A talk about fallen angels and writing.

October 22rd I was so lucky that I got an interview with the author Lauren Kate. She’ve published three books(“The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove”, “Fallen” & “Torment”) and two books in the fallen series coming out during the next year.

Rebecca and I met Lauren at a the little lounge at The Hilton Birmingham Metropole.

LINDEA: As a writer, have you ever experienced self-doubt in your writing skills or your manuscript before submitting any of your manuscripts? 

LAUREN: Lots of it. I wrote two novels before writing Fallen, and I got a lot of rejections from publishers. At several points I thought about quitting, but all it would take to succeed was only person to say yes.
And it got a lot easier once I got an agent.

LINDEA: What kind of research did you do before and during writing [Fallen]? Do you have any special religious background? 

LAUREN: I don’t think my background has a ton to do with what’s in the books. I tried to do logically research but not necessary in a religious sort of way. I had a scholar at graduate school, an angelologist and she led me to a lot of texts. I did a lot of research about two years ago, before I started writing Fallen, so I read a lot. About the devil, three books on Satan and then I read by the same author, Jeffrey Burton Russell, The history of heaven, and I have an angel dictionary which has the different names of the different kinds of angels. And I really like Harold Bloom, which is a scholar I think is very great on angelogy and research.
I have also read the bible, which have less angel references than you might think. And they usually are in the extra biblical texts. Like “the Dead Sea scrolls”.
I have “the other bible” where all those text are included.

LINDEA: What do you think is the best writing tips out there?

LAUREN: The first tip is to be really open to new experiences and think that every opportunity can go into your books. And to have a blog, it makes you available.
I also think that “finishing what you start” is a overlooked piece of advice, because it’s so easy to start something and be inspired and then quit when it gets a little hard. So I always try to finish what I begin, through the ruff parts ‘til the end.
And then a third thing: Finding a sort of reader which you trust, someone who can read your work and offer feedback. It’s important to have someone else’s eyes to look at it.