Loretta has always loved to write. The joy of making words rhyme began in grade four and by the end of high school, she had many notebooks filled with poetry and prose.
While there may not be anything wonderful or magical about those early creations, the experience of putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, always felt – and still feels – well, perfect.
After many years in community theatre, work as a TV commercial and animation voice-over actor, employment in an ad agency and finally a recording studio, Loretta found a children’s bookstore in Toronto, which was really everything she had been looking for. There, in that store, she became a bookseller, reviewer, storyteller and cat brusher, with the wonderful opportunity to read as many kids’ books as she was able!
Eventually Loretta felt her years there and all that reading was sufficient preparation to write a few children’s books of her own.
Loretta believes that there’s nothing more satisfying than a children’s picture book and that we all have our favourites. For her, the magic of a picture book lies in the beauty that they are not just for children: they are loved and enjoyed by people of all ages. Besides being a portal to another world, where she loves to hang out, picture books are valuable in many ways: they promote curiosity in young ones, introduce them to voice patterns and rhythm, and help them to develop self-awareness, as well as social and critical thinking skills.
Her first book, A Stopwatch from Grampa, was given a Kirkus star review and was selected as one of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s Best Books for 2020. Since then, Loretta has published three more picture books (It’s in Me to Win, And J.J. Slept, and Jeffrey Loves Blue).
More information can be found on her website https://www.booksbyloretta.com/
Loretta met Marion after a random online search using the prompts “photographers, authors, Toronto.” She wasn’t sure, but after looking over her website, she just had a hunch that Marion would be chill about the whole ‘my face in front of a camera all day thingy.’ She thought, too, that Marion had a good eye and booked a photo session in April this year. Her hunch paid off and, ultimately, she came away with 4 new headshots.
Loretta is, at this moment, either working on a story, auditioning for a voice gig, gardening or envying those who can bake bread.
“Fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so slightly perhaps, but still
Virginia Woolf
attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely
perceptible.”