PHOTOGRAPH : COURTESY OF VANESSA LILLIE , BRITTANNY TAYLOR PHOTOGRAPHY .
Q
& A :
Vanessa Lillie
The Providence resident dishes on the writing life , her love affair with Rhode Island and her latest novel , Blood Sisters . BY DANA LAVERTY
T o say Vanessa Lillie has had a busy few years is an understatement . Her first two thrillers , Little Voices ( released in October 2019 ) and For the Best ( September 2020 ), hit the bestseller charts , with book tours and events in between , and with local readers devouring the Rhody hot spots sprinkled throughout the pages like literary breadcrumbs .
Her newest novel , Blood Sisters , a twisty , heartfelt thriller pulled from her Cherokee heritage and real-life events , debuted on Oct . 31 , 2023 . The title — the first in a new series — follows Syd Walker , a Cherokee archeologist working to preserve Rhode Island ’ s Indigenous culture who ’ s been called home to Oklahoma to investigate her sister ’ s disappearance . We caught up with Lillie in late October to talk books , Indigenous culture , the writing life and how much she loves the Ocean State .
You ’ re on book number three right now . When you were starting out on your writing career , did you ever imagine that you ’ d have two bestsellers under your belt and a third book on the way ? No , not at the beginning . I hoped to just be published . That was always the goal , and to find some readers who liked my work . That ’ s been the main thing , because for me writing is really about connection . My first book , Little Voices , was about being a new mom and new motherhood . It was great because I could write about what was on my mind and then connect to other readers who also struggled postpartum or also walked along Blackstone Boulevard all the time . Any kind of connection just feels really good to me . With Blood Sisters , I ’ m writing about some very personal topics again , but in this case , it ’ s the place I ’ m from — northeastern Oklahoma — and being Cherokee . Also , the environmental issues that are very present in northeastern Oklahoma , and the missing and murdered Indigenous women crisis . I ’ m happy to have the opportunity to connect with people on these things that are so important and that we need to be talking about . What sorts of things do you love about Rhode Island ? Providence is a really creative city , especially for the size . Pretty early on I was involved in what used to be the What Cheer Writers Club [ now LitArts RI ], which was a wonderful community of writers . I had a book group I led at the Providence Athenaeum and there were lots of opportunities to go to book events and things , so creatively it felt great right away .
Sometimes I think it ’ s hard for people who have lived here their whole lives to see the beauty and how much you get in such a small area . The fact that you can be at the ocean in a half-hour is incredible . The restaurants are incredible . The food shops are incredible . People take a lot of pride in their communities and their neighborhoods and in supporting them . Your books have such intriguing characters . In Little Voices , the main character is a new mom who had a really traumatic birth experience and postpartum depression / psychosis . Why was it important for you to create a character like that and did you draw from your personal life in creating her ? Oh , absolutely . It was basically all of my feelings and fears of being a new mom — an exhausted new mom — definitely suffering some postpartum anxiety and feeling very alone and exhausted . It was sort of scary , and it was so exhausting . My son did not sleep . The character I wrote was going through a psychosis and I wanted to write about being pushed all the way to that point , and especially at the time when it was published in 2019 . There really weren ’ t a lot of books out about it .
That ’ s what I wanted to see in the pages . I wanted to read about the tears of new motherhood . And I have so many messages from women saying , ‘ Oh my gosh , I loved your book , because I thought it was so hard to be a new
48 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l JANUARY 2024