My name is Stacy Dymalski and I’m a comedian, story editor, screenwriter, producer, publishing consultant, author, and busy mom of two sons. Any more than that and I’ll spontaneously combust.

STACY IN A NUTSHELL

A native west-coaster, I started my professional story-telling career as a standup comic at age 19 when I did an open mic night in San Francisco. After that I spent every weekend onstage at comedy clubs. Three years later I graduated from UC Berkeley with a mathematics degree, and became a technical trainer and sales support engineer for companies like McDonnell Douglas, Computer Associates, Arthur Andersen, IBM, and Adobe.

By day I honed my corporate speaking skills, but at night I continued perfecting my funny stories as a comedian in clubs like The Comedy Store, The Improv, The Ice House, and countless small clubs around the country. I was also a member of the improv groups The Fault Line Players and Off the Top Comedy.

A few years later I enrolled in the UCLA post graduate Screenwriter professional development program, and found my niche as a story consultant, helping everyone from studio execs to retirees find, write, and share their stories in the form of books and movies.

In 2012 I was a semi-finalist for the title of World Champion of Public Speaking on the world stage in Toastmasters International Speech Contest, and in 2016 I gave a TEDx Talk about about my experience working with a federal prisoner to help him write his personal story about his involvement in illegal immigration, which was then published by E-Magination as the book JACUMBA CONNECTION (by David Taylor). Soon after I adapted the book into the feature script "Checkpoint."

Today I own my own story development business, branded as The Memoir Midwife. My specialty is comedy and story structure, however, I have a strong science and technology background, courtesy of that Applied Math degree from UC Berkeley.

I’ve also created a mentorship program in which I coach anyone (including non-writers) through the process of writing their own books, whether it be fiction, non-fiction, a memoir, comedy, drama, or anything in between.

Or if you just don’t have time to write your book yourself, I have been known to ghostwrite a few books, and would consider writing yours, if it’s a good fit for my skills. Interested? Let’s talk.

The single mom of two musician sons, I live in Los Angeles with a possessive Chihuahua-mix-rescue named Chico.

Oh, and I still do comedy several nights a week. Because to me, standup comedy is the most authentic form of storytelling.

AUTHOR

My latest book is THE MEMOIR MIDWIFE:Nine Steps to Self-Publishing Your Book (Second Edition). And just like the title says, it walks you through every step required to self-publish a book. No fat here, just the facts. After you read it you will know if self-publishing is right for you, and if so, you’ll know exactly what to do to get the job done. 

I also jotted down some of my favorite comedy routines, expanded them into essays and published them in a book called Confessions of a Band Geek Mom. The book went on to become wildly popular, probably because it’s a hilarious chronicle of an exhausted, but very funny and politically incorrect mom (that would be me) trying to get parenthood and career to coexist without somebody getting hurt. They seem to be polar opposites determined not to meet — sort like the north and south ends of two magnets. Yet we keep trying to bring them together; which is either a tribute to the human spirit or the revelation of human thickheadedness. I haven’t figured out which, but when I do I’ll let you know.

FILMMAKER

In addition to writing books, I also have several film credits as a producer, director, and screenwriter, including the dark comedy feature film Jupiter Landing, and the award-winning short film The Write Stuff.  If you’re dying to know the rest of my film credits, feel free to check out my IMDB page.