Author and online personality StacyPlays has spent more than a decade building a relationship with her audience, first on social video platforms like YouTube and Twitch, and later as an author. Starting in 2018, StacyPlays — real name Stacy Hinojosa — published Wild Rescuers, a series of novels aimed at kids and using characters familiar to viewers of Stacy’s Dogcraft series. The series is open about being “inspired by” Mojang’s Minecraft, but doesn’t actually feature trademarked elements from the popular game, and is not one of the many official Minecraft tie-ins. Centering on a girl (also named Stacy), the Wild Rescuers series (sort of) puts a contemporary twist on Tarzan or The Jungle Book, featuring a girl raised by wolves.
Videos by ComicBook.com
This time around, Stacy and her wolves are back — but the nature of the stories is a little bit different. More episodic in nature, the Rescue Tails books are intended to be a little less continuity-intensive, allowing new readers to jump on while also rewarding those who have been around for a while.
“Wild Rescuers had an arc, but this series is more episodic,” Hinojosa told ComicBook.com. “I’m not numbering them, so they can be read in any order. And even without reading Wild Rescuers. Since Stacy is in real school for the first time in these books, I’m writing in subplots that might help kids her age. This first one talks about being yourself, even if other kids think you’re weird.”
Now a decade into her creative career, Hinojosa’s relationship with her fans is evolving. She told us that she hopes to write books for young adults, and adults — that she hopes to “age up” along with the audience that has supported her for years. At the same time, she admits it’s shocking how many new, young fans approach her, having found their way to Twitch streams and book signings (she is doing a number of those this week, you can see her schedule here) via decade-old videos that Hinojosa is surprised still have staying power.
“What I’ve been surprised by lately is how new kids keep finding and watching my older content,” Hinojosa told us. “They’re watching videos I made ten years ago, and they’re excited about it right now. But what’s been most surreal is that I know Mélody [Gringoire], the illustrator for Rescue Tails, because she used to draw fan art of Dogcraft when she was a teenager. I followed her work as she grew up and developed her style, and so when we started looking for an illustrator, I was able to say, ‘Hey, I think Mélody would be a great fit for these books. And she already knows the world and the characters.’ And the editor said okay. That’s been really surreal.”
Hinojosa, who credits books like The Boxcar Children and The Phantom Tollbooth with informing her sensibilties, is also a big fan of Archie Comics. She told us that she has over 300 issues of Archie, and that she has already toyed with the idea of making a graphic novel one of these days.
“A production company came to me during the pandemic and asked if I wanted to come up with an animated show, so I did,” Hinojosa explained. “It didn’t work out with them for a number of reasons, but I also thought through how it could work as a graphic novel. I’m really excited about it, but I’m still considering how I’d want to put it out.”
Those practical demands can be tricky when you’re running a fairly small operation. While Hinojosa has a mainstream publisher for her books, she also has a lot of irons in the fire, and has to manage her time in a way that allows her to finish what she starts. Working in different formats also allows her to do things on video she can’t in books, and vice versa — especially since her videos are made using Minecraft, which has some inherent limitations…like certain things that just don’t exist in the game.
“I’d say it’s more like it’s difficult to make YouTube videos while I’m working on books,” Hinojosa said. “A YouTube video can come together in anywhere from two days to a week, but the process of putting a book together with revisions and illustrations takes eight months to a year. I’m actually in the middle of that process for a second book in the series right now.”
“Video and books are so different; it’s nice to be able to do both,” she added. “I don’t really see it as a challenge. Minecraft has a lot of limitations that I can overcome with the books, and then the books have their own limitations. I get to tell stories in both ways, so I can play to each of their strengths. And Rescue Tails has a lot more illustrations than Wild Rescuers, so even that has been a slightly different experience.”
While Hinojosa is working on the second book in this new, more episodic series, she says that her plan is to write a book for each of the six wolves in the story’s pack. The realities of publishing means she can’t just unilaterally decide and announce such a project, but since Wild Rescuers ended up on the New York Times bestsellers list, it seems more likely than not that Hinojosa will be able to finish that project unless she changes her mind.
As for what else is on the horizon?
“I really view writing as my long term career aspiration,” Hinojosa said. “I would love for what I write to start to age up with my fans. Maybe I’ll put something YA or Adult out. I’ve been working on a short story that I think will be unexpected. It has to do with animals, but is a little macabre.”
Rescue Tails: The Treacherous Tower is available now. If you can’t make Hinojosa’s final few signing appearances, signed copies are available at King’s English (while they still have them).
