By Matt Robinson
Contributing Writer
CAMBRIDGE – Many people spend their entire lives gathering stories but never take the time to share them. Others want to, but due to medical problems or other issues, do not get the chance. Still others claim they are “too old” or that “nobody will care” about the stories they have to tell.
Fortunately, Lorraine Smith was not one of those types of people. Despite a life-threatening health issue that arose at the same time, Smith published her debut novel in 2019 and has seen its popularity rise ever since.
South Carolina native
Born and raised in South Carolina, the 65-year-old Smith came to Cambridge after college.
“My father’s side of the family is from Cambridge,” she explained. “In 1985 my grandmother suggested that I move to Boston and if I didn’t like it, I could always move back home to SC.”
Though her mother was frankly not thrilled with the idea of Smith moving so far away, Smith took her grandmother’s wise advice to heart and figured that she had nothing to lose.
Her mother saw it differently, however.
“She said that I would return home in a week,” Smith recalled, laughing.
Though she admits that her first New England winter was challenging (as was the exorbitant cost of living), Smith also reasoned that, “if my mother did not say anything, I probably would have been on the first plane back to South Carolina!” Perhaps encouraged by her mother’s discouragement, Smith stuck it out and has been a proud Cantabridgian ever since.
Career in communications
Once she decided to stay, Smith found work as a creative administrator with WHDH-TV in Boston and later a communications specialist with an engineering consulting firm in Boston. While writing is a part of Smith’s daily life, it was a passion long before it became her profession.
“I first fell in love with writing and words around the age of nine or ten,” she recalled, noting that it was a middle school teacher who first “recognized my creative writing talent and encouraged me to continue writing.”
When asked who else inspired her writing habit, Smith cites such literary legends as Nikki Giovanni, Eric Jerome Dickey, Omar Tyree, Terry McMillan, Maya Angelou, Lorraine Hansberry, Ann Leary and Alice Hoffman.
While most of her writing was in the business world, Smith always had stories percolating in her head and wrote many of them down. The earliest version of her award-winning debut novel, “Still Searching,” was drafted in the 1990s.
Inspired by life experiences
“I came up with the idea of my novel ‘Still Searching’ after I ended a relationship and found myself as a new single mother,” she explained. “Instead of eating pints of ice cream and being depressed, I took pen to paper…and began writing this story, which just poured out of me nonstop.”
When asked for a synopsis, Smith replied, “’Still Searching’…[involves] the emotional journey of Brenda Peekson – a young woman growing up in the segregated South, struggling to find her place in a world filled with limitations, expectations, and painful betrayals. From navigating a strict household and societal norms to experiencing first love, heartbreak, and a shocking revelation that shatters her trust, Brenda’s story is one of self-discovery, strength, and the fight to reclaim her worth.”
When she had the first version of the manuscript completed, Smith sent a draft to 60 different publishers.
“At the time you could not push a button on a laptop to send your manuscript to several publishers,” she noted. “Instead, I printed 60 copies and mailed them…just knowing that at least 50 publishers would respond with mega-book and possibly movie deals.”
Unfortunately, Smith learned the lesson that many first-time (and even more established) authors do – rejection is part of the process.
“The joke was on me,” she laughed, “because I was rejected by all 60 publishers!”
Persisting after many rejections
Figuring that it was not her time and eager to focus on other matters (including her son), Smith did what many authors do and put her manuscript away in a drawer. Years later, that drawer would reopen and, in so doing, it would open a new opportunity for her.
“Years later,” Smith recalled, “I was at work and needed something in a cabinet at my desk. As I opened it, there was a copy of the manuscript…with an inch of dust on it.”
Though he did not take the manuscript out at the time, Smith began to hear an inner voice pushing her back to the drawer.
“That voice said, ‘Lorraine – pull the manuscript out, dust it off, and try again!’”
And while she was able to ignore the voice for months, it eventually persuaded her.
“In 2017, I took it out and did some more editing,” she explained. “This time, I sent the manuscript to 30 publishers by way of the computer. A month or so later I received interest from several publishers who wanted to publish my book.”
Health challenges
Unfortunately, personal matters again threatened to get in the way when, just weeks after inking her book deal in 2019, Smith was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“My publishing company was wonderful,” she beamed. “[They] worked with me as we edited the book while I went through surgeries, chemo, radiation, and many appointments.”
Eventually, Smith became not only a first-time published author but a breast cancer survivor too.
Again, however, the path to fame was not to be smooth for Smith.
“The book was doing well,” she recalled, “and then Covid-19 happened and the world stopped.”
Once the pandemic had passed, Smith’s publisher recommended republishing the book.
“That was a great idea,” she maintained, “because the book took off and began reaching larger audiences!”
Looking ahead
Inspired by her long-awaited and hard-won success, Smith has already begun working on a second book, which is actually set in Boston and Cambridge.
“This book is about two best friends who met at work from two different worlds,” she explained. “One is married, and the other is divorced, and they both have one son.”
Though she will not say where she gets ideas for her characters, Smith admits that her writing involves “more than fiction.”
“It is a mirror. It is a voice. It is the story of every woman who has dared to question where she truly belongs,” she suggested.
As for what lessons she has learned from her writing process and what lessons she hopes to impart to her readers, Smith emphasized that, “a pause in life is not a period” and urges readers (and everyone) to “follow your passion and never give up!”
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