Lauren Johnson is the author of the new novel The Soufflé Also Rises. She lives in Oak Park, Illinois.
Q: What inspired you to write The Soufflé Also Rises, and how did you create your character Lizi?
A: I always wanted to write some kind of lighthearted crime thriller set in Paris. I spent a semester there at the American University and completely fell in love with the city.
But what really inspired the book was the day I was almost mowed down by a couple of flics (French cops) chasing this hot French bad guy on a motorcycle through Montmartre.
It felt like I'd stumbled into the movie Charade with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. The whole thing felt ridiculously cinematic. And romantic. Not "kiss me under the Eiffel Tower" romantic. More “I've accidentally wandered into Charade” romantic.
After that, I knew I wanted to write a funny crime thriller set in Paris. In fact, that hot French bad guy was my inspiration for Luc.
As for how I created Lizi, I knew I wanted a protagonist who didn’t quite believe in herself—yet. Just like me at the time. But I also wanted her to figure out that she was far more capable than she realized. I also loved fish-out-of-water stories. But that was pretty much all I had in mind.
Then life happened, and for the next 22 years my story sat in an imaginary file folder with all my other great ideas … until I finally started thinking about it again.
By then, I was facing some age-related challenges—perimenopause, for one. Then there were some health issues. But I was also beginning to discover that while still only in my mid-40s, finding a job wasn’t as easy as it had once been when I was younger. And that’s when I decided that I wanted an older protagonist who had a different set of challenges than a 20-something.
Besides, I cut my teeth reading chick lit, but I couldn’t relate anymore. At least to the problems of a 20-something with a fabulous job and penchant for cute boys and a weakness for conspicuous consumption.
So that’s really where Lizi came from. And by the time I finally got serious and started to write, menopause was already in full swing and I thought to myself, You know, sometimes menopause can be pretty funny. I mean, it does have its moments!
Q: How would you describe the dynamic between your characters Lizi and Frankie?
A: I love their dynamic. First of all, there’s a 27-year age gap between them so they’re quite different when it comes to how they see the world. But Frankie’s overly simplistic worldview is just what Lizi needs to get on with her life, so Frankie is more the teacher and Lizi is more the student.
Frankie is the free spirit and doesn’t really care what other people think. And Lizi is uptight. Not so much because she cares what others think (although she does!), but mostly because she’s afraid of making the same mistakes twice.
So she plays it safe. Until she meets Frankie. She doesn’t immediately flip that switch, but now with Frankie by her side she gets to see who she really is—who she was before life got in her way.
So they don't balance each other in the traditional "opposites attract" sense, but they're exactly what the other needs. That's one of the things I loved exploring in book two, because their friendship becomes much more reciprocal. Frankie has a lot to learn from Lizi, too.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: In terms of Lizi, I knew exactly where I wanted her to end up on both an emotional and spiritual level. But in terms of the vehicle, that changed along the way.
Because I knew it would be a series, I knew the cliffhanger from the beginning. But what changed wasn't the destination—it was the journey. In the end, the story became much bigger and more complicated than I'd originally imagined.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: Exactly what I took away from writing it.
I wasn’t that different from Lizi when I started (or Frankie for that matter!). And because of that I wasn’t sure if I wanted people to know who I really was. But I also knew that if I started filtering myself because I was worried about sounding too uptight or too immature, I wouldn’t have an honest story.
I think fear has this funny way of convincing us we're someone we're not. Think about how we edit ourselves. Or how we play it safe when we have to make big decisions. We even bend ourselves into something or someone else because we're worried about what other people will think about us. And then, without even realizing it, we’ve shaped our entire lives around this person we’re not.
So if readers take away anything, I hope it's the understanding that it's never too late to start being who we already are.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Right now I'm writing book three. Book two picks up with Lizi trying to deal with the unfinished business from book one, and book three raises the stakes even higher. I can't say much more than that—but I'm having a lot of fun with where the series is going.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: One thing I can promise is that there are still plenty of surprises waiting for Lizi. In book two, readers will discover that things aren't always as they seem—and some of the biggest twists have been hiding in plain sight all along.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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