questions & answers

q. I want to write a book, but I work and have kids. How did you find the time?
a. Truth is, you have to steal the time from something else. I wish I could have let the dirty dishes pile up for two years but would have been far too anxious to write knowing there was a mile-high stack of festering dinnerware in the kitchen. A lot of go-getters subsist on no sleep; I was born needing nine underachieving hours a night. Giving up my job was tempting but there was that pesky salary to consider. So, tough as it was to stop climbing to nowhere on the elliptical trainer, I quit the gym. Perhaps you have a similar obligation you could jettison.

q. Is there really a boutique in New York like the one Iris discovers in It's About Your Husband—so exclusive, it won't let people in unless they're on the guest list?
a. If there is, I'm not on the list, either.

q. What's with that lipstick, Bobbi Brown Number Four? It has a starring role in your book. Does it really look good on everyone?
a. I read once that Bobbi Brown started her makeup line with the goal of creating a universally flattering lipstick, and that this neutral, pinkish-beige shade (also called Bobbi Brown "Brown") was the very first one she came up with. I love elegant solutions to anything and for some reason was captivated by the notion of this one perfect beauty product. Naturally I had to try the lipstick, and while "everyone" is probably overstating it, it definitely worked for me.

q. Where do you get your ideas?
a. At Bergdorf's, in Better Ideas. It's on the second floor right off the escalator, near Designer Shoes.

q. What is it like working at women's magazines? Do celebrities roam the halls? Do you get free designer clothes?
a. The business has plenty of glamorous moments. But there's also a lot of sitting at the computer trying to distill, say, a hairstyle that took a professional an hour and six products to achieve into a single-step routine readers can duplicate at home — and fit the description into an inch-wide caption box. Meanwhile I realize I could be doing more to solve the world's truly urgent crises. Hopefully there's still time.

Generally the celebrity interviews and photo shoots are conducted far away from a magazine's offices. But you do see tons of models as they come in to meet with a magazine's bookers. The models are as tall and gorgeous as you'd expect. There's also often something surprisingly sweet and Midwestern about them.

You field your fair share of offers of free or hugely discounted handbags, clothes, makeup, teeth-whitening, cosmetic surgery, hairstyling, trips to exotic foreign lands and so on. However the places where I've worked have strict rules about what you can and cannot accept. Even if there were no rules, I could never bring myself to take any of these extravagant goodies. I did once score a tee-shirt that spelled out "Botox" in rhinestones, though.

q. How much of this book is based on your real life?
a. Well, I did move from the San Fernando Valley to New York for a job. But I've never followed anyone's possibly cheating husband.

q. When you're writing do you start with a character or a plot?
a. In this case, the character pretty much was the plot, so they arrived at the same time.

q. Are your characters based on real people?
a. Not really, though many are named after real people. Teddy, Iris's estranged husband, and Kevin, her no-strings-attached rebound man, are named after former boyfriends. Some of my college sorority sisters' names also appear in the book as companies or clothing brands. To amuse my real-life best friend, I named Iris's cold-hearted former boss, Michelle Heeley, after her. None of these characters is anything like his or her namesake. However, I also tinkered with the time-space continuum by giving myself two separate cameo roles; I appear in the book once as an adult and once as a child. My mother, who died years ago, got a walk-on as well, because it's as close to bringing her back as I'll ever get. I'm not telling you where we show up, but feel free to take your best guess. My husband makes an appearance, too, with a different name but drinking his customary glass of red wine. My sister's dog, Rocky, who doesn't have the money to slap me with a lawsuit, plays his own gargoyle-faced self.

q. You've also been a newspaper reporter. What's the most fun story you've ever written?
a. While doing research for an article on engagement rings, I met a diamond dealer named Joseph Schlussel. He invited me to his office, in an unassuming building on Fifth Avenue that houses scads of diamond wholesalers. To get in, you show a photo ID and pass through a metal detector. Once I got upstairs, Schlussel opened up his vaults and let me hold a succession of loose diamonds that would have made Elizabeth Taylor drool. Then he took me to a room in the building where wholesalers make deals with each other. It's a very old-world business; diamonds are handed over with just a handshake and the promise of cash later, and anyone who doesn't honor his end of the bargain gets his photo posted on the "bad dealer" wall, and nobody will do business with him anymore. It was a world I never knew existed, and it was fascinating.

Read more from Lauren at the Grand Central Publishing website.

Read an interview with Lauren on Conversations With Famous Writers