Tag Archives | Laura Josephsen

One author’s take on branding. (RISING by Laura Josephsen)

Thanks for having me on your blog, Laura!

My blog topic for today is how this new book is different from my last book published, Confessions from the Realm of the Underworld (Also Known as High School), but it made me think about writers taking on all sorts of different stories.

Confessions is Young Adult, contemporary, modern-day setting, and a very “normal life” story. It was kind of my oddball novel in that respect; I typically veer more toward speculative fiction. It was about family and friendship and set in high school.

Rising Book 1: Resistance is adult speculative fiction. It’s set in a fantasy world, but it’s science based and therefore more accurately sci-fi, and it’s adventure/friendship/gradual romance.

Confessions is one of the lightest and most fun books I’ve ever written. It had a snarky voice and was super easy to write. It dealt with characters having to make some tough decisions, yes, but the ultimate tone of it was very lighthearted.

Resistance is the darkest book I’ve ever written. It was emotionally exhausting in a lot of ways, and it cost me a lot to write it—I had to delve into deeper places and push myself outside my comfort zones.

I’ve talked before on my blog about branding—should an author have a brand or not—and something that’s stuck with me is when someone told me that maybe it’s not genre or age group that needs to define a author—maybe it’s an overall theme that the author consistently writes. That struck a chord with me because I feel like that’s how I write—whether I’m writing YA or adult, speculative fiction or not, inspirational or contemporary, I always go toward themes of light and life and hope. My characters might go through terrible things that sometimes I don’t even want to think about, but the journey is in seeing how they deal with these things, how they overcome them and find the light at the end of their tunnel.

We all have stories that we love and stories we dislike. As completely different as Confessions and Resistance are, my hope for both books is that something in the words I write might speak to someone…it might just be in wildly different ways.

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.

Laura Josephsen lives with her family in Tennessee. She is a co-author of the Restoration series and the author of Confessions from the Realm of the Underworld (Also Known as High School). She likes music, reading, socks, rainy days, chocolate, coffee, and sci-fi and fantasy tales.

Links:

I haven’t had the honor of reading the Rising yet, but I read Confessions from the Realm of the Underworld (Otherwise known as High School) and I really enjoyed it. I have no doubt this next one will be just as good. Thanks everyone! If you have any questions for Laura Josephsen – ask away!

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Confessions from the Realm of the Underworld – a giveaway!

I opened to page one of…

CONFESSIONS FROM THE REALM OF THE UNDERWORLD (OTHER WISE KNOWN AS HIGH SCHOOL) by Laura Josephsen.

And found…

Okay. I found crazy voice all over the place.

Here’s an example from the chapter titles:

A Prologue of Sorts

In Which Sephie Tries to Explain How Her Crazy English Teacher Finagled Her into This Mess.

The main character Persephone (all her sisters are named after characters in Greek mythology-loved it) enters her senior year and everything changes. Her grandfather is losing his house. One of her sisters plays a starring role in the local high school scandal. Even things with her best friend Joey aren’t the same.

Sephie must deal with all the changes in her life while figuring out who and what she wants to be.

I’ll be honest. As I was reading the first quarter, I kept waiting for Sephie to figure out she was really Athena, her boyfriend was Zeus, and her teacher was Hades and they’d fall in love in some kind of weird triangle.

So not what happened. But in a wonderful and sweet way.

Laura’s natural writing style, Sephie’s voice and her complicated but real family (all present and accounted for – no mysterious disappearances or deaths – ) all drew me into this three-dimensional story. I was in tears on and off through the whole entire second half. Maybe because it was so realistic. The character could’ve been me. It could’ve been my sister. It could’ve been my friend.

I just know I loved it. And I want you to have the chance to read it too.

Comment on this post and retweet, and I’ll choose a random winner to receive the paperback from the author.

Never fear, click here to purchase from Amazon. You won’t regret it.

Head over to Laura’s website and check her out.

Have you read any good epublished books lately? Or traditionally pubbed?

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