Set against a 1969 psychedelic love-in backdrop, THE GIRL FROM LONG GUYLAND is shared through the eyes of Laila Levin when decades later, an unsolved murder pulls her reluctantly into her past. A dramatic collision of then and now – entwining family, marriage, profession and ethics.

What genre is it?
Psychological thriller.

GUYLAND has especially resonated with baby boomers. The late sixties stands out as a period when many boomers explored the wilder side of their normally conservative natures. The period of aberration comes back to haunt protagonist Laila Levin and has readers examining their own past. It’s full of suspense and complex characters that are based on composites of real people.

Tell us about the present day Laila, and the wild child of sixties.
Laila Levin enjoys a successful marriage and a thriving career in Austin, Texas. When her company announces a layoff, Laila is caught between an unscrupulous CEO and her promiscuous boss. Then news of her college roommate’s suicide stirs up an old love triangle and dark secret from her past.

Suddenly, it’s 1969 again and Laila’s left her sheltered Long Island home for college in Connecticut. She’s tempted by the sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll that rule her generation and gets swept up in a deceptive love triangle and initiated into an unethical hippie family leading to tragedy.

Laila must now juggle the demands of her perplexed husband, her successful career, and her baby boomer past, endangering her survival and challenging her conscience.

You’ve described this story as a “memoir meets thriller”. We’ve got to ask – how much of Laila is really just you?
This is a great question.

Thank you.
Numerous people have told me that the characters in both the hippie days of the late ‘60s, and the corporate world of 2012, seem very believable and real. A few Amazon reviewers are convinced the novel is my autobiography. I’ll take that as a compliment that I was successful in creating a fictive world with a plot and cast of characters that are composites of people I’ve known.

I’m at an age when I’ve begun reflecting on different periods of my life and examining what I’ve learned from them. For me, the late sixties was an aberration from the rest of my relatively conservative life. I wasn’t near as naïve or crazy as Laila, but I was a quintessential hippie, feminist, and anti-war protestor.

Somehow we don’t think you’ll go into any more detail than that! Tell us about your life now.
I grew up on Long Island but escaped to New Mexico in 1970 in a Karmann Ghia that my boyfriend and I jump-started cross-country. As an English major at the University of New Mexico, I studied under esteemed authors Rudolfo Anaya, and the late Tony Hillerman. I also attended the prestigious University of Iowa’s Creative Writing Workshop.

Ambidextrous from birth, I’ve always preferred my right-brained creative side, but discovered I could make a better living with my left-brain skills, so I entered the I.T. field in 1985 and worked as an I.T. Manager until 2011.

Following the success of my novel, THE GIRL FROM LONG GUYLAND, indie-published last year, I’m now writing full time.

That’s good news – for us as readers. So what’s coming next?
My new novel, THE M&M BOYS will be out in March, 2014.

It’s a coming-of-age story about a troubled little league player who is diverted from the pain of his parent’s separation when his heroes, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, move next door as they compete to break Babe Ruth’s home run record in the summer of 1961.

Maris, a misplaced Midwesterner, is booed by the Yankee fans who prefer Mantle, and the press pursues him mercilessly. Mantle basks in New York fan adoration, but a series of injuries destroy his hope of winning the competition. Marshall’s friendship unearths childhood memories for both men. The front porch camaraderie helps Marshall deal with the pain of his parents’ impending divorce and the three find solace in each other’s triumphs, frustrations, celebrations and disappointments.

Do you have a website where we can keep up with your work?
www.larareznik.com

How can we follow you on Twitter and/or Facebook?
https://www.facebook.com/LARAREZNIK23

How easily do new storylines come to you? If we give you four random words – Man, Woman, Airport, Darkness – can you give us a brief storyline?
I’m generally moved by some event and/or a unique character.

A young woman wandered through the Denver airport in search of the man her parents have chosen for her husband. Her eyes  bubbled up with tears as she recalled the recent tender kisses of the son of her family’s sworn enemy. Suddenly, all lights in the airport have gone off. Gunshots reverberated around her in the darkness.