Life Stranger Than Fiction

Lisa Lockwood details a life quite different from what even she thought she would have in her memoir Undercover Angel: From Beauty Queen to SWAT Team.
Growing up in Illinois, Lockwood was one of seven children. She said that the fact that she grew up on welfare was one of the biggest obstacles that she had to overcome. She said that it was difficult to get beyond that and tell herself that she deserved more
There was one key that Lockwood felt would be important in rising above everything - an education. However, paying for college would be a difficult task. For that very reason, her mother got Lockwood into the Miss Illinois pageant so that she would have a chance to win scholarship money.
The next step in Lockwood’s life was to enlist in the U.S. Air Force, eventually serving in Desert Storm. She also worked as a police officer in the Chicago area, worked as an undercover detective, narcotics detective and SWAT team member.
Lockwood, a 39-year-old who lives in Chicago and part-time in Montreal, retired from the police department when she was 34 years old.
“I never ever, ever would have expected my life to take the route that it did,” said Lockwood, adding that as an 18-year-old she had thought about going to Hollywood to try to become an actress or model.
During her last year in the department, she would share her stories with others and was also keeping a journal. Although to Lockwood it was simply a job that she had to get done, she noticed that others found it all very impressive and eventually decided to write her memoir, which took two years to put together and came out in April of 2007.
Lockwood, who was recently in New York for a National Speakers Association convention, said that the most important thing for readers to take away from the book is “that it is possible to have success.” Also having been exposed to domestic violence, Lockwood shows others how to “move away from being a victim.”
For the last several years, Lockwood has also begun speaking through the United States and in Canada. She said that she speaks mostly to women’s groups and “power groups.”
When addressing such groups, Lockwood focuses on reinvention, which she said is important for any person who is trying to “break through any personal barriers or limitations.” She said that she intends to write another book that will focus on reinvention and hopes to have it out in 2010.
“The most rewarding I guess is kind of living the dream life that I never thought would be possible,” Lockwood said of all that has happened in her life.
Lockwood said that right now she has an agent who is pitching her memoir as a television police drama. She also said that she wants to reach a larger audience and possibly host her own show one day.
For more information on Lockwood and Undercover Angel: From Beauty Queen to SWAT Team, visit www.LisaLockwood.com.