Lois Armes Lawrence

In Louisville, KY, Lois began writing journals, a family history, poetry, and mystery stories. She remembers the famous Ohio River Flood of 1937, and kept a journal of scribbled drawings and descriptions of the raging flood. She was seven years old! Dreaming of becoming a professional author, she wrote her first mystery story while in the fourth grade, but her teacher did not appreciate her story-telling abilities and advised her to learn to spell! In later years with her brother George F. Armes, she wrote a collection of family stories about the Depression, flood, and World War II. 

Learning she was dyslexic did not deter her from pursuing a teaching career. She graduated from University of Houston with degrees in history, classical rhetoric, and English literature. While teaching English at Houston Baptist University, she worked with students who had difficulties with composition, in particular spelling. She implemented innovative methods to determine if a student were dyslexic and to what degree and developed a technique for dyslexics to proofread to improve their spelling abilities. During her teaching career, she worked with the Orton Dyslexic Society, guest lecturing and serving on panel discussions.

A member of Sigma Tau Delta and Phi Kappa Phi and a recognized scholar of literature, she has lectured at University of Guelph, Canada; Clare College, Cambridge, England; and University of Cork, Ireland.

Her publications include Magic in Book III of The Faerie Queene; Rhetorical Analyses of Works of Sir Francis Bacon; A Flood of Memories of 1930s & 1940s; “The Ballad of Ballinderreen,” Spring 1996,An Doir’in, Irish Literary journal in Galway. Under the nom de plume Virginia Lee, she has co-authored three novels in the Aunt Louise Mystery Series:  Déjà vu (2001), set in a Louisiana plantation B&B, Quenchless Fire (2000), set in Ireland, and Nantucket Ghost Writer (2003), set on Nantucket Island. William B. Hunter, former critic for The Houston Chronicle says, “Quenchless Fire is a book that is hard to put down.  I am especially impressed by [the] skill and reality in depicting this part of Ireland, the people there, and their culture. I enjoyed the book immensely and look forward to the next.”

A.B.C. Whipple, renown historian, author, and former Executive Editor of Time-Life Books, writes: “Thanks so much for . . . Nantucket Ghost Writer – You did indeed convey the sense of Nantucket, its fresh air, its surf, its chowders and, most of all, its unique personality. I liked your plotting, [and the way] the tension builds up near the end. I enjoyed your tale a lot, and I’ll keep an eye out for the next one.”

Lois uses experiences from Pasadena Little Theatre, free-lance journalism, and teaching to shape characters and to structure tight plots. Researching settings and historical events, she brings a Faulknerian “sense of place” to her novels. Recently widowed, she lives in Sugar Land, Texas, and is currently working on a historic novel based on her Irish grandmother’s experiences during the mid-nineteenth century.