BARATZ-LOGSTED, Lauren

PERSONAL: Daughter of a drugstore owner and a pharmacist; married, c. 1989; children: Jackie. Education: University of Connecticut, degree; postgraduate studies at Western Connecticut State University.

ADDRESSES: Home—Danbury, CT. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Red Dress Ink, 233 Broadway, 10th Fl., New York, NY 10279. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Klein's (independent bookstore), Westport, CT, staff member, c. 1983–94; writer, 1994–. Worked variously as a doughnut salesperson, window washer, and freelance editor.

WRITINGS:

The Thin Pink Line (novel), Red Dress Ink (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2003.

Crossing the Line (novel), Red Dress Ink (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2004.

Contributor of book reviews to periodicals, including Publishers Weekly.

WORK IN PROGRESS: "Three more novels."

SIDELIGHTS: After ten years of marriage and no children, Lauren Baratz-Logsted was in for a surprise one morning: she was pregnant. While enduring her first months of morning sickness, she wondered what might happen if a woman decided to fake a pregnancy as a way of averting the disappointment of friends and family after learning that she was not expecting a baby after all. Thence was born the plot of her debut novel, The Thin Pink Line.

The title of The Thin Pink Line refers to the indicator line on a home pregnancy test. With its "hilarious and orginal" premise, according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer, the novel tells the story of Jane, who fakes being pregnant when she finds that she enjoys the attention she receives after her test results in a false positive. Although her live-in boyfriend decides not to marry her when he discovers she really is not pregnant, Jane decides to continue her charade. The plot becomes even more complicated when an editor at the publishing company where Jane works offers her a book contract if she can carry off her scheme. When Jane meets the real "Mr. Right," matters are further complicated.

A critic for Kirkus Reviews called The Thin Pink Line a "wonderfully funny debut with a fine sense of the absurd and a flair for comic characterization." Kim Crow of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette found the novel's premise "somewhat reprehensible," but noted that "an engaging story emerges." Diana Risso, writing in Romance Reviews Today, "was hooked" by chapter four, explaining: "The quirky plot didn't change, but actually improved at this point."

Booklist contributor Kristine Huntley, who found the character's motivations a mystery, wrote, "Though Jane's actions at times are downright perplexing, this is amusing, light fun." For her part, Baratz-Logsted told a reviewer for the Harlequin Web site that "it's a challenge sometimes to draw [characters] so that they are credible to the reader. Since the reader would, hopefully, never do these outlandish things themselves, the trick is to create a character such that readers will say, 'I'd never do what she's doing, but I understand why she's doing it (insane as she is).'"

In the sequel to The Thin Pink Line, Crossing the Line, Jane has adopted an African-American baby that was left on her doorstep and now puts her efforts into pursuing the man of her dreams. In a Booklist review, Huntley called Crossing the Line "even better than the first book" and suggested that it "offers the possibility of another delightful adventure for Jane."

Although her first two novels have been categorized as romances, Baratz-Logsted does not like to be pigeonholed. "I don't see myself as a romance writer so much as I see myself as a novelist," She told the Harlequin online interviewer, continuing: "There is a romance in The Thin Pink Line; there's even a subplot with a romance involving the heroine's best friend, but the book is more of what I would call a Britcom (British comedy) than a conventional romance."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 2003, Kristine Huntley, review of The Thin Pink Line, p. 1751; July, 2004, Huntley, review of Crossing the Line, p. 1826.

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2003, review of The Thin Pink Line, p. 693.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 5, 2003, Kim Crow, "Love, Marriage, and Baby Make Three Bubbly Themes," review of The Thin Pink Line.

Publishers Weekly, June 23, 2003, review of The Thin Pink Line, p. 47.

St. Petersburg Times (St. Petersburg, FL), July 20, 2003, Jane Green, "Battling the Baby Blues," review of The Thin Pink Line.

ONLINE

Harlequin Web site, http://www.eharlequin.com/ (April 1, 2005), interview with Baratz-Logsted.

January Online, http://www.januarymagazine.com/ (December 25, 2005), Tony Buchsbaum, "How One Character's Worst Choices Are a Novelist's Best Ones," review of The Thin Pink Line.

Lauren Baratz-Logsted Home Page, http://www.laurenbaratzlogsted.com (March 10, 2005).

MostlyFiction.com, http://www.mostlyfiction.com/ (October 21, 2003), Shannon Bloomstran, review of The Thin Pink Line.

Romance Reviews Today Online, http://www.romrevtoday/ (December 25, 2005), Diana Risso, review of The Thin Pink Line.

WritersUnlimited.com, http://www.WritersUnlimited.com/ (March 10, 2005), Dawn Myers, review of The Thin Pink Line.