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October, 2007
LAUREN BARATZ-LOGSTED
Connecticut-based Lauren Baratz-Logsted is the author of seven books, including The Thin Pink Line and How Nancy Drew Saved My Life. She edited the This is Chick-Lit anthology (2006), a collection of stories from 18 authors in response to the critical This is Not Chick Lit book. Before being published in 2003, she worked as a bookseller, reviewer and editor. Lauren has five more books out in 2008.
What book got you hooked on chick lit?
It's funny but even before people started calling it “chick lit,” there were always books characterized by an edgy/humorous voice and primarily written about contemporary women facing contemporary problems. So the first I fell in love with was Susan Isaacs' Compromising Positions all the way back in 1978.
What is your favourite chick lit book?
Emily Giffin's Something Borrowed. I love it that she takes a character doing an unsympathetic thing and yet shifts the mirrors in such a way that you do sympathize with her.
Who is your favourite chick lit heroine?
I'm going with the obvious, Bridget Jones, since she started the massive refocus on humorous women's fiction. If I can go historical, I'll take Elizabeth Bennet: she's so smart and she winds up with Mr Darcy.
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What does chick lit mean to you?
Contemporary stories focusing on contemporary women facing contemporary issues: Must. Be. Funny.
Describe your latest book.
In January, I'll have a new book out that I think can be characterized as Young Adult Chick-Lit. Secrets of My Suburban Life is about a high-school girl named Ren D'Arc whose novelist mother is crushed to death by a stack of Harry Potter books. In the wake of this unspeakable tragedy, Ren's father moves the family from New York to Connecticut, where Ren becomes involved in a sort-of mystery centering on an online sex predator.
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What are you working on now?
I'm working on a new Victorian suspense novel (my first was Vertigo). The new one is called The Twin's Daughter and is about a 10-year-old girl who learns that her beautiful and wealthy society mother has an identical twin . . . who was raised in the workhouse. I'm also developing, in conjunction with my novelist husband Greg Logsted and our seven-year-old daughter Jackie, a series of books for young readers called The Sisters Eight, the first two of which will come out from Houghton Mifflin in fall 2008. Oh, and my next adult Chick Lit novel will be out at that time too: Baby Needs a New Pair of Choos from RDI.
What are you reading now?
Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes. I didn't start out as a fan but I've come to realize that she is a champion at masterful plotting and making readers think about important issues while being entertained.
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Tell us about how you created the character of Jane Taylor, from The Thin Pink Line and Crossing the Line.
I'd been trying to get published since 1994 and had already written five other books. Then, in 1999, after nearly 10 married years of thinking I'd never be pregnant - poof! - I was pregnant. While home sick the first few months, the thought occurred to me: What if there was some slightly sociopathic woman who was making the whole thing up - the pregnancy, the complications, everything? So I sat down and started writing The Thin Pink Line, a novel about a woman who makes the whole thing up.
Has Nancy Drew ever saved your life?
HA! Gosh, wouldn't that be nice?
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You once had a goal to read 365 books in a year - what's your goal for 2008?
You mean in terms of reading? The same. Once I started, I couldn't stop. I can be compulsive that way.
What is the best lesson you have learnt from another chick lit writer?
I think it was Jennifer Crusie who I first read talking about something called The Five-Minute Rule: the idea that you can allow yourself just five minutes to wallow in the negative sides of the publishing business as bad things crop up, but then you have to get back to work.
What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started writing?
That I want to be Joyce Carol Oates + occasional comedy.
What is the toughest test you've faced as a writer?
The eight years I spent writing book after book without selling one. Those family Thanksgiving dinners can get very depressing. But since 2003 I've had seven books published, with at least five more due out in 2008 alone, so all is forgiven.
What would you be if you weren't a writer?
A politician.
What book do you wish you had written?
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
