The coolest, strangest thing about writing a series is that dialogue and details, written in a spirit of experimentation, become fixed once a book is printed. Sometimes I have to revisit my books to relearn rules I invented.
Five years ago, three books into the Fallen series, I set a scene on the Jordan River circa 1000 BCE, featuring my favorite character Cam. It was a break-up scene, full of vitriolic heat—a fragment of a romance, a lens through which to see the relationship of Luce and Daniel, whose love so consumed its context it left space for little else.
I didn’t know Lilith then. I didn’t understand why Cam loved her.
I certainly didn’t know that these four pages in Passion—pulled down from my office shelf to answer a reader’s question last summer—would inspire a new Fallen novel.
This is a rock and roll story, a second-chances story, the villain’s side of the story (the villain’s always the hero of another tale)—and above all, a testament to the powerful experiment of love.
Many of you have asked me: What happened to Cam? A part of me must have always known I would return to my most enigmatic character. I think you knew it, too. Unforgiven is available today (in the US/UK/Australia/NZ–and soon around the world). This story is for you.
