We've been having a grand ol' time with Lauren Morrill visiting us this week! Lauren's been such a good sport - in addition to visiting us on her board, she went above and beyond by sharing a reading playlist and a chapter excerpt!

We've been peeping in Lauren's board and this is what we've learned about her:

• Lauren physically acted out Julia's falls and slips in her living room in order to write them more realistically
• Lauren has a second book - BEING SLOANE JACOBS - due January 2014! It's about hockey player and a figure skaters and we can't wait!
• Lauren is a very spur of the moment person
• Lauren's dog Lucy is super adorbs!
• Proving that first impressions are not always forever, Lauren and her husband had an awkward first date
• Father of the Bride is Lauren's favorite movie
• The best present Lauren's ever received was tickets to see the Nutcracker in Lincoln Center, NY
• Lauren's favorite SAT word is onomatopoeic
• Julia is a combination of not just Lauren, but her friend Sarah, Rory Gilmore, and various other people
• Judy Blume was and is an inspiration to Lauren
• Lauren is a nerdfighter
• When in high school, Lauren went on a cruise with the concert band. She and her friends ended up standing at the bow of the ship screaming "I'm the king of the world" a la Titanic
• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides is one of Lauren's favorite books
• Lauren would love to visit Greece
• Lauren's been writing her own novels since she was in the 5th grade, although Meant to Be was the first she published
• Lauren works with a chapter-by-chapter outline
• In addition to Judy Blume, Lauren loved reading the Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley High when she was a kid, as well as the Janie series
• While Lauren did visit Scotland for 10 days, she has never been to London
• To research Meant to Be and get an accurate feeling for sites, Lauren spent a lot of time on Google street view maps and watching tourist's Youtube videos
• Lauren considers herself a romantic realist - she enjoys romcoms or reading swoony novels, but knows that it's not the end-all-be-all
• While Lauren didn't really party in high school, she did rely on her college experience to write the party scene in Meant to Be
• If she could switch places with a character for a day, Lauren would switch with Rory Gilmore
• While Lauren doesn't believe in love at first sight, she's definitely a believer of serious attraction at first sight
• What Lauren would like her readers to take away - to draw inspiration from Julia's personality; she's always unapologetically herself. She recognizes that her behaviors are nerdy or rigid, but it's who she is so she's going to be that way
• When Lauren wrote a particular scene about Julia's dad, she was in a Wendy's and ended up tearing up
• Two of Lauren's fictional MTBs - Jess Mariano (Gilmore Girls) and Logan Echolls (Veronica Mars)
• Lauren has a thing for smart, snarky bad boys
• Lauren used to watch TV show Felicity religiously as a kid - Team Noel
• While Lauren does like using parentheses, she found that she likes to use the word "just" quite a lot
• Lauren's favorite Disney villain would probably be Ursula
• Lauren's favorite Jane Austen novel is Emma, so Clueless is her favorite adaptation
• Lauren is a Slytherin

That's just a teeny bit of what we learned about Lauren! To read the rest of her awesome answers, visit her board here! Lauren was nice enough to share a vid of herself reading the first chapter of Meant to Be, which you can watch here! Feel free to say "hello" to Lauren on Twitter (@laurenemorrill), her Facebook, or website!

If you missed Lauren's visit, don't fret! Next week, Caroline B. Cooney is visiting next week to chat about the newest and last chapter in the Janie saga - Janie Face to Face! Stop by her board here to chat with her!