Lori B. Duff
Author Interview - Lori B. Duff
Author of Devil's Defense
Jessica Fischer wants nothing more than to build her law practice in small-town Ashton, Georgia. She’s well on her way when the local town hero, football coach Frank “Tripp” Wishingham III, hires her to represent him in a paternity suit. Coach is everything Jessica despises—arrogant, sexist, entitled—but it’s her job to make him look good in public. This is made doubly difficult when her burgeoning relationship with a local reporter gets in the way of telling the truth.
Are things as black and white as Jessica thinks? And can she find a way to succeed without compromising her own personal values—or her personal life?
Author Interview - Lori B. Duff
Author I draw inspiration from:
2024: At the moment, Bonnie Garmus, largely because she published her first novel (Lessons in Chemistry) at age 60 and I'm publishing mine at 54. She's proof that it isn't too late for success!
2019: Truly it depends on the day. I want to make people laugh like David Sedaris, Jenny Lawson, and Dave Barry do. There’s not enough laughter in the world.
Author Interview - Lori B. Duff | Author I draw inspiration from
Favorite place to read a book:
2024: In bed. I love falling asleep to someone else's story.
2019: The hammock chair on the back deck of my house.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
2024: Emily Wilde from Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett. Emily does not expect or want useless conversation, so there'd be no annoying chit chat. She's afraid of nothing irrational. She is also a fantastic out of the box thinker and creative problem solver, so if anyone could figure a way out of the elevator, it would be she. And if not, Wendell would come find her and rescue us.
2019: When I was little, I used to spend hours dreaming of what it would be like to have Laura Ingalls Wilder time travel to come visit me so I could show her all the modern marvels of the 1970s. I’ll stick with her.
Author Interview - Lori B. Duff | Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
2024: Some time in my early childhood. I would fill up blank books with stories. I still have some of them. They're horribly cringey but, you've got to start somewhere, right?
2019: Somewhere around first grade. Then it got knocked out of me by practical concerns. Then it came back to me around the age of 42 when I lost an election due to smoky backrooms and decided that picking up childhood dreams was a lot more productive than a career-ending midlife crisis.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
2024: I feel like hardbacks are the gold standard of books. I love the heft of them and the sense that they're going to be there for all of time. But they're not very portable. Paperbacks are more affordable and more portable. Not so heavy, and you don't worry as much about losing them or damaging them. As I get older, I like ebooks more and more because I can make the font enormous and there's always enough light. I listen to audiobooks constantly -- when I'm driving, when I'm cleaning, when I'm knitting. They all have their places in my life and I can't say I have a favorite.
2019: Hardback
The last book I read:
2024: The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton. I really loved it. It was scary in that it really could happen -- it speculates what would occur if Florida started sinking underwater due to increasing hurricane activity -- but it's such a lovely and human book, and in the end I think the message was that no matter what ugliness you encounter along the way, love and life will find a way.
2019: Early Riser by Jasper Fforde
Author Interview - Lori B. Duff | The last book I read
Pen & paper or computer:
2024: I write mainly on the computer for a few reasons. One, I can read what I've done, unlike my handwriting. Two, I type faster than I hand write, so I can get my ideas out of my head faster. Three, editing is so much easier on a computer. Four, if I save it to the cloud, no amount of coffee spilling or absent-mindedness will ruin it or lose it. I wish I could say something romantic like I like the tactile scratch of a fountain pen on crisp linen paper, but that's simply not true.
2019: Computer. Otherwise, no one (including me) would be able to read what I wrote.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
2024: I always go back to Harriet M. Welsch of Harriet the Spy fame. Mainly because we would have been friends since we were kids. I read the cover off that book. She understood that writing is where you tell your truths, but that your truths will not always land well.
2019: This is so uncreative a choice, but I’m going to have to go with Hermione Granger. If she’s already taken by the hordes of other women and girls who have chosen her, I’ll take Harriet M. Welsch of Harriet the Spy fame.
Author Interview - Lori B. Duff | Book character I think I’d be best friends with
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
2024: For the past thirty-odd years I've been a lawyer, so I'm fairly certain I can make a living at that. My dream career that isn't author-related is to be a classical musician.
2019: Lawyer, since that’s what I’ve done for the past quarter century. (Gasp. Don’t hate me.)
Favorite decade in fashion history:
2024: I love art deco jewelry and the fun of all those flapper dresses.
2019: 1920s
Place I’d most like to travel:
2024: I really want to go to Italy and eat my way from one end to the other. I also want to go to Venice before it sinks into the sea.
2019: I’d like to eat my way across Italy.
My signature drink:
2024: Arizona Decaf-Diet Green Tea with Ginseng. We call this "Grandma's Tea" because my mom drank it by the gallon and always had it on hand. Now that she's gone, it tastes like a salute to her memory.
2019: Coffee, most days. When I’m feeling frisky, anything with bourbon in it.
Favorite artist:
2024: I'm going to refuse to take off my mom-goggles here. My son, Jacob, is an oboe player currently getting his master's degree in oboe performance at the Yale School of Music. My daughter, Marin, is the bassist in a (I'm going to get this wrong: sorry, Marin) post-hardcore punk band called "Armbite". They're my favorite artists.
2019: Frida Kahlo
Number one on my bucket list:
2024: Getting my favorite artists off my payroll. :-) It's hard to see past that.
2019: Buy a bucket to put the list in.
Anything else you'd like to add:
2019: Don’t ever say you don’t want to read a book because you don’t like the genre – “I don’t like sci-fi” or “I don’t like romance”. Don’t pigeonhole books. All books are good if they are written well. They can all be funny or exciting or thought provoking or emotional or whatever you’re looking for in what you read. The plot is just the vehicle.
Find more from the author:
https://www.facebook.com/loribduffauthor/
https://www.threads.net/@loriduffwrites
https://x.com/LoriBDuff
https://www.instagram.com/loriduffwrites/
About Lori B. Duff:
Author Interview - Lori B. Duff
Lori B. Duff is a two-time winner of the Georgia Bar Journal’s fiction competition and a popular humor blogger. Her humorous essays have earned multiple awards, including the Foreword Indies Gold Medal for humor, as well as first place in the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. She’s the 2022-2024 President of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. In addition to her writing, Lori is a graduate of Duke University and the Emory University School of Law. She’s the managing partner of Jones & Duff, LLC, and is a part-time municipal court judge. She has been the President of the Georgia Council of Municipal Court Judges and actively participates in several committees within the Council of Municipal Court Judges and the Georgia State Bar.
