Last night, we got news that Fever by Lauren DeStefano is going to hit the New York Times bestseller list at #6!
Read on to find out more about Lauren.
1. Where do you get the inspiration for your novels from?
Simply put, inspiration is everywhere. If I stop looking for it, it shows itself.
2. Who or what has been the biggest influence on your writing?
This is truly a tough question. Since I’ve loved to tell stories for as long as can remember, I can only assume genetics are to thank for that in some way. But as I grew into my teens and early twenties and began to take writing more seriously, a few authors shattered the way I saw literature, and while they aren’t what made me a storyteller, they made me a braver one. Those authors, in no particular order, are Sidney Sheldon, Joy Kogawa, Margaret Atwood and T.S. Eliot.
3. Describe a typical day when you’re working on a novel.
I like to sleep as late as humanly possible. This is very important, because it gives me the energy I’ll need to procrastinate as late into the day as I can. Then I typically write until I start to hear the first birds of the morning. There’s a lot of snacking, thinking, and playing with the tape dispenser mixed in with all of that.
4. Which of your characters do you enjoy writing the most?
Usually it’s the antagonistic ones. One of the reasons I enjoyed writing from Rhine’s perspective was that she was meeting her husband, father-in-law and sister wives for the first time, and since she had no idea what these people were going to be like, I had no idea either. Vaughn, Linden and Cecily in particular left her with a sour first impression, and I had a lot of fun getting to know who they really were and coming to realize they weren’t what they seemed.
5. How do you research your novels?
It’s a good mix of life experience, things I was taught in school, and Google University.
Sometimes the tiniest detail sparks an internet search that leads to another thing, and another, and what takes a reader fifteen seconds to read may have taken me over an hour to research.
6. If you weren’t a writer, what would you be doing?
The way I can’t stand a blank page, I also can’t stand a blank wall. I love, love, love to decorate spaces and I’d probably have gone into that.
7. Who are your favourite authors?/What are your favourite books?
My heart will always belong to T.S. Eliot for his dreamlike poetry.
8. What made you fall in love with Science Fiction/Fantasy?
I’m in love with words. I’ll follow them wherever they take me.
9. What advice would you give to any aspiring writers?
Don’t pay too much attention to advice. I had to disregard nearly everything I was taught about writing before I could complete the first page of anything worthwhile.
10. What are you working on at the moment?
Secrets and scandals.
