Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lauren Nossett. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Lauren, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

The first story I remember writing was in third grade when I penned (or crayon-ed?) the tale “The Specialist Key.” This was before I learned superlatives and the story was about a “most-special” key that allowed a little girl entrance into all sorts of magical worlds. Ever since, I’ve written creatively. It was my secret hobby. As a professor, I was analyzing other people’s literary works for my “day job,” while I was secretly writing my own novels. It wasn’t until the summer of 2019 that I allowed myself the permission to devote real time to my creative writing. I had an idea for a new novel the preceding winter, and I told myself that in the three months I wasn’t teaching, I could spend the morning writing it. By the end of the summer, I had written 60,000 words, or about two-thirds of that novel. About a year later, I found an agent. A year after that, she sold the novel. And a year and a half after that, it was published.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Lauren Nossett, and I’m a former professor and award-winning author of two dark academia crime novels: The Resemblance, which won the ITW Thriller Award for Best First novel, and The Professor, which comes out this November 14th.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

The Resemblance was the first novel of mine that was published, but it was the seventh I had written. I think maybe that deserves repeating for everyone out there trying to break into a new field or to have their creative work recognized: I wrote seven books before one was published. Some of the novels, I wrote and put aside; others I queried agents and couldn’t find representation. I wrote my first full-length novel at twenty-three and The Resemblance was published when I was thirty-five. This means I wrote hundreds of thousands of words and heard “no” for over a decade but kept going. Whether this is resilience or stubbornness, I’m not sure. It simply never occurred to me to stop writing. Storytelling is something I love and felt compelled to do. And now, one of my stories exists in the world, another is forthcoming, and although I can acknowledge the number of hours it took for those things to happen, it still feels a bit like magic: that these characters who existed in my head for so long now exist in others’ minds, and they talk about them and their motivations and relationships as if they’re real. It is a beautiful, humbling, and incredible thing.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I had been more intentional about seeking out other writers. I don’t have an MFA, and before I published a novel, I didn’t know many published authors. Like in many creative fields, there are multiples trajectories to success and the more people you talk with, the more you understand the industry and the different options available to you. In Nashville, there’s an incredible writers’ organization called The Porch, which offers workshops and events to meet other writers. But all across the country, there are writers’ workshops and residencies and conferences. Poets&Writers provides a pretty comprehensive list of these opportunities. The support and generosity of other authors in sharing their knowledge has been one of the biggest and best surprises of my creative journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.laurennossett@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurennossett