This seems like a very modern way of being an author-you’re not isolated writing in your ivory tower. NR: You have a very active blog community (you hold writing challenges and you even let your readers choose the titles Pandemonium and Requiem for your books). Liesel and Po illustration copyright © 2011 by Kei Acedera I transformed some of my sorrow into writing, into a story of magic restored to a gray world. I love that your daughter is now writing ghost stories-I love ghosts! The characters of Liesl and Po, and the world they inhabit, really appeared to me during a time of grief in my life. Could you tell us a bit about how these characters first appeared to you? You’ve inspired my daughter to write ghost stories now. What a brilliant book and you’re such a romantic! When Will describes how he felt the first time he saw Liesl’s face in the window-ah, that killed me. NR: My seven-year-old daughter and I are reading Liesl & Po together every night. They’re so cute!! We really have a great, strong, dynamic company. And I missed editing, which draws on different cognitive strengths than writing. I have a lot of creative energy-even writing for a couple hours every day (which is really all I can stand to do) doesn’t satisfy me. As if you didn’t have enough to do writing bestselling novels, why was it important to you to tackle developing new books by up-and-coming emerging voices as well? NR: You co-founded, with your pal Lexa Hillyer, a boutique literary development company called Paper Lantern Lit. I think this enables you to find nuances and subtleties in feeling that feel truthful to the reader. LO: First of all, thank you! Writing, for me, is all about radical empathy-you really need to think your way into your characters, to project yourself into their experiences and feel them as a “real” person would. How do you poignantly describe the intensity of this experience without making it seem clichéd? You brilliantly describe how expansive and passionate first love can feel. In Delirium, love is a contagious disease and many of the passages transport readers back to feelings about their own first love. NR: Your latest book in your Dystopian trilogy, Pandemonium is a follow-up to your literary sensation Delirium. Lauren Oliver: Eep! That is kind of an awkward question to answer, as I don’t necessarily think of myself as a “huge success.” I’m not sure I thought too much about the future when I contributed to Crush I try to focus on the process, not the outcome. Did you have any inkling at the time what a huge success you were about to become? You wrote a stunning piece called “Three Little Words” although I don’t think this title ever quite lived up to your writing. I first met you when I asked you to contribute an essay about first love to my anthology Crush. Nicki Richesin: Thank you so much for chatting with TCBR. Check out tour dates in your area to meet Lauren and buy your copy of Pandemonium before all the copies fly off the shelves. She is currently on tour to promote Pandemonium. Not one to rest on her laurels, Lauren also wrote a brilliant middle grade novel Liesl & Po. She has most recently published Pandemonium, the second installment in her Dystopian trilogy. Lauren quickly followed the triumph of her break-out novel Before I Fall with another YA sensation Delirium. She’s been writing stories since she was a five-year-old and landed her first book deal at age 25. Lauren Oliver is enormously talented yet such a humble and kind person. By Nicki Richesin, The Children’s Book Review
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