2008 Woodie Awards
Local novelist finds success
Benjamin Billman
Issue date: 9/13/07 Section: Intermission
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Meeting a real, live published author is always something daunting for a heavy reader.
It has been described almost like meeting a rock star or something equally overwhelming to the fan. At least that's how Jess Lourey, SCSU graduate and author of three books, with more on the way, describes meeting a famous author.
Lourey (pronounced Low-ry), just published her third book in her Murder-a-month mystery series, set in Battle Lake, Minn. The series follows the life (so far, this summer) of the heroine, Mira James.
For fans of the J.D. Robb mystery series, or Janet Evanovitch's Stephanie Plum novels, Lourey's books are a refreshing breath of air.
Her writing is witty and quick, her main character is Minnesota sassy, and it was hard to keep reading it without trying to think of why her characters remind me of someone I know.
For Lourey's entire life, she has been surrounded by books, growing up in a family of readers and English teachers in Paynesville, Minn. (a place she uses in the novel as the home of her main character's mother).
As a result, she began her reading at an early age, starting at Nancy Drew mysteries, continuing to the fantasy author Piers Anthony, and even VC Andrews.
As an English major, she now reads "those books you are forced to read in an English major, and then find out are actually really good," such as Hemingway and Toni Morrison.
As far as writing, her first poem was a three liner to her grandfather:
"Grandpas are full of love, grandpas are full of tickles, but grandpas are especially full of pickles."
As she says, her poetry has not improved much since that, describing it as "self-involved," but the writing has hooked her.
Her first novel was for her master's thesis at SCSU. She exposes it as "a horrible book, something I never published."
Still, she thought writing might be for her, and looking at the New York Times best seller's list, noticed most of the top books were mysteries. So she wrote one titled "May Day," hoping to use this to break into the publishing business.
It has been described almost like meeting a rock star or something equally overwhelming to the fan. At least that's how Jess Lourey, SCSU graduate and author of three books, with more on the way, describes meeting a famous author.
Lourey (pronounced Low-ry), just published her third book in her Murder-a-month mystery series, set in Battle Lake, Minn. The series follows the life (so far, this summer) of the heroine, Mira James.
For fans of the J.D. Robb mystery series, or Janet Evanovitch's Stephanie Plum novels, Lourey's books are a refreshing breath of air.
Her writing is witty and quick, her main character is Minnesota sassy, and it was hard to keep reading it without trying to think of why her characters remind me of someone I know.
For Lourey's entire life, she has been surrounded by books, growing up in a family of readers and English teachers in Paynesville, Minn. (a place she uses in the novel as the home of her main character's mother).
As a result, she began her reading at an early age, starting at Nancy Drew mysteries, continuing to the fantasy author Piers Anthony, and even VC Andrews.
As an English major, she now reads "those books you are forced to read in an English major, and then find out are actually really good," such as Hemingway and Toni Morrison.
As far as writing, her first poem was a three liner to her grandfather:
"Grandpas are full of love, grandpas are full of tickles, but grandpas are especially full of pickles."
As she says, her poetry has not improved much since that, describing it as "self-involved," but the writing has hooked her.
Her first novel was for her master's thesis at SCSU. She exposes it as "a horrible book, something I never published."
Still, she thought writing might be for her, and looking at the New York Times best seller's list, noticed most of the top books were mysteries. So she wrote one titled "May Day," hoping to use this to break into the publishing business.