Author of Various Parenting Books
http://www.loriborgman.com
By: Kelvin Oliver
T4JYM: Are you involved in your own home church? What role do you have there?
LB: My husband and I have taught Sunday School for younger elementary kids and have been part of numerous home Bible studies. I also have a couple of accountability partners. Those are fun relationships. Sometimes we just meet every once in awhile and talk about what’s going on, what we’ve been reading, and the condition of our hearts.
T4JYM: How long have you been a Christian?
LB: Since I was a sophomore in high school.
T4JYM: Who, or what, are your biggest influences?
LB: It’s hard to pinpoint just one. I would say the biggest influences are the ordinary people God leads in and out of my ordinary life.
T4JYM: What are your next plans for writing? Do you plan to do any more books along the same lines as this book? Will you move on to new writing?
LV: My last book was a faith-based book for parents (100% guilt-free guarantee) titled “Pass the Faith, Please.” It’s the book I would have like to read when I was first starting out as a mom. This month I have a new humor book out titled “All Stressed Up and No Place To Go.” I’m not really answering the question, am I? I don’t like to talk about projects before they start to happen.
T4JYM: What is generally your target audience? Do you write specifically to ministry workers or have you written other books targeted at other audiences? How do you decide on what audience to focus your writing on?
LB: As a newspaper columnist my audience is all across the board. Women, men, married, single, young, old, believers and hostile members of the ACLU. Originally, I thought my primary audience was women, mostly moms, but I’d say nearly half my readers are men. Everyone is interested in family. Everyone likes to laugh about family. Laughter is cheap therapy!
T4JYM: Can you share a short testimony with our readers?
LB: When I was 15 my mom forced me to go to youth group at our church. I thought youth group was for nerds. So this guy was there sharing that God loved us and had a plan for us and I raised my hand and asked if he knew how many bugs there were in the world. He said no,and I said, scientists don’t either. There are so many they can’t catalog all of them — so how can you tell me that God loves me, I’m not even sure He sees me. I’m a speck. He asked me to stay later. He shared a Peter Max version of the Four Spiritual Laws: God loves you and has a groovy plan for your life.
It clicked. I knew I was a sinner, I knew there was a God, I just hadn’t known how to make the personal connection through a relationship with Christ.
T4JYM: Where do you see yourself in five years? Ten? The future?
LB: I know a lot of people look ahead and make plans, but honestly, our lives have been so filled with unexpected sorrows and joys, I find it hard to think too far ahead. I do know five years from now I’ll have more wrinkles, other than that…
T4JYM: What is your favorite verse in the Bible and why?
LB: Job 19:25 “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last He’ll take His stand upon the earth.” I like that verse because it is the answer and comfort to every unanswerable question… suffering, evil, disease. Job is saying I don’t know about the rest of you, but as for me, this one thing I know to be true: My Savior lives, and at the end of the book, at the end of the story, He will claim His place and His kingdom.
That is when it all makes sense, when all the questions are answered and the doubts washed away.
T4JYM: How do you find time to write? Life is busy and time management is hard to do sometimes. When do you do your best writing and where?
LB: I work at home and have a series of media distribution deadlines throughout the week. A deadline keeps you on schedule. I work at a computer in the corner of the family room. It’s very unglamorous, but it is by a set of doors that looks out on to the patio where chickadees, squirrels and cats occasionally drop by. Corner office with a view.
T4JYM: Who are some of the authors you read? Why do you like their works?
LB: I choose books more by topic than by author. Among recent favorites: Reflections on the Pslams by C.S. Lewis; The Case for Decmocracy by Natan Sharanksy; On Two Wings, Faith and Common Sense at America’s Founding by Michael Novak and the Best of Robert Benchley by Robert Benchley. For current writing on culturally relevant topics I enjoy Peggy Noonan. Her faith is seamlessly woven into her thinking and commentary.
T4JYM: What is the last book you read? Did you read it for research purposes or for pleasure?
LB: See above, I morphed the two questions
T4JYM: What training do you have in writing? Did you take any writing courses in college to obtain the skills you have currently?
LB: I have a journalism degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
T4JYM: On your website, I saw that you have a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. What type of articles have you written? What did you expericence from journalism?
LB: I completed requirements for both the news-editorial sequence and photojournalism in college. I started as a photojournalist but wrote at every paper I worked for. When we began our family, I traded in the camera bag for a diaper bag. When the youngest one went to school all day, I took a run at writing a family life column. The local paper picked it up and several years later a news service began distributing it nationally.
Journalism is not a field for the faint of heart.
T4JYM: When did you start writing? What kind of writing did you begin with?
LB: My column began 1991.
T4JYM: What advice would you give to someone who wants to pursue a career in writing?
LB: I believe in the Nike School of Writing: Just Do It!
T4JYM: What is your favorite book that you have written?
LB: That’s like asking me to choose which child is my favorite. They’re all different: “I Was a Better Mother Before I Had Kids” (humor), “Pass the Faith, Please” (faith-based with touches of humor), and “All Stressed Up and No Place To Go” (humor). I would encourage readers to buy them all -by the caseload!
T4JYM: Do you ever feel fear when you approach someone with the Gospel?
LB: Not often, because it’s usually someone in need and you know you have something that can help.
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