Lauren Hope

As far back as memory goes, reading and writing have been a part of my life. It started with my book-loving mother, my animated sister, bringing the stories to life, but the basic love has just always been there. As much a part of me as my hair or eyes, or my sorta too big teeth.

And so it was with beginning a book. I had the idea in my head, and simply decided to write it down.

Professionally, my journey started back in 2007, when I wrote, and had my first book published within a year. (Crazy/wonderful time that you can read about starting here). Personally, it's been an ever-evolving, growing dream that's landed me here, writing my 'about' section in my little virtual home.

Early on, I was drawn to the spooky and the scary. The kid who stayed up way too late, Goosebumps clutched in hand, assured by R.L. Stine (and many other anthologies of ghostly tales), that the monster was, in fact, under my bed or right outside my window.

I loved it. Yet in the same breath, I was terrified by it and plagued with nightmares as a child. (Though I'll attribute that to my own wild and weird imagination rather than the books since my dreams were disturbingly original.) Someday, if I'm ever brave enough, I may reach back and go all Stephen Kingish and write down those old terrors (yes, I remember them in detail), but for now, I'm finding my fun in writing mysteries.

That's what I love, by the way. A good, old-fashioned whodunit. I love, love, too. So I write about that also. And people, with their goodness and badness and motivations in those choices. How the rest of us-individually and as a society-cope with each other's actions. Then I twist it all in with a good mystery.

Really though, thank you for being here. I find it gratifying, humbling, and really just plain exciting that the words in my head go to your hands and you like them. So thank you for reading, and for choosing my stories.