Lila - The Nightingale Ambassadors

Welcome to the next installment of our Ambassador Introductions. If you’ve missed the previous one, you can read it here:

If you’ve been here through it all, let’s dive right into the next one!

Introducing Lila

Lila is best known for the fragments she shares of her life: Vignettes of real experiences, glimpses into how she views the world. What stands out most about her writing is how her observations of both her own emotions as well as how other people act and interact with her bleed seamlessly into her fiction.

The stories she shares on substack are coloured with the same dexterity for the details of everyday life, taking a glimpse into the life of characters that feel like they could be the person you notice while on your bus ride to work or the next door neighbour you only ever exchange coy hellos with.

Until the end hits you with a twist you didn’t expect. Leaves you with an uneasy feeling right beneath your sternum. And a smile on your lips, because you like it either way.

Review

She recommended her story Loosong for us, which sits at around 1,200 words.

“It was holy, and she felt herself rectified. She tried to pee small. She feared the song would cease if she flushed, and she was right.”

Loosong lets us share a day with Ms Lourdes Smith, a woman working the reception desk. A job she finds particularly straining because friendlyness does not come to her naturally. As the day proceeds, she encounters daily life’s annoyances, such as colleagues who forget her the moment they walk through the door and spilt water on her chest. Until something unusual happens. Nothing grave; nothing you’d read epic poems about. But something Ms Lourdes Smith would remember for the rest of her life none the less.

From the very beginning, the narration zooms in closely. Lila lets us not only look over Lourdes’ shoulder, but deep into her thoughts, her idiosyncracies and pedantic musings.

During her lunch break Lourdes sipped on both her water and her iced coffee (she always purchased an iced coffee to follow the regular) and smoked two cigarettes. Under normal circumstances she would only allow herself one cigarette, but as the day was leisurely she felt herself in need of the stimulation.

Lila never shies away from phrasing even the most private moments, shedding light on something we’d usually deem unimportant. Until it tells us intimate details about the person we’re reading.

The restroom smelled of flushed excrement. Lourdes wrinkled her nose as she slipped into a stall she supposed was furthest from the stench. She’d always hated public toilets, more so than most, she believed.

The story takes a sudden turn at the end, first taking on speed and then leaving us with a reveal that turns a simple encounter on the loo into something memorable, perhaps even magical.

Lila’s prose perfectly befits Lourdes’ pedantic nature, poignant mostly with bloomy exceptions where they are needed. She’s doing some beautiful foreshadowing, hovering somewhere in the margins while we read, to hit the spot when we get the reveal at the end. A story crafted with a loving attention to detail and the magic in the mundane.

If you like what you’ve read here, we’ve linked some more of Lila’s work below.

The next and final installment of the ambassador introductions will be up in four days. Look forward to meeting Spencer D. W.!

Lila’s Work

You can read more of Lila's stories on her profile: Lila

Or over on her substack: Miscellanea