By Lilian Rintoul
This book will take the reader on an emotional rollercoaster unlike any other, yet it took only three months for Lauren James to write.
Like the sci-fi genre? Love a romance novel with a twist? Then the Loneliest Girl in the
Universe is for you.
Lauren James
Lauren James is only 25 and she started writing her first book, The Next Together, when she was just 16. Born in 1992, she has written a total of three books so far and believes that the closest thing to real magic is quantum mechanics, as well as that no talent is pointless (although according to her, her most useless talent is juggling). She studied chemistry and physics at the University of Nottingham, graduating in 2014 and it was her love for these subjects that inspired The Loneliest Girl in the Universe.
Books by Lauren James
The Next Together
Lauren James’ first book, The Next Together, was published in September 2015. She sold the rights to the novel when she was 21, whilst she was still at university. The Next Together has been translated into five languages worldwide. To obtain a wide range of historical accuracy while describing the unique events that take place within these pages, Lauren James conducted thorough research through looking at books and documents over 100 years old.
How many times can you lose the person you love?
Katherine and Matthew are destined to be born again and again, century after century. Each time, their presence changes history for the better, and each time, they fall hopelessly in love, only to be tragically separated.
Spanning the Crimean War, the Siege of Carlisle and the near-future of 2019 and 2039 they find themselves sacrificing their lives to save the world. But why do they keep coming back? What else must they achieve before they can be left to live and love in peace?
Maybe the next together will be different...
The Last Beginning
The Last Beginning is the second book in The Next Together series and was published in October 2016.
Sixteen years ago, after a scandal that rocked the world, teenagers Katherine and Matthew vanished without a trace. Now Clove Sutcliffe is determined to find her long lost relatives. But where do you start looking for a couple who seem to have been reincarnated at every key moment in history? Who were Kate and Matt? Why were they born again and again? And who is the mysterious Ella, who keeps appearing at every turn in Clove's investigation?
For Clove, there is a mystery to solve in the past and a love to find in the future.
The Loneliest Girl in the Universe
The newest of Lauren James’ books, The Loneliest Girl in the Universe, is a sci-fi romance novel. This book will take the reader on an emotional rollercoaster unlike any other, yet it took only three months for Lauren James to write. The novel is cleverly written as a series of emails sent to and from Romy in her spaceship, The Infinity. To get the timings of these as accurate as possible, Lauren created a spreadsheet with hundreds of rows of complex mathematical equations. This is a truly mind boggling feat and shows great dedication to the accuracy of the book.
Can you fall in love with someone you’ve never met, never even spoken to – someone who is light years away?
Their only communication with each other is via email – and due to the distance between them, their messages take months to transmit across space. And yet Romy finds herself falling in love.
But what does Romy really know about J? And what do the mysterious messages which have started arriving from Earth really mean?
Sometimes, there’s something worse than being alone . . .
Lauren James: fact and fiction
The biggest influence on her writing was her mum because they always read the same books when she was little. After finishing the book, they would talk about what they thought was good and compare opinions. Otherwise she would not have reflected on a book and just moved on to another one without thinking about it.
Her advice to anyone who wants to be a writer is “ Always write about whatever weird interest you have, even if you think no-one will be interested in reading it, like if it is zombie-cats or something really dumb... Everyone has written everything before but what makes your writing unique is that you've got something weird that nobody has done. That is what is going to help you stand out to a publisher... If it is something weird that you are obsessed with then you're going to want to write [it]. You're more likely to finish the book because you are enjoying writing it. Whereas if you are trying to write a trend, to write the next Maze Runner or something, then you're not going to enjoy it as much because it's not what you're really interested in. It's what you think you should write.”
She recommends the books The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman and Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart.
She was really scared while writing The Loneliest Girl.
If she could change her name, she would change her surname to her mum’s maiden name, Barns.
She thinks that the most boring character to meet would be Mr Collins from Pride and Prejudice.
She got the idea for her next book while backpacking in Thailand.
She tries to include a mix of genres in her books.
Lauren would like to write a book about ghosts.
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