Jillian Lauren Recommends...

“This does not count as writing time: e-mail, Facebook, ordering another J. Crew cardigan, watching YouTube videos of that cute heavy metal band of eleven-year-old kids in New York, or anything involving cat pictures.

This does count as writing time: lying on the floor of your office listening to Elliott Smith’s Either/Or. Poetic, hypnotic, massively screwed-up and beautiful—this album reminds us that even with the most despairing work, creation itself is a light in the darkness. Handle with care because Either/Or stirs up the deepest kind of mojo. I never listen to it when I’m actually writing, because I find the lyrics distracting. For a soundtrack, I prefer Phillip Glass’s Etudes for Piano. Try it. Wear your glasses. You’ll feel smart!”
—Jillian Lauren, author of Pretty (Plume, 2011)