Author Spotlight: Dorothy Deene

Hello and Good morning readers! We continue on with our Author Spotlight series today with an entry from Dorothy Deene and her upcoming contemporary Young Adult novel The Gravity of Lies, coming June 13, 2023. #ICYMI Yesterday, YABooksCentral dropped the cover reveal & a giveaway for ARC copies .

Author Spotlight: Dorothy Deene and The Gravity of Lies

If your book was adapted to the screen, would you want to see it as a movie, a limited short series, or something else?

I’d love to see The Gravity of Lies adapted to a musical film. I can see my characters break out into song and dance throughout the movie like High School Musical but with a heavy emphasis from the dramatic TV show from the eighties, FAME.

If you could write a spin off novel for one character in your book, who would it be and why?

If I had to pick a character to create a spin off from The Gravity of Lies, it would be Skye’s friend, Kylie Hanson. Kylie is expected to continue her career in modeling as the third generation of models in her family. Although it isn’t at all what Kylie wants for her life, she painstakingly struggles to look the part and do what has been decided for her. I think Kylie’s story could benefit other young girls who feel they have to be what others expect of them…even if it isn’t who they are or even what they want for themselves.

Your characters are dropped into an alternate universe! What AU would you love to see your characters run amok in?

I think an alternate universe for The Gravity of Lies would involve the characters stuck inside a TV show like WandaVision. I’d like to see the characters in their twenties and the story line go something like: after the group of teens break their pact to keep in touch and get together at least once a year, now over a decade later they suddenly find themselves together again. But this time they’re trapped on the set of a show. That is, until they begin getting clues within each episode that they must solve in order to find their way out. But as they work closely together to free themselves from the show, they begin to think that maybe they don’t actually want to get out.

What are the themes songs for your main characters?

Irene Cara’s “Out Here On My Own” best expresses the heart of Skye’s journey to find what she’s searching for. Albert Hammond’s “It Never Rains in Southern California”, Journey’s “Faithfully” and “Don’t Stop Believin’” are musical themes throughout the story.

What is your next project? What other works would you like to share?

I’m currently working on an edgy, contemporary YA novel about Sailor Byrd, a seventeen-year-old girl who has spent the majority of her life out at sea and dreams of one day owning her own boating business. But that all changes when her little sister tragically drowns. Haunted by the ghost of her sister and riddled with guilt, Sailor leaves her family and town behind in hopes of escaping her past. When she meets charismatic and troubled Elena, she convinces Sailor that she can free her from everything that hurts. But as Sailor gets caught up in Elena’s reckless world, she finds herself spiraling into what could lead to devastating consequences.