Welcome to Live Author Chat Night with Lauren Willig!!!

Hello and welcome everyone to Live Author Chat Night with Lauren Willig!!!  Lauren is here in honor of the latest release in the Pink Carnation series, The Orchid Affair, which I recently read and enjoyed so much that I went out immediately to acquire the rest of the series!  I am ecstatic that she is here and I can't wait to see what amazing questions you all come up with!  Have fun and thanks for joining us!


Here's how Chat Night will work:

All corresponding (questions and answers) will take place in the comments section of this post.  I will start off the Chat Night with a welcome message and an opening question to get the ball rolling and then the floor is open to whomever has a question for Lauren.  

Likewise, if you have a question or comment on another question to Lauren's response just enter it into the comment box.  

For examples, please check out the past 3 live chats that were hosted at PTTP: 

Sourcebooks Summer Reading Club Book Chat Night
Live Author Chat Night with Susan Holloway Scott
Live Author Chat Night with Gillian Bagwell

ABOUT THE BOOK:

SYNOPSIS

In The Orchid Affair, Willig introduces her strongest heroine yet. Laura Grey, a veteran governess, joins the Selwick Spy School expecting to find elaborate disguises and thrilling exploits in service to the spy known as the Pink Carnation. She hardly expects her first assignment to be serving as governess for the children of Andre Jaouen, right-hand man to Bonaparte's minister of police. Jaouen and his arch rival, Gaston Delaroche, are investigating a suspected Royalist plot to unseat Bonaparte, and Laura's mission is to report any suspicious findings.

At first the job is as lively as Latin textbooks and knitting, but Laura begins to notice strange behavior from Jaouen-secret meetings and odd comings and goings. As Laura edges herself closer to her employer, she makes a shocking discovery and is surprised to learn that she has far more in common with Jaouen than she originally thought...

As their plots begin to unravel, Laura and Jaouen are forced on the run with the children, and with the help of the Pink Carnation they escape to the countryside, traveling as husband and wife. But Delaroche will stop at nothing to take down his nemesis. With his men hot on their trail, can Laura and Jaouen seal the fate of Europe before it's too late? 

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If you have any questions during the event you can either email me or simply ask the question in the comment box and I will get back to you quickly with a response.

If you run into any issues while Chat Night is in progress you can always email me at passagestothepast@gmail.com directly during the Chat or instant message me on Google Chat and I will get back to you ASAP.

Thanks everyone and I hope you have a great time!  A big thanks to Lauren for hanging out with us tonight!


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131 comments:

  1. Hello all! I am so glad you could make it tonight to the Live Author Chat Night with Lauren Willig!

    And a welcome to you Lauren and thanks for being on Passages to the Past!

    I'd like to start the evening off by asking you about your writing influences. What author(s) have inspired you through the years?

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  2. Hello Amy and Lauren...happy to join in as always ;)

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  3. Good evening Roberta! Happy to have you here as always sunshine!

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  4. Hi to Amy and Lauren!

    I'd love to know which book Lauren could read over and over again and if she has a favourite from her OWN books.

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  5. Hi, Amy! Thanks so much for having me here. I love this whole "book tour without leaving my apartment" idea.

    There are so many authors to whom I owe a huge debt. My initial inspiration with regard to historical fiction was E.L. Konigsburg, who wrote "A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver", about Eleanor of Aquitaine. It's a brilliant mix of humor and history. I was given that at six, and absolutely hooked.

    Other big influences were Elizabeth Peters (for her humor), L.M. Montgomery (her brilliant knowledge of human nature), Karleen Koen and M.M. Kaye (living, breathing depictions of a historical world), Dumas and Sabatini (swashbuckling), and Judith McNaught (tear jerking historical romance). Oh, and, of course, Georgette Heyer. I could go on and on....

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  6. Yay Lizzy finally made it to one of your chat nights. I am so happy to finally be here. Hello Amy and Lauren.

    I would love to ask Lauren: Which novel was your most favorite to write?

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  7. Hi, Virginie! There are lots of books I read over and over... but at the top of that list is "Gone With the Wind". I find something new every time I read it.

    Of my own books... despite feeling all warm and fuzzy about "Mistletoe" (I love Turnip!), I might have to go with "Crimson Rose".

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  8. I'm a total newbie to the Pink Carnation series so bare with me if I ask a "dumb" question...SO is the "spy organization" based a a real entity or is it something that you conspired Lauren?

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  9. Hi Lauren, Amy and everybody...how did you come up with the idea for this wonderful series?

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  10. Hi, Lizzy! For my favorite book to write... definitely the first one, "The Secret History of the Pink Carnation". I think the difference is that I was writing it purely for my own amusement (and that of a select group of friends), so there were no deadlines, no expectations, and no anxieties attached to it. It was pure fun.

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  11. Figures Lauren that is the one I have been most drawn to because the cover art it to die for. Thank you Lauren.

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  12. A big hello to you all! I am thrilled you made it!

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  13. Lauren if you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring writer what would it be?

    Man I am so sad I missed the last ones of these Amy they rock!

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  14. Gone With the Wind is my all time favorite...love a STRONG woman who is not ashamed of being a woman and using her feminine ways ;)

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  15. Me too! This is my first live chat...it is so much fun! I feel like you guys are in the room with me...:)

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  16. Hi, Roberta! Welcome to the world of Pink. : )

    My spy organization is entirely my own concoction, but it does have a dual lineage: literary and historical. On the literary side, I was spoofing Baroness Orczy's demmed elusive Pimpernel and suave fictional spies everywhere. On the historical side, believe it or not, there were actually flower-named spies during the Napoleonic Wars! (How cool is that?). The difference is that they were actually French rather than English aristocrats-- even though they were being bankrolled by the English government. There was a Mouron (a pimpernel), a Prime-Rose, and others.

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  17. Yeah! I love that you love it Christy and Lizzy!

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  18. Lizzy J, the funny thing is that wasn't the original cover art! There was an early "chick lit" cover, featuring Eloise, the modern heroine, that got swapped out for the historical one we know and love a couple of months before publication. Hang on a sec and I'll see if I can find a link to it for you....

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  19. Thanks Lauren for bringing me up to date...love the entire concept.

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  20. Hi, everyone who's come in! This is so fun.... I just wish I could type faster.

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  21. I love the mix of adventure, romance and humor in these books.

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  22. Lauren, what led you to choose the present day/historical dual stories, instead of straight historical?

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  23. This may be giving away too much...but what does Laura discover that she has in common with Jaouen?

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  24. Me too Christy! They are clever and entertaining with lovable and charming characters - I had such a good time when reading The Orchid Affair.

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  25. Hi, Christy! For your question as to how I came up with the idea of the series.... It was-- eeek!-- almost ten years ago, in May of 2001. I'd just taken my General Exams for my PhD in English history and was about to start work on my dissertation, on royalist conspiracies during the English Civil War. I was feeling a little burned out on footnotes and history in general, so I decided to do something to remind myself of why I love history-- i.e. write a work of swashbuckling fiction! It couldn't be in the 16th or 17th century, since that was my scholarly field and thus too much like work, so, instead, I decided to go with Napoleonic spies. Close enough to be familiar, far enough away to feel like fun.

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  26. I love them too Christy like Amy I read the first one then jumped all over the rest of them asap. I think I only need Affair of the Orchid. I love the covers because they are so unique and they stay the same style with each book release.

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  27. Intrigue is afterall the best aphrodesiac ;)

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  28. How cool is that? Thanks Lauren! I am so glad your jaunt into Napoleonic France has created so much fun for all of us...

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  29. Hi everyone. I'm joining in from CA. (I'm still at work, with this window open next to the project I'm working on, lol... but shh, that's a secret!)

    I'm a big fan of yours, Lauren! I'm interested to see all the questions and chatting, and I'll try to chime in when I think of a question too.

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  30. Hi, Lauren!!! Congratulations on the new release!!! (I'm still laughing over "Mistletoe"!)

    Did you get any editoral goff about setting the novel in France? This series has had such commercial success, do you more or less have carte blanche to set a novel where you'd like?

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  31. We'll TRY to keep it down Jessica...lol

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  32. Hi, Elizabeth! Actually, your question about the dual storyline ties right in to my last answer about starting the series in grad school. I wrote a fair chunk of Pink I while living in London for dissertation research purposes. It was the height of the chick lit craze in England, so I read a ton of British chick lit-- I would sit there at lunch in the British Library cafeteria alternating between Melissa Nathan and Georgette Heyer in between reading 16th c manuscripts.

    Adding the modern storyline was partly a matter of getting to play with the sort of narrative I was reading, giving myself a soapbox to whine about grad school (I was egged on by my grad school friends in this!), and, also, a way to challenge the preconceptions about women then versus women now. Sometimes my modern heroine is a lot weaker than my historical ones.

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  33. You all never fail to amaze with the wonderful questions you ask!

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  34. Art imitates life! Art actually pretty much reproduces life. :)

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  35. Sometimes Lauren I think we are in some ways, weaker as modern women...that would be mainly because we have more choices for how we want to live our lives and we have the ability now to get away from situations that are bad for us...WHERE AS back in the day...they had no where to run so they were forced to percerviere and "deal with it".

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  36. Hi, Roberta! I can answer at least some of your question about what Laura has in common with Jaouen without giving anything away. : ) Funnily enough, what they have in common doesn't really have to do with the spy plot, but it does have to do with their personal backgrounds.

    While researching "Orchid", I got sucked into the pre-revolutionary art world, partly because of an exhibit on women painters of the revolution I saw while off doing research in Paris.

    Laura, even though she calls herself Laura Grey in England, is really the half-French, half-Italian daughter of a famous French sculptor and an even more famous Venetian poetess. She grew up in a crazy, Bohemian harum-scarum way with her talented but feckless parents, who were terribly disappointed when she showed no artistic aptitude.

    Jaouen's deceased wife, Julie Beniet, was a major painter, friends with David and that crowd. Laura jokes that her father would have cast her plaster and forgotten to break the mold; Jaouen tells the story of Julie giving their infant child a paintbrush and being miffed when the child chews it.

    So both Jaouen and Laura have the experience of having lived with intensely talented souls, more intent on the muse than the people around them-- and it's shaped both of them.

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  37. Roberta, I agree with you on that last comment-- despite our having obtained all sorts of legal and financial freedoms, we frequently hamstring ourselves. There was an interesting series of panels last year at the Popular Culture Association panel dealing with women in fiction, a hundred years ago, seeking freedom, while women in fiction today seek protection and shy away from the challenge of too much choice. (Sorry, that's a very broad paraphrase.)

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  38. Oh now I've come up with a question... Lauren, did you think about writing fiction before starting Pink Carnation, or did you have other plans for your PhD? And I know you went to law school, so at what point did you decide that being a writer was what you really wanted to stick with?

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  39. Thanks Lauren...I was thinking it was something like that and was so hoping they weren't somehow realated...ya know long lost cousins...lol

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  40. Roberta, that's a very incisive comment... you're absolutely right, today we can just run away, move to another city, divorce the bounder, find another job. Even a hundred years ago women didn't have these options.

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  41. Hi, Leslie! Thanks so much for visiting!

    SIDE NOTE: Everyone should read Leslie's "Becoming Marie Antoinette", under the pen name Juliet Grey, when it comes out. I highly recommend.

    Back to the question, I've been very lucky in that my publisher has largely left me alone when it comes to writing what I want to write. I think that's part of the freedom of writing within a series-- they didn't bat an eye when I set a book in India or in Ireland or, in this case, in France.

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  42. I love learning all of the background behind these books! I haven't had the chance yet to get into them, although I have the first 2 on my shelf - but I so want to!

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  43. Roberta, I agree with you. It's interesting that while things are great for women in the sense that we have more freedoms now, I do see so many amazing women in the past who just stuck through things and persevered because they had to.

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  44. So hear you Lauren...I know alot of women who get married or into relationships, just so that they DO NOT have to be responsible for their own happiness. It's a real issue in my own family and alls it did was make me "demand" my own independence and take responsibility for my life no matter who I am with.

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  45. This is a fantastic chat. Lauren, you mentioned that PINK CARNATION is your favorite book in this series. Does that make Amy your favorite heroine?

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  46. That's a great way of putting it, Elizabeth. That's part of the fascination of historical fiction for me-- working within those constraints and trying to figure out how various personality types will react when faced with those sorts of obstacles.

    It comes out very differently in different characters. Mary, in "Crimson Rose", would so have been a Harvard educated I-Banker if she were around today, but since those sorts of paths weren't open to her, she put all her energy into gaming the marriage market; Penelope, heroine of "Blood Lily", deals with societal restraint by making a scandal of herself, etc.

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  47. Some strive to be writers...I'm striving to be a better reader ;)

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  48. I love the various settings, and you do render them so richly.

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  49. SO many books...so little time...the story of my life...lol

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  50. Thanks, Christy! Actually-- splitting hairs here-- Pink was my favorite book to write, but it's definitely not my favorite book in the series. Just between us, I find Amy a little annoying. If I had to hang out with one of the heroines, it would definitely be Hen.

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  51. Okay, I've missed a questions, so I'm going to back up a bit... but these conversations are too fascinating not to jump in!

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  52. *Goes to get a sandwich while Lauren is catching up.*

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  53. Oh man Elizabeth...make me one too ;)

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  54. Eeek, Lizzy, I owe you an answer from way back at the beginning of the chat!

    My advice to aspiring writers is to: (a) Read. Read a lot. Read in lots of different genres and styles. Writers are like sponges, we suck up everything, even when we don't realize it.
    (b) Ignore conventional wisdom. Okay, so don't ignore ALL conventional wisdom. Use proper punctuation and follow submission guidelines. But DO write the book you want to be write and don't be put off by what people tell you you should write. If I'd listened to that, there would never have been Pink I, which breaks all sorts of so-called rules.

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  55. I have a favor to ask-- if I missed your question, could you repost it? It saves me scrolling back up. : )

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  56. That is really great advice for writers...

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  57. women in fiction, a hundred years ago, seeking freedom, while women in fiction today seek protection and shy away from the challenge of too much choice.

    I'm fascinated by this paradigm. Of course, the genre being fiction, the characters are avatars who represent the desire for the impossible within that society, whether it's economic or social freedom for women in the 19th c. or the notion that you can have it all with a fairytale ending and live happily ever after and a man will sweep you off your feet and take care of you, in the 21st c. Because it's a novel, the elements of fantasy and wish fulfillment come into play, regardless of the century.

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  58. I agree Christy - I think I'm saving that little piece of advice!

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  59. Life is too short to live by someone's elses rules...you go Lauren!

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  60. Jessica M asked a little earlier: "Oh now I've come up with a question... Lauren, did you think about writing fiction before starting Pink Carnation, or did you have other plans for your PhD? And I know you went to law school, so at what point did you decide that being a writer was what you really wanted to stick with?"

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  61. Reposted!

    Jessica M said...

    Oh now I've come up with a question... Lauren, did you think about writing fiction before starting Pink Carnation, or did you have other plans for your PhD? And I know you went to law school, so at what point did you decide that being a writer was what you really wanted to stick with?

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  62. Oh, thanks for catching it before me Christy! :)

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  63. Whoops! Sorry guys! I inadvertently created an echo!

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  64. Exactly Leslies...and I love the fact that now our "fantasies" can be about other things besides being rescued...freedom of fantasy...it's a good...GREAT thing ;)

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  65. It's a great question, Jessica...I'm curious to hear the answer muself. And Leslie, you are absolutely right about wish fulfillment changing from century to century...that is a really insightful truth.

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  66. *Hands Roberta a panini of swiss cheese, apricot jam and red leaf lettuce on artisanal sourdough.*

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  67. oopps...Sorry Leslie for the spelling error...fat fingers ;)

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  68. Oooh, just found one I missed-- sorry, Jessica M!

    Your question was: "Lauren, did you think about writing fiction before starting Pink Carnation, or did you have other plans for your PhD? And I know you went to law school, so at what point did you decide that being a writer was what you really wanted to stick with?"

    I was one of those annoying people who decided back in kindergarten that I was going to be a writer. (It was all about those crayon illustrations....) I sent my first manuscript, a mystery novel called "The Night the Clock Struck Death", off to a publishing company when I was nine. They sent it back. I was crushed. Crushed! Even my Dukes of Hazzard action figures and Malibu Barbie couldn't console me. But I soldiered on and produced many more manuscripts in all sorts of genres and styles and went to lots of writer camps and eventually decided, in college, that if I wanted to write historical fiction, the way to go was to become a history prof, so I could (a) be really, really accurate and (b) have long summer vacations to write fiction.

    Of course, I learned that academic history and the sort of history needed for writing fiction have very little in common and that those long vacations are meant for writing articles and doing research, etc. I also learned that the academic job market is not the easiest. So I made the switch to law school my 5th year of grad school, knowing that my chances of ever getting a book published were slim, and that my chances of getting a job as a Tudor/Stuart historian nearly as slim as that.

    Then I got my first book contract my first month at Harvard Law.

    Fate works in very strange ways. I wrote three books at Harvard Law, then went off and practiced at a large law firm for a bit while writing "Crimson Rose" and starting "Night Jasmine", then decided this whole book thing wasn't actually a fluke and finally quit to write full time.

    It's been a long, strange road....

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  69. Yummy Elizabeth...you are making my stomach growl and my mouth water...lol

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  70. I feel the love in this chat and it's a wonderful thing!

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  71. Wow ladies, this is good stuff I am so in love with seeing all of you here enjoying yourself. I must go though the kids be a calling!

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  72. Lauren, what can we look forward to in your next installment of Pink Carnation?

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  73. Do you have any ideas for different series lurking around in the back of your mind?

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  74. Can we pretend I'm pouring virtual bubbly for everyone? Pink, of course! With meringues and raspberries to go with it. (Um, speaking of fantasies and wish fulfillment....)

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  75. Wow Lauren...writing a manuscript at age nine...amazing!

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  76. It is a wonderful thing, Amy. And I'll bet those sandwiches are too...
    Lauren, I'm glad you quit to write full time...does that mean you will be starting another series in addition to this one?
    (Am I being greedy...maybe a little)

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  77. *Leaves room for champagne, meringues and raspberries.*

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  78. I dreaming about the beignets I just had this past weekend at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans...heavenly! I'll take a little powered sugar for now...please with my bubbly ;)

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  79. Did you mention anything about your Dukes of Hazzard action figures and Malibu Barbie on your Harvard Law essay? :)

    And I think it's time for you to publish "The Night the Clock Struck Death" (fabulous title, BTW) on your blog!

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  80. Eek, now I'm getting hungry over here!

    I'm with Amy and Christy, I'm curious what you have up your sleeve for us next, Lauren?

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  81. Hi, Amy! I've been posting a bit about Pink IX (yup, still a number, not a title) on the website recently. Like "Orchid", it's set entirely in France, but it mostly takes place at Malmaison, Josephine's country house, and features a New Yorker in Paris, Emma Morris Delagardie, who came over with her uncle, James Monroe, in 1794 when he was envoy to France, went to school with Josephine's daughter, Hortense, eloped with a Frenchman at the age of fifteen, and has stuck around in France ever since.

    After eleven years in France, Emma feels like she doesn't belong fully to either France or New York and she's very bewildered by the way Paris has changed around her, especially as her best friend Hortense has gone from being a normal civilian to daughter of an Emperor.

    But, in the meantime,there's a silly poet to bedevil. (The hero of Pink IX is Augustus Whittlesby.)

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  82. That is a great title! It sounds like a Nancy Drew book. I remember writing my first "book" when I was around 10 or so about a haunted mansion based on a real abandoned hotel in Sarasota. My mom had it bound and everything..I break it out when I need a good chuckle. I was so proud of it then!

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  83. Um, Leslie, I know you were joking, but.... My Harvard Law essay was about reenacting Guinivere's trial with my Barbies. Seriously.

    (My Yale undergrad admission essay was about my obsession with "Gone With the Wind".)

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  84. Ooohhh....sounds positively delicious Lauren! Can't wait! That's a great name, Augustus Whittlesby!

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  85. Ahh...Amy that sounds so sweet and I'll bet your family appreciates it...very inspiring.

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  86. Ah, I love that you used that in your Harvard law essay! I just applied this past fall and I totally wrote mine about books. And libraries. And Harry Potter, ha ha. But it worked!

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  87. You should be proud of it, Amy! Did you have the Malibu Barbie too?
    Roberta, I'm jealous...I want to go to New Orleans and eat pastry...

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  88. Yay, congrats, Jessica M! You might see my little sister there.... Too funny if you two wound up in the same section!

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  89. Gone with the Wind and Harry Potter! I love it! How fantastic is that? Congratulations, Jessica M!

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  90. Oh wow, that would be too funny if we were in the same section!

    And thanks! :)

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  91. Sounds like you had a good time Roberta! I've always wanted to go to New Orleans.

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  92. While we're on the whole Harvard Law thing, I mentioned before that I wrote three books in law school. Only two of those ("Black Tulip" and "Emerald Ring") were Pink books. The third... (drum roll!) was a satire using the plot of "Measure for Measure" set at Harvard Law. One of these days, I'd love to send that one out into the world-- although the response I usually get from publishing people is, "But no one knows Measure for Measure!"

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  93. All of you ladies are AMAZING...talking about schools and writing while in grade school! I was too busy playing with boys...lol

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  94. Congrats Jessica! What an accomplishment!

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  95. Lauren, when you wrote PINK CARNATION, did you already have a rough idea of the series arc in your head? Or did you originally envision it as a single book?

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  96. I hear ya Roberta! I was busy with a baby :-)

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  97. Harvard is the perfect setting for a modern Measure for Measure...that would be a hoot!

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  98. Amy, it was basically a Nancy Drew! Only I had twin girl detectives because I thought it one girl detective was good, two had to be better. : ) Oh, and the villain was the algebra teacher. Not like there was wish fulfillment going on there.

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  99. Roberta & Amy, it sounds like having kids is multiple full time jobs! I'm going to have to get advice from you when I get there. : )

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  100. Heehee Lauren, that sounds like a really fun read! I hated my Algebra teacher so I can totally see that!

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  101. Ahhh Christy and Amy...New Orleans was great...haven't been to Louisiana in over 25 years and this was my first trip to the Big Easy...I'll be going back ;)

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  102. Thanks Christy & Amy! :)

    Algebra teachers most definitely make the best villains! And I agree with Christy, Harvard would make a great setting for Measure for Measure, hopefully we'll get to see it some day.

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  103. Thank you Jessica! You were a pleasure, thanks for stopping by!

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  104. Ha! Ha! Lauren...I'm waiting for grandbabies now...in the meantime I'm trying to catch up on my reading...SO keep writing them ALL!

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  105. "Lauren, when you wrote PINK CARNATION, did you already have a rough idea of the series arc in your head? Or did you originally envision it as a single book?"

    Um... I'd love to claim that I was organized and thought it all out, but I originally conceived of Pink I as a one-off. While I was writing it, it became quite clear to me that the hero's little sister and best friend were perfect for one another and really needed a book of their own-- and that the hero's second best friend, Geoff, was a romantic train wreck and really needed some help there-- but the idea that anyone would be willing to buy the first book, much less let me write more seemed like a crazy pipe dream.

    The series has pretty much developed organically, which is why it's less linear than it might have been. But once I knew it was going to be a series, I started paying attention to the larger story arc as well as the individual story arcs.

    My problem is that I'm largely character driven. An interesting character comes along and off I go--away from plan!

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  106. ARE any of your characters spin-offs of characters/persons in your real life...I know alot of villians...lol

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  107. Character driven is a good thing! I love the people who live in your novels.

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  108. Roberta, so jealous of your trip! New Orleans is such an amazing city. And very pertinent for the Pink Carnation time period. : )

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  109. Ok -- it appalls me that publishers don't know MEASURE FOR MEASURE. And, yes, setting it at Harvard Law would be pretty funny. I'd love to see Guinevere's trial reinacted with Barbies, though. Who stood in for Lancelot and Arthur, though? Your Dukes of Hazzard? Or did you have Medieval Ken for that? I could just see the deans reviewing your application and thinking this is Elle Woods meets Alfred Lord Tennyson.

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  110. On the whether my characters are spin-offs of people in my own life... no one's really taken directly from the flesh, but a lot of my characters are inspired by traits or tendencies I've observed in people I know. And it was a running joke when I was writing "Black Tulip" that Henrietta was really my little sister. (Although she was still quite a young 'un at the time. But she took a proprietary editorial interest in "her" book.)

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  111. We love everything French inspired and we are originally from Quebec/Montreal. One day I want to go to France/Paris soon ;)

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  112. Okay, that will wrap up this evening's festivities! Wow, this was one phenomenal chat! Excellent questions and insightful comments all around, I know I enjoyed myself immensely! Thanks to all of the readers who took time out of your busy lives to come together for the love of Lauren Willig and the Pink Carnation series! And to Lauren for her wonderful responses and the wonderful advice for aspiring authors. You were a joy to have on Passages to the Past and you are welcome back anytime! I wish you all the success in the world and keep the books comin' - we can't get enough!

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  113. It looks like the witching hour has struck! While I'd love to stay and chat longer, I'm not sure my keyboard can take it.... : )

    If there are discussions you'd like to continue or questions you still want to see answered, please stop by and visit the News page of my website or my facebook author page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Lauren-Willig/10504674644

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  114. Time to sign off...my phone is ringing and I've got stuff in the oven. THANKS so much Lauren for being such an engaging author and AMY thanks as always for hosting. Night Ladies ;)

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  115. Thanks so much for having me here, Amy, and thanks so much to everyone who stopped by! This was such fun and I just wish we could continue the conversation.

    Hugs!

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  116. Thank you, Lauren and Amy! A wonderful chat as usual!

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  117. Thanks for hosting this great chat Amy! And thanks Lauren for chatting with us! :)

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  118. Thank you Roberta for some really great questions and as always, your wonderful insight! Have a great night!

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  119. Thanks you guys! This was really great!

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  120. I'm sorry I missed the chat, but I enjoyed reading through it!

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  121. Amy - I'm so bummed I had to miss the live chat, but I had a parent/teacher meeting. It was fun to read through all the questions and comments -- Lauren is always so friendly and generous with sharing information, it's like talking to your best friend. Looks like a great time was had by all! :)

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