Sure, there are two books being released over the next couple of months where the heroines remind me of myself a little bit. My August release, "Love Encounters" is about an interracial love story. It's a slow growing love story but when it finally takes off, it takes off in an explosion. There are loosely based truths within the story that my husband and I experienced during our courtship. So, Shelly Barnes and I have that in common, while Kevin Bradford is the patient, respectful man that my husband was.
My November release "A Dad for Christmas" is about a widow who lost her husband to cancer and had to make some hard decisions about her life and the life for the kids. I recently lost my husband to pancreatic cancer and even though I wrote this book months ago, I tried to put myself in this heroine's mind. So there is that, and there is some resemblance there as well.
Was there a teacher or mentor in your life who helped nurture your writing?
Yes, my freshman English teacher, Ms. C. Finley. I was kind of like this new kid, kind of a fish out of water among my surroundings at the time. Even though I was outgoing, and friendly, it was during a time where I didn't believe I really fit in. (Now, that I'm older, I realize that was just part of teenage angst. I did fit in and all of the friends that I made back then have really shown me just how much I did with all of their support now). I remembered when I turned in a writing assignment in class one day and received encouraging words from Ms. Finley. When I turned in the second paper, she told me that she really liked it and she asked me questions trying to get inside my head about the piece. The fact that she took the time to walk with me down the hallway and then down the stairs to discuss my creative writing peace, gave me a sense of pride in something that I wrote. From that point forward, I developed a LOVE for writing and it was the catalyst that kicked off what is now a passion for writing "stories". Thank you Ms. Finley. I'll never forget what you did for me.
Every author has that moment when they doubt their ability to write. When that happens to you, how do you pull yourself up by the bootstraps and continue? What do you do to inspire YOURSELF?
Well the first thing I do is place that current story aside. I stop working on it. I know that if I continue writing, I could just end of with crap on paper that will begin the process of adding more crap to it. I tell my writer friends that when this happens to me, it's usually because I went in the wrong direction somewhere along the line and my muse is trying to tell me to "Wait a minute, LaNora. Let's stop and think about this."
So I do. I stop and put the story on hold. Then I spent every night before I fall asleep thinking about it. Letting my muse talk with me and work out the problem. I might even pull out a book on my 'to be read' list of books and immerse myself into a different story all together.
Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to Hop on over to my writing pal Amy Jarecki's blog at http://amyjarecki.blogspot.com