Lori Cooper

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/groups/housenames/

Website: http://nameyourhouseorproperty.wordpress.com/

Twitter: LoriHowarth1

There's more to Lori Cooper than meets the eye...house name enthusiast,

music tragic, Thai food enthusiast, ex-prison guard, blogger, Zombie & Supernatural fan, amateur photographer, lyricist & mum of twins on the Autism Spectrum. All this and she says she can't cook a cake to save her life! (Luckily she's not writing a cook book!)

Lori Cooper is the author of:

*75,000+ Baby Names (Hachette Australia)

*10,000 House names (Lothian)

Current fiction and non-fiction projects not yet published:

* Name your House or Property

* Beautiful baby names

* 105,000+ Baby Names

* Novel on the rock industry: Everything Else is Just Noise

* Children's book: Oh Mum, you're Sooooooo Embarassing!

* Children's book: Super Sophie

Name your House or Property (yet to be published). A near completed work that has updated and improved on Lori's first book 10,000 House Names (now out of print). "When I bought my own home I searched high and low for the perfect name for our cottage but couldn't find much information out there on house names. It inspired me to write the book. We finally settled on 'Biggletree' for the big-old-tree that stands sentry in our front yard." Name your House or Property is full of names, meanings, origins, most popular property names, how to display your house name plaque, types of signs and so much more.

75,000+ Baby Names for the 21st Century (published)and Beautiful Baby Names (yet to be published).

What is it about names that makes Lori so fascinated by them?

'I first became interested in names in my teens while perusing through a baby name book. When I looked up my name it said 'Lori, see Laura'. I thought it pretty rude that the author didn't either bother to write an individual meaning, even if it was the same as Laura (or so she thought). It got me thinking about all the other baby names in the world that never even rated a mention. With all the unusual and multicultural names in the world, I saw a niche market for this book. Australia, UK, New Zealand, Canada and America are becoming increasingly multicultural so I thought it would be a good selling point for my baby name book to set it apart from all the others on the shelves.'

Baby names and babies

Being a mum of twins, how did Lori find her baby names? 'I think we all have baby names we collect over our lifetimes, names we love, I am no exception. We threw some names about to family and friends and found they were shot down pretty quickly. A lot of the names we liked, family and friends didn't. The usual excuse was something along the lines of 'I know an X and she's a bitch' or' I went to school with an X and I heard he's in prison now'. Another name I loved, my friends stole. A lot of name stealing goes on. I advise people to keep their precious names to themselves. '

'There was a lot of pressure to pick good baby names. Our list included: Boys: Sonny, Thomas, Jack, Harrison and Jesse. Girls: Sophie, Olivia, Arabella, Brielle and Isabella. In the end, Sonny was named after his grandfather, (or so his dad believes, don't tell my husband I named Sonny after Don Johnson's character Sonny Crochet from the 1980-1990'sTV show Miami Vice!) Sophie is a name everyone loves and it is feminine and sophisticated, that's why it is so popular on the baby name popularity charts.'

Some background

So what did Lori Cooper do before she became obsessed with names and music and became a mother of twins?

Lori has done many things including sold lingerie, edited newsletters for a community group, ran a playgroup. She was also a prison guard in a men's medium security prison and a detention officer in the notorious Woomera Detention Centre (S.A.)and Curtin Detention Centre (W.A.). 'No one walked away from that place unscathed...no detainees or workers.' Lori describes her time in the Australian desert as 'horrendous, soul destroying and something that will haunt me for the rest of my life. It has left scars on everyone who ever spent time there. And the sad thing is, 13 years on, the problems still remain.'

Lori lives near the beautiful Blue Mountains in NSW Australia. Her heritage is Australian/Native American that she describes as 'a rare bloodline'. She is married to Jason and they have twins, Sonny and Sophie.

What's next for Lori?

'My children are now at school so that has freed up some time to get stuck into writing my first novel. I have also just discovered Twitter (LoriHowarth1) and have established my own blog www.nameyourhouseorproperty.wordpress.com and loricooperbabynames.wordpress.com I will continue to work on these projects for now.'

And why is she such a bad cake baker?

'Ask me to cook anything savoury and I am fine, even good at it. Ask me to cook a cake and it is ALWAYS a disaster. They either collapse, are under cooked, burnt, too moist or too dry and the cupcakes always spill out over the edge of the patty cake papers. Don't ever give me food colouring either! Cakes turn out looking so fluorescent you'd be too scared to eat it.' She laughs. 'And even packet pre-mixes I still manage to destroy! My poor children are deprived of decent cake! Thank God for the bakeries or their birthdays would be traumatic! Luckily, I am not writing a cook book!'

Contact information:

For media enquiries please contact Lori: lorihowarth@live.com

Lori's blog: nameyourhouseorproperty.wordpress.com or loricooperbabynames.wordpress.com