Fairly Easy-going. fond of daydreams. Fascinated by human nature.
Lauri Ann Kerns
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About me
I’ve always been a writer.
I wrote my first book when I was four. I don’t remember this; I was only four. Since then, I’ve filled countless journals with wishes, dreams, imagined lives and daily observations. Nothing fascinates me more than the human condition. I spend hours musing over why people do the things they do, watching way too much Investigation Discovery TV and taking walks in the woods. (Leaves of three, let them be. Leaves of five, let them thrive. I don’t even know if that’s true, but that’s what my dad always told me.) I have been an actress, a marketing professional, an Air Force Captain, a trapeze artist and a ranch hand. I live in the Appalachian Mountains at the edge of the National Forest with all those things that go bump in the night.
novels
The BRIAR KEEPERS
Book Club Horror
All Abby ever wanted was a family of her own. Newly married and pregnant, she’s left L.A. to follow her husband back to Tennessee and Rosebay Hall - an abandoned stone mansion in the Appalachian Mountains.
But Abby’s strange new home begets even stranger behavior. Her husband, once attentive and quiet has become taciturn and dangerous. Abby’s pregnancy has turned from surprising to terrifying – and something the doctors in town can’t explain. When Abby discovers a cache of letters hidden in an old family Bible, she learns that Rosebay Hall has watched generations of women grow and bear children. But it has never seen them leave.
As Abby begins to understand the danger of the water that flows across her land and runs through her veins, she turns to the community of women who have lived at Rosebay Hall to find a way to escape. But Abby must uncover the darkest secret of all if she is to save her children – and herself.
Lullaby for wolves
a coming-of-age story
Tobin Harless grew up rough, lonesome and a little bit wild. When Tobin wins a spot at a small private college, she expects thrilling debates and quiet afternoons in study halls. Instead, she’s in the midst of raucous parties and a violent culture. When Tobin’s new love interest Reecie is raped at a fraternity party, Tobin wants justice. And no one seems to mind if Tobin gets a little blood on her hands to make things right. But Tobin must decide how far she’s willing to go to change a culture that has infected every level of society; from the trailers of her remote mountains to the paved sidewalks of her new college, and everywhere in between.
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Short stories
A Southern Baptism - Shortlisted for the 2019 Bridport Prize
The Lemon Shake-Up - Hair Trigger Magazine, Columbia University Gold Circle Award Winner
Medication - Hair Trigger Magazine, Columbia University Gold Circle Award Winner
The Boobs - Hair Trigger Magazine, Columbia University Gold Circle Award Winner
Favorite Books
The Deep
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
The Shipping News
White Oleander
The Shining
Wide Sargasso Sea
A Wrinkle in TIme
The Magician’s Nephew
The Night Circus
The Secret History
The Immortalists
State of Wonder
Favorite Authors
Donna Tartt
Denis Johnson
Jeannette Winterson
Elizabeth Brundage
Patricia Highsmith
Alma Katzu
Gillian Flynn
Education
Columbia College Chicago
M.F.A. Fiction Writing
University of Southern California
B.A. Psychology