Author Interview: Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Books:

The Twin's Daugher
The Education of Bet
Crazy Beautiful
Angel's Choice
Secrets of My Suburban Life
Me, In Between

Lauren grew up in Monroe, CT, where her father owned a drugstore at which her mother was the pharmacist. She is a graduate of the University of Connecticut at Storrs, where she majored in psychology. She also has what she calls her “half-Masters” in English from Western Connecticut State University (five courses down, another five to go…someday!).

Throughout college, she worked semester breaks as a doughnut salesperson, a job that she swears gave her white lung disease from all the powdered sugar she breathed.

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Describe yourself in 5 words or less.
Short, peculiar, resilient, mother, writer.

What are your strengths and weakness in writing?
My greatest strength is that I can write in so many different styles and genres for so many different age groups. My greatest strength is also my greatest weakness - you could say I'm the writers' version of a jack of all trades but a master of none...

How did the cover of The Twin's Daughter come to be? Did you have any input on it?
Bloomsbury took so much time over it - I was very impressed! The first book cover was very different than the final and we must have gone through over 20 versions in between. I was asked for my opinion at every stage, and I'm grateful for being shown that level of respect. But this was that rare instance, perhaps because the story is so complex, that I didn't have a clear vision in my mind of what I thought the cover should look like. Good thing they did. I happen to think the final is gorgeous, and I hope readers do as well.

What was the hardest aspect of writing The Twin's Daughter?

Finishing it; and not because it was hard to write the ending, but rather because it was hard to leave Lucy and Kit behind. I'd lived with them for so long and I'm not sure I've ever loved any character I created more than I love Kit Tyler.

How are you and Lucy alike? How are you different?
The biggest similarity is that we both live very solitary lives for the most part, her being the only child in an era when "play dates" weren't exactly the norm, me being a writer. Oh, and we're both gaga over books. Our greatest difference is that she has black hair and I have red, but that's only because I dyed mine; it used to be black.

If you were to pick a theme song for The Twin's Daughter, what would it be?
The moody sountrack from the movie The Piano would work if it's available.

Any 'must-needs' while writing?

I *need* to break from work between 3 and 4pm each weekday so I can watch "General Hospital." Other than that, I'm disturbingly low-maintenance as far as writers go.

What's next for you?
My next YA should come out in fall of 2011. It's called Little Women & Me and is about a contemporary teen who discovers she has an unusual relationship to the classic novel Little Women. There will also be the next few volumes in the nine-book series The Sisters 8, which I write for young readers along with my husband and daughter. Thanks for having me!

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Thanks so much to Lauren for stopping by! I highly recommend her novels so I suggest you should run to the bookstore and by them! :)