Mini-view with Lindsay A. Franklin

About the Author

Lindsay A. Franklin is a best-selling author, award-winning editor, and homeschooling mom of three. She would wear pajama pants all the time if it were socially acceptable. She lives in her native San Diego with her scruffy-looking nerf-herder of a husband, their precious geeklings, three demanding thunder pillows (a.k.a. cats), and a stuffed wombat with his own Instagram following. You can learn more about Lindsay on her website.

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The Interview

1. What inspired the idea for Story Raider?
Writing sequels is hard in some ways, but in some ways, it's easier. For Story Raider, I needed to continue the threads I began in Story Peddler, carrying them out to their logical conclusions—and sometimes turning them upside down. I wanted to expand Tanwen's world, to get my characters in deeper and more serious trouble, and unmask the series villain I (sort of) introduced in the epilogue of Story Peddler. The plot grew out of these goals and desires.

2. What did you as an author take away from writing Story Raider?
The process of writing this book was really hard for me. I was under a severe time crunch, trying to launch Story Peddler (which was my debut novel, so I had little idea what to expect throughout that process), and I was going through a really difficult personal season. Some parts of writing Raider felt downright manic, and I was somewhat shocked to find that my draft was fairly cohesive when I finished. So I think I learned how important it is to persevere, even when it feels like it's impossible and it'll never come together. Raider is also the first piece of fiction where I explored some of the emotional turmoil caused by the sexual abuse I experienced in my childhood. That is part of what made it so difficult to write, but the process was also very healing.

3. What top 5 books are currently in your TBR pile?
My TBR is embarrassingly enormous. But I'm excited to try Circle of Shadows by Evelyn Skye and The Memory Thief by Lauren Mansy. I'm also due for a reread of The Chronicles of Narnia because it's been a few years. I love to read thrillers and creepy, but not too scary, atmospheric books during the fall season, so I'll have to go hunting through the massive TBR to find some that fit the bill soon. :)

4. What's up next?  What can you tell us about your current WIP?
My current WIP is the third book in The Weaver Trilogy, The Story Hunter. The draft is actually complete and with my editor right now, so I'm working on non-writing things while I wait for my edit to come back. It's hard to give details about Story Hunter without major series spoilers, but the tagline for the book is "Redeeming the past is a fatal quest."

5. What is your favorite summer activity?
Relaxing with my kids! It's tough because I feel like my work calendar gets extra busy the moment they're out of school, but I love that we're able to have more family movie nights and other weekday activities when they don't have schoolwork and homework pressure on them.

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