, like, I hit this list and that's so exciting.

00;33;00;18 - 00;33;21;13
Unknown
It's a trophy. And it's something like, I am so proud of. But I think what I'm even more proud of is just like the readers who have continued to advocate for this book and talk about it online and like keeping this book alive in so many cool, different way. It's like I get tagged in artwork, I get talked in playlists, I could talk to mood boards.

00;33;21;15 - 00;33;40;02
Unknown
People are often sharing their favorite quotes with me. I've gotten three messages this week from strangers on Instagram who've started out with. I've never messaged an author before, but I wanted to tell you how this how this book impacted me or what it meant to me. And like I would, I wouldn't trade any of that for the world, is what I would say.

00;33;40;02 - 00;33;44;02
Unknown
Like, it's just been a really wonderful and special experience.

00;33;44;05 - 00;33;47;17
Unknown
So you had a song composed for this?

00;33;47;20 - 00;33;49;23
Unknown
Talk a little bit about the players overture.

00;33;49;23 - 00;34;11;14
Unknown
Oh, okay. So I have a friend named Lindsey Dells. We met randomly over Instagram, and then we came, became besties, and we're convinced that we were just best friends in another life because it was so fast. She is one of the best people I know and she's so talented. She composes like scores to go along with, like the vibe that she feels when she reads a book.

00;34;11;16 - 00;34;28;23
Unknown
So anyways, we connected randomly over Instagram. I was like, do you wanna get coffee? And she was like, hell yeah. And she was in the city. So I took the first finished copy of stage that I had. Like, I just want coffee. And I gave it to the stranger. I was like, I want you to have the first one.

00;34;28;26 - 00;34;48;20
Unknown
And she was like, oh my gosh, cool. And she was already a theater kid, so she was really excited to say so. So I gave her the book and she read it in like a day, and she was like, I have this really cool idea for a song. And I was like, okay, cool. And we ended up hanging out in her studio, and, I stopped kind of playing music quite a long time ago.

00;34;48;23 - 00;35;12;10
Unknown
I taught myself to play, like, piano and stuff by ear when I was younger, and I haven't really done it in a long time. But I was kind of like plunking some keys on the keyboard and playing around with it. She was like, wait, that that melody is kind of cool. So we paused on that. We started pulling up like, her music system, and she started coming up with all these cool ideas like the the clock ticking in the background and like the whispers from Nixie.

00;35;12;10 - 00;35;37;06
Unknown
And I'm going to reference a lot of things people are going to understand about the book, but there's a lot of different like nods to the book in the overture, and the brilliance is all her like, I she let me help, but like credits to her. You can follow her at Lindsay Dill's music, Lindsay is spelled with an AA and I highly recommend doing so because she is brilliant and she captured the feeling of walking into the play house so well.

00;35;37;08 - 00;35;38;09
Unknown
We had a ball doing that.

00;35;38;14 - 00;35;45;09
Unknown
Awesome. And I know everyone's very anxious to know what's next for you. So what can you say about future projects?

00;35;45;12 - 00;35;59;05
Unknown
The only thing I can say about future projects, especially because, like, I get asked about the universe, that stage is set in quite a lot. And that universe that the patron is in is much larger than just the patron.

00;35;59;08 - 00;36;15;01
Unknown
And there are other debt gods in those other territories, and there are other monsters that have come from those dead gods, just like we got the players from Dionysus. So I would I would be very surprised if we've seen the last of the stage universe, is what I would say.

00;36;15;04 - 00;36;18;26
Unknown
Awesome. The last question we always ask because this is literary hype.

00;36;18;27 - 00;36;20;14
Unknown
What books are you hyped about right now?

00;36;20;20 - 00;36;39;01
Unknown
Okay, I'm worried I'm going to mispronounce her name, but it's Death Bringer by Sonia Tagliani. That's definitely probably not how you say her name, but it's coming out, I think, in May. And I am super, super excited to read it. It's like dark fantasy and romance and, like, give it to me now.

00;36;39;08 - 00;36;43;16
Unknown
Awesome. Well, thanks so much for hanging out with literary hype to talk all about a stage set for villains.

00;36;43;23 - 00;36;48;04
Unknown
Yay! Thank you for having me

00;36;48;07 - 00;36;58;03
Unknown
Thanks again to Shannon for hanging out with me to talk all about a stage set for villains. If you want to check this book out, the links to do so are down in the description for you, as well as where to find Shannon on social media.

00;36;58;05 - 00;37;07;02
Unknown
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