Lauren Kate recently took time out from writing her new book, Rapture, to answer some questions from her fans emails, here is what she had said.....
What is this surprise new book "Fallen in Love" about?!
Luce and Daniel's relationship is emblematic for eternal love--but their story is not the only kind of love. This is a book inspired by you, my readers, who have shared your love stories with me from the beginning and shown me how many different shapes love takes. Set far back through the Announcers--somewhere between Passion and Rapture--Fallen in Love is a grand tour of romance that reaches through time and through hearts. Get a little bit closer to knowing the eternity of Luce and Daniel--and swoon as Miles, Shelby, Roland, and Arriane navigate their hearts' destinies.
See what happens between the lines of the Fallen Series, and fall in love, again, forever. Fallen in Love comes to bookstores across Canada and the United States of January 24, 2012! And in the UK on February 2, 2012! More details on release dates around the world coming soon... What drew you to the idea of fallen angels?
I’ve been writing love stories for as long as I’ve been writing. To me, the most complicated romances make the most interesting narratives, so I’m always looking for new obstacles to throw in my lovers’ paths. When I was getting my masters degree in fiction, I was studying biblical narratives and came across a line in Genesis (6:1-4), which describes a group of angels who fell in love with mortal women. Putting this reference together with a mention in Isaiah and another in Palsm 82, biblical scholars conclude that these angels were actually cast out of Heaven for their lust. Which means—you could say—that these angels chose love over Heaven. Isn’t that a great set up for an incredibly complicated romance? I started thinking about what kind of mortal girl it would take to attract an angel’s attention. And what it would be like for her to find herself in this position. What kind of baggage would an angel have? What would her very over-protective parents think? From there, this whole world unfurled in my head with fallen angels, demons, reincarnation, and the war between good and evil all battling for a piece of the action. Who is Luce based on? What does she look like to you? Which character are you most like?The physical traits of Luce (pronounced Loose) are based on my oldest, closest friend—the dark wavy hair, hazel eyes, tiny teeth, etc. When I first started writing her, I pulled some personality traits from this friend, but as I continued with her story, Luce veered away from my friend into an identity of her own. I share some traits with her—like her stubbornness and tendency to get swept away by romance. There is probably a little bit of me and a little bit of everyone I know and love in all the characters.
As for the settings of the schools in the books, everything is fictional, but like the characters, they’re based on a compilation of things I’ve experienced. Did you struggle in coming up with any of the characters?Daniel was the most challenging, mainly because the full truth of his character has to come to light very slowly over the course of the entire series in order for the books to work. By now, I’ve really come to love Daniel and I can understand why he’s been the way he’s been with Luce. But I like to think of him as a work in progress, a developing story, and someone who, above all, knows Luce better than anyone else (including herself), and has her best interest at heart.
