Special Guests: Children's and Young Adult
Fallen, Torment, Passion and Rapture; Lauren Kate and YA Fiction
American writer Lauren Kate is the internationally best-selling author of The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove, a reworking of Macbeth, and the Fallen series – Fallen, Torment, the just-released Passion, and the forthcoming Rapture. Her novels have been translated into over thirty languages. The Fallen series features the most achingly perfect love story in the form of the relationship between Luce and Daniel, one that transcends time and space and resonates with Christian theology and fable. (Yes, I’m a fan!)
I was lucky enough to be asked to interview Lauren on her visit to Dublin to promote Passion.
Lauren, why and when did you start writing? Have you always written?
Yes, I always wrote – for as long as I can remember. As a child that was the way I would play, writing down little plays and stories and acting them out. Narrative has always been part of my way of thinking. I took Creative Writing in High School and just kept on writing – short stories at first, then novels. It was always just something I enjoyed doing, but I didn’t realise till I was in my twenties that it was something that would become my life’s path.
Read more: Fallen, Torment, Passion and Rapture; Lauren Kate and YA Fiction
Tony DiTerlizzi - The Search For Wondla
You describe in your recent Guardian interview how you comforted your daughter with the Spiderwick Chronicles while she was in hospital, suffering from seizures. “She seems to have healed, with no real memory of hospital. But I remember; and I changed. In those haunting days, I found the true power of words. The magic of story.” Can you elaborate a little on this?
The Spiderwick Chronicles were long finished at that time and the movie was out; I started to tell Sophia a fairytale but my wife told me to read her one of mine so I decided to retell her the story and it had a tremendous impact. I’d always made stories I really liked & loved; they were great fun & entertaining to children but after the hospital incident and witnessing the power of escapism, I came home and put any stories I was working on aside and took a different approach.
I thought it was interesting your wife wanted you to tell one of your stories...
Yes, I remember that so vividly; Sophia was watching lots of Disney at the time and I knew she’d recognise fairytale stories. But Angela knew that there’d be a bit more heart and soul in my voice if I told one of my own - rather than reciting something else. And she was right.
So how did your attitudes to writing and storytelling change as a result of this experience?
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