Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Carney.
Hi Laura, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My first book, the best-selling memoir My Father’s List: How Living My Dad’s Dreams Set Me Free, is about my six-year journey to complete the bucket list of my late father, Mick, who was killed in a car crash with a distracted driver. I was only 25 when he died; we found the list 13 years later, six months after I got married. During a time in my life where I thought I was supposed to be focused on developing my own family, home, career mastery, etc., I accidentally chose instead to reinvent myself.
I didn’t know that in honoring my dad’s life, in trying to put its meaning into words, I would find my life to be more meaningful. That in living out his dreams, I would become a person who respects dreamers. That I would find myself years later as not only a writer but a teacher, a motivational speaker, someone who encourages everyone she meets to think for themselves.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Of course not!
The mission to finish my dad’s list was very challenging. Oftentimes today when I talk to people about my book or my project, their familiarity with it is what they perceive to be its “outcome”: me as a successful author. Me, as a person with a large platform. They perceive that those around me choose to work with me because they want to be part of a “winning team.” What they are not seeing is that because choosing to complete my dad’s bucket list took so long, was so expensive in both energy and time, and oftentimes could be such an isolating experience—either because the responses from some close to me surprised me or because I knew that I was the only person truly keeping it going or because I feared what people might think of me for doing such an “irresponsible” thing—I could never consider the book’s reception in the world as the thing that kept me going. People showing interest now is a nice thing, but it has little effect on me….because what really changed me was that I refused to give up on me, back when very few people cared about what I was doing.
That’s the key, I think, to making something creative that resonates. If you are cheering on you and you are able to do whatever it is purely for your own satisfaction—if you are grateful just to be immersed in the creative experience—you are going to make something worthwhile. It’s impossible for that energy not to come through.
That’s the real reason my book resonates with people, I assume (as the book’s creator, I can never really know this). I assume it’s because they feel the empowerment and independence and purity of heart and intent that I felt when I was making it.
And the persistence. And people tend to want to learn how to be persistent.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a magazine journalist, mostly a copy editor, in national publications (and I also copyedit books) for the past 23 years. My writing before my book appeared in various national and smaller magazines, mostly essays but sometimes features or profiles. I also worked as a TV recapper for a long time. These days, in addition to writing, I also teach, both mindset programs and writing lessons.
I could never know what sets me apart from others. That’s a subjective notion. But I am often told that what makes me different is that I am completely authentic and genuine. And apparently that is uncommon.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Always believe in yourself.
And always trust that God is guiding you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bylauracarney.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/myfatherslist
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carney.laura/
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/lauracarney/
- Twitter: https://x.com/lac30
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@myfatherslist
