In this episode, we welcome Lexy Delorme, author of the Limerent Series, for a deep dive into her journey as a writer, her experiences as an expat, and the intricate world-building behind her cross-genre novels. Lexy shares how her background in law, international living, and personal history have shaped her writing, and discusses the themes and characters that make her series unique.
Key Topics & Highlights:
- Lexy’s background: Growing up in a military family, living around the world, and transitioning from law to writing.
- The inspiration and process behind the Limerent Series, including six years of world-building.
- How her experiences as an expat and a “recovering attorney” inform her storytelling.
- The structure of the Limerent Series:
- First three books can be read in any order, each blending paranormal romance with other genres (legal fiction, coming-of-age, historical fiction).
- The fourth book, Ghosting Academy, brings characters together in a psychological thriller with VR technology and spiritual themes.
- Upcoming fifth book, Limerence, explores the concept of intense, overwhelming love.
- Future books and side stories expanding the world and its characters.
- Discussion of themes:
- Appearance vs. reality, consciousness, love, and the impact of personal and societal trauma.
- Representation of real-life friends and family in her characters.
- Addressing issues like abuse, racism, and the universal desire for connection.
- Lexy’s writing advice for aspiring authors and insights into her creative process.
- Book covers, upcoming appearances (including New York Comic Con), and where to find her books.
Links & Resources:
- Lexy Delorme’s Books on Kindle Unlimited
- New York Comic Con Appearance: October 9–12
- Bookaholic Podcast YouTube Channel - Bookaholic YouTube Channel
Connect with Lexy Delorme:
Thank you for listening!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Lexi Delorme, welcome to the Bookaholic Podcast.
Hello, how are you? I'm doing great.
And, we are talking to you from Paris, France.
Yay.
Weee.
One of my favorite cities in the world.
I'm so jealous.
I wish I was over there.
We're just, I've been living here for six years now, walking around.
(00:20):
Oh wow.
That is fantastic.
Wow.
Okay, so, uh, since we were talking about Paris.
Let me get into that little part right quick.
So how is it to be an expat? What is that like and how does that inspire your writing? Really does.
Um, but I have to kind of go a little bit back because the reason I'm an expat is because I kind of always was, I grew up as in a military family, and so we moved, I never lived anywhere growing up more than two years, but it was mainly within the US and I also lived in Hawaii for four years.
(00:53):
Growing up.
Mm.
That was a hard assignment.
So rough.
So rough.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and then, you know, we went through, I was born in California, Texas, Rhode Island, Hawaii, new Orleans, and then to North Carolina where I went to high school.
Um, then I went where I'm located ex Exactly.
I went to c um, for a lot like myself.
(01:14):
Yep.
It's the UNC girls we're great and um, absolutely.
And then I got a job doing, um, international startup work for a bank.
Oh.
And then I, I basically went out, did, uh, new country entry work for South Africa, for Spain, for France, and for China, for Shanghai.
Wow.
(01:35):
And opened up new countries.
Did for the, for the bank.
Did, um, did mergers, did uh, de Novos, did wholly owned subsidiaries, a whole bunch of things.
And then my parents were getting older, so I came back home.
But as I came back home, I met a French man.
At my work and I said, I'm tired of working with French people because I've been working with French people.
(01:58):
And uh, and my boss was like, oh, no, no, he's great.
And then three years later we were married.
Um, yeah, because I was on the legal side of the house and he was on the business side of the house.
So it was kind of nature to argue and we figured we'd do that.
So Well, we just do that on a regular basis, right? Absolutely.
Right.
So then we to California.
(02:19):
My first son was born in, in, uh.
Virginia and then we moved to California.
Okay.
And then, um, he got a job doing inter basically working for a bank as an international manager.
And I decided I was not gonna take the bar everywhere we moved.
So I started writing.
Um, and it started out for me doing travel writing.
So I wrote for Bon Jo Paris.
(02:41):
Oh, places doing travel writing.
When in Hong Kong I wrote for, um, play times and when I came to, when I moved to London a few years in what, 2015, I decided I'm gonna start doing fiction because I have, I've always wanted, I've always been kind of written short stories.
That's the one thing that's been the same in all of my jobs, which is I Wow.
(03:03):
I wrote, so my undergrad was in the sciences.
Um, and then I went to, but all of it's writing.
I did legal writing, did science writing, did you know, sorry.
And, um, oh yeah.
And I was, when I was young, I was in a band and we had a video on TV in the middle of the night when I.
I won't say what it's, but, and so I wrote and did music too.
Right? Right.
(03:24):
Absolutely.
Not giving any bad girl.
I love it.
So, so, um, so I decided that I wanted to try actually doing a longer form, and it took me literally probably six years to craft the world.
So it's a series builtin full world building.
(03:46):
Lot went into this.
Yes.
Um, uh, yes, I can see that because you do an amazing job across genre, which we're gonna really dig into, uh, in just a few minutes.
So let's go back.
So.
Again, you are a recovering attorney.
(04:08):
Yes.
Recovering.
Recovering attorney.
You never get a And I have disease.
Right? Well, I've had so many guests on this channel who are or have been recovering attorneys and they turn to writing.
There must be something there.
You know, you got your John Grisham.
And maybe even Scott Au I think was a recovering, um, attorney.
(04:31):
But anyway, it, it just seems to be a natural.
Crossover for a lot of people.
So I saw, I worked in the legal department, I was in, I worked with a lot of people who had been artists before.
Um, and then they went legal.
And what happens? Yeah.
What happens is we all, so I did music and stuff, so what happens? We we're all doing this stuff and we're realizing I'm not gonna get any money with this.
(04:55):
Right.
When we're first doing that, that right.
And we go, okay.
What do I have going for me? I'm smart.
Okay.
I took the LSAT and we all kind of ended up in the legal profession and I don't know a whole lot of lawyers that are actually happy.
Right.
Ah.
Um, so you do it for a while and you, I as legal jobs, I had a good one.
But it's then when we get a chance to get away from it, when we've earned enough money, when we've had enough experience, we're like, okay, what can I do now to go back to that thing that I love so much? And it's always infused my life with meaning.
(05:27):
And then we do this.
So, right.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Well, you know, your depth of life, your depth of living has given you a very rich experience, um, to knowing about different cultures.
Even, even in the United States where it's, you know, each state has a kind of different culture.
(05:49):
They don't realize that.
Right.
E Exactly.
And so yes, because they see us as the whole mm-hmm.
United States, you know, and think one thing.
Um, but, so you've had a, a very rich life.
Now when you were younger, I'm sure when your family was moving around and you couldn't make concrete friends for very long before there was any social media, you probably didn't feel that way, but that's what it has.
(06:16):
Evolutionized, uh.
Into, and that's where I see, and you correct me if I'm wrong, that's what I see.
You have this ability, and I really will say to you, I don't think I've interviewed anyone today on my channel who has done this cross genre writing.
(06:37):
Mm-hmm.
And to this degree and can keep up with all of this, I, I don't think I've, I've ever had anybody to do this, so this is something I really wanna dive into.
Sure.
Because it's, it's definitely genius and.
O one of the audiences I do talk to, also people who are aspiring writers 'cause avid readers, a lot of the times are aspiring writers.
(07:05):
Okay, so you said it just a few minutes ago that it took you six years to create the world.
And I've had some book coaches on this channel One, a guy that really specialized in only fantasy world building 'cause Well, that's the main.
Where you'd have to build war in fantasy.
(07:26):
Right? But tell us about your process over the course of six years of building this world.
So it kind of started, it started a bit small.
So it started with, I had characters in my head, right? Mm-hmm.
I had people that I had crafted in my head just from news stories or hearing something right? And a few of them I liked so much that I wanted to find a space for them.
(07:51):
Right.
Wow.
Um, and I was always a reader as well, and I read.
Cross genre.
I read Acro a bunch of different things.
It was big fan.
Mm-hmm.
Water Took Down was one of my favorite books.
Very fantasy.
Mm-hmm.
Um, I read Horror, I read HP Lovecraft and Stephen King.
I read, um, I read all the cheesy romance, teenage romance novels when I was, I read Flowers in the Attic.
(08:15):
Right.
Oh, I did too.
I read the whole thing.
Yeah.
And watch the lifetime movies.
Exactly.
You know, it's like we look at the, you, you look now at like the Gen Zs and they're like cuddled with the, oh, we only want empathy books.
We read this, this stuff.
Right.
You know? Absolutely.
We were traumatized by this, um, Stephen King.
(08:35):
Yeah.
So, so I, I use all of those things.
I used the.
The things that I had, um, loved in characters and I sort of use it to combine characters.
And then how I kind of created the world is I had a mindset that one of the reasons I want to write is that I have seen a lot of beautiful and interesting things.
(09:00):
I have experienced a lot of things that maybe people haven't experienced.
That's true.
And what I decided I wanted to do is capture those moments.
In books so I can share them.
And they don't die when I die, right? That's right.
That's right.
So this is, this is part of what the world building thing is for me, crafting.
And also they say, right to answer your own questions.
(09:23):
And this series, which is a long series, it's eight books long.
I've written all of them summer in various, various stages of edit.
The first four are out, the fifth one will come out this fall, and the others are in done, but in various stages of edit.
Wow.
My, the question I'm answering for myself through the end is, what is consciousness? Mm.
(09:47):
The big questions.
Right.
Um, how does love play? That's a huge question.
Yeah.
How does love play into this? And so that, and then to do this, I crafted different stories and this kind of gets into the books, but the first three books of the series are mm-hmm.
(10:07):
Can be read in any order, no order required.
It can be read in any order.
Yep.
Okay.
No order required.
Okay.
All of them are, but yet, but there's the same characters in the three.
No.
This is what? No.
Oh, because they're in the same world.
Yeah.
So what happens? What happens is the, the, all these three books have paranormal in romance, but they also have a subgenre.
(10:32):
As well.
So CYO is a paranormal romance, but it is also a legal fiction, and it, it works with the themes of appearance versus reality.
Okay? It, it has in it a woman.
A woman meets someone who appears to be a late teenager and clearly is not.
(10:56):
And all this is, and with a legal mystery as well.
The second book, which is called Bright Midnights.
It's a paranormal romance, but also a coming of age novel.
Um, high school setting us, right? Yes.
Yes.
High school.
High school in North Carolina.
Wow.
Okay.
Okay.
And it's, ya.
(11:16):
It's ya.
Yeah.
Um, and wow.
The third book You'll love is, was, was actually said in North Carolina.
It is called Family Fireflies.
It is a paranormal romance, but also historical fiction said in the 1940s in World War ii.
Mm-hmm.
And it is partially a family story for me.
I put stuff with my family in it and it's the story of a.
(11:40):
Poor white woman living in the South who works in a cigarette factory who works at the draft office on the weekends and ends up processing an African American soldier who she falls in love with.
Oh, wow.
And all of the, the stuff that comes from that.
Wow.
So that and all of, yeah.
Yeah.
Um, that book's going on book tour, uh, in a few weeks, I think.
(12:01):
But absolutely.
And in all of those books, um, all those characters, all these stories come together in a fourth book called Ghosting Academy.
And that is a psychological thriller.
Oh.
With VR technology, elite agents and spiritual unraveling.
(12:24):
Oh man.
So, oh, oh gosh.
I'm just like taken aback.
They all come together in Ghosting Academy and it does make sense.
Oh my goodness.
Okay.
Now let me ask you, so you're saying that, um, some of these are paranormal, so sometimes, uh, I think I mentioned Stephen King just a, in passing a few minutes ago.
(12:50):
So I used to read all of his books, but then I was like, well, I can no longer read this type of book anymore.
Hmm.
So for those readers who.
Can't see themselves reading paranormal.
Can you tell us a little bit about your paranormal activity in these books to maybe, maybe it's not like horror, but what it, how, how is that infused? So in my books, the horror you see is only the horror people do to other people.
(13:25):
Ah, okay.
And there is some of that in spas.
I will tell you.
Right, right, right, right.
But Mo, all my books are urban fiction.
Right.
So it's, there is, there are paranormal elements in it and it's, there's no vampires, there's no werewolves.
We is casting spells.
No, no, nothing like that.
(13:46):
Um, but you do have spirits and you have Yes.
Um, uh, ghosts and you have, um, different, different types of, of spirits, like, um, and it, but it's not, it isn't he? It isn't hardcore.
Um, it isn't hardcore horror.
(14:08):
It starts getting more horror and ghost academy.
But I will tell you, check your trigger warnings.
Because as I said, this is what people do to people.
Yes.
And there's a lot of that in this and there's, there's a lot of people who have been abused, like, like in Kayo, Sarah.
Right.
Starting out.
I actually based her on a number of my friends who have been in relationships and she, she's in an abusive relationship When the book starts.
(14:35):
Gotcha.
And, and is so deeply entrenched in a abusive relationship.
She doesn't even see it as abusive.
She just sees it as she's not worth anything.
Right.
Ugh.
Um, and so this book is about her.
Coming out of that and seeing a world.
Wonderful.
Yeah.
And seeing a world that exists that is not just beyond what she thought of herself, but beyond what she knew for the good and bad.
(14:58):
Basically, the scope of her world went from this to this with mm-hmm.
With, it's the spectrum.
The bad gets much worse, the potential for bad, but also the good gets much better.
So the creation and destruction there.
So this is in this, the book of Kio is all really about.
Appearance versus reality.
So what is being presented as being good and right is actually not.
(15:20):
Mm-hmm.
And what is presented as this isn't good, this isn't right, is actually okay or good or loving, right? So it's very much looking at that and the people that I found that had some issues with this book, because what an appearance of an age gap, right? Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
The truth is the character of Kyle, although looking about 16, seventies and 136 years old.
(15:42):
Oh, okay.
Wow.
And it becomes pretty, pretty apparent really fast for her because she's super smart, very trained in this stuff, but there's a connection between them and there's a connection that goes on from past lives Right.
As well.
Ah, got you.
So there's a lot of stuff in that.
So, but she has to learn how to step up, how to value herself, how to mm-hmm.
(16:05):
Value doing something that is good and right.
And I will tell you that the legal.
Fitness.
Mm-hmm.
The legal is partially something that I dealt with and the reason I left family law.
Oh, yes, yes.
Wow.
So, so I do bring my life into this and things that I've experienced.
Absolutely.
(16:26):
Absolutely.
And the, and that you should.
Well, it's, I feel like, you know, it's, it's kind of hiding my life and things like, I would never be bold enough to write an autobiography.
No, I just hide and stuff.
Right? Um, I'm, I'm not that, I'm not that brave.
Um, but it allows you, it also allows you to, um, to give voice to people you wanted to give voice to.
(16:53):
So in the, the third book, fanning Fireflies, the one that sat in the south.
There's, I put characters in this were people I knew and people that, for example, one of the characters, um, I gave her a good ending because she.
Uh, she was a good friend of mine and she got me my first job, and she actually got killed by people who came into her house and killed her and stuffed her body into a, an oil bin.
(17:20):
Um, oh my gosh.
Yeah, and she was a beautiful woman and a wonderful person, and she didn't have a chance to have a life, right.
So I wanted to give her a chance to have a life.
And so I put her in this, I put my.
Uncle who was a stutterer shows up as a character in this.
So this one is very, very much a lot my friends and family.
And the, the, the, it does talk about the really horrible systemic racism.
(17:46):
Not systemic, just awful racism in the south at that time.
Right? Absolutely, absolutely.
Um, and how the separation was driven so much by the powers in control.
Right.
Yes.
There was a, there was a lot of cultural commonality between the poor working class white people and the African Americans.
Right? Absolutely.
(18:06):
But they kept separated.
Right.
Absolutely.
As they're today.
As they're today.
No, that's exactly what they're doing.
What people, we won't talk to political, but people in power, right? Right.
What they want to do is those who are those who actually achieve their wealth by having wealth before and just investing and having this history of wealth.
(18:29):
Right? They are.
They're different from literally everybody else.
Everybody who's working for a living.
Right.
Absolutely.
You're all pretty much the same.
Right? And we all have the same goals the way, I mean, and across the world, right? Right.
When I went to China, I remember, I remember thinking that first time I went to China, I went by myself.
It was the day after we bombed their embassy accidentally.
(18:49):
I was like, I'm gonna die right? Here I am, I'm gonna die here.
Yeah.
And I walked, absolutely.
Walked through the airport, the guys in the communist outfits and like, I was like, oh yeah, they're taking me.
It's gonna happen.
Yeah.
And I get out, there's my Blue American passport, they're seeing me and I'm like, damn, I'm screwed.
And um, yes.
So, so, but I get out, make it through, and I go, and the first thing that happens is this.
(19:10):
Little girl comes up to me and says in English, my grandmother would like me to practice English with you.
And that was it.
It's just people want, and she wanted it because it was good for her, you know, to learn English better, to get, and people just want to have their family take care of people they love.
We all have these very basic needs.
(19:32):
Yeah.
And very basic wants.
Yeah.
And it's when people start getting that thing for power, that's when things start going real wrong.
Right.
And there we are.
Right? Absolutely.
And you, you have me right there.
I, I, I, I will not challenge you on that at all.
It's a movie that comes to mind.
It's called The Free State of Jones.
(19:54):
If you've never seen it, check it out.
It starts Matthew McConaughey, and that points out everything you just said.
Free state of Jones.
Matthew McConaughey, check it out.
Um, so now you've got the fifth book that's coming out this fall, and what's the name of that book? Lence.
(20:16):
Lence.
Okay.
And so what, what does that, this is the Lence series.
Yes.
What does that mean? So Lence is the, the type of falling in love that people do, that people consider crazy.
Right.
It's like, it's like when you, when you meet someone and it's like you're just overwhelmed and it makes you nuts.
Vincent Van Gogh cutting off the ear stuff, right? Yes, yes, yes.
(20:40):
But when I looked at this, I'm questioned, I've questioned that because, because of the nature of attractions, right? Is is it always that or is that something that's almost.
Chemical and biological, like there's a lot of physics in this series as well, but you, you don't even have to really think about it.
It's just, it's, it's basically told to you, so you don't have to worry.
(21:01):
People don't have to worry about it, but that much, but, right.
Um, the second book, uh, bright Midnights is about attraction in all of its forms, good, bad, and ugly.
Um.
Mm-hmm.
And the, this book Limerence coming out is seeing the other side of these stories.
So up to this point, the, you've seen these characters.
The point of view characters had been Emily, who's a 17-year-old girl in bright midnights.
(21:23):
Sarah, who's a woman in her forties, and, um, Veronica, who is a woman in her early twenties.
Okay.
And they've been, and Ghost Academy's back to Emily's point of view, but when she's older, she's like in her thirties.
Okay.
And you've seen kind of the paranormal stuff that's been.
(21:44):
Around them, shadowing them.
Things that happen, you learn a bit, a bit more about it in bright midnights.
Mm-hmm.
But in Ghosting Academy, you see, you learn about these agencies involved in controlling power in the world.
Right? Ah mm-hmm.
And so there's one that they're all encountering and, and this one says this other group is evil and Lence is showing you the other side, right? Yes.
(22:09):
And, and those characters from Limerick show up in Fanning fireflies, you see them a little bit.
There's a lot of crossover in, in my books.
I have spreadsheets all over the place of setups and payoffs and yeah.
Oh, wow.
I can't even imagine.
Must you're a north? Yes.
Well, definitely.
You know, you said you can read the first three in any order, so, and also they're on kin, they're on Kindle Unlimited right now.
(22:34):
Oh, okay.
Okay.
I think, well, I've got my Kindle.
I think I'm going, I'm really intrigued by fanning fireflies.
Definitely.
And so the other books that are in the editing process, give us a just a little overview of how those three are gonna come to play, and will that end your series? So in the series will end in the eighth book, but okay.
(23:01):
There will, there will be, because this is a full world and because you meet a lot of people in it, there are side stories that come from their stories.
So right now I'm actually writing a book, a new book about one of the characters that you see in Ghost Academy.
It's kind of her backstory, right? So I like, I'm an author who everybody I put on page, because I'm neurotic, I have, I, I know their full backstory.
(23:26):
I can tell I'm not making crap up.
Right.
And if I don't know, I will tell you.
I don't know.
Right.
But, um Right.
But that I could ride in this world for literally 20 years.
There's that much in it.
Yes.
Yes.
Well, it took you six years, so definitely make the most of this world.
Absolutely.
(23:46):
Yep.
Oh, I can tell you, I imagine, I can tell you for the next few books I can, I can't tell you too much because it's, you know.
Because they'd be giving too much away.
But I can tell you the point of view characters.
So, um, in Limerence that comes out in the fall, the point of view character is a person you haven't, you haven't, hadn't had the floor before, which is Dante, who is a ghost.
(24:07):
Um, okay.
Oh, and then, and he's so much more a ghost and so much more.
Okay.
Um, he actually was.
When he died, he was, um, in Carthage and he was from Tunisia originally.
Oh.
So he, um, we're going ancient times.
Yeah.
And um, and then, uh, Kara is his partner and she was all, she was actually from that same kind of time, right? Mm-hmm.
(24:38):
And, um, so they're the point.
He's the, he's the point of view and she's kind of.
She has created this thing.
And then, um, for the book after that is called Mirrored Lands.
The point of view is, is, um, Emily again, who's the one, one from Bright Midnights, but also a character I can't tell you about because it's really a surprise.
And then the, um, the next book after that is called Outliers, and it is the point of view of Sarah from CYO again and Dante.
(25:05):
And then the last book is called Verite and it's got three points of view, but I can't really talk about those, but that's kind of the end, so Wow.
Wow.
I do this.
Okay.
I just love this.
This is very, very fascinating to me, and so I'm sure all of these will be very fascinating to my listeners and my blog readers because you know, you could literally take one.
(25:37):
And move on if you wanted to because the first three are not to be read in order or anything like that.
Um, but then this, this is this.
Oh, that's what a beautiful cover.
These are the pretty shiny covers, by the way.
I will be at New York Comic Con this year.
Oh, really? Yes.
(25:58):
What is that? It is October 9th through 12th.
Okay.
This is Fanning fireflies, the pretty cover.
Oh, another beautiful.
Oh, that's beautiful.
Oh my.
I love these new covers.
I love them.
Oh, beautiful.
And the, the edges.
Have you seen the books with the beautiful edges? Yes, I've thought about that, but I haven't done it.
(26:23):
Edges.
Yes.
Oh, it's beautiful.
Okay.
All right.
So I like, just wanna go get all your, your books as if I'm not reading like eight books right now at the same time.
I admire that a lot.
This is why this channel is called Bookaholic.
(26:43):
I have a problem.
I'm telling you.
So, Lexi, thank you so much for joining me today.
I think your book and thought processes about your book are totally fascinating.
Thank you.
But of course, you.
Came from UNC Chapel Hill.
So yes, be brilliant.
(27:03):
And so what we'll do is we'll have in our podcast show notes and in the video description box on YouTube, we'll have your information links to your books, et cetera.
Lexi, thank you so much for joining me from Paris, France.
Thank you so much for having me.
(27:23):
Thank you.
Lexi Delorme, welcome to the Bookaholic Podcast.
Hello, how are you? I'm doing great.
And, we are talking to you from Paris, France.
Yay.
Weee.
One of my favorite cities in the world.
I'm so jealous.
I wish I was over there.
We're just, I've been living here for six years now, walking around.
(00:20):
Oh wow.
That is fantastic.
Wow.
Okay, so, uh, since we were talking about Paris.
Let me get into that little part right quick.
So how is it to be an expat? What is that like and how does that inspire your writing? Really does.
Um, but I have to kind of go a little bit back because the reason I'm an expat is because I kind of always was, I grew up as in a military family, and so we moved, I never lived anywhere growing up more than two years, but it was mainly within the US and I also lived in Hawaii for four years.
(00:53):
Growing up.
Mm.
That was a hard assignment.
So rough.
So rough.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and then, you know, we went through, I was born in California, Texas, Rhode Island, Hawaii, new Orleans, and then to North Carolina where I went to high school.
Um, then I went where I'm located ex Exactly.
I went to c um, for a lot like myself.
(01:14):
Yep.
It's the UNC girls we're great and um, absolutely.
And then I got a job doing, um, international startup work for a bank.
Oh.
And then I, I basically went out, did, uh, new country entry work for South Africa, for Spain, for France, and for China, for Shanghai.
Wow.
(01:35):
And opened up new countries.
Did for the, for the bank.
Did, um, did mergers, did uh, de Novos, did wholly owned subsidiaries, a whole bunch of things.
And then my parents were getting older, so I came back home.
But as I came back home, I met a French man.
At my work and I said, I'm tired of working with French people because I've been working with French people.
(01:58):
And uh, and my boss was like, oh, no, no, he's great.
And then three years later we were married.
Um, yeah, because I was on the legal side of the house and he was on the business side of the house.
So it was kind of nature to argue and we figured we'd do that.
So Well, we just do that on a regular basis, right? Absolutely.
Right.
So then we to California.
(02:19):
My first son was born in, in, uh.
Virginia and then we moved to California.
Okay.
And then, um, he got a job doing inter basically working for a bank as an international manager.
And I decided I was not gonna take the bar everywhere we moved.
So I started writing.
Um, and it started out for me doing travel writing.
So I wrote for Bon Jo Paris.
(02:41):
Oh, places doing travel writing.
When in Hong Kong I wrote for, um, play times and when I came to, when I moved to London a few years in what, 2015, I decided I'm gonna start doing fiction because I have, I've always wanted, I've always been kind of written short stories.
That's the one thing that's been the same in all of my jobs, which is I Wow.
(03:03):
I wrote, so my undergrad was in the sciences.
Um, and then I went to, but all of it's writing.
I did legal writing, did science writing, did you know, sorry.
And, um, oh yeah.
And I was, when I was young, I was in a band and we had a video on TV in the middle of the night when I.
I won't say what it's, but, and so I wrote and did music too.
Right? Right.
(03:24):
Absolutely.
Not giving any bad girl.
I love it.
So, so, um, so I decided that I wanted to try actually doing a longer form, and it took me literally probably six years to craft the world.
So it's a series builtin full world building.
(03:46):
Lot went into this.
Yes.
Um, uh, yes, I can see that because you do an amazing job across genre, which we're gonna really dig into, uh, in just a few minutes.
So let's go back.
So.
Again, you are a recovering attorney.
(04:08):
Yes.
Recovering.
Recovering attorney.
You never get a And I have disease.
Right? Well, I've had so many guests on this channel who are or have been recovering attorneys and they turn to writing.
There must be something there.
You know, you got your John Grisham.
And maybe even Scott Au I think was a recovering, um, attorney.
(04:31):
But anyway, it, it just seems to be a natural.
Crossover for a lot of people.
So I saw, I worked in the legal department, I was in, I worked with a lot of people who had been artists before.
Um, and then they went legal.
And what happens? Yeah.
What happens is we all, so I did music and stuff, so what happens? We we're all doing this stuff and we're realizing I'm not gonna get any money with this.
(04:55):
Right.
When we're first doing that, that right.
And we go, okay.
What do I have going for me? I'm smart.
Okay.
I took the LSAT and we all kind of ended up in the legal profession and I don't know a whole lot of lawyers that are actually happy.
Right.
Ah.
Um, so you do it for a while and you, I as legal jobs, I had a good one.
But it's then when we get a chance to get away from it, when we've earned enough money, when we've had enough experience, we're like, okay, what can I do now to go back to that thing that I love so much? And it's always infused my life with meaning.
(05:27):
And then we do this.
So, right.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Well, you know, your depth of life, your depth of living has given you a very rich experience, um, to knowing about different cultures.
Even, even in the United States where it's, you know, each state has a kind of different culture.
(05:49):
They don't realize that.
Right.
E Exactly.
And so yes, because they see us as the whole mm-hmm.
United States, you know, and think one thing.
Um, but, so you've had a, a very rich life.
Now when you were younger, I'm sure when your family was moving around and you couldn't make concrete friends for very long before there was any social media, you probably didn't feel that way, but that's what it has.
(06:16):
Evolutionized, uh.
Into, and that's where I see, and you correct me if I'm wrong, that's what I see.
You have this ability, and I really will say to you, I don't think I've interviewed anyone today on my channel who has done this cross genre writing.
(06:37):
Mm-hmm.
And to this degree and can keep up with all of this, I, I don't think I've, I've ever had anybody to do this, so this is something I really wanna dive into.
Sure.
Because it's, it's definitely genius and.
O one of the audiences I do talk to, also people who are aspiring writers 'cause avid readers, a lot of the times are aspiring writers.
(07:05):
Okay, so you said it just a few minutes ago that it took you six years to create the world.
And I've had some book coaches on this channel One, a guy that really specialized in only fantasy world building 'cause Well, that's the main.
Where you'd have to build war in fantasy.
(07:26):
Right? But tell us about your process over the course of six years of building this world.
So it kind of started, it started a bit small.
So it started with, I had characters in my head, right? Mm-hmm.
I had people that I had crafted in my head just from news stories or hearing something right? And a few of them I liked so much that I wanted to find a space for them.
(07:51):
Right.
Wow.
Um, and I was always a reader as well, and I read.
Cross genre.
I read Acro a bunch of different things.
It was big fan.
Mm-hmm.
Water Took Down was one of my favorite books.
Very fantasy.
Mm-hmm.
Um, I read Horror, I read HP Lovecraft and Stephen King.
I read, um, I read all the cheesy romance, teenage romance novels when I was, I read Flowers in the Attic.
(08:15):
Right.
Oh, I did too.
I read the whole thing.
Yeah.
And watch the lifetime movies.
Exactly.
You know, it's like we look at the, you, you look now at like the Gen Zs and they're like cuddled with the, oh, we only want empathy books.
We read this, this stuff.
Right.
You know? Absolutely.
We were traumatized by this, um, Stephen King.
(08:35):
Yeah.
So, so I, I use all of those things.
I used the.
The things that I had, um, loved in characters and I sort of use it to combine characters.
And then how I kind of created the world is I had a mindset that one of the reasons I want to write is that I have seen a lot of beautiful and interesting things.
(09:00):
I have experienced a lot of things that maybe people haven't experienced.
That's true.
And what I decided I wanted to do is capture those moments.
In books so I can share them.
And they don't die when I die, right? That's right.
That's right.
So this is, this is part of what the world building thing is for me, crafting.
And also they say, right to answer your own questions.
(09:23):
And this series, which is a long series, it's eight books long.
I've written all of them summer in various, various stages of edit.
The first four are out, the fifth one will come out this fall, and the others are in done, but in various stages of edit.
Wow.
My, the question I'm answering for myself through the end is, what is consciousness? Mm.
(09:47):
The big questions.
Right.
Um, how does love play? That's a huge question.
Yeah.
How does love play into this? And so that, and then to do this, I crafted different stories and this kind of gets into the books, but the first three books of the series are mm-hmm.
(10:07):
Can be read in any order, no order required.
It can be read in any order.
Yep.
Okay.
No order required.
Okay.
All of them are, but yet, but there's the same characters in the three.
No.
This is what? No.
Oh, because they're in the same world.
Yeah.
So what happens? What happens is the, the, all these three books have paranormal in romance, but they also have a subgenre.
(10:32):
As well.
So CYO is a paranormal romance, but it is also a legal fiction, and it, it works with the themes of appearance versus reality.
Okay? It, it has in it a woman.
A woman meets someone who appears to be a late teenager and clearly is not.
(10:56):
And all this is, and with a legal mystery as well.
The second book, which is called Bright Midnights.
It's a paranormal romance, but also a coming of age novel.
Um, high school setting us, right? Yes.
Yes.
High school.
High school in North Carolina.
Wow.
Okay.
Okay.
And it's, ya.
(11:16):
It's ya.
Yeah.
Um, and wow.
The third book You'll love is, was, was actually said in North Carolina.
It is called Family Fireflies.
It is a paranormal romance, but also historical fiction said in the 1940s in World War ii.
Mm-hmm.
And it is partially a family story for me.
I put stuff with my family in it and it's the story of a.
(11:40):
Poor white woman living in the South who works in a cigarette factory who works at the draft office on the weekends and ends up processing an African American soldier who she falls in love with.
Oh, wow.
And all of the, the stuff that comes from that.
Wow.
So that and all of, yeah.
Yeah.
Um, that book's going on book tour, uh, in a few weeks, I think.
(12:01):
But absolutely.
And in all of those books, um, all those characters, all these stories come together in a fourth book called Ghosting Academy.
And that is a psychological thriller.
Oh.
With VR technology, elite agents and spiritual unraveling.
(12:24):
Oh man.
So, oh, oh gosh.
I'm just like taken aback.
They all come together in Ghosting Academy and it does make sense.
Oh my goodness.
Okay.
Now let me ask you, so you're saying that, um, some of these are paranormal, so sometimes, uh, I think I mentioned Stephen King just a, in passing a few minutes ago.
(12:50):
So I used to read all of his books, but then I was like, well, I can no longer read this type of book anymore.
Hmm.
So for those readers who.
Can't see themselves reading paranormal.
Can you tell us a little bit about your paranormal activity in these books to maybe, maybe it's not like horror, but what it, how, how is that infused? So in my books, the horror you see is only the horror people do to other people.
(13:25):
Ah, okay.
And there is some of that in spas.
I will tell you.
Right, right, right, right.
But Mo, all my books are urban fiction.
Right.
So it's, there is, there are paranormal elements in it and it's, there's no vampires, there's no werewolves.
We is casting spells.
No, no, nothing like that.
(13:46):
Um, but you do have spirits and you have Yes.
Um, uh, ghosts and you have, um, different, different types of, of spirits, like, um, and it, but it's not, it isn't he? It isn't hardcore.
Um, it isn't hardcore horror.
(14:08):
It starts getting more horror and ghost academy.
But I will tell you, check your trigger warnings.
Because as I said, this is what people do to people.
Yes.
And there's a lot of that in this and there's, there's a lot of people who have been abused, like, like in Kayo, Sarah.
Right.
Starting out.
I actually based her on a number of my friends who have been in relationships and she, she's in an abusive relationship When the book starts.
(14:35):
Gotcha.
And, and is so deeply entrenched in a abusive relationship.
She doesn't even see it as abusive.
She just sees it as she's not worth anything.
Right.
Ugh.
Um, and so this book is about her.
Coming out of that and seeing a world.
Wonderful.
Yeah.
And seeing a world that exists that is not just beyond what she thought of herself, but beyond what she knew for the good and bad.
(14:58):
Basically, the scope of her world went from this to this with mm-hmm.
With, it's the spectrum.
The bad gets much worse, the potential for bad, but also the good gets much better.
So the creation and destruction there.
So this is in this, the book of Kio is all really about.
Appearance versus reality.
So what is being presented as being good and right is actually not.
(15:20):
Mm-hmm.
And what is presented as this isn't good, this isn't right, is actually okay or good or loving, right? So it's very much looking at that and the people that I found that had some issues with this book, because what an appearance of an age gap, right? Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
The truth is the character of Kyle, although looking about 16, seventies and 136 years old.
(15:42):
Oh, okay.
Wow.
And it becomes pretty, pretty apparent really fast for her because she's super smart, very trained in this stuff, but there's a connection between them and there's a connection that goes on from past lives Right.
As well.
Ah, got you.
So there's a lot of stuff in that.
So, but she has to learn how to step up, how to value herself, how to mm-hmm.
(16:05):
Value doing something that is good and right.
And I will tell you that the legal.
Fitness.
Mm-hmm.
The legal is partially something that I dealt with and the reason I left family law.
Oh, yes, yes.
Wow.
So, so I do bring my life into this and things that I've experienced.
Absolutely.
(16:26):
Absolutely.
And the, and that you should.
Well, it's, I feel like, you know, it's, it's kind of hiding my life and things like, I would never be bold enough to write an autobiography.
No, I just hide and stuff.
Right? Um, I'm, I'm not that, I'm not that brave.
Um, but it allows you, it also allows you to, um, to give voice to people you wanted to give voice to.
(16:53):
So in the, the third book, fanning Fireflies, the one that sat in the south.
There's, I put characters in this were people I knew and people that, for example, one of the characters, um, I gave her a good ending because she.
Uh, she was a good friend of mine and she got me my first job, and she actually got killed by people who came into her house and killed her and stuffed her body into a, an oil bin.
(17:20):
Um, oh my gosh.
Yeah, and she was a beautiful woman and a wonderful person, and she didn't have a chance to have a life, right.
So I wanted to give her a chance to have a life.
And so I put her in this, I put my.
Uncle who was a stutterer shows up as a character in this.
So this one is very, very much a lot my friends and family.
And the, the, the, it does talk about the really horrible systemic racism.
(17:46):
Not systemic, just awful racism in the south at that time.
Right? Absolutely, absolutely.
Um, and how the separation was driven so much by the powers in control.
Right.
Yes.
There was a, there was a lot of cultural commonality between the poor working class white people and the African Americans.
Right? Absolutely.
(18:06):
But they kept separated.
Right.
Absolutely.
As they're today.
As they're today.
No, that's exactly what they're doing.
What people, we won't talk to political, but people in power, right? Right.
What they want to do is those who are those who actually achieve their wealth by having wealth before and just investing and having this history of wealth.
(18:29):
Right? They are.
They're different from literally everybody else.
Everybody who's working for a living.
Right.
Absolutely.
You're all pretty much the same.
Right? And we all have the same goals the way, I mean, and across the world, right? Right.
When I went to China, I remember, I remember thinking that first time I went to China, I went by myself.
It was the day after we bombed their embassy accidentally.
(18:49):
I was like, I'm gonna die right? Here I am, I'm gonna die here.
Yeah.
And I walked, absolutely.
Walked through the airport, the guys in the communist outfits and like, I was like, oh yeah, they're taking me.
It's gonna happen.
Yeah.
And I get out, there's my Blue American passport, they're seeing me and I'm like, damn, I'm screwed.
And um, yes.
So, so, but I get out, make it through, and I go, and the first thing that happens is this.
(19:10):
Little girl comes up to me and says in English, my grandmother would like me to practice English with you.
And that was it.
It's just people want, and she wanted it because it was good for her, you know, to learn English better, to get, and people just want to have their family take care of people they love.
We all have these very basic needs.
(19:32):
Yeah.
And very basic wants.
Yeah.
And it's when people start getting that thing for power, that's when things start going real wrong.
Right.
And there we are.
Right? Absolutely.
And you, you have me right there.
I, I, I, I will not challenge you on that at all.
It's a movie that comes to mind.
It's called The Free State of Jones.
(19:54):
If you've never seen it, check it out.
It starts Matthew McConaughey, and that points out everything you just said.
Free state of Jones.
Matthew McConaughey, check it out.
Um, so now you've got the fifth book that's coming out this fall, and what's the name of that book? Lence.
(20:16):
Lence.
Okay.
And so what, what does that, this is the Lence series.
Yes.
What does that mean? So Lence is the, the type of falling in love that people do, that people consider crazy.
Right.
It's like, it's like when you, when you meet someone and it's like you're just overwhelmed and it makes you nuts.
Vincent Van Gogh cutting off the ear stuff, right? Yes, yes, yes.
(20:40):
But when I looked at this, I'm questioned, I've questioned that because, because of the nature of attractions, right? Is is it always that or is that something that's almost.
Chemical and biological, like there's a lot of physics in this series as well, but you, you don't even have to really think about it.
It's just, it's, it's basically told to you, so you don't have to worry.
(21:01):
People don't have to worry about it, but that much, but, right.
Um, the second book, uh, bright Midnights is about attraction in all of its forms, good, bad, and ugly.
Um.
Mm-hmm.
And the, this book Limerence coming out is seeing the other side of these stories.
So up to this point, the, you've seen these characters.
The point of view characters had been Emily, who's a 17-year-old girl in bright midnights.
(21:23):
Sarah, who's a woman in her forties, and, um, Veronica, who is a woman in her early twenties.
Okay.
And they've been, and Ghost Academy's back to Emily's point of view, but when she's older, she's like in her thirties.
Okay.
And you've seen kind of the paranormal stuff that's been.
(21:44):
Around them, shadowing them.
Things that happen, you learn a bit, a bit more about it in bright midnights.
Mm-hmm.
But in Ghosting Academy, you see, you learn about these agencies involved in controlling power in the world.
Right? Ah mm-hmm.
And so there's one that they're all encountering and, and this one says this other group is evil and Lence is showing you the other side, right? Yes.
(22:09):
And, and those characters from Limerick show up in Fanning fireflies, you see them a little bit.
There's a lot of crossover in, in my books.
I have spreadsheets all over the place of setups and payoffs and yeah.
Oh, wow.
I can't even imagine.
Must you're a north? Yes.
Well, definitely.
You know, you said you can read the first three in any order, so, and also they're on kin, they're on Kindle Unlimited right now.
(22:34):
Oh, okay.
Okay.
I think, well, I've got my Kindle.
I think I'm going, I'm really intrigued by fanning fireflies.
Definitely.
And so the other books that are in the editing process, give us a just a little overview of how those three are gonna come to play, and will that end your series? So in the series will end in the eighth book, but okay.
(23:01):
There will, there will be, because this is a full world and because you meet a lot of people in it, there are side stories that come from their stories.
So right now I'm actually writing a book, a new book about one of the characters that you see in Ghost Academy.
It's kind of her backstory, right? So I like, I'm an author who everybody I put on page, because I'm neurotic, I have, I, I know their full backstory.
(23:26):
I can tell I'm not making crap up.
Right.
And if I don't know, I will tell you.
I don't know.
Right.
But, um Right.
But that I could ride in this world for literally 20 years.
There's that much in it.
Yes.
Yes.
Well, it took you six years, so definitely make the most of this world.
Absolutely.
(23:46):
Yep.
Oh, I can tell you, I imagine, I can tell you for the next few books I can, I can't tell you too much because it's, you know.
Because they'd be giving too much away.
But I can tell you the point of view characters.
So, um, in Limerence that comes out in the fall, the point of view character is a person you haven't, you haven't, hadn't had the floor before, which is Dante, who is a ghost.
(24:07):
Um, okay.
Oh, and then, and he's so much more a ghost and so much more.
Okay.
Um, he actually was.
When he died, he was, um, in Carthage and he was from Tunisia originally.
Oh.
So he, um, we're going ancient times.
Yeah.
And um, and then, uh, Kara is his partner and she was all, she was actually from that same kind of time, right? Mm-hmm.
(24:38):
And, um, so they're the point.
He's the, he's the point of view and she's kind of.
She has created this thing.
And then, um, for the book after that is called Mirrored Lands.
The point of view is, is, um, Emily again, who's the one, one from Bright Midnights, but also a character I can't tell you about because it's really a surprise.
And then the, um, the next book after that is called Outliers, and it is the point of view of Sarah from CYO again and Dante.
(25:05):
And then the last book is called Verite and it's got three points of view, but I can't really talk about those, but that's kind of the end, so Wow.
Wow.
I do this.
Okay.
I just love this.
This is very, very fascinating to me, and so I'm sure all of these will be very fascinating to my listeners and my blog readers because you know, you could literally take one.
(25:37):
And move on if you wanted to because the first three are not to be read in order or anything like that.
Um, but then this, this is this.
Oh, that's what a beautiful cover.
These are the pretty shiny covers, by the way.
I will be at New York Comic Con this year.
Oh, really? Yes.
(25:58):
What is that? It is October 9th through 12th.
Okay.
This is Fanning fireflies, the pretty cover.
Oh, another beautiful.
Oh, that's beautiful.
Oh my.
I love these new covers.
I love them.
Oh, beautiful.
And the, the edges.
Have you seen the books with the beautiful edges? Yes, I've thought about that, but I haven't done it.
(26:23):
Edges.
Yes.
Oh, it's beautiful.
Okay.
All right.
So I like, just wanna go get all your, your books as if I'm not reading like eight books right now at the same time.
I admire that a lot.
This is why this channel is called Bookaholic.
(26:43):
I have a problem.
I'm telling you.
So, Lexi, thank you so much for joining me today.
I think your book and thought processes about your book are totally fascinating.
Thank you.
But of course, you.
Came from UNC Chapel Hill.
So yes, be brilliant.
(27:03):
And so what we'll do is we'll have in our podcast show notes and in the video description box on YouTube, we'll have your information links to your books, et cetera.
Lexi, thank you so much for joining me from Paris, France.
Thank you so much for having me.
(27:23):
Thank you.
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