After graduating with a
Bachelor of Science degree in
Broadcast Journalism, Files returned to
Fort Lauderdale, working as a marketing manager for a pharmaceutical company and as a regional property coordinator for Great Atlantic Property Management, a real estate management company based out of
Newport News, VA with commercial and residential properties that spanned the
Eastern Seaboard and parts of the
Midwest. Her experience with the world of property management would later inform her first two novels,
Scenes from a Sistah (1997), and its followup,
Getting To The Good Part (1999). From 1992 to 1996, Files was the National Communications Manager for the
Facilities Management division of
KinderCare Learning Centers, the nation's largest provider of for-profit child care and early childhood education, then based in
Montgomery, AL.
Writing In the fall of 1994, Files overnighted two comedic short stories and fifty pages of
Child of God, a dramatic novel she'd been sporadically working on for five years, to literary agency Jay Garon-Brooke Associates, Inc., the agency that represented bestselling author
John Grisham. In her query letter, Files stated she had eight more short stories that went with the two she sent. Nancy Coffey, an agent from Garon-Brooke, called the next morning requesting to see the rest of the material. A week later, Files was signed by the agency.
Scenes From A Sistah and Child of God After signing with Garon-Brooke, while working on completing
Child of God, Files began writing another novel,
Scenes from a Sistah, completing the first draft in seven days. In February 1996,
Warner Books purchased
Scenes for an advance of $50,000. In April 1996, Files left Corporate America for a full-time career as a writer.
Scenes from a Sistah debuted a year later in April 1997 and was an instant hit, quickly selling out of its first printing and landing on several bestseller lists. "Child of God" was published in September 2001, after the release of
Scenes sequel
Getting to the Good Part in 1999 and
Blind Ambitions, in 2000.
HodgePodge The short stories that helped Files get signed by the Garon-Brooke literary agency were expanded into
HodgePodge, a novel including several characters who feature prominently in the
Scenes trilogy (
Scenes from a Sistah, Getting to the Good Part, and
Tastes Like Chicken). To-date, Files has not chosen to publish the book.
Off Broadway In 1998, Files appeared in the play "Sisters Who Get Everything Without Giving Up Anything" at the Homefront Theatre, playing lead character Rea Montgomery.
Shakespeare's Hamlet vs Files' Child of God SUNY Empire State College offers an eight-week course, "Exploring The Disciplines: Literature (EDU-232072)," centered around the examination of Shakespeare's
Hamlet and Lolita Files' novel,
Child of God. Per the course description:
Who Killed Tupac? television docuseries Files produced and appears as an investigator for
A&E's six-part limited series
Who Killed Tupac? In the series, civil rights attorney
Benjamin Crump leads an in-depth investigation into the unsolved murder of hip-hop artist
Tupac Shakur. == Personal life ==