Featured Interview With Laura L. Comfort
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in Alberta, Canada, and I’m still here. I would like to travel more, but so far I’ve been to most of the western states in the US and many of the Canadian Provinces including Nova Scotia which is on the far east coast. My biggest adventure was when I went to Belize in Central America and visited the Mayan Ruins and went scuba diving.
I moved lots when I was young. I started in a small town, moved into the big city and finished high school in a small northern city.
I love animals and I’ve pretty much always had a dog. Allergies prevented me from owning cats but I have had rabbits, birds, hamsters and fish. Then I became a parent so having a dog is quite enough.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have always loved a good story, but reading was a chore. At school I found it too distracting. It wasn’t until I was in my early twenties that I really got into it – no one was telling me when and what to read, I wasn’t in a hurry and it was a pleasant escape from the every day.
I had insomnia as long as I can remember and as a kid I would spend those late hours writing poetry and making up stories to read to my friends at school. I didn’t sit down to write a novel when I first wrote Journey to Kokoroe. That process was something quite different.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Raymond E. Feist Magician series really brought out the love of reading in me. I was a very hesitant reader and after high school I just didn’t pick up the books. Once I read Magician that changed. I’ve read every book in that series (30 some books) and many other books since I read that first one. I read across the genre’s but fantasy is where my writing creativity takes me. When I discovered John Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprentice series I had already written my first two books. When I discovered his stories I found we had a similar writing style. His books are more about character and overcoming personal challenges than battles and wars (although there are a number of those in his books, but like mine, the action isn’t the driving force).
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Into the Valley is the third book in the Essence of Galenia series and came out in the fall of 2015. Even though it is book three it is one story – when I started writing I didn’t realize it would take three books to get it all down! I started with three different races with unique skills; when one of the Juro decided to try to combine the races in order to create a supreme one, things got out of hand. The experiments made him an outcast and resulted in much devastation before the eventual success of the Yaru, an elite group with ninja-like abilities. In book three, Hanna sets out to put an end to the latest threat these experiments pose.
My goals when writing this story was to create a believable antagonist, a protagonist who chose their path rather than it being prophesied, and I wanted to follow both their journey’s. The main theme behind all the books is choice.
It takes me a year to do a book from start to finish: 6 weeks to write the rough draft, many rounds of editing, creating the digital cover art, formatting and then publishing. I could do it faster but I typically only have the evenings to do it and I find a break between the writing and editing process is necessary to create a better work of art.
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