This week I’m talking with Vanessa Lillie, the bestselling author of numerous thrillers, including "The Bone Thief" (her most recent) and its prequel, "Blood Sisters," as well as “Little Voices,” and “For the Best." Vanessa is also the co-author of the Young Rich Widows series of fun 80s mystery romps.
Vanessa is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma living on Narragansett land in Rhode Island.
This episode is a replay.
We covered:
- Making up stories as a form of escape
- How a nagging sense of unhappiness in her 20s and 30s drove her to keep questioning what she should ‘do with her life’
- The trip to the airport bookstore that awakened her desire to be an author
- The joy–and terror–of having a dream
- Using restlessness as a force for creative good
- Channeling your childhood and your family history into fiction
- The privilege of sharing stories with people who are interested
- Why it’s so easy to get into a lack mentality as an author
- How Vanessa ended up back at square one–no publisher, no agent–after her second book came out
- Finding the story you’re meant to tell so that you’re not “turning yourself into a pretzel to fit inside the system”
- The tools that helped her get out of that lack mentality
- Embracing chaos as a creative and honoring your particular process
- Stepping out the capitalistic narrative that if you’re not working 9-to-5, or really, 9-to-9, you’re a slacker
Connect with Vanessa on Instagram @vanessalillie, where she hosts a long-running series of interviews with crime fiction authors.
For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit ⁠katehanley.substack.com⁠.
Thank you for listening!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices