Introduce yourself; who are you and what types of books do you write?
My name is Lori B. Duff. I am a recovering lawyer and part-time municipal court judge. I write a wide variety of books. I started out writing humor books, largely because at the time I was working full-time and had young children and didn’t have the attention span for plot development. Now I work part-time and I’m an empty nester, so I can concentrate more. I’ve also learned a lot more about craft. Out in the world I have a novella, Broken Things, which is magical realism; and the Fischer at Law Series, which are courtroom dramas. The first is Devil’s Defense, the second is Devil’s Hand. The third, Devil’s Name, is scheduled to be released on 2/7/27.
What are your books about?
Right now I’m focusing on the Fischer at Law Series. It centers on Jessica Fischer, a young lawyer who practices law in the fictional Ashton, Georgia. It’s not easy being a young professional woman in the small-town south, so in addition to the drama associated with her court cases, she has to deal with the politics and prejudice inherent in the good old boy system that isn’t always welcoming.
What was the inspiration behind writing your first book?
I started writing the Fischer at Law series because, as an actual practicing lawyer for over thirty years, I am constantly frustrated by how lawyers are portrayed in movies, books, TV, and other media. It’s so unrealistic! I get that you have to bend reality a little bit for drama’s sake, but not so much that it breaks. There’s plenty of excitement in how it actually happens. In fact—more excitement. We have more than one thing going on at a time, do-or-die deadlines, and we spend our days arguing with our friends. I wanted to write about the real-life people that I saw every day.
What did you learn while writing your second book?
Writing is like anything else. The more you do it, the better you get, especially if you try to get better. The more I listen to my editors, take classes, learn from other authors, the better I get. Writing a book is hard. Writing a series is harder. Continuity is really difficult. It’s one thing to remember what happened two hundred pages ago—it’s quite another to remember what happened two books ago. Broad plot points are easy to remember, but where exactly was that mole?
What is the most rewarding part of being an author?
It’s such a big deal when someone takes the time to read your book. Not only have they outlaid a few bucks, but they’ve committed to a few precious hours of staring at words you’ve written and living in a world you’ve created. Then, if they bother to tell you about it, even if it’s just a two word review—holy moly that feels good. Even a terrible review in its own way feels good—at least I provoked a feeling in someone.
What elements do you think make for a good story?
1. You need a protagonist you care about. That doesn’t mean ‘like’—you may hate this person--but you have to care about what happens to the person.
2. Something actually has to happen to the person. Pages and pages of navel-gazing is boring.
3. It isn’t necessary for everything to be wrapped up in the end with a bow. Sometimes I like a little bit of unresolved plot—it gives me something to think about afterwards.
What is the hardest part of being an author for you?
Marketing. Blurgh. It makes me feel like a three-year-old hopping up and down begging Mom to look at my crayon drawing. Only Mom is everyone on Earth and my crayon drawing is something I spent a year or more pouring my entire soul into.
What is your current writing project?
Hahahahahaha that’s so cute that you think I only have one. I have several in various stages. I am currently in the final edits of Devil’s Hand, The third in the Fischer at Law series. I’m also working on the first draft of the fourth, tentatively titled Devil’s Home. I’m on, say, the third or so draft of a novel I’m calling Nice is Different than Good, which is a darkly comic novel about a woman who gets diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and decides to go out with a bang while also on a quest for a Whopper without pickles, which is surprisingly hard to get. Plus a thousand little projects, including but not limited to my Substack, which comes out approximately every other Tuesday at About - Lori Duff Writes.
What is the best writing advice you’ve ever received?
In Anne Lamot’s Bird by Bird she talks about how the first draft is supposed to be shitty. She calls it the shitty first draft, and so now do I. Unless I’m talking to an audience which would be offended by the word shitty in which case I call it the vomit draft. I think about that a lot. It’s easy to be frustrated, especially when you’re writing the first draft, by how imperfect everything is. But the first draft is supposed to be awful! Isn’t that freeing! The first draft is just an outline of ideas, a sketch of the story. You can fix it later. If I try to make it good as I go, I’ll never finish. But I can finish a shitty first draft. Then I put it in a drawer (well, a metaphorical drawer, since it’s usually a computer file) for a while, and I work on something else for a while, then take it out and re-work it.
Where can readers discover more about you and your books?
The clearinghouse for all things me is www.loriduffwrites.com
You can also find me on most social media @loriduffwrites
Not Facebook, though, since I’ve had that account since long before I knew about branding. There, I’m loribduffauthor
On Substack, you can find me at www.loriduffwrites.substack.com
You can find my books wherever you buy books, or on the “buy my books” page on my website. Here’s a link to the Fischer at Law series through my distributor: Lori B. Duff | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster