Lauren Beukes

Lauren Beukes is a writer, TV scriptwriter and former journalist. With twelve years of freelance journalism experience and an MA in Creative Writing Lauren has contributed to the likes of the Sunday Times, Colors, The Hollywood Reporter, Nature Medicine, Marie Claire, and The Big Issue. Her short stories have been published in numerous anthologies, including Home Away: 24 Hours. 24 Writers. 24 Places, Touch: Stories of Contact, Open, FAB, African Road: New Writing from Southern Africa, 180 Degrees, Urban 03 and Novel Idea. In 2010 Lauren became the fiction editor of Chew the Magazine, a design, art, photography, pop culture digital magazine.
Lauren is the author of Zoo City, winner of the 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award, and the dystopian thriller Moxyland which William Gibson described as “very, *very* good.” In 2006 her non-fiction book, Maverick: Extraordinary Women From South Africa’s Past, was nominated for the Sunday Times Alan Paton Non-Fiction Book of the Year award, in 2009 Moxyland was nominated for the same.
Lauren lives in Cape Town South Africa with her husband and daughter.

Now, shall we play a game?

6 Questions with Lauren Beukes

1. What are your favorite and your least favorite words?
  "Insinnuendos" is my favourite portmanteau, from Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway. Least favourite? "Flight delayed"


2. What turns you on creatively, spiritually, emotionally?

  "Surprising whimsies, curious street art, for example, or crocheted viruses, strandbeests and BoingBoing, the interesting places culture and technology intersect, the wonder and horror of the world."


3. What turns you off creatively, spritually, emotionally?

  "Bigotry and social injustice of all descriptions. I'm totally intolerant of intolerance."


4. What is the closest you have ever come to giving up writing?
  "Never. Even when I had such bad repetitive strain injury that I had to wear wrist braces and push doors open with my shoulder and take painkillers at night, I was scheming ways to still be able to write. That's not to say I won't procrastinate like crazy and do anything to avoid that moment of sitting down in front of my keyboard to actually work. But I'd never give it up."


5. What is the strangest thing you have ever done while writing?
  "When I'm writing TV scripts or comics, it's really important to describe the action and emotions very clearly to the artist who has to illustrate/animate it. I'll find myself acting out the movement (would she throw a brick at his head underarm or over-) and making funny faces as I work out the expressions."


6.  If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God (or Allah or Yahweh or Odin. Generally the Supreme Being of your choice.) say when you arrive at the pearly gates?
  "Ha, you're assuming I'm taking the up elevator"

LOL! I was indeed! A heartfelt thanks to Lauren for playing along and contributing to my little blog. I really appreciate it and your answers were a joy. If you'd like to know more about Lauren and her work surf the following links:
http://laurenbeukes.com/
http://angryrobotbooks.com/our-authors/laurenbeukes/

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you again next time.