SENT RISING - Erin Lorence - One Free Book

Welcome back, Erin. God has really been moving in your writing life. What do you see on the horizon?

I have the same question...what next? Right now, I’m at a crossroads in life—I’m about to pursue a Masters in Teaching, I’m a busy wife and mom, and I still love writing young adult fiction. Timewise, how am I going to make all these important pieces fit, especially when I start teaching?

I’m staring “change” in the face. I’m relying on God to show me how to use my time in a way that pleases Him.

Tell us a little about your family.

I grew up in a supportive Christian family to whom I’ve stayed super close. I met Brian, my best friend/husband, 20 years ago at Washington State University (WSU). We currently live in Bonney Lake, Washington, with our two daughters, Savannah, age 11, and Brooke, age 8. We value family time, and until recently we were blessed by getting to live minutes from both sides of our family.

Tragedy struck not long ago when my mom died after a three-and-a-half-year battle with a super rare and aggressive lymphoma. We miss her every day but are comforted by the fact that she’s in Heaven as well as our new addition to our family—our beagle, Charlie. He’s such a funny, cheerful guy.

Has your writing changed your reading habits? If so, how?

I read less! Once I pick up a book, I have a problem putting it down, so I have to be careful not to start a novel when I have a deadline or a personal writing goal I want to meet.

What are you working on right now?

My next young adult Christian fiction takes places off the Oregon coast. A rebellious teen must overcome her ocean phobia, as well as her anger at her deadbeat dad.

What outside interests do you have?

Teaching. Years ago, my husband and I joined a small, start-up church, and I got thrust into kids’ ministry...as in I be in charge of children’s ministry, otherwise our church wouldn’t have any program for the kids. As a nurse, I’d always enjoyed mentoring nursing students, but I discovered my passion for teaching kids, and later when my husband and I began our church’s youth group, working with teens.

My love for teaching young people Biblical truths definitely influenced my writing the Dove Strong Trilogy. I want all kids to understand how awesome it is to have a relationship with Him!

In 1973, I started the children’s choir program at a church, as a volunteer. How do you choose your settings for each book?

Dove Strong takes place in the Oregonian, pine-forest landscape I visit each summer. I decided on this setting before I chose my characters’ names or had hammered out the plot. My second book, Fanatic Surviving, detours to an opposite setting—the treeless Chihuahuan Desert, in order to test Dove’s survival skills. Sent Rising ties up all loose ends, while letting Dove experience ocean for the first time.

Throughout the trilogy, Dove repeatedly strikes out with a certain journey in mind...but God has other plans, and she ends up in unexpected places...like a rooftop in Portland or a Californian cave. Yet don’t we experience similar surprises in real life? We have tunnel vision about our own plans for the week, and sometimes God has other plans for us. When that happens, do we stay calm and accept his direction, or do we try to grab the steering wheel back from Him?

If you could spend an evening with one historical person, who would it be and why?

I choose Jesus! I can’t imagine what I’d say to Him...but I’m guessing if I came at Him with a list of questions and an agenda, He’d turn the conversation to whatever it is that I really need to hear.

What is the one thing you wish you had known before you started writing novels?

Honestly...nothing. Having foreknowledge of the bumps in the road and long hours would have discouraged me, and then I might have thrown in the towel before I began. Who knows?

What new lessons is the Lord teaching you right now?

Have patience in uncertainty. Don’t stop praying, even if you feel He’s not listening. He is. His answer could be “not quite yet.”

What are the three best things you can tell other authors to do to be successful?

#1:  Discover the rules to writing your genre if you want to be published.

#2:  Write the story for yourself and not for what you think others want...but be okay with future changes to your “masterpiece” once editors become involved.

#3:  Finish it!

Tell us about the featured book.

Here is the blurb for Sent Rising: No more hiding. This has become Dove Strong’s motto since she accepted her role as a Sent Christian to live among nonbelievers for a year. But then her worst nightmare comes true. Her family disappears from their secluded tree home, and they’re not the only Christians in the nation who’ve been snatched. All clues about the numerous disappearances point to nonbelievers... and the remaining believers are not happy. While Dove and her cousin, Trinity, hunt for the missing Christians, Dove stumbles upon a secret plan to force the Reclaim. Already, vengeful Christians gather in local camps to train for battle, and Dove’s brother is one of the bloodthirsty. Will Dove have the strength to rise up, put a stop to this war, and save her family before a red stain covers the nation? 

Please give us the first page of the book.

My fistful of carrots flopped onto the pasture’s dead grass. I paused with the spear’s red-stained tip two paces from my heart.

A couple dozen pointed poles and pronged branches stuck out horizontally from the giant juniper bush at the edge of the forest, positioned to impale the unlucky trespasser who stumbled too close. While I’d harvested the summer’s early vegetables from Wolfe’s backyard, my brother had been busy beefing up Micah Brae’s home security.

I scratched the red wooden point with my fingernail. Not blood. Beet juice...from our garden patch.

“Gilead, this paranoia of yours is stupid. We’re here to live peaceably with these people. Not skewer them.”

His humming dropped off, though he continued to secure another spear. “Don’t stand there hollering in the open, Dove. You’ll attract the enemy. On second thought, keep hollering. I wouldn’t mind trying out his new defensive boundary while it’s still light.”

Trinity paused in the act of hanging what appeared be a glass wind chime above Micah’s prickly doorway. She jingled it at my lifted brow. “Burglar alarm. To wake Micah if anyone tries to sneak in while he’s sleeping. Plus, it’s the color of smoke.”

“And the color of your eyes. Subtle.” I snorted. Trinity had strewn reminders of herself everywhere in our neighbor’s cramped, juniper-bush dwelling—from a corn silk pillow the exact hue of her hair to duplicates of her tattoos scratched in the forest floor. She’d planted these subliminal messages in hopes that he would stop being blind to the fact that he liked her in the same way that she liked him.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

My website is www.erinlorence.com . They can also find me on Facebook and Twitter.

Thank you, Erin, for sharing this book with us.

Readers, here are links to the book.

Sent Rising (Dove Strong) - Paperback
Sent Rising (Dove Strong) - Kindle

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