A Cup of Coffee (Or Tea) With Author Lorri Moulton

September 2020 – I follow so many wonderful people on Twitter and Facebook. People who continue to inspire and motivate me, while working on their own projects and promotions. I’m curious who they are, where they grew up, and how they handle their writing, their creative process and their everyday lives. I also want to know how they got to where they are.

I bring to you another great author I’ve met on social media. Yes, another writer I’ve met on Twitter. One more author that is a fan of Hallmark romance movies, who loves watching and tweeting about these movies, like I do.

Lorri Moulton lives in Eastern Washington with her husband. They live on a farm in a lovely part of the country, which you can imagine inspire many of her stories. She has written using a variety of genres, including romance, suspense, fantasy, mysteries, fairytales, and historical non-fiction.

She has published 15 books using her own brand Lavender Lass Books, including a few collaborations. Let me tell you a bit more about her books, before getting into our chat.

The Burrows Bay Romance Series, co-authored with Abigail McKee, has cousins Moira and Gabriella discovering their grandmother has left them a mansion in the San Juan Islands, north of Seattle. What they find changes their lives forever. This is a three book series story that includes The Magic of Burrows Bay, The Secret of Burrows Bay, and The Mystery of Burrows Bay.

Lorri’s next series is the Dare Romance Series, which includes Dare to Cross The Water, Dare to Share A Dream. These books are loosely based on her family history. Well, they start with Lorri’s great-great-great grandmother on her mom’s side and her life in Scotland. Then follow with the romance of her great-great grandparents and how they met at a school for the deaf.

Down in the Well & other short stories, on the other hand is a collection of short stories based on the romance shared by her father’s paternal grandparents. You can say life gives us inspiration everywhere you look.

Christmas in Silver Birch Valley is a sweet romance with a bit of fantasy. Magic’s Betrayal, Once Upon A Rose and Spell Bound are fairytales stories. Moonlight, Roses & Murder is a murder mystery and a paranormal suspense story.

Storm Front: Memoirs of a Secret Agent is the first book in a spy series filled with suspense, romance and even a little bit of paranormal. The Importance of Being Churchill, The Atlantic Charter, Jay P. Graves and the Electric Railroad are part of Lorri’s non-fiction published work. Quite the collection for a multi-talented author!

I want you to know more about Lorri. Here’s our conversation:

Welcome to Full of Coffee, Lorri! As you know, from the name of my blog, I have to ask you: do you like coffee or do you prefer tea? What’s your favorite?

• Nydia, thank you for asking me to join you today. Such a great name for your blog! I used to drink coffee in college but decided to switch to tea some years ago. My favorite tea is Earl Grey, although I also like Jasmine and Orange Spice.

I tried to stop drinking coffee in college too, but couldn’t. Where did you grow up? Did your childhood have any influence in your interest on reading or writing?

• My dad was in the Air Force, so my brother and I moved around quite a bit growing up. My mom always set up our rooms first when we moved into a new house. This helped every place immediately feel like home. We were very close as a family, and I think that has probably influenced my decision to write stories that bring so many characters together to create their own type of family.

Interesting! When did you decide to give professional writing a try?

• My first published writing was for my high school and college newspapers. I briefly considered going into journalism as a profession but ended up majoring in history and economics.

Has dedicating yourself to being a writer affected your personal life, or your professional life?

• As for my personal life, my husband is incredibly supportive, and my mom proofreads ALL my books before I publish them. She retired from the library a few years ago, but her love of reading is probably one reason I ended up in this field. I have a Master’s Degree in History. I’ve taught a few classes and worked in the finance sector, but I enjoy being a self-published author more than any other career I’ve had.

You have published as a collaborator in a few romance books. How has your experience been writing and promoting those collaborations?

• My very good friend Abigail McKee and I co-write the Burrows Bay series together. I must admit that Gabbi and Moira might have started off sharing a few of our traits, but both characters have definitely developed their own personalities LOL.
• Abigail and I have been friends since we were teenagers. I think that makes it easier in some ways, but we live on opposite sides of Washington state and that makes it more difficult. Lots of emails, messaging, and phone calls! We decided to write one more book in the series, which will hopefully be available around the holidays.

Wow! Well, I think the effort to stay in touch and work together actually helps your friendship. Tell me now about your first published book. How was that experience of getting a book published?

• My first published book was Down in the Well & other short stories. I published that on Father’s Day four years ago for my dad. When he was six years old, he spent the summer with his paternal grandfather and heard so many stories about his grandparents when they were young. He wanted me to write them down and I used those as the basis for these short stories. My dad passed away a few years ago after a long fight with cancer, so I’m so glad the family has these stories written down. I would encourage anyone to give it a try if only to preserve their own family history.

• My maternal grandmother was a keeper of family stories and used to tell us about them all the time. I loved those stories and some of them are the basis for my two clean/sweet historical romance books. Dare to Cross the Water is based on her great-grandparents, who did meet in Scotland although much of the story is my creative imagination. It takes a lot to fill a novel. Dare to Share a Dream is a Victorian novelette about their daughter meeting her future husband, and how they met at a school for the deaf, as they really were both deaf.

I believe that is a great way to honor your dad and to have a wonderful keepsake of family stories to share with others. I’m actually working on some of my family stories. What has been your experience with self published vs traditionally published?

• I have only self-published my books, although we did submit The Magic of Burrows Bay to Hallmark Publishing. That was a fun experience! We got some very nice feedback from the editor.
• I really enjoy working as a self-published author. There are challenges, but the rewards are worth it.  Even though I have to make all the decisions, I also have total control of my business since I own Lavender Lass Books. Of course, if someone wants to discuss TV or movie options, I’m open to having that conversation.

Any future project you want to talk about?

• I have so many projects going on right now! I write in several genres, so my suggestion would be to go to my website and look at the books. You can read the beginning of each one for FREE. I’m starting my third clean/sweet fairy tale novelette and hope to have it done by Christmas. I got so excited about the idea for this story that I’ve already made the book trailer. You can find that on my website as well.

I’m looking forward to more stories from you soon. Thank you for joining me for this pleasant chat, Lorri.

• Thank you so much for inviting me today, Nydia. I’ve had a lovely time.

What a fascinating story! To get to know more of Lorri, like she said, visit her website and follow her! Visit her website page https://lavenderlassbooks.com/. Also visit her page on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @LassBooks. And, of course, find her books on Amazon.

I hope everyone enjoys this interview as much as I have enjoyed writing it. It’s a great opportunity for me to meet all these incredible writers.

I’ll keep reading, I’ll keep writing, I’ll keep dreaming! I have some more pending projects to work on. Thank you for reading! Time for my tacita de café. Salud!

Para versión en español, vea https://fullofcoffeeblog.com/una-tacita-de-cafe-o-de-te-con-la-autora-lorri-moulton/