This week I’m talking with the author of numerous thrillers, Vanessa Lilly, 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 a USA Today national bestseller. Vanessa is also the co-author of a fun 80s mystery romp called “Young Rich Widows,” as well as its sequel, which is coming out next year, called “Desperately Deadly Widows.”

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

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.

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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