7 Questions with Vanessa Lillie

Vanessa Lillie has it all going on. She is sweet and funny and authentically engaging with online readers – particularly via bookstagram. She is real and unabashed in her love of “guilty” pleasures – like everyone’s favorite beginning-of-quarantine binge, “Tiger King”. And best of all, she writes a mean thriller.

Today, her newest book, For The Best, hits shelves… and we suspect you will love it just as much you love her!

Before you head out – or onto your favorite eretailer – and buy your copy, get to know Lillie a little bit better by checking out her answers to our 7 questions.

1. What's your favorite drink?

I’ve been enjoying a throwback to my twenties this summer, which is a gin rickey. I had a real F. Scott Fitzgerald, flapper thing going back in the early 2000s, and this cocktail of gin, soda and rose’s lime really hits the spot (again).

2. Where and when do you write?

Pretty much anywhere and anytime, but the key for me is having a deadline. I really need the pressure of something being expected. To imagine a person sitting there, expecting my work. I’ve been able to have critique partners and hired editors to work with me to achieve this feeling. You have to know thyself and work from there.

3. What does your prewriting process look like?

For the first ten years I was trying to be published (and getting rejected), I was a complete pantser aka I wrote by the seat of my pants. By the end of that time, I realized that I needed to take a revised approach. So, I got very serious about outlining. I particularly like Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody. For me, the structure is everything. My characters could hang out and chat all day. But I need to have my arms around the story to move things forward.

4. What's up next?

I’ve just finished the first draft of a thriller set in northeastern Oklahoma where I’m from. It’s inspired by a real crime and takes place during true environmental disasters. But mostly, it’s the story of a women returning to her hometown ghost town when her sister goes missing.

5. In telling the story behind this novel, you said that you believe that the main character, Jules, "reflects parts of ourselves that we don't want to see". It’s shocking that you wrote this before the social developments of late, because it is so timely. While writing this book helped you face your privilege, that obviously won't work for all of us. What do you think the rest of us should do to confront these hidden biases and unconscious privileges?

What a great question. The root of this book began with the photograph of Angela Peoples at the Women’s March in Washington holding her sign “White Women Voted for Trump” and three white women taking selfies behind her in their pink knit hats. That really began my ongoing journey exploring white female privilege. It was also that I had been feeling excited we had this big march, but then I realized my views were all within a privileged, white woman bubble that needed to be popped (and popped again).

Yes, it’s reading books by Black authors and lifting up those voices. But more than that, I think it’s really daily work. Are you following mostly white people on social media? What are you reading day in and day out. What are you watching? Are you feeding the white supremacy beast or actively pushing against it. I fail every day. Get used to that feeling and the need to sit in how uncomfortable this work feels, if you’re doing it right.

6. Recognizing and acknowledging our own privilege is obviously only step one. What do you think we as a collective society need to do to prevent the perpetuation of these feelings of privilege in future generations?

Best I can tell, the future generations will be better. What they know now is light years ahead of us. I’m hopeful, but I also think our work now of lifting diverse voices, being exposed to different cultures and experiences, will bridge a lot of what we missed.

Truthfully, our country was created to keep wealth in the hands of white men, and to some degree, white women. All the laws and politics and social norms are pointed in that direction. I don’t know if we can solve it for our children. But I do think we can be better, if we really are dedicated to the hard work of looking within ourselves at our own biases and mistakes. Then we teach our children to be better than us.

7. Because the last two questions were so heavy, I'm cheating a little bit on this one and deliberately going light. It is a well-known fact that you have an affinity for Tiger King. But, alas, we are still without a season two and Joe Exotic remains incarcerated - a true travesty. What are you binging now?

Oh, Tiger King, I miss you so. Where are those movies?!

I am completely fascinated by India Matchmaker, which is a reality show about Mumbai’s top matchmaker. I burned through season one so quick. On the outset I should say I’ve read about problems Indian and Indian Americans have had, so that’s important to understand, too.

For me, I love all the traditions and how family is held in such esteem. The way that people were willing to be honest about their lives, themselves and to also grow. I love this idea that love is fluid and can be built. I think American culture has this true love mindset, but I really respect this idea that marriage is work and if two people are kind and committed, they can get there together. A lot of American identity is bucking against traditions, too. But it was lovely to see how within Indian and Indian American culture, it’s deeply celebrated.

Check out these reads by Vanessa Lillie:

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