DONIS CASEY: Write Errant

I am so pleased to welcome the lovely Lorie Ham, AKA Lorie Lewis Ham, as September’s guest at Tell Me Your Story. Lorie lives in Reedley, California, and has been writing ever since she was a child. Her first song and poem were published when she was 13, and she has gone on to publish many articles, short stories, and poems throughout the years, as well as write for a local newspaper, and publish 7 mystery novels. For the past 14 years, Lorie has been the editor-in-chief and publisher of Kings River Life Magazine, and she produces Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast, where you can hear an excerpt of her book One of Us, the first in a new series called The Tower District Mysteries. Book 2, One of You, was released in June of 2024. You can learn more about Lorie and her writing on her website mysteryrat.com and find her on Facebook, BookBub, Goodreads, and Instagram @krlmagazine & @lorielewishamauthor.

Explore Lorie’s mystery writing at Mysteryrat’s Closet.

Are We Born to Read and Write?

By Lorie Lewis Ham

There are so many different things in my life that led to me becoming a mystery writer. Sisters In Crime has had a huge impact on my writing life—from forming those first connections in the mystery world to encouraging and supporting me, and so much more. It was soon after joining the Fresno, CA chapter ages ago that I was encouraged to write a mystery novel featuring a gospel singer (which I was at the time)—taking that advice is what led to my finally writing and later publishing my first book. Sisters in Crime is amazing, as is the mystery community in general. Their support and help through the years have been invaluable.

But where did I find that encouragement and support before Sisters in Crime? I have said many times that I was practically born writing. I was making up short stories about my stuffed animals as soon as I could put sentences together. Writing is something that has always been a part of my soul, it is who I have always been. I can’t not write. However, I never received much encouragement from my family growing up. Now they didn’t discourage me either, but I think my father, as dear as he was, was of a generation who still believed that a man would take care of me someday so if I wanted to write for fun he wasn’t concerned. I still distinctly remember when my husband lost his job not long after we were married, and my dad came over to give him a talking to. I set my dad straight that day and the subject never came up again. I told him I didn’t get married so a man would take care of me, I could take care of myself.

Growing up I found my encouragement in other places. Oddly enough, Murder She Wrote was a big inspiration for me. I devoured those episodes, and it spurred my desire to be a mystery writer specifically and encouraged me to sit down and write. My first love as a teenager also played a huge role in my becoming a writer. He encouraged me to follow my dream no matter what. I owe him a great deal for that encouragement.

I believe another important part of becoming a writer is becoming a reader. I don’t really know if my parents read to me much as a child. My father wasn’t a reader except for the occasional political or work-related non-fiction book, and my mother exclusively read romances. But I know as soon as I was able to read on my own I devoured books—they were my companions. I was quiet and shy in school (hard to believe huh? Lol) and never had a lot of friends. My “book friends” though never failed to be there for me and were always ready to provide an escape. Scholastic book fairs at school were one of the highlights of my year. I would use all of my saved-up allowance to buy as many books as I could. I also went to the local library as often as I could talk someone into taking me. My preference in those days was horse books—but I will say I have never had a desire to write one of those for some reason. I also got into Star Trek books as a teen (always been a huge Star Trek fan) and even tried my hand at writing one of those—without any success.

Perhaps as much as I was born a writer, I was born a reader as well—it just wasn’t something instilled in me by those around me. Even though my mother read romances, the books themselves didn’t seem to mean much to her. She would give them away as soon as she was done with them. While to me, a book was and is a cherished possession I never wanted to part with. My grandparents weren’t really readers either.

Since both my parents worked and my mother had a lot of health issues, I was often a caregiver for my siblings being five and a half years older than the next one, and 11 years older than the youngest. I would like to think I influenced them to become readers as well. They all continue to love reading just as much as I do, and they have been very supportive of my writing. Although, it was one of my brothers who influenced me to read mysteries. In my mid-teens, it was he who introduced me to Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie and I never looked back. I don’t exclusively read mysteries, but they account for the bulk of my reading. I also enjoy reading vampire and urban fantasy novels, something my mother blames on her watching Dark Shadows with me as a baby (she fully takes the blame for this lol).

This love of reading mysteries, and watching them on TV, is what eventually led me to writing them, and as I mentioned, Sisters in Crime was a huge part of guiding me down the right path for that first book/series. I published my first book, Murder in Four-Part Harmony, in 2000, and went on to publish four books in that series and one stand-alone. That first book was, as far as I know, the only fiction book my father ever read as an adult.

While I took a break from writing mysteries for a while due to my commitments with my online magazine Kings River Life, I remained a part of the mystery world through publishing mystery reviews and short stories. I even started a podcast featuring mysteries read by local actors. However, my love of writing mysteries led me to return to that world a few years ago, and I have since released two books in my new series The Tower District Mysteries.

I went through some rough things in my teens (a story for another time) but books and writing were always there to get me through them and they have never failed me. I would write even if no one ever read anything I wrote, but I’m sure glad that people do 😊. I have to wonder though, are some people just born to read and write? It would have been easy enough for me to have never read anything more than I had to for school—there was no one encouraging me to read except perhaps some teachers later—yet it has always been my passion. I definitely read to both of my kids early on and shared my passion for reading with them—yet my youngest doesn’t read and my oldest is like me—so who knows, maybe reading, and writing, are in our genes. Here’s hoping my new grandson will be a reader too!

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Lorie’s newest novel is

ONE OF YOU
With her life on the California Coast behind her, Roxi Carlucci is beginning to feel at home in the Tower District—the cultural oasis of Fresno, CA—where she now lives with her cousin P.I. Stephen Carlucci, her pet rat Merlin, a Pit Bull named Watson, and a black cat named Dan. She has a new entertainment podcast, works as a part-time P.I., and is helping local bookstore owner Clark Halliwell put on the first-ever Tower Halloween Mysteryfest! The brutal summer heat is gone and has been replaced by the dense tule fog—perfect for Halloween!

She just wishes everyone would stop calling her the “Jessica Fletcher” of the Tower District simply because she found a dead body when she first arrived. But when one of the Mysteryfest authors is found dead, she fears she jinxed herself! The Carlucci’s are hired to find the killer before they strike again. Will Mysteryfest turn into a murder fest? How is the local gossip website back, and what does it know about the death of Roxi’s parents?

Buy ONE OF YOU at: https://books2read.com/u/m0eWAy

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 18th, 2024 at 5:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.