Lloyd Stamy

Passionate about his craft, Lloyd finds it difficult to resist writing something every day, and doing so has been an enduring staple of his life. Even during a decades-long prior career in the institutional investment business, he was addicted to the written word and penned vignettes about what life served up on a daily basis. His devotion affirms Dieter Uchtdorf’s belief that “the desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul”.

An admitted longtime collector of colorful characters from his personal life, Lloyd has an unlimited and fascinating cast from which to draw upon. Some of them appear and reappear in his stories. Vivid impressions and recollections of this abundant treasure trove of folks continually fuel his imagination, as Lloyd’s personal enjoyment comes from the sheer fun in bringing these characters back to life. As Albert Einstein maintained, “imagination is more important than knowledge, and creativity is intelligence having fun”.

Much like other novelists, Lloyd writes about what he knows and makes up the rest, which is what he doesn’t know, but believes is, or could be, true. As a result, his works have achieved what one reviewer called “a perfect combination of fact, fiction and fantasy”. Of course, if what Pablo Picasso claimed is true – that “everything you can imagine is real”, then perhaps there’s no point in trying to separate one from the other.

Like most books, his too are about navigating life’s temptations – choosing between right and wrong, good and bad, love and hate, and the ensuing struggle of the characters to make the right choices. Lloyd believes that good literature must be captivating, suspenseful, and intimate. He also understands that intimacy develops between an author and reader in a variety of ways – by tugging at one’s heart, touching a raw nerve, or telling a story that may be an all too familiar one. To become engaged, Lloyd is very aware that a reader can’t simply be along for the ride like a captive, passive passenger. Instead, he or she must be absorbed into the narrative to personally own threads of the drama as an active participant. If not all, at least some parts of any story have to resonate with those who invest the time to read. To do that, Lloyd embraces the need to include a personal connection in his books to benefit all audiences.

Lastly, some have observed that his writing is, at times, suggestive and arousing, if not fairly racy. His typical response is to aver the words of D.H. Lawrence: “Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot.”

Lloyd earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Virginia in 1973. A lifelong member of his church, he has sung in its chancel choir since 1967. He also produces music, including a recent six-CD collection of recordings from his mother’s syndicated weekly radio program on KDKA in the late 1940s. An avid gardener with an abiding reverence for nature, but at best a mediocre golfer, he and his wife have two adult children and reside in Fox Chapel, a suburb of Pittsburgh.