Lauren Thoman writes speculative fiction for teens and adults. Her debut novel, I’ll Stop the World, was selected for publication in 2023 by six-time Emmy nominee Mindy Kaling through her eponymous imprint, Mindy’s Book Studio. Lauren’s pop culture writing has also appeared in numerous online outlets including Parade and Vulture. Lauren lives outside of Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband and two children in a house full of dogs and fish. When she’s not writing, she’s probably on the hunt for tacos or coffee, poking around her flowerbeds, or buried underneath a pile of dogs.

Q. What was the initial seed that inspired you to write You Shouldn’t Be Here?
Lauren: It was twofold. I’d been watching and reading a lot of horror stories, and one of my favorite horror tropes is the haunted house. It occurred to me that it would be fun to write a haunted house story that wasn’t a horror story, but more of a mystery. From there, when I thought about what the mystery element would be outside of the haunting, my immediate thought was to make the conflict about holding a powerful person accountable for their actions. Because what do you do when you KNOW who the bad guy is, but he’s super rich and powerful and you aren’t? That felt like an interesting question to explore — especially when I get to do it using a ghost.

Q. You have two main characters in this story, Angie and Madelyn – tell us a bit about each of these women. Was one character easier to write?
Lauren: Both of them are mixed-race Chinese American (like me!), but that’s where the similarities mostly end. Angie is a teenager who is really trying to figure out who she is, especially after her mom left a couple years before the story starts. That really messed with her sense of self and purpose, and she’s been trying to get her feet under her ever since. Meanwhile Madelyn is a recent college graduate who just got her first real job, and she recently got out of an abusive relationship, so she’s determined to both establish herself as an individual, and as an adult. That translates into her being a little more active than she likely would’ve been otherwise.

As far as which was easier to write, I think Angie was probably a little easier just because she doesn’t second-guess herself nearly as much as Madelyn does. Once Angie makes a decision, that’s it. She doesn’t spend much time justifying it to herself. So writing her was a little simpler, since she wasn’t nearly as introspective.

Q. Tell us how you came up with the villain Doug Raymond?
Lauren: As I mentioned earlier, I was interested in questions of power and accountability. Plenty of mysteries are focused on identifying the bad guy, but I was more interested in what happens when you know who the bad guy is, but he has all the advantages. What does accountability look like? I’d also been doing a lot of research into narcissism, and narcissistic leaders, and corporate narcissism, which gets into the question of how systems and institutions can perpetuate unhealthy power dynamics. Once I knew the themes I wanted to play with, the character emerged fairly quickly. I’ve known a few Doug Raymonds in my life. I think a lot of folks have. So figuring out what he might do or say wasn’t very hard. I get amused whenever I read that someone finds him too over-the-top, because I probably drew more from real-life experience for him than any other character.

Q. Some might call your writing speculative fiction or genre bending. This is also a ghost story and mystery. How best would you categorize You Shouldn’t Be Here?
Lauren: I think those are all accurate descriptions! I love a lot of different genres, and I do enjoy blending them together in my own work. And I think speculative fiction is my happy place, because I am forever fascinated with the idea of how elements not based in reality might interact with our real world. I call You Shouldn’t Be Here a speculative mystery, because it follows mystery genre conventions the closest, but with an element of the otherworldly.

Q. What sort of research did you do for this book?
Lauren: This is so boring, but I mostly Google as I go. The exception for this book was my research into narcissism and high-control groups—I’d been doing a lot of research into both for a couple years before I started writing this book—and also eastern Pennsylvania culture, since I grew up there. But outside of my regular reading and my evergreen resolution to keep on top of major social and political issues, all of my research was in-the-moment Googling.

Q. Without spoilers, what was the most difficult scene to write, and why?
Lauren: This is such a boring answer, but the truth is that the difficult scenes for me are always the ones where it feels like not much happens. Big fights, or giant discoveries, or major turning points? Easy. Those are chock full of interesting moments that are fun to write about! It’s always the scenes where you have to convey a bunch of information without a lot of plot developments that are the hardest. So for this book, it was probably the scene where Madelyn is listening to a bunch of recordings. Or really, any scene where folks are listening to recordings. Because it’s hard to make sitting in a room interesting, even if they are learning a lot.

Q. What can we expect from you next?
Lauren: I honestly have no idea. I’m working on a few things right now. I’m co-writing a YA historical reimagining. I’m writing a post-apocalyptic haunted house horror book. I’m also poking at a superhero mystery. None of these books are sold yet. So I can’t tell you which one you’ll get to read next. But I’m excited about them all, and hope that all of them become real books someday!