Welcome back to Finding the Throughline: Conversations about the Creative Process where today’s guest is thriller author Vanessa Lillie, whose books include “Little Voices”, “For the Best,” and her newest book “Blood Sisters,” a thriller about two missing Indigenous women and the Cherokee archeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs who is searching for them which was a Good Morning America Buzz Pick and USA Today national bestseller. She’s also the co-author of a fun 80s mystery romp “Young Rich Widows” as well as its sequel which is coming out next year, “Desperate Deadly Widows.”

An Oklahoma native, Vanessa is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma living on Narragansett land in Rhode Island.

Today I’m talking with Vanessa about the mindset side of writing, or what I call inner stuff–the thoughts, ideas, and attitudes that affect your work, even if you’re not fully conscious of it, including:

- Fighting erasure by weaving her family’s story into her books

- The thrill and the total fear of writing about your culture and worrying about getting it wrong

- How Vanessa steadies herself when that anxiety crops up

- Embracing the challenge of writing a page turner

- Dealing with the fear that your current work isn’t as good as your previous work

- Seeing ideas as a butterfly that come and sit on your shoulder (from Elizabeth Gilbert’s book “Big Magic”

- Why it’s so vital to get clear on why you are the right person to tell this story

- Why being in her 40s feels like such a relief

- Some frank talk about early motherhood–and why it was a theme in her first novel

- Letting go of the idea that your success is within your control

Connect with Vanessa on Instagram @vanessalillie

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Thank you for listening!

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