Featured Interview With Tammy Loftis
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
For the first 11 years of my life, I lived in Chicago Heights, IL and moved down to Birmingham, AL the summer of 1978. I grew up and lived all over the state until I moved to Atlanta, Ga where all of the major changes in my life started taking place. My last day in Atl was December 22, 2017, and I moved across the country to San Diego, Ca where I currently reside.
I have no pets because I am on the go all the time and its not fair to have a pet that has to stay caged up all of the time and doesn’t get the love and attention it deserves. Maybe one day I will slow down enough to entertain the idea of having another dog but right now it’s just not a good fit. I do know if I did have one I would be a Rottie Mom!
I love the beach and the mountains. If I had to choose just one the beach would win. I do love living in Cali because if I wanted to I could hit the Mountains in the morning and the beach in the afternoon and have the best of both worlds.
I love sushi and wine. I love to shoot pool when I get the opportunity to do so. I also love college football with a Passion! I am also a book worm. I have stacks of books everywhere!
I have been a personal trainer for the last 7.5 years a Master Life Coach for the last 2 years and love helping people. I also have a successful podcast that is a new found love of mine! I love to talk and that gives me a way to help people that I may never meet in person and talk all at the same time! Who knew?! lol
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
It’s a weird story about books and writing. If you would have told me 10 years ago that I would be a published author and have a passion for writing I would have looked at you like you had lost your mind. When I got out of high school, reading was not my favorite thing to do. I started journaling back in 2009 when I was going through my depression. It helped start the healing process. I joined a gym to change my body and it also made me feel better on the inside from all of the darkness I felt. That lead me to becoming a personal trainer. I started reading personal development books because I didn’t want to go backward or feel any of those dark feelings ever again. As I grew, I started reading more, writing more, helping more people and it all just kind of happened. I started getting more serious about my writing when I started a blog in 2013. My mom passed away not long after that and I just didn’t have the heart to write anymore. I picked it back up in 2016 and here we are today with ya girl becoming a Published Author!
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My most favorite Author on the face of the planet is Andy Andrews! His books were the first personal development books that I read and helped me to make the biggest transformational changes in my life. I would say Rachel Hollis is probably my second favorite. I have an eclectic stack of authors that I read but those are the top 2. As far as genre, most definitely personal development & self-help. I will read a fiction book if I believe that the story is going to teach me something along the way. A story with a purpose so to speak. I believe Andy Andrews has done that for me more than any other book that I have read in the last 5 years.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
I am so freaking excited about this book!! It’s called “Dear Victim, It’s Time for Us to Break Up Now!” A Story of Empowerment through Forgiveness, Strength, and Love. I actually started writing this book in 2013. Not far into it, I realized I was still way to hurt to complete it at that time, so I put it down. My mom passed shortly after in December of that year. My fiance’ broke up with me the day after I picked up my moms remains. I had just sold all of my stuff and moved in with a client because I was “supposed” to be relocating with him down to Puerto Rico where he had just gotten transferred to with his job. I put on damn near 30lbs in 30 days. I attempted to start writing again in 2016 and realized I was now very angry and everything coming off the page was spewing that anger. I didn’t want my book to project or feel that way to the readers (or myself for that matter) so I put it down again. When I relocated to San Diego and found my current roommates (there were 2 others before these that are a story in itself lol) and in less than 90 days, I finished the first draft of my manuscript.
I am sharing my life story in this book. I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse from both my mother and my biological father. Teenage rape from my stepfather and depression in 09 when I had a staredown with a bottle of sleeping pills. If you were standing in front of me today you would never guess that I went through any of those things because I have such a happy and positive demeanor about life. I want to show people tangible proof that the things that happen to you are not who you are! You can be victimized but you do NOT have to be a Victim. That being a victim is a choice. Living a full, happy and positive life is a choice. We all get to choose our path in life after trauma happens. Including playing the victim forever more. Nobody owes us anything in this life. We have to take a stand, take our power back and create whatever kind of life it is that we want. Create a legacy based off of our vision, not our history.
I am very transparent in my book about what I have gone through all the way up to where I am right now. I am just your everyday regular southern girl, that got sick and tired of life kicking me around and made the decision that if life was going to be hard that I was going to define what hard was to me not the world. Life can be hard living paycheck to paycheck or life can be hard while you’re making your dreams come true. It takes way more energy to live paycheck to paycheck, have a negative attitude and live a “hard” life than it does to think positive, work on your dreams and live a happy fulfilled life. Is it work to do all the extra things you need to do on your downtime to make your dream a reality? Absolutely! But to me, I would rather give up things that don’t push me toward my dreams than to sit around complaining that my life sux when I’m not doing anything to change the status quo.
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles
Tammy Loftis’s Website
Tammy Loftis Facebook Page