Fallen in Love came along as something of a surprise. I wasn’t expecting to write it. My publisher was waiting on Rapture. You were waiting on Rapture. I was waiting on Rapture….

But I wasn’t ready to write it yet. It made me nervous to think about writing “The End” to a series that has meant so much to me. How would I tie up a story that has covered six millennia of time and space and passion? I really had no idea.

So I did what you do when you’re nervous: I procrastinated. My mind ambled over someplace easier…like Arriane. Had she ever had a love story of her own? And what about Roland? Was there a heartbreak hidden beneath that cool façade? I started jotting down a few notes for side stories about the other characters in the series, but I didn’t know what they were adding up to.

Then one day I got a very moving letter from a reader who was going through a difficult breakup. I searched for a way to respond to this person. Eventually, my response came out in a story—a story that turned into Fallen in Love.

Luce and Daniel’s love story is emblematic for eternal love—but it’s far from the only kind of love. There’s platonic love, love that grows slowly over time, even (unfortunately) unrequited love. Over the past couple of years, I have had the pleasure of interacting with many of you—either in person, over email, or in chats like this. And every time you open up about your own romantic experiences, I come away inspired. Fallen in Love is a tribute to my readers and the many different kinds of love you’ve shared with me.

I’m going to be answering questions all week on Random Buzzers  so I hope you’ll come on over and join the conversation.

Thanks so much for reading and enjoying my books,

Lauren

The Saffron Flower...

Some of you know how much I love to cook. When I’m done writing at the end of the day, cooking something exciting often feels like the most fun way to wind down. To me, cooking is the opposite of writing: where writing is sedentary and brain-draining…cooking is hands-on and can be done with a clear, calm mind.

My husband Jason loves saffron, so for Christmas one year, I got him a book called the Essential Saffron Companion. Here’s our favorite special-occasion recipe from the book. It take some time and effort but it’s worth it!

Mussels in Saffron Cream with Noodles

serves 4

40-50 saffron filaments infused in 2tbs (30ml) of warm (not boiling) white wine*
40 large mussels (green lipped ones work great)
6oz (150 g) unsalted butter
3tbs (45ml) chopped onion
3tbs (45ml) chopped flat leaf parsley
1/2 bottle dry white wine

Sauce:
2 shallots, diced
2tsp (10 ml) tomato puree
8oz (250 ml) mussel stock
4oz (175 ml) heavy cream
juice of one small lemon

To cook the mussels:

Scrub and de-beard the mussels. In a heavy pan, melt 2oz (50g) butter, add onions, parsley, half the wine. Bring to a boil and add the mussels. Cook, shaking the pan periodically until the mussels open (time will vary depending on what kind of mussels you use..anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes). Discard any that do not open. Remove each mussle from the pan and into a bowl with a slotted spoon to ensure that the juices remain in the pan. Reduce the contents of the pan for two minutes, then strain the mussel stock and reserve.

To make the sauce:

Sweat the shallots in 2oz butter for 5 minutes. Add the tomato puree, half of the saffron, and the rest of the wine. Add the reserved mussel stock and reduce everything in the pan by half (maybe 10 minutes of cooking on medium). Taste, season with salt and pepper to taste, remove from heat for a few minutes. Add the cream and reduce again if needed, adding a little lemon juice to taste.

To serve:

Cook your preferred type of noodles. (On an ambitious day, we’ll make homemade paparadelle using a pasta maker, but fresh store bought noodles will work great, too.) Bring the sauce to a simmer and stir in the remaining saffron and the last 2 oz of butter. Place the mussels back in the sauce pan to warm them. Pile pasta on plates or bowl, add ten mussels per serving, then divide the sauce over the dishes. Garnish with chopped chives or parsley.

Bon appetite!

*I’ve been using this incredible Iranian saffron that I was so excited to buy from the spice bazaar in Istanbul last fall. But you can use powdered saffron or any kind of filaments infused for 1/2 hour to an hour in warm wine.

We travel frequently for work, so sometimes it can feel like a special treat to stay in and cook together. I have a feeling that’s just what we’ll be doing this Valentine’s Day.

Do you have any favorite romantic recipes?

Until tomorrow (and you KNOW what tomorrow is!)

Lauren

Click here to view the embedded video.

And when your tired feet need a rest (if you are wearing shoes like Robyn, that could happen quickly), I can think of a real good book for you to curl up with…

What’s your favorite song to dance to on your own?

Until tomorrow,

Lauren

Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh

My first book crush was Rhett Butler from Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. I must have read all twelve hundred pages of that book twelve times when I was twelve years old. I remember reading it once while visiting my grandmother in Baltimore. She told me how much she loved the movie–it was the only film she’d ever gone to the theater to see twice. When we rented and watched it together, I fell in love with Clark Gable’s depiction of the character. This contentious scene between Scarlet and Rhett scene has always been a favorite of mine.

Does this guy remind you of anyone you know? (Or have ever read a book about…?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nACj50uq6_s

Until tomorrow,

Lauren

A portrait of John Donne from the National Portrait Gallery in London

Today’s Dash comes from love poet master, John Donne. His words inspire me regularly. (Look for him again in the epigraph of Rapture!) Like The Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis, this poem centers around two departing lovers, but in this case, this speaker finds reasons to celebrate the separation. Take a look:

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
by John Donne

As virtuous men pass mildly away,
  And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
   "The breath goes now," and some say, "No,"

So let us melt, and make no noise,
   No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;
'Twere profanation of our joys
   To tell the laity our love.

Moving of the earth brings harms and fears,
   Men reckon what it did and meant;
But trepidation of the spheres,
   Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers' love
   (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
   Those things which elemented it.

But we, by a love so much refined
   That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
   Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,
   Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion.
   Like gold to airy thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so
   As stiff twin compasses are two:
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show
   To move, but doth, if the other do;

And though it in the center sit,
   Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
   And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
   Like the other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
   And makes me end where I begun.

The best poems (and books and songs and paintings) give us something new to admire and enjoy each time we return to them. I was hooked by the speaker’s suggestion in the fourth stanza that his love is so elevated it resides above the moon. (Look for elements of this in Roland’s story withinFallen in Love). Today I am particularly struck by two images towards the end of the poem: The first in lines 21-24 suggests that because the lovers’ two souls are joined, when they are apart theyexpand and their love fills in the space between them. And the second says that if their souls are in fact two–they are like a compass, one always pulling the other toward it during periods of separation. It reminded me of Luce and Daniel–and I hope it inspires you too.

Until tomorrow,

Lauren

Today’s Dash of Romance is a painting I fell in love with during a recent trip to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. It’s called The Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis and was painted by Jacques-Louis David in 1818. David was inspired by the French novel, Les Aventures de Télémaque, which is loosely based on characters from the Odyssey. Here we see Odysseus’s son, Telemachus, who has has fallen in love with Eucharis only to have to leave her to continue searching for his missing father.

There is an electricity between these two lovers that makes their goodbye both torturous and stunning. And of course, I love the loyalty in that little dog’s eyes! And I want her dress. Clearly there is much to covet here.

Maybe it’s the hopeful romantic in me, but I’ve gotta believe these two (and the dog!) will meet again…

Do you have a favorite romantic painting? Have you ever had to say a very difficult goodbye to someone you love? I’d love for you to share your thoughts below.

Until tomorrow!

Romantically yours,

Lauren

XO,
Lauren

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Hi Lauren!

Carolina, one of the managers of our blog, posts her drawings. Hope you like and you can post them in your blog.

The blog is Saga Oscuros:

Beautiful drawings by Carolina from Colombia

Hi Lauren! recently I won Passion with this fan art via the Random House company! It was such a treat and I’d love to share my work with you. Here is my inspiration for Luce’s dress. I would love to be a writer someday and follow in your footsteps!

- Beth

Wonderful drawing of Luce by Fallen Fan Beth!

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