Lauren Carr Interview





Marilyn: When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

Lauren: I have come to believe that writers are born writers. It is who we are. A writer can’t stop writing anymore than a singer can be made to stop signing in the shower. It’s too bad they haven’t made laptops waterproof so that we can write in the shower.

I remember as a child reading The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore and realized that I was rewriting the book in my mind while I was reading it. After I had finished, I set the book down and sat back and totally reworked the plot and characters in my mind. I had so much fun that it became a common thing for me to do after reading a book, watching a television show, or seeing a movie. By the time I was ten years old, I was carrying a notepad around and writing up stories on my own.

When I was twelve years old, I sent off one of my stories to a teen magazine that was holding a short story writing contest. My story was about a kidnapping mystery. A love story won. While my friends were reading books about endless undying love, I was reading and writing about murder and mayhem.

I got my first “professional” writing job my senior year in high school. (Youngsters, stop reading here.) A friend was taking creative writing while I was taking advanced composition. She had an assignment to write a short story and didn’t have a clue of where to start. By the day her story was due, she had nothing. I wrote the story (a comedy about her dog having fleas) for her in long hand in exchange for her buying my lunch. She got an “A”; I got a burger, fries, and coke; and my career was launched.

Marilyn: What gave you the idea for It’s Murder, My Son?

Lauren: I actually got the idea for the mystery from an old episode of Unsolved Mysteries about a woman who was found dead after years of claiming that she was being stalked. After reporting hundreds of incidents to the police, the investigators concluded that she was imagining it all because the victim wasn’t being totally truthful to them. She was holding something back. Even family members said she admitted that she was not telling everyone everything. What secret can be so important that she couldn’t divulge it even when she was being terrorized to death?

When I first came up with the mystery for It’s Murder, My Son, I was working on the Joshua Thornton mysteries, which I have every intention of returning to, BTW. However, the mystery was not a good fit for this single father of five living in a small town in West Virginia. It seemed to be more of a fit for a detective who was more physical and adventurous than Joshua, who is more cerebral. I realized I needed a detective not a lawyer. So I created Mac Faraday, a homicide detective that inherits a fortune and moves into high society in this first installment of the Mac Faraday mysteries, It’s Murder, My Son:

Soon after she moves to her new lakefront home in Spencer, Maryland, multi-millionaire Katrina Singleton learns that life in an exclusive community is not all good. For some unknown reason, a strange man calling himself “Pay Back” begins stalking her. When Katrina is found strangled all evidence points to her terrorist, who is nowhere to be found. Three months later the file on her murder is still open when Mac Faraday, sole heir to his unknown birth mother’s home and fortune, moves into the estate next door.

Marilyn: Where can my blog readers find your book?

Lauren: It’s Murder, My Son is currently available online at Amazon in both print and Kindle. It will soon be available in the libraries and bookstores. It will also be released soon in audio and MP3 download by Books-In-Motion. The Joshua Thornton Mysteries are also available in print, Kindle, audio and MP3 download at bookstores, libraries, or any online bookstore, including Amazon.

If your readers go to my website (http://laurencarr/webs.com) they can order autographed copies of any of my books.

They can also visit me at my blog: http://writerlaurencarr.blogspot.com/ entitled: Lauren’s World of Mystery Writing.

Lauren Carr's Bio:

Lauren Carr fell in love with mysteries when her mother read Perry Mason to her at bedtime. The first installment in the Joshua Thornton mysteries, A Small Case of Murder was named a finalist for the Independent Publisher Book Award 2005. Her second full-length book, A Reunion to Die For was released in June 2007. It’s Murder, My Son, is the first installment for her new series, The Mac Faraday Mysteries. It’s Murder, My Son is set in Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, where she and her family often vacation. She lives with her husband, son, and two dogs on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.

Lauren is a popular speaker who has made speaking appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She is also an active member of Sisters in Crime. She lives with her husband and son on a mountaintop in West Virginia. Visit Lauren at her blog: http://writerlaurencarr.blogspot.com/, or her website: http://laurencarr.webs.com/.

Marilyn: Thank you so much, Lauren, I learned a lot about you that I didn't know before.

I hope you'll come back and visit me again.

Comments

So happy to have you today, Lauren. Definitely a most interesting interview.

Marilyn
What a great story line. A true crime where the imagination of a writer brings it to a whole other level of crime and mystery.
Lauren Carr said…
Thank you, Marilyn, for letting me visit. It's great meeting you and your friends at Marilyn's Musings.
It was a pleasure to have you, Lauren. Whenever you'd like to come back, just email me.

Marilyn

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