AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren

HAPPY RELEASE DAY!!

  
Paperback, 320 pages
Expected publication: February 12th 2013 by Gallery Books 

 

1. How did Beautiful Bastard go from being FanFiction to being published by Gallery Books (Simon & Schuster)?

The short version is that we knew publishers were interested in The Office after the success of books like Fifty Shades of Gray and Gabriel’s Inferno. If we put TO out there in book form, we wanted to make sure we could keep the feel of the original but make it something new, too. The story went through the same process as any other book on submission. We edited the original fan fiction, cutting about half of it and rewriting the entire second half. We revised – and revised some more -- and then sent to some editors at publishing houses, including Adam Wilson at Simon & Schuster / Gallery. The book was pre-empted by Gallery – whee!! Little did we know at the time that he would become our new favorite person ever.

2. How hard or easy was it to write Beautiful Bastard together?

We’ve been writing together in one form or another for over three years. We have two completed YA novels, and several others in various stages of completion – so writing BB together was actually pretty easy since it was primarily about overhauling the original version. Christina sent it to Lauren to chop up and edit, and once Lauren had revised it, she sent it to Christina for more revisions. It was different than our normal process, where we actually draft together before revising, but it worked just as smoothly!

3. How many book titles did you guys go through before settling on BEAUTIFUL BASTARD?

Just that one! And we were so relieved that Gallery wanted to keep that title, because it’s perfect and we are fairly sure we wouldn’t have been able to find another that we liked as much.

4. What can you tell us about Beautiful Stranger (release May 28, 2013) the sequel to Beautiful Bastard?

It’s also an erotic romance with many of the same characters, but the main character in STRANGER is Sara, who is one of Chloe’s best friends in BEAUTIFUL BASTARD. The stranger in question is a man she meets in Chapter 1. Shenanigans ensue. (And also lots of sex).

5. How hard or easy was it writing a sequel?

To be honest, we were both nervous when approaching the second book. We had written several things together, but we’d never had a deadline before, since BEAUTIFUL BASTARD is our first published book. We outlined STRANGER and kind of closed our eyes and crossed our fingers that we’d be able to get it done in time and that we’d love it as much as we loved BASTARD. Turns out, it was one of the most fun things we’ve ever done, we finished with plenty of time to spare, and we love it just as much as BB (if not more).

Thanks so much for having us!!