Lorrie Farrelly is an internationally recognized, multi-award winning author and an experienced independent publisher. We carried out an interview with Lorrie to find out more about her, her stories, and to get some tips for you authors out there who are considering publishing your books independently. Read on to learn what Lorrie had to say.
Welcome to e-Books India, Lorrie! We’re thrilled to have you join us for this interview. Can you please tell us bit about you? Where do you come from? What is your work background and how did you come about to become an author?
Thank you, Hiten! I’m delighted to be here, and I want to say hello to all your wonderful readers! I live with my family in the United States, in Southern California. I’m a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Northwestern University, near Chicago, Illinois. I recently retired from teaching mathematics in high school and began writing full-time.
I’ve always been fascinated by history, and it’s so intriguing to me that many critical events in the past could so easily have gone another way than they actually did. There are so many what ifs to capture our imaginations.
This was my inspiration to write Timelapse, a sci/fi romantic thriller that imagines what might happen if someone who believed the end justified the means set out to “improve” society. Timelapse recently won a 2014 Readers’ Favorite International Book Award and First Place in Time Travel in the 2014 Cygnus Awards for Sci/Fi and Speculative Fiction. It is a 2014 Author’s Cave Book Awards gold medalist.
Please sell us some more about your novels. What genres do you like to write in?
Besides Timelapse, I’ve written contemporary and paranormal romantic thrillers and Western historical romances – both novels and short stories. Dangerous is the story of an emotionally burned-out Los Angeles police officer, Cam Starrett, whose heart has been broken by tragedy. Seeking a peaceful haven where life will be serene, he accepts a job as Chief of Police in a small, Central California town. Considering what happens next, Cam should have been careful what he wished for!
Psychic-romance thriller The Guardian’s Angel finds child behavioural therapist Libby Driscoll on the run with a compelling man and a troubled child. Seattle police Detective J.D. McCammon’s young foster son, Tommy, has witnessed the murder of his parents and is in dire peril of being the killer’s next victim. Tommy, however, suffers from autism, and cannot communicate with the man who loves him and is desperately trying to protect him. Libby Driscoll is J.D.’s best hope to connect with Tommy, but with her he finds more than he bargained for – an intimate, inexplicable bond that will either destroy them, or become their greatest source of strength.
You’re the author of several novels. One of your most well-known and award-winning books is Terms of Surrender. Can you please tell us a bit about this story?
Terms of Surrender was my first published novel, and in many ways, it remains the closest to my heart. The story was inspired by some old family documents I found in a cardboard box. They were a Prisoner of War Parole Pass and an Oath of Allegiance to the United States. Both had been signed in 1865 by my great-grandfather, William McClain, who had fought for the South during the American Civil War, also called the War Between the States. The South was defeated (which was a good thing, as it put an end to slavery in the U.S.) and martial law was imposed on the Southern states for several years thereafter.
I wondered what a young man would feel after facing bitter defeat in such a long, terrible, and brutal war. Bitterness? Exhaustion? Hopelessness? Possibly even relief? In order to be allowed to go home after surrender, Southern soldiers, who were considered prisoners of war, had to agree to never again take up arms against the United States. Like my main character, former cavalry Captain Michael Cantrell, many of these men had no homes or loved ones left to return to, and large numbers of them headed west to the frontier to seek a new beginning. Most, again like Michael, could scarcely remember peace, and they had to struggle to find new purpose in their lives. Love and trust were not easily given, and many suffered from what today we’d call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Michael’s story seemed to touch so many readers that it now has two sequels that follow his growing new family from the 1880s in the West through the turn of the 20th century: Terms of Engagement and Terms of Temptation. Terms of Surrender won a 2014 Readers’ Favorite International Book Award and is a finalist in the 2014 Laramie Awards for Western and Civil War fiction.
One of your more recent works is a contribution to an anthology called Cowboy Kisses. Can you share a little about your story in this particular collection? What was it like to work with other authors on this book?
Cowboy Kisses is one of the wonderful Western historical romance anthologies from Prairie Rose Publications. My experience with the other contributing authors, including Cheryl Pierson, Livia J. Washburn, Sarah J. McNeal, Kristy McCaffrey, Meg Mims, and many more terrific talents, has been absolutely delightful. Although the anthologies often have a theme of a particular time of year, the stories themselves are wonderfully diverse, gripping, and highly entertaining.
My contribution to Cowboy Kisses is “A Kiss in Time.” In this tale of love and fate, a tattered old journal sends a young woman back in time and into the arms of a long-ago Texas Ranger. More of my stories can be found in Cowboys, Creatures, and Calico (“The Sheriff of Hel’n Gone,” another time-travel Western) and Present for a Cowboy (“Christmas Treasure,” a tale of an unexpected gift that can’t be measured in gold).
My newest story, “The Longest Way Home,” is just about to be released in a Prairie Rose Publications anthology called A Cowboy Celebration. It’s an emotional story of love lost and found that I hope will touch readers’ hearts.
Are you working on any other book(s)? If so, what can we expect to see from you in the future?
I’ll be releasing a new historical romance this fall. Titled Mollie, Mail-Order Bride of Georgia, it’s one of a brand new series set at the end of the 19th century, American Brides. This is something new and challenging for me, as I’m coordinating with nearly 40 other authors in this series. It’s very exciting, and a bit tricky as well! I’m also delighted that Mollie’s cover is planned to feature a very unusual model, my husband’s great-grandmother, Jennie Gregg. She was a beautiful young woman in 1890, and I hope she’d be tickled to know she’s playing the part of a feisty heroine on the cover of a 21st century novel!
From your experiences of independent publishing, can you please share 3 key pieces of advice to authors who are thinking of publishing their work by themselves?
1. Research! There are many, many sites online now dedicated to helping independent authors publish and publicize their work. It’s so much easier now to get good, reliable information than it was even five years ago. I’ve had very good experiences with Amazon Kindle, CreateSpace, and ACX (audible.com). Other writers swear by Smashwords and other sites. I like the versatility and global reach of Amazon, but there are many good options out there.
2. Present your work professionally! That means much proofing and editing. Many authors use beta readers – volunteers who read and critique books pre-publication – and/or professional editors. Formatting and cover design should look professional. A typo or two isn’t an issue, but your book must be well constructed, readable, and cohesive. With all the structure guides available, there’s no excuse for bad grammar, incorrect punctuation, and so forth. By the way, I’m not a fan of cliffhanger endings. Series can have overarching characters and long-term story lines, but the specific story line of each individual book should be complete. (The only obvious exceptions are books written to be serial episodes. Just be sure your readers know to expect that!)
3. Read, read, read! Nothing ingrains structure and flow of language more than reading well-written novels and stories. The very best preparation for being a good writer is to be an avid reader.
How can people find out more about you?
I’m very active online, and am on various social media sites, including platforms for authors such as the following:
Getting hold of Lorrie’s books
We would like to say a huge thank you to Lorrie for joining us for this interview. If you could like to get any of her books, you can do so at the following Amazon stores:
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/hv1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Hiten Vyas is the Founder and Managing Editor of eBooks India. He is also a prolific eBook writer with over 25 titles to his name.[/author_info] [/author]