Lauren Barnholdt's new tween book, THE SECRET IDENTITY OF DEVON DELANEY, is about a girl named Devon who is a big LIAR.
While she was living with her grandmother for the summer, she told her "summer friend," Lexi, that she was really popular back home and dating Jared Bentley, only the most popular guy at school. Now, Lexi is standing at the front of Devon's class, having just moved to Devon's town.
Uh-oh.
Devon knows there's only one way to handle this -- she'll just have to become popular! But how is Devon supposed to accomplish that when she's never even talked to Jared, much less dated him?!

Barnholdt is the author of Reality Chick, about a girl who spends a season on a reality TV show -- and last time she stopped by this blog she made us a bad, bad, boyfriend list. (Not a bad list! A list of bad boyfriends!)
And she has a fun blog.

So, I asked Lauren to take the Dramarama Musical Theater Interview, and she did -- only to prove that she's fearless and funny. And a bad singer.

1. You were in a play in high school, weren't you? Tell me all about it.

This is almost too humiliating to talk about, but my school did The Wiz. And I tried out, even though I cannot sing even one note.

(Seriously, I can’t. One time I asked my mom if she would fly to Hollywood to see me if I ever got on American Idol and she was like, “Oh, honey, I don’t think we have to worry about that.”)

And I got the part of a Winkie, which is one of the bad witch’s slaves. And I was really, really happy because I got a part. I hadn’t realized that everyone who didn’t get real parts was cast as a Winkie. Sigh.


2. Give me song lyric that makes you laugh. Preferably from a show, but I'll cut you some slack if whatever you quote is funny.

Anything sounds funny if I’m singing it.

3. If you've seen a show on Broadway, what was your first one? Whom did you go with, who was the star, what did you think of it?

I never have. But I really, really want to. I make my boyfriend take me to lots of high school productions. We just saw Fame last week.

4. What's your showbiz fantasy?

I don’t really have a showbiz fantasy, unless it involves Ben Affleck declaring his love for me. But I don’t think that’s what you mean.

5. Which Broadway diva are you, deep inside? And why? Ethel Merman, Carol Burnett, Nell Carter, Kristin Chenoweth, Bernadette Peters, Julie Andrews, Bebe Neuwirth, Audra McDonald, Carol Channing, Mary Martin, Barbra Streisand? Or someone else?

I actually don’t really know any of those people. Like I know Julie Andrews because she was Mary Poppins, etc. And of course Barbra and Ethel and Nell and Carol Burnett. But I don’t know them well enough to say if I am any of them. I guess I’ll pick Kristin Chenoweth, since I know from reading DRAMARAMA that she’s really small and cute. I’ve always wanted to be really small and cute.

6. Write me a nice little song lyric for the book you're promoting right now. Please.

Sung to the tune of HIT ME ONE MORE TIME by Britney Spears.

“Oh baby, baby, how was I supposed to know?
That you would come to school here?
Oh, baby, baby, I shouldn’t have told you so…
That I was dating Jared…”

That’s lame, right? Now do you see why my mom isn’t worried about having to come to Idol?

Click here to order THE SECRET IDENTITY OF DEVON DELANEY.