Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into writing?
I wrote my first published poem in 3rd grade – well, it was published in my school’s annual creative writing highlights, so I’m counting it! I’ve always been a bookworm, and fantasized about writing a book, but it just seemed so hard. And let’s face it, writing a book in the 1960s and 1970s was extremely hard work. In the late 1980s, technology finally caught up with my daydreams, and I realized the tools existed now to share my creative writing. I started doing that on Prodigy, then on CompuServe. When the internet really kicked in, I helped created and played in quite a few long-form text-based RPGs in LiveJournal. All this practice gave me the confidence to finally write an actual book. I figured out the Amazon publishing system, published a short story as a way to learn the system, then in 2015 published my novel, The Flight To Brassbright. I’ve recently released a tenth anniversary edition of that book. Where does the time go?
What inspired you to write your book?
Parlor Poetry came out of a personal challenge to discipline myself to write more poetry. I thought using the alphabet would be a fun prompt, but I needed a theme. What did I enjoy more than anything else? The Victorian Era instantly came to mind, and my challenge was set: Write poetry about the Victorian Era, with themes for every letter of the alphabet.
What theme or message do you hope readers will take away from your book?
I hope they’ll realize that the Victorians were more than just stuffy-looking, serious folk in old black and white pictures. I’ve prefaced each letter’s poetry with a short introduction the theme I’ll be exploring. These are very short, just one page. By the end of the book, I hope readers will understand just how vibrant the era was, and how much the Victorians gave to us.
What drew you into this particular genre?
I’ve been fascinated with the Victoria Era ever since childhood, when my parents took me to visit the Queen Anne Cottage at the Los Angeles Arboretum. It was a fully furnished home built in 1886, and it just blew my mind. I’ve been a Victorianophile ever since! As for the poetry… it’s always been fun. As a kid, I loved Dr. Seuss. For a class assignment, I memorized and recited “Eletelephony” by Laura E. Richards. I encourage you to google that and enjoy the fun! Yes, I say “fun” a lot. I can’t help but find the fun in the Victorians, and in poetry.
What social media site has been the most helpful in developing your readership?
Honestly, I have lousy luck with all social media, but I suppose X has performed the best. If we care to look beyond social media, I have become a wild success in the virtual world of Second Life, where I run a book shop, host salons and writer’s groups, and recently was the guest of honor at the annual Fantasy Faire, an annual American Cancer Society benefit.
What advice would you give to aspiring or just starting authors out there?
Don’t be afraid to take your favorite dream and put it into words. Be grateful you live in an age where those words can become published books almost in the blink of an eye. But don’t take that easy access for granted – write your best work, polish it brightly, get it proofread and edited.
What does the future hold in store for you? Any new books/projects on the horizon?
Always! The sequel to The Flight To Brassbright has been in the works for a while. It’s a complex story about a crazy inciting incident, told through a series of four separate adventures, each dealing with the aftermath of the incident from different points of view. It’s called Down the Tubes. A third book in that series is half-written too, called The Hidden Doors. And I have ideas for about ten thousand short stories, so who knows what will come of that?
About the Author
Lori Alden Holuta lives between the cornfields in Michigan, where she grows herbs and vegetables when she’s not playing games with a cat named Chives. She’s fond of crafting, reading in the dark, literary worldbuilding, and pulling up dandelions.
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