Good morning readers! Today we are continuing our Author Spotlight series and shining a light on Lillah Lawson, whose generational historical fiction novel So Long, Bobby will be our first release of the 2023 season! The ebook preorder is still currently on sale for .99 thru December 2nd!
Author Spotlight: Lillah Lawson & So Long, Bobby
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 think So Long, Bobby could go either way! It would make a great movie, but it could also adapt really well to a limited series. I remember back in the 90s, for a while those TV miniseries events were like, the thing. They were adapting everything from Merlin to Alice in Wonderland, and then political/genre miniseries became popular. They would always have a huge variety of stars from stage and screen, both in-the-moment actors and nostalgia casting. There was one on NBC that I believe was just called “The Sixties” that was pretty cheesy but I was riveted. I watched it multiple times. I’d love to see So Long, Bobby adapted for TV with a wink-and-nod to something like that. You know, with a nice filter to make it look like The Wonder Years or something and a killer soundtrack.
If you could write a spin off novel for one character in your book, who would it be and why?
That’s tough! I’ve written characters into multiple novels before (Hosey Brown, a minor character from my debut Monarchs Under the Sassafras Tree appears in TWO other novels, one of which I’m currently editing, and another that I’m still writing) but for So Long, Bobby, that’s harder. I love all of my characters, but to write a whole spin-off for one of them I’d need to really be able to get in their headspace, and to feel that they have more of a story to tell.
Maybe Ella? Not to give away too many spoilers from the novel, but her life is really just beginning at the end of So Long, Bobby. After decades of hiding, of struggle, she’s finally in the relationship she always wanted, and she’s mending fences with people and discovering family she never knew she had. Reaching out to form connections. A nice road trip novel where she finds herself might be fun and cathartic.
Your characters are dropped into an alternate universe! What AU would you love to see your characters run amok in?
I’d love to throw my nineties kids – Ella, Louie, Janelle, etc – into one of the amazing grunge movies of my teenage years. I’d love to see them running around with the cast of Clerks, Empire Records, Cruel Intentions, Reality Bites or Can’t Hardly Wait. Just put 90’s-era Ethan Embry in it and I’m on board. He was soooooo cute, my little teenage self couldn’t even.
What are the theme songs for your main characters?
I didn’t even need to think about this one. I create playlists for all of my books and I spend a ridiculous amount of time on perfecting them and tying the song choices into each scene/character. For Bobbi: “Abraham, Martin & John” by Marvin Gaye. For Ella: “In the Aeroplane over the Sea” by Neutral Milk Hotel. And for Kasey: “Don’t Follow” by Alice in Chains. Those are just three, but I have a whole playlist that I’m hoping to release soon as part of SLB’s promotion!
What is your next project? What other works would you like to share?
My next release after So Long, Bobby, which is out in February 2023, is a novel I co-wrote with Lauren Emily Whalen, and it’s another Sword & Silk release! Tomorrow & Tomorrow is a sexy and SCARY modern-day retelling of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, set in North GA (Hiawassee and Athens, respectively). It features an all-girl rock n’ roll band inspired by Joan Jett and the Runaways, who get more than they bargain for with a trio of hot but shady male witches whose terrifying prophecy starts to come true; and a mysterious, overbearing new manager whose intentions seem anything but good. It’s Shakespeare like you’ve never seen it, and I promise, you’re gonna eat it up like candy! It’s available for pre-order now!
Because I always have too many irons in the fire, I’m also editing a novel I wrote last year, a historical fiction thriller about a fish-out-of-water New Jersey lady-cop who finds herself in the center of a trio of murders, set in 1980s small-town Georgia. For NaNoWriMo, I’m currently writing another historical fiction thriller, set in gin-soaked 1920s Atlanta with a dark and delicious heroine named simply, “The Vamp”, a burlesque performer whose persona might be more drawn-from-life (and blood) than you can imagine.
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