Fictionaut Five: Lauren Cerand

Lauren Cerand, an independent publicist, is a member of the Fictionaut Board of Advisors. She lives in New York. For her latest projects and more, visit www.LaurenCerand.com.

What story or book do you feel closest to?

I once referred to Ava Gardner: Love is Nothing as “a blueprint for living,” and never was that more true than when I took it to a salon last month and pointed to a photo of her and asked for her exact boyish crop. There is also one description of an outfit that includes a cloak and sandals in A Spy in the House of Love that is really great. And I want a whole summer just like A Sport and a Pastime.

What are your favorite websites?

With my a.m. coffee, I cover my coasts with Maud (www.maudnewton.com) and Mark (www.elegvar.com). Lola is Beauty (www.lolaisbeauty.blogspot.com) and Style Bubble (www.stylebubble.co.uk) are longtime style stops, both out of London. I like what The Nervous Breakdown (www.thenervousbreakdown.com) is doing for community, and what 20×200 (www.20×200.com) does for art. Figment.com is another good new one, specializing in young adult-oriented mobile storytelling. CellStories.net is crushing it, too. I consciously seek ways to make big ideas more portable, whether it’s learning from how someone puts together an outfit to make a striking visual statement or discovering what can be made possible by technology.

What excites you right now?

The classic, super-awesomely-American tradition of publishing your thoughts as a means of sharing them with others and changing the world, in small and large ways, and its influence on nearly limitless methods of distribution and an existing infrastructure for conveying information to mass audiences in a competitive marketplace is what I think about most of the time. That and how to fail better. I also wish I could make it to LA to see the Dennis Hopper show and to DC to see the Yves Klein show before they close. A good maverick on a grand stage gets my motor running.

As an out-of-the-box thinker, a visionary for how we can do good and also promote our work…what can you tell writers getting their sea-legs in this intimidating world of social media?

How does trust/familiarity happen in this world of virtual connections? Publicity, the way that I learned how to do it, was based on EXPOSURE. Like, get on NPR or in the New York Times and everyone who matters will have seen it. While those outlets are still hugely influential star-making machines, there are also a lot more stars. And infinite galaxies. And maybe the stars are looking elsewhere? I could keep going with that one, although eventually the universe would collapse. Maybe it already has. Publicity, the way that I do it now, is based on MOMENTUM. Get the right vibe going, and keep at it.

What can writers/editors do to continue to build community while doing what we love? How can we help Girls Write Now?

Be good to your friends. Give us twenty bucks.

The Fictionaut Five is our ongoing series of interviews with Fictionaut authors. Every Wednesday, Meg Pokrass asks a writer five (or more) questions. Meg is an editor at Smokelong Quarterly, and her stories and poems have been published widely. She blogs at http://megpokrass.com.