By Gail Garcia

Anything can happen in a small town. Just because you live in a small place it doesn’t mean that you can’t achieve something great. Not many succeed, but in a small town where dreams are big, author Lynn Shurr has achieved her goals through hard work, perseverance and a talent for writing. Shurr, who is known to her family and friends as Carla Hostetter, has written a series of compelling novels that quickly connect with readers. Her novels, with well developed characters and compelling plots, have kept followers waiting for additional books.

This ambitious and inspiring author has received rave reviews for her  football romances. With three published books in her football series and more to come, she has decided to break away briefly to explore writing historical romance novels.

Always willing to share her writing experiences, Hostetter led a lecture on Writing the Historical Novel at the Jeanerette Bicentennial Park and Museum. At the lecture she debuted her latest historical novels, Queen of the Mardi Gras Ball and Mardi Gras Madness.

The program helped even non-writers to understand the elements that make up a great historical novel including how to do research and how to write dialog correct to the time period. The free program also featured a book signing following the talk.

Hostetter first became interested in writing in grade school when a puppet show she wrote made a tour of all the classrooms. Throughout her middle school and high school years she gained even more experience by writing for the school newspaper and literary magazine.

Being a dedicated student, she found that she had no time to write once entering college to major in English Literature.

“After arriving in New Iberia to run the library system in 1982, I managed to write two novels working on them nights and weekends, but they did not sell,” Hostetter said.

 It was 15 years later when she was recovering from surgery that she began and finished two other novels with the same results. Although putting aside her writing for awhile, nothing could discourage Hostetter from her dream of becoming an author. Her persistence helped her dream became a reality after she retired, when the first book she wrote in 2004 sold after five years of trying to get it printed. The book was the spicy sports romance, Goals for a Sinner.

“In the meantime, I’d written six other books including the sequel, Wish for a Sinner and another of my new releases, Queen of the Mardi Gras Ball, a historical novel,” she said.

She has appreciated the advantages of a good editor and cover designer that have helped to make her books successful through her publishing agency, L& L Dreamspell. She encourages others writers to be disciplined enough to sit down at the keyboard.

“It takes discipline to sit down at that keyboard and write just 1,000 words which is what I aim for on a daily basis,” she said. “One thousand words, is not much, but at the end of three months, I have a 90,000 word novel completed.”

Hostetter is one of those rare writers that inspire others through great story telling in the written word while also being an enchanting public speaker.