It gives me great pleasure to welcome Lauren Emily Whalen onto the website today. Lauren is an author of YA fiction, and a professional actor. She lives in Chicago.
Alex: Tell us a bit about yourself, Lauren.
Lauren: I grew up in a small town called Jacksonville, Illinois, and went to Catholic school from kindergarten through senior year of high school, then moved to Chicago for college and aside from a few years, have been here ever since! Other than papers and school projects, I didn’t come to writing until my late twenties, when I started a blog, began reviewing Chicago theater, and started taking fiction writing classes and working on short stories and novels. I have a day job in downtown Chicago, but I’m also a freelance writer for several outlets (you can find one of my most recent pieces here), and my first novel SATELLITE was published in 2017. I wrote a nonfiction book for teen girls called DEALING WITH DRAMA that came out in early 2021, and my novel TWO WINTERS – a queer young adult reimagining of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale – will be available everywhere September 14.
I’m also a professional actor and performer, and a very amateur aerialist – you can see photos and videos on my Instagram!
Alex: Tell us a bit about yourself, Lauren.
Lauren: I grew up in a small town called Jacksonville, Illinois, and went to Catholic school from kindergarten through senior year of high school, then moved to Chicago for college and aside from a few years, have been here ever since! Other than papers and school projects, I didn’t come to writing until my late twenties, when I started a blog, began reviewing Chicago theater, and started taking fiction writing classes and working on short stories and novels. I have a day job in downtown Chicago, but I’m also a freelance writer for several outlets (you can find one of my most recent pieces here), and my first novel SATELLITE was published in 2017. I wrote a nonfiction book for teen girls called DEALING WITH DRAMA that came out in early 2021, and my novel TWO WINTERS – a queer young adult reimagining of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale – will be available everywhere September 14.
I’m also a professional actor and performer, and a very amateur aerialist – you can see photos and videos on my Instagram!
Alex: How would you describe your writing, and are there particular themes that you like to explore?
Lauren: I’ve been told I’m a chatty person, and I think my writing definitely reflects that! I’m also very analytical (thanks, law school!), so my characters are usually the same way to some degree. Most of my writing has at least some focus on the LGBTQ+ community: not only queer characters but also queer issues. TWO WINTERS has two female protagonists that are both bisexual teenage girls, but in two different eras and environments. The book is also partially set in a Catholic high school similar to the one I attended! Catholic school is really its own hyperspecific microcosm, so writing about it for a wide audience was definitely interesting.
Alex: Are you a writer that plans a detailed synopsis or do you set out with a vague idea and let the story unfold as you write?
Lauren: A little bit of both! I don’t write out an outline or synopsis, but I make a lot of notes on characters and sketch out the basic plot. In the case of TWO WINTERS (and my next novel TAKE HER DOWN, which will be out in spring 2022), the plot was inspired by a Shakespeare play, which gave me some guidance. I definitely tend to follow the characters and try to keep an open mind—sometimes they surprise me!
Alex: Tell us about your latest novel.
Lauren: TWO WINTERS is a contemporary YA novel inspired by The Winter’s Tale, a Shakespeare play best known for a stage direction (“exit, pursued by a bear”). The Winter’s Tale came later in Shakespeare’s career and is unique, in that it starts as a tragedy and ends up as a romance with comedic elements, and it’s set in two different time periods and locations. It’s not as known as say, Romeo and Juliet, but is started to be performed more. I was in a production of The Winter’s Tale in 2018, which led me to writing TWO WINTERS.
In TWO WINTERS, we meet Paulina, who is seventeen, bisexual and in the closet, and in Catholic school in a small town in 1997. Paulina’s best friend Mia is secretly pregnant, and Paulina’s childhood pal Tesla is the baby’s father, but Mia is a very devout Catholic and doesn’t want to tell her parents. Meanwhile, Tesla is starting to suspect that Mia is involved with the new guy in school, Xander, and Paulina is in a secret relationship with Ani, a classmate who’s in denial of her own sexuality. Everything comes to a head on one tragic night.
Fast forward to 2014, where an out bi girl named Perdita lives in Chicago with her two adoptive moms and is about to turn seventeen. Perdita wants to know about her birth parents, and her mothers—who are normally very open with her—don’t want to give her any information. Meanwhile, Perdita and her moms are taking an improv comedy class (very popular in Chicago!) and Perdita connects romantically with the instructor, Fenton, who is about her age. As the two get closer to the truth of Perdita’s origins, Perdita realizes she may have to choose between the moms who love her and the chance to get real answers.
Lauren: I’ve been told I’m a chatty person, and I think my writing definitely reflects that! I’m also very analytical (thanks, law school!), so my characters are usually the same way to some degree. Most of my writing has at least some focus on the LGBTQ+ community: not only queer characters but also queer issues. TWO WINTERS has two female protagonists that are both bisexual teenage girls, but in two different eras and environments. The book is also partially set in a Catholic high school similar to the one I attended! Catholic school is really its own hyperspecific microcosm, so writing about it for a wide audience was definitely interesting.
Alex: Are you a writer that plans a detailed synopsis or do you set out with a vague idea and let the story unfold as you write?
Lauren: A little bit of both! I don’t write out an outline or synopsis, but I make a lot of notes on characters and sketch out the basic plot. In the case of TWO WINTERS (and my next novel TAKE HER DOWN, which will be out in spring 2022), the plot was inspired by a Shakespeare play, which gave me some guidance. I definitely tend to follow the characters and try to keep an open mind—sometimes they surprise me!
Alex: Tell us about your latest novel.
Lauren: TWO WINTERS is a contemporary YA novel inspired by The Winter’s Tale, a Shakespeare play best known for a stage direction (“exit, pursued by a bear”). The Winter’s Tale came later in Shakespeare’s career and is unique, in that it starts as a tragedy and ends up as a romance with comedic elements, and it’s set in two different time periods and locations. It’s not as known as say, Romeo and Juliet, but is started to be performed more. I was in a production of The Winter’s Tale in 2018, which led me to writing TWO WINTERS.
In TWO WINTERS, we meet Paulina, who is seventeen, bisexual and in the closet, and in Catholic school in a small town in 1997. Paulina’s best friend Mia is secretly pregnant, and Paulina’s childhood pal Tesla is the baby’s father, but Mia is a very devout Catholic and doesn’t want to tell her parents. Meanwhile, Tesla is starting to suspect that Mia is involved with the new guy in school, Xander, and Paulina is in a secret relationship with Ani, a classmate who’s in denial of her own sexuality. Everything comes to a head on one tragic night.
Fast forward to 2014, where an out bi girl named Perdita lives in Chicago with her two adoptive moms and is about to turn seventeen. Perdita wants to know about her birth parents, and her mothers—who are normally very open with her—don’t want to give her any information. Meanwhile, Perdita and her moms are taking an improv comedy class (very popular in Chicago!) and Perdita connects romantically with the instructor, Fenton, who is about her age. As the two get closer to the truth of Perdita’s origins, Perdita realizes she may have to choose between the moms who love her and the chance to get real answers.
Alex: What was the first book you read?
Lauren: I started reading on my own when I was four years old, so you’d have to ask my mom! The first books I ever really loved were Beverly Cleary’s Ramona Quimby series, and the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder—I started both series in first grade after my uncle bought me the books. I’ve always loved to read, and I now live near both an independent bookstore and a library. As a result, my TBR pile of books is very tall!
Alex: How much research do you do and what does it usually entail?
Lauren: It depends on the book and what the characters are interested in, and where they’re at in their lives. In the case of TWO WINTERS, I went to Catholic high school in a small town like Paulina, so that involved a lot of mining my own memories of that time. Though I now live in Chicago like Perdita, I researched clock-making and horology (the study of time) as those are subjects Perdita is passionate about.
My next book, TAKE HER DOWN, involved a lot of research on tarot, as one of the characters is into reading tarot cards, as well as different card games, as another character uses those as a coping mechanism. A lot of cards in that book! I’m always excited to learn about what makes my characters excited.
Lauren: I started reading on my own when I was four years old, so you’d have to ask my mom! The first books I ever really loved were Beverly Cleary’s Ramona Quimby series, and the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder—I started both series in first grade after my uncle bought me the books. I’ve always loved to read, and I now live near both an independent bookstore and a library. As a result, my TBR pile of books is very tall!
Alex: How much research do you do and what does it usually entail?
Lauren: It depends on the book and what the characters are interested in, and where they’re at in their lives. In the case of TWO WINTERS, I went to Catholic high school in a small town like Paulina, so that involved a lot of mining my own memories of that time. Though I now live in Chicago like Perdita, I researched clock-making and horology (the study of time) as those are subjects Perdita is passionate about.
My next book, TAKE HER DOWN, involved a lot of research on tarot, as one of the characters is into reading tarot cards, as well as different card games, as another character uses those as a coping mechanism. A lot of cards in that book! I’m always excited to learn about what makes my characters excited.
Alex: Do you ever base your characters on people you have encountered in real life?
Lauren: Short answer: yes. Long answer: it’s complicated! My first published story, which was for adults, was based on a specific experience I had, though I made sure not to use names or identifying details and because it was fiction, it wasn’t a play-by-play. The subject of the story eventually found out, and was very flattered!
In most cases, however, I may take qualities of people I know—for example, Paulina loves space and wants to work for NASA, which was partially inspired by my younger sister’s interests when she was in elementary school—but I don’t adapt the whole person, if that makes sense.
Alex: Which was the last book you read that blew you away?
Lauren: I loved MALIBU RISING by Taylor Jenkins Reid - she integrates a very specific time and place, southern California in the early 1980s, with complex family dynamics in a way that’s so compelling, I finished the book in less than 24 hours. I loved every character, even when I didn’t agree with everything they said or did, and I had to know what happened to all of them! Another novel that blew my mind recently was Joyce Maynard’s COUNT THE WAYS, which is also a complicated but beautiful family story set in New England.
Alex: How do you market your books?
Lauren: Great question! Marketing books is a constantly changing mechanism, especially since COVID-19 happened and in-person events and book festivals (which I did for my first novel, SATELLITE) were impossible for a long time. They’re starting to come back, slowly, but the Delta variant is complicating things.
In the meantime, I do what I think will have a wide reach, and what I find fun. I update my social media (I’m on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) as often as I can, guest on blogs and lend my voice to podcasts. I’m a contributor to A Piece of Pie, a queer film podcast based in Chicago, and I often talk about feminist queer films, as these themes tie into my books. I’ve also appeared on a great podcast called F*ckbois of Lit, discussing works like The Winter’s Tale, which was the inspiration for TWO WINTERS! I’m also very lucky that TWO WINTERS was featured on BuzzFeed and received a positive Kirkus review.
Alex: What are your interests aside from writing? And what do you do to unwind?
Lauren: Because I make part of my living as a writer, I don’t really qualify it as an “interest”—it’s a job I love, but it’s definitely a job! I read for fun, but also for work, as I review books for a well-known outlet. I often say the one true hobby I have is aerial arts/circus, which I’ve been doing since 2016. It’s fantastic exercise and a great way to get out of my head—sometimes I come up with new ideas in the air!
Lauren: Short answer: yes. Long answer: it’s complicated! My first published story, which was for adults, was based on a specific experience I had, though I made sure not to use names or identifying details and because it was fiction, it wasn’t a play-by-play. The subject of the story eventually found out, and was very flattered!
In most cases, however, I may take qualities of people I know—for example, Paulina loves space and wants to work for NASA, which was partially inspired by my younger sister’s interests when she was in elementary school—but I don’t adapt the whole person, if that makes sense.
Alex: Which was the last book you read that blew you away?
Lauren: I loved MALIBU RISING by Taylor Jenkins Reid - she integrates a very specific time and place, southern California in the early 1980s, with complex family dynamics in a way that’s so compelling, I finished the book in less than 24 hours. I loved every character, even when I didn’t agree with everything they said or did, and I had to know what happened to all of them! Another novel that blew my mind recently was Joyce Maynard’s COUNT THE WAYS, which is also a complicated but beautiful family story set in New England.
Alex: How do you market your books?
Lauren: Great question! Marketing books is a constantly changing mechanism, especially since COVID-19 happened and in-person events and book festivals (which I did for my first novel, SATELLITE) were impossible for a long time. They’re starting to come back, slowly, but the Delta variant is complicating things.
In the meantime, I do what I think will have a wide reach, and what I find fun. I update my social media (I’m on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) as often as I can, guest on blogs and lend my voice to podcasts. I’m a contributor to A Piece of Pie, a queer film podcast based in Chicago, and I often talk about feminist queer films, as these themes tie into my books. I’ve also appeared on a great podcast called F*ckbois of Lit, discussing works like The Winter’s Tale, which was the inspiration for TWO WINTERS! I’m also very lucky that TWO WINTERS was featured on BuzzFeed and received a positive Kirkus review.
Alex: What are your interests aside from writing? And what do you do to unwind?
Lauren: Because I make part of my living as a writer, I don’t really qualify it as an “interest”—it’s a job I love, but it’s definitely a job! I read for fun, but also for work, as I review books for a well-known outlet. I often say the one true hobby I have is aerial arts/circus, which I’ve been doing since 2016. It’s fantastic exercise and a great way to get out of my head—sometimes I come up with new ideas in the air!
Alex: Which authors do you particularly admire and why?
Lauren: Joyce Maynard, whose book COUNT THE WAYS I mentioned above, is one of the main reasons I’m a writer. She’s been a published author since she was a teenager in the late 1960s, and her voice is so honest and real. I think I’ve read all of her books, and there are a lot of them! I tend to gravitate toward authors who have strong voices and characters--Gillian Flynn is another favorite because of this, and because she builds such a strong sense of suspense in each of her books.
Alex: Thank you so much Lauren for sharing your writing journey with us. It's been fascinating to hear your take on this mysterious business of writing fiction.
Lauren: Thank you for having me over, Alex. It's been great to chat
Lauren: Joyce Maynard, whose book COUNT THE WAYS I mentioned above, is one of the main reasons I’m a writer. She’s been a published author since she was a teenager in the late 1960s, and her voice is so honest and real. I think I’ve read all of her books, and there are a lot of them! I tend to gravitate toward authors who have strong voices and characters--Gillian Flynn is another favorite because of this, and because she builds such a strong sense of suspense in each of her books.
Alex: Thank you so much Lauren for sharing your writing journey with us. It's been fascinating to hear your take on this mysterious business of writing fiction.
Lauren: Thank you for having me over, Alex. It's been great to chat
