Her debut, FIRSTS, will be published by Thomas Dunne Books/St Martin’s Press on January 5, 2016. Laurie Elizabeth Flynn writes contemporary fiction for young adults. I signed with my agent in April 2014 and got my book deal in October 2014, and I sent my first ever query letter for that NA contemporary on December 5, 2012-I still remember, because it was my dad’s birthday! So achieving my goal definitely didn’t happen overnight. I queried my first book-a NA contemporary-for close to a year before ultimately shelving it.

I started writing seriously with the goal of getting published three years ago. How long were you writing before getting a publishing contract? It’s all about the weight of a secret, and Fiona’s realization that secrets are the most valuable form of currency. It centers around Fiona, whose best friend disappears after an end-of-summer blowout party - a party at which Fiona did something that will have deeper consequences than she ever imagined. For FIRSTS, that song was “Lover I Don’t Have to Love” by Bright Eyes.Īre you writing your next book? Can you share a little about it? Or I’ll play one song on repeat and it’ll sort of become the “soundtrack” for the project I’m working on. Sometimes music is distracting, other times it’s inspiring. Although… never say never, I guess! I certainly wouldn’t mind spending another book with Mercedes in my head, or one of the other characters in the book.ĭo you require silence when writing or do you listen to music?Ī mixture of both. Is your book part of a series or a standalone?įIRSTS is a standalone. I have yet to write anything as quickly and freely as I wrote FIRSTS. That said, I’m a firm believer that every project is different. I find that I do my best work when I don’t have an outline, because I get excited for what’s coming next-sometimes I don’t even know until I’m staring at the words, and a lot of the time I can’t figure out how they even got there! I love the freedom of pantsing. When I wrote FIRSTS, all I had was the main character’s name-Mercedes-and the hook.

I consider myself a full-fledged pantser. It’s about Mercedes, a high school senior who gives her virgin classmates the opportunity to get their awkward first times over with, and all she asks in return is that they give their girlfriends the perfect first time that she never had. It was my first (pun always intended!) attempt at YA. Can you tell us a little about your book? Is it your debut novel?Ībsolutely! FIRSTS is my debut novel, but it’s the third book I’ve written.

Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn