Medford’s Laura Najjar finds new career after publishing first novel

If you ask Laura Najjar what she wanted to be when she was older, you might be surprised. It’s certainly not the career path she’s on now.

“I wanted to be in the dental field ever since I was a kid,” the West Medford resident said, with a laugh. “I used to read about it. I just really wanted to do it.”

And that’s exactly what she did. For a while.

But life took her down a series of odd twists and turns. And these days, Najjar spends her free time writing. In fact, she’s just published her first novel “For Sale: A Summer Home, A Lifetime of Memories.”

The story revolves around protagonist Olivia Dalton, who “returns to her family’s cherished summer cottage on Mirror Lake, expecting peaceful days and nostalgic memories.” A series of strange discoveries leads Olivia on a quest to solve the mysteries around her.

Najjar said the story has personal meaning to her. As a child, her parents would take her and her sister to Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire and rent out a cabin on the lake.

“I loved it!” she said. “I would go hiking and swimming and fishing with my father.”

The family, she said, went to that same cabin every summer for a decade. And one year, her mother said the family was going to buy the cabin.

“It never happened,” Najjar said. “A year later, my mom passed.”

But the idea never left her. In 2006, she put pen to paper and started writing.

“The doctor I worked with, I assisted in his office two days a week, and at lunch, he would see me writing in a spiral notebook,” she said. “Then one day, he just finally asked me what I was writing and I told him. He said, ‘Put me in it!’”

The book took Najjar three months to write. She transcribed her notebooks into her computer and started contacting editors to help her get the novel into shape.

“They all wanted like $3,000 to edit this,” Najjar said. “I said I could do it myself.”

Najjar admitted it was all turning out to be harder than she thought. She stuck the manuscript in a drawer, taking it out every year to look at and wonder if she should try again.

After all, she’d already published one book. But it wasn’t a novel. It was a cookbook called “Boston’s Breathtaking Biscottis.”

“The cookbook….Well, you have to go back to when I was a junior at Cardinal Cushing [High School]. I got an award in English,” she explained. “My mother said, ‘I had no idea you were so good in English. Your teacher must see something in you.’ From that, I always had a vision that I would write something.”

The cookbook.

“I am always looking for things to do,” Najjar said. “I just love to bake and I thought I’d write a cookbook about making biscotti. I used my grandmother’s recipe and I thought, ‘Well, I’ll put a cookbook together.’ And then Sept. 11 happened.”

Najjar self-published the cookbook and sent a portion of the proceeds to the victims of Sept. 11. She sold quite a few copies.

Finally published

In August 2024, Najjar went back to her manuscript for “For Sale” and made another attempt at finding an editor to wrangle the story. That’s when she found The Mystic Ghostwriters.

“I sent them an email and they called me 30 minutes later,” she said. “It was less than a third of what everyone else wanted and they would edit, proofread, publish it and help me work with an artist for the cover.”

In February 2025, Najjar made the decision to go for it, thanks to the encouragement of her husband, Nick.

The hardcover was finally published June 29.

“It was amazing,” she said, of the process. “They’ve since made a webpage for me and I’m going to be on a billboard in Times Square!”

That’s right. On Aug. 25, Najjar’s book will be advertised on the screens once an hour with a 60 second trailer. There are also plans in the works for an audiobook and marketing Najjar’s work globally.

Right now, though, this book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Books and Kindle, among other platforms. Najjar is also hoping to have the book stocked in local, independent bookstores and even do some readings and signings.

“I am beyond excited,” she said, of the experience of being a published author.

Najjar said she never thought about making writing her career. In fact, she’s still got toes dipped in the waters of dentistry.

That’s right. Najjar never gave up her dental dream. At her parents urging, she went to Northeastern, took courses and graduated as a dental assistant to see if she wanted to continue on in the field.

But a few years in, Najjar started having problems with her hands and doctors discovered she had carpal tunnel in both. She could no longer continue chasing her dream profession.

But she could teach. Najjar went back to school, earned a masters degree and started teaching radiology at Mount Ida College in Newton. In 2018, the University of Massachusetts Amherst acquired the campus and renamed it the Mount Ida Campus of UMass Amherst

“I loved it!” she said, of teaching. “My parents were very supportive of whatever I was doing.”

A few years later, Najjar hit another roadblock. Digital technology did away with film for dental x-rays and it was something Najjar said she wasn’t sure she wanted to cope with.

“I actually considered leaving,” she said, of that time in her career. “But then I went back and I started to read the manual every day during my lunch hour.”

It led her to DEXIS, the company developing the new digital, high-quality x-rays. Najjar took the online training and loved it.

In fact, she loved it so much, Najjar now works for the company and trains others on the machine. And she’s still teaching one day a week at Massasoit Community College in the Department of Dental Assisting, accredited by the American Dental Association. 

What’s next?

“I always wanted to own a bakery,” Najjar said when asked what’s next for her.

She laughs, revealing she actually scouted out a few locations in West Medford, where she’s lived with her Medford native husband for 22 years after they bought his parent’s house. And yes, she lived on the Mystic Valley Parkway for another 11 years before that.

“Honestly, there was a storefront for lease about eight years ago and I thought, ‘I can put my bakery there,’” she said. “But then it seemed like it would be a lot of work.”

So Najjar bakes and cooks for herself and her family. But the writing is just for her.

“I never thought I would be doing this,” she said of her newfound career.

Najjar said her next steps as an author, besides working hard to market herself, is working on her third book. You read that right. Her third book.

“Well, during the editing process for the first one, I started the sequel,” she said, rolling her eyes. “It took me about two months and it’s called ‘The Surprise’ and it’s also about Olivia.”

Although she’s only 20 pages or so into book three, Najjar said she’s so thrilled at the new world that’s opened up for her. And she hopes other would-be writers, like she used to be, keep plugging away as well.

“My advice to aspiring writers is simple: never give up,” she said. “Writing can be challenging and sometimes feels discouraging, but persistence is key. Keep writing, keep learning and keep believing in your story — because every voice deserves to be heard.”

And what does she want most?

“Ultimately, what I hope is that readers truly enjoy the story,” Najjar said. “If they get lost in the mystery, connect with the characters and feel the atmosphere of the lakeside town, then I’ve done my job. It’s all about giving them a memorable experience they can escape to.”