Laura Preble is the award-winning author of the young adult series, Queen Geek Social Club (Penguin/Berkley Jam), which includes the novels Queen Geeks in Love and Prom Queen Geeks. Her novel, Out, dealt with the concept of LGBTQ rights within a young adult dystopia; Alex Sanchez, author of Rainbow Boys, says “Out explores an intriguing, mind-bending, and challenging portrait of an upside-down world that turns the tables on homophobia, acceptance, and love.” She has won a Kurt Vonnegut Fiction Prize, and has been published in North American Review, Writer’s Digest, Hysteria, and NEA Today.
WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:
Website: www.preblebooks.comTwitter: www.twitter.com/LauraPreble
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laura.preble1
Q:
What’s inside the mind of a women’s fiction author?
I like to think of myself as a writer whose main characters
are generally female, so I guess what’s in my mind when I’m writing is creating
a real and complete personality for my women (and men.) I also draw on a lot of
my own experiences to create my characters, and since I’m a woman, that usually
shows up somewhere. I’m also really glad that the book has been recognized with
a silver medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards as well as a
Runner-Up in the Screencraft Cinematic Book competition. Clearly ‘women’s
issues’ are broad enough to deserve these kinds of recognition.
Q: Tell
us why readers should buy ANNA
INCOGNITO.
It’s funny, first of all. I’ve been told that by many
reviewers. This is odd mostly because the subject matter is kind of heavy
(mental illness, trauma, abandonment) but like real life, Anna’s life is a
crazy quilt of beauty, sadness, hope, and confusion. And especially since the
pandemic, Anna’s extreme OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) may not seem as crazy
as it once did!
Q: What
makes a good women’s fiction?
I think good women’s fiction is the same as any good
fiction. It must have well-rounded, human characters with whom the reader
identify, someone they can believe in. I think women’s fiction uniquely focuses
on situations and topics that are uniquely feminine: a woman’s role in society,
the interplay of relationships (mother-child, doctor-patient, neighbor to
neighbor), and what I’d call the relationships that often shape the course of a
woman’s life. I also think women come from an undervalued place, so I like to
raise my female characters up and help them fight for what they need.
Q: What
has writing ANNA INCOGNITO taught you?
So much. I’d written several novels previous to ANNA
INCOGNITO, but I can’t say that I ever really poured my own pain and sadness
and joy and humor into a book in the way I did with this one. I love my other
books, but they are YA (young adult), and exclusively the territory and
concerns of teens. In this book, I could draw more on my own experiences as an
adult woman, and really explore some territory that for me had been uncharted,
mostly because I hadn’t been brave enough to mine it yet.
Q: Where
can readers find out more about you and your work?
I have a website, www.preblebooks.com. My publisher, Mascot Books, is the
best place to purchase the book https://mascotbooks.com/mascot-marketplace/buy-books/fiction/romance/anna-incognito/. If
you do a google search, you’ll also find a lot of information on my writing and
also my singing and composing (I’m married to a professional musician and we
were playing together until the pandemic halted live performances.) Here’s a
link to a great write-up by the San Diego Union-Tribune also. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/columnists/story/2020-02-04/column-san-diego-author-laura-preble-turns-a-germaphobe-into-a-heroine-youll-want-to-hug
Lots of narrative pull…wonderfully complicated. – Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class, and anthologized by David Sedaris in Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules.
Anna Colin Beck knows all too well what can happen when things go wrong really wrong. So, she’s spent the last several years living an extremely regimented life at home, doing everything she can to avoid subjecting herself to the torments of a germ-infested world. Everything must be just so, and when things don’t go to plan, she punishes her own body…and that still hasn’t helped alleviate her pain.
After a chance meeting in a laundromat, she finds herself completely infatuated with another person, something that hasn’t happened to her in a long time. Dr. Edward Denture is seemingly brilliant and magnetic…and in the blink of an eye, she’s attending intense somatic therapy sessions as his newest client. The more he draws from her, the further their relationship grows, until it’s crossed countless lines and consumed Anna with a fierce toxicity. And before she knows it, she finds herself buckled into the driver’s seat of a powder-blue El Dorado for a solo cross-country road trip, determined to stop his wedding. It’s a trip that will test every limitation she’s ever set for herself, and though she’s planned extensively for all contingencies, there are some twists and turns you just can’t prepare for.
With wry observations on the intersection of luck, fate, and life, Anna Incognito is a searing, darkly witty exploration of what it means to be alive.
PRAISE FOR ANNA INCOGNITO
IndieReader.com: 5/5 “Rich with witticism in the face of painful realities and evoking lyrical truisms throughout, from of a rating scale of 1 – 5 this novel is so off-the-charts good, it deserves a 10.” LINK HEREOnlineBookClub.com: 4/4 “The writing was captivating…This book would be great for readers who are struggling with mental health or for those trying to understand it better. Are you ready to go for a drive with Anna?. Buckle up, because you are in for the ride of your life!” LINK HERE
Kirkus Reviews: “The protagonist’s acerbic wit and mordant tone work well in the difficult material in Preble’s unconventional road novel. A razor-sharp, oddly fun romp through the American West.” LINK HERE
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