IPOD
RADIO
Lily Burana
By Daniel Robert Epstein
Mar 2, 2007
Lily Burana is a true jack of all trades. Burana has great success with her first book, Strip City, which detailed her farewell to the stripper life. That achievement led to Burana’s writing being all over the web and even some fancy schmancy print paper called The New York Times. Last year Burana released her first fiction work, Try, about a young woman who returns home to Wyoming and falls in love with a rodeo champion.
Check out the website of Lily Burana
Daniel Robert Epstein: I read on your blog that you had a really good photo shoot recently.
Lily Burana: Oh my God it was phenomenal. I feel really blessed every day to make my living as a writer. That is super cool and statistically speaking, pretty rare. I have this background as a dancer and as a punk rocker so I find that writing just isn’t enough for me in terms of my tribal loyalties to people who are a little wilder and a little more out of the mainstream. So to be able to do photo shoots for somebody like my friend Laura keeps that part of me alive. A lot of people I get to know through writing who have more of a mainstream mentality and background feel, “God, I must feel like I’m redeemed somehow that I don’t have that seedy stuff in my life anymore.” I’m like, “I need that seedy stuff. It’s part of who I am.” My friend Laura started Pin-Up Girl Clothing. She designs her own stuff and started out by selling her clothes in strip club dressing rooms to the other dancers and it turned into this rather successful business. I’m extremely proud of her. But in addition to that, it’s great to see this woman who is not Donald Trump. She’s not oily. She’s not a smooth talker. She’s still really agro and really punk rock. She just invited me out to model their mermaid costume for their Halloween catalogue. When they mentioned the words Dusty Springfield Hairpiece to me, I’m like, “I’m there.” The Beach Blanket Bingo theme shoot was a whole lot of fun because I love the whole pinup and burlesque aesthetic. It’s a celebratory thing for me. It just makes me feel like I didn’t have to sell out to have this part of my life.
DRE:
So what were they trying to sell with the themed shoot?
Lily:
Two things, one was the swimsuits that she designed. The other is a mermaid costume for Halloween. If you’re a crossover punk that does a lot of the business with the mainstream, you do tremendous traffic in Halloween costumes because people want to be wild once a year. So she has this enormous chunk of business that is done around Halloween and I think she was trying to kill two birds with one stone. These pictures look like heaven and we all look like we’re having the best time in the sun.
DRE:
I saw that you had an Op-Ed in the Times last year.
Lily:
I did. To this day I’m still sitting here going, “Wow. How did that happen?” I married an Army officer four years ago because we saw his deployment coming. We were like, “Uh-oh, we better go make it official.” like one of those World War II, cheesy Technicolor movies where you have the couple rushing off to City Hall, which is exactly what happened. The Op-Ed centered around how the Army changed its combat uniform and I wrote a little bit about what that’s like to see. I don’t know if men are as sentimental about clothes as women are. I have an emotional attachment to my stripper shoes that I can’t get rid of and I have an emotional attachment to my Goth girl prom gown that I can’t get rid of even though that was a kajillion years ago. I feel very attached to the old BDU combat uniform. It is a wonderful thing because the new uniform is a lot safer and much more comfortable but it was a bittersweet feeling to see this piece of clothing become obsolete. Time marches on in front of your face in a way that you’re not really prepared for.
It was great because I’ve never had anything with that much visibility before. So it’s this bizarre feeling like I’ve been pushed on stage in a chicken costume. In that regard I was happy that it only ran for one day. I don’t know if I could be an Op-Ed columnist and have that level of awareness with what I do all the time. I don’t think I’m cut from the same cloth as Maureen Dowd, on any level.
DRE:
Someone once quoted from an interview of mine for a book review in the New York Times. They didn’t include my name but they quoted from something I wrote and I got no phone calls.
Lily:
Well, that stinks. That’s not a good feeling.
DRE:
Well, what are you going to do? I can’t fight the New York Times. I’d get crushed by the liberal media.
You also had your last book, Try, out at the same time. That must have been cool.
Lily:
After writing Strip City, I got put in contact with so many amazing people. To go from that to writing a novel about rodeo was a big decision. I decided to do it because I have to be driven by what feels important to write and what I’m passionate about. People who I really admire have a tendency to go “Here’s my little weird tangent I’m on right now.” If it succeeds, awesome or if it doesn’t then you’ve got something else coming up.
DRE:
I read on your blog that you were going out to Hollywood. Was it a joke that you were looking for work on House?
Lily:
I figured that if you believe it then you put it out into the universe and it’ll come to you. I would like to write for House but it was a joke. At the same time if you can dream it, it will happen. I did take some quote unquote meetings but I don’t know what that means in the final analysis. It was fascinating to be in a building where the square footage is per foot more than all your internal organs sold on the black market.
DRE:
Do you write spec scripts or anything like that?
Lily:
I’m trying to but I don’t have like a drawer full or anything. But I’m very inspired by the success of people like Diablo Cody. It would be interesting to do because once I wrote Try, I got hooked on the whole telling stories thing. It’s such a neat feeling to get lost in a fictional world. I could definitely see why people go to school to study it and why they make whatever sacrifice they have to in order to keep doing it.
DRE:
Do you know Diablo or is she just someone you admire?
Lily:
I did meet her once in person. We’ve had a long distance love affair via email for a long time and when she had just started Pussy Ranch her husband John wrote to me and told me that Diablo thinks I am the bee’s knees. Then when I looked at her blog I was like “No she’s the bee’s knees.” My hope is that it will be an enduring lifelong mutual admiration society. But I really just think she’s a phenomenal writer and a keen, nifty person.
DRE:
What was the inspiration for Try?
Lily:
I personally have not been a rodeo cowboy, and anybody who’s ever met me would howl with shock because I can’t even do a pull up. One non-sissy push up and I’m screaming bloody murder so I would say physical prowess is not one of my attributes. But I lived in Cheyenne Wyoming for almost three years, which is the home to the nation’s largest outdoor rodeo. I became very interested in rodeo as a culture because it has its own groupies and it has its own history and it has its own look to it. It’s literally like being dropped on another planet because I’m from New Jersey. I got to know a fair amount of rodeo cowboys. I traveled with them and did a tremendous amount of research. I wanted to center it around a love story because I didn’t really like that old fashioned corny storyline of a naïve, star struck city girl that meets the earnest, down to earth cowboy and gets swept away. I wanted to write a snarkier heroine who was hip to the whole cowboy pick up line.
DRE:
I read that you were actually reading the sex scenes from Try at book readings.
Lily:
Yeah. Rachel Kramer Bussel to me is one of the sweetest people. As far as the readings and the porno people of New York and the people want to make it more literary, she’s right there. She does the In the Flesh reading series and she asked me to come read at one of her readings. I decided to put my big girl panties on and do it. I don’t think I’ve ever been so afraid in my life. It was so bizarre. I was really astounded that I was as timid as I was but I guess it went okay. Nobody started snoring.
DRE:
What are you working on now?
Lily:
I’m working on a new book of young adult fiction because I find that time of life to be so amazing and interesting. The whole travails of being a settled down grown up and still not feeling particularly settled down or grown up. Part of what attracts me to writing has to do with that stage of your life when you’re a little bit more freedom seeking and trying to figure out how you’re going to build your life. So we’ll see how it goes.
DRE:
Was the young adult book your idea because often edgy authors like [Lemony Snicket creator] Daniel Handler are asked to write a kids book?
Lily:
I was actually asked by this editor who is always showing me new pictures of his tattoos. We have great conversations about all kinds of things about life. He asked me if it was something I wanted to do. Hopefully it’ll work out. You don’t really go to book publishing to make the big deal or sellout or something. Everything is so much more image driven now that chances are, you’re going to have to find somebody in publishing who really loves the written word and that loves helping stories get onto the shelves. I find that as time goes on I become more and more normal. If you saw me on the street, you wouldn’t think, “Oh yeah, that’s the person who used to have 25 piercings and a purple Mohawk.” I still like that anti-authoritarian part of me. It just seems more and more important to put it out there in writing. There’s just something about hearing it from an older person that made me feel very assured that there is life after high school and after living in your parents’ house. I’ve seen so many people go through whatever misfortune and not make it. Time is precious so I want to be the most flagrant enabler of self-actualization that I can be.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Lily Burana is a true jack of all trades. Burana has great success with her first book, Strip City, which detailed her farewell to the stripper life. That achievement led to Burana’s writing being all over the web and even some fancy schmancy print paper called The New York Times. Last year Burana released her first fiction work, Try, about a young woman who returns home to Wyoming and falls in love with a rodeo champion.
Check out the website of Lily Burana
Daniel Robert Epstein: I read on your blog that you had a really good photo shoot recently.
Lily Burana: Oh my God it was phenomenal. I feel really blessed every day to make my living as a writer. That is super cool and statistically speaking, pretty rare. I have this background as a dancer and as a punk rocker so I find that writing just isn’t enough for me in terms of my tribal loyalties to people who are a little wilder and a little more out of the mainstream. So to be able to do photo shoots for somebody like my friend Laura keeps that part of me alive. A lot of people I get to know through writing who have more of a mainstream mentality and background feel, “God, I must feel like I’m redeemed somehow that I don’t have that seedy stuff in my life anymore.” I’m like, “I need that seedy stuff. It’s part of who I am.” My friend Laura started Pin-Up Girl Clothing. She designs her own stuff and started out by selling her clothes in strip club dressing rooms to the other dancers and it turned into this rather successful business. I’m extremely proud of her. But in addition to that, it’s great to see this woman who is not Donald Trump. She’s not oily. She’s not a smooth talker. She’s still really agro and really punk rock. She just invited me out to model their mermaid costume for their Halloween catalogue. When they mentioned the words Dusty Springfield Hairpiece to me, I’m like, “I’m there.” The Beach Blanket Bingo theme shoot was a whole lot of fun because I love the whole pinup and burlesque aesthetic. It’s a celebratory thing for me. It just makes me feel like I didn’t have to sell out to have this part of my life.
DRE:
So what were they trying to sell with the themed shoot?
Lily:
Two things, one was the swimsuits that she designed. The other is a mermaid costume for Halloween. If you’re a crossover punk that does a lot of the business with the mainstream, you do tremendous traffic in Halloween costumes because people want to be wild once a year. So she has this enormous chunk of business that is done around Halloween and I think she was trying to kill two birds with one stone. These pictures look like heaven and we all look like we’re having the best time in the sun.
DRE:
I saw that you had an Op-Ed in the Times last year.
Lily:
I did. To this day I’m still sitting here going, “Wow. How did that happen?” I married an Army officer four years ago because we saw his deployment coming. We were like, “Uh-oh, we better go make it official.” like one of those World War II, cheesy Technicolor movies where you have the couple rushing off to City Hall, which is exactly what happened. The Op-Ed centered around how the Army changed its combat uniform and I wrote a little bit about what that’s like to see. I don’t know if men are as sentimental about clothes as women are. I have an emotional attachment to my stripper shoes that I can’t get rid of and I have an emotional attachment to my Goth girl prom gown that I can’t get rid of even though that was a kajillion years ago. I feel very attached to the old BDU combat uniform. It is a wonderful thing because the new uniform is a lot safer and much more comfortable but it was a bittersweet feeling to see this piece of clothing become obsolete. Time marches on in front of your face in a way that you’re not really prepared for.
It was great because I’ve never had anything with that much visibility before. So it’s this bizarre feeling like I’ve been pushed on stage in a chicken costume. In that regard I was happy that it only ran for one day. I don’t know if I could be an Op-Ed columnist and have that level of awareness with what I do all the time. I don’t think I’m cut from the same cloth as Maureen Dowd, on any level.
It was great because I’ve never had anything with that much visibility before. So it’s this bizarre feeling like I’ve been pushed on stage in a chicken costume. In that regard I was happy that it only ran for one day. I don’t know if I could be an Op-Ed columnist and have that level of awareness with what I do all the time. I don’t think I’m cut from the same cloth as Maureen Dowd, on any level.
DRE:
Someone once quoted from an interview of mine for a book review in the New York Times. They didn’t include my name but they quoted from something I wrote and I got no phone calls.
Lily:
Well, that stinks. That’s not a good feeling.
DRE:
Well, what are you going to do? I can’t fight the New York Times. I’d get crushed by the liberal media.
You also had your last book, Try, out at the same time. That must have been cool.
You also had your last book, Try, out at the same time. That must have been cool.
Lily:
After writing Strip City, I got put in contact with so many amazing people. To go from that to writing a novel about rodeo was a big decision. I decided to do it because I have to be driven by what feels important to write and what I’m passionate about. People who I really admire have a tendency to go “Here’s my little weird tangent I’m on right now.” If it succeeds, awesome or if it doesn’t then you’ve got something else coming up.
DRE:
I read on your blog that you were going out to Hollywood. Was it a joke that you were looking for work on House?
Lily:
I figured that if you believe it then you put it out into the universe and it’ll come to you. I would like to write for House but it was a joke. At the same time if you can dream it, it will happen. I did take some quote unquote meetings but I don’t know what that means in the final analysis. It was fascinating to be in a building where the square footage is per foot more than all your internal organs sold on the black market.
DRE:
Do you write spec scripts or anything like that?
Lily:
I’m trying to but I don’t have like a drawer full or anything. But I’m very inspired by the success of people like Diablo Cody. It would be interesting to do because once I wrote Try, I got hooked on the whole telling stories thing. It’s such a neat feeling to get lost in a fictional world. I could definitely see why people go to school to study it and why they make whatever sacrifice they have to in order to keep doing it.
DRE:
Do you know Diablo or is she just someone you admire?
Lily:
I did meet her once in person. We’ve had a long distance love affair via email for a long time and when she had just started Pussy Ranch her husband John wrote to me and told me that Diablo thinks I am the bee’s knees. Then when I looked at her blog I was like “No she’s the bee’s knees.” My hope is that it will be an enduring lifelong mutual admiration society. But I really just think she’s a phenomenal writer and a keen, nifty person.
DRE:
What was the inspiration for Try?
Lily:
I personally have not been a rodeo cowboy, and anybody who’s ever met me would howl with shock because I can’t even do a pull up. One non-sissy push up and I’m screaming bloody murder so I would say physical prowess is not one of my attributes. But I lived in Cheyenne Wyoming for almost three years, which is the home to the nation’s largest outdoor rodeo. I became very interested in rodeo as a culture because it has its own groupies and it has its own history and it has its own look to it. It’s literally like being dropped on another planet because I’m from New Jersey. I got to know a fair amount of rodeo cowboys. I traveled with them and did a tremendous amount of research. I wanted to center it around a love story because I didn’t really like that old fashioned corny storyline of a naïve, star struck city girl that meets the earnest, down to earth cowboy and gets swept away. I wanted to write a snarkier heroine who was hip to the whole cowboy pick up line.
DRE:
I read that you were actually reading the sex scenes from Try at book readings.
Lily:
Yeah. Rachel Kramer Bussel to me is one of the sweetest people. As far as the readings and the porno people of New York and the people want to make it more literary, she’s right there. She does the In the Flesh reading series and she asked me to come read at one of her readings. I decided to put my big girl panties on and do it. I don’t think I’ve ever been so afraid in my life. It was so bizarre. I was really astounded that I was as timid as I was but I guess it went okay. Nobody started snoring.
DRE:
What are you working on now?
Lily:
I’m working on a new book of young adult fiction because I find that time of life to be so amazing and interesting. The whole travails of being a settled down grown up and still not feeling particularly settled down or grown up. Part of what attracts me to writing has to do with that stage of your life when you’re a little bit more freedom seeking and trying to figure out how you’re going to build your life. So we’ll see how it goes.
DRE:
Was the young adult book your idea because often edgy authors like [Lemony Snicket creator] Daniel Handler are asked to write a kids book?
Lily:
I was actually asked by this editor who is always showing me new pictures of his tattoos. We have great conversations about all kinds of things about life. He asked me if it was something I wanted to do. Hopefully it’ll work out. You don’t really go to book publishing to make the big deal or sellout or something. Everything is so much more image driven now that chances are, you’re going to have to find somebody in publishing who really loves the written word and that loves helping stories get onto the shelves. I find that as time goes on I become more and more normal. If you saw me on the street, you wouldn’t think, “Oh yeah, that’s the person who used to have 25 piercings and a purple Mohawk.” I still like that anti-authoritarian part of me. It just seems more and more important to put it out there in writing. There’s just something about hearing it from an older person that made me feel very assured that there is life after high school and after living in your parents’ house. I’ve seen so many people go through whatever misfortune and not make it. Time is precious so I want to be the most flagrant enabler of self-actualization that I can be.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
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