dia of the dead

022. Oh, Hey

Brit / Dia of the Dead, Life Junk, Writing / announcements, dia of the dead, young adult literature / 0 comments

Nov 29, 2014

Sorry for the lack of updates. I know I said I would blog every day this month but somehow November has gotten the best of me again. I will do better in the future (this isn’t another empty apology).

I have a few announcements to make today. The first is great news! Beginning December 1st (MONDAY!) and lasting until the 8th, I will be participating in a book tour for Dia of the Dead. The tour has been arranged by Diverse Book Tours and the ladies behind it are absolutely lovely. I will definitely be working with them in the future.

This is my first book tour and I’m extremely excited about it. I’ll be posting the list of participating blogs as soon as I receive it!

The second thing I’d like to share is the status of my writing (or lack thereof). The second book in the Dia of the Dead series is completed and has been sent to betas. I’ve heard back from one (shout out to Sam), I just need to follow up with the rest. I will probably be revisiting the draft and polishing it up a bit in the upcoming weeks.

Confession: I love writing Dia. I can pop into her head anytime and see her interacting with her world anytime. It comes with an ease that isn’t present while working on other projects. This easiness is probably due to the length of time I’ve been working with her. But I digress.

I’m also working on a few other novels that I hope to turn into something rather than leaving them to rot on my hard drive.

The last thing I wanted to give a quick update on was my health. I’ve talked about my chronic migraines in previous posts and guess what? They’re still happening! Not only that, my migraines decided to bring focal seizures to the party! And boy do these guys know how to turn up!

I’m going to be frank, neurological conditions are a pain in the ass. Having migraines and seizures period blows. Having them as a writer blows even more. I currently lack the stamina I once had to get shit done. Writing is hard but I love it so much that sitting down to crank out a couple thousand words per day is no biggie. But not on migraine days. Migraines totally deplete my mana. While I may feel like writing, I am usually drained of the desire to do anything other than to lie down in a dark room. I hate how this has been impacting my life during the last couple of months. Everything goes from coming up Milhouse to the universe “ha-ha!”ing me Nelson Muntz-style. :/

I hope that one day I’ll return to normal but in the mean time, I’m going to try to take care of myself as best I can and continue to write.

021. Interview with Dia Summers

Brit / Dia of the Dead, Writing, YA Lit / dia of the dead, writing, ya lit, yalit, young adult literature / 0 comments

Nov 1, 2014

Hello, Brit Brinson here! I’m lucky to have a special guest on the blog today. Dia Summers, the sixteen-year-old star of the Bixby Network’s Dia of the Dead has stopped by to answer a few questions.

Brit Brinson: Thank you for taking time out of your busy, busy schedule for this interview, Dia.

Dia Summers: No problem. Thank you for contacting my mom about this opportunity.

BB: I guess we’ll jump right into things. Would you like to tell us a little something about yourself? What’s something your diehard fans don’t even know about you?

DS: [laughs] Diehard fans? I don’t think I have any of those yet.

BB: I’m sure there are a few out there.

DS: [laughs] I hope so. That’d be really cool. Now…let me think of something you all may not know about me. I was born and raised in Santa Barbara and have a mini dachshund named Frank. My birthday’s August 16^th. My favorite colors are pink and black and my favorite food is my mom’s pancakes. My fans probably know all of that though. Hmmm…let me think some more. [after a pause] I guess one thing that my fans don’t know is that I’m a horrible singer. I can’t carry a note to save my life but I love singing. I do it all the time! [laughs]

BB: [laughing] I’m a terrible singer as well. I guess we have that in common. So, Dia Muerto is your first role, right?

DS: Yep. I’d never acted before landing the role as Dia Muerto.

BB: That’s interesting. Can you tell me how you were cast in the role?

DS: With a little bit of luck I guess. I remember being so nervous during my audition that I was practically shaking. But I gave it my all and it worked!

BB: If you could describe what it’s like to be a teenage actress in one word, what would it be?

DS: One word? Hmmm….I think I’d go with “tough.” But not like in a bad way. Being an actor at any age is hard. You have to know your lines and hit your marks and make sure your emotions are getting across onscreen. And you have to do all of that at the same time. It’s a lot. It isn’t always easy but since I love acting, the pros outweigh the cons.

BB: As I was saying before, you play Dia Muerto, an undead high school student on the Dia of the Dead. Are you anything like the character?

DS: A little but not quite. First off, Dia’s a zombie. I’m lucky to be able to go through a day without an arm or a leg falling off [laughs]. Dia’s also on the school’s spirit squad. I didn’t participate in any sports last year when I was a freshman at SBHS. I was mostly focused on acting and trying to improve on the skill, ya know? Plus, Dia Muerto is a badass paranormal crime fighter. I’m just a regular girl…who plays a badass paranormal crime fighter on TV [laughs]. So I guess I’m not too much like Dia. She’s a lot braver than I am.

BB: It’s funny hearing you refer to the character since you two share a name.

DS: The character’s name was changed to Dia after I got the role. The original name was Ann Dead.

BB: Oh cool. Like “undead.”

DS: Yep! Exactly.

BB: Speaking of the undead, if zombism was suddenly in style, what three things would be your survival must haves?

DS: Lucky for me, Dia Muerto survives on organic brain substitute smoothies so I don’t have to worry about her getting too flesh-hungry. But if people in Hollywood did begin turning into zombies, I think I’d need the following to survive: food, water, a weapon—maybe like a katana or something—and my mom. My mom is like the number one on the list. She could probably survive anything.

BB: We’re coming close to the end of our interview. I know you have some other engagements to get to but I have one more question before you go. There are tons of kids out there who watch The Bixby Network and aspire to become actors and actresses one day. Do you have any words of advice for them?

DS: Never give up. Like I said earlier, acting isn’t easy but if it’s something that you want to do, go for it. If you believe in yourself, you can accomplish anything.

BB: Once again, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer these questions. You can catch Dia Summers in Dia of the Dead, Wednesday evenings at 7:30pm on the Bixby Network. Or you can read more about Dia’s adventures in Dia of the Dead.