Okay, Elisa, since ALL OF YOU is set in the music industry, today’s lunchtime poll is all about 80s music…

If aliens landed on earth tomorrow, which Duran Duran song would you play them first?
“Planet Earth,” of course. ;)

Ha - I walked right into that one, didn’t I? Speaking of songs, you and your brother wrote “Glossy,” Paisley Parker’s #1 smash hit in ALL OF YOU. Which 80’s song do you wish you’d written?  
Ooooooh, that’s a great question! So many to choose from! Today I’m going with Daryl Hall & John Oates’s “Private Eyes.” But if you asked me on another day, I would probably go with something else.

And giving credit where credit is due, my brother wrote the music to “Glossy” and supplemented the lyrics I wrote and featured in the book. He hired a fantastic singer, Alana Burner, to provide Paisley Parker’s voice.

Readers: Check out Glossy here! ⬇️

I love all the ‘behind the scenes’ music industry action in ALL OF YOU. What was your first concert?
It’s probably no surprise that Duran Duran was my first concert. Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, Tuesday, April 3, 1984.

And what’s your karaoke go-to song?
Would you believe I’ve never done karaoke? ((ducks)) But if I did, I would probably have to go with a Beatles song—something like “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da” would be fun.

Okay, we’re definitely going to have to rectify that one day. What’s the best power ballad to make out to?
Gotta go with “At Last” by Etta James.

Bravo. Solid choice. Shifting gears away from the romantic, have you ever given out your phone number as 867-5309?
Hahaha! Never! Mostly because that’s an earworm that’s impossible to get rid of.

Speaking of earworms, which 80s one-hit-wonder is your guilty pleasure?
Kajagoogoo’s “Too Shy.” No guilt whatsoever. ;)

“Hush hush, eye to eye…” love it. And what’s the best 80s movie theme song?
Simple Minds’ “Don’t You Forget About Me” from The Breakfast Club.

Agreed – 100%! And now, Elisa, readers need to know: Simon, Andy, Roger, John, or Nick?
I’m a total JT girl! (Bassist John Taylor for those not in the know.) But every time I see the band live Simon Le Bon is just so charismatic that I fall in love with him for the night.

I mean… how could you not? It’s Simon (swoons.) Thank you for indulging my silliness. Let’s wrap up with some more serious talk.

You say on your website, www.elisalorello.com that you write to find out what you know. What is your writing process?
I don’t write every day (rather, I don’t type every day) because sometimes I need time for mental writing, letting the characters speak to each other and me in my head, allowing scenes to unfold, etc.  I tend to be a fast drafter, meaning I can bang out 1500-3000 words in a day’s writing. Revision, however, is a slower, more meticulous process. I print out the draft, heavily annotate it, revise it, print it again, annotate, revise (wash, rinse, repeat) until I have to finally call it done.

Recently I started drafting in 20-minute sprints with short breaks in between. I average about 550 words in a sprint. A productive day is four to five sprints.

ALL OF YOU is a story of second chances and redemption (themes close to this author’s heart!). What was your inspiration for writing this book at this time?
I actually started the book in 2014! It was in response to and inspired by a question John Taylor posed in an interview: “Why aren’t there more female producers?” For various reasons, I had to put the manuscript down and didn’t pick it up again until late 2020. By then I was at a place in my writing career where I was kind of facing my own need for a second chance as well as redemption, although I don’t think I was necessarily “inspired” by that. It was simply a truth that revealed itself at that point.

You refer to your work as “Romance Rhetoric.” What do you mean by that?
The term “Romance Rhetoric” was coined by a UMass Amherst Professor Emeritus, Peter Elbow, following a series of email exchanges after he read my novel Faking It—someone alerted him that I’d actually cited him in the novel. If you read Faking It, Andi refers to him as “the Paul McCartney of rhetoric and composition,” because he is. I fangirled every time I met and/or chatted with him via email. He was a scholar who heavily influenced my studies when I was a graduate student. He thought my pairing of sex and rhetoric in Faking It was quite appropriate, and when I told him about how I take a rhetorical approach to all of my novels, which I consider to be love stories, he dubbed them “Romance Rhetoric,” and I loved it and adopted it as my personal, self-classified genre.

Also, two other writers who heavily influenced me are Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally…) and Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing)—funny that they’re both screenwriters and I don’t consider myself one! If those two had collaborated, they would have written Romance Rhetoric.

Your memoir is FRIENDS OF MINE: 30 YEARS IN THE LIFE OF A DURAN DURAN FAN. How did your relationship with their music start? What about their work speaks to your soul?
I remember hearing “Hungry Like the Wolf” and “Rio” on the radio and liking them without knowing it was Duran Duran. We didn’t have MTV and I didn’t even have a stereo with FM radio yet. My best friend (also named Elisa) had MTV. I had brought a teen magazine to her house and Duran Duran happened to be in it, so she knew who they were, introduced me to them, showed me their videos, and the rest is history.

For me, it really is about the music. They came into my life at a time when I was grieving my parents’ separation and needed to escape to something fantastical. They were about “being the band to dance to when the bomb drops”—in other words, bringing color and light to a world that can sometimes be dark and dancing through what ails you. And they had a sound that was different from anything I’d listened to up to that point, or even since.

I’m never going to hear Duran Duran again without thinking of you. What are you working on next?
I’ve actually been working on two manuscripts, believe it or not. They’re kind of companion novels with overlapping characters and storylines. Normally I wouldn’t tackle two books like that but I approached it as if I’m writing one book with two points of view. At the time of this writing, I’m about 100,000 words in combined, and I’m very close to finishing the first draft of each. I’m debating on whether to set it aside and work on a couple of side projects during the month of August or to go ahead and finish the first drafts. In September I am planning to take out last year’s NaNoWriMo manuscript (National Novel Writing Month) and whip it into shape to submit to my literary agent.

I think I speak for everyone when I say I can’t wait! Until then, where can readers find you?
Readers can learn all about my books and me at www.elisalorello.com.

On social media… These days I’m most active on Facebook and Threads. Follow me at:
Elisa Lorello, Author on Facebook, and @elisalorello on Threads, Instagram, and Twitter (sorry, “X”—commence eyeball-rolling).

Thank you so much for being my inaugural Lunchtime Poll victim… er…guest! Take care Elisa and let’s find a date soon for karaoke!
Thanks—this was so much fun!