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But her latest novel sees theBeautiful Creaturesco-author step into a different arena that of reality television.
And that only means one thing: Bentley Royce must save her show… to save her family.
Vania Stovanova
But the Royces arent the only ones making their (sort of) TV debut.
We [also] live with it all the time.
I live near the Brentwood Country Mart where the paparazzi cluster outside.
You feel kind of bad for them.
They hang out around our school too.
But thats something you grow up with in L.A.
When I was little, I would be at P.E.
The L.A. reality is surreality.
Because I would be such a tragic misfit.
Im so unpresentable in general.
This is the only thing in my life that Ive ever written for just myself and my friends.
She would laugh so hard that she would cry.
It was the thing I wrote because I wanted to write it.
To this day I have no idea how it became a book.
But it was really a labor of love, which is such a treat.
Books exist for all kinds of reasons.
This one is just to make people laugh.
Because so much happens to us.
We witness so much craziness.
Which, as it’s possible for you to tell, is probably the story of my life.
You just are what you are.
Youre born the way that youre born.
No matter how calamitous or public or private your family is.
So Bentley has to figure out her family.
I also lovedWhered You Go, Bernadette?Thats definitely an inspiration.
So I thought someone should do the equivalent of this in YA.
Bentley, as a character, has her feet on the ground.
I have my kids in private school with moms that werent that different from Mercedes Royce.
Its a mashup of everything weve witnessed in a certain way.
And then I take things to more farcical extremes.
But Ive been to all those events.
Its a world I move in and out of all the time.
It would be a hard thing to invent.
But if youve witnessed it, its a very easy thing to write about.
Did you have to do research into how reality shows work?I definitely did.
One thing I realized is theyll sit down and shoot five back-to-back lunches.
Theyre not shot chronologically.
Also so much happens in the editing room, which we didnt really even get to.
But its all about the footage that exists.
Where celebrity is really tied to power in our country, its really interesting to look at that directly.
I didnt even make that make that connection.
Weve been talking about perspective and fake news.
Thats the same question as What is reality?
What is the difference anymore?
We live in such a media narrated world.
Its who controls the camera.
In the book theres all this stuff when Bentley realizes what you have to do to change the story.
The way it’s possible for you to distract from one headline to another, that sort of dance.
I wrote thattwoyears ago.
Its something we talk about with our own president every day.
Our reality is not that different from a reality show.
In fact, its hard to tell the difference anymore.
Thats what you see about Los Angeles.
I was sort of already there when I was writing it.
Its just the context of the book has changed.
Had I been writing it now I would have even been leaning into it more.
And we look at a sequel I think about that all the time.
The things I thought were so outrageous, dont even seem like a stretch anymore.
If any of your characters had to make a run for political office.
Do you think any of them would?Mercedes, the mother.
I absolutely believe that she would be the first woman president by far.
The line about Mercedes is, Shes as hard as her new boobs and twice as tough.
Nobody can mess with her.
She would be great.
In fact, thats what I thought about even as a sequel.
Instead ofRoyce Rolls, it would beRoyce Runs.
But I have a million ideas for them because theyre so, so fun.
Royce Rollshits bookstores April 4.Preorder it here.
