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Sage Kiernan-Sherrow<\/strong> | News Editor<\/span><\/p>\n Lisa Lowell has always been a writer. As a local Oregonian born into a family of artists who \u201cdon\u2019t do competition,\u201d Lowell said that writing became her niche. However, as a high school student, Lowell admitted that she \u201cwasn\u2019t a very good writer,\u201d or rather, she held contempt for any type of writing which stifled her creative process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After being asked to follow a prompt for a class assignment \u2014 and failing miserably, preferring to add in her own flair of fantasy and magic \u2014 her teacher submitted her work to various scholarships unbeknownst to her. She received a scholarship to Brigham Young University, but ended up losing it as she wanted to pursue a career in teaching history rather than English, later being named the VFW Teacher of the Year in 2011.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n However, after realizing that \u201cyou can\u2019t (become) a history teacher as a woman because they also want them to be a coach,\u201d Lowell opted into getting a masters degree in English as a second language from Western Oregon University.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lowell called Western \u201cvery cooperative\u201d in helping her basically design her own degree. Throughout this time, Lowell continued her writing, but after graduating in 2006, her husband went through a terrible accident, resulting in Lowell putting her art temporarily on hold.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But after six years of contacting different publishers, she ultimately published three books in \u201cThe Wise Ones\u201d series, and her fourth is set to come out in March of 2020.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe Wise Ones\u201d is a fantasy series with each novel focusing on one or two stand-alone characters within the overall universe. It starts with the dragons \u2014 the keepers of the magic \u2014 going into hibernation, during which 16 Wise Ones are chosen to contain it. Lowell compared her writing to that of C.S. Lewis\u2019 \u201cChronicles of Narnia\u201d series, in that it is \u201cnot full of smut and violence,\u201d and \u201cthere is a higher-being\u201d central to the plot, although the series is not \u201covertly Christian.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEach Wise One has their own adventures focused around how they find and come into their magic,\u201d Lowell said, \u201cpeople think that it\u2019s YA, but the characters are adults strictly controlled by their morals, or they can\u2019t control their magic,\u201d Lowell said.<\/span><\/p>\n For example, one of her characters takes the magic when he becomes 25, freezing him in time while his wife and children age in front of him. The moral issue central to the plot is him attempting to remain faithful to his wife despite prophecies of another woman being important to fostering his magic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lowell\u2019s work can be found on her website, magicintheland.com, which also includes a blog dedicated to informing not only readers about the world she has created, but also writers who might want to travel the same path as her. Her blog features book trailers, as well as videos about writing tips and the publishing process. She will also be attending the Dallas High School\u00a0 Holiday Bazaar on Dec. 7, where she can be found selling her books.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In regards to writing, she said that she enjoys it because \u201cit\u2019s a different kind of teaching,\u201d and offered this advice to fellow writers: \u201cif you\u2019re not creating, entropy happens, and you\u2019re going to fall apart.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n