Former LaCrosse native's writing inspired by small town life

LACROSSE — Lois Olmstead grew up in LaCrosse, Washington, where her love for reading and writing started and inspired her early novels penned under the name L.A. Malby.

She would meet her husband, who also grew up in LaCrosse, where they continued to live for ten years before they moved away, retired, and came back.

When Olmstead was young, she explained that she fell in love with poetry and would recite it aloud as she walked around.

“Off and on all my life, I wrote,” she said.

Olmstead just published her eighth novel, “Sugar Time Succeeds,” she mentioned it’s a series.

“I don’t know why I ca...