Author Interview and Giveaway: Lauren Mechling discusses Dream Girl and Dream Life

I reviewed Lauren's books Dream Girl and Dream Life not long ago, and was so impressed with them, I had to get to know the writer behind the books a little better. Thus, the following interview.

In DREAM LIFE, Claire’s friend Becca gets invited to join the Blue Moons who beautify New York City. Let’s say a secret society invites YOU to become a member. What are they called and what is their undercover mission?

This is a question I've already asked myself and given much thought to, as it happens. The secret society I've been dreaming of being tapped to join is the Royal Academy of Stuff and Butternut. The mission is to secretly reward and humiliate those who are deemed deserving of our attention. Light on our feet, nearly invisible to the eye, we will scurry about like rats and make sure that the teenage girl who's being punished by her high school principal for keeping a clever blog keeps finding chocolates in her schoolbag or that the pretentious professor who makes withering remarks to his students accidentally sits in a bowl of butternut squash soup.

Butternut squash soup sounds pretty good about now. I was fascinated by the locations you chose for your books. How much of the NYC we read about in DREAM GIRL and DREAM LIFE really exists?
It's all there--the professor housing complex by the Angelika movie theater, the Green-Wood Cemetery, the Upper East Side shop with deadly-good hot chocolate, the little mews with tiny houses fit for elves or goblins. I didn't make anything up.It's just a matter of waking up and smelling the possibility. And, yes, walking away from your computer.

You know, I’ve been compiling a list of recommendations of things to do in NYC by YA authors. What are your hot tips for a first or second timer in the city?
I'd recommend going for lunch at the Angelika Kitchen, a healthy restaurant that specializes in hilariously glamorous hippies eating piles of veggies and seaweed, on 12th St and 2nd Ave. Then you can go right across the street to Momofuku Milk bar and load up on the most disgusting and delicious desserts known to mankind. I especially recommend their compost cookie. How they get that much butter and sugar into a cookie is a mystery worth a Claire book.

Okay, then I'd go uptown to the Neue Gallerie, a museum in an old mansion that specializes in early 20th c Austrian art. It's a wildly beautiful and stately place--every time I'm there, I feel like a ball is about to break out.

Then I'd call me and ask me to take you to Brooklyn to look at the crazy little mews with the goblin houses described above. You'll feel like you're in some 19th century Gothic novel, until one of the residents stomps out of his house to take out the trash and he'll be wearing shorts and a bathrobe.

I am definitely calling you up! So, I see you were a fellow Tiger Beat subscriber. What posters from that esteemed magazine made it on your wall?

The sad thing is, much as I wanted to be, I wasn't that into boys, so I was entirely undiscriminating. I'd pull out ALL the pictures: Fred Savage, Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, Kirk Cameron, 9-year-old Leo DiCaprio, anyone, and I'll stick them up. My mom thought it was horrifying and came into my room and added some shots of Al Sharpton and Rodney Dangerfield. I didn't notice for a whole week.

That is hilarious! Any more books about Claire in the pipeline? I hope so.
Oh, a girl can dream!

Thanks Lauren!

So now for the giveaway. You can choose either a copy of DREAM GIRL or a copy of DREAM LIFE if you already have DREAM GIRL. Just tell me in the comments what pictures adorned your wall as a tween and you are entered. (As you might have guessed, my walls were covered with cat posters. Sad, but true.) As always, 1 extra entry will be given to those who spread the word either via linking to the contest from your blog (sidebar is fine) or tweeting with @lenoreva (make sure you indicate this in an extra comment for it to count). This contest is US and Canada only and will close at 11:59 PM CST on February 10th.