Lauren is one of those wonders of the writing world that makes me so grateful I have this job. She wrote me a gracious note after reading Freeze Frame, and we've kept in touch through the magic of Twitter and Facebook where Lauren keeps us updated on her prolific, and BUSY, writing career and General Hospital (and the dubious parentage of Eliz). Last year, Lauren's novel, Crazy Beautiful, a modern-day beauty and the beast ... beautifully written ... was my fantastic Thanksgiving Day read while waiting for the turkey to brown (okay, blacken. But Cajun turkey is okay, too). In fact, it was the first time I just sat down to read a novel during "work hours" since after college. And I'm so glad it was this one.
This month, Lauren is celebrating the release of The Education of Bet. Bet is a unique heroine (a little reminiscent of Yentl) who desires education more than anything, but living in the Victorian Era, she's not given such a luxury. She convinces her cousin, Will, to let her take his place and attend his boarding school, giving him the "freedom" he so desires. The education Bet receives, though, isn't the one she had in mind. And Lauren doesn't disappoint. She's true to the historical time period but makes the characters contemporary, believable, and easy to relate to. Bet, at the end of the day, is a young girl trying to find her place in the world -- a timeless story!
After visiting Lauren's Website, I came up with one irrefutable fact: Lauren is a vampire.
Alas, vampires don't exist. (Shhhh!! Don't tell. People will be crushed). So I came up with a more reasonable explanation for how many great novels (a mere FOUR this year) Lauren writes: She doesn't sleep.
So here is/are the, ahem, the question(s) ... yeah, yeah, I know ... but really, how could I just leave it to ONE ... I posed to Lauren:
Do you sleep? How do you fit General Hospital in all this? In all seriousness now, can you tell us a little bit about your writing process? (EG Do you work on one project at a time? What challenges do you find writing for different genres?)
Lauren: As you yourself are no doubt aware, that's far more than one question you're asking. But in a sense, it's all part of the same question - how do I organize my time so I can do it all? - so I'll treat it as such. I do sleep, far more than I did when I first started out writing; back then I'd rise between two-thirty and four-thirty a.m. so I could write before the rest of the world got up and I had to go to work myself at any one of the four simultaneous jobs I held so I could pay the mortgage while writing. Nowadays my schedule is far more luxurious. I start work at seven a.m. and basically work every minute until three p.m., when I turn on the TV to watch General Hospital. You see, I'm willing to give up a lot for my writing, but not everything, certainly not GH! That's eight hours a day, five days a week I'm writing: a forty-hour work week, just like any other job. I'll also write nights and weekends when a project is calling me to keep working. So, the Cliff Notes version of what I just said: Even though you write because you love to write, if you also treat it as a full-time job, putting in a full day every day, you're bound to produce a lot. People wonder how even more prolific writers like Stephen King and Nora Roberts do it. Well, that's how. They put the time in. Finally, to address your tag-on, parenthetical questions (don't think I missed those!): I will sometimes work on more than one project at a time although eventually one will win my attention over the other and I'll wind up finishing that first before going back to finish the other. It is challenging to work in several genres but in the best sense of the word: I'm being challenged as a writer! Mostly, it's simply wonderful, getting to stretch myself in different ways, always feeling like I'm working on something fresh instead of the same book over and over again. In fact, I imagine that's why I'm able to get so much done.
Even though I cheated, she answered them all!! Find out who which character in any novel she'd like to spend the day with at Angie's blog in Angieville and see what Nelaine has in store for her tomorrow.
Thanks, Lauren. And best of luck with Bet and all of your other wonderful endeavors. I can't wait to read what's next.
And check out this great article in newstimes.com about Lauren and her twenty-three published books. (That whole sleeping thing she claims she does, I'm NOT buying it.)
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