Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Ayala.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
From as early as I can remember I had a passion for drawing characters and writing dialogue. Growing up, as a self-professed loaner, I spent countless hours and reams of paper creating stories that I later called “SoapToons”. By the time I entered high school I’d written 10 volumes that were hundreds of pages long. I had a knack for drawing a person’s likeness, so when kids realized what I could do they all wanted to be captured on the pages of my imagination. I’ve always had a vivid, albeit sometimes wicked imagination and dark sense of humor.
My “SoapToons’ were very popular throughout my school years and sometimes garnered unexpected criticism and reprimand from teachers who hadn’t expected my stories to be so graphically drawn and conceptually sophisticated. As a high school sophomore, I took on a senior elective Creative Writing class. I was initially asked to withdraw but ultimately given the chance to prove what I could do and allowed to remain in the class. I did better than most of the seniors, and it was my play entitled Christmas Murders that was selected to be performed as the senior class project that year.
“SoapToons” followed me all the way into my work-life where again I was asked to cast my co-workers in stories that kept them entertained despite the work that was supposed to be getting done. When I moved to Georgia in 2003 I met someone who asked if I’d ever considered writing a “real” book. That was something foreign to me. Other than reading one, I had no formal training in writing one. I tried my hand at it anyway, and after I finished it I had no idea how it would get published. I looked at publishing information on the back of books that I liked and started sending my manuscript out. Rejection letters soon followed.
No one knew who I was. I had no representation. And none of the publishers accepted any unsolicited work. That was when I was introduced to self-publishing. Holding my very first published book in my hand with my name on the cover made me feel a good deal of self-satisfaction, that was until I realized that the story itself didn’t have to be very good if you had the money to pay the company that printed it. There was no doubt that I was a good story-teller, but there was so much more to learn about the business of writing.
In the years that followed I honed my craft as I learned more about style, substance, and marketing. I created Ayala Productions to house all my books and the subsequent stage-plays that were being produced. By 2007 I had 4 books and 2 plays to my credit, and that was the year, under the pseudonym Erica Lewis, that I entered a contest for a company looking for urban women’s fiction. I won and received a 2 book contract. Under that moniker, Arlington Heights and Darkness in the Mirror were published. Both books did very well nationally, but having to appear for book signings and at book clubs was where I ran into problems. There was no “Erica Lewis”. I worried how this newly created fan-base would react.
I knew that other authors wrote in different genres using pseudonyms [Anne Rice, Stephen King, Michael Crichton] to name a few, but these were well-known established writers with a huge following, I was nowhere in their league. So, Erica Lewis stayed in the shadows and eventually morphed into Lewis Ericson for the next 4 books, Outcast, Avenging Alex, Retribution and The Letter. I took on that persona and went out into the world a more accomplished author in my own right. After a while, I no longer worried about the use of a pen-name. I reveled in the fact that I was successfully writing and being published no matter what name I used.
In 2011, after the successful run of the stage-play ‘Strange Fruit’, I was contracted to write a screenplay. I’d never written a screenplay, but once again I accepted the challenge. In 2012 the award-winning indie feature ‘Sunday Morning Rapture’ was released. It was so much fun traveling all over the country to the different festivals, making contacts, and meeting people that I never dreamed of meeting. On the heels of SMR, I got the wild idea to write, direct, and produce my own movie adapted from one of my books and ‘… if I should die before I wake’ came out of it.
To date, the trailer alone has been honored 15 times from various festivals and the full feature has won 3 awards to include Feature, Lead Actor [Lyndrez Leslie] and Original Score {Eric and Steven O’Connell]. And I just wrapped filming on another indie feature ‘CANCER’ which should debut sometime in the fall of 2018.
I’ve recently signed with a phenomenal team of managers, Cynthia Stillwell and Philip Spartis, and I am looking forward with excitement and anticipation to see what new doors and opportunities this partnership will usher in. I have been blessed to be surrounded by a myriad of people who have supported “the dreamer” and been a part of making it happen in one way or another. It is my hope and most earnest desire that my journey, my struggles, and my victories have been inspiring and I continue to pursue destiny.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I’ve never had a mentor. You always hope to have someone in your life who has been where you’re going or done what you’re trying to do so they can advise or help to guide and instruct you on your path, but when that person is non-existent things can be more challenging.
When your confidence wanes it helps to have someone there that can talk you through the dark times. I’ve suffered some serious bouts of depression over the years. Prayer has not always been my “go-to” when I needed help. I tell people all the time if you ever want to know who I am just read my books. I’ve couched bits and pieces of me in mostly all my characters. I’ve had issues. Many of the character flaws I write about I know from experience.
As much support as I’ve had there was just as many, if not more, let downs and crushing defeats. Book signings that weren’t well publicized and not well attended. Thousands of dollars of my own personal money spent to mount a play and very few tickets sold. There was even one incident where one of my lead characters was detained by the police on opening night and I had no understudies, so I ended up playing the role of a drug-addicted male prostitute. Not my finest hour, but somebody had to do it.
Then there is always the issue of MONEY. There is never enough money and everybody wants to get paid. I mentioned producing the movie ‘… if I should die before I wake’. I went into this project with the excitement of a kid at Christmas and as much promise. I had an Executive Producer that signed on in the beginning and made me believe he was going to cover the entire cost of production. He dropped out of the project before we wrapped and left me holding the proverbial bag. I didn’t have the luxury of walking away. I had made promises.
Contracts were signed and money was due. Over the course of 2 years I sought crowdfunding and tried to find other producers to step into the giant financial hole left in the wake of the initial EP, but one after one, lie after lie, they all fell away. It took almost 2 years and my personal savings and as much of my 401k that I was allowed to withdraw to get this project done, but I did it.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Ayala Productions is a company founded to house my literary works, stage plays, and movies.
What were you like growing up?
Shy. Introverted. Self-deprecating. I only came to life when I was writing, and I was very observant. I was always more interested in adult conversations than playing with other children.
Playing outdoors didn’t interest me. I lost myself in writing and drawing. I talked to myself a lot. I didn’t have imaginary friends. I had characters running around in my head and they all wanted their stories to be told.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ericayala.net/
- Email: ayalawriter@gmail.com
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/ayalawriter
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/AyalaWriter
- Other: http://instagram.com/ayalawriter
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
