Mindy Lawrence
Mindy Lawrence is a writer, blogger, blog manager for Red Engine Press, and an artist based in Farmington, Missouri. She worked for the State of Missouri for over 24 years and moved to Farmington in 2020.
She proofread the Sharing with Writers newsletter by Carolyn Howard-Johnson and wrote “An Itty-Bitty Column on Writing” there for ten years. She has done editing and proofing and has been published in Writers' Digest magazine. She was also interviewed by NPR’s All Things Considered.
Mindy also makes handbound books and is a reading fiend.
My Story
My name is Mindy Phillips Lawrence, or has been since I was six months old—I was adopted and once had another name. I was Mindy Phillips up to the time I married. That’s where the Lawrence comes from. Although he and I parted ways years ago, I retained the name since it better connected me to my children.
When I was in the seventh grade, I wrote a short story that the teacher read in class. Unfortunately, I included the phase, “She looked around the room and found her voice.” That when my serious story turned comic.
In high school I wrote horrid poetry for a friend of mine trying to interest a certain guy. At our ten-year, she gave them all back to me. She’d kept them in a folder all those years. I thanked her, took them home, read them and put them right where they belonged, the ROUND file.
I started writing more seriously after I was grown, divorced, and holding down a full-time job. By then, I was living alone--I had “a room of my own.” I won a short story contest in St. Louis, got published in Writers Digest magazine, and in 2006, strictly by fate, was interviewed, along with three other female writers, by Melissa Block when she was working at NPR’s “All Things Considered.”
Now I have four granddaughters and I’m retired. I write, do calligraphy, and make handbound books. I’m working as blog manager and proofer for Red Engine Press now. It’s like an olde friend.
Contact
I'm always looking for new and exciting opportunities. Let's connect.