Living in Lake County: Local authors, best friends are a fun pair

Let me just say, Jen Lancaster is a hoot. Don’t know her? Neither did I until about two years ago. However, since that time I want to be her best friend. I know I don’t have a chance, because she is so much cooler than I, but I will continue to stalk (go to all her public events) until she tells me to stay away.

Lancaster is a local author who lives in Lake Forest, and if you read her books, you will think you absolutely know her too. Most of her stories are about her life. She also writes novels, with some of them being on the "The New York Times" Best Sellers List. Her latest book, "The Best of Enemies," comes out Aug. 4. Before then, you can catch up with the other 11 books this summer in the spare minutes between shuttling kids around during their break.

A few weeks ago, I saw Lancaster and another author, Stacey Ballis, who happens to be her best friend. They became acquainted with each other when they both lived in Chicago, where Ballis still resides. Like many best friends, they have grown together into a perfectly matched pair of writers, friends and a possible comedy team.

The store that hosted the event was also in Lake Forest, called Re-invent. It’s billed as a gallery, studio and innovative retail store. It is so much fun and houses an extravaganza of artistic creations – more about that later.

For over an hour, the two pals entertained the crowd with stories of their friendship, the books they wrote and the personal stories that will bind them forever. They were genuinely social and entertaining, sharing upcoming works and speaking of their love of writing. The time just flew by.

Lake Forest Book Store was there to sell a selection of their books and they stayed to autograph them while chatting with everyone like we were friends meeting for lunch. Lancaster elaborates on her website, www.jenlancaster.com, about her journey to authorship.

“After a corporate layoff in 2001, down on her luck, and stuck selling off cars, jewelry and designer purses (which sucked, FYI), Jen launched a website to air her frustrations about unemployment," the website stated.

Lancaster began detailing her descent from designer clothing and spa visits to the unemployment line on her blog, www.jennsylvania.com. Her acerbic wit quickly won the blog a massive following.

Lancaster's first memoir, "Bitter is the New Black," was published by the Penguin Random House (National American Library imprint) in 2006. Since then, she has published (at least) one book a year.

Besides her prolific accounts of her life in print, Lancaster has started working with furniture – reworking, repainting and redesigning old everyday pieces and assorted accessories, she said.

Lancaster says she's doing it for income, if her success in writing started to fail. Fat chance of that happening; however, both authors spoke of “with each publishing deadline, you are out of job."

Some of Lancaster's reinvented pieces were for sale at the store, which you need to check out.

Re-invent is located at 202 Wisconsin Ave., Lake Forest. They are open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Books from both authors are available on Amazon.com.

Odie Pahl is a local freelance writer. Her email is odiepahl@gmail.com.