1--What is the title of your latest release?
BODIES TO DIE FOR
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
The body image war is moving offline - And fit girls are dying.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
Originally, I had it set at a local bodybuilding show. But then to up the stakes, I moved it to the biggest bodybuilding show of all, the Olympia, which was in Orlando, FL at the time that I wrote BODIES TO DIE FOR (it’s bounced between Orlando and Las Vegas recently).
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
I actually have two protagonists: bikini bodybuilder, Gemma, and diet culture dropout, Ashley. And yes, I would love to hang out with them! This was important to me since they essentially took up residence in my head for a few years.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Gemma: Fit, insecure, driven.
Ashley: Fat, frustrated, smart.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
That, by my estimate, writing the book is 1/6 of getting a book traditionally published. Here’s what I think the breakdown is:
1/6: Write, rewrite, and polish the manuscript as much as you can on your own.
1/6: Have at least three beta readers review the manuscript and provide feedback. Incorporate any feedback that resonates. For feedback that doesn’t resonate but that more than one beta reader had, think long and hard before you reject it (you probably shouldn’t).
1/6: Query and get an agent.
1/6: Rewrite the manuscript with your agent.
1/6: Your agent takes your manuscript on submission. This is the worst part of the whole process. It is mentally grueling because you are so close and there’s nothing that you can do to help.
1/6: Editor acquires manuscript and now you rewrite it again with a developmental and copy editor.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I lightly edit as I go, but don’t get bogged down by it, because it’s very possible that the beautiful sentence, scene, chapter, or character that I slaved over might get cut later in edits.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Oatmeal raisin cookies.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
A second story room with windows on three sides in a 100-year-old Tudor. The walls are covered in a deep red wallpaper, which I never would have been daring enough to pick out myself (it was the previous owners), but I love. The room has two desks. A big desk facing north for my day job (engineer), and a humble desk facing west for my writing. I can’t do both jobs well from the same desk.
10--Who is an author you admire?
Gillian Flynn.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
“Where the Wild Things Are,” by Maurice Sendak. It was my favorite bedtime story when I was a kid and gave me a love of words and story structure. I was fascinated by how I seemed to fall into it each time my mom read it to me. It wasn’t until years later, when I was reading it to my own kids, that I understood why. Sendak employs the run-on sentence to great effect.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
My agent, Jackson Keeler, texted me and asked if I had time to talk. That he had some good news and some bad news. I knew that Blackstone had shown interest in BODIES TO DIE FOR (previously titled Body Wars), and I figured that it was related to that. I was working from home, and told him that I could be available now, or anytime that afternoon. He wrote something like, “Okay, 5 min.”
I walked away from my laptop and sat on a sofa. It was really sunny that day, and I remember studying the light streaming through the windows and thinking: This could be it. This could be the life changing moment. The end of the before. Or it could be soul-crushing news. How bad was the bad news, and how good was the good? Was there an offer or not? I was completely freaking out.
And then it was six minutes, seven, eight, nine…and finally the phone rang. Jackson asked if I wanted the bad or good news first, and I said the bad. He told me that an editor with a different imprint had passed. I was like, “okay.” And then eternity stretched out and I lived and died a full other life. And finally, he said, “So, the good news is that Blackstone made an offer…”
I remember nothing after this.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
Thrillers!
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Fight Club
15--What is your favorite season?
Autumn
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
With a simple cake with my immediate family. I don’t like to make a big deal out of it.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Podcast: The Shit No One Tells You About Writing. If you are a writer, especially one trying to get your first book traditionally published, this podcast is a MUST.
Book: KILL FOR LOVE. I thought this was the best debut in 2023 and it simply did not get enough attention. It’s been likened to American Psycho, except with the tables turned (the psycho is an attractive sorority girl killing men who have objectified her). I believe this was an important book and I’m telling everyone. Also, the writing is phenomenal.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Chinese
19--What do you do when you have free time?
Read, write, lift weights, obstacle course train, boxing, tennis, yoga. I’m addicted to exercise.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
I’m currently working on a standalone thriller, KNOW BY HEART, that delves into the thorny issue of sex work, specifically OnlyFans. There are so many people that want to tell us what we can and can’t do with our bodies. I want to shut them up.
Perfect for fans of You Shouldn’t Have Come Here and None of This Is True, Bodies to Die For is a brilliant psychological thriller that will have readers wondering whether the perfect body really is worth dying for ...
Popular fitness influencer Gemma has transformed herself from a Before into an After, complete with washboard abs, thriving business, and gorgeous husband. But social media can be deceiving. Offline, the cutthroat world of bikini bodybuilding may just eat her alive. That’s if she’s not first devoured by the secret nemesis that lurks beneath her polished surface, waiting to destroy her.
Software engineer Ashley is fat and frustrated. Frustrated with failed diets. With a world that wants her to shrink. With biased doctors, online trolls, and even her own mother. Until Ashley falls in with a mysterious and radical sect of Fat Activists who are fighting back … by any means necessary. She’s never felt so alive, so full of purpose. She’ll do whatever it takes to ride this high, destroy Diet Culture, and win the approval of her charismatic leader.
But when Gemma’s toughest rival turns up dead, and more fitness girls fall like dominoes, it’s beginning to look like the body image war has gone too far.
With breakneck pace and keen insights, Bodies to Die For takes a hard look at social media, the $70 billion diet industry, and the war on women’s bodies—the wars we wage with each other, and with ourselves.
Thriller Psychological | Thriller Crime [Blackstone Publishing, On Sale: June 11, 2024, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9798212191234 / ]
Lori Brand is a lifting enthusiast, group fitness instructor, yoga teacher, and software quality engineer. In past lives, she’s been a gymnast, dancer, Playboy model, and bodybuilder. Her time in the body wars trenches led to her realization that getting strong, rather than shrinking, is the way out. In an effort to spread the word, she’s had articles published in STRONG Fitness Magazine, T-Nation, Inside Fitness Magazine, D’FYNE Fitness Magazine, and more. Bodies to Die For is her first novel.
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