About Lori J:
I was born in Vancouver and raised in Crescent Beach(White Rock) in the lower mainland of BC, Canada.
At the ripe old age of 19 I headed overseas to the U.K. There I met my husband, came back to BC and got married.
Within a year (1980) and baby in hand (8 months old) and 6 months pregnant (got pregnant on the pill, it happened twice), we moved to Auckland, New Zealand where husband was from. I went on to have a few more children, five in total. My third child, a beautiful boy passed at 6 months old from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. I also homeschooled the four children for five years.
When the children got older, I opened a preschool. After a good 5 years, I wanted to get myself a diploma (at 50 years old) in Early Childhood Education. In study I was taught to write short stories of the learning I saw the children learning through their play and with friends. I loved to put photos of the children and pictures they drew and painted for the illustrations. After every school year, each child would be presented with a large, full, scrap book of their learning journey at the preschool. (What fun!!!).
That is where I developed the love of writing.
In 2017 it was time to come home (without husband, oh happy days) after spending over half of my lifetime in NZ.
What inspires you to write?
The world around me inspires me. My adventures inspire me. My grandchildren inspire me. Nature itself inspires me.
I love watching my grandchildren runny and playing with the cute little squirrels we have here in Canada.
New Zealand do not have squirrels.
I fell in love with the squirrels all over again when I got back home. My children and grandchildren fell in love with the squirrels and all of the other wildlife we have wandering around where we live.
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
I love reading self help books:
Jordan B. Peterson, Allen W. Watts, Christiane Northrup, MD. to name some.
I love fantasy:
J.R.R. Tolkien…
Tell us about your writing process.
OMG!!! If I knew what was instore…I do not know if I would of started the journey…
Writing the story was the easy part… And after a lot of encouragement from my family (as they thought my stories were book material) I stepped out with a lot of fear and trembling. It took me a couple of years to pluck up enough courage to take the first step.
Firstly I went to look for someone to publish my stories, Google is sooo helpful!!! After finding a publishing Co., I was then assigned an editor to help me put each sentence and paragraph into sensible reading, that took half the year.
I then had to pick out an Illustrator. My editor made it easy as I had four illustrators to choose from.
For another four to six months we worked on getting each page looking exactly like the picture of the story I have in my minds eye.
It took a lot of hard work, lots of tears and good advise to get to the finished results.
I believe the good team I have at the publishing Co. made my books come to fruition.
I am so proud of myself….
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I tell Squeak that he is cute and funny… I wonder what a squirrel thinks sometimes…lol.
I also listen to the children and watch their facial expressions and how they talk with each other and to the squirrels that are engaging with..
What advice would you give other writers?
My advice is to be ready for hard work, long hours writing a paragraph over and over again till it is perfect. Do not settle for second best, oh no.. head for perfection all the way.
Be ready for a huge learning curve (as I was not computer literate) and lots of mistakes. Keep plodding along.
How does one eat an elephant….by one bite at a time. This is one of my mottos I live by.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I looked online for a publisher close to me, which is on Vancouver Island. I need all the professional help I can get. I figured a publishing Co. could help me see my books through to the end. I am not confident enough to do the journey as a self-publisher. I am glad I didn't, as their wealth of information and contacts as immense.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I am not sure about the future of paperback books. I find myself picking up a book before going to my kindle or computer to read. I love the feel and smell of freshly inked paper of a new book. I love the old books I have read on my book self as they are tattered and well read.
What genres do you write?: Fiction, infants and young children
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print, Audiobook
Website(s)
Lori J Home Page Link
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
