Lexy is the award-winning author of The Limerent Series, a genre-defying collection of novels that blend supernatural romance with mystery, psychological thriller, historical fiction, and suspense. Now based in Paris, she lives with her French husband and two very cool sons.

Author Q&A

Which author did you aspire to be when you were growing up?

I had a really wide span of interests when it came to books. On one hand, I was a horror girlie and read a lot of Stephen King, Clive Barker, and even H.P. Lovecraft when I was under 10. On the other hand, I was very into fantasy. I actually read The Fellowship of the Ring when I was in third grade. The teacher didn’t believe that I had read it, so my father had to come in and assure her that I had.

One of the things that was different when I was growing up was that genres were not so deeply entrenched in the business of books. Stories could belong to a genre but stray outside of it a lot. I found that the stories I liked best were the ones that were cross-genre.

It’s almost like cooking. When you make a salty dish, it helps to put a bit of sugar in it for contrast. The same is true in books. If you put some romance in with your horror, it ups the stakes. Adding paranormal to historical gives you something completely new. This is why I ended up being a cross-genre writer. At the end of the day, life is a story with many elements. At some points in your life, you may be living a romance; at others, you might be living a thriller.

What is it that most inspires you to keep writing?

I’m always inspired by my family, my readers, and my characters. Characters sort of just appear in my head, and I grow to love them. Because I love them, I want to give them a story to live in. And then that story has to be good enough for them. It’s kind of stressful, but beautiful at the same time.

How do you put yourself in the mind of a reader?

I’m very lucky in that my family beta reads my books. My husband is a low-attention-span kind of reader. So if I blather on too long about something, or if the exposition gets too extensive, he will absolutely let me know. My oldest son, on the other hand, wants Easter eggs. He wants detail, worldbuilding, and nuance. My youngest son is actually my developmental editor, so he is a stickler for structure and pacing.

For myself, as a reader, one of my pet peeves is when the writing in a book pulls me out of the story. So the one thing I don’t want to do in something I write is overkill on exposition or description.

How do you think our relationship with literature has been impacted by modern times?

This is a great question, and I’m actually working on a project related to this right now. We are a watching society more than a reading society. On one hand, there is this desperate need for “content,” and yet fewer than 200 books per year are made into movies or series. Social media, AI, and even the widespread use of smartphones have decreased our attention span and our tolerance for waiting.

On one hand, people don’t have the tolerance to watch more than 30 seconds of a video clip on social media, and yet on the other they will literally scroll for hours watching one small clip after another. Because of this, I personally believe that people are beginning to crave depth and originality, as our society doesn’t promote it and offers less of it.

This is what I love about being an Indie author. Readers who embrace Indie books are often looking for something new and different and are unafraid of taking a chance on something they haven’t heard of before.

What are you looking forward to most about Pascify?

Meeting the readers, hands down. There is something really wonderful about people who are passionate about books. All writers started out as readers.

What is one thing people might not know about you?

I am a jack of all trades, and master of none. I have been an actress, a musician, a scientist, an international attorney, a risk manager, a travel writer and now a novelist. I was one of the first employees at 23andME, the genetic start-up in California because my undergraduate was a triple major in chemistry, biology and nutrition . Also, when I was in a band we had a video on MTV. Admittedly it was only once and probably about five people saw it in the middle of the night, but it was on MTV!

What is the best piece of advice you were ever given?

If I can change this question just a little bit to what is it that I realised that most helped me in this journey. And that would be the moment that I realised that being a self published author is being a “start up”. It’s being an entrepreneur. And start-ups have a certain lifespan. If you’re in business and doing a start up, no one expects you to be making a profit for about five years. I think this little piece of information helped me give myself a bit of grace when it came to expectations that I have of myself. So I like to share that with others.

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