Lori and Nicole, A Brief History
We’ve known each other since fourth grade, and we’ve been best friends since sophomore year in high school. From the beginning, we had an uncanny ability to operate on the same wavelength. Throughout high school, we’d meet up at one of our lockers in the morning before classes only to realize that we were dressed in the same sweater or at least the same color. “Again?!” we’d say, and laugh at ourselves. This happened three days a week at a minimum.
It’s only gotten stronger since then. We understand each others’ thoughts and we finish each others’ sentences. We know how to pick each other up at just the right moment. We’ve been through some incredible highs together and seen each other through the most painful of lows.
But through it all, we dream. We both have a vision of the world that is more than the accepted reality, and we encourage each other to believe that anything is possible – for us, for our lives, and for the world we live in.
Now that we are writing this story together, we are often asked how the co-authoring part works. But if you are familiar with out friendship, it’s no secret. In the brainstorming stage, it usually goes something like this:
Lori: Ok, so we need to figure out what Eoin is doing before he
goes home.
Nicole: I think he should be in school in Dublin.
Lori: That’s perfect. We can certainly write that. But he’s too old to
be in college.
Nicole: How about a master’s.
Lori: Ok. Yeah, something intense, like finance. He can be working
for a big Irish bank and they sent him back to school.
Nicole: Yes, he’s got this really great career laid out for him…
Lori: High-powered exec…
Nicole: Everything he’s ever wanted…
Lori: And then bam, unlocking.
Nicole: Yes! It all gets pulled out from under him.
Lori: And he’s so pissed, because they’ve taken it all away.
Nicole: And then there’s all the other stuff that’s freaked him out.
Lori: He’s worked so hard, laid all the plans, only to have it ripped
away from him for a cause he doesn’t believe in.
Nicole: For something he doesn’t even understand.
Together: Yes!!
That is a dramatic reenactment, of course, but you get the gist. An idea catches like wildfire, we pass it back and forth, and soon it has developed into a section of the story.
We’ve been working on Unlocked for years now in the very few spare moments we manage to scrape together. Life, death, and everything in between has tried to derail us more than once, but it never occurred to us to let the story go. We love it too much, and we think others will share our passion for it. Now, finally, we’ve decided that it’s time to prioritize Unlocked on our schedules. It’s always been first on the list in our hearts.
