Vanessa of All Trades: Art, Writing, and Business
Local author, artist, and small-business owner Vanessa Lopez Aziz dabbles in many passions. While creating art, designing stickers, and running her business – Vanessa of All Trades, Aziz also writes various forms of literature. All this while working as a full-time nurse and raising her children!
While juggling work, family, art, and writing, Aziz just published her debut novel, ‘Play It Back,’ through a small publishing house this past summer. Her book presents the premise of waking up in the body of your younger self and asking, “What would you do differently?” The main character, a 27-year-old Filipino-American woman, discovers this after she attends her high school reunion and then wakes up in 1999, having to relive her senior year.
Aziz is now working on marketing her book while working on her next few literary projects. Inspired by her love of many different fandoms and her experiences in life, Aziz is always working on something new and truly is ‘Vanessa of All Trades!’
How Her High School Reunion Inspired Her Novel
After visiting her high school for her 10-year reunion, Aziz saw the people she went to school with in a new light and made some realizations about her own experiences in school.
“I hated high school,” she said. “I was one of those kids who didn’t have a lot of friends. I had a chip on my shoulder about things; I only had two friends, and I almost didn’t pass high school. So, I was very checked out about it.”
Aziz shared that she almost didn’t attend her reunion, but her two best friends, the same ones from high school, were going. “So I went with them and had an amazing experience,” she said.
At her reunion, she saw how people she knew from before had experienced a lot over those past ten years.
“They suddenly seemed like real people,” Aziz said. “I happened to go rock climbing with the guy who was our school president and who planned the reunion. He spoke about how he went into everything thinking the best of people, did a lot, and had a good high school experience.”
This conversation made Aziz think about what she would do differently if given the chance to experience high school again. “I decided to write about it and had it done in time for the 20th reunion,” she shared.
After graduating in 1999, Aziz finished the draft 20 years later in 2020. She released ‘Play It Back’ on August 9, 2023.
Writing Her Debut Novel ‘Play it Back’
Similarities and Differences Between Her and Her Main Character
‘Play it Back’ is a novel about a 27-year-old Filipino-American woman who goes to her high school reunion and is thrown into the past to relive her senior year of high school. Pulling from some of her own experiences, Aziz added parts of herself to the story.
“Like me, the main character is a first-generation Filipino-American, with her parents at each other’s throats,” she shared. “Unlike me, she’s a better decision-maker in some ways.”
Aziz shared how both she and the book’s main character grew up to work as nurses but that they went about it differently.
“The main character struggled financially, so she went for the first degree she thought would make her money. So, she threw away her hobbies and artsy creative interests that she thought wouldn’t serve her,” she said. “For me, I wanted passion to be a part of it, and the money part came later.”
Aziz also said she and the main character had few friends in high school. The difference between her life and the story is that the main character’s best friends end up together in the book.
The Process of Writing and Publishing ‘Play it Back’
Aziz wrote her first draft of the book during National Novel Writing Month in November 2020.
“NaNoWriMo is an annual challenge where writers aim to write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days,” she said. “This comes out to 1,667 words a day, which puts you just over the 50K goal.”
Aziz managed to write that 50,000-word goal during the 30 days of NaNoWriMo. A week later, she finished the book with 65,000 words.
“I finished the draft and was like, ‘I just wrote a book!” she exclaimed. Aziz then spent the next couple of years editing and promoting the story. “I bought books on editing and attended writers’ groups around town and read aloud at these editing sessions. This was during the early pandemic, so all of this was online.”
Aziz later attended writers’ conferences and eventually found her publisher, Mystic Publishers.
“They’re a small, local publishing house. They did the editing, cover art, and marketing for my book,” she said. “I still do a lot of my own outreach and networking.”
Challenges of Independently Publishing
Aziz shared that the biggest challenge in independently publishing her book was learning to be profitable and market herself effectively. That’s where her business, Vanessa of All Trades, came in.
“I started a sticker business to get the book on the local radar and created bookish brand stickers,” she said. “Connecting with local readers, I talked with them about writing the book, built up people’s excitement about it, and signed people up on the mailing list to receive updates.”
In addition, Aziz’s business card is a bookmark, so it keeps her and the book in people’s minds.
Another challenge she faced was rejection after rejection for her book before finding her publisher. After being rejected 17 times by publishers, Aziz found Mystic Publishers, and ‘Play it Back’ went from a manuscript to a fully-published novel. From there, she began the journey of marketing herself.
Reaching An Audience
Identifying and reaching her audience was a big part of learning how to market herself.
“I had to do it piece by piece, with the book being small house published,” she said. “In addition, I had to learn how to talk about my book with people and identify the different aspects to discuss, like the fantasy and “back in time” aspect, how it centers on a Filipino-American family, and the creative aspects of the story and myself.”
While the book’s genre is young adult, ‘Play it Back,’ themes from the book are relatable for people of all ages. Aziz shared an experience where she went to a senior center to discuss the book. While talking to people decades older than her, she wondered if people were thinking, “Why is this literal child talking to seniors about her young adult novel?” She found an answer for herself while sharing her story with those seniors.
“It really solidified how certain things are relatively universal experiences, like going to high school, seeking love, and dealing with family and financial struggles,” she said. “Genres are important, but they’re not really that important. Any person of any age can connect with my book or any book. Especially a book asking, “What would I do differently with my life if I had the chance to relive it?”
Goals For ‘Play it Back’ and Vanessa’s Future Writing Projects
‘Play it Back’
Aziz is currently working to get some awards on the cover for the book.
“Right now, I got a ‘5 Star Review’ on Reader Views!” she said. ‘Play it Back’ is also nominated for the 2023 Indie Ink Awards. Vote for Vanessa Lopez Aziz’s book in the ‘Writing the Future We Need: Asian Representation by an Asian Author’ category here! You must make an account and verify a valid email address to vote. Voting for this round of the awards ends on December 31, 2023.
In addition, Aziz said that one of her goals is for the book to be available in audiobook format. “I’m trying to get the book in front of as many people as possible, in as many formats as possible,” she said.
Aziz’s Other Literary Projects
On top of promoting her debut novel, Aziz is also working on several other projects!
“I have some children’s books in editing covering different genres, and I’m speaking with some picture book authors to get advice on traditional publishing,” she said. “My goal is to make it as a full-time writer. I’m also working on a three-book sci-fi fantasy series and another book, Zodiac Man, for which most of the first draft is complete. I just need to do some more research and start the editing process.”
Speaking more about ‘Zodiac Man,’ Aziz said this sci-fi fantasy adjacent story is close to her heart.
“A 22-year-old Indian-American man and college dropout lands the role of a lifetime playing his favorite comic book superhero on TV,” she explained. “The comic book character is an Indian-American superhero, and as the main character plays the character, he starts to get imposter syndrome, wondering if he can live up to his hero’s name.”
Aziz then explained how the studio forces the story to become something different, where it’s no longer the story the main character grew up loving. He struggles with losing those things as the studio removes those cultural elements.
“It’s been really fun to write, as I’m half Pakistani, and I’m learning a lot of cultural things along the way,” she said. “My heritage is like a character of the story, like in the other book. Connecting with that heritage, I’ve been researching things like Indian weddings and festivals like Diwali. I want to ensure I represent it correctly, and I’m finding that there’s a lot of variety.”
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Vanessa of All Trades – The Other Trades
Her Art and Sticker Business
Starting a sticker business selling bookish-themed stickers, Aziz uses her business to connect with people about her book and promote her work as an author and artist. In addition to getting her book on the local radar, her sticker business also allows her to explore the other creative sides of herself.
“I love drawing bookish, nerdy, and witchy-themed art. Whatever tickles my fancy. I get lots of fun ideas for things,” she said. Drawing all of her own designs using ProCreate on her iPad, Aziz also makes prints of her art and applies them to things like tote bags.
To purchase her stickers and other artwork and merchandise, visit Vanessa of All Trades at some of the local events she vends at, like Market in the Alley. Order online through her Etsy or visit local shops selling her stickers, like Las Vegas Books and the Writer’s Block.
Aziz’s Artwork
While her preferred medium is her tablet, Aziz shared that she occasionally likes to do traditional art and even mixed media.
“I’ll occasionally make art that’s not digital, but I don’t sit down and work on art unless I have the space to work on it. After I had kids, all the art supplies became their art supplies,” she said. “Earlier this year, though, I made a mixed media art piece for Wild West Access Fund to auction off. I painted the background, took ripped-up portions of book pages, and mod-podged them to the canvas. I then sketched anatomical drawings, mod-podged them on, and added some disco-ball tiles. I’d like to make more of those kinds of art pieces. It was very fun.”
Aziz also shared another project she made with a Downtown Las Vegas art studio that was time-themed.
“I thought about representing time in a 2-D format while also representing the 4th-dimensional movement through time and space,” she said. “I made a line cut design stamped in a 3D pattern to indicate the movement.”
Fan Girl at Heart
Aziz is also big into multiple fandoms, and she loves to cosplay her favorite characters and even write fan fiction.
“After I wrote my first book and got through the editing portion and people telling me things about it, I decided to write something for fun, for me,” she said. Aziz then wrote an 86k-word fan fiction rewrite of the first season of Marvel’s Loki. “It’s still my favorite piece of writing I’ve ever done. It’s been out for two years, and I still get likes and kudos.”
Aziz added just how vital this genre of writing is for her.
“Fandom is significant to me as it shaped so many of my passions,” she said. “The thread is also important in my books, as the main character in ‘Play it Back’ makes fan art. And, in ‘Zodiac Man,’ that main character is playing his favorite superhero character and living up to that expectation he has for himself.”
In addition to fandoms and her cultural background, Aziz finds inspiration in other pop culture, mythology, her dreams, and her life.
Podcasting
Adding to her wheelhouse of trades, Aziz also does some occasional podcasting. She even used to host a podcast called ‘Don’t Call Me Crazy,’ where she spoke about mental health.
“I interviewed people about different topics, like schizophrenia and the failures of the current mental health treatment ladder we have, how the pandemic affected nurses’s mental health, LGBTQIA+ issues, and more,” she shared. “It was a fun variety show, with episodes covering the history of mental health. We started in Mesopotamia and discussed what they knew about mental health.”
Listen to recordings of Aziz’s podcast here.
Recently, she guest-starred on Game Master Monday, a one-shot D&D-style podcast where they play role-playing games.
“It was their Yuletide episode, Mortal Combat for Christmas Characters, and it was really fun!” she said. “It wasn’t primarily to sell my book or stickers, but we discussed them during the episode.”
Aziz has also guested in a couple of Swish and Flick mental health podcast episodes. You can listen to those episodes here and here!
Vanessa Lopez Aziz: Her Favorite Parts of Being an Author and Artist
Aziz shared that one of her favorite parts about the work she does is that she has a creative outlet.
“I get a dopamine rush by producing things people like,” she said. In addition, these creative outlets also allow her to support causes that are near and dear to her.
“I’m all about mental health, especially regarding kids, since that’s part of the work I’m in outside of writing and making art,” she said.
She also hopes to direct more support and resources to causes that help the foster care system and organizations that provide harm reduction services, like Trac-B Exchange Las Vegas.
#GetinMotion With Vanessa of All Trades
There are multiple ways to support Aziz’s work! Follow Vanessa of All Trades on Instagram, visit her website to view her portfolios, and subscribe to her mailing list to receive book updates and behind-the-scenes writing! And, purchase some of her stickers on Etsy.
The best way to support her writing is to buy her debut novel, Play it Back, which is available in paperback on Amazon and as an e-book through Kindle and Nook. You can also purchase the book at local bookstores like Las Vegas Books and Writer’s Block.
In addition, don’t forget to vote for ‘Play it Back’ for the 2023 Indie Ink Awards ‘Writing the Future We Need: Asian Representation by an Asian Author’ category!
And lastly, Aziz shared that she loves all opportunities to talk to people about reading, writing, and fandom!
“Invite me on your podcast, especially if I get to play a character!” she said.
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