Stephanie and her cast are available for live performances of pieces from the book.
Listen to a sample of the audiobook here: https://www.lustilyeverafter.com.
Combining a titillating collection of romance tropes, LUSTILY EVER AFTER: THE AUDIOBOOK MUSICAL, created and composed by Stephanie Bentley, and performed by a multitalented musical cast from the Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade, makes a surprising and innovative
When sassy Raleigh Jackson interviews for a six-week contract to be the fake girlfriend of Trystan Lay—schmillioniare playboy, politician, ex-Navy Seal, songwriter/astronaut, and “the world’s most perfect human”—she knows the outcome will change her life.
A student/waitress/intern living with her obligatory best friend, Kim, Raleigh overcomes her medical condition—chronic clumsiness—and snags the job, thus beginning a whirlwind of extravagant travel and glitzy events.
LUSTILY EVER AFTER: THE AUDIOBOOK MUSICAL covers the span of romance novel clichés from the brooding playboy to the fake romance with sprinkles of paranormal love. The story is sultry, silly, snarky—and hilarious. Chapter titles are sung in harmonies invoking the R&B group En Vogue. The characters voice their own dialogue and routinely burst into song, as they fumble through pillow talk, and relive steamy memories in songs such as “Talkin’ Dirty” and “50 Shades of Lay.”
The creator’s inspiration for LUSTILY EVER AFTER: THE AUDIOBOOK MUSICAL came from her unusual day job. “I’m a romance audiobook narrator by day and a musical theater performer by night. Every day in the booth, I giggle at the same tropes coming up again and again. Then these song lyrics just started coming to me, “The models in my bed don’t keep me warm at night,” for example. I started writing and pretty soon, the whole musical just came tumbling out!”
LUSTILY EVER AFTER: THE AUDIOBOOK MUSICAL has an e-book companion containing the story and all of the lyrics, and there may be plans for a sequel: “I thought we had hit most of the tropes, but now I realize we may have only just begun,” Stephanie says.
Book Info:
Audiobook, $6.95; 2 hours 37 minutes; ISBN: 978-1089023753
E-book, $2.99; 104 pages
Publication date: August 2019
Published by Stephanie Bentley
Order Your Copy below
Amazon → https://amzn.to/2VA47Fw
We welcome you to My Bookish
Pleasures! Can you tell us how you got started writing fiction?
Thank you so much for having me! So, this might be a little different since I’m a musical writer, but after performing and singing my whole life I studied improv and musical improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater, and that is really what changed me from just a performer into a writer. I was on stage all the time making up entire musicals with just a suggestion from the audience, my teammates and a piano player, and I would often leave a show having made up several songs that I was still singing days later. I started to realize that maybe my lifelong dream of writing a musical didn’t have to be so out of reach if I just started with making up little choruses here and there, or lyrics that made me laugh. So, I wrote my first musical in 2017 which was a two-woman staged production, broke through that fear of actually doing it, and now here we are with my second musical featuring 20 original songs and available for a much larger audience than the 100 seats of the theater where we performed.
Describe your writing process.
Do you plot or write by the seat of your pants? When and where do you write?
Since I have two ridiculously
adorable and noisy kids, I have to write on the fly, during lunch time, nap
time, stroller time, while driving in the car. I have several early versions of
‘Talkin Dirty’, one of the songs in the book, recorded on my phone set to the
background noise of splashing and yelling as my kids battled each other for
some toy in the bathtub. The cool thing about writing a musical for me though,
is that when I’m in the middle of writing a song, it feels like being in love.
I’m daydreaming about it and humming it all the time, jotting down little love
notes to it here and there. There has never been any real ‘time’ to write any
of this book, but somehow, when I’m in love there is always enough energy and stolen
moments to keep the story moving forward.
Can you tell us about your most
recent release?
Lustily Ever After: The
Audiobook Musical is the first audiobook musical for adults, and I
am so honored and excited to share it with your audience! I had the great
fortune of partnering with erotica ghostwriter Miranda Ray, who penned the book
around the 20 original songs that I wrote.
Lustily Ever After: The
Audiobook Musical is a musical parody of romance novels with music
inspired by 90’s pop music. It features comedians from The Groundlings and
Upright Citizens Brigade theater voicing their own dialogue and frequently
bursting into comedic songs about their hilarious and exaggerated storybook
lives.
How did you get the idea for
the book?
The inspiration for this whole
project came from my day-job, as an audiobook narrator reading mostly romance
titles 5 days a week. I know that by romance reader standards, 5-7 books a
month isn’t that unusual but for a novice like me that was a huge amount of
romance to act as my introduction to the genre! I had only ever read 50
Shades of Grey on my
honeymoon like a real pedestrian. So, suddenly I was knee-deep in romance novels
from every kind of sub-genre and I kept seeing the same tropes and stereotypes
coming up again and again, making me giggle (or groan!) I quickly became a big
fan of romance in general and could write a whole paper on why I believe it’s
so popular, but I’m also an improv comedy performer at heart, so these lyrics
started coming to me, ‘The models in my bed don’t keep me warm at night…’ for
example. I started writing them down, gathering more and more funny lyrics to
add to my characters every time I went to work, and the whole musical kept
writing itself from there.
Of all your characters, which
one is your favorite? Why?
The book features 3 main
characters:
Raleigh Jackson, the classic
good girl student /intern with a full schedule of volunteer work and a desire
to find out who she really is. “I was diagnosed with a medical condition:
clumsiness.”
Kim (no last name), the
forgettable but supportive obligatory best friend who has no discernable
features and who’s driver’s license is just a library card. “Sisters before
shifters!”
Trystan Lay, bad boy
schmillioniare, astronaut / politician who according to NASA is ‘the world’s
most perfect human’. He’s definitely my favorite because he gets to say and do
the most hilarious things and it's perfectly reasonable in his world. “They
want astronauts with ‘je na sais quoi’,
which is French for ‘strength’.” - Trystan
What was the most challenging
aspect of writing your book?
The most challenging aspect was
most certainly finding the time to do it at all! Coordinating the collaboration
with the writer and music arranger, and the performers. I hope that listeners enjoy
the book because it’s funny, but I also hope that a mom who wrote this thing
with two kids under the age of 4 and a job helps to inspire other writers and
creators out there that they can do the same thing! For me it’s all about
finding that inspiration and then just following one single lily pad at a time
across that pond without looking up! Head down, keep hopping, baby.
What projects are you currently
working on?
Currently, getting the word out
about Lustily Ever After: The Audiobook Musical is truly all I have time
for despite my Ted Talk answer above, but I know that the next inspiration
won’t be far behind! Creating for me is a calling, a divine appointment, in
whatever form it happens to be. I’m sure I’ll be onto my next hare-brained
scheme in no time.
What advice would you offer to
new or aspiring fiction authors?
Follow the inspiration! Hop on
those lily pads, just one single one at a time, don’t look up and don’t worry
about the next stage and all the million reasons why it won’t work. Usually,
once the next stage arrives, things have a way of working themselves out. And,
always remember to stay in love with the story. If it’s not the right time, I
don’t force it, I just wait for the words to come to me and I do my best to be
ready with my voice memo app when they do. You can do it! I did!
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