We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lori Fairchild a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lori, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

My most meaningful project has been my Buddy and Panda mystery series for children.

My younger daughter came to us at age 5 and announced that she wanted to play ice hockey even though she had never been on skates or seen a game in person. She had seen it on TV and seen pictures of my brother playing when he was a kid. We looked into it and discovered there were no girls’ hockey teams for kids her age, so she would have to play with the boys. She was a tiny kid, so we made her go through the entire sequence of learn to skate and learn to play hockey classes before we would sign her up for a league.

It was love at first skate. She played that game all the way through her freshman year of college competitively and still plays beer league now. But it wasn’t always easy. Playing with the boys came with its own challenges, from boys on her team who made life difficult to her to boys on the other teams targeting her. We went to some rinks where they wouldn’t give her a separate dressing room to dress in, and she would have to make do with the bathroom or someone’s office.

One of the big things, though, about being a girl playing hockey 15 years ago was that there weren’t a lot of female role models and almost no books about girls who play hockey. There’s an adage that says “You can’t be what you never see” and that’s really true. There were years when she wasn’t just the only girl on her team. She was the only girl in the entire hockey organization — from 5-year-olds to seniors in high school. It’s a lonely place to be.

A couple of years ago, my mom asked me if I would write a book that included our dog at the time, Buddy. He was a great dog. A German short-haired pointer that was getting on in years. I started brainstorming ideas and landed on having Buddy and our other dog, Panda, solve mysteries. And then I remembered trying to find books where the main character was a girl who played hockey, so I decided to combine the two. The main character in those books is a 10-year-old girl named Eva. She and Buddy and Panda solve mysteries, but they also deal with some of the things that a lot of girl hockey players have to deal with.

I love writing these books, and they definitely speak to girls who play hockey, but they’re also great for kids who don’t. The mysteries are fun. They include dogs. And they let kids of all genders see girls doing something non-traditional. And I’m excited to have these books let young girls see something different so they know it’s OK to try something out of the ordinary.

Lori, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I wear two hats, but I view both as creative endeavors. First, I’m an author. I write a young adult dystopian series called The Palumbra Chronicles and a children’s mystery series called Buddy and Panda Mysteries. Second, I work as a freelance writer and editor for a variety of different industries.

In my author business, I write under two pen names L.D. Fairchild for my young adult works and Lori Briley for my children’s books. My goal as an author is to write books that engage, entertain, and get young people thinking about the world around them.

I got started as an author when my older daughter was a senior in high school. My kids were getting older, and I started thinking about what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be when they were both out of the house and my life was no longer ruled by their activities. I’d always wanted to write a book, so I started taking 15 minutes a day to write. Some days I would write more, but a lot of that first book was written in 15-minute chunks. I discovered that if you string enough 15-minute sessions together, you end up with a completed book. Since then, I’ve added another book in The Palumbra Chronicles series with the third one set to come out sometime this year, and I’ve written two Buddy and Panda books.

As part of being an author, I love to do school visits or talk with scout troops or 4H clubs about being an author. I’ve also taught English to a homeschool co-op and done some tutoring.

The second part of my creative business is as a freelance writer and editor. I work for a variety of industries from marketing agencies to engineering firms. I love it because the work is so varied that I’m constantly learning new things. I rarely do the same thing from week to week. I produce content from blogs to long-form thought leadership to press releases to website copy. I’ve even done proposals and annual reports. On the editing side, I do everything from websites to books.

I started as a freelancer after my first daughter was born. I wanted to work part-time, but I also wanted flexibility to choose my projects and my schedule. I love the freedom being a freelancer gives me to design my work life around the rest of my life, and I love all the people I get to work with along the way. I’ve been freelancing for more than 25 years, putting my journalism degree to work.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Whether I’m doing freelance work or writing a book, I believe that people are wired for story. If you look back at cultures where knowledge was passed down in oral form, you’ll find that the things that have endured aren’t written lists of instructions or historical facts. They’re stories. Think about the ancient classics like The Odyssey or religious texts like The Bible. Those were stories told from one generation to the next until someone wrote them down. We remember stories because they resonate with us. Marketers use stories to get you to buy something. Your kids use stories to get you to see things their way. Movies and books use stories to evoke emotions and make an impact.

When I write, I’m always looking for the story, the one that’s going to make someone remember what I wrote. Because I believe stories are powerful. They have the power to change the way people think, the way they feel, and the way they do things. One of my favorite TV shows is Doctor Who, and the quote from that show that hangs on the wall in my office pretty much sums up how I look at people and their stories: “We’re all stories in the end; just make it a good one.”

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I think sometimes we do something for so long, and we think that’s the only thing we can do or that we’re too old to try something new. I was 45 years old when I decided I wanted to be an author as well as a freelance writer. I always told myself I wasn’t any good at writing fiction because my whole career had been spent writing nonfiction. But you know what? You can always learn something new, and you can always get better at it. It just takes practice.

The most important thing I learned was to start acting like the person I wanted to be. I started calling myself an author. I set up a schedule that let me get some writing time in around my other work. I’m still learning and sometimes still get caught up in imposter syndrome, but the reality is that everyone has something to offer the world. If we hide our talents and don’t pursue our dreams, then people will miss out on something that could change their lives — and you will miss out on knowing you lived the life you were designed to live.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ldfairchildauthor.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDFairchild
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorifairchild/

Image Credits
Lori Fairchild