My chosen name is Lilly Roan, and I am writing in the dark. 

I share fiction and creative nonfiction stories bent across numerous “genre” lines.  While I have written some lighthearted pieces, my primary focus is on the exploration of the darker side of human nature, particularly the everyday violences we often overlook in our society, such as addiction, sexism, and domestic abuse.  (Although, dark humor is a well earned side effect of trauma.)

I am vehemently against being penned into one genre or one style of writing. Compelling character development and engaging plot are equally important to enduring stories.  I believe literary and horror can mingle, magic can be sophisticated, and memoir can merge with the speculative.  Here you will find the monsters that lurk behind a hero’s mask and experience the wickedness of doing the “right” thing.  There is nothing black and white about life or art and there is no such thing as a happy ending.  My voice can certainly be gritty at times, but that is not why I say I am writing in the dark.     

As Hasanthika Sirisena wrote in her essay “Broken Arrow,” from her book Dark Tourist, “Each of us takes our own risks in near darkness.”  Writing is taking risks – that is what elevates the words to art – and those risks are taken by the writer from a place of unknowing – of darkness.  It is risk to form something so intensely personal – fiction or nonfiction– and then release it into the world to be impressed upon and transformed by whoever reads it.  Every piece of literature I create, no matter how strange or weird, there is a piece of me in the work and it is an enormous risk to reveal oneself in such a way. 

Therefore, I am writing in the dark.  And, while brave to do so, it is a privilege I don’t take for granted, particularly after a horse riding accident in 2018 resulted in a brain injury.  I am so happy you are here to read some of my work and I am so happy I am here continuing to write.

On this website, you will find my contact information, my bio, and, of course, links to where to read or purchase my publications.

Also, consider signing up for my substack newsletter, The Roan Writer, to receive updates about my upcoming publications, links of placing to submit your writing, craft talks, and occasional musings on the writing life.  It’s like a directly delivered blog but with kelpies.