Interview with Christina Lauren

Our Book Of The Month Author!

We are back with another incredible author interview with the ladies behind this month’s Ashley Brooke Book Club selection, The Unhoneymooners!

Have no fear, if you haven’t finished the book or scooped up a copy yet we made sure there are no spoilers in this one. So feel free to read without anxiety, but seriously, you’ve got to pick this one up ASAP! 😉

I love this interview for many reasons, but what I love most is that Christina Lauren is actually a best-friend writing duo (Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings)! So interviewing them was so much fun. Can you imagine writing best selling novels with your BFF?!… I know, me neither!

So without further ado….

Lightning Round Q&A:

What are you reading right now?

CHRISTINA: Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine

LO: How to Not Die Alone by Richard Roper

What was your last Amazon purchase?

CHRISTINA: Hot tub chemicals.

LO: Dance tights for my daughter

Wow, we are so glamorous.

What’s your Starbucks order?

CHRISTINA: Venti Iced Coffee w/room. No sugar, no fun.

LO: Venti latte

What is your guilty pleasure?

CHRISTINA: I don’t think anything should be called a guilty pleasure. If it makes you happy and doesn’t hurt anyone/thing go for it. Mine would be BTS.

LO: Agree re: guilt. Life was so insane at the end of the school year, so right now I really relish being able to lounge a bit, watching Fleabag or Luther

Who is your favorite celebrity or fictional character?

CHRISTINA: haha BTS

LO: I don’t know if I have a favorite celebrity. But fictional character . . . I think right now it’d be the entire Rose family from Schitt’s Creek?

What is your current online obsession (website, Instagram account, etc.)

CHRISTINA: omg I need to diversify my hobbies—BTS

LO: I don’t really have one right now, which is nice!

What is next in your Netflix queue?

CHRISTINA: Schitt’s Creek and Fleabag

LO: Fleabag (Amazon Prime). Also Luther season 5 is out and I am so happy.

You are a writing team! How did you decide to write together under one pseudonym and how do you collaborate on manuscripts?

We came from fandom, a community that is very collaborative, so it was totally natural to say hey, want to write together? We like using one name because then everything is for Christina Lauren. There’s no ego. We outline in person, divide by chapter/POV/scene, write our sections and switch, then edit edit edit edit, and edit more.

The way that Ethan and Olive end up taking this honeymoon is hilarious! How did the idea of this setup come to be? Have either of you been a victim of food poisoning at an inopportune time?

We knew we wanted Olive & Ethan to have to go on a trip together, and the story sort of spooled out from there. There needed to be a food poisoning situation, but it had to be something that wouldn’t only last a few hours, because Ami and Dane have to know that they’re not going to make it to the honeymoon. Christina did some research and read all about ciguatera toxin—it sounds awful, and totally fit exactly what we needed.

Are you at work on your next book already? Do either of you take on projects independently of one another?

We’re doing revisions on our book that comes out in March of 2020, drafting our Fall 2020 book, and working on some secret stuff! We have a lot more going on than we did at the beginning of our career, so there are times one of us will be drafting while the other revises. Or one of us will be working on a script while the other does something else. We might do solo projects at some point, but we absolutely love working together. We don’t have any plans to change that.