Amazon Exclusive: Q&A with Lauren Kate
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Q. Rapture is the fourth and final book in the
best-selling Fallen series—how does it feel to have finished
writing this story?
A. I wept while writing this book—a first for me. At
this point, I just feel joy at getting to share the story. I’m
ready to release Luce and Daniel into the universe. The three of
us do each other proud in this book: Luce transforms into an
inspiring force of nature and Daniel proves himself worthy of her
love. These two outcomes were not inevitable at the start of the
series. I have given them an ending I think is worthy of their
journey--it was the only possible ending for them. I hope it
makes readers say, “Yes, that’s right.”
This sense of closure does not extend to the other
characters in the series. I’m working on a new book now, set in a
completely different world, with an unrelated cast of characters.
The other day I was writing a scene, and I kept having to stop
myself from thinking: You know who’d know just what to say here?
Roland!
Q. In Rapture we finally find out how Daniel and Lucinda
meet—I won’t spoil it, but I will say it was an amazing
revelation. (I did not see it coming, and I totally cried.) When
you started writing Fallen, did you already know how Daniel and
Luce first met? Or was it something that came to you while you
were writing?
A. It was Luce who determined that this first meeting
become so revelatory, not me. I didn’t realize how much it
mattered until she kept bringing it up. (Having parted ways with
the cast of Fallen, I see how the characters’ autonomies resided
at the limits of my subconscious. When it seemed as if a
character knew more about a situation than I did, I learned to
follow his or her instinct to the edge of the universe.) In
Passion, the at-first- moment’s elusiveness was like a
delicious cupcake floating in front of a winged horse: If only
Luce could work hard enough, go back far enough in time, she was
bound to find it. And it was bound to tell her everything, right?
This is a girl, remember, who’s had hundreds of lives, hundreds
of origins, but she was looking for the most primal one, the
source.
I didn’t know the details of Luce and Daniel’s first
meeting until I wrote them. I knew there would be a moment when
she would think she’d arrived at the start of all her love, which
would feel strangely hollow and lacking. When Luce finally
arrives at the source—like most elusive, long-sought goals—it’s
not what she was expecting. By then her perspective has shifted
so radically that a thousand other things matter more than the
first moment she laid eyes on Daniel. But she still needed to get
there, to realize how much she’d grown. It’s good to have
ambitious goals in life, if only to be usefully disillusioned
when you realize them.
Q. Luce and Daniel have a love that transcends time, but
throughout the series, Luce is still very much a normal modern
girl, with normal insecurities and problems. How do you hope
Luce’s metamorphosis in Rapture might resonate with young women
today?
A. Evolution of character is happening to all of us all the
time. Whether we welcome or reject it determines the nature of
our evolution, but nothing stops us from changing. All change is
not progress—Luce makes missteps throughout the series—but there
is one way that she is consistently admirable: She’s open to
change. Her metamorphosis at the end of Rapture did not surprise
me. I don’t mean I knew what was going to happen--I didn’t. I
mean she began in a place where she decided to open herself to
the world, so it was only a matter of time before that openness
would bring her to a place that was previously unimaginable to
all of us.
Young women today: Sometimes evolution sucks because it so
inevitable. Surround yourself with those who support your
changes, who like to watch you grow, who want to help you become
the person you’re always on your way to being. And don’t be
afraid to own your failures.
Q. Let’s talk about Lucifer—perhaps the most infamous of all
angels in the Bible, and a major player in Passion and Rapture.
In this series you’ve played with the blurry boundaries between
good and evil, and in Lucifer we see this idea personified. How
did you go about characterizing Lucifer, and how did you approach
thorny questions like his motivation for what he did? Did you
base his character and actions off sources you’ve previously
mentioned, like Paradise Lost, or was his character entirely your
own invention?
A. I write love stories. More specifically, I write love
stories that slip love into the inception of a familiar myth or
story. My first novel, The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove, takes
Macbeth and introduces thwarted lust into the backstory, so that
unrequited love predates the fierce ambition of Shakespeare’s
narrative. In the Fallen series, we get to know Lucifer very
well. The Lucifer we meet in Paradise Lost is motivated by pride.
But from where does such extreme pride spring? Rapture proposes
an answer.
When love is impossible it creates a dangerous and
violent world. We see this in characters from Jay Gatsby to
Humbert Humbert to Quentin Compson to Romeo Montague. Characters
are worlds. They have their own atmospheres.
Q. What are you working on now? Will you revisit the
angels from the Fallen series?
A. I’m working on a new series that slips love into the
origins of a beloved myth. It’s challenging and invigorating to
make a fresh start, like moving to another country and making all
new friends. I hope they let me stay awhile.
