Showcase: Pursuing the Times by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

All that popular Chick-Lit author Mercury Lauren wants is to have one of her books reviewed by the New York Times Book Review - just one - and she'll do almost anything to get it. In this contemporary romantic comedy, with a nod toward Pride and Prejudice she crosses swords and hearts with the Editor-in-Chief of the NYTBR in a madcap adventure that takes her from her home in Westport to a yoga retreat to a golf course in Florida. Will she get what she wants and will she finally be happy if she does? Only one thing's for certain: nothing will stop her from Pursuing the Times.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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.

Upon graduation, she began work at the venerable independent spacebookseller, now sadly defunct as such, Klein’s of Westport. There, she bought and sold for the better part of 11 years.

In November 1994, Lauren left the bookstore to finally take a chance on herself as a writer. Success did not happen over night. Between 1994 and May 2002 – when Red Dress Ink called with an offer to buy THE THIN PINK LINE – Lauren worked as a book reviewer, a freelance editor and writer, and a window washer, making her arguably the only woman in the world who has ever both hosted a book signing party and washed the windows of the late best-selling novelist Robert Ludlum.

Since Red Dress Ink’s call in 2002, Lauren has been kept very busy with writing more novels and checking her Amazon ranking on a daily basis. She still lives in Danbury, with her husband and daughter, where she has lived since 1991.

In addition to writing, Lauren’s daughter keeps her busy, accounting for the rest of her time.

Lauren’s favorite color is green.

Lauren’s favorite non-cat animals are penguins.

Lauren wants you to know that, however you are pronouncing her last name, you are probably pronouncing it wrong.

Q.  What inspires your writing?

A.  My daughter. In 1999, I'd been married for 10 years, during which time I never believed I'd be fortunate enough to get pregnant, and then - poof! - I was pregnant. That experience gave me the idea for what would become my first published novel, The Thin Pink Line, a dark comedy about a woman who fakes an entire pregnancy. All these years and 25 books later, my daughter is still my inspiration. She's 12 now - !!! - and I hope she will always be proud of what I do.

Q.  What is your favorite thing about being an author?

A.  Writing. :) Also, in addition to writing for adults and teens, there's The Sisters 8 series for young readers that I created with my husband and daughter; getting to work on a series with my family, coupled with the amazing response from fans, has been one of the great joys of my writing career.

Q.  What is the toughest part of being an author?

A.  The relentlessness of everything. When you finish a book, it's not over - you have to then revise, possibly sell, promote - and then you do it all over again. But I'm not complaining. :)

Q.  If you could not be author, what would you do/be?

A. Mayor of Danbury.

Q.  What would the story of your life be entitled?

A.  "Reading and Writing Until the Very End" 

Q.  What is your favorite book of all time?

A.  By a dead author: The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald; by a live author: Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Q.  Which character from ANY book are you most like?

A.  Piglet from Winnie the Pooh.

Q.  What character from all of your book are you most like?

A. Johnny Smith from The Bro-Magnet.

Q.  What is your favorite season?

A. Fall.

Q.  What inspired your book cover(s)?  Or what is your favorite book cover and why?

A. Since I had little or no control over most of my 26 book covers, I'll answer the latter. :) I love all the Sisters 8 book covers; for YA, my favorite is The Twin's Daughter, because it's so nuanced, like one of those psych evaluation pictures where two images compete; for adult, I do love the cover for Pursuing the Times - the colors are so bold, and it's fresh and different - and I did have some control over that one. :) 

Q.  Tell me something funny that happened while on a book tour or while promoting your book.

A. Once I was doing an hour of live radio in which I was to call in to the station. Workers had been power-stripping condos in my quad and prior to my interview, I went outside and asked that they not work on my unit between noon and one. There was a language barrier and what they understood me to say was, "Work on my unit between noon and one." They were very prompt in starting. Since I'm hard of hearing as it is, it meant that for the entire hour I could not hear what my interviewer was asking me, so I would just talk about random writing-related subjects for a few minutes and then stop long enough for her to ask something that to me sounded like "Mumble-mumble-mumble." I spent the whole hour in a mild state of terror, hoping that whenever I'd say "Oh, what a great question!" it wasn't in response to her telling me a family member had died.

Q.  Are you working on something new?

A.  Always! Right now I'm working on a sequel to The Bro-Magnet. It's called Isn't It Bromantic? and it's about what happens after we get our Happily Ever After.

Q.  Anything you want to say to followers of this blog or those that are just stopping by?

A. I am grateful to you.  


BUY THE BOOKS: 

-Read my review of THE BRO MANGNET

View all the books on Lauren's Amazon Page