"People
ask me: Why angels? Why paranormal? Why teens? In
the beginning, I’m not sure I knew I was starting down any of those twisted
paths—paths that now seem so familiar to me that they are downright comforting.
In the beginning, I was just writing about love. Before
Fallen, I’d written love stories and more love stories. I’d fallen in love with
love stories—but they were also beginning to feel just a little bit too
insular, too small. Maybe I was inspired by the lovers in my stories, but what
was I saying about the world beyond them? Why should the love between two
people matter to anyone else? In essence: How could love have larger
implications?
That’s
when I read the line in Genesis about angels looking down from Heaven, finding
mortal women beautiful, and ultimately falling for them—in two senses of the
word, because (the story goes) the angels sacrificed their place in Heaven for
that love. Now
that was a BIG love story. A big, complicated, fraught, and, most likely,
doomed love story, which, I may have forgotten to add, is my favorite sort."
Lauren Kate grew up in
Dallas, went to school in Atlanta, and started writing in New York.
She is the author of Fallen
and The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove. She lives in Laurel Canyon with her
husband and hopes to work in a restaurant kitchen, get a dog, and learn how to
surf.