About Laurel
I am a former magazine journalist and corporate writer. I once interviewed Julia Child about the joys of peanut butter and Betty White about her exercise routine (“I have a two-story house and a terrible memory”). Since rediscovering the joys of writing fiction, I recently completed my first novel and am at work on a collection of short stories set at Edgar Allan Poe High School. I live in New Jersey with my husband, two sons, and a tuxedo cat named Leon, who thinks sitting on my keyboard entitles him to coauthor status.
I am a novelist specializing in women’s fiction
I love reading books about women who discover hidden strength while overcoming adversity. My childhood literary heroes were Nancy Drew (wasn’t she every little girl’s?), Harriet M. Welsch from Harriet the Spy fame, and Jo March. I wanted to be as brave and adventurous as Nancy, as unsparing in my observations as Harriet, and as determined to succeed as Jo. I don’t think it’s any surprise that two of those characters were writers!
They and other heroes inspired me to write my first novel, In Search of Magic, which is in the querying stage. It’s about an up-and-coming stage magician, Patchouli Rega, whose life goes awry when her estranged sister dies, leaving her to look after her five-year-old nephew, who is autistic. The book is about navigating through unexpected parenthood, grief, and job loss, set against the backdrop of stage magic and a small-town bakery. It’s also based on my own experiences of parenting a child on the autism spectrum.