Meet Lorraine

Education:

• Master’s degree, Public Communications, Fordham University
• Ghostwriting Professional Designation Certificate, California State University, Long Beach

Affiliations:

• Ghostwriters Unite, Inc.
• Writers and Publishers Network
• International Women’s Writing Guild

Hi, I’m Lorraine Ash. The only thing I like better than reading good stories is writing, ghostwriting, and editing them.

I started my professional life as a long-form journalist writing long narrative stories—exploratory reports, cover stories, and series. I loved the “long” part. To tell the truth requires space. So does the responsible presentation of ideas and people.

My journalistic life led me to the White House, homeless shelters, disaster zones, psychiatric wards, forests, caves, and castles. I’ve interviewed astronauts, Olympians, economic gurus, politicians, doctors, artists and, perhaps most importantly, ordinary people. My articles, which won twenty-six writing awards over the years, appeared in newspapers nationwide, including USA Today.

A love of American history led to penning three historical plays about American presidents—Tyler, Monroe, and Jackson—published by The History Project. I’ve also produced numerous short stories and essays for literary journals and anthologies. These include Tiferet, Cairn, Journeys, Ducts, Recovering the Self: A Journal of Hope and Healing, and Steeped in the World of Tea.

In midlife a significant event changed me: my daughter, my only child, was stillborn in June 1999. Suddenly I understood the importance of telling stories from the inside out. I wrote Life Touches Life: A Mother’s Story of Stillbirth and Healing (NewSage Press), a memoir that has reached stillbirth mothers in the United States, the Middle East, Australia, Europe, China, Canada, and Mexico.

Next came the spiritual midlife memoir, Self and Soul: On Creating a Meaningful Life (Cape House Books).

Ever since I’ve ventured ever deeper into the book world. That’s where my beloved long-form writing migrated after the implosion of print newspapers and magazines. I’ve worked one-on-one with more than sixty writers to either ghostwrite, edit, or coach their book manuscripts into existence.

It’s a privilege to work on a manuscript. Every single one is an education in life.

Here’s the beauty of a book: it gives me—and you—a big canvas to tell our stories or present our original theories and ideas.

My mission is to facilitate quality storytelling. The world needs quality stories. It needs yours. It needs you to witness your corner of existence lest someone else do that for you—and get it wrong.

As individuals and world citizens, we need to understand the stories we are a part of. Each of us is born into a family and cultural story. Every time we enter a new endeavor, friendship, job, or neighborhood, we walk into its story.

Stories are essential for survival. In prehistoric times pictographs on caves let others know where the good hunting was. In modern times to tell a story, particularly a story from one’s own life, can heal or save the writer on spiritual and emotional levels. Sometimes the salvation comes from understanding we have the power to redirect story lines on and off the page.

Perhaps we’ll work together on your book, one-on-one, to make your literary dream come true.

Perhaps we’ll meet on the pages of one of my books. Or at a writing workshop. Catch me in a blog or radio appearance. Invite me to your book group or conference. Write to me on this website.

I’ll see you on the trail. Meanwhile, never stop challenging what’s true or possible in the ever-changing story of your life.