Lora Heaps — Author

About

This is a love letter to my grandparents, to my childhood, to the memories that ground me. I write picture books about the people who've taught me what love looks like in practice.

I'm the author of four completed picture books: a companion trilogy inspired by my grandfather, Lewis Henry Bohr of Watonga, Oklahoma, and a standalone, Care Package for Santa, inspired by my daughters. I hold a business administration degree from Regis University and have spent more than two decades in business operations: over a decade at Seagate Technology in engineering and manufacturing operations, followed by eight years in marketing agency operations, most recently as Director of Operations. I live in Broomfield, Colorado, with my husband, our two daughters (grown now, and the reason I write), and our cat, Lola. Outside of work, I enjoy cooking, hiking, coaching and training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and spending time with my family.

I've always been a storyteller, telling bedtime stories to my daughters. Garden Day started as a college essay nearly thirty years ago, not long after I lost Papa, and An Okie's Recipe for Love followed soon after. Both sat for almost thirty years. After a layoff in the spring of 2026, I went home to Oklahoma for a family funeral. Riding through Okarche and Ponca City listening to my father's stories, I came home and wrote for five days straight, reclaiming my own childhood memories one story at a time, and that's how The Papa Trilogy came to be.

The Books

Four complete picture books, each built around a real family recipe and the same simple instruction: however you do it, do it with heaps of love. Every book includes the recipe printed on the page, plus a pull-out recipe card tucked in an envelope in the back.

An Okie's Recipe for Love

The Papa Trilogy · 845 words · ages 4–8

Every December, Papa makes his famous chili in the barn out back. He doesn't measure. He just knows. A little girl watches from a barstool, learning that the secret ingredient was never really about the spices.

Garden Day

The Papa Trilogy · 879 words · ages 4–8

When Papa's red pickup turns the corner, everyone knows what day it is. A legendary Oklahoma garden, a yodel that means break time is over, and a grandfather who makes even the work feel like the best day of summer.

Hold the Reindeer

The Papa Trilogy · 880 words · ages 4–8

Every Christmas Eve, Papa slips out the back door right before Santa arrives. Someone has to hold the reindeer steady so Santa can come inside, and Papa is the man for the job.

Care Package for Santa

Companion Book · 849 words · ages 4–8

Every year, Chloe writes to Santa, not just at Christmas, all year, because somebody has to check on him. This December, a letter isn't enough. While her scaredy-cat elf hides on the mantle, Chloe enlists her sister and packs him a care package of his own: reindeer food, marshmallows, and a letter.

All four manuscripts are complete and currently being submitted to literary agents and publishers.

Also in progress: Walk in the Park and Snake for Supper.

The Real Papa

Papa, Lewis Henry Bohr of Watonga, Oklahoma, was a farmer before he was a politician. He served as Blaine County Assessor and two terms in the Oklahoma State Legislature. He was generous to everyone he knew, and by his own account, what he liked best was fathering and grandfathering.

Papa, Lewis Henry Bohr, at home in the kitchen — Papa at home, iced tea in hand, same as always.

Papa and a young LoLo in his favorite chair — Papa and me: his favorite chair, my favorite crown.

Nano with Lora's daughter Chloe — Nano, with my daughter Chloe.

Nano with Lora's daughter Alex — Nano, with my daughter Alex.

He died in April 1994. That summer, a six-foot sunflower grew volunteer in his backyard garden, where nothing had been planted and where he'd been too sick to tend the soil that spring. We like to think he sent it.

A field of sunflowers — The sunflower that grew volunteer, the summer after Papa died.

Izzi in Nano and Papa's garden — My goddaughter Izzi, in Nano and Papa's garden.

"However you do it — do it with heaps of love."