Lauren Lopes - Author

I am thanks! And you? My book is finally in edits which feels like a miracle 😂

with dreams and audiobooks, artwork and writing like overlaid scents that I can’t quite distinguish

A bouquet of creative perfume
Eau de Neurospicy

Hyperfocus, flow, dissociation and the state between sleep and wakefulness (almost a meditation) are slightly different fragrances of the same feeling

Some days I’ll slip from one to the other depending on what I’m doing, and the next day everything will be mingled in my memories,

If you want to know what it feels like to live in the confines of a wet facecloth you can visit Cape Town, idk

😂

Seriously Linda

My kettle is such a sassy little thing - as soon as I turn off the heat, it gives this little whistle of protest in what can only be described as a disgruntled squeak

Some in America do, like you, but sadly a big percentage don't

While writing music she also found time to chat to the U N about a certain system in the country she was exiled from

She was really into protecting women and making her country great again after immigrants had taken her people’s land

Without context and for no particular reason I’d like for you to learn about Miriam Makeba

Far more than a line in a viral TT song, she was a South African Grammy award winning powerhouse of a woman who held international acclaim as a singer and activist

of the country suffered under that regime?

Check yourself. Your ignorance of world affairs is showing, and maybe that’s why you’re in this mess.

If y’all want to educate yourselves about what to expect and how to handle it for the foreseeable future I’d recommend researching apartheid South Africa and ANC resistance.

And for all those using South Africa as the way to slam a certain oligarch, you know that the literal majority

That’s so real

Florence + The Machine is getting me through a dystopian perimenopause, I swear

Omg I love you 😂😂

I just thought of something. If we are willing to read and follow those little notes on plants to see where best to plant them so they thrive, why are we blaming the kids who don’t do well in a school system that’s all the same soil, sun, and watering?

You want real enemies to lovers? Me and coffee. Hear me out

It gave me heart palpitations and made me jittery. But when I had kids I needed something to stay conscious and so it was a forced proximity kind of thing

How was I to know the jitters were because I’d just found the one my heart desires?

Chat, I scheduled three meetings today so I’m putting myself in time out for that egregious error

Until the next meeting

Glad I’m not the only one 😅😭

Meanwhile I just discovered graphic audio with a full cast and my brain has definitively decided that no other option will do for my books. And I’m like with what money, buddy?

To all those freezing their booty cheeks off in the US I think Cape Town took your residual heat because wtf 😭

For someone who has time space synesthesia where my brain makes pictures of time constructs in my mind, you’d think I’d be better with maps

Isabella (my FMC) told me she had ADHD before I knew I did. I think my subconscious had been working on that and presented in a character

One person makes her feel smaller because of it and one gives her space to thrive

Without realising it, I wrote the difference between being perceived and seen

When I see or hear beautiful things, I cry. I gave that same attribute to my MMC, Brendan. This is a retelling of beauty and the beast, remember, so you see where I’m going with this…

Literary buff

I dig it

One of my favourite things when writing is to let my characters ‘speak’ to me. I’ll come up with a premise and their vibe but the characterisation is usually organic. Isabella is ADHD and averse to feeling her feelings. Brendan has PTSD and body issues.

I get to help them love all of themselves.

It’s been a long three years of ups and downs 😭

😂😂

This is why I love speaking to introvert writers. Even small talk is made interesting

Not feeling like I’m constantly about to drop into a coma from severe chronic anemia is a lovely change of pace, I must say

How’s NZ treating you? Are you guys also melting there? We have a week of temps edging to 40

(Edging hehe)
(Why am I speaking about the weather?)