When the Night is Over was the winner in the COMING OF AGE category of the 2024 IndieReader Discovery Awards, where undiscovered talent meets people with the power to make a difference.
Following find an interview with author Lily Foster.
I’m excited to be a category winner for the Indie Discovery Awards. When the Night is Over is the first book in my Blackbird series. I’ve written ten books in total, with this being number seven. If I was known for any one book, I would want it to be this one.
When the Night is Over was published in September of 2020. It tells the story of Charlotte Mason and Simon Wade, two idealistic, headstrong people struggling against the pull of their circumstances. Growing up in what’s basically a post-economic boon ghost town in rural Pennsylvania, they were raised to hate one another’s families because of a tragic event in the past. But the two, who start off as enemies, become first loves, with all the heady, dizzying highs and lows that come along with it. It’s a story that spans nearly a decade, and while Charlotte and Simon do get their happily ever after, it comes after many bumps in the road. It’s a realistic, gritty story; a story that will make you laugh at some points, but also weep.
Writing the book took me over two years, and I know it sounds cliche, but the characters wrote the story, with me at the keyboard to record it. That’s what it feels like when I write. I don’t plot chapters out and I truly don’t know what’s going to happen when I start. Same with the books that follow in the series. I don’t start out with the idea of a second book, or which characters I’ll feature next. It just starts with an idea that I jot down and then I take it from there.
The prologue, subtitled You Don’t Know Me Anymore, starts off with:
The scenery whips by in a blur of brown branches and gray asphalt.
This takes place in the middle of the story, and captures Charlotte’s emotional state, which at this point could be best described as numb. Chapter One takes us back to when Simon and Charlotte first meet, over three years ago.
Who does Charlotte remind me of? She’s more of an ideal, the epitome of what I’d imagine my best self to be. That’s not to say she’s perfect, overly optimistic or always happy—she’s not. But in a subsequent book, another character describes Charlotte as having a spine made of steel, and I think that sums her up.
Simon Wade is a damaged boy from a broken home. Someone who is destined to fail just because the odds are stacked against him. But he’s also highly intelligent, and determined not to let his miserable home town seal his fate. Some readers see him as unkind, someone who uses others to climb the ladder, but I don’t. He’s not a villain in this story, but he’s deeply flawed. Perfect characters are boring to me, as a reader and a writer. Simon is not one dimensional.
Who would I cast? If I had Hulu or Netflix’s ear, I might suggest Thomasin McKenzie for Charlotte and maybe Jacob Elordie for Simon.
I first started writing in 2012. I was reading romances to reboot and relax from a stressful job, and one day I opened my laptop and just started. It was addictive at first, so much so that I wrote the first three books in the Let Me series in about one year. As I improved my craft, I wrote with a more critical eye and much slower. Each book that followed took a minimum of a year, and, as I said, When the Night is Over took more than two years to complete.
I left my job in 2021, not to write full time, but to travel, have experiences that fulfill me, and to write. I’m based in New York and I write when I’m inspired. Coming of Age is my favorite genre to read and to write. My favorite author is a three way-tie between Jandy Nelson, Gayle Forman and S.E. Hinton. If I had to pick only one book I wish I’d written, I would say I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. I’ve probably read it ten times cover to cover. It’s a masterclass on writing.
I’ve never queried agents or publishing houses, but perhaps I should have. I wouldn’t say no if an agent came knocking now because I’m open to that process and there are many areas in which I can improve. And being an Indie is hard, especially when marketing and social media are not things that bring me joy.