Lauren James

About Lauren James

Lauren James was born in 1992 and is the British Young Adult author of The Loneliest Girl in the Universe, The Next Together series and the upcoming The Quiet at the End of the World. She graduated in 2014 from the University of Nottingham, UK, where she studied Chemistry and Physics. She started writing during secondary school English classes, because she couldn’t stop thinking about a couple who kept falling in love throughout history. She sold the rights to the novel when she was 21, whilst she was still at university. Her books have sold over fifty thousand copies in the UK alone, and been translated into five languages worldwide. She has been described as ‘Gripping romantic sci-fi’ by the Wall Street Journal and ‘A strange, witty, compulsively unpredictable read which blows most of its new YA-suspense brethren out of the water’ by Entertainment Weekly. Her other novels include The Last Beginning, the epic conclusion to The Next Together which was named one of the best LGBT-inclusive works for kids and young adults by the Independent. The Loneliest Girl in the Universe was inspired by a Physics calculation she was assigned at university. Lauren is a passionate advocate of STEM further education, and all of her books feature female scientists in prominent roles. Her next novel, The Quiet at the End of the World, will be released in 2019, and considers the legacy and evolution of the human race into the far future. Lauren is published in the UK by Walker Books and in the US by HarperCollins. She lives in the West Midlands and is an Arts Council grant recipient. She has written articles for the Guardian, Buzzfeed and The Toast, and wrote an article for the Children’s Writers and Artist’s Yearbook 2019. She works with Writing West Midlands, providing creative writing courses to children through the Spark Young Writers programme.

Some news! I’m a big fan of writing podcasts, and I’ve been wanting to make one myself for a while. So Lucy Powrie, author of The Paper & Hearts Society and #UKYAchat creator, has teamed up with me to create Dog-Eared Pages, a new literary podcast full of book recommendations and writing advice. Specifically our chat focuses on that weird intersection between classics (Lucy’s area of expertise) and genre fiction (mine).
The first episode is coming on Monday. This time, we’re discussing The Books that Made Us – including The Princess Diaries, Ella Enchanted, North & South, Pride & Prejudice, Shirley, His Dark Materials and Nevermoor.
It’s 55 minutes long and you’ll be able to find it at soundcloud.com/dogearedpages.
New episodes will come out every two weeks. Next up: summer reads!

I’m really excited about this fun new project and if you’re a fan of podcasts too, I hope you join us both. Hopefully by the end of the episodes your book wishlist will be bursting at the seams.

When Barrington Stoke approached me about writing an accessible novella for struggling readers, I knew immediately that I wanted to write a science fiction story.

The sci-fi genre can be incredibly hard to get into for new readers. Books tend to be 500+ pages long, with lots of dense science facts and made-up terminology that’s been developed by generations of writers over the year (see: artificial gravity, terraforming, parallel universe, hive mind).

I wanted to write a more readable story that still uses all of my favourite sci-fi elements – there are hints of Binti, Jeeves & Wooster, Starfleet Academy from Star Trek, Saga, Howl’s Moving Castle and The Watchmaker of Filigree Street.

This novella is designed to be a jumping-off point to help readers explore the whole canon of sci-fi, hopefully while feeling like there might be a place for them in the genre, after all.

This is nothing like my usual science fiction novels. It’s not based in science at all. There’s not even a human in the story. It’s full of sentient volcanoes, bicycle-riding-butterflies, clockwork birds and golden gears and cogs. I hope that it feels as magical to you as it did to me, while I was writing it. And if you’ve not read much sci-fi before, I hope this encourages you to give the genre a try.

I want to write a sequel set on Dorian’s underwater planet – I have a plot already planned out, so fingers crossed I get chance to write it! Hugo and Dorian’s relationship still has a lot more story to tell.

I want to speak a bit about Barrington Stoke, and the amazing work they do. For their readable books, they work to make sure that sentence structure is chronological and easy to understand, there are plenty of dialogue markers to make the speaker obvious, and there isn’t any complicated formatting.

As an example, there’s one of the (many!) rounds of edits this book went through.

Each word was analysed carefully several times to make sure it was the best choice. At the end, it still feels like my writing voice, which is an incredible feat! I feel really lucky to have been able to work with Barrington Stoke on this

Fancast –

Hugo (voice) – Eddie Redmayne

Dorian (voice) – Jack Farthing

Ada (voice) – Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Playlist –

Campus//Vampire Weekend

Like Real People Do//Hozier

Death of a Bachelor//Panic! at the Disco

When the Party’s Over//Kina Grannis

Starlight Watchmaker RGB.jpg Wealthy students from across the galaxy come to learn at the prestigious academy where Hugo toils as a watchmaker. But he is one of the lucky ones. Many androids like him are jobless and homeless. Someone like Dorian could never understand their struggle – or so Hugo thinks when the pompous duke comes banging at his door. But when Dorian’s broken time-travel watch leads them to discover a sinister scheme, the pair must reconcile their differences if they are to find the culprit in time.

A wildly imaginative sci-fi adventure from YA star Lauren James, particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant or dyslexic readers aged 13+.

The Starlight Watchmaker is a 20,000 word novella which will be published in paperback and eBook by Barrington Stoke on 16th July 2019. Cover designed by Helen Crawford-White.

Tumblr tag | Join mailing list to be notified on release day | Writing inspirations | Read the first chapter on Wattpad

Preorder a signed paperback copy from my Etsy (comes with assorted bookmarks and postcards)

Buy a Hugo (tattooed android) pin on my Etsy

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