Lexy Delorme is the author behind The Limerent Series, a thoughtful and beautifully told exploration of different realities and different perspectives. To celebrate the release of her second release in the series, Bright Midnights, What We Reading sat down with Lexy to talk about everything from the series, the importance of empathy to how her works have become a complete family project!
Thanks for speaking with us, Lexy! First off, tell us a bit about yourself and what led you to the world of writing.
In short, I am an ex-musician, ex-scientist, expat travel writer, and recovering attorney. I currently live in Paris but move with my super cool family every 5 years or so. Since my kids were been born, we have lived in DC, Silicon Valley, Paris, Hong Kong, London and back to Paris. My sons are budding doctors, musicians, businessmen and film-makers.
As for writing, for me, it’s like therapy… just cheaper. Writing fiction gives you a place where you can put all the attractions that you probably shouldn’t feel, all the thoughts you’re not comfortable saying out loud, and all the rage that you can’t vent because you would kill people. As most writers are not individuals but a collection of individuals trying to find a way to live together in one brain, fiction allows them to make a home for all these people who live rent-free inside their heads. It’s also a place where you can capture unique moments in life that impact you or that make you feel deeply.
While we live, these moments stay with us, but when we die, they die too. When you put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, you put these things out there in the world where they can be read by others. This means that they have a life outside of you and outside of your own head, and that’s something that is really compelling to me. I like the idea that these amazing moments that I’ve had in life don’t disappear when I disappear.
Talk to us about Bright Midnights. What is it about, and how was the process of bringing it to life?
The Bright Midnights story started as part of a 1,000,000-word mega story. It took me a while to come to my senses and realize that it would be better to tell this story over several books, as it would allow me to create more complex and nuanced character arcs as well as give multiple POV perspectives. It also allowed me to create different overarching themes for each book. For example, in Caio, I explore themes that relate to time, the way we perceive it and our places in it. Bright Midnights explores the idea of attraction in all its forms, healthy vs unhealthy, flesh vs spirit, and conscious vs elemental. This whole book series has been demanding and super fun to write.
What is the number one goal you want your work to have with readers?
I want to make you feel something; to make you think about things in a different way. I also love showing the other side of a story that readers think they can guess. In terms of characters, I don’t have characters that are predominantly good or even predominantly bad. My characters are very much a mix.
Everyone has good and bad sides, and everyone has a backstory. I think when a person reads a story and begins to understand a character’s backstory, it’s another way to help people see a perspective other than their own. Today’s world has become extremely judgemental. Everyone has an opinion, and everybody believes that those opinions are fact. We exist in these little echo Chambers where our opinions are never challenged. Fiction helps us step outside that because it starts with character, and we are drawn into a character’s life from their point of view. You see what they see, you feel what they feel. So, you understand them, even if they’re not like you and that’s a unique opportunity that writers have to expand people’s horizons, to help people have empathy for people who might not be like them. I think the world is very short on empathy these days.
As a world, we really need people who can understand other people who aren’t like them, whether they agree with them or not on whatever topic. There’s a lot of segmentation now and I think it’s dangerous.
What do you think makes you stand out as an author?
One thing that’s probably different is that I had a bit of a tumbleweed childhood. I think differently from someone who was more stationary in life and had more stability growing up. This gives me a kind of a natural understanding of the outsider’s perspective. Also, my family was weird. I know everyone’s family has weird components but mine was weird in an Adam’s family-esque sort of way.
From the story creation side, I’m lucky in that I tend to see what I write as little movies in my head. So, before I put my fingers to keyboard, I’ve seen it in my head. I’ve created it like it is a little internal video. I supplement that with random pictures and other bits and scraps of visuals from places that I’ve been or people that I’ve known. Then, I put all that into the movie in my head. Sometimes I even dream full movies in my sleep, with all the visuals there. My brain then casts actors that I have seen into the parts. James McAvoy seems to be a favourite of my brain. Sometimes these dream movies actually have a soundtrack. I really wish I could just plug something in my head to capture that because I don’t have the skill for notation.
What would you say has been your biggest success so far?
The fact that this book and the series have been part of a family project. I wrote the stories. All the members of my family have read my books for readability and interest. My youngest son has done developmental editing… for the entire series of seven books. He started doing this when he was 12. My oldest son has been involved in the more conceptual side of it, like themes, imagery, and character development. He has also turned out to be the master of writing blurbs.
My husband, along with my youngest son, created our own publishing company and have been learning about marketing, PR, and sales strategies. My youngest is also very much into media & film and, so he has created, directed, and is producing a teaser trailer for this book.
If you could go back in time to one book you read for the first time, what would it be and why?
Watership Down because his world-building was absolutely phenomenal. Who would have thought that I would cry so much reading a story about rabbits? I can’t even talk about Big Wig’s final fight with the General without crying.
What’s one tip you would give your younger self if you had the opportunity?
I think the first thing would be to just write and keep ALL of it. Write anything and everything: essays, poems, lyrics, short stories, novellas, legal briefs, anything. The more you write, the better you get and the more you perfect your “voice”. I would tell myself to shut down the critical voices in my head and not be too concerned about writing crap, that’s what editing is for.
In the beginning, just put something on paper. I would also tell myself to learn a bit about the structure of books, but not to obsess about it. You can take 50 classes about writing, but if you don’t actually write, it won’t do you any good. Try to get enjoyment out of doing crappy writing.
And finally, what do you hope the future holds for you and your writing?
I guess my dream would be that there are enough people who love the series and the characters that it would have fanfiction. Another dream is that the story becomes a movie or series, but that’s probably every writer’s dream.
Check out all of Lexie’s work by following her on Amazon, Twitter/X or on her website
Check out our interview with Terry Dee
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
