Lorie Ham, Guest Author and Publisher of Kings River Life Magazine

 This week my guest is Lorie Ham, author and publisher. She has an interesting story to tell and an enjoyable ezine to check out. I think you'll be glad you stopped in to learn more about here. Welcome, and thank you for visiting this week, Lorie.
 

How I Came to Write Mysteries

by Lorie Lewis Ham

I started writing as soon as I could put sentences together. The first things I wrote were stories about my stuffed animals, then I moved on to poetry. My first publication was a poem when I was 13. After that, I wrote poems, articles, and short stories for several years and saw some published. I also have written off and on for the local newspaper. However, in my mid teens I decided I wanted to write a novel and even tried writing a Star Trek one, but it didn't take long before I more specifically wanted to write a mystery novel. Believe it or not, Jessica Fletcher on "Murder She Wrote" was a big inspiration for that, and honestly when I need to feel inspired I still turn on an episode of the show.

Now I didn't grow up reading mysteries like my little brother did. I think he read pretty much every Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys book. I read books about horses and Star Trek books. But around the same time I started trying to write a book, my brother finally got me to read Sherlock Holmes. From there on I was hooked!

It wasn't until my early twenties when I joined Sisters In Crime that I ended up with an idea that worked. I've been singing gospel music my whole life as well and someone in the group said, "Hey why don't you write a mystery featuring a gospel singer?" So I gave it a try and everything clicked. I wrote and published four mysteries featuring gospel singer Alexandra Walters. They weren't Christian mysteries though, as they showed the bad side of that world as well.

Not long after I started to write my first book in that series, "Murder In Four Part Harmony," I also started attending a creative writing class. For some reason, which I still don't understand, my teacher insisted I write a Christian romance! To please her I did give it a shot--but let's get real, I ended up killing someone off anyway. I don't like romance novels, so how could I possibly write one? I think it is important that you like the type of book you are writing--otherwise how could you possibly put your heart into it? And trust me, readers will know if you don't.

So basically, I write mysteries for the same reason I read them--I love the puzzle, and I love exploring why people do the things they do. You can be certain that I will NEVER write a romance novel. Over the years, I have become a fan of fantasy novels as well, and I did try my hand at writing a vampire one, and who knows maybe that will happen someday. But my heart belongs to mysteries!

I am currently working on the first book in a brand new series featuring an entertainment and pet blogger. You will also find me at the online magazine I publish, Kings River Life Magazine. There we publish all sorts of things, including some wonderful articles about animal rescue. But pretty much half of every issue is mystery related--mystery book reviews, giveaways, short stories, articles and more. Because as I said before--my heart belongs to mysteries! You can check us out at http://kingsriverlife.com/.

Lorie Lewis Ham has been publishing her writing since the age of 13 and singing since the age of 5. She worked for her local newspaper off and on for years, and in 2010 became the editor-in-chief and publisher of Kings River Life Magazine http://kingsriverlife.com/. She has also published 5 mystery novels--you can learn more about her mystery writing on her blog http://mysteryratscloset.blogspot.com/.

Books available at:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=lorie+ham&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Alorie+ham

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