Author Interview – Lori Stevic-Rust

What are you most proud of accomplishing so far in your life? Raising two amazing daughters

What is your favorite color? Yellow

What is your favorite food? Dark chocolate

What’s your favorite place in the entire world? Hawaii

How long have you been writing? wrote clinical books in the past. This is my first memoir.

What inspires you to write and why? As a psychologist I believe in the power of good stories to connect us to each other. I am inspired to continue writing and speaking particularly when I hear the impact that the words and messages have on others.

What inspired you to write your first book? I was inspired to write my first memoir when began to reflect on the aging process as I was turning 50 years old and my grandmother was turning 100 years old. Hers has been the voice in my head guiding me down my life’s path over my first 50 years.

Can you share a little of your current work with us? The Best Gifts Comes from Flops

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”—Winston Churchill

One day when my daughter Katie was a little girl, she asked my grandmother why her arms flopped. She gently grabbed the skin under my grandmother’s arm and said, “If you push this, it flops.” She went on to ask, “Why doesn’t mine do that?” Why indeed. These “flops” can best be described as the area on a woman’s arm that appears to be a bicep that became deflated like a balloon and fell to the underneath side of the arm. As the wind blows, so do the “flops.” Nana swears at times she even feels them slapping against her ribs. This motivates her all the more to continue to lift weights, as she is convinced that she can tighten up those flops. Each of us women who share her genetic makeup quietly sits on the couch and cheers her on in the hopes that our fate of the flops can be altered.

“Flops” are another surprising gift of aging. Or maybe to some degree or another, we all have them throughout our life, but only as we age do we recognize them as hidden gifts.

There is no question that life is easier to view in the rearview mirror with the passage of time. We can more clearly see how things that seemed painful and disappointing in the moment may have led to incredible blessings further down our life path. How the loss of a job may have led to a great career opportunity, or running late in the morning may have saved us from a deadly accident on the freeway. Some of our greatest experiences of flops, disappointments, and pain when examined closely usually turn out to be life changing.

One of my great flops had to do with a pot roast.

How did you come up with the title? Greedy for life is my grandmother’s philosophy of life. She lives life with purpose and passion. She never settles but rather absorbs moments in life like a sponge. As her 101 year old birthday approaches, she still claims that she want to see more, do more, love more and live more.

What was the hardest part about writing this book? Everything about writing this book was different and often difficult for me given that my other books were clinical in nature. First, writing in the first person was uncomfortable. But the trade- off was there was no research, footnotes, or reference sections to be concerned about which allowed me to concentrate more on the story and the message.

What was the most difficult? The most difficult part of writing this book was revealing my personal life stories.  I felt exposed and vulnerable but Nana reminded me that it is through the sharing of our stories that we inspire each other.  That said, I found myself awake at 2:00am the day before this book was to be released thinking—- —oh my God my dad is going to read chapter 7.

Will you write others in this same genre? The response to this book has been overwhelming. I had no idea what to expect going into this. I often thought who will care about my life stories? Surprisingly, it seems that we are all walking down similar paths in our lives and many of the stories resonate with readers.

Since the book was released last month, I have been offered many speaking opportunities to talk about the themes in the book—not only from the perspective as a psychologist but as a middle aged woman of a five generational family. It appears that the topics are of importance to many. So, I am “polling the audience” during my speaking engagement for topics that readers want to hear more about….stay tuned.

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Genre – Memoir

Rating – PG13

More details about the book

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Website http://www.doctorlori.net/