September 25 - Close Encounters with Lisa Marie

Due for release late October, early November 2024 is the book 'Close Encounters of the Elvis Kind' by Victoria R. Crosby. 

Publicity stated: This book blends fantasy, fiction and facts in six short stories promoting Elvis' philanthropy and humanitarian spirit. 

People Magazine

The promotion for Lisa Marie Presley's biography 'From Here To The Great Unknown' has started. Elvis' daughter graced the cover of the October 7, 2024 edition of the U.S. People magazine with the exclusive article 'My Mother´s Final Wish' in which Riley Keough "reveals the bittersweet process to finish her mom Lisa Marie Presley's memoir".

In the magazine she said: "Because my mother was Elvis Presley’s daughter, she was constantly talked about, argued over and dissected,” Riley, 35, tells PEOPLE in an exclusive email interview for this week's cover story. “What she wanted to do in her memoir, and what I hope I’ve done in finishing it for her, is to go beneath the magazine headline idea of her and reveal the core of who she was. To turn her into a three-dimensional human being: the best mother, a wild child, a fierce friend, an underrated artist, frank, funny, traumatized, joyous, grieving, everything that she was throughout her remarkable life. I want to give voice to my mother in a way that eluded her while she was alive.” 

Through the memoir, Riley wants readers to see her mother clearly, perhaps for the first time. “I hope that in an extraordinary circumstance, people relate to a very human experience of love, heartbreak, loss, addiction and family,” she says. “[My mom] wanted to write a book in the hopes that someone could read her story and relate to her, to know that they’re not alone in the world. Her hope with this book was just human connection. So that’s mine.”

Here is a nice personal extract from her new book in which Lisa Marie writes: "Going to Elvis' shows was my favorite thing in the world. I was so proud of him. He would take me by the hand and bring me out onstage, then get walked to wherever his place was on the stage, and I would be taken from him and brought to wherever I was going to be sitting in the audience. Usually with Elvis' father Vernon.

The electricity of those shows. There’s nothing I’ve felt that’s been even close to that feeling, ever. Electrifying is such a generic word, but it really is what it felt like. I loved watching him perform. I had certain songs that I liked — 'Hurt,' and 'How Great Thou Art.' I would ask him to sing those songs for me and he would always say yes.

I did not, however, like having the limelight shone on me or being asked to stand up in front of everybody. In Vegas, during his residency, he introduced Vernon, then looked toward me and I remember thinking, Oh God oh God please don’t.

“Lisa, stand up!”

It’s not that I wasn’t proud or that I didn’t love him. I just liked the limelight on him, loved it on him. It was not something that came to me inherently. I absolutely abhorred it. But in other less public ways, I loved basking in his fame with him.

In Los Angeles I went to school at John Thomas Dye, up in the hills of Bel Air. I still sometimes drive by it just to remember the day my dad came to a parent-teacher conference. I knew he was coming, and I couldn’t wait. I could feel the teachers’ nervousness and excitement, too. My little student friends were so excited that I got even more excited, everybody was just running around crazy.

Then my dad showed up. Elvis got out of the car and he had on a respectable outfit — black pants and some kind of blouse — but he was also wearing a big, majestic belt with buckles and jewels and chains, as well as sunglasses.

He was smoking a cigar. I met him at the car, and I walked up the walkway with him, and I just remember that feeling of walking next to him, holding his hand."

Actress Julia Roberts will narrate the audiobook for edition of 'From Here To The Great Unknown'. The audio edition will also feature contributions by Riley Keough and fragments from the tapes recorded by Lisa Marie. 

Go here to PEOPLE for the full article. You can pre-order the book, that comes out October 8th, 2024, from >>> Amazon (associate link). 

(Source: Victoria R. Crosby / People)