Featured Interview With Laura J. Swallow
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born and raised in Kansas. I moved to Japan for almost four years, then moved back to Kansas this last March.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I’ve been a bookworm for as long as I can remember. I remember going to the library as a kid, checking out a giant bag of books, and then returning them all completed a week later. I really started writing in middle school, which continued through high school. I took every writing elective I could and I actually planned to be a journalist all the way into my first year of college. Then I realized I wasn’t that into informative writing, so I changed my degree to teaching and didn’t write much for a few years. I toyed with blogging on and off, but it wasn’t until I was teaching middle/high school English composition classes in Japan that I remembered my love of writing. I started writing fiction at the beginning of this year and haven’t stopped.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I have so many types of books and genres that I like. I really enjoy pretty much all genres of young adult. I love a good historical fiction book and I’ve even read (and enjoyed!) a large number of classic books. I feel like every book I’ve read has inspired me in some way. When I think of young adult, I think of Roth, Collins, Aveyard, Rowling, and Lewis.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book is called 6,393 Miles, which is roughly the distance from Wichita, Kansas, to Osaka, Japan.
While it’s technically fiction, it’s basically my very heart and soul from about age fifteen until now, only in paperback form. Honestly, it still freaks me out sometimes to think that I’m not only letting other people read something so personal, but I’m actively encouraging them to.
To start my explanation about this book, I’d like to acknowledge that (I think) most of us imagined moving off to a far-away place as teenagers. Especially during those days when nothing is going your way and you want nothing more than to completely disappear. Move to the other side of the world? Sure, anywhere but here. But most of us know that amazing adventure isn’t going to happen so we just live our normal, sometimes boring teenage lives. Only to Chloe, an average girl very lacking in coordination and very much into her best friend, this actually happened, and it happened when she didn’t want it to. When everything was going her way and she pretty much had her future figured out, her dad announced that he was moving her to Japan. And she’s angry, she’s upset at her dad, she’s confused, but she’s still a little excited. After all, it’s still a new place with new people and new perspectives. She grapples with her conflicting emotions, fighting her sense of adventure with sullenness and anger for a while. But the people around her eventually make her give in to her more positive emotions. She learns that change can actually be a good thing, even if it’s the last thing she ever wanted.
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