Blog Tour- Jennifer Froelich

Please tell us about your most Recent Book

STEALING LIBERTY is my young adult dystopian novel, which will be released on June 13 by Clean Reads, Inc. It’s about a group of kids who become friends at a secret detention school for teens whose parents have been branded enemies of the state. When they start reading the old books they find in tunnels under the school, they begin to question what they are taught about the last days of America and the government that has risen in its place. When the government decides to sell the Liberty Bell, they risk everything to steal it, to take back their history and the liberty that has been stolen from them.

Why do you write what you do?

I have my degree in journalism and have become increasingly concerned about the way propaganda is used by the media and politicians to shape the way Americans think. The idea for STEALING LIBERTY developed from that concern and for my love of history and current events, both of which shaped the construction of this futuristic story. Of course, it is a challenge to incorporate such heavy subject matter into a story for young adults. Hopefully, I solved that conundrum by writing a character-driven story. I think any subject matter is more interesting when you see if from the viewpoint of a few individuals rather than thousands of people. I used multiple intelligence theory to develop my characters, hoping that will help my readers develop personal attachments and favorites among them. We’ll see if it worked!

What are you currently working on?

I am writing a sequel to STEALING LIBERTY called WEEPING JUSTICE, which I hope to release in 2018. I’m also planning a third book called CHASING FREEDOM to round out the trilogy.

How does your work differ from other work in its genre?

I love to read YA dystopian novels, but I have noticed that most of them don’t explain how we got from here to there. I wanted to write a story that showed at least a glimpse of that process so readers would feel a connection between the world we live in now and the one I’ve depicted in the future.

How does your writing process work?

I write every day, though I often fail to meet my word count goals. I am a macro “plotter” and a micro “pantser,” which is sometimes frustrating as my characters drag me into places I never imagined we would go together. Overall, I am a slow writer. I have tried to write tens of thousands of words and to leave all the editing for later, but I find that doesn’t work for me. So I tend to write a few chapters at a time, then go back and lightly edit before continuing on. I’ve written three novels now (and I’m in the middle of the fourth) and every time, I feel like an amateur in a professional world! Now I’m wondering if that feeling will ever change. As much as I would like to speed up my process, I am more concerned about releasing a story that readers will love than one that they will like, but which can be in their hands more quickly.

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2rspaus

Jennifer Froelich published her debut novel, Dream of Me, in late 2011, which reviewers praised as “well-orchestrated with outstanding imagery.” Her second novel, A Place Between Breaths, published in 2014, was called “a roller-coaster ride with enough twists and turns to keep everyone interested” and won an Honorable Mention in Writer’s Digest’s 23rd Annual Self-Published Book Competition. Jennifer is a frequent contributing author to Chicken Soup for the Soul.

A graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University, Jennifer worked for many years as a free-lance editor and writer before publishing her own work. She lives in beautiful Idaho with her husband, two teenage kids, and a rescue cat named Katniss.