Behind the Moments: My Influences

In honor of  the three months since A Moment’s Worth came out, for the month of October, I shall be doing a series where I reveal some background history of the novel each week.  I might include some content that may contain spoilers, so be careful when reading if you haven’t already read the book yet.  I hope you enjoy.

I have a style.  I’m very aware of that.  I’m also adept at coming up with original, creative ideas when it comes to storytelling.  I have not doubt about that.  However, like any creative person, I have my share of people whom I look to for inspiration and such; whose ideas I look into consideration and then develop it into something of my own.  For that matter, today I want to discuss who my three influences were when it came to writing A Moment’s Worth.

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A Summer of Book Promoting, Blogging, and Other Shenanigans

When I was growing up, never once had I ever been assigned to write one of those “What You Did Over Your Summer Vacation” essays.  I’ve always thought that would be such a fun assignment to do, but never once was I ever requested to do that.  However, with fall starting tomorrow and that I start my final quarter as an undergrad this coming Wednesday, I figured I take advantage of the fact that I own a blog and write my own “What I Did Over My Summer Vacation” essay, once and for all.  Besides, there’s been enough events that have taken place this past summer that definitely deserve an overview of sorts.

Best Slice of Lauren Lola! Check out her Interview here…

A few weeks ago, The Best Slice of Pie posted this amazing review of my debut novel, “A Moment’s Worth.” Now, they have their interview they did with me up online. Check it out!

TheBestSliceofPie

Tell us a little about yourself…

My name is Lauren Lola. I’m 22-years-old and I’m from the San Francisco Bay Area in California. I’m a student at California State University, East Bay where I’ll be completing my major in Communication and minor in Theatre this fall. A Moment’s Worth is my debut novel.

We were all wondering which came first, the quote at the beginning or did you write the story and then tie it in with the book.

The book came first, more specifically a chapter; that chapter being Chapter 10: More Than Stars. I originally entered that in a writing competition about two years ago, and it was around that time that I was sort of released from this creative block that I had been dealing with for quite some time by then.

Suddenly all these ideas started coming to me as I went forward with writing this…

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“Promise of Daybreak”: The Music of “A Moment’s Worth”

I listened to a lot of music while writing A Moment’s Worth.  I think that’s kind of a given in the circumstances of many people, whether they are authors or not.  Life would just be a tad bit boring- and a tad bit too quiet- without music.  I even integrated music to some degree into my novel (SPOILER ALERT for those who haven’t read it yet): There was a mentioning of the band Run River North in one chapter, and in another, I mentioned how a song by YouTube artist David Choi could be heard playing softly in the background of a boba tea cafe.  I think the means of music in structuring my novel could go even beyond that, for I recall mentioning in an earlier blog post on how I saw the novel as like an album, whereas my short story The Shadows was kind of like an EP.

Finding Bravado

Come this Tuesday and it will be three weeks since I released A Moment’s Worth.  While three weeks normally feels like a relatively lengthy period of time to me, in this case scenario, it feels like a shorter period of time than that.

Consider me being overly optimistic in thinking that things would improve drastically from the time I wrote the post the Saturday following the book’s release, but in reality, things haven’t gotten too much better- and if they are, then they’re at a progressively slow rate.  My stats on the book’s purchase history have improved only slightly, and apart from a review a man from Colorado left on Goodreads (for whom I shall remain grateful for), I haven’t gotten any reviews yet.  With that, along with other pathetically petty issues that have been occurring in my life as of lately, haven’t been relieving me of any stress at all.

So that’s why I spent today walking; all over and any place worth walking- because walking is still a down-to-earth honest action almost any human can do.  I just needed to clear the air, clear my mind, and just let go for a while.  I needed time away from advice-givers and voices in general just to let me be.

The Blog You Write After Your Novel Is Published

My feet are sore on all pressure points from standing non-stop for three and a half hours today.  I figured that in celebration of releasing A  Moment’s Worth, I should treat myself to a nice bowl of ramen at the first ever Ramen Festival in San Francisco’s Japantown.  Little did I realize how long I would wind up waiting, and I don’t remember if I genuinely liked it or not, because I was starving at that point.  The struggle was real, but the intent of the celebration was worth it.  I had published a novel.

The early morning hours of July 15th… Photo by Lauren Lola

Thoughts About Identifying As An Author

“So, we have a real live author for you guys.”

Those were the words (or a statement that was something along those lines anyway) that my editor said when she introduced me before an audience of high school juniors and seniors at the continuation school she volunteers at.  About a month ago, she had the students enrolled in the drama class put on a stage adaptation (with my permission, of course) of one of the chapters from A Moment’s Worth.  I was there in attendance, only to follow up afterwards by partaking in a three-minute Q&A session.

It’s that statement that gets to me, and maybe it even got to some of the students as well; that I was identified as an author, a real live author.  For me, that’s a weird thing to process.  The title of “author” has always sounded really pro to me; like a title given to those who are high up on a non-existing caste system.  Not to mention that while the title is often used for those who produce written content- in particular books- the general definition of an author is anyone who is the maker/creator/originator of  anything.

Thoughts About Young Adult Fiction

There was a piece that was published on the Cosmopolitan website that I stumbled across on Twitter a few weeks back that I couldn’t help but find rather interesting.  It was an opinion piece written by author John Green (yes, as in the one who wrote the much talked about, New York Times bestseller, soon-to-be-released-as-a-film novel, The Fault in Our Stars) about why many of us continue to read young adult books, even long after we grow out of our teenage years.

My Name Is Lauren… And I’m A Millennial

I’ve always been known to be an “old soul.”  I actually enjoy reading, I keep journals, I don’t like to go clubbing, I’m very selective about when I talk, I get along better with people who are older than me than people my own age, and so on.

However, I still have to be real.  I’m not as old as my mentality would show otherwise.  I’m what’s commonly referred to as a millennial.