Lori Wolf-Heffner's Blog: Lori Straus' Blog

Before the Coffee Gets Cold: How Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Bestseller Came to Life

Stephen King doesn’t leave his desk until he’s hit his daily quota. World-renowned choreographer Twyla Tharpe collects ideas for a time before she sits down to plan her next project. Louisa May Alcott disappeared in her loft or writing room for several weeks, emerging with a hand-written draft of her latest novel. So, when I attended an in-person talk with Japanese bestselling author Toshikazu Kawaguchi, I was expecting to hear about a similar creative routine that helped create this bestselling...

How Can Contemporary Dance Touch an Audience?

Walking from one porch to the next. Photo by SV Photography.

Porch View Dances celebrates the stories of people in a neighbourhood, pulling dance out of the theatre and inserting it into our daily lives. The event sends the powerful message that art is for everyone.

The brain child of Karen Kaeja, Porch View Dances began in 2012. Audience members embark on a journey through a Toronto community to witness the art of professional choreographers, brought to life by the neighborhood’s resident...

Heffner Spring Show

Come find me Saturday, April 13th at the Heffner Spring Show! From 10am to 4pm, I’ll be selling my books and some tea at the Heffner Toyota Showroom, 3121 King Street East Kitchener, ON, N2A 1B1.

Several other vendors will be there from a range of industries, including:

Health and Wellness:

Naturopathic ClinicWater Treatment Equipment ServiceSenior Move Management and Decluttering ServicesHandcrafted Soaps and Skincare Products

Home and Lifestyle Services:

Window Co...

Books With Strong Women: Female Protagonists in Love on Belmont and Between Worlds

“Books with strong women” receives an estimated 350 search a month in the Amazon US store. “Stories about strong women” currently returns an estimated 1,200 searches a month. The same with “strong women characters fiction.” But what is a strong woman? Because if there are strong women, there must be weak women, right?

What I Used to Think “Strong Woman” Meant

My childhood was marked by 80s Feminism, which carried over into the 90s. In those days, women appeared to try to be lik...

Between Worlds: YA Books Without Romance

Between Worlds is a dual-timeline series about two teen girls—Juliana and Elisabeth—who grow up a century apart. As much as I wanted to explore how teens have lived differently, I also wanted to provide a series that didn’t try to convince girls that a boyfriend was needed to have a fulfilling teen life, a series of YA Books without romance. So, how does that play out in the series? I explain below.

Are Boyfriends Bad?Photo by Erin Watt Photography

I had my first boyfriend when I was ju...

Books for Teens and Adults That Celebrate New Beginnings

I generally find writing books about new beginnings easier than those about old beginnings. What do I mean by old and new beginnings? Old beginnings are in the past: you already have some kind of template to work from when you encounter something similar again. New beginnings have never happened before.

Although you could argue that all beginnings are old—we have some measure of experience that informs how we handle ourselves in each beginning—I’m talking about similar experiences. For exampl...

Are the Love on Belmont Books Later-in-Life Romance Novels?

I love reading romance novels about characters my age or older: What experiences do we share? How do their lives differ from mine? What might I be able to look forward to as I near my 50s, 60s, and 70s? Later-in-life romance novels follow older characters looking for love. Since my Love on Belmont series is about an entire community, it also includes later-in-life romance books.

What Are Later-in-Life Romance Books?

This romance subgenre focuses on protagonists who are 40 or over. So if yo...

Oh, What the Fudge: An Age Gap Romance Novel

Age gap romance novels give romance novelists one way to show that sometimes, we really can’t decide who we fall in love with. When I was out in the dating world a loonnngggg time ago, I had two rules: no more than seven years older, and not a day younger than me. Then I fell in love during my grad student years with someone I’d assumed was older but was in fact a year younger. Believe it or not, I did go through an identity crisis for about 24 hours all because of that one year.

The man I ultima...

Oh, What the Fudge: An Age Difference Romance Novel

Age difference romance novels give romance novelists one way to show that sometimes, we really can’t decide who we fall in love with. When I was out in the dating world a loonnngggg time ago, I had two rules: no more than seven years older, and not a day younger than me. Then I fell in love during my grad student years with someone I’d assumed was older but was in fact a year younger. Believe it or not, I did go through an identity crisis for about 24 hours all because of that one year.

The m...

Shaking up the Pages: Exploring My World of Dance Fiction

In my world of dance fiction, dance has more uses for storytelling than just “Will I pass this audition? Will I make it?” I love exploring the possibilities. A student of dance since I was 2.5 years old, I’ve written dance into many of my novels: the entire Between Worlds young adult series and two of my Love on Belmont sweet romance novels for adults. It will also form the backbone for my next young adult series, currently in the planning stages.

In this blog post, I’ll explain the themes im...