Author Yearbook

AY Talks Back

We were thrilled to have some time to chat with Lori Soard, who is involved in the 2012 Author Yearbook.

Author Yearbook: When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

Lori Soard: I can’t remember a time when my world wasn’t about stories. I always made up little stories, read and wrote. However, it didn’t really occur to me that you could get paid for your writing until I was in my 20s. I took my first journalism class and the professor encouraged me to submit one of my pieces to a local newspaper. I got paid around $25 and was amazed that you could make money from writing. I was completely hooked. Who would have thought you could do something you loved and get paid for it?

Author Yearbook: Out of all your books, which one is your favorite and why?

Lori Soard: I get asked this question all the time and the answer tends to change. Like a mother, I don’t really have a favorite. They are all my babies. However, one might be more in favor than another at any given time. Right now, my book Finding Ms. Right, is getting a lot of attention from foreign publishers. It’s very exciting. It will be available in Japanese and may be released in Manga. I also have another foreign publisher looking at that book and am waiting to hear back from them.

Author Yearbook: Do you have any special things you do when writing? For example, some authors listen to a certain type of music, others drink a glass of wine (some too many glasses), and still others exercise to release that creative spirit. What do you do, if anything?

Lori Soard: In an ideal world, I love to curl up in my office with music playing and no one else in the house. I always think this is how I’ll be most productive. However, reality is completely different. I am usually working on my laptap while my two daughters fight, my husband talks about his day at work, the dogs yap at a doorbell on the television and the phone is ringing. Between that, I have to get dinner started, pick up the house and run my youngest to cheer practice four days a week. If there is one thing motherhood has taught me it is that you must be flexible. I’ve learned to work anywhere, under any conditions. When it comes to writing, I often write in a notebook while at my daughter’s practice or in a doctor’s office. I don’t waste time. I also have web design clients, so I have to block out a set number of hours each day for creating sites and promoting my clients.

Author Yearbook: What is your greatest challenge as a writer?

Lori Soard: I’m lazy at heart. I love to watch movies and read. I will procrastinate as long as I can given the opportunity, so I’ve had to create schedules and be really strict with myself about sticking to them. If I didn’t, I’d never meet a single deadline.

Author Yearbook: What is your greatest reward as a writer?

Lori Soard: I truly love what I do. Putting the stories in my mind down on paper (or computer screen) is like breathing life into something. I know how truly blessed I am to make a living doing what I love and I never, ever take it for granted.

Author Yearbook: What do you do when you aren’t writing? Any hobbies or special interests?

Lori Soard: I love to read and do crafts. I will be teaching a class this coming summer at the local college about how to write. I would like to say I’m still learning to play the piano, but the truth is that I just don’t have time. I have put that task on the back burner and will resume it when the kids are grown.

Author Yearbook: In keeping with our theme for the 2012 Yearbook of “Then and Now”, what is your favorite childhood memory?

Lori Soard: When I was little, I loved playing with Barbies. Okay, I’ll admit it, I still wish I had a reason to play Barbies. My mom would let me pull down these encylopedias we owned. They had designs on the back that looked like wallpaper (diamonds in different colors). We would set the books up like walls, with the spine facing toward the ceiling and create these huge Barbie houses with multiple rooms. My mom showed me to take a tissue box and wash cloths and make bedding and to just be creative and use things I had for furniture.

My parents both grew up very poor and had to learn how to entertain themselves. They passed this on to me along with rich storytelling traditions and it made me extremely creative. My mother also never limited my creativity. I see a lot of parents fussing at their children when they sing a song over and over or make a mess with paints. This can stifle creativity. My mother never stifled mine.

Author Yearbook: What are you working on right now? What can we expect to see from you in the future?

Lori Soard: I just started a new romantic comedy. It’s kind of different. I am also re-releasing a lot of my old titles in Kindle format.

Author Yearbook: Anything you’d like to add?

I just want to encourage anyone out there who has a dream to write or do anything else. Don’t let anyone discourage you. I was just telling one of my teen daughters this week that you can’t let someone else’s words define you. After his first performance, Elvis Presley was told to go back to driving a truck. Jay Leno was told he would never get anywhere and wasn’t funny. Harrison Ford was fired and told he didn’t have a career in acting. Thomas Edison was called slow by his teacher. If writing is your dream, don’t let anything or anyone hold you back and never give up.