We recently connected with Laurie Fagen and have shared our conversation below.
Laurie, appreciate you joining us today. Can you tell us a bit about who your hero is and the influence they’ve had on you?
My father is my hero. He and my mother raised my three brothers and myself to be independent and strong, and to believe we could anything we wanted.
They were positive, encouraging role models who were respected in the community and at home.
My father, who taught Dale Carnegie classes for public speaking, among other things, and traveled through life with a positive mental attitude (which he referred to as PMA), which he instilled in all of us.
During my high school basketball playing days, he would suggest on the afternoon before a game that I sit in his recliner in the den, with the lights off, and mentally imagine making a successful shot. He would say to visualize the ball in my hands, my hands taking the shot, and the basketball going through the hoop.
I strongly believe his “PMA” has followed me throughout my days and been instrumental in how I lead my life.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I was fortunate to have a career as a writer for radio, television and print news, video, films, documentaries, murder mystery plays, stage productions and most recently crime fiction. I’ve been a singer since elementary school, having taken part in choir, madrigals, musicals and other vocal projects during high school, then majored in theatre for two years. But I didn’t want to starve, so decided to go into journalism instead. I performed in community and professional musical theatre in Phoenix until my son was born. When he was learning to play guitar, I took up singing again when he started playing tunes from the 30s and 40s that I loved.
I have written three full length crime fiction novels published in ebook, print and audiobooks, have a number of short stories published in anthologies and am starting a new crime fiction series under Read Laurie Fagen and www.ReadLaurieFagen.com.
I also occasionally sing classic jazz for private parties and organizations under Laurie Fagen & Friends and www.LaurieFagen.com.
Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?
I have bought and sold a business, and started several others from scratch. I had been a freelance writer for a local community newspaper when the owner said they were transferring out of state and needed to sell the business. My late husband and I bought the Ocotillo News and immediately took it to a totally electronically produced publication, renaming it the SanTan Sun News. When we bought it, it was averaging 16 pages and was delivered to about 7,000 residents. When we sold it after 13 years, we printed about 80 pages and it was delivered to some 38,000 readers.
When my husband was ill, we were able to sell the paper to a local publication company. We hired a broker who led us through the process and negotiated a very good deal for us. It’s been satisfying to see the newspaper continue very similarly as when we owned it, and my name is still on the masthead as “Publisher Emeritus.”
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
When my husband died of cancer very young at age 61, I was only 59. We had just sold our community newspaper business and suddenly I was by myself trying to figure out what to do without my life and business partner. I had a number of steady, long-term singing gigs but now I was without my “roadie,” who packed and set up all my equipment.
I had been doing some art, but now my cheerleader was gone.
I had written non-fiction news for so many years, I didn’t think I would be able to write fiction.
But I knew I couldn’t just curl up in a ball, so I traveled, got involved in art groups and slowly built my writing and art into a business.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lauriefagen.com, www.FagenDesigns.com, www.ReadLaurieFagen.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauriefagenfagendesigns https://www.instagram.com/read_laurie_fagen/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReadLaurieFagen, https://www.facebook.com/FagenDesigns/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurie-fagen-9815a1b/
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/@Lauriefagen1026 and youtube.com/@readlauriefagenurderintheair
- Other: I’m no longer using Twitter/X but using Threads at LaurieFagenFagenDesigns
Image Credits
Laurie Fagen singing headshot: Photo by Cherrie Lonkar, HelloYouPhotography.com Laurie Fagen studio at cam by Lauri Koo