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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