wanderers. wonderers. creators. Meet Lori....

People who inspire for all kinds of reasons, small or big.

There are folks in my life who have inspired me to be better. They’re my mentors. My teachers. My heroes. They’ve shared their knowledge with me, patiently and gracefully. Some are older. Some are younger. Age doesn’t seem to matter. All are wise and doing what they love. Once in a while, I’ll be chatting with them about what makes them tick and sharing their stories with you. I hope you’ll feel energized by their insights. And, one day, perhaps you’ll be my next featured wanderer. wonderer. creator.

I love the holiday season for it’s festive parties, colorful decorations, reconnecting with friends and family and also meeting new people! On Thanksgiving Day, I was grateful to have met a beautiful woman with an inspiring story. I asked her if she would be willing to share her amazing life. She agreed. So, I am pleased to introduce Lori Blackwell. Read on to learn more about what makes her so special….

(Diane) Hi Lori! You are currently the author of two mystery books and another one in the works. What triggered your love to write? 

L.C. Blackwell, Author

(Lori) Puzzles intrigued me since I was a three-year-old. Puzzle pieces that fit into pre-sized spaces. Then, disassembling and reassembling small 3-D animal shapes. Crosswords were next. Finally, Nancy Drew entered my life. I was addicted. Sherlock and Agatha became my mentors. But I loved to paint as well, a passion that my father encouraged  at the tender age of 10 at The Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit.  Studied painting with Sarkis Sarkesian (an incredible artist), and life drawing with Guy Palazolla. Hence, art was my first major at Michigan State University. Changed it to advertising in my senior year when I decided I couldn’t paint “hands”.

An advisor in the Communications Art section became my mentor. He was a former Leo Burnett creative responsible for the Marlboro Man. After seeing my work in my first copywriting class he said I should be a writer.

(Diane) You entered into the advertising world during the “Madmen” days. In your experience, what was it really like for women during those times? 

Lori just starting at Leo Burnett

(Lori) I couldn’t watch madmen. Some aspects were not exaggerated in the least. The lunches, drinking, so true. The physicality, pretty much on target. The creative review meetings? I can only comment on the ones where I was included. Absence was not attributed to being a woman. My ACD (associate creative director) was most inclusive. When my creative was the target, I was there.

I have a memory of my first review. The committee was often compared to a Roman Forum. Thumbs up or thumbs down. Romans one, Christians 0. I believe there were 12 men including Draper Daniels and Leo himself reviewing the creative.

My concept was a sexy, visually exciting fashion layout—all ads featuring a main selling proposition of a particular shoe. The first of the series, a pair of high heels on sticks of dynamite. The headline: “Red that goes POW!”  My ACD loved it. The committee? Not so much. I had one up and ten down thumbs. I cowered in the corner.

And then Leo rose and of course his word came from the Universe. In a blast of every 4 letter word I had ever heard, or saw graffitied on a sign, or a public bathroom, Leo told the Men in the room, “It’s the freshest, most creative #%@*&(&$$?###@! concept for this client that I’ve ever seen.”

I had been at the agency for just 3 months. I was walking on air. Raises followed every 3 months. In other words, if you were creative, you didn’t have to wear trousers to make waves at Leo Burnett Advertising. 

Dressing up one of the mannikins – I really get involved, but I shoot spots. I actually bought one of those mannequins and still have it used to hang my fur coat up on her in the office. 

Foote, Cone and Belding was pretty much the same. Except one time. My TV spot for a new children’s soap from Armor Dial won agency competition—my jingle was sung by The James Joyce Choir, the animation was by Hanna Barbera. I went to Hollywood for the Production (animation and live action).

When I returned from L.A., I asked for a raise. I said one of the male copywriters was ‘earning more than me’ (one had to speak up at times.)  I was told he was married and had 2 children. And my comeback, ‘Yes but he didn’t write the commercial Old Lady Armor picked for production.’ I got my raise.

(Diane) How did you go from writing commercials to writing books? 

(Lori) I’d sold my condo in the city and had an injury at my son’s building in the suburbs while looking for a home near him. I slipped on something during a rainstorm. Dislocated my shoulder and tore my rotator cuff in 4 places. The injury forced me to take time for a long hard look at myself. When I left advertising, I got a real estate license to keep active, then developed a real-estate video website while deciding what my next challenge would be.

Surgery and rehab put me out of commission for almost 8 months.  

I rented an apartment in Chicago’s Streeterville area so I would be near Northwestern Memorial Hospital, doctors and rehab. It was a long 8 months over a snowiest winter in 6 or 7 years. Couldn’t get to shop for Christmas presents so I decided to write a Christmas story for my granddaughter. “The North Pole For Sale” was born after I found an illustrator. Then I found a story I had written for my son when he was around five years old and I redid that into a book. “A Very Special Truck” was published next. With no more kids to write for, I began to relaunch my real estate efforts. But, once again mystery re-entered my life, when I got a real estate license and began researching my first book— For Sale MURDER. Research opened my eyes to the dangers real estate agents face. I found so many agents who had been killed by buyers, sellers, psychopaths. What’s more, brutally killed. Raped, Stabbed, shot, strangled, beaten and burned alive. Some left in listed houses, others buried. Women mostly, but men were targets as well.

(Diane) OMG! That sounds scary and twisted. I tried searching for your book on Amazon, but it didn’t show up. Where can we get your books? 

(Lori) On-line you can search via....

Amazon: Tinyurl.com/authorLCBlackwell  Barnesandnoble.com/s/L.C. Blackwell

YouTube video:  

For Sale Murder
YouTu.be/AOFYeBhYAa8

(Diane) What gives you the ideas for your books? 

(Lori) An article I’ve read. A photograph I’ve seen. An oddity I remember. A gift I received (my arrow). I have a wonderful antique teapot in brass that I thought might make an interesting weapon. Chuckle Chuckle. With kids’ books, it was something I felt compassioned to write about that I thought my granddaughter and son would appreciate at the time. I have a story my granddaughter and I talked about. I was trying to get her to create characters. I still have the notes and the beginning of the story. I may go back to it—I doubt she remembers but it would be a wonderful gift to give her. I am a firm believer In synchronicity, prayer, intuition, most things spiritual. Sometimes I read what I write and can’t believe I wrote it. I’ve never had writer’s block. I just sit before a computer and it comes. I tell my daughter I’m merely typing what God or some being, or something tells me what to write.

My first mystery book took two years. My next book Ready Aim Murder took one year. It evolved because of an antique my ex bought me for mother’s day—an arrow for a tribal spear. The book involves the world of advertising and the culture and mystery of the Midwest’s Native American,

Recognizing I was aging, I decided to take a respite from mystery and write a sort-of memoir.  It’s presented as fictional, but all the stories and thoughts are true. Mine and friends whom I graduated with at MSU tell their experiences and feelings in blog form. It was so fun writing.

(Diane) I wasn’t aware you wrote a memoir, too. I love to read memoirs! Did it get published? 

(Lori) Yes it's available on Amazon: TYTBTO-author-LCBlackwell

(Diane) You’ve been fortunate to have lived an exciting life. But recently you have encountered some serious health issues. You’ve had two strokes! How did you know you were having a stroke? Would you mind sharing your experience, how it affected your life and what your recovery process was like? 

(Lori) I wrote an article about my first stroke. I thought I had food poisoning, I was sick most of the day. Things happen for a reason—I called a neighbor and asked if she had any Gatorade. Nope, but when she came by she said I looked terrible, white as a ghost. I felt fine. Eventually went to bed and woke at 2AM revisited by the urge to remove anything in my stomach. Unfortunately, nothing was there. But the urges persisted until I couldn’t get up from the floor. I crawled to the table next to my bed for the phone. No, I didn’t call 911, I called my neighbor, whom I fortunately had given a house key the evening before. My neighbor called 911. I don’t remember anything—not the trip down the stairs in my town home, not the trip in the ambulance, nor the trip for my cat scan. I only remember the doctor advising me that I’d had five ischemic strokes.

It took me 6 months to get back to walking my morning 2 miles without any aid. I fought like a tiger. Did everything the physical therapists recommended. The first 1/8 mile I walked alone 8 weeks after my stroke. It was better than sex! For the next 6 months it was a little further, each and every day. Wobbling to the right was a challenge, but determination overcame obstacles. Meeting friends on the walking path brought encouragement.

Stroke #2 was a breeze in October of this year—1 year and 8 months after stroke 1. But again everything happens for a reason. The doctors discovered an inoperable blockage in my brain’s blood vessel that is now 3 times the size it was before. What do I do? Live as much of my life as I’m able. No hesitation. Say what I think. Feel what I feel. Travel as much as I can. Make new friends, hold old friends close. Write and write some more, write as much as I can.

Life has its quirks. Its ups and downs. Alphonse Karr, a French critic and writer had an interesting take on it: “Some people grumble that roses have thorns, I am grateful that thorns have roses.” Alphonse and I, most assuredly would have been friends.

Things happen for a reason. People meet because they are meant to meet. To change a life, a path in life, an important decision. We make choices, sometimes right and sometimes wrong, sometimes necessary to return to our inevitable path.

When I had my first stroke in 2022, a physical therapist invited me to share photos she took at a snow sculpting competition in Wisconsin.  The magnificence of the sculptures amazed me and I asked if I could use one of the images for my next book. At this point, I had a cover image and a title, but absolutely no concept to write about. As the pandemic continued, I hit the keys for mystery again. I found the plot I’d been missing for book 3 in the Peter Dumas series, Murder In Ice.

A second stroke modified my efforts, but nowhere as much as the first stroke did. So MURDER In Ice is finished after 9 months. It’s complicated. It’s a puzzle, hopefully, for readers, with murders most cold and brutal.

(Diane) Two strokes and you have recovered and are writing again! You are a lovely lady inside and out. What do you do to stay so vibrant? 

(Lori) I love to entertain people at dinner, the more opposite they are the better. It contributes to dramatic conversations. I love to cook. I’m fascinated with computer software. I try to learn something new frequently.

(Diane) Do you have any advice for women (or men) about creatively aging? 

(Lori) Get a hobby. Try something new. Join a creative group—or start one—one with ideas to age creatively. Learn something new. A language. Be proactive, sitting on a sofa doesn’t stimulate your mind. Solve puzzles. Make new friends. Introduce them to old friends. I could go on and on.

(Diane) Finally, what do you wonder about these days? And where do you wander to when you need creative inspiration? 

(Lori) Nature. I walk and I wonder how such magnificence came to be. Proportions, structure, growth. Trees that grow into houses. Plants that become food. The continuum of nature astounds me. Inspires me. Makes me feel anxious to contribute.

Books. I read and read and read some more. Shakespeare to Cornwall, the Bible to Sayers. The books I read take me places I might not be able to visit, or learn about times long before me. Books open vistas to people and places and inspire my thoughts.

I worry about youth, the majority of youth. How some are losing or have lost the sense of accountability, the discipline of behavior. How some are agreeing to the convoluted thoughts of choosing their sex after birth. How entitlement is becoming a birthright. And mostly, I wonder if the ‘family’ will survive.

(Diane) Thank you Lori for chatting with me. You are an inspiring lady! Do you mind if I ask you your age? 

(Lori) As to my age, I'll just say that I'm well over 70! :) 

(Diane) You are amazing! Keep up the good health and writing. Happy holidays to you and your family. 

Visit Lori's website authorblackwell.com