LAUREN KATE ON BRAZIL, BRISBANE, RAPTURE, AND ADVICE FOR A NEWBIE (LIKE ME!)

As many of you know, Lauren Kate said THE NICEST THING about my book - so nice, in fact, that it ended up on the cover.

Well, I tracked her jet-setting-self down for a short interview; she's in the UK now, having spent time in Brazil, Australia, and other far-flung places earlier this year. She's currently working on RAPTURE, the fourth and final book in her FALLEN series. Here, the author dishes about book-touring, keeping perspective, and dreaming.

Elizabeth:

You have been touring pretty much non-stop for quite some time. Can you tell us one or two highlights from the last few months?

Lauren:

When my drafts are complete and my copyedits turned in, I really love going out on the road to meet my readers. Since Passion came out in June, I’ve visited Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and now Europe. I enjoy the big, glamorous public events—like the Bienal I just attended in Rio de Janeiro (I had bodyguards!)—just as much as the smaller, more personal interactions that tour allows me to have. In Brisbane, Australia, for example, I had coffee with a fourteen-year-old girl who’d lost her home in the Queensland flood earlier this year. Before she had to evacuate, she packed a backpack and Fallen happened to be in it. She’d read the book over ten times and confessed that reading it was what got her through that first month without a home. I’ll never forget the hour we spent together, just talking.

Elizabeth:

How has your writing experience changed over the course of the series? Did you find certain books in the Fallen series were easier or more challenging to write?

Lauren:

Each one is both easier and harder in different ways. I struggled with Fallen because I was not yet close to the characters, particularly Luce—but there was also so much freedom writing that first book. Anything was possible. I had to work hard at some scenes in Torment where Luce and Daniel had to get along less well than I would have liked—but I loved introducing new characters like Miles and Shelby. Passion was a huge structural endeavor (split narrative covering 6000 years of history), but I really relished how writing from Daniel’s point of view and exploring how deep his devotion was to Luce. I’m still working on Rapture, but at times the first draft has felt simple, and at times I’ve been intimidated by the knowledge that this was my last chance to get the story right.

Elizabeth:

Do you get to write while you're on tour? Are you currently writing Rapture? How do you fit it all in?

Lauren:

I always think I’m going to write on tour. I never do. For me, writing and promoting are two very different things that require very different sides of my personality. I try to finish the first draft of a novel just before I tour for the preceding book. Then I go on tour and get heaps of great questions from readers and come home inspired to start working on the revision.

Elizabeth:

This whole "thing" is very new to me (and often a bit overwhelming!). Do you have any advice for a newbie like me?

Lauren:

The most helpful things I’ve learned: 1) Don’t fret too much about the first draft. Trust the perspective that comes from time away from it as well as your editor or agent. You can and will always go back and make it better in the next go round. 2) Take breaks. When you’re working for yourself, you tend to underestimate how much a day off here and there can improve your writing and your outlook. (This is something I’m still working on.) 3) Value your readers and the many different ways they respond to your books. They’ll never fail to surprise and inspire you. 4) Hold on to your mystery.

Elizabeth:

Do you ever dream about your characters? I had my very first Fury dream last week and it was bizarre.

Lauren:

All the time. I wake up in the middle of the night and have to open up the file on my cell phone to jot down things I must remember to include when I’m at my computer the next day. Half the time those middle of the night scribblings end up being really helpful; half the time when I read them the next morning, I think there is something seriously out of whack with my brain…

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It's official: Lauren is super-cozy! 

xo-E