The women behind Christina Lauren talk genre writing, fandom, and what it’s like working with your best friend.
Lauren Billings and Christina Hobbs.
Courtesy of Christina Lauren
It's an exciting time to be Christina Lauren, aka romance-writing duo Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings. The pair have come a long way since they met, and immediately clicked, at a 2009 Comic Con panel on fan fiction. This was back when fan fiction was unrelated to their day jobs (for Christina, junior high counseling; for Lauren, putting her Ph.D. in neuroscience to work), and when writing was just a hobby. It was right before they decided to collaborate on a story that was so well-received they decided, hey, maybe they were onto something — and why not give writing a book together a try?
It worked: Together they've written 10 New York Times best-selling novels, they've been translated into 28 languages, and the projects keep piling on. They recently completed a rewrite on the script for Beautiful Bastard — the novel that started it all, first appearing online as Twilight-inspired fan fiction called The Office — which sold two years ago to Constantin Film. They've got Dark Wild Night — the third book in their critically acclaimed Wild Seasons series — coming out today, and YA paranormal romance novel The House — their first to receive a Kirkus starred review — out next month.
And more: The pair have just signed a new contract with Gallery Books for three novels — two stand-alone titles (summer 2016, spring 2017), and the final book in the Beautiful series (fall 2016) — plus one e-novella, Beautiful Boss (February 2016). It's an exciting time to be Christina Lauren, yes — but maybe even more so to be their fan.
We met with Christina and Lauren — who are so in sync they really do finish each other's sentences, and so supportive they volley praise back and forth — to talk over coffee about the lessons they've learned while writing professionally, navigating the fan fiction world, and working with their best friend. Here's what they had to say:
1. If you want to work with a writing partner, you have to leave the ego at the door.
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How do you guys handle editing each other?
Lauren Billings: It's been pretty easy. I think from the beginning we've known the most important thing is for the story to be as strong as it can be, so any time Christina has criticism of something I've written, or vice versa, we both understand that it's for the better of the book.
Christina Hobbs: You can't be precious.
LB: You really can't be precious. And we just work really well together. Because she's very laid-back, and I'm very neurotic, but we need both of those things. And usually, when one of us edits, the other is like, "I knew that part wasn't working, thanks for ironing it out." There's no ego. That's the important thing. You have to really trust each other.
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