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An Interview with Lauren Jane Redmond

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Lauren Jane Redmond is a mystery writer in Austin, Texas. She received a BA in English and Film Studies from the University of Tulsa and an MFA in Playwriting from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.

Lauren was named the Winner of the WomenWorks National Playwriting Competition in 2014, and her plays have received staged readings at Arena Stage and The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

The manuscript of her novel, Jacob’s Well, was named Winner of the 2023 Writer’s League of Texas Manuscript Contest in the mystery category. She is represented by Amanda Jain of BookEnds Literary Agency.


Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

It’s funny. My mom was digging through old fileboxes recently and sent me a story I had written in first grade about a girl named Lauren who hated writing (autobiographical much?), but I only ever remember loving it. I had the best second-grade teacher, Ms. Vasquez, who inspired us to be creative and make our own books, and I haven’t stopped writing since. I have always loved writing mysteries—I would hide between cars in our neighborhood and take notes on all the neighbors’ “suspicious” activities. My parents have both dabbled in creative writing as well, and they’ve always been incredibly supportive of my dream to be a published writer.

The first book I remember falling in love with was Holes by Louis Sachar. The way the separate storylines from the past and present intertwined blew my mind and it was the first time I realized that a book could truly feel magical.

What inspired you to start writing this book?

Jacob’s Well has a fascinating and dangerous history. It’s a natural underground spring outside of Austin, TX, and is famous for having lured many divers to their deaths. When I first learned about it I couldn’t stop researching the mystery surrounding its underwater caverns. It was screaming out to be the setting of a mystery novel.

Central Texas itself is an area ripe for literary exploration. There are Hollywood superstars living just down the road from ramshackle sheds that have been in families for generations. The economic, political, and social hierarchies are vast and all-encompassing, offset by physical immediacy of the surrounding natural beauty and oppressive heat. It’s such fertile ground for a writer to work with.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

Any book set in Texas has to have a playlist that starts and ends with George Strait. But my heroine has a bit of a rebellious streak to her, so there’d definitely be some classic rock thrown in the mix. Maybe AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” and George Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone.”

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I started my professional writing career as a playwright, and loved working in the world of theatre. Work on the stage is such a unique combination of immediacy and collaboration, and basically taught me to unlearn everything I knew about “proper” writing. Going from formal college essays to real-world dialects and casual dialogue was a huge jump, and a massively valuable one for me as a writer. It’s true what they say—that you need to learn the rules so that you can break them. Writing is a constant balancing act of using and bending your readers’ expectations in order to surprise them.

What books did you read (for research or comfort) throughout your writing process?

I’m constantly rereading everything by Agatha Christie, the true master of the golden age mystery. Also, not a book, but there’s an amazing article on Jacob’s Well written by Stephen Harrigan for Texas Monthly. It details the elaborate rescue mission performed in 1979 when two college-age kids went missing while diving in the Well. The writing is beautiful, and helped fuel the inspiration for my own book.

What is one thing you hope readers take away from reading your book? How do you envision your perfect reader?

My perfect reader is anyone who loves being immersed in the details of a setting and the many ways they can impact a story. My book could only take place in the Texas Hill Country…without it, the characters and plot just wouldn’t be the same. Jacob’s Well is a book for anyone who loves mysteries, nature, and small-town antics. I hope my readers leave wanting to come back for more.


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