Please share a
little about yourself, your genres, any other pen names you use.
Hi, I’m Lauren Harris,
but my closest friends call me Scribe because, once upon a time, I had neat
handwriting. (Yeah, that changed in college.) I usually write epic and
contemporary fantasy, but stepped outside my genre on EXORCISING AARON NGUYEN
to tackle paranormal. I’m also the co-creator of Pendragon Variety: A Genre
Writing Podcast, which is a set of all-female speculative fiction writers and
librarians who participate in round table discussions about writing genre
fiction. I don’t have any other pen-names, but I do voice act and narrate
audiobooks, which has been a lot of fun.
Tell us a little
about your latest or upcoming release.
EXORCISING AARON NGUYEN
is the first in a paranormal comedy series called The Millroad Academy Exorcists, which follows catholic-boarding-school student
Georgia Collins, an aspiring journalist who reluctantly solves paranormal
crimes with her ghost-whispering crush, Hiroki.
The inspiration for
Georgia came after one of my friends, the cover-model Sarah, said she was
irritated by the fact that full-figured heroines tended only to be in stories
where their weight was the obstacle. She wished there were more heroines who
got to do the same cool, kick-butt things as all the others, and just happened
to be plus-sized. I’d already come up with the idea for EAN, but I hadn’t come
up with Georgia yet. When Sarah said that, I thought: there’s my MC.
Are you a mom?
I have a cat?
If yes do you find
it hard to juggle writing and parenting?
Only when he climbs
onto my keyboard and puts his butt in my face.
Have you ever
based your book or characters on actual events or people from your own life?
Usually, no, but in
Exorcising Aaron Nguyen, I totally stole the idea of Brother Whatawaste from my
roommate. She was at her aunt’s wedding at a catholic church and her aunt said,
“There goes Brother Whatawaste.” My roommate said, “Who’s brother Whatawaste?”
Her aunt pointed out one of the monks, who was apparently Gucci-model gorgeous.
“Oh,” she said. “Brother Whatawaste.”
The thought of putting
a character like that in a catholic boarding school full of teenaged girls was
too funny to resist. I did add my own spin by making him a good ol’ boy,
though.
I rarely include
characters and events from my life wholesale, especially since I usually write
high fantasy.
Is there a theme
or message in your work that you would like readers to connect to?
One of the underlying
themes of the story is the strength that comes from friendship. I’m one of
those people that has always tried to shrug off or ignore bad things people say
about me, but the second someone insults my friend, I Hulk out.
What would your
readers be surprised to learn about you?
I don’t actually like
ghost stories. I’m such a wuss… I can’t even watch some episodes of the X-Files
or Supernatural without needing moral support. Seriously, I think I stayed
awake for three months after watching The
Sixth Sense. It’s bad, y’all.
When you’re not
writing what do you do? Do you have any hobbies or guilty pleasures?
As I said before, I do
narration for audiobooks and voice-acting...but really, I am an unabashed geek.
I play Dungeons and Dragons, I cosplay, I read a lot of speculative fiction,
and I’ve spent a shameful amount of time just coming up with worlds and
characters with my friends. I also love kayaking, geocaching, ballroom dancing,
shopping for office supplies, and podcasting.
Which romance book
or series (or other genre, if you don’t write romance) do you wish you had
written?
...is it stereotypical
to answer Harry Potter? If so, I want to be Jacqueline Carey when I grow up. If
not, Harry Potter.
If this book is
part of a series…what is the next book? Any details you can share?
This is book one of The
Millroad Academy Exorcists, a series of four novellas that follow Georgia and
her friends. The next novella is titled THE GIRL IN ACID PARK and deals with an
actual urban legend near where my parents grew up. Georgia and the other
characters are forced to deal with the backlash from the events in the first
book, and things aren’t pretty.
What is next for
you? Do you have any scheduled upcoming releases or works in progress?
Yes! My short story, The Incident of the Clockwork Mikoshi, will be appearing in the Ministry of Peculiar
Occurrences anthology Ministry Protocol: Thrilling Tales from the Ministry
of Peculiar Occurrences. The book is out in ebook format in early fall and
in a limited paperback run by Christmas.
I’ve got a whole page
dedicated to my works in progress, which are mostly fantasy novels at different
stages of revision/completion.
What book are you
reading now?
I’m in the middle of The
Iron King by Julie Kagawa and a number of non-fiction books about linguistics,
history, and personality-typing.
What is in your to
read pile?
So much. Soooo much.
The pile frightens me.
Exorcising Aaron Nguyen
Millroad Academy Exorcists novella series
Book One
Lauren Harris
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Publisher: Pendragon Press
Date of Publication: August 24, 2013
Number of pages: 107
Word Count: 23k
Cover Artist: Elyse Revelle
Book Description:
The murder of Millroad Catholic Academy's resident genius, Aaron Nguyen, shuts down student life at the boarding school in rural North Carolina...for about a week. With the resilience of youth, the student body bounces back, and the memory of murder is nothing but a streamer of caution tape fluttering in the breeze.
Unfortunately for them, Aaron's spirit has some resilience as well. Despite the priest's attempted exorcism, Aaron's ghost is soon breathing chills down the students' necks and hurling bunsen burners at nuns.
Georgia Collins doesn't give a shit about ghosts. All she wants is a story to prove her underground school news blog is more than a gossip column, closure on her one-sided relationship with her best friend Hiroki, and a vanilla latte. She wasn't expecting Aaron Nguyen's death to be anything more than a cold spot in the science hall, but since Hiroki has the curse of Spectral Sight, he is the only person who can see and speak to Aaron.
As the ghost’s demands for attention become increasingly violent, Hiroki enlists Georgia to help him investigate the crime, claiming that Aaron isn’t likely to move on until his killers are caught. Still hoping for spontaneous romantic combustion, she agrees to help bring Aaron's murderers to justice and set the vengeful spirit free...but it's not quite the close encounter she's hoping for.
About the Author:
Lauren is a fantasy writer, voice actress, and the co-creator of 2012 Parsec Finalist, Pendragon Variety Podcast for aspiring writers of genre fiction, where she is known as "Scribe."
Her voice acting can be heard on Audible.com as well as fiction podcasts such as EscapePod, The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine, and The Drabblecast B-Sides.
Though she spent three years living in Tokyo, she currently resides in a renovated tobacco shed in rural North Carolina, where she is pleased to have running water, wifi, and all her teeth.
Twitter - @Marksmaster
Blog - “Ink-Stained Scribe” - http://lscribeharris.blogspot.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/laurenbranchharris
Podcast - Pendragon Variety - A Genre Writing Podcast - www.pendragonvariety.com
1 comment:
Thank you so much for hosting me today! It was great to be interviewed on your blog. :)
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