Meet a Host (Lia)

Since we bill ourselves as “American Romance Novelists” for the pod, I thought it would be a good idea to give ya’ll a bit of context on our own writing journeys as they are quite different!

I was a Creative Writing-Poetry major for my undergrad. If you think this choice was a source of stress to my parents—you’d be correct! After graduating I published a few poems in literaryjournals and wrote travel magazine articles here and there until I got busy getting my Masters and working in nonprofit management. Flash forward to me having a couple small kids and moving to a new state for my husband’s career. I had no job and decided to be a stay at home mom for a few years. While I love my children, spoiler: I am not amazing at being a full-time mom.

It was about that time I thought “I’ve had ideas to write again here and there but like…what if I just…did it?” So I spent a year writing this long historical saga set on a convict ship going from England to an Australian penal colony. I finished it! Then I was unsure what to do next. The book had clear romantic elements and as I researched I found there was this whole thing known as Romance Writers of America. It seemed like a well-represented professional body and I figured that maybe I should head to their conference which was going to be in my state and see what’s up.

Long story short. I went and learned a ton about the industry. I queried my book to agents afterward. I had rejections. But I ended up getting an agent. But really that was a lot of luck because my book? It sucks. It sucks pretty bad. But she believed I had potential. Somehow she managed to pitch me to an editor for a college-age romantic trilogy and I got a deal. Yay! Except I’d written exactly one book and it had taken me a year (and it sucked). Now I was being asked to write a book that didn’t suck every three months.

I also randomly had a weird guy from my past send me a Facebook msg and be like “I wanted to say hi. I dreamed about you every night from PRISON.” So I also decided I also needed a pen name and Lia Riley was born!

So after that…well I wrote a lot. Three months for a book got to six weeks and sometimes four. I wrote a novella in a weekend. I made amazing life friends w/ other authors (including Amy and Megan). I kept getting deals but felt a lot of pressure to say yes to stuff even if I didn’t really connect with the editorial desires (please note I wrote a whole hockey romance series and have watched two hockey games in my life). I was trying to run a my small business and while I had modest success I certainly wasn’t in the big leagues.

I signed for five more books when I got unexpectedly pregnant. So I wrote through morning sickness. I wrote while I wondered if having this baby was going to push me and my husband over the mental cliff. I wrote in the hospital after having a baby. I wrote holding the baby. I wrote until I got diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder that I 100% blame on stress.

Then…my husband’s role got eliminated at his organization. He amazingly found an even better job and we didn’t have to move or anything. But the experience shook me. My life didn’t feel sustainable or joyful. I was writing about love and I feel like a stressed out husk.

So I got a day job at the university up the street from my house (where I spend most of my day coaching students on their next steps after graduation). And then I wrote some kid books for an educational company. I started a side business with my agent and we now produce a lot of books (Audible, Random House, HarperCollins, etc) every year for editors who have big ideas and pair them with authors looking for reliable work. My role is to develop the book ideas, work with editors to ensure it’s matched to their taste, and then story board the major plot points. I’ve ghost written a bit (in nonfiction and fiction) and I’m about to ghost write another romance due in February for a big five publisher.

So yeah…that’s my very messy writing journey to date—and I look forward to more nonlinear adventures to come. It’s also why I feel reasonably confident to say that I can speak with authority on story structure and character development.

Korean Dramas have 100% injected joy and love for story back into my veins. I don’t feel like a used up creative husk anymore. And it’s feels plausible that I’ll begin to write my own books again soon—feeling confident I’ve learned some tough lessons and have a clearer idea of my capacity and creativity.

This turned into an unexpected therapy session so if you are still here—thanks! Happy to answer any questions!

And I’m going to tag Amy to be it next ;)