| Lauren, your upcoming novel, Very Slowly All At Once is out in January. Can you tell us a little bit about the book? The novel is the story of Mack and Hailey Evans, a couple who are just on the verge of having it all. They’ve built a big new house; they have great-if-stressful jobs and two adorable young daughters. But they’ve spent a lot of money and taken a lot of risks to get where they are, and so they’re a little distracted when they start getting cheques in the post from an anonymous company that they’ve never heard of. They each have ideas about where this money is coming from, and secrets they’re keeping from each other. The payments don’t seem like a big deal at first—no more than they’re owed, really, from Mack’s estranged father or maybe one of Hailey’s clients trying to settle a bill in an unofficial way. But the cheques keep coming, and those foolish risks they’ve taken and the secrets they’ve been keeping start to catch up with the couple when the person sending the money demands something in return. What was the inspiration for this novel? It started as wish-fulfilment: I remember getting the post one day and opening up a bill I wasn’t expecting and thinking, why can’t this be money coming TO me? But I love dark fiction, and so the flip side of this was trying to tap into that feeling that I think a lot of us get when we want things for our families and our children or even ourselves that are just a little beyond our reach—the best childcare, the best schools, activities–all the way up to a lovely house to live in that’s maybe a bigger bite off than we can chew. I thought that the panic and the stress that this over-stretching induces could make for a wild ride if taken to the extreme. The novel is really about greed and ambition, and how vulnerable wanting too much can make you, when things start to go wrong… I wanted to capture that fear that we’re all a bad decision or two away from disaster. Who was your favourite character to write? There is a first-person voice in the novel who is not a very nice person and has a very colourful past, and I loved writing from that point-of-view. But I think Mack is my favourite character; he’s just sort of carried along for a while by his wife’s ambition, but he has his own secret dreams (and vulnerabilities.) What has been the highlight of your career so far? That first text from my agent Steph Thwaites with an offer was the stuff dreams are made of! And seeing the covers, that was pretty surreal too. But I think the top highlight has been sharing this experience with my family—my children are both very creative, and to show them that you can make a living this way, that you can pull stories out of your head and turn them into something to share with other people, has just been amazing. What do you do when you’re not writing? I do a lot of teaching and mentoring for Curtis Brown Creative; I love helping other writers flesh out their novels and then think about the best way to pitch them to agents. I’m sort of surrounded by stories all of the time; it’s a dream job really. Other than that, I love an epic dog walk along the Thames with a cosy pub at the end of it! |
Very Slowly All at Once by Lauren Schott is out on the 29th January.
Pre-order your copy here.
Never lie to each other.
Never cheat on each other.
And never, ever accept free money.
Mack and Hailey Evans are on the cusp of living the American Dream. Established careers, two beautiful children, and a new house on a coveted lakefront estate.
But modern life is expensive, so the anonymous payments they start to receive are spent before they know it. Could this money be from Mack’s estranged father? Or one of Hailey’s clients? Does it really matter?
Then they discover that this mysterious benefactor expects a return on their investment. How far will the couple have to go to pay them back?
As it turns out, the best things in life are not free. And the price is far steeper than they could have imagined …