Today we’d like to introduce you to Lori Ann Wood

Hi Lori Ann, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?

Whether it is my personality, my upbringing, or the world we live in, all my life I’ve assigned value to answers. Many times through graduate school, in my career, and while raising my children, I avoided questions—asking them or fielding them. Especially if I didn’t already know the correct response in advance.

When I was suddenly diagnosed with end-stage heart failure with no family history and no risk factors, uncertainty permeated my life. I spent two weeks in cardiac ICU after visiting my family doctor with what I thought was the flu. I was eventually released with an armload of medication, an external defibrillator vest, and a hospice binder.

The cause of my chronic, progressive disease remains undetermined, and the prognosis is just as foggy. Early on, I spent months researching for answers, when there were really none to be found. And what I discovered, serendipitously, was the value and freedom in questions. Over the last several years, I have written dozens of articles and now a book embracing the pursuit of questions and their value in faith and in life.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

The most accurate description of my journey would be that I’ve been on a detour. A detour is an unexpected route. It happens when we have a carefully planned journey, and we set our GPS with the route we desire—the quickest, smoothest, easiest way to get where we want to go. But then, for an often unknown reason, we get thrown off that main, chosen route. We get rerouted onto a side road, that is definitely not the quickest, smoothest, easiest way to travel. A detour is a path we’d never choose on our own.

But I’ve found a detour is always the path to a more meaningful life. A detour is a way that makes a way when there is no way. When our planned route cannot get us to where we’d like to go, a detour actually makes travel possible. For me, it was a health detour. Detours always bring up deep questions. In order to embrace my detour and appreciate the way it was making for me, I had to embrace the value of questions in many areas of my life.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?

I am a heart failure warrior, a Community Educator for WomenHeart, a speaker, and an author. Prior to my diagnosis, I was none of those. I had been a college business professor for 20 years and suddenly was no longer able to stand and lecture for hours at a time. Once I was detoured, God made a way when there was no way. I found I could sit and type most of the day. So I began sharing my story and looking for others on paths they didn’t choose. I applied for the role of Community Educator with WomenHeart and was trained at the Mayo Clinic to provide virtual support to others experiencing a similar diagnosis. I’ve written dozens of articles for publications both in print and online. I became a member of a devotion writing team for an international ministry. I had no platform and no online presence, so God again set out making a way when there seemed at first no way. Against all odds, in 2023 my first book, Divine Detour: The Path You’d Never Choose Can Lead to the Faith You’ve Always Wanted, was published by a small Christian press. Since the book launched, I have spoken extensively, sharing my message with audiences of all sizes, including the American Heart Association and Pepperdine University, along with several retreats, conferences, and other gatherings.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?

For the book to earn eight international awards and garner the ranking of top new release in two huge categories on Amazon, I had to be okay with not knowing all the answers in my maiden publishing voyage. As a late-life author, I was tempted to shrug off the nudge to write and blame it on hard-to-learn technology in an unfamiliar field. Just like in my health diagnosis, I had to commit to leaning into questions and doubt, and not stay within the safe boundary of answers and certainty. Now the book is out in all forms, including audiobook, and it will be released in Spanish in 2025. The book itself is a book of essays designed to encourage readers to explore the three questions every life must confront.

Pricing:

• Paperback: $15.99
• Hardcover: $22.99
• Ebook: $4.99
• Audiobook: $17.46

Contact Info:

• Website: https://loriannwood.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loriannwood/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DivinelyDetoured
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClsYrW5KIUqMBVvRxzNZG5Q

Image Credits

Abbie Treme Photography (personal photo), Diana C. Photography (couple photo)