A Visit With Lois Lowry

No one was listening as Mrs. Seamon began introducing Lois Lowry. They'd been distracted by the screen saver flashing across the projector screen. First, a picture of a poofy, pink, flowered bedspread popped up. The girls oo-ed and aw-ed appreciatively. Sliding across that picture next came an angled view of a shiny bathroom with a stone floor and checkered wall paper. The shower curtain was forest green and matched the soap dispenser sitting on the counter beside the sink. Still unnoticed, Mrs. Seamon sat down, allowing Lois Lowry to stand and hurry to the computer sitting beside the pulpit. She gave the mouse a shake and the first slide of the Power Point entitled "A Glance at My Life" reappeared.

"Sorry about that," the seventy-two year-old author apologized. "I just finished remodeling my farmhouse in Maine. I don't think you'll be interested in what my bedroom and bathroom look like." The audience laughed and Mrs. Lowry began her presentation. I laughed along with the rest but couldn't say that I really agreed with her. I thought that brief look into her life was fascinating. It's so easy when you're reading nationally acclaimed novels to think of their authors as these super-celebrities who float from award ceremony to banquet with no personal life of their own. This glimpse into the life of Lois Lowry reminded me that authors are really just normal people--they eat, sleep, and yes, even use the bathroom on occasion, just like the rest of us.

I did pay attention to her presentation and left with a renewed hope for myself and every other person who ever wished to see their writing published. Lowry's life had not begun in any extraordinary way, it had been her love of the written word and a desire to see her writing in print that set her apart from the millions of other closet-writers who spend hours on their stories but never gather the courage to submit their work to a publisher. Lois Lowry didn't publish her first book until she was forty years old, although from an early age she had an interest in writing. She told several anecdotes of her younger years when she attended camps for girls during the summer. She noticed that the camp counselors, who were college girls, treated the girls with college-age brothers better than the others. So when asked whether she had any siblings, she told the counselors about her younger sister and brother . . . and then employed what she termed her "fiction writing skills" and invented an older brother who owned a car (a rare thing for a college student in those days) and who might be coming to visit any weekend. Needless to say, she became the counselor's favorite camper.

At the end of her presentation, Lois allowed some time for a book signing. I approached her with my copy of The Giver, trembling a little with nervousness. I was about to meet a Newberry Award-winning athor face-to-face. In a minute, I was standing before her and extending my book.

"What's your name?" Lois asked politely.

"Katie," was my quiet response.

With a quick hand, Lois scrawled the inscription, "For Katie, From Lois Lowry" on the title page of my book. Gripping the book tightly, I walked away thoughtfully, being impressed again with the realization that she was just another human like any of those pressing forward to meet her in person.