Mavis Duke Hinton, Author: MEET LAURA JOSEPHSEN, AUTHOR OF RISING

I am happy to interview Laura Josephsen today and feature her latest release, RISING. Welcome, Laura!

Let's jump right in so you can tell us a little about yourself. Thanks for having me on your blog, Mavis! I'm a wife, homeschooling mother, freelance editor, and beginner student of Taekwondo. I live in Tennessee with my family, plus two cats and a dog.

You certainly have varied activities, Laura. What do you enjoy doing when you're not writing (and in all that "spare time" that I'm certain you have)? Hanging with my family, reading when I have time, watching favorite TVshows, editing (I work as an editor, and I enjoy editing for other people very much).

When did you decide that you wanted to be a writer? I don't think I ever really decided. I've been writing for as long as I can remember.

How many books have you written, and what are their titles? Well, I've written four books and I'm working on a fifth, and I've co-written another four books. Out of those eight and a half books, I have three published. Restoration Book 1: Awakenings (co-written with Faith King), Confessions from the Realm of the Underworld (Also Known as High School), and Rising Book 1: Resistance (which is only a two-book series; I'm currently writing book 2).

Why do you write the type of books that you do? I don't have a particular genre or age group that I write. I have a tendency to write YA fantasy, because I love writing it, but I've written contemporary, adult, and science fiction, too. If I had to pinpoint a "type," I'd say I write about finding hope and light and life at the end of the dark tunnel. Some of my characters go through horrible things before they get there, but that's probably the overall theme in my writing.

What was your greatest obstacle in writing, and how did you rise above it? Finishing a book was probably my greatest obstacle. I rose above it by just learning how to get through the tough parts and keep going.

I can certainly commiserate with you on that. There are just so many other things competing for your time.

What Bible scripture has impacted your life the most? Well, all of Psalm 91. But if I had to give one verse, the first one that comes to mind is Zephaniah 3:17.

Do you have a favorite song and/or movie? "Dare You to Move" by Switchfoot remains my favorite song after twelve and a half years. It meant a lot to me in the time of my life when I first heard it and has stuck with me ever since. My favorite movie would probably, overall, be Serenity, the tie-up to the show Firefly.

Please tell us about the featured book. Rising Book 1: Resistance is the first of two books. It was supposed to be one book, but it got too long and I had to divide it into two. Overall, these two books are probably the darkest I've ever written. They're technically science fiction, though they're not futuristic at all. They take place in a world with limited technology, where trains are the fastest means of transportation. I dealt with some really heavy issues and took my characters to some hard and painful places. This story has pushed me outside of my comfort zones and showed me that I need to go to some difficult places to do justice to the characters and their story.

It sounds as though you've really grown in depth as a writer in creating these two books. I'm intrigued, and I'm sure readers are as well.

Here's the blurb for the first book:

All Alphonse wants is a quiet summer at home before his final months at university. What he gets is a half-dead stranger on his doorstep and the task of delivering a package to the leader of his home country. Not long after he boards a train toward the capital, he's attacked by knights, elite soldiers of the neighboring king.

Alphonse is temporarily rescued by Mairwyn, a mechanic with a haunted past and a deep hatred of knights. Together, they attempt to carry out Alphonse's urgent errand, only to learn that if they fail, countless people will die.

And even if they succeed, they may not be able to prevent the war that lurks on the horizon.

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You can find me at:

My blog – http://laurajosephsen.blogspot.com/

Goodreads – http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4403495.Laura_Josephsen

Twitter – https://twitter.com/#!/LauraJosephsen