Q&A with LAUREN BARATZ LOGSTED + GIVEAWAY @LaurenBaratzL

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 independentbookseller, 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. 

1. What is the first book you remember reading by yourself as a child?

I don’t remember the exact book I first read by myself, but I can tell you the first solo reading experience I remember, which coincides with when I became a real reader. I come from a family that’s big on reading. My mother, father, older brother – each would go through books like candy. Just to remain competitive, I’d get chapter books from the library too, and then I’d run my eyes from side to side and my finger down the page, so they’d think I was doing what they were doing. I’d often get Nancy Drew books – it just seemed like the thing to do – although a lot of what I read confused me; for example, for a long time, I thought George was a boy and I couldn’t figure out why he had on dresses in the sketch pictures. But then one time, I was sprawled on the couch reading Nancy Drew: The Passage to Larkspur Lane when it occurred to me that I was no longer faking it; rather, I was reading it and it was really good.

2. What are you reading right now?

Eve and Adam, a YA novel by Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant – it’s really fun so far; The Keeper of Lost Causes, a gritty Scandinavian mystery by Jussi Alder-Olsen; and for nonfiction, I’m plugging away at The Presidents Club by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy.

3. How does your garden grow?

With no help from me, I’m afraid. My husband buys stuff, either plants or seeds, and then puts it in the ground around the bench I take my writing breaks on. Things grow and then insects start to visit me.

4. What is the last thing you Googled?

English Mastiffs, five minutes ago – research for the sequel to The Bro-Magnet.

5. What makes you cringe?

Big hairy spiders. I once read that the top three fears, in order, are: public speaking, death, and spiders. I’ve done plenty of public speaking – as you can see, ask me a question and it’s tough to shut me up – and I’ve never felt particularly scared of death. But I’m determined to hold on to my screaming fear of big hairy spiders, so don’t send me to a therapist to try to analyze it out of me. Everyone needs to be scared of one thing.