Interview& Giveaway: The Next Together by Lauren James (Bonus an excerpt)

Series: The Next Together #1
Publisher: Walker
Release Date: September 3rd 2015

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Historial Fiction, Contemporary, Fantasy, Time Travel

Synopsis:

How many times can you lose the person you love? 

Katherine and Matthew are destined to be born again and again, century after century. Each time, their presence changes history for the better, and each time, they fall hopelessly in love, only to be tragically separated. 

Spanning the Crimean War, the Siege of Carlisle and the near-future of 2019 and 2039 they find themselves sacrificing their lives to save the world. But why do they keep coming back? What else must they achieve before they can be left to live and love in peace? 

Maybe the next together will be different...

A powerful and epic debut novel for teenagers about time-travel, fate and the timelessness of first love. The Next Together is told through a mixture of regular prose, diary entries, letters, "original" historical documents, news reports and internet articles.

PROLOGUE

The last time they were together, it was late evening and they were being followed.

“It’s happening again,” Kate said, and immediately regretted it. Matthew didn’t reply, only squeezed her hand a little tighter, following behind where she led him. She knew what it meant. They were going to die.

They ran. Kate tried to be quiet, but her breath sounded dangerously loud in the silence and as heavy as her heartbeat pounding in her ears. Matthew pressed a palm against the small of her back, urging her on.

She could hear footsteps behind them, growing faster and faster, gaining on them.
They turned a corner and ducked into a room. Matthew locked the door behind them with trembling fingers.

They stared at each other, listening for the sound of their pursuers. For a moment there was silence. They had a few minutes, but that was all. They were going to be found; it was just a matter of whether they could finish their task first.

“Next time, we’re moving somewhere hot and quiet before any of this happens,” she declared resolutely.

“I like Spain,” Matthew agreed and pulled her into one last, slightly desperate kiss.

 

A Day In The Life Of Lauren James 

I start every day by going swimming at my local gym. This gives me time to think through what I’ll be writing that day, and solve any nagging plot holes that I might have abandoned in frustration the night before (this happens more often than I care to admit).

After I’ve done a hundred lengths of front crawl, and soaked in the Jacuzzi until I’m extremely wrinkly, I’ll go home and begin work.

My desk, with a perfect inspirational view of my favourite books!

I spend a few hours answering emails and doing admin stuff. This can range from discussing editorial notes or marketing tactics with my editor and agent, or replying to tumblr asks and writing blog posts.

Surprisingly, a lot more of an author’s time is spent doing things other than writing – something I never realised until I became a writer. I’m lucky that most of my work can be done from home, but about once a fortnight I’ll go down to London on the train for a meeting or event in person. I was recently on a panel discussing Diversity in YA at a conference, which was a lot of fun.

I’m learning to drive at the minute, so then I might have a driving lesson in the afternoon. I’m working on navigating islands at the minute (I’m not very good at it yet!).

When I get home, I’ll finally start writing. I only start writing properly in the evening, because there are too many distractions during the day! I’ll crank up my playlist for the book I’m writing (by the time the book is finished it will usually have reached over 100 plays on iTunes), chew some gum and get started.

After I’ve procrastinated on tumblr, and taken dozens of pictures of my dogs, that is…

Here’s one I took whilst avoiding writing this blog post.

Eventually I’ll force myself to get down to work, and write for about five hours. I try to write between one and two thousand words a day, but sometimes that might be as little as three hundred words or as much as three thousand. It depends on what I’m writing. I don’t worry about not writing enough, as long as I write something. It’s all progress!

Then I might catch up on some TV series like Hannibal or The Great British Bake-Off or read something - right now I’m reading Lockwood & Co by Jonathan Stroud. I’ll collapse into bed about 1am, mind full of plot ideas and character dialogue!

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Lauren James is a scientist by day, writer by early hours of the morning. She graduated in 2014 with a first class Masters degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Nottingham, where she studied Chemistry and Physics. 

She now lives in the village of Berkswell in the UK.

You can find her on Twitter at @Lauren_E_James, which she mainly uses to fancast actors as her characters and panic about all of the overly ambitious plans she has for her PhD, or her website at http://lauren-e-james.tumblr.com. 

She likes strong, intelligent women, Dylan O’Brien, and things with plants on them. These are her favourite books: http://www.myindependentbookshop.co.uk/Laurenelizjames.

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