Lori Closter, Author and horsewoman

Lori Closter is a wife, mom, grammy, and lifelong writer and horse lover who is fulfilling her dream of giving people hope and faith through stories. A native New Yorker with degrees from Cornell (BA) and Temple Universities (MA), she served as writer/assistant producer on various projects, including an educational film series for National Geographic, and even spent a summer working for renowned producer Joseph E. Levine. Her short stories have been published in several places and her unpublished collection, Riding the Elephant, was a contest semi-finalist.

Lori’s Young Adult, faith-based novel Topping the Willow and its accompanying screenplay, BREAKING JOY, have also been multiply recognized, including IAN Book of the Year finalist and Kairos Prize finalist, respectively.  In 2025, everything came together for the movie to move forward: BREAKING JOY won Best Script at Purpose Fest in Indiana, where Lori connected with former CHOSEN producer Justen Overlander, who became her co-writer in streamlining and then producing the screenplay. With veteran “teen girl” movie producer Alexandra Boylan of The Boylan Sisters as director, the movie was just filmed on a beautiful estate in Columbus, Georgia, and is now in post-production.

Lori and her retired pastor husband now live in coastal NC, where they enjoy small boating and she is already working on the sequel—again, as both novel and screenplay! It’s so hard to pick just one…

Transcript

0:01

To be a wordsmith is defined as a person who writes, an author, a journalist, a person who commits their thoughts to paper. But I believe it is so much more. The ability to craft a story, to change lives, transport the ordinary life to an extraordinary place. To put words on paper and awaken the imagination in ways that the reader never dreamed possible. Yes, to have the ability to see what isn't there and make you see it too. To awaken the senses in new and amazing ways, like feeling a cool breeze on a hot summer day on your cheek. To smell wildflowers as they bloom, to taste the delicacy on foreign soil, to feel like you've never felt before, touching places long forgotten, connecting your soul in new ways. That's what writers do. It's my pleasure to host Carolina Writers Speak, a new podcast, a chance to hear actual writers' voices, hear what inspires them, experience their trials and their struggles, and realize that we all have a story and it's worth telling. So, Lori, thank you for being on the show. Thank you for having me. It's a good thing. And would you tell our audience just a little bit about you and how you got involved with horses? Well, me and horses is um, I don't know if it's something you're born with, but I had that horse crazy gene right from the beginning. And I used to um have various opportunities, but um always wanted a horse and never had one. And I also had that fantasy that life would be perfect if I owned one. Um when I finally got the first of my two horses, uh, she was a retired brood mare who it turned out had never been trained to ride. That was a disaster. And then the second one several years later um was actually the true subplot of the book and movie that that I later wrote. And it's on my website, but that's a spoiler alert. And she was a disaster too, so be careful what you wish for. Yeah. Yeah, I think where we're starting at our first few are disasters because we got a lot to learn and we don't know it. Yeah, yeah. And make sure that's a good thing. So your book, Top in the Willow, is an incredible book. So tell us a little bit about that. Thank you. Um, the book is not about me, but it is a faith story of a kind of an alienated, you know, middle class um teen who lives outside New York City, which happens to be where I was raised. And the the biggest uh I I guess it started when my sister waitressed in Vermont on New Year's Eve on a family that came up from Florida for a Vermont Christmas. And um the next day she heard that they'd all been killed in a car crash. And it turns out one of them survived. But even as she was talking, I thought this is the setup for the book that I knew I would always write. Um, and and I guess the other biggest thing about the book is that it is a faith-based story because in the first scene of the book, which is now later in the movie, she um, you know, her parents, she's about five years old, and her parents are agnostic and atheist, and they've told her there's nothing after death, and yes, the world will go on forever without you. And that happened to me. It was very, very traumatic. I would say it kind of shadowed everything for a long time. So, and then from then on I had to invent a story, which I slowly did over many years. And a very good story. Now, your book has gone on to be a very good seller and award winner. Is that true? Um, to be very honest, I did I switched back to the movie script right away. So I did not put the money into marketing. I didn't put any money into marketing, but but that's coming up because I'm writing the sequel now. Um, but it did, um, yes, it has, it was like, let's see, um independent author network. It was a finalist. It's been the book and the movie um screenplay have been contest recognized a bunch of times at this point. I think that's what I remembered. And I remember that when we first met, and you had just maybe just published the book, and how hard you worked on this to find out about movies and how to get it out there in the world and the things that you were researching. So tell us a little bit about that journey. Well, thank you. Um, I I I did work, I have worked very, very hard for a very long time on this, you know, writers' groups and the usual critiques. But what they say about going to conferences being very important is true. You know, contest recognitions are important and they gain you recognition as you write to people. Um but when it comes to the movies, things didn't break until I actually got myself to Indiana last summer. Uh, and that gets into the whole movie story, but yeah. Right. Yeah. Um I will say also it did take me, you know, the bar. I happened to be doing all this as the bar got higher and higher and higher for writers. When I started trying to get published, they were saying um you don't really need to have a um, what is it they call? You know, that sphere of influence, you know. Right. Um tribe, not not tribe, I'm I'm blanking on the word, but at any rate, um you don't need one for fiction, just for nonfiction. Platform, that's the word. Yes. Then it's just gone up and up and up and up, and always stayed a little bit ahead of me every step of the way. So I did have an agent finally, and I found out that the story was um kind of too gritty for most of the Christian publishers, and then too Christian for any of the secular publishers, which is why it's all partly why it's all taken so long. And then I finally got an offer, and then they ditched their Christian fiction line before we signed anything, and then a couple of years later we thought, my husband and I thought, we need to self-publish. So we did. Very good. Now, how long was this whole journey from the time your book was finished till now? Um, this will be discouraging to some people, but there are reasons. Um, I joke that you could raise a child in that time, and that is true. I invented these characters just as they are 18 years ago. Sure. Well, you know, it takes a long time because there's so many um things that hurdles, and then there's a lot of competition. So you have a lot of work, and you worked very hard and very diligently during that time. I I mean, I know this personal experience, and people think that they can write a book and some movie producer is gonna pick it up and voila, they're you know, famous, but it does not work that way, does it? Yeah, one of the biggest surprises after I felt I need to find a producer is to find out that guess what? They all have their own pet projects, they all have their own pipeline already going, and most of them are not out there. I mean the studios, the studios are I guess are out there, but um I haven't you know infiltrated any of them. And but the but the ones, you know, the individual producers, they all have their scripts that they already want to want to make. Yeah. I mean, it's it you know, when you think about how many books are produced in a year, over a million books, every author gets a very tiny slice of the pie at best. You know, so it's hard to be seen. Yeah, and to think about the movies is even harder. Yeah, you can read if you you can Google that, what percent of scripts are are made into movies. It's very small. Yeah, yeah. So you've definitely been blessed and been favored, there's no question. Now, tell me a little bit about the process now, because or from the beginning after you got the contract to be a movie. Um, well, this is kind of a funny part. I it the I had two the the script was um a finalist in two different contests. One was in California, one was Indiana. I don't really like to fly, so we went to Indiana, and that happens to be the one where it won best script, and where I met um Justin Overlander, who um was uh was on The Chosen for four years, mostly as a producer, but also as an actor, um, a little bit. And um, and then I had been in a producing class with Alexandra Boylan, who with her sister has produced um a whole slateful of um clean teen female girl, you know, clean, you know, female teen movies like Greatest Inheritance and Switched and Identity Crisis. And I was in her producing mentorship for a whole year, and so it kind of all just came together last July that I met Justin, and then I realized that the f the low budget film that was being shown there by the people who hosted the Purpose Fest, um, he he was co-writer and executive producer on, and I just wrote to him and said, Hey, are you interested in coming alongside another low budget, you know, low budget indie film? And um things went from there. Are you a producer on the film? I am because this is another God story. I had a very close college friend who was not a believer, she was Jewish, and she said at one point, I want to help you make your movie. And, you know, I sort of said, Oh, you know, how much does it cost? And I said, Well, I can only imagine with seven million. And she said, Well, I don't have seven million. Um, and long story short, she passed away. And then a year ago I found out that she had left me and some other artist friends some money, and um, it was nowhere near seven million. Um nowhere near it. But Alexandra Boylan, whose class I was in, was like, she's the queen of low budget, and she's like, We we can we can make it with for that, which it turns out we couldn't, not with horses and children. But um, anyway, that started the ball rolling in the low budget lane. Yeah, that's where we are. Yeah. And low budget lane is not a bad thing, even though it has a uh it sounds like it might be, but it's not, not at all. Because in as a TV producer for a long time, I learned that, you know, different movies require different types of sets and locations, and that you don't have to necessarily have all that to have a good film. And that's what they consider a low budget, is because you don't have to film in Milan and in Canada and everywhere. You know, so that I just wanted to clarify that for people listening because it's it's not a negative connotation, it's a a very smart business plan, in my opinion. Yeah. Well, also the word is that, you know, the the film industry is sort of in trouble that between the DVD sales going down and the strikes and COVID, there are a lot of very talented people who have not been working. Um, and so the you know, the income isn't there quite as much. And um, so people want to work. And it's also, you know, there's sort of a figure they toss around. I probably shouldn't share it, but you know, don't count on making it more than this back again. You know, so it gives a lot of impetus to keep your costs down for your investors. Kind of the same thing as being an author. Don't don't quit your day job. That's exactly it. But you know, I I think it's at a good time too, because you know, the world is obviously turning more its face towards God and and becoming believers. Thank heavens it's long overdue. And also, you know, people are hungry for this kind of content. They're sick of all of the filth that we have seen for years and years and years. I mean, you know, and so this is like a a a fresh taste in their mouth, and I think the film will do extremely well. Thank you. Yeah, we're now telling you where are you shooting? We are shooting in Columbus, Georgia, an hour and a half south of Atlanta. We have a lovely property. There was a choice between two different states, and um, this this woman has just been so generous, and we're occupying. We're moving in and occupying. Awesome. Now, what kind of horse are you using? Um, we have a Wrangler who um guarantees that uh he has doubles for every horse he uses, and um all I can say is it's it's a gray horse. It's um it's not the sort of little look-alike that I had written in the novel where she looked and said, Oh, we've got the same color bangs. Um so I don't know much about the horse, to be honest. Yeah, we have a great Wrangler who is highly recommended, who's also a strong believer. Yeah, nice, very nice. And when is the anticipated completion date? Um, from mid-May when we're finishing, um, about three months to edit. And so I would say anytime from September on, depending on distribution, you know, we've got a couple of distributors interested already, and uh which is just amazing. Um people who know both of our you know, director and producer. I don't know if I said Justin Overlander is the official producer and my co-writer at this point because he said it needs a rewrite to streamline it. And Alexandra Boylan is the director, and so people who know both those names and those huge audiences that they've both had are interested already. Yeah. So I think that's all I can say. Yeah. That is so awesome. And did I hear rumbling that Angel Network may pick it up? Um, Angel Network is certainly a possibility that we would explore, and that maybe more than the others might open it up for theatrical distribution. That's up in the air too. Do we will we have theatrical or will it be streaming? Seems like that would be a very good fit. It does seem that way. I don't have a crystal ball about that one though. For sure. I know, I know, and I know there's things you can't divulge to. Um, so tell me about the sequel a little bit. Um you you're writing that now? I I I actually wrote it over a year and a half ago and set it aside to focus on the movie. That's why it's taken so long. I've been ping-ponging back and forth between book and movie for a long time, which I I don't know if I recommend that. But anyway, um it's basically at the end of uh at the end of Breaking Joy, which is the name of the movie now, um, she's invited to come back. And um basically the plot is is that you know, and I don't know if I should say the the you know the thing about her mother, but at any rate, she ends up living with friends for a good part of the next year. And then a year later, um she's adopting her mother's um goals, which are very materialistic and security-oriented, and she needs an internship, and everything falls through, and she ends up back at the horse farm, hoping to be a counselor and uh sort of back in the same boat, but older and somewhat wiser. Sure. Um things, yeah. Well, that makes sense. Now your book is topping the willow, and that's out available for sale now, correct? That's right. That's on Amazon. Um, it's even available through bookstores through Lightning Source, you know, Ingram. Good, good. So people, I I recommend that you read the book and watch the movie and and pant till the sequel hits the screens for sure. Thank you. So the I I should should say one thing because of streamlining, and there was so very much in the book, so many subplots and things that I actually outlined a 12-episode series on it one time. So it's there's a lot of streamlining. So the characters and the arc are the same, but there are a lot of differences in terms of the actual. Well, one of my friends, Hope Clark, just sold um the Edisto Beach series to a network TV show, and they bought 16 of her books to make episodes out of. So that you know, once your movie comes out, that's certainly a still a very viable option. And uh her name is Hope Clark, and she is an editor for um Writer's Digest. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I'm I'm ready. Just food for thought for the future. Yeah, thank you. That's that's really interesting. Yeah. Yes, yes. So what else are you doing besides I know this is monopolizing every minute, but tell me what else you've been up to. What else we've been up to? Well, um, I guess a fair amount of a fair amount of family stuff. We're actually building a house right now. My husband is a lifelong boater, and we had the opportunity to actually build a house near where we keep our boat, which is awesome fancy, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's exciting. And I've got six grandkids who are spread up and down the east coast, so that's a big part of our lives, also. You sound like me. I have uh I have 11 great grandkids, but they're all out west. So uh Roddy and I have to make a long trek when he retires and take a couple months and and bless them with our presence. Yeah. Well, I'm grateful I'm grateful and hate I-95. Yeah. I know. I know. Are you staying in Georgia quite a bit? Um, you mean well, I mean I live in North Carolina, but you mean when we go down for the shoot, we'll be there three weeks. Yeah, the shoot will be three weeks long. Okay, so it's only three weeks. I didn't know how long it would take. Yeah, it's down to 15 days of shooting plus some pickup days. So well, I can understand that. Because when we did the TV series Carolina Hoofbeats, we learned to shoot real tight because you you don't want to sit through 50 hours of film to get one hour seen. So I I that's good though. That's a good cost saver. Yeah, the budget could not afford that. Yeah, definitely is one other cute little thing, which is that there are two roles for little girls, and my granddaughters are applying, they're auditioning this week for those roles, you know, remotely by video. But um, a lot of it, there's a one scene that opening scene of where young Brittany is afraid of afraid of dying. And I knew that our little one could could do that, but it depended on who they cast, and lo and behold, um the the young lady that they cast, um Madison Coons is her name if I'm saying it right, and my granddaughter looks like her. So she's got a lot of things. Oh, that is so cool. Yeah, yeah. That's so cool. I hope she gets the role. That would mean so much. Thank you. Yeah. Definitely. So, what else um is on your bucket list now to get the second book produced? Second book, and I actually always envisioned it as a trilogy. So I need to really pray about whether there's a third one there. Um, I do have an idea for a prequel about the the the arc of the people who own Narrowgate Farm, the horse farm. And then I do have a completed, and three of them still need a little bit of editing, a completed book of short stories that are more for women and they're secular. They're not especially they're not um overtly faith-based. So I want to get that published and out there too. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, that sounds really, really good. Now, how can people follow you and find you on social media and the movie? Well, I am on that people can follow um my myself, Lori Clooster, um, or they can follow Alexandra Boylan. She posts a lot, and so does Justin Overlander. Um, and then there's the for the movie itself, the IMDB page under Breaking Joy. And then I guess the last thing would be that my website is narrowgatemedia.com. And I envisioned that from the start as book and movie and whatever else I end up doing. So that sounds really good. Really good. Narrowgatemedia.com. That's right. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. Well, I I really appreciate learning about all that you've been up to, and I wish you so much success with this project because the book is phenomenal. And I know the movie will be too. Thank you so much, Rose. I really appreciate your encouragement and support all these years. Yeah. Well, you you certainly deserve that and are welcome to that and more. So thank you guys for listening this morning. We appreciate you following us as well. And and check out Lori's stuff because Lori's not just an average author, she's got a lot going on here, and you're gonna love this movie if you love a horse, and it it will resonate. So thank you. Everybody has a story, just let your mind drift away and find yours. I know it's out there. What are you waiting for?