A Q&A WITH LILY PARKER
Was it always your ambition to be a writer?
Yes, but this industry is ultra-competitive, so it felt like saying, ‘I'm going to be a movie star!’. It wasn't until one of my author friends heavily encouraged me to write my first full-length manuscript, beta-read it, and then said, “You're actually capable of doing this. No, really.” I went with her to a writing conference in Vegas where I met my first editor and had a book deal in under a month. That one friend believing in me more than I believed in myself completely changed everything.
You spoke about finding inspiration from a town that you once visited. What are some other ways you find inspiration for your stories?
I LOVE pushing myself to try new things and see new places because it usually results in inspiration. The Best Wrong Move was written after spending a full month visiting Hawaii. Dax and Abby in The Best Worst Mistake are both lawyers, and I've been married to one for almost twenty years after getting engaged while he was still in law school. For The Best Wild Idea, there are so many scenes based on my own experiences — I was a passenger princess in big sailboat races every Friday evening during a semester in college, I’ve been skydiving twice, and that final chapter scene of Silas and Jules on the bank of the Seine was based off my last trip to Paris.
And then there are the deeper themes in each book . . . I tend to realize about halfway through a story why I chose to write that particular theme at that particular time. There is a lot of subconscious symbolism in these books, and sometimes I don't even realize it myself until I’m reading it back and have an epiphany!
What’s your method of planning and writing? Do you know how the story will end when you start writing the book? Or do you let it evolve naturally?
I always know the story will end happily, so it’s the middle that gets messy. I start with a story outline and character sketches, then write about a third of the book. I read it back to re-evaluate the original outline, make changes where I need them, and then continue. Usually, my initial storyline is significantly less complicated than the story I end up with. That first draft is like blind dating the characters, and then I add the deeper layers once I know my couple better.
What does a typical day look like when you are writing a book?
Either total procrastination with non-writing tasks (like marketing an upcoming release, connecting with readers and other authors on social), or I’m hitting the keyboard so fast that my husband jokes he’s going to have to buy me a new one every few months. I’ll delete and re-write two-thousand words in a morning then go for a walk to work out something that isn’t working, or I’ll hyperfocus and forget to eat anything for eight hours but emerge with ten-thousand new words on the page by three o’clock.
Do you read one book at a time or have several going at once? And ditto with books you’re writing?
I am one of those readers who has three books on Kindle, two on Audible, and another one going in paperback (no exaggeration). I’m a mood reader but to the extreme. Whatever I read depends on my exact mood in that exact moment, so I’ll often read two different books in one day, then listen to a third during a walk or workout, all while writing my own in between.
But, when it comes to writing a book, I have to work on one at a time. I can plot more than one, and I can do edits on one while I continue writing another. But I have to entirely finish the first manuscript all the way to the end before I can truly get into the next set of characters. Usually that next couple in the next book is calling my name and I have to tell them to wait until I’m done. We authors are all a little weird . . .
How are you going to spend your day on the release of Safe Haven?
Celebrating! Usually someone has to remind me to pause for celebration because I don’t naturally do that for myself. But with this being my fourth book release in the last year, I’ve definitely had a bit of practice! Now, release days feels like a bonus birthday, and I make sure to take it all in — especially for that younger version of myself who didn’t even dare to dream that this might be my story one day.