Hey, I’m Lauren LeDonne. Bios are boring, but I love lists.
I live in the Hells Kitchen neighborhood of New York City. It was meant to be temporary, but more than a decade later it’s become noisy, gritty, cherished home.
I’m originally from the Seattle area. Raised in Federal Way, high school in Tacoma, early adulthood in Seattle and Issaquah. I also lived in SoCal for a year (did not like) and Chicago for a year (loved).
I’m married to my high school sweetheart—when I refer to Anth here on the website, that's him.
I’m a New York Times bestselling romance author under the pen name Lauren Layne.
Before that I worked T-Mobile’s web marketing/e-commerce team. The corporate world wasn’t for me, but I got super into websites.
Which is why after seeing how awful most author websites were, Anth and I spun up a side-hustle to build them. It used to be called Last Word Designs, now it’s LeDonne.co
I’m proud of our work there, but these days I’m trying to be more of a creator designer, and less an executor designer. I want to design from a place of creative passion, focusing on the design I love most: minimal, neutral, type-forward.
This is one of my favorite places on the internet. So is this. “Fits on all your shitty screens.”
Basically, I want to fight against the talking-head-everything Tik-Tok-ification of the internet in my own little way.
INTJ. Enneagram 5. I love all that personality test stuff. It’s nice to have a language for our quirks.
I watch all eight of the Harry Potter movies every October and look forward to it all year.
Ravenclaw, self-declared. Hints of Slytherin arising as I age.
I’m a homebody who does not enjoy travel. If you offer me an all-expenses trip anywhere in the world, I’d ask if I can stay home and spend the money on a new throw blanket, purple iMac, and a soft pretzel.
I love olives, hate ketchup.
Pluviophile.
When I was writing Miranda in Retrograde, I had to research astrology. I went from thinking it was crap to finding myself.
Cancer Rising, Aries Sun, Taurus Moon.
I don’t watch much TV, but when I do, I mostly rotate among my favorites: White Collar, New Girl, Psych, Grimm, and Happy Endings.
I always want to watch movies, but I’m never really in the mood. Unless it’s Enchanted or Maverick.
August 13, 2024 is my silverversary—the last day I quit trying to dye my beautiful gray hair with dark dye. I was 41, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done for myself.
I find it such a treat to talk to someone who spends more time reading varied nonfiction than they do watching the news. Conversation is inspiring, nuanced, and rarely histrionic.
Related: If I could have dinner with anyone dead or alive: Ryan Holiday (he’s alive, btw).
My favorite color is black, my favorite state is Maine, my favorite FRIEND is Ross.
After years of letting this website lurk dormant until I figured out its niche, I decided to let it be anti-niche. A place for all the things that make me, and always changing as I change. Part journal, part musings, part commonplace book, part studio, part creation, part portfolio, part curation. Probably some lists, like this one.