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Wednesday, June 6, 2024

Insanity Blog Tour -Interview w/ Lauren Hammond

Welcome to the Insanity Blog Tour stop for today. I have had the chance to interview the lovely  Lauren Hammond. Before we get to that, let's find out a little more about Insanity and just what it's about. Insanity is the first novel in the Asylum series. First released on May 8th, 2012. You can find Insanity on Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.


Sometimes love...can drive you crazy.

Adelaide Carmichael and Damien Allen couldn't be more opposite.

Adelaide's mother abandoned her when she was ten years old, leaving her to be raised by her abusive and alcoholic father.

Damien on the other hand came from a wealthy family, was a local celebrity, and seemed to have a bright future ahead of him.

Despite their differences, Adelaide and Damien were young, wild, and fiercely in love.

And they had a plan.

They were going to run away.

Be together forever.

And their plan was set in motion, until tragedy struck and for some reason, Adelaide wound up in The Oakhill Institution for the insane.

Adelaide has no idea what she did to wind up at Oakhill, but she knows one thing for sure...

She wants out.

And after Damien follows her there to aid her in escaping, Adelaide slowly begins putting together the pieces of her memory that are missing.

And it doesn't take Adelaide long to figure out that sometimes...

That one true love never dies.

Excerpt~

Shoving my feet off the side of the bed, new surroundings burn my eyes. Tan plaster walls instead of thick white padded ones. One oblong barred window. Two dressers. Two closets. Two beds.

They've moved me to a different room.

A gentle squeaking noise bounces off the walls and my eyes avert to my right. Oh crap. They put me in a room with a nut job.

They say I'm a nut job.

But not like this.

Not even close.

She rocks back and forth on her cot, knees to her chest, twisting a piece of her wiry, red hair between her fingertips. Her freckled arms are trembling. She sings with vibrato.

I am slowly going crazy. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

Switch.

Crazy going slowly am I. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

Switch.

I think about screaming again. I think about plugging my ears. Somebody turn her off.

She lifts her head slowly, a maddening look in her big, brown eyes, an eerie smile crawling across her pale, freckled lips. “Shh,” she whispers. “They're coming for us.”

“Who's they?”
She shakes her head and lets out a cackle laced with the deepest kind of crazy. I think they put her in here with me purposely. They're trying to break me. They think if they put me around truly insane people that I'll accept my place here.
Well...They are wrong.


The Interview

1.  What was the first book that you remember reading as a pre-teen or teen?
Well, this is a tough one because I’ve been reading since before my pre-teen years. The first book I ever read aside from school books was Little Women. I was seven or eight years old. Pre-teen years, hmm, I was in the Accelerated Reader program at school in the 7th grade. I read Gone With The Wind. It’s one of my all-time favorites.
 
2.  Is there anyone that inspires you?
Most of my books revolve around characters that are in love and I think that roots from the fact that true love is out there. It’s real. I’ve witnessed it my whole life. My grandparents inspire me in that aspect. They only knew each other three weeks and have been married over sixty years. My grandfather can’t even say my grandmother’s name without getting emotional.
3.  How did you choose the names of the characters for INSANITY?
Honestly, they just kind of came to me out of the blue, lol. I can’t really explain it. But…I will say that Adelaide kind of stemmed from my niece’s name which is Addison.

4. How would you describe INSANITY in three words?
 
Mind-blowing, heart-wrenching, and beautiful.

Thanks again for having me!

If you get a chance check out Insanity!


About Lauren:
It all began with a dinosaur, a T-Rex to be exact. He was the main character in my very first short story. Me and T, well, we went places. He is the reason I won my first essay contest at age ten. And he is probably one of the number one reasons, I pursued a career in writing.
Throughout highschool, I was what you would call a rebel. Someone who had convinced herself that she had life figured out at age sixteen. Still, writing was my only safe-haven during that time. I wrote notebooks full of poetry, even writing fellow classmates papers for them.
Unbeknowest to me, creative writing, seemed to be my one, true calling, my passion in life.
At age twenty, I began writing my first novel. After that, everything seemed to fall into place.
I won Best Poets and Poems of 2007, and The Editor's Choice award for my poem, Summer Days.
Also, during that time I wrote or co-wrote fifteen different screenplays, some which earned me finalist spot in various screenplay competitions.
In 2010, I've come full force, with my novel Love Sucks, that was released by Punkin House Press, in August of 2010. On top of Love Sucks, I have six novels that are slated to be released through the next five years. Also, doing some various marketing work for authors and publishers.
I pride myself in telling fellow writers to always follow their dreams. Who knows where I would be if I would have given up.

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3 comments:

  1. This book sounds really good. Thanks for the great interview and excerpt.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ooh, the excerpt is really interesting. Thanks for hosting the interview. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ohhh, sometimes love ...can drive you crazy. LOVE IT! Very catchy!

    ReplyDelete

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