Paso Robles Press

Paso authors to attend SLO festival

502 First Street, Suite C, Paso Robles, CA 93446

Posted: Thursday, Sep 6th, 2007 

BY: Matthew Fox 9-7-07

The eighth annual Central Coast Book and Author Festival will feature a quartet of Paso Robles authors and presenters Saturday, Sept. 8

The festival, which will be held in San Luis Obispo’s Mission Plaza, will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It’s a showcase for local authors and presenters, including four who call Paso Robles home....

Paso Robles author, Lori Paris, also likes appearing at the festival. She’s been two other times since moving to Paso Robles from Lake Tahoe four years ago.

“It’s a really well-run, well-organized festival,” Paris said. “It’s a great way to see what local authors are doing.”

Paris had her second novel, “Evil Exchange,” which she co-wrote with New York resident Joe Soll, published in March. Paris said the pair chose to self-publish to retain artistic control of what is a very personal story.

It was that personal pull that first drew Paris to fiction-writing.

“Writing in general has always been something I liked doing,” she said.

Paris said a major event in her life pushed her to want to get her story out. That event helped inform her first novel, “Follow Your Heart,” which was published in April of 2002.

After connecting with Soll and discovering their common bond — both are adopted — Paris said collaborating on a story was easy. “Evil Exchange” is a fictional mystery surrounding black market baby selling and adoptions, a subject both are familiar with. Soll was sold on the black market as a baby and drew on his personal experiences, which the pair fictionalized to create the world and characters of “Evil Exchange.”

The pair exchanged information and segments of the story over e-mail and spoke on the phone at least once a week. The finished product is a story that Paris is proud to have worked on.

“It worked really well,” she said. “Our styles allowed us to mesh together well. We’ve gotten some really nice reviews.”

It was such a success that Soll and Paris have already begun hashing out details for a second book featuring their title character, private investigator Boots Beaumont, which she hopes will be part of a larger series. For this next installment, Paris said she and Soll will be focusing on new themes and a new type of case to keep the series fresh. What she enjoys most about writing is crafting new and unique stories.

“I like the creativity involved,” she said.

Paris will be sharing a table with another local author, Thordis Seager, who authors cookbooks for people on restricted diets. To see more about Paris’ new book, visit www.evilexchange.com.