… Lily Seabrooke

1. What’s the time of the day when you feel most like yourself?

Any time I’m writing. I’ve been writing at 1pm and 7pm every day lately, so, I’m going to say 1pm and 7pm.

2. What’s your coffee order? 

Oh, I never order coffee! I make it at home. I’m super particular. Generally, I either have a two-shot 8-oz americano at 175°F or a soy latte heated to 140°F, but I mix it up sometimes. Peppermint mochas are in for the holidays now!

3. How would you describe yourself in three words?

Bad at following rules.

4. What do you think of garden gnomes?

My sibling-in-law played a gnome character in D&D with me, and his name was Jeremy Fuckstick Flip-Wizard, and all he did was scream and curse and punch dicks and talk about his erectile dysfunction, so frankly gnomes are kind of ruined for me…

5. What’s the one thing you can’t live without?

My girlfriend!

6. What makes you smile?

Ugh, everything. Good writing days. Coffee. Nice bike rides. Stormy weather. Baking something delicious. My girlfriend! Life is full of joys.

7. Do you believe in soulmates?

I absolutely do, and I love mine!!

8. What author would you have over for dinner and what would you serve? 

Bryce Oakley, and it’d be something with oat milk. Don’t tell her I said that.

9. What makes you cry?

I’m nine months on estrogen, and right now, everything makes me cry. Cute bunnies? Time to cry. Thinking about a sad scene in a book? Yep, that’s crying. My girlfriend is just really amazing? That’s worth crying over!

10. What’s your best feature?

Uh, all of them?

11.  What would you like to be remembered for?

Writing a lot of books. I plan to be one of those authors where you need three separate Wikipedia category pages to list all their books.

12. Best gift you’ve ever given?

One time while I was studying abroad in Japan I baked a birthday cake for someone who lived in my apartment complex who I hardly knew just because she said she’d never had a birthday cake before! Now that I’m saying this, I’m wondering if it’s a bad thing on my part that the best gift I’ve given was to a relative stranger…

13. In a crowded room, what makes you notice a woman?

I’m gonna be honest here, the idea of me actually noticing something in my surroundings is kind of a non-starter.

14. What are your morning and evening rituals?

In the morning, I get up, forget to make my bed, brush my teeth, do a double facial cleanse, apply sunscreen, moisturize, and do an oil pulling with coconut oil before going about my day. In the evening, I brush my teeth, apply my night moisturizer, take my progesterone, get into bed, and wonder why my bed isn’t made.

15. What would be the title of your autobiography? 

Who would be reading my autobiography? Uh, probably something like, “Look, It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time.”

16. Three women you’d have over for dinner and what would you serve? 

Sappho, Emily Dickinson, and Lucy Bexley. I’d serve lasagna.

17. What’s the one thing you’d want the 18 year-old you to know?

That writing thing you decided to try taking seriously is going to work out GREAT. Just trust me on this one, okay?

18. What’s your least favorite food and why?

Well, meat, probably, because I’m a vegetarian. Aside from that, alliums, because I have a dietary intolerance. Aside from that… probably grapefruit. I got sick after eating one once and now they just taste like sick.

19. If you could choose one song to be played every time you enter a room, what song would that be and why? 

Céline Dion’s Unfinished Songs. I always need the reminder we’re all works in progress and that’s a good thing. (Plus, it’s just a bop, okay?)

20. What’s the one book you wish you could read again for the first time?

One?? You can’t put me on the spot with stuff like “one.” This is unacceptable. Maybe it’s recency bias, but The Flaw in Our Design by Monica McCallan is at least my favorite book I’ve read this year, so maybe I’ll go with that one?