I would like to welcome Lauren Oliver to Novels On The Run and thank her for taking time to answer my questions. I would also like to thank her for totally braining us with Delirium and Pandemonium’s cliffhanger endings.....OMG!! * faceplant* ...then starts searching for Requiem’s countdown widget:D
Michelle: Lauren , in 10 words or less could you please describe Lauren, the author to us?
Lauren: Driven, passionate, melodramatic, silly. Likes good food and great company.
Michelle: Please describe an average day in the life of Lauren Oliver?
Lauren: There really is no such thing as an “average” day for me. When I’m in Brooklyn, I get up at 7:30 and try and get my writing done early. My days are often filled with meetings, publicity demands, gym time, and social obligations. In the evening I like to cook for friends or hang with my fiancé on the couch, and I always try and get to bed by 11 p.m. But I’m often travelling, and when I’m on tour, anything goes! Right now, for example, I’m typing this from an airport in Korea.
Michelle: What character in either Delirium or Pandemonium was the hardest for you to give a voice to and why?
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| HODDER & STOUGHTON AUSTRALIA |
Michelle: I ask a lot of authors this, I find it very interesting their responses to the music. I like to find the lyric vids and put in my interviews. Becca Fitzpatrick gave me some wonderful songs for her characters.
What song would describe : Alex & Lena's Relationship, Lena & Julian's friendship, Lena, Alex, Julian?
Lauren: Alex and Lena’s relationship
Romeo and Juliet, by Dire Straits
Lauren: Lena and Julian’s friendship
Lucky Now, by Ryan Adams
Lauren: Lena
Strong by Kelly Clarkson
Lauren: Alex
Resistance, by Muse
Lauren: Julian
So Alive, by Ryan Adams
"So Alive"
Today I watched the boats
Moving through the harbor
Walking on water
In your arms I'd stay
Forever if I could
Forever if I may
Keeps me in your thoughts, don't disappear
I am on your side
And so alive
So alive it isn't real
If this is how I feel
Then nothing now is true
And nothing now can ever be taken away from you
Sinking in the past
The things that shouldn't last
Just put to bed and stand beside me
Stand beside me
Always on your side
I'm on your side
And so alive it isn't real
I am on your side
And so alive
And so alive
And so alive
I am on your side
I am on your side
I am on your side
And so alive
So alive
Moving through the harbor
Walking on water
In your arms I'd stay
Forever if I could
Forever if I may
Keeps me in your thoughts, don't disappear
I am on your side
And so alive
So alive it isn't real
If this is how I feel
Then nothing now is true
And nothing now can ever be taken away from you
Sinking in the past
The things that shouldn't last
Just put to bed and stand beside me
Stand beside me
Always on your side
I'm on your side
And so alive it isn't real
I am on your side
And so alive
And so alive
And so alive
I am on your side
I am on your side
I am on your side
And so alive
So alive
Michelle: Both Delirium and Pandemonium are intense reads. I think Pandemonium more so. How did you ‘feel’ when you were writing Pandemonium? I was quite tense the whole time reading the book, I oftened wondered where an author goes to, to write such emotion into their writing?
Lauren: I sometimes get emotional, definitely, although I think my primary emotional state is usually one of anxiety. I worry, especially during very important scenes, that I won’t be able to translate the vision in my head to the page—that the words I find will be insufficient or won’t convey everything I want to convey. This anxiety gets aggravated the more intense the scene. Sometimes I actually have to get up and walk around and give myself a break—otherwise, I get too paralysed with anxiety to write at all!
Michelle: Now, you don’t have to answer this but I have to ask...hehe!
Do you and the publishing team have a good ol laugh at us readers before the book is released, knowing the cliffhanger at the end of the book is going to almost kill the reader. Like seriously....I just face planted my desk and watched my grey hairs sprout on my head for the next year long wait...cruel ..people!! hehe! Seriously, it is a brilliant cliffhanger to wait out. And , yes this is a question, I just tangented.
Lauren: No, I don’t laugh! I don’t take pleasure in a reader’s pain...at least, I don’t take very much pleasure in it. It’s funny, because I was so consumed with the arc of the book, and the act of writing and conceiving the trilogy as a whole, that I never stopped to think about the fact that the end of Pandemonium was such a cliffhanger! I know it seems improbable, but it didn’t really occur to me...I just knew I had to end the book that way.
Michelle: Are you able to give us a non spoiler quote from ‘Requiem’? Just a tit bit for the pain we are all feeling for a year. I don’t need to know even who said what...just an itsy bitsy.....non spoiling tit bit with a big cherry please on top.
Lauren: Sure! I’m not going to tell you who says it, though.
“I remember feeling just like that. . .torn apart by feeling, split in two, caught between loyalties and desires. That’s how the diseased world is. That’s how it was for me, before I was cured.”
Michelle: Australia, I need to ask a couple questions. You toured here recently and tried the wonderful food we have to offer. What is the weirdest or yuckiest food you have tried?
Lauren: I came directly from the Philippines before arriving in Australia. There, I tried fried pig intestine and chopped pig snout on toast. So really, no Aussie food struck me as particularly strange. I did try Vegemite, and I loved it!
We have a winner! A Vegemite lover:)
Michelle: What was the most delish Aussie food you tried and want a care pack every month delivered?
Lauren: I love Lamingtons, although I admit I’ve had them before! I didn’t actually get to try Kangaroo steak and I’m quite upset about it, so I’d love that delivered in a care package.
Michelle: What was the first thing you can remember an Australian saying to you and you just looked at them and asked them to please explain?
Lauren: Shemozzle! I had never heard that word before and now I’m obsessed with it. (The usage was: “Well, that was a bit of a shemozzle, wasn’t it?) I also got confused when someone asked me if I wanted a durry!
Michelle: What was the most delish Aussie food you tried and want a care pack every month delivered?
Lauren: I love Lamingtons, although I admit I’ve had them before! I didn’t actually get to try Kangaroo steak and I’m quite upset about it, so I’d love that delivered in a care package.
Michelle: What was the first thing you can remember an Australian saying to you and you just looked at them and asked them to please explain?
Lauren: Shemozzle! I had never heard that word before and now I’m obsessed with it. (The usage was: “Well, that was a bit of a shemozzle, wasn’t it?) I also got confused when someone asked me if I wanted a durry!
AAhhh, yes, the shemozzle....bit of a mess, bit of confusion.
Durry = cigarette, rollie
Michelle : Thank you Lauren very much for answering my questions. I hope you had a lovely , fun trip here , sounds like the Vegemite was agreeable. Like seriously, nothing like a toastie with vegemite in it, or a bacon and vegemite baguette. Just don’t spread it like you are putting cream on a pavlova..... nice and easy is the way to go.
Michelle
GIVEAWAY TIME
I HAVE 3 SIGNED 6" X 8" PRINTS
3 WINNERS
INTERNATIONAL!!!
3 WINNERS
INTERNATIONAL!!!
FOR THIS PARTICULAR GIVEAWAY I HAVE CHOSEN A COUPLE OF DIFFERENT EDITION COVERS FOR DELIRIUM SERIES. I HAVE MOST COVERS SIGNED BY LAUREN .
WITH FLASH ON
WITH FLASH OFF
THESE ARE THE EXACT PRINTS WINNERS WILL RECEIVE. IN MY MAD IMAGE EDITING SKILLS....HA! I MADE THE CORNERS ROUNDED. EACH PRINT IS REGULAR CUT CORNERS FOR FRAMING, LIKE PANDEMONIUM PRINT ( CENTRE)
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ENDS 11TH MAY 2012 MIDNIGHT
GOOD LUCK!!
Michelle
