We chat with author Lauren Myracle about Playing Well With Others, which is a delicious domestic thriller that explores neighborhood secrets, dangerous friendships, and truths too dark to be acknowledged … even to ourselves.
Hi, Lauren! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi! You bet I can! I’m the person whose friends kick under the table at fancy dinners to tell me to shut up, because when I get excited, I get EXCITED. And I have a verrrrry thin filter, if I have a filter at all. So if you’re down for mildly unhinged, I’m your gal. I love people, books, and nature, mainly in that order. No misanthrope here. Oh, and I have a dictionary app on the home screen of my phone, because I love words. In fact, I just checked misanthrope to make sure it means what I think it does. I would hate to accidentally declare myself not a miso-anthropod, someone who loves soup and tiny crustaceans.
Also, okay, fine, I live in Madison, Wisconsin. I’ve written zillions of books, most of them for young readers, and Plays Well with Others is my first ever book written for adults!!! I am so excited and so so scared at the same time!
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
When I was seven! I mean, my parents read to me since I was a wee little bean, and I’m sure I loved stories even then. I specifically remember second grade as the beginning of my I AM A BOOK LOVER era. My parents had gotten divorced. My mom had moved to Atlanta. I’d started a new school. And there I met my dear best friend, Julianne, who was utterly flabbergasted when she invited me over to her house only to have me show up at her house with a smile and a copy of Half Magic by Edward Eager. “Let the playdate begin!” I said (in seven-year-old speak). “Huh?” she said. And it was then that I realized, perhaps for the first time, that not everybody’s idea of a really good amazing time was hanging out with a buddy, sure, but also with a book.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: A Hole Is to Dig by Ruth Krauss. God, I still remember the pleasure of those tiny line drawings by Maurice Sendak. Must order a new copy of A Hole Is to Dig!
- The one that made you want to become an author: Oh good golly, what a question. I’m going to go with all of Edward Eager’s books about magic and also all of E. Nesbit’s books, also about everyday life layered with magic. I want everyday life to be layered with magic! And books…they make it so, yeah?
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Okay, we might have to throw fists here, because the ones I can’t stop thinking about also make me cry. Why do you want to make me cry?! Well, maybe not all of them. Let’s see what my brain throws out, unfiltered. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and—wild card—Rite of Passage by Alexi Panshin. Of those, only one doesn’t make me tear up just thinking of it.
Your adult debut, Plays Well with Others, is out June 10th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Gossip, playdates, secrets, revenge, redemption.
What can readers expect?
A fast-paced, character-driven story told through multiple points of view—where the children are just as vivid, complex, and unforgettable as the adults. It’s a darkly funny look at what wriggles beneath the surface of a picture-perfect neighborhood: the secrets, the shifting loyalties, and the small cruelties that spiral into something much bigger. At its heart, it’s a story about female friendship, adult blind spots, and the ways we fail the people we love—especially when we’re not looking closely enough.
Where did the inspiration for Plays Well with Others come from?
When my kids were young, my (then) husband and I moved into a “drop in” neighborhood, a neighborhood built on land that had been a horse pasture. This meant that boom, boom, boom, sixteen charming Craftsman bungalows popped up in an older and already established neighborhood. The sixteen families who moved into those bungalows were given great fuel for fast friendships: proximity and the shared experience of moving into this new neighborhood all at the same time. Throw in the scathing glances of the residents in the “less nice” houses around our little drop in strip of bungalows, and oh, what delicious drama sprang up! (For the record, I knew nothing of the horse pasture or the growly residents who lived there first! My (then) husband and I just loved the house and thought it would be a great place to raise our kids!)
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I love me a budding psychopath. I really do. So I’m going to go with Billy, who by the age of nine has become quite adept at showing one face to the kids and grownups he interacts with in public situations, but who is much sadder and crueler when his mask falls off.
What was the shift like going from writing children and YA reads to something for adults?
Well, I thought that writing for adults would be freeing. I could use whatever words I wanted! Ubiquitous! Asshole! Ubiquitous assholes! And sure, I could. (It’s more challenging than you might imagine to limit your storytelling vocabulary to the vocabulary of a ten-year-old. A fun challenge, but a challenge.) In the realm of word choice, yes, writing for adults was freeing.
Freedom to allow my adult characters to behave as adults, and not just mothers/fathers/teachers/coaches–that proved trickier. In theory, it should have been a gift, just like the ability to use any dang word I chose. In reality, this “freedom” slammed me right up against the wall I always find myself slammed against. My characters needed to do terrible things; they needed to have terrible things happen to them. But I found myself reluctant to set their house on fire. Why? Because deep down, I fear, I am a goody-goody wimp. Oh, it pains me to say so, but I didn’t want to hurt my characters. Just as writing for adults gave me wider berth with language, writing for adults gave me wider berth for inflicting pain, be it psychic, emotional, or physical. And pain, as we know, is the crucible of transformation, so I had to do it. I had to go there, if I wanted the novel to work. But sheesh, was it hard.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
Please let me preface my answer by acknowledging that among the kidlit community, we authors sometimes share loaded glances when we hear that a Big Important “Real” Author has decided to write a picture book. Or a middle grade romp. Or a young adult fantasy. “How fun it will be to dip into something light and easy!” these authors say. (Honestly, they probably don’t even come CLOSE to saying that. It’s just what we hear, because we kidlit authors are kind of the cute little mascots of the literary world. At conferences, when we introduce ourselves among a mixed crowd, we get a tolerant smile and a pat on the head before the writers of adult fiction turn back to the important work of adulting. Or so it sometimes feels.)
The point is, I imagine it’s possible that seasoned writers of fiction for adults, and of thrillers for adults, might be side-eyeing me and thinking, “Really? She thinks she can do what?” To which I would like to say: omigod, writing an adult thriller was 100% as hard as writing middle grade or young adult fiction, IF NOT HARDER. The stakes, by necessity, had to be life or death. That’s tough shit and made for rigorous plotting and replotting. No grownups could come in and save these characters because these characters were the grownups. They were in charge of dooming themselves and saving themselves simultaneously.
How did I overcome these new challenges? The way anyone overcomes challenges, ever. By digging in and doing the work. By refusing to give up.
What’s next for you?
So many things! Clown shoes and juggling classes and a return to my old job as an Elvis impersonator! Except not really. What’s really up next? Anther thriller, of course!
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?
Faves from this year: Julia Heaberlin’s Night Will Find You, Ashley Elston’s First Lie Wins, and Rufi Thorpe’s Margot’s Got Money Problems. Also The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward, because there is a talking cat.
