Lorelei’s Lit Lair Recommends… Lights Out Lucy by Elicia Hyder ~PLUS Giveaway!

I joined the Nashville Rollergirls back in 2010 during a tumultuous time in my personal life. My first husband had been killed about eighteen months before in a texting-and-driving incident, and I was not handling the aftermath of that tragedy well. I stopped writing. Dated awful men. Partied too much. When I decided to dress up as a rollergirl for Halloween, a friend asked a Nashville player if I could borrow her jersey for my costume. That player, Lady Fury, asked him, “What? Is she too big of a &%$$# to play the sport herself?”

Challenge accepted.

The Nashville Rollergirls were recruiting “Fresh Meat” so I decided to try out for the team. It was amazing. My life was transformed as I became a part of this wonderful derby family. While the sport conditioned my body and gave me an outlet for some pent-up hurts and frustrations, the relationships really helped me piece my broken life back together. Years later, we’re all still friends. And as for Lady Fury, the legendary skater whose taunt pushed me to join…she works for me now, coordinating reader parties at roller derby bouts all over the world.

Lights Out Lucy tells the story of a young woman who moves to Nashville for a fresh start following the loss of her mother to cancer. It was actually inspired by my daughter, Frostfire (her derby name), and my own cancer battle.

Frostfire was almost old enough to join junior roller derby when I was diagnosed with stage-two Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I was in the bathtub—probably planning my funeral because that’s what you do when you’re diagnosed with cancer—and I could hear the unmistakable sound of roller skates on the driveway. She was practicing in my old derby skates.

I wondered if she, too, would find her healing in the roller derby world once I was gone. And thus, the idea for the novel was born. Thankfully, now I’m cancer free, and I’m officially a derby mom. She plays junior roller derby.