Interview with Lauren Willig

www.laurenwillig.com

First off, thanks so much for joining us for an up-close and personal interview for TeensReadToo.com! My name is Jen, and I’ll be your server toda…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking time out of your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for your readers and fans.

Thanks so much for having me here! It’s always lovely to have an excuse to procrastinate from writing—er, I mean, have deep, literary discussions about the Craft of Creating Fiction. Um, right.

Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?

I was one of those irritating people who knew I wanted to be a writer by the time I was six years old. Before that, I had harbored the typical dreams of being a ballerina (liked the tutus, not so good at the dancing bit) or a princess (still haven’t quite given up on that one). But someone, probably one of our Lower School teachers, came up with the bright idea of having us write “books” in class one day, self-illustrated, on lined paper bound in bright construction paper covers. My story was—surprise, surprise—about a princess who runs away to be a ballerina. I can still remember the look and feel of that “book” in my hands. This is it, I thought, with a rush of certainty. This is what I’m going to do. And I have. Of course, there was a lot of drama and detour along the way….

Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?

My road to publishing began when I was nine, when I sent my first finished manuscript off to a publishing house—all three hundred hand-written pages. It was a mystery novel, grandly titled, “The Night the Clock Struck Death”, featuring twin girl detectives (as you can tell, it was inspired by a combo of Nancy Drew and Sweet Valley High). They sent it back. After sobbing among my Barbies for a bit, I picked myself back up and went back to writing. I got a subscription to Writers Digest, attended every Young Writers Workshop in a five hundred mile radius, and spent the summer of my sophomore year of college interning at a New York publishing house. I learned that anything sent directly to a publisher winds up in what’s called “the Slush Pile” and that you really don’t want to be in the Slush Pile. By the time I had another manuscript ready, in 2003 (okay, there might have been a few manuscripts in between, but we don’t need to talk about those), I found an agent and it all followed smoothly from there.

Well, sort of. There was one more strange twist. My agent sold my book to a publisher—my first month of law school. I’d pretty much given up on the idea of supporting myself through my pen, so I’d toddled off to become a lawyer, because a salary is a nice thing to have. So there I was, a first year at Harvard Law (picture Legally Blonde, but without the cute TA), with a two book contract suddenly dropped into my lap. My parents, who are both lawyers, were horrified. How could I possibly consider jeopardizing a nice, stable career for fiction? They did have at least a bit of a point. I wasn’t going to drop out of law school, but I certainly wasn’t going to turn down the chance of finally being a published writer. So I did both. Law student by day, romance novelist by night….

Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?

In the words of The Princess Bride, “Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles.…” Okay, The Temptation of the Night Jasmine doesn’t have any giants or monsters, but it does have all the rest, plus the Hellfire Club and George III. Who can resist George III, especially in one of his mad phases?

The Temptation of the Night Jasmine opens on Christmas Eve of 1803, in the midst of a holiday house party where the Dowager Duchess of Dovedale is making a last ditch attempt to marry off her shy and bookish granddaughter, Lady Charlotte. Throughout her secluded youth, Charlotte’s favorite knight in shining armor, the focus of all her adolescent daydreams, was Robert, Duke of Dovedale. When Robert returns unexpectedly from years away in India, just in time for Christmas, Charlotte is convinced that happily ever after has finally arrived. Little does Charlotte realize that Robert has an ulterior motive for returning to England—to infiltrate the infamous Hellfire club to unmask the traitor who murdered his mentor at the Battle of Assaye. As Charlotte returns to London to take up her post as Maid of Honor to Queen Charlotte, echoes from Robert’s past endanger not only their relationship but the very throne itself.

What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?

I don’t think I can isolate just one influence. My stories come from years of over-exposure to old-fashioned swashbucklers, the sort where the hero can expertly dispatch a villain one moment and compose an impromptu sonnet to the heroine the next—all while looking terribly dashing in knee breeches, of course. I grew up on The Three Musketeers and Zorro, on old Errol Flynn movies and Victoria Holt novels, all of which provided a vibrant imaginary landscape for deeds of daring-do.

Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!

My family is, to say the least, eccentric, which may be why my books have so many crazily eccentric characters in them. My father is a lapsed historian, which means I grew up with bedtime stories about Eleanor of Aquitaine rather than Peter Rabbit. My mother has a PhD in Japanese language and literature, which means that I spoke Japanese at home until the people at nursery school complained that I was speaking gibberish and hinted darkly at developmental problems. We switched back to English after that. I also have two younger siblings who are characters in their own right. I’d tell stories about them, but they would sic My Size Barbie on me next time we’re all home for the holidays (there’s an ancient—and naked—My Size Barbie doll that occasionally appears to terrorize the household, hanging upside down from the shower rail, perched next to one’s bed… you get the idea. No one expects My Size Barbie!). That should give you some idea of what my family is like. I read once that some people treat life as a tragedy and others as comedy. We’re definitely on the comedy end of things.

Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?

Peanut butter. I know, I know, it’s such a cliché, but when I get stressed out—or stuck in the middle of a chapter—or, well, just hungry, I have a very bad habit of eating peanut butter out of the jar with a teaspoon. It has to be chunky peanut butter; creamy just doesn’t do it for me. Sometimes I actually put it on bread (peanut butter and honey sandwiches, one of the greatest inventions known to man), but by the time I’ve eaten a quarter of the jar with a spoon, getting out the bread just seems redundant.

What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?

After slamming the snooze button five times? The very first thing I do is stumble into the kitchen and put the kettle on. I am a complete caffeine junkie. If they ever invent twelve step programs for caffeine—well, I probably won’t be there, because I don’t want to give it up. My college roommates used to threaten to just run an IV from my teapot to my arm. Once I hear the reassuring sound of the kettle hissing into life, I am usually sufficiently energized to push the “on” button of my computer and skim through the email that may have accumulated overnight (usually lots of people trying to sell me Viagra—no thanks, folks). Then I flop down on the couch with my strong-enough-to-dissolve-a-spoon tea and read a novel for an hour while the caffeine penetrates my brain. I absolutely have to have my tea and novel before I can be functional. Fiction and caffeine, the two pillars of my existence.

If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise me the most?

A collection of defunct English electronics, circa 2002. Back in my grad school days, I spent a year living in London, doing dissertation research (which is why my books have a modern frame story about a grad student doing her dissertation research in England—creative, right?). During my time there, I managed to acquire the usual detritus of modern existence: CD player, hair dryer, electric tea kettle. All of these somehow made their way back to the U.S. with me, even though they have the wrong sorts of plugs for use in America. I stuck them in my closet, and there they’ve stayed, taking up space. I probably should throw them out… but they’re my relics from my England adventure. That, and about two thousand pages of largely illegible dissertation notes. Ah, memories.

Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know: If you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?

Pink! And not just because my books are the Pink Carnation series (although it does make a good excuse to plug the title—yes, all, that’s the Pink Carnation series, available at a bookstore near you). I love the versatility of pink. There’s pale pink for those quiet, peaceful moments; hot pink for when you’re feeling bold; a deep rose pink for romance; and every possible shade in between. I like to think that the shadings of the color pink reflect the spectrum of my personality, since none of us is ever entirely one color cube. We’re like those color cards at the hardware store, shifting in gradual permutations from one shade to another, all manifestations of the same color but in different form. Okay, Deep Thoughts over now.

Who is your favorite cartoon character?

I love the show “Family Guy”, which has the same sort of off-beat humor I try to sneak into my books. Of those characters, my favorite would have to be Stewie, the evil baby, constantly scheming to take over the world.

Which cartoon character is most like you?

Belle from Beauty and the Beast, since she’s the bookish heroine who bases everything off the plots of her favorite novels—and goes around babbling to people about them. I love that bit where she’s singing about her favorite book, letting everyone know the plot, whether they want to or not, because, clearly, who could possibly fail to be equally thrilled by the fact that here’s where the Princess meets Prince Charming but won’t discover that it’s him till Chapter Three? Yep, that would be me.

If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history, where and when would it be—and why?

Eighteenth century England, but about eighty years earlier than the setting of my books, in the 1710’s and 20’s. There’s a change of regime in 1714, from the Hanoverians to the Stuarts, which means that there’s lots of scheming and plotting as the Stuarts try to win back the throne. Court intrigue is one of my favorite things (along with tea and fiction, both of which became popular in England around this time). This was a time period of bawdy plays, coffee houses, satirical newsletters, the first Hellfire Clubs, Alexander Pope’s poetry, and very flattering clothing for women. I can just imagine sweeping through the halls of St. James Palace in a tightly corseted, wide-skirted dress, exchanging witty repartee and secret notes with courtiers tricked out in frock coats, swords at their sides. Beam me there, Scotty!

So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while you’re writing?

I listen to all sorts of things while I’m working, everything from the Killers, to the Go-Gos, to Broadway musicals, to Handel. I also have a fabulous twenty-year old sister, who’s been making me mix tapes for the past few years, with lots of the Weepies, Indigo Girls, and Pete & J (nice and mellow to work with). Every one of my books has had a different soundtrack. If you’re curious, I’ve posted playlists on my website of the songs that I listened to while I worked on each of the books.

Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie you saw at the theater?

I go through phases with TV shows. My absolute favorites are the British comedies that I watch again and again, like Coupling, Blackadder, and Vicar of Dibley, but I also go on the occasional American TV kick. I had a huge House thing while I was writing Night Jasmine. These days, I’m strangely fascinated by Criminal Minds and Warehouse 13. As for movies, whenever I’m stuck on a book, I go back to Persuasion, Pride & Prejudice (the Colin Firth one), Sharpe’s Rifles, with the super-fabulous Sean Bean, and, of course, The Scarlet Pimpernel, starring Anthony Andrews as that demmed elusive Pimpernel. Be still my beating heart.

You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?

Do the things you love, not the things you think you should. I had a friend in college who signed up for pre-med, because her parents wanted her to be a doctor. One problem: she didn’t really like science. She was so miserable that it became a struggle to drag her out of bed in the mornings. Then she switched to a major she actually liked, and her GPA shot up again. I’ve found that when I’m actually doing things I find interesting, I have boundless energy and patience, but when I’m slogging through something I don’t, I shut down. Of course, anything in life involves a certain amount of slogging, and there are times when we all just have to knuckle down and deal with it, but I’d say, find things you like and run with them! You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish.

One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?

More tales of nineteenth century skullduggery and romance! The next book, The Betrayal of the Blood Lily, takes us all the way across the seas to India. During the course of Night Jasmine, Charlotte’s best friend, Penelope, manages to get caught in a compromising position (Penelope has a thing about blond men and balconies). Penelope is unceremoniously packed off to India to give the scandal surrounding her hasty marriage time to die down. Little does she realize that a spy called the Marigold is also bound for Hyderabad…. The Betrayal of the Blood Lily came out in January, just a few days after Night Jasmine.

I’m also thrilled to announce The Mischief of the Mistletoe, a Christmas book set in Bath, featuring Jane Austen, a lot of Christmas puddings, and a lovable scapegrace named Turnip Fitzhugh. The Mischief of the Mistletoe debuted in October of 2010. I had tremendous fun getting to hang out with Jane Austen—if only in print.

Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!