An overnight success story nine years in the making: KC author lands Disney deal

Britney S. Lewis has spent nearly a third of her life in what she calls the “query trenches.”

For those unfamiliar with the literary world, that refers to sending out dozens if not hundreds of queries to agents and publishers in the hopes of finding someone interested in your book idea or manuscript — only to get silence or rejection time after time. It is the frustrating fate of the unpublished author.

But sometimes it pays off.

Lewis, who grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, has hit a jackpot that was nine query-entrenched years in the making. Disney-Hyperion Books, a worldwide publishing subsidiary of the entertainment giant Walt Disney Co., bought her young adult novel “The Undead Truth of Us.” What is officially her debut novel will be released Aug. 9.

She said she completed four manuscripts, only to meet with repeated rejection, before striking gold with No. 5.

No, wait. A few minutes later, Lewis remembered another.

“Actually, maybe this book is book No. 6. Holy smokes,” she said.

“When I was stuck in the query trenches, I just kept reading (other writers’) success stories. And I was like, ‘I want to be that success story one day.’ And I just kept writing different books and different stories.”

Lewis, 28, attended Sumner and Schlagle high schools before graduating from Lee’s Summit West, then earned a degree in corporate communications at MidAmerica Nazarene University. She, her husband, Michael Porter, and their dog live in Mission.

A full-time editor for Greetings Segments at Hallmark, she works on her books at night, early in the morning and even on lunch breaks.

The story that finally broke her out of the query trenches is about a 16-year-old girl who starts seeing zombies after her mother’s sudden death. “And then,” Lewis said, “she meets an undead boy who shows her all the ways that love can change you, for good or for dead.”

“The Undead Truth of Us” includes humor, she said, and much more.

“It also deals with a lot of grief and sadness, and it talks about how monsters can kind of change your aspect on life,” Lewis said. “And it plays a lot with allegory and the metaphorical being of how grief can transform you and how you can grow from that.”

So, it’s not your typical girl-meets-zombie romance story.

Christine Collins, an assistant editor at Disney-Hyperion, said she “adored” working with Lewis on the book.

“Her words have a habit of sticking with you like your favorite song,” Collins said in an email, “and the emotions she draws out in her writing are a reflection of how empathetic and kind she is as a person.”

Lewis’ deal with Disney-Hyperion, which publishes the “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” books by Rick Riordan, is for two books. She has completed the second, with an expected release next year, and is in the process of writing yet another novel.

“The Undead Truth of Us” appears to be a surefire hit, and not only because it has the Disney name attached. On Disney-Hyperion’s Young Adult page, Lewis’ book appears first among 125 entries. It also already has more than 150 ratings, almost all positive, on the popular book-review site Goodreads.com. They came from early readers who requested the manuscript at NetGalley.com.

A few examples:

“Came in for the zombies, got struck by the grief, won by the prose!”

”Let’s just start with, ‘YA’ isn’t always just for young adult or teens. This is a beautiful coming of age book that is a fun read and captivating for all.”

“This book is a haunting portrayal of grief and filled with emotional moments. I was expecting a hardcore zombie plot, but surprisingly this book is something else entirely!”

“In this age of reboots and remakes I found this story to be refreshingly original.”

“I looked at the first 100, and then I stopped,” Lewis said. “I try not to read too many reviews, because then it will get in my head.”

Doesn’t it worry her that so many people reading the book online for free might hurt sales of the print version?

“No, it doesn’t, because if they love the story they’ll buy it,” she said. “A lot of people want the print copy to collect. And the best thing about that, too, is word of mouth. You can’t buy word of mouth. It’s just impossible.”

If all goes well, Lewis will be able to evolve into a full-time author. The reading public’s gain might become Hallmark’s loss.

Meet the author

Britney S. Lewis will celebrate the release of “The Undead Truth of Us” at noon Aug. 13 at Barnes & Noble, Oak Park Mall, 11323 W. 95th, Overland Park. barnesandnoble.com. 913-492-8187.

An excerpt

Here’s how “The Undead Truth of Us” begins:

FIVE DAYS. FIVE. That was how long it took for Mama to turn into a zombie.

Day one she was stoic. She refused to move from the couch, even after I turned off the TV in the evening. I still remembered how frigid her face looked in the dimness of the flickering candle before I blew it out. The spaces above her cheeks were sunken in, eyes bulged away from her face. A wiggle under there, only slightly, but it did. I saw it move. I saw it twist.

And her brown skin looked frail and thin — any wrong move, and I was afraid it would tear away in small slits, revealing the tissue beneath.

“Mama …” I whispered, creeping closer to her in the darkness. One foot after the other, the floorboards creaking with each step. I wanted to know if she was okay, if she was even awake, but she didn’t say anything. Looked at her again, waited. She released a deep breath, the air cracking on its way out. Sounded like something was in there, inching its way up her trachea.

I left it alone. Kissed her clammy head, pulled a blanket over her, and tucked her in, hoping she’d be fine in the morning. And she would be fine. She always was.