We chat with author Lily Anderson about Showstopper, which is a young adult horror about seventeen-year-old Faye and her friends who try to survive the summer when their theater camp turns into a real-life horror show. PLUS we have an excerpt to share with you at the end of the interview!
Hi, Lily! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi! My name is Lily Anderson and I am the author of SCOUT’S HONOR, UNDEAD GIRL GANG, and other books for young adults. I’m a lifelong Californian and former elementary school librarian. I write books that are campy and cinematic, with a particular focus on female friendships and the mixed race experience.
Your latest novel, Showstopper, is out now! What can readers expect?
SHOWSTOPPER is a YA slasher novel alá Scream that’s set at a musical theatre summer camp. It asks the question “who would want to kill a bunch of theatre kids?” and answers it with “well, everyone, we’re the worst.” You can expect frenemies, superstitions, gory kills, sweet romance, and a killer in a commedia dell’arte mask.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I’ve always wanted to write a theatre book. I grew up in a youth theatre conservatory where we did three shows a year and rehearsed upwards of twenty hours a week. Not only did we perform in a theatre with a 300 seat audience, we also did shows at high schools and county fairs and local award shows. It was intense. It was life altering. It was really strange. We were kids but we were held to the standard of professionals. So we had the grudging respect of coworkers and the absolute melodrama of a bunch of hormonal competitive teenagers who kept falling in love with each other.
Writing SHOWSTOPPER was a way to look back at my own teen years with twenty years of hindsight and see how bizarre the whole thing was. And to add in a serial killer, just for pizzazz.
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