Lauren Appelbaum

[00:00:00]

Laura: I'm Lauren. Welcome to much relaxed podcast.

Lauren Appelbaum: Hi, thanks for having me.

Laura: So happy to have you here. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Lauren Appelbaum: My name is Lauren Applebaum. I'm the author of Rachel Weisz's group chat. That's my debut novel. So, yeah.

Laura: Yeah. So talk to us about like your writing process. You were, you always wanted to write a book or is it something that came in later in life? And just basically you just decided to creatively try it and, what was the process of getting your debut novel published?

Lauren Appelbaum: Yeah, so I have been, I've known that I wanted to be an author since I was five, basically. So I was always writing as a kid, and then I started seriously writing novels in college. I finished my first one when I was 19, and I went on to write several more. None of them got published, which, I'm glad, because they would be embarrassing, but So Rachel Weisz's group chat is the first one that actually got me a book deal.

And yeah, [00:01:00] so it was basically over a decade of writing books and just trial and error and learning as I went.

Laura: Yeah. So talk to us about Rachel Weisz's group chat. Tell us the elevator pitch. What can we expect?

Lauren Appelbaum: Sure, so it is Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones's Diary meets Broad City. So it's like a Jewish millennial retelling of Pride and Prejudice. And it's about Rachel Weisz and her closest, three closest friends in the year they turn 30. Rachel is kind of struggling to figure out what she wants to be doing with her life, and her mom is constantly harassing her trying to set her up with Mr.

Right. So then, yeah.

Laura: And we have a group chat.

Lauren Appelbaum: Yeah.

Laura: And all the things that makes us, Millennial Gen Zers, what makes us tick, group chat and just meddling parents and everything in between. So,

Lauren Appelbaum: Yes.

Laura: what was your favorite part of writing this novel? Like, it's, yes, it's the one that got you book published, but were there any parts that [00:02:00] you're like excited about it or You were thrilled to just do.

Lauren Appelbaum: Yeah, I I had a lot of fun with it because Rachel's personality is basically the opposite of my personality. I am like a classic introvert and Rachel is the opposite. Very extroverted and confident. So it was just really fun to put her in different situations and think, what would Rachel do?

And I just had a lot of fun with it.

Laura: Yeah. So what can we expect next from you? Like you're now that you're congratulations for your today's your publication day. But what else can we expect like now coming forward?

Lauren Appelbaum: Yeah, I have another book coming out in 2025. It's another romantic comedy that hopefully will appeal to millennial readers. It's about a remote worker in Seattle who is an introvert, unlike Rachel and she inherits a beach house in Florida when her grandmother passes away under the condition that she also has to look after her grandfather.

So she has to go down to Florida and come out of her shell and romance, [00:03:00] ensues also.

Laura: I love the fact that you're like, you're giving the millennial dream of inheriting generational wealth, property, because we won't be able to afford it, but we can inherit it.

Lauren Appelbaum: Yes.

Laura: I actually did inherit it, my grandmother gave me her apartment, so I did inherit it.

Lauren Appelbaum: But did you have to take care of your grandfather?

Laura: no, I did not. My brother lives in the apartment now.

So we'll do like musical chairs. But yeah, I, my grandmother, before she passed away, she donated her apartment to me. And then so I, it's like, I don't think about it because I didn't have like any conditions or anything. And I don't, my brother takes care of the apartment itself. Like he does stuff. Like pay the maintenance and all the HOHP and everything and the taxes.

And so I don't think about it, but then I'm like, no, I do have the Roman to comedy generational, set up.

Lauren Appelbaum: Amazing.

Laura: Yeah. But, it's so funny, like, millennials, we [00:04:00] won't be able to afford it on our own, but like, obviously, our grandparents. Think about us and give us, especially as an author conditions, like you have to marry someone and you have to take care of this.

You have to do this, like,

Lauren Appelbaum: The conditions are always where the interesting things happen.

Laura: yes. So awesome. So let's talk about your reading life. What kind of books do you tend to read?

Lauren Appelbaum: I read a broad spectrum, I would say. I read women's fiction, historical fiction, lots of romantic comedies also. Just. Yeah, I'm kind of a mood reader, so whatever I feel like. I'm actually currently diving into the world of ACOTAR, like, those romanticy books. This is my first time. I'm on the second ACOTAR book, so yeah,

Laura: you're the best book. According to Mr. Prairie, it's by far, like, far superior. 2016 when they were just coming out, so I had to wait. You'll know after you finish According to Mr. Prairie, but like, I need the next book right away, and I had to wait a year [00:05:00] to get the next book.

Lauren Appelbaum: That's rough.

Laura: It was rough because it ends in a cliffhanger just enough where you'll need the next book right away because like what is happening but it's such a like it's such a journey.

I am so glad that you're just joining this journey of you know of the ACOTAR world.

Lauren Appelbaum: Yes it's a delight so far.

Laura: It is. So do you have any other books to recommend or listeners to pick up? Like, whether it's rom coms or other, like, other books that you're like, you enjoy this past year that you're like, definitely check it out.

Lauren Appelbaum: Yes, I have, I decided to stay with the rom com theme, so I have three recommendations that I. Well, actually, one of them's not a rom com. So I'll start with the one that's not really a rom com. It's more like a mom fiction, but I think everyone would enjoy. It's All They Ask Is Everything by Hadley Leggett.

So, yeah, it's it's, I should have thought of pitches for these before I started recommending them, but it's about a mom who's just like devoted her life to [00:06:00] her daughters and kind of what happens when she reaches a breaking point. That's all I can say, but Hadley is another debut author. And then these are the rom coms.

Till They're With You by Lindsey Hamroff. This is a really sweet, have you heard of this one?

Laura: heard of her. I've heard of her book. Yes, I've seen the cover. I'm like, it's on my list. So tell me why should I pick it up and bump it

Lauren Appelbaum: really sweet and fun and it's kind of like a wish fulfillment because it's about Lexi who is, well she is an aspiring chef and she falls in love with a guy who, I think she has a one night stand with him, but then he goes on to immediately become a super famous pop star.

Laura: Oh,

Lauren Appelbaum: then he comes back into her life.

And so she's like suddenly am I dating a pop star? Am I not dating him? And it's really fun.

Laura: my gosh, you have me a pop star. I'm like, Oh, like, celebrity normal people. It's like my go to trope.

Lauren Appelbaum: Those are so fun. I love it And then the other one is worst in show by anna e collins [00:07:00] So the pitch for this one is awesome. I think I got the pitch down because it's like you've got male but with pet store owners So instead of books, bookshop owners, it's pet store owners, and they team up to try to win this dog competition.

Laura: Oh my gosh, you have me at a dog competition. And I just think about Bess and Chelle, the mockumentary. Have you seen that? It's like, it's like Bess, like all these dog shows. And I love watching the dog show after Thanksgiving Day Parade. Like that's like my favorite thing. It's like watching all the dogs.

And I just want to know the behind the scenes. And I can imagine you have mail and then having pet shop owners and trying to do this. It's like the stakes are high. Yeah.

Lauren Appelbaum: yeah, so that's worse than show. You would definitely like it.

Laura: Yes. So, so Lauren, tell us we can find you online.

Lauren Appelbaum: Of course. Yeah. So you can find me on Instagram at Lauren Applebaum, and my website is laurenapplebaumbooks. com.

Laura: awesome. Thank you, Lauren, for being my show.

Lauren Appelbaum: Thank you so much for having [00:08:00] me.