Stories are an integral part of everyone’s childhood. From listening to bedtime stories to daydreaming and creating fictional friends to creating stories with real friends to be told later in one’s life, we all are but stories, waiting to be penned down or told. While some of us outgrow stories as we step into adulthood, some of us take those stories with us, waiting to find the right moment and platform to breathe life into them.
Growing up, Stacy Padula discovered the amazing power of books to transport one to the secret worlds of adventure and excitement, and she wanted to be able to do that for herself. Her first ‘book’ came up as a gift for her parents illustrated all by herself at a very tender age and thus began her relationship with storytelling.
Today, Stacy dons multiple hats and is a part of many industries: education, literature, and television. She is the founder and president of South Shore College Consulting & Tutoring, Briley & Baxter Publications LLC, and the Gripped and Montgomery Lake High Book Series. She is also a co-founder of BLE Pictures.
However, all of this started with her deciding to write what she experienced.
A Writer is Born
Writing became Stacy’s hobby and she would carry a notebook with her everywhere. She started creating her own stories which eventually led to her writing her own series of books as an 8-year-old. She got very attached to the characters she would create and had this sense of incompleteness with the stories she was writing for them. So, she just kept developing them even further until she felt satisfied with how they ended.
As she entered middle and high school, she quickly realized that the world woven of words was very different from what she was witnessing. The high school drama books didn’t represent what it felt like to be a teenager and relatable at all in terms of what she and her peers were actually experiencing. Stacy felt disillusioned by the books she read as a child that portrayed an idealized version of adolescence. She witnessed the harsh realities of growing up, such as mental health issues, drug abuse, and peer pressure, among her classmates. She developed a passion for writing realistic stories that could help other young readers cope with their own challenges. She started her writing journey with a school project on peer pressure that reflected her own experiences.
“For a peer pressure project in 8th grade, I wrote a 90-page book about high school life, instead of making a poster or presentation like most kids. I loved my characters so much that I wrote three more books about them in high school, capturing the real challenges of growing up,” recalls Stacy.
Stacy focused on improving her writing skills in college, which left little time for her own stories. After graduating, she revisited the book series she wrote in grade school and was amazed by the mature themes she had explored. She realized that her books could help young readers who faced similar challenges, so she edited them to meet her adult standards and published her first book in 2010.
The Montgomery Lake High book series, published from 2010 to 2014, was Stacy’s first work, based on the stories she wrote as a teen. In 2017, she started the Gripped series, a spin-off that explores the past and future of the same characters through flashbacks. “With Gripped, I really wanted the stories to have a heavier focus on addiction, because unfortunately as I grew older, I had a more developed understanding of what addiction was, and witnessed too many young people fall prey to its power. It’s heartbreaking to witness people you love and care about struggle with the disease of addiction, so my hope with the Gripped series was to bring awareness to the seriousness of the issue to kids, ideally before they’re exposed to things like opioids in the real world,” says Stacy.
From Stories to Support
Stacy understands that parents try to hide the harsh truths of drugs, sex, and mental health from their kids, thinking they are keeping them safe, but these kids face these issues daily. She has not only written realistic books about teens but also worked in private education for 15 years, helping high schoolers prepare for their future. She witnessed how important it was for young people to see themselves in the stories they read.
How we represent the youth is important, feels Stacy. The media often misrepresents teens and their lives, making them feel ashamed of their generation. They exaggerate the role of social media and influence, ignoring the diversity and complexity of growing up. Many aspects of adolescence are seldom explored or portrayed in popular culture. “I published the Montgomery Lake High series and kept writing from the same perspective I had as a teen. I wanted to represent kids honestly, and I was glad when my readers told me they related to my stories and characters. That was what I had hoped for when I read books as a young person,” says Stacy.
In 2016, Stacy took matters further up by establishing South Shore College Consulting and Tutoring (SSCCT), a company that guides students and parents through the college application process. SSCCT’s team supports families from start to finish. They help them figure out what the child wants to major in, what schools and programs suit them best, and how to craft the best application for their chosen institution.
“We are passionate about helping students pursue their college dreams. We guide them to identify their interests and create a personalized plan to achieve their goals. We offer services such as test preparation, college list building, and application support. We make the college journey a positive and manageable experience for students and families,” says Stacy.
Beyond SSCCT, Stacy has also worked as a director of operations for a college counseling company and educational group which involved training tutors and creating curriculums that could be used by tutors as they help high school students navigate their futures post-graduation. She’s written educational works that help students write college essays as well as study for exams like the SATs.
These aspects of her career are just pieces of what makes Stacy such an inspiring individual when it comes to creating safe spaces for young people as they navigate the complexities of not only their education but their own personal growth as well. Whether it’s the stories she writes about with her books or the educational texts she’s provided for students, Stacy has always wanted to alleviate some of the many pressures that teenagers endure, and she’s been able to do exactly that.
“My favorite part of my days working with those educational groups, and today with SSCCT, is the actual one-on-one time I got to spend with the students. I love working with these young minds and helping them figure out what they’re passionate about and want to pursue in college and life,” says Stacy.
Making Space for Conversations
Stacy wants parents and caregivers to understand that listening to the young people in their lives is crucial. They should create a safe environment where teenagers can share their feelings and experiences without fear. Parents and guardians may worry about their children facing things like peer pressure or drugs, but if they can be someone who their child trusts and confides in, their child will be more likely to seek their guidance and insight on what they see and/or go through.
“I grew up with parents who were like that, so I learned to trust them and open up to them about my feelings and doubts. That’s why I can now offer that same safe space to the students I work with. Our conversations are not just about college prep, they are about the real issues they face in their lives,” she says.
Stacy helps the young people she works with to find themselves and their questions by using personality tests. She helps them identify hobbies or interests that suit their personality. Everyone needs something in their life that makes them happy, apart from school or work. We all struggle with finding our own identity, and exploring our passions is the first step to becoming who we want to be.
“I have had many chats with high school students about their own stories, and how they can connect to some of the themes in my books. It’s great to have that honesty with them, and I have also seen them grow more confident with their parents/guardians about their feelings and experiences,” she says.
Collaborating for Greater Good
Stacy collaborated with Brett Gunning, an NBA Coach, in 2020 to produce a new series of books for young readers who are facing the challenges of growing up. The books are part of the On The Right Path (OTRP) project, which Gunning founded as a non-profit organization to help young basketball players reach their full potential through learning, mentoring, and training. The OTRP books share the same vision and mission as the organization.
The core principles of OTRP are guidance, inspiration, and creativity. The book series focuses on six life-skill pillars: Loving Others, Being Unselfish, Staying Healthy & Strong, Showing Respect, Showing Forgiveness, and Having Fun.
“The idea for the book series came from Gunning, who wanted to share his non-profit organization’s values with kids through basketball stories. I was eager to join him in this project because I had the same goal as him when I wrote my books: to teach young readers valuable lessons through realistic characters,” shares Stacy.
The On The Right Path book series currently consists of 4 books, with 2 more in the works as well.
Brimming with Ideas
As the founder and president of every company she works for, Stacy’s ideas are what run the companies. One example of this is that she hired a team of teenage interns to work for her Gripped book series and her Montgomery Lake Series to help keep her books relevant to their audience. The teens read the books and write articles about the characters, themes, and plots that Stacy publishes online. This helps her understand how young adults perceive her stories so she can remain in tune with teen readers.
Another example of fresh ideas that she brought to her companies is that she incorporates the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Holland Career Inventory into her college counseling process so that she can recommend college majors to her students that align with their interests and passions. Another example of this is that Stacy named her publishing company (Briley & Baxter Publications) after her two miniature dachshunds with a mission to donate 10% of all publishing royalties to animal rescues every month. She loves being able to help animals in need through the books her company publishes. Benefactors of the company’s donations have included organizations such as Last Hope K9 Rescue, the Wolf Conservation Center, WIRES Australian Wildlife Rescue, Dachshund Rescue of South Florida, Little Paws Dachshund Rescue, Tiny Tim On Wheels Foundation, and Freedom Service Dogs of America.
Another novel idea is that Stacy allows the authors she publishes to choose the percentage of royalties they want to earn when they select their contracts. The company offers traditional contracts that are free for authors, as well as hybrid contracts through which authors can earn 25%, 50%, or 80% in royalties. This allows authors to pay towards publishing if they want to earn higher than industry standard royalties. Therefore, everyone can select the contract that works best for his or her unique situation. “I love giving my clients options,” says Stacy.
Guided by her Ideals
Stacy’s ultimate goal is to use her God-given gifts and talent to make the world a better place. She does not want to waste her abilities on fruitless, vain pursuits. She wants to reach people with important messages, inspire them, and help them achieve their goals. Her book series’ website (stacyapadula.com) has the tagline Educate. Entertain. Inform. Inspire. — those are her goals.
Stacy’s work is always inspired by what others need. With college counseling, she custom tailors every meeting to focus on each student’s specific needs, learning style, and concerns. With publishing, she approaches every book differently, keeping the author’s tone, message, and style in mind. With her own books, she never plans what she is going to write ahead of time (no outlining); instead, she prays before she writes, asking God to give her all the words to say. Then she sits down and writes so she can discover what happens next. This keeps writing exciting because she is discovering the story as she goes.
The biggest challenge Stacy faced in her career was learning how to balance having a social life while working 60-80 hours per week. She has accomplished this by prioritizing the needs of her friends and family while maximizing her efficiency at work. She has also employed a wonderful team of tutors, editors, and designers to help her companies thrive.
Befriending Technology
Stacy feels that technology is very helpful for everything publishing-related. Thanks to Photoshop and InDesign, she is able to design the books they publish. Through platforms like Edelweiss, Stacy can market the books. Through Zoom, she can meet with authors from all over the country to discuss their projects. “Technology is necessary in the publishing industry. For my college counseling company, I use Zoom to meet with students when they do not come to my office. This allows me to work with students worldwide, as opposed to those who reside only in Massachusetts,” she says.
AI, Stacy observes, has recently become a very helpful tool in Adobe Photoshop. She is impressed by the features it now offers. However, using AI to write a book is a terrible idea, she believes. In regards to her production company (BLE Pictures), which is adapting Gripped for television, the writers’ strike in Hollywood delayed their project for many, many months. It was a worthwhile fight, though, as some Hollywood executives wanted to be able to create scripts with AI. “There is no comparison in quality to a movie or television script written by a human to one written by AI. AI only regurgitates information that is already published, and therefore does not come up with novel ideas like writers can,” she asserts.
From Print to Motion
Stacy’s books, which portray realistic and diverse teenage lives, will soon appeal to a wider audience, as her Gripped series is being adapted into a TV show.
Mark Blutman, a writer and producer who won an Emmy for Ghostwriter and received multiple nominations for his show Girl Meets World, first connected with Stacy in 2020 about turning her Gripped book series into a TV show. The Gripped series, as mentioned earlier, tells the story of a former Montgomery Lake High character who struggles with opioid addiction after a severe football injury. “The Gripped series, which connects to my other stories as both a sequel and a prequel, gave us a chance to craft an authentic opening to the stories that we will share through this TV show,” says Stacy.
David Gunning, a producer who is also related to Coach Brett Gunning as his nephew, is collaborating with Blutman and Stacy to make the TV series. He was the one who introduced Stacy to his uncle for the On The Right Path book project.
The coronavirus outbreak halted the work as Blutman and Stacy started writing the series, but they resumed the process with everyone in 2021 to create these stories. Blutman is eagerly looking forward to the sixth book in the series like Stacy’s fans.
The show is in its early development stages, but Stacy hopes to announce more details about the series soon. She is thrilled to work on a show that will inspire discussions about addiction and mental health among teenagers.
Promoting Diversity
Stacy and her team have published books by people from a variety of backgrounds, and she believes it is important to educate others on different cultures. Everyone who works for her works separately, so they do not need to include each other, but in general, she strives to be very welcoming to people from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
Spotting Industry Trends and Staying Ahead
For college counseling, Stacy sees many colleges shifting towards Early Decision (as they have been for the past 5 years). She also sees exams, such as the SAT, switching to a digital platform. Her team will prepare as needed for any changes. For publishing, Stacy does worry about AI-created books flooding the market at very low prices and hurting sales of authors’ books. To prepare for this, she believes she must just help the authors she publishes put forth their best work so that people will want to read what they write over anything written by a bot.
To keep up with college trends, Stacy researches, compares rankings (from a variety of reputable sources), and tours colleges throughout America regularly. It is important for Stacy to meet with admissions officers at colleges so she knows what they are looking for in an applicant.
For publishing, her company is a part of organizations such as the IBPA and NEIBA, which helps her stay current on publishing trends and marketing opportunities, including book conferences worldwide. Also, through the Edelweiss platform, they can share their catalog with bookstores throughout America.
Talking about the challenges, Stacy points out that the high cost of printing books through America’s largest distributor is a bit of a hindrance because it drives the suggested retail price up a lot. Retailers typically require a 40% wholesale discount and the distributor requires 15%, so they must sell their books at a 55% discount and cover print costs. There is very little profit left over for royalties, and the print costs keep rising. This has moved some authors to only wish to sell their books online, for which they only need to provide a 40% discount (total), which leaves the author with more royalties.
Next on Cards
The Gripped book series is being adapted for television by Emmy Award-winning producer Mark Blutman. The show is in pre-development right now, and in the next few years, it should be released. Stacy will also be releasing the sixth and seventh books in the Gripped series. In addition, along with NBA Coach Brett Gunning, she will be releasing On the Right Path: Book Five and Book Six.
“From Briley & Baxter Publications, we will likely continue to publish 10-20 books per year. For South Shore College Consulting & Tutoring, I will continue to help guide students and families through the complicated college process, helping students gain acceptance to their dream schools,” concludes Stacy.
