Guest Post: Author Lori Strongin

Lori's debut "Bite Me: Or the Obvious Title for a Novel About a Vampire and a Werewolf" releases tomorrow and she was kind enough to drop by the blog to tell us a bit about her writing process and inspiration! 

How it All Began

The quintessential author question, yes?  “How did you become an author?”

My answer: I didn’t ‘become’ an author.  I kinda always was one.

To backtrack: A favorite family (otherwise read as “embarrassing”) story is how I’d line up my stuffed animals in my crib and babble at them for a good hour before demanding my parents release me from my baby cage.  The popular opinion is that I was telling them stories. 

Fast forward a few years to when my absolute favorite book in the world was Peter and Wendy.  There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that one night, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell were going to fly through my window and whisk me off to adventure in Neverland.  I’d stay awake for hours, again more telling stories to my stuffed animals and, this time, certain that Peter was listening just outside my window.  And if I could just manage to find the perfect story, then he’d reward me with a healthy dose of faith, trust, and pixie dust.

Sadly, it hasn’t happened yet.  I still remain optimistic it will one day.  That, or I’ll finally get my Hogwarts letter.

So, basically, I’ve always been telling stories.  My first short story was scribbled in an old notebook of my mother’s and was about a girl coping with her twin’s death.  (Yup, I liked my body counts, even back then.)  My first publication was in my elementary school paper with a freeform poem I’d written during English class.  The writing/comprehension part of the SATs was a breeze for me (and thank goodness for that, to help offset my atrocious math scores).  And I don’t think it surprised anyone when I picked English-Creative Writing as my major in college.

Though, I will say I only managed to begin the transition from writer to author after college when I joined my first writers group and discovered that everything I learned in the classroom for the last four years meant bupkis in real life.  College didn’t prepare me for the realities of editing an entire novel, or how to write a query letter and synopsis (which took me longer to get right than writing the entire first draft), or what the bitter sting of rejection felt like.  And this is where the transition began.  Rejection sucks.  So can editing when you get stuck.  But if you really want it, you’ll put the work in.  This is where it becomes less about telling a story, and more about telling that story in the best way you possibly can.

From Goodreads: "This summer at Hedgehill University: take one totally screwed werewolf, a vegetarian vampire, and the psycho who wants to kill them both.

Surfer-boy werewolf Talbot Osbourne is under pressure to get a summer job, find an apartment, and make up for the classes he failed last semester. The fur will fly when Talbot is forced to partner with Julian St. George on a class assignment. Unfortunately, the vegetarian vampire brings more than just a set of fangs to the table when a stalker takes special interest in the unlikely duo.

Time is running out for the ParaNorms of New York as they’re picked off, one by one. Talbot and Julian will have to work together catch the ‘Slayer’ before the psycho finds them. If they don’t kill each other first, that is.

Throw in a shapeshifter with ferret envy, a wizard who makes people’s clothes disappear, and an apartment with cannibalistic furniture and zombie squirrels, and these boys are in for the summer of their lives. Or deaths." 

Author Lori T. Strongin has been lucky enough to study under many wonderful writing mentors and is passionate about giving some of that knowledge back to other writers. 

A writer of high fantasy, urban fantasy, sci-fi, horror, romance, and commercial fiction, Lori is knowledgeable about the ins and outs of publishing industry and has helped many writers on their paths to publication. 

Former conference director of the Florida Writers Association, Lori currently works at Walt Disney World and is an English/Creative Writing honors graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Look for her work in publications such as Tip o’ the Tongue, The Florida Writer, Literary Liftoff, Forbidden Speculation, Tales of the Talisman, Renard’s Menagerie, Shadows of the Emerald City, Encounters, Emerald Tales, and most recently in Aiofe’s Kiss. Her work also appeared in the Predators and Editors fan favorite anthology, Shadows of the Emerald City.