She grew up in Quesnel, British Columbia and was the ninth daughter of twelve children in the Hoy family.
At 70, she took a creative-writing workshop at North Island College and started setting down her life story.
Her first book is I Am Full Moon: Stories of a Ninth Daughter, stylishly published by Brindle & Glass.
The photos are by her father, Chow Dong Hoy, who documented the Cariboo through much of the 20th century.
Lily also participated in the 2009 Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts as one of "20 new voices",[2] along with Rebecca Hendry, who is also published by Brindle & Glass.