Lauren Kate-FAQS

Al ir a solicitar a Lauren Kate una entrevista

me mandò este pedazo de mail explicandome no solo

a mi, sino al resto de personas que se lo habiamos solicitado

toda la informaciòn, es una especie de FAQS

Dear Ana, Michelle, Courtney, Jennifer, Aaron, Anastasia, Kerdisha, Carmela, Maria, Shalan, Leah, Vicky, Jacqueline, Jordan, Abby, Domenique, Beth, Celina, Luis, Letisha, Shannen, Lauren Kate (!), Bonnie, Kerrie, Karly, Tame’ra, Liv, Nabilah, Tiffani, Janessa, Laura, Jessica, Johanna, Jenee, Emily, Chloe, Jazmine, Stephanie, Madison, Koey, Cristina, Tamika, Maria, Aliyah, Haleema, Beth, Emily, and Mackenzie,

Thank you for your questions, comments, blog reviews, and support! It is really amazing to me how many people are already excited about the series. I have just finished writing Torment and I hope it will to give you plenty of reason to stay excited!

I've been reading all of your emails and trying to figure out the best way to answer questions and express my gratitude for so many kind reviews. And what I've decided to is start sending out a weekly round-up. If you reviewed me on your blog, thank you for sending it my way! If you asked me a question this past week, I've tried to answer it below. If you asked about a Fallen clothing line—there isn’t one (yet!), but I dig the way you think. If you have some fan art work, send it my way and I’ll see about adding it to the site. If you requested I visit your town or local bookstore—I’m keeping a list for my Torment tour in the fall. If you merely sent along an enthusiastic email, I'm including you on this too, just in case you're interested. Read as much or as little as you want!

(And if you haven’t read my books yet, beware, there are some spoilers below…)

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. But if I had to which one I’m most like (though this is hard to imagine), I might be a crazy combination of Arriane and Penn.

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. The reveal at the end of the first book was probably one that most readers saw coming...it is book about fallen angels after all! But there's a much bigger, game-changing reveal about Daniel to come later in the series. It's challenging for me to know what's coming and only be able to show the reader so much at this point. Daniel's character is difficult enough as it is! 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.

That is the blessing and the curse of writing a series! I wish I could give you all the answers now, but please believe me that I have a reason for withholding some of the details! I must torment you until Torment comes out in the fall! In the meantime, check out the Sword and Cross Case Files at www.fallenbooks.com to learn a little bit more about who's who in Fallen!

I love talking about point of view and love playing with it in my books. In the case of Fallen, I didn’t intentionally choose this point of view. Most of the time when I start a new story, I’ll hear a line in my head before I start writing. In this case, it was the first sentence of Chapter One (more or less). The choice to say “Luce” instead of “I” was implicit, not something I was entirely aware of. I just started writing, but it felt true to the story to tell it from a close, close third, so I kept it. We’re almost in Luce’s head, but there’s that small point of view choice separating us. She remains just a little bit unknowable, which is how I wanted her character to be.

Not officially, but a few songs I listened to a lot as I was writing:

Drunken Angel by Lucinda Williams

You Look So Young by the Jayhawks

Not Dark Yet by Bob Dylan

Betrayal is my first novel and was as much of a guilty pleasure to write as I hope it is for people to read. It’s a dark, funny, gothic story about one girl’s twisted path towards Queen Bee-dom. It’s a Cruel Intentions meets Friday Night Lights meets MacBeth (told from Lady MacBeth’s point of view), set in the contemporary south. People read Fallen and they ask me whether I went to a school like Sword and Cross. Not even close! Actually, it’s the school in Betrayal that is a thinly veiled version of my utterly enormous and insanely Texan high school. All the things Natalie cares about in Betrayal are very close to my high school heart.

Like Fallen, Betrayal is richly southern gothic—Fallen is set in Savannah and Betrayal is set in Charleston, South Carolina—so the same sort of wonderfully oppressive southern scenes are important to both books. But where Luce is struggling to find her place in a new, unfamiliar school, Natalie is a girl at the top of her game—and she won’t let anything compromise that. Like every complex character, they both have some pretty remarkable skeletons in their closet. Natalie is a bit naughtier than Luce, but I imagine they would be friends. Actually, Nat’s kind of like a type-A version of Arriane.

I’m having so much fun writing Torment right now. I think I’m more proud of it than any book I’ve written so far. Really, it’s going to be GOOD. It’s hard for me not to spill everything right now so I can say, “Aren’t you excited? Won’t this be great?” But my publisher would probably have my head. So in lieu of that, I’ll reveal just three things:

1. As Luce learns more about her past, she comes into a host of powers she never knew she had—and they might involve the shadows.

2. After the second book comes out, a prequel (which will span thousands of years!) will follow before the final book in the series.

3. Even though, of course, Daniel is Luce’s one-and-only, a new character is introduced in Torment that offers him some stiff competition.

I've been writing stories since I was in middle school, so I love talking to people who are interesting in writing. One question this week had to do with how to write description, and the clearest advice I can give about that would be to take your time. Say I'm trying to describe a sunset and can't figure out how to make it interesting or fresh. Sometimes, when it takes me a while to get warmed up, I'll imagine how someone else--my husband, my best friend, someone I recently argued with--might see the same sunset. What would they notice about it that I wouldn't, or vice versa? Write a whole paragraph about the sunset instead of just a sentence. Then go back and look at what is strongest image you came up with. Which image reflects something new about your characters? Save that image, cut the rest. Eventually, those strong images will pop out first in your mind.

To those of you who are sending out your work (or plan to in the future), stick with it! I couldn’t even begin to count how many rejection letters I’ve received over the years from agents, publishers, editors, and contest judges. What kept me writing was the support of other friends who are writers—and a dogged determination to someday get my writing published. There were times when I never thought it would happen, but now I’m so glad I kept writing. Find a writing-buddy, share your work, revise it over and over again, read it aloud, stay true to yourself and your voice, and don’t give up. An English or a Writing program are great ways to read widely and meet other writers. If you’re looking for an agent, Writers Marketplace (the book) is a great place to start. There are also tons of publishing blogs out there with suggestions for agents. It’s mostly about finding someone whose tastes and sensibilities match yours.

I turned twenty-nine last week! When I was younger, I wrote often and across a lot of genres—poetry, songs, stories, lots and lots of diary writing. I started focusing mainly on fiction by the time I was in high school, and longer stories came more naturally to me than short stories. I finished writing my first novel right when I graduated college—but nothing ever happened with it. It look another six years before I had a book accepted for publication.

I’ve always been a voracious reader. I can’t go on vacation for a weekend without at least five books. Growing up, my favorite author was Roald Dahl, and I think I read each of his books ten times. My favorite children’s/YA writers are Lois Lowry, Frances Hardinge, Meg Rosoff, Maureen Johnson, Phillip Pullman, and John Green. A few of my favorite adult books are To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

I’m sure I’ll still be writing novels. I’m always updating the notebook I keep with ideas for future books. But at some point in the future, I’d also like to be doing something related to food. I’m not sure what form it will take, but I have a dream of working in a restaurant kitchen somewhere. Very glamorous, I know!

I don’t have any book plates yet, but I hope to get some soon! I’m also OUT of my copies of Fallen (except for two I am holding onto!) but I encourage you to sign up for Random Buzzers on the Random House website to get on the mailing list for advance copies of their books. Maybe you’ll get a copy of Torment before it comes out!

Fallen is the first book in the four-book series—though I will be writing a prequel to explain some of the things that have happened before the narrative of Fallen began. Torment picks up right where Fallen left off and will be published in hardcover in September, 28 2010. Sounds far away, doesn't it? But it'll be here before any of us can believe it. There will be two more books after that, one in the summer of 2011(this will be the prequel), and a final book in December 2011.

*The books are available in stores, online, and also on Kindle and on audio! They audio version is really cool.

So far, Fallen has sold in these markets:

1. Brazil: Editora Record

2. Bulgaria: Intense/Locus Books

3. Catalan language: Grup Editorial 62

4. Czech Republic: Euromedia

5. Estonia: Pegasus

6. Film/Television Partners: Mayhem Pictures/Disney

7. France: Bayard

8. Germany: Bertelsmann

9. Greece: Psichogios Publications

10. Hungary: Könyvmoly

11. Indonesia: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama

12. Israel: Hakibbutz Hameuhad/Sifriat Hapoalim

13. Italy: Rizzoli

14. Korea: Random House Korea

15. Lithuania: Media Incognito

16. Netherlands/Dutch language: Uitgeverij Van Goor

17. Poland: MAG Publishers

18. Portugal: Planeta Portugal

19. Romania: Editura Litera

20. Russia: Eksmo

21. Serbia: Evro-Giunti

22. Slovak Republic: IKAR

23. Spain: RH/Mondadori

24. Taiwan (Chinese Complex Character): Sun Color Culture

25. Thailand: Post

26. Turkey: Epsilon

27. UK Audio: RHUK Audiobooks

28. UK: RHUK (Doubleday)

29. US Audio: RH/Listening Library

30. US: RH/Delacorte

It is out in the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Spain, and Taiwan. The next country to publish the book will be Germany, but I don’t have exact dates yet!

It looks like there is a real possibility! The film rights for all four books were optioned by Disney/Mayhem Productions last week. Last week, I got to have a conference call (never done one of those before) with the Disney people and they seem really excited about getting the movie going. More to come! I will keep you posted on my blog.

I wish we could ALL be in the movie! All my friends and relatives are asking the same thing. I don't know anything about casting yet, but I promise, if I hear of an open casting call from Disney, I will post it on my blog!! And thanks to those of you who sent along casting suggestions. I too think Ed Westick would make a great Cam. I’ll pass it along!

I will be signing books at the LA Times Book Festival on April 24th and 25th. I don’t know exactly what time I’ll be signing yet but I’ll update my website as soon as I do And I’ll be at Book Expo America in New York from May 24-27 (details on signings to come). And at ComicCon in San Diego in July.

I will also do another tour in September and will be making stops in northern California, Michigan, NY, Chicago, and other places. I am keeping track of the places where readers are asking me to visit, so keep asking! Someday I would love to be able to make it to your neck of the woods. No Aussie or UK tour yet...but let's all keep hoping for that. Please check my website for updates!

Many people have asked about my involvement in the cover art. I actually had nothing to do with it (which is a lucky thing for all of us)—and no, I am not the girl on the cover! She’s a model from Brazil (though I don’t know her name), the artist’s name is Fernanda Brusi Goncalves, and the cover was designed by a very talented team of designers at Random House. I did a little grateful grovel when I finally got to meet them a few months ago. I’m sorry I don’t know who designed the dress, though I’ve been told Morgan LaFaye has a very similar one in her wedding collection (which also comes in black!).

When my editor first emailed me a jpeg of this art, it took me about thirty seconds to wrap my mind around someone else’s image of the world and Luce’s character, but quickly after that, I fell in love with it. I had the same reaction to the just released Torment cover. And I want both of the dresses!

If you've made it through most or all of this email, I truly appreciate your interest! I hope I've answered most of your questions. Thank you all for reading and for sharing your thoughts with me.

Best wishes,

Lauren