Crazy Beautiful by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

CRAZY BEAUTIFUL

by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Commercial Young Adult
Houghton Mifflin
www.LaurenBaratzLogsted.com

2 Signed Copies will be given away on Friday, September 18, 2009



About the Book:

In an explosion of his own making, Lucius blew his arms off. Now he has hooks. He chose hooks because they were cheaper. He chose hooks because he wouldn’t outgrow them so quickly. He chose hooks so that everyone would know he was different, so he would scare even himself.

Then he meets Aurora. The hooks don’t scare her. They don’t keep her away. In fact, they don’t make any difference at all to her.

But to Lucius, they mean everything. They remind him of the beast he is inside. Perhaps Aurora is his Beauty, destined to set his soul free from its suffering.

Or maybe she’s just a girl who needs love just like he does.

Read our exclusive interview with Lauren Baratz-Logsted!

1) Crazy Beautiful is written from two points of view: Lucius’s and Aurora’s. Which character was easier to write and why?

Oddly enough, Lucius’s. I’d never channeled a 15-year-old boy before but once I started, his voice came through loud and clear. He’s got a very distinctive way of speaking to the reader and I have to say, even if he’s my own creation, he started getting to me on an emotional level. Aurora’s more difficult to write because she’s almost the straight man of the piece, as it were.

2) If your main character, Aurora could give one piece of advice to teen girls, what would it be?

She’d take advantage of you, piggybacking one piece of advice onto another in a compound sentence. She’d say, “Try to look past people’s surfaces, whether it be beautiful, or flawed to the person beneath; and try to be as kind as you can to others.”

3) This sounds like a very powerful story and it’s gotten tremendous reviews. Where did you get the idea?

I've always liked Beauty & the Beast best of all the Disney-fied fairy tales and, after seeing it on Broadway, concluded the reason it's so successful is that it's the only one where the male lead is more than just mere window dressing to make the female look good; if anything, he's by far the more compelling character. So I decided I wanted to do my own version, focusing on how surface values - Aurora's beauty, distinctive physical features like Lucius's hooks, even rumors - affect how others perceive and treat us, thereby affecting how we perceive and treat the world in return.

4) Your husband is a writer too. How does this affect your relationship? Is it a competitive environment or completely supportive? Do you critique each other’s work?

It’s supportive. My husband Greg Logsted and I have a writing group that meets here every Friday night. We have wine and critique each other’s work. Oh, and our nine-year-old daughter Jackie is a writer too. Together, the three of us created The Sisters 8 series for young readers, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

5) What’s up for your next? Are you working on something new?

It seems like there’s always something new going on, and don’t think I’m not grateful! I've got four new books coming out in 2010. Two more YA: The Education of Bet, due out in April, is set in the Victorian era and is about a 16-year-old girl who impersonates a boy in order to get a proper education; and The Twin's Daughter, due out in the fall and also set in the Victorian era, about a girl whose life is changed forever when she discovers that her gorgeous and wealthy mother has an identical twin who was raised in the poorhouse. The other two books are Books 5 and 6 from The Sisters 8 series for young readers that I mentioned in a previous question, the one I created with Greg and Jackie. Phew!

About the Author:

Lauren Baratz-Logsted has also written Angel’s Choice and Secrets of My Suburban Life. She lives with her family in Danbury, Connecticut. Visit her online at: www.LaurenBaratzLogsted.com

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