Laura Liddell Nolen grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where
she spent lots of time playing make-believe with her two younger brothers. They
supplemented their own stories with a steady diet of space- and
superhero-themed movies, books, and television. The daughter of a comic book
collector, she learned how to handle old comics at an early age, a skill she’s
inordinately proud of to this day.
Laura began work on her first novel, The
Ark, in 2012, following the birth of her daughter Ava, a tiny rebel and
a sweetheart on whom the novel’s main character is loosely based. Completion of
The Ark was made possible in part due to an SCBWI Work-in-Progress
Award.
Laura loves coffee, dogs, and making
lists. She has a degree in French and a license to practice law, but both are
frozen in carbonite at present. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband
and two young children, and their dog Miley, who is a very good girl.
For
More Information
- Visit Laura Liddell Nolen’s website.
- Connect with Laura on Facebook and Twitter.
- Find out more about Laura at Goodreads.
- Visit Laura’s blog.
Can you tell us what your new book, The Ark, is about?
The
Ark is about a young convict
trapped in prison on the last day of earth. With her
criminal record, she doesn’t qualify for a place on an Ark, a massive bioship designed to protect earth’s survivors
If she ever wants to redeem herself, she’ll have to
break out of prison and stow away on a space ship, a crime punishable by death.
So the closer she gets to her law-abiding family, the more of an outlaw she
becomes.
Do you tend to base
your characters on real people or are they totally from your imagination?
They are from my imagination. Someone once told me that you
develop a character by the choices s/he makes. I think that’s good advice for
writers. The choices my characters make are based on circumstances unique to
the story. You don’t confront a lot of space pirates in real life! That being
said, I try to make their emotional reactions both relatable and realistic.
Physically, about half of my characters are based on actors,
and the other half are people I’ve known. But I won’t say which people! A tiny
number are faces I made up.
Are you consciously
aware of the plot before you begin a novel or do you discover it as you write?
I outine so. much. I have outlines for my outlines. The
story doesn’t always follow the outline, so I end up revising them constantly.
The times I’ve stepped off-script have been some of my favorite moments in the
books, though.
Have you suffered from writer’s block and what do you do
to get back on track?
Yes and I have NOT A
CLUE how to cure it! I’ve tried everything. It seems to come and go all on its
own.
What would you do with an extra hour today if you could
do anything you wanted?
I’d go for a long
walk, preferably with a friend.
Which holiday is your favorite and why?
I mean, you get the
most chocolate at Easter, so...
If we were to meet for lunch to talk books, where would
we go?
Gosh, food and
books. The pressure!! We need a spot that can live up to that amount of
awesome. I love when people visit Houston because this city has some excellent food,
and it’s so much fun to share that with newcomers. It’s hard to go wrong here,
but Punk’s in West U has an awesome back porch.
If we were in Hattiesburg, we’d hit the deck at Branch.
What is the most pivotal point of a writer’s life?
This is a hard
question. I think writing is unique among other industries in that there is a
series of moments that really matter. Finishing your first manuscript might be
the first, then finally getting up the nerve to ask someone else to read it
might come next. Then there’s the moment you find out you’re going to be
published and the day the book comes out. I was a little nervous for my first
interview, too. It’s several crucial steps along a long path. Ugh, maybe I
should add “losing the inclination to make bad metaphors” to the list!
What kind of advice
would you give other fiction authors?
Read, write, revise,
and repeat. Keep writing- don’t give up. It’s never over until you quit.