Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Author Spotlight: Lori Worley!


1. Tell us about your book/books?  My debut novel is a dark fairytale that looks at the struggle between what the heart wants and what the soul needs.Aggrafina is a mermaid cast out of the sea and the life she knows. She is found by Adrik, a man who is bitter and lost amongst his own kind. The show is where Adrik allows the world a small glimpse into the anomalies that hide in its forests and wash up from its seas. Aggrafina becomes an unwilling participant in the show just as her presence causes Adrik to become an unwilling participant in reliving parts of his past. Despite the new relationships found within the stone buildings on an isolated island Aggrafina'srestless heart wants only one thing...to go home, but will she? I am also editing my first Contemporary Romance and plan to release more deconstructed versions of fairytales.
2. How did you get started as a writer? I don’t really remember how I got started as a writer because I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing. I did have a defining moment a little over a year ago that pushed me to finally write and finish a book. I was in a weird place, feeling restless and I heard a song by Green Day that fit the emotional state I was in. I went home and found the initial eight pages of The Mermaid’s Lament that I had written a year before and wrote an additional 22,000 words in the next month. That was the beginning.
3. What’s a typical day like for you? A typical day is getting the kiddos off to school and gettinga green tea, it’s a must. Depending on the day I fit in some writing while the kids are gone and during their multiple after school activities, i.e. Ballet, Swim, and gymnastics. I do the typical mom stuff but I am both lucky and cursed with insomnia so that’s when I fit in more writing, reading, music, and movies. The insomnia oddly is what probably helps me stay sane.
4. Describe your workspace. My workspace is an old wood desk that I have covered in stickers, song lyrics, and quotes. I have the walls covered in postcards I have picked up in museums, an 8x10 black and white of Ernest Hemingway. The postcards are of other people who I have loved and been inspired by such as Jack Kerouac, Anne Sexton, and pieces of art. I have an odd antique nun and a Dexter bobble head amongst other weird gifts I have been given over the years or picked up at Comic conventions. The centerpieces of my workspace are a large black and white Bob Dylan poster and my laptop.
5. Favorite books? Wow. Favorite books? I would say my top five books are as follows: Little Women – Louisa May Alcott,  Garden Of Eden – Ernest Hemingway, The Outsiders – S.E Hinton (Dallas Winston was my first book boyfriend), The Opportunist – Tarryn Fisher, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane – Neil Gaiman.
6. Tell us 3 interesting things about you. My most prized possession is a copy of The October Country by Ray Bradbury that I had him sign after a lecture he gave. He signed it on my favorite story, The Small Assassin. I listen to Bob Dylan and Green Day at least once every day. I won honorable mention once for a newspaper that sponsored a “Write Like Hemingway” contest when I was thirteen. Until the week before the contest I had never read Ernest Hemingway and thus began a lifetime love affair with his writing.
7. Favorite quote: “Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard” – Anne Sexton
8. Best and worst part of being a writer? The best part of being a writer is being able to show people what my dreams and musings sound and look like. The worst part is explaining that sometimes the characters write themselves and getting a lot of odd looks. My brain is like a waiting room and I’m just there to write down the case study for each patient.
9. Advice to writers? Write what you know, what you feel, and what you love so others can understand and see the world as you do. Just don’t think it will be easy and that you won’t give away parts of yourself in the process.


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