"Not since Mary Shelley and Susan Hill has a 19-year-old girl written at this level." ~ Jasper DeWitt, author of The Patient
Photo by Meg Fitzgerald
Lilah Fitzgerald
Lilah Fitzgerald is a 19-year-old actress best known for roles in Lucky Hank, Seventh Son, Every Thing Will Be Fine, and Nickelodeon’s live-action Monster High franchise. Lilah has also danced professionally as a ballerina in The Nutcracker, Hansel and Gretel, Sleeping Beauty, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Stars & Swashbucklers is Lilah’s debut novel, and the first instalment in The Last Montmorency Saga. Lilah believes that fairy tales save people.
The story follows Anya Marcox ... (with Media Mikes)
Slaying dragons: OCD representation in fantasy.
Future plans for the series.
DIGITAL JOURNAL INTERVIEW EXCERPT:
"I planned for the book to be a hard sci-fi novel, but it spiraled into the fantasy genre very early in the writing process. With a blend of futuristic space travel and enchanted relics, Stars & Swashbucklers is a space opera set in a world with magic in its bones.
Although writing Stars & Swashbucklers was an escape from reality, the monsters I battle in my day-to-day life took on fantastical faces within the pages without me even realizing. OCD haunts my brain daily, and the whispers that haunt Anya are merely a magical version of real mental health challenges that many people experience.
I hope my book can be both an escape and a weapon in the hands of girls like Anya; girls who burn brighter than any of the stars even though the world has tried to dim their flame; average girls who would do anything to be something more; girls who fight the monsters in their minds every day, and just need someone to reassure them that, in the end, they will slay their dragons."
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MEDIUM INTERVIEW EXCERPT:
"I just want to help girls believe in themselves. Writing Stars & Swashbucklers gave me an escape from life, and I hope reading it can be an escape for others. To be blunt: life sucks sometimes. As kids, we really truly believe in magic. We’re waiting to be stolen by faeries and to slay dragons. And then we become teens, and get slapped in the face by reality: You won’t be stolen by faeries, but watch out in parking garages or you’ll be taken by human traffickers. And dragons exist, but not the kind we can slay with a sword and shield. Dragons are doctors who diagnose us with female hysteria instead of listening to our very real symptoms. Dragons are the feeling in our stomach after being catcalled. Dragons are finding out our best friend never saw us as a best friend, he was just trying to sleep with us. Dragons are feeling like we’re always too much or not enough. Dragons are crippling mental health that we can’t talk about, can’t run away from, can’t ignore.
And I think when we grow up reading fairy tales, there’s this feeling of the rug being pulled out from underneath us when we have that final realization that we’re not living in one. Then add in the layer that suddenly we’re supposed to stop reading fairy tales, because they’re childish. But I think fairy tales are the only way to get through life. When I’m struggling, one of the things I do to get through it is pretend I’m one of my favorite fictional characters.
So I guess my real goal with Stars & Swashbucklers is for girls to be able to do that with Anya. To turn intangible dragons into ones that can be slain. I want to help average girls realize they aren’t average at all, that magic is something innate to girlhood. I hope my story can someday save people the way I have been saved."
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RAINE MAGAZINE INTERVIEW EXCERPT:
"My world is very much its own, taking place on the decks of ships and floating islands and blending traditional Celtic faerie lore with sci-fi inventions. But what I hope most is that, despite the magic and monsters and royalty, my book feels real. The best books are the ones that make you forget you’re reading, that make you close the book to join in the conversation before remembering it was happening on the page. Writing Stars & Swashbucklers was an immersive experience, and I hope the world feels as tangible to readers as it does to me. The other factor that I think makes my book unique is that I am the target audience; I’m a teen writing for teens. The voice of the main character is truly the voice of a teenager."