Wish Upon A Streaming Star
Krissi Dallas
(Season 1 Volume 1)
Publication date: July 7th 2024
Genres: Comedy, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
He’s an internet star.
She can’t stand him.
Together they just went viral.Daisy McEntire might seem like an uptight control freak, but it’s only because she’s trying to graduate high school, support her cancer-fighting mother, and save her family’s riverside campground. The last thing she needs is her obnoxious neighbor, internet star Caz Cortéz, keeping everyone up with his late night video stunts and ridiculous pranks. Forget that they grew up as best friends—that was before he relentlessly obsessed over his hair and stats.
But when Daisy accidentally botches one of Caz’s pranks on livestream, the video goes viral, endangering his sponsorships and throwing her into an unwelcome spotlight. As if the overnight attention isn’t enough, half a million dollars in an unbreakable lockbox mysteriously appears. The key to unlock it? Reenact a series of cliché Hollywood movie scenes together within 48 hours.
The catch? It all has to be done live on the Internet—no rehearsals.
Daisy needs the money. Caz needs the stats. Surely they can work together long enough to complete the challenge, split their earnings, and then get back to ignoring each other from across the property line.
The one challenge they can’t control, though, is the one that could jeopardize it all—falling in love.
Goodreads / Amazon
Author Interview
1. What does your writing process look like? Do you know the whole story when you start? Or do you just start writing and go with it (seat of the pants writing)? If you plan it out, how do you do that? Outline, notecards, post-it-notes, etc.?
Every book I’ve written has had a different starting point, which tends to dictate the writing process a bit. The first series I ever wrote (Phantom Island) took me a month to map out the world and history. I knew the major points I wanted to hit throughout the series, but I totally pantsed my way to them. However, Icarus Flight School started with a dream. Once awake, I wanted to explore it a little more, but I did absolutely no planning and didn’t even know what I wanted it to be when I started writing—and that book took me ten years to write and publish. I kept having to scrap everything back down to the initial twenty percent and start over. This was the book that forced me to start studying screenplay writing and learn how to plot out scenes and conflicts better. So while that book still gives me PTSD every time I pick it up, it’s the book that sharpened me as a writer more than any other project I’ve taken on! (And it’s pretty dang good and so under-discovered at this point, if I do say so myself—ha.) Wish Upon a Streaming Star came to me fully formed in concept from beginning to end. I started with one handwritten page of ten cliché Hollywood movie scenes I wanted my characters to act out, and I just felt my way there. It has been the most fun storyline to write of all my books, and the chemistry between Caz and Daisy is just *chef’s kiss*!
2. Do you edit as you go, or wait till you’re finished before you edit? How many times would you say you go over it yourself before having another set of eyes look it over?
I always edit as I go. It’s very hard for me to move on until I have a scene written with the emotional dynamic I want established on the page. I have honestly never counted how many times I go back through, but I usually write half a page and then go back and revise it before adding more. I repeat that process several times until I have a complete episode/chapter. The good thing is that I write very clean first drafts (my editor likes that). The bad news is that it makes me a slower drafter. But as a Kindle Vella author writing and publishing one chapter a week, it’s really important to fight for every word and take my time to do it right. We have a fast turnaround for publication and once it’s out there… it’s out there. I do work with a professional editor on a Google doc every week. We make live changes and leave comments and tweak the chapter until it’s time to upload on Saturdays!
3. Where is your ideal place to write? Do you have an office, or do you like to go sit in a coffee shop/library, etc.?
I have a gorgeous office now that is a perfectly purple writer’s escape. Most of my writing now takes place at a desk and I treat it like a job. However, in the beginning, I wrote most everything from my bed in a darkened room—I called it my Cave. I had to stop that in my forties because now I just want to sleep when I’m in my bed. My newest favorite addition to my office is an adjustable desk that allows me to sit or stand.
4. How do you come up with your ideas for your stories?
They honestly all have different starting places. My Phantom Island series started while faithfully watching the show LOST. I was a big fan back in the day and spent a lot of time online researching viewer theories about the show. I started wondering what it would be like if a group of teenagers discovered a magical Island that could control the four elements. And from there, my epic portal adventure love triangle was born.
With Icarus Flight School, I woke up from a dream that so captured my heart, I just wanted to go back to sleep to finish it. I was in a flight suit, trying to succeed at tests and simulations that were very similar to my favorite 80’s childhood movie, Space Camp. As I walked down a hallway to the next test, I glanced out the window and spotted a guy playing a game of baseball with friends. A flood of emotion caught me by the throat and woke me up. All I knew in the moment between dream and reality was that, 1) I loved that guy, and 2) he was supposed to be dead. Who was he? Why did I feel such a physical assault on my stomach when I saw him? And how was he connected to these tests? I couldn’t stop thinking about it even after waking, so I started imagining. Daydreaming. Pondering. I put fingers to keyboard, created the characters of Olivia McKenzie and Luke Longmire, and let them tell their story.
Wish Upon A Streaming Star was born while watching hours of—you guessed it—YouTube videos with my young sons. I couldn’t believe how much my kids revered these YouTubers as celebrities. It got me thinking… What if a girl fell in love with one of these guys and got roped into his ridiculous world of challenges and pranks? What if he was even more in love with her the whole time and they just kept misunderstanding each other? What if I then made this love story into a modern day Pride and Prejudice featuring all my favorite Hollywood cliches? And told a third of the story in transcript form as it’s happening live on the internet? ENTER CAZ CORTÉZ and DAISY MCENTIRE.
5. What are your favorite:
Books/authors/genres
Splintered series by A.G. Howard (dark fantasy Alice in Wonderland)
Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter (humorous spy school)
The Selection series by Kiera Cass (romantic dystopian)
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (wizardry and magic)
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston (nonfiction book tracking the emergence of the ebola virus)
Save the Cat books (screenwriting craft books)
My Story Can Beat Up Your Story by Jeffrey Alan Schechter (screenwriting craft book)
Movies/TV Shows
Goonies and Adventures in Babysitting and Space Camp (I’m an 80s kid!)
The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (we do marathons every holiday season)
Pride and Prejudice (any version, please)
The Office and Community (because I love to laugh)
Cobra Kai (because my husband makes me)
Paw Patrol (because my kids make me)
Music
I am a pop girl through and through. Give me beats and bass and something I can dance to. I’m also a worship leader, so if my car is blasting worship music, I’m doing CHURCH. Love me some Jesus music.
Food/Writing snack
Junior Mints
Junior Mints
Junior Mints
(And gum. For when I need to chomp my way through a scene.)
About the Author
Krissi Dallas loves pop music, mismatched socks, and Tex-Mex food. She is wife to Dr. Sam Dallas, mom to two strong-willed little boys and a mini goldendoodle, and former junior high teacher of sixteen years. When she’s not busy serving in her church and community, Krissi gives herself over to daydreams and writing. She has five books in the Phantom Island series with the sixth and final installment on the way. Her Kindle Vella novel, Icarus Flight School, spent eleven weeks as the #1 Top Faved story in Teen and Young Adult and just released in paperback and hardcover. Her ongoing serial romantic comedy, Wish Upon A Streaming Star, is currently a Top Faved story on Kindle Vella where new episodes release every weekend. She’s a proud member of the writing community at Art House Dallas and loves nothing more than connecting with readers and writers of all ages.
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