Lillian was born and raised in historic Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with brief excursions to Florida, Texas, and New Jersey. By eighth grade, she had attended six different schools and lived at eight different addresses. On top of being a highly mobile but lonely only child, she was the typical smart kid/geek and had a really big mouth. Books—almost ANY book- were friends. Lillian also told lots of fantastical stories to herself; “Make Pretend” was a favorite game. Hooking up with her BFF/writing buddy at the fifth school, someone who loved stories and pretending just as much as she did, both began writing in junior high.
Published writing life began at fourteen, with the middle school yearbook and a fantasy/horror story about a murderous gypsy, called (of course) “The Gypsy.” Always drawn to the creepy and freaky, her first poem ran along similar themes. Middle school was not fun for Lillian, as it rarely is for the child who doesn’t follow the crowd. Escaping the crowd became a goal, reachable through a magnet high school program, where she was joined by the BFF and met her future husband outside second period algebra.
Poetry continued to be Lillian’s main writing format through most of high school. The horror elements transitioned in to the dark and depressing poetry of high school students— lots of death and black and night time imagery. Interspersed were some short stories, thanks to Central High School of Philadelphia’s* excellent English and Writing program. A few were even published here and there (mostly poems), the credits long since lost in the twenty years that have passed. But places other than the official school literary magazine and the underground journal (Nuwanda’s) Lillian edited (with the afore-mentioned BFF/writing buddy and future husband) choose to publish ‘em, so they must have been decent.
Lillian’s infatuation with the idea of writing and publishing continued until college, where she detoured into dreams of being a medieval history professor for a bit. Then came graduation, when real life, full-time work, and part-time graduate school so rudely intruded. In the process of learning what the 9 to 5 lifestyle was like, Lillian somehow went from wanting to be a university scholar to urban high school World History teacher, changing major, colleges, and jobs. Despite the first year of teaching hell (while every teacher has one, the first year at a new alternative public school, without books, chairs, desks, or a discipline department……really WAS hell), Lillian continues to mold the next generation through a variety of subjects, including Latin, ten years later.
The beauty of teaching is that one continues to learn as well. One of the most important lessons a student taught Lillian (after learning to laugh at your goofy self and how to NOT be embarrassed by embarrassing things in front of a group) was the term “fan fiction” and where it could be found on the net. While not impressed by said student’s Hanson fan-girl story, Lillian spent many fun hours reading Buffy and Angel knock-offs. Enough fun that she decided she could write this stuff, too.
The discovery of fan-fic coincided with long stretches of time away from home, while taking care of her terminally ill step-father. While he napped, Lillian wrote. And wrote. And wrote more. For the first time in years, she produced a full-length short story. Not her characters, no, but with a plot and dialogue and pretty decent description. So she wrote another one. Even after her step-father passed, Lillian continued to write and post to FF.net. She got reviews. Not many, but enough to be encouraging.
Over time, Buffy and Angel were cancelled, other TV shows became favorite (BSG), and new books (Gabaldon, Evanovich, Rowling) interested her. So she wrote more fan-fic, longer and better. She even, finally, finished a book-length manuscript, her first ever. The reviews got better. After almost 30 fan-fics, a decision was made.
What about an original story?
A new writing buddy came along, to cheer lead from the sidelines as Lillian finally took the plunge. She went to professional writing conferences. She stumbled, she edited, she re-wrote. The first short story she sent out, Playing Doctor, was accepted for publication. Then Beyond Flirting. And Naked Poetry (a poem, duh). The fan fic continued to be read and reviewed with about 30 visitors a day. And then, a fan fic writing friend approached her about writing original erotica. Three presses and over a year later, and “The Order- Book 1, Going All In” is now available from
Red Rose Publishing and Amazon.com. Prequels and sequels are already underway.
Hopefully this short is the beginning of a long publishing career.
