Interview with Beth Troy & Giveaway!

Hey there everyone! If you’re following this blog, then you already know how much I enjoyed Beth Troy’s, “Lu.“. I’m super excited to have her join me on the blog today!

Beth is kindly offering to giveaway to one of my lucky readers so stay tuned until the end of the interview to learn more about that.

Tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind the story?

I became a Christian the first semester of my freshman year in college and took a field trip to the bookstore as soon as possible. I was an avid reader growing up and now that I believed in God, the genre of “inspirational fiction” was open to me (or more like I was open to it). I remember the anticipation of that first trip, hoping for a story to make sense of how to be this “new” me in my same old world. But what I saw were a lot of book covers with portraits of women in bonnets and high-necked, lacy collars. There’s nothing wrong with that – I enjoy reading historical fiction – but I was looking for a story about a girl like me. I walked away without buying anything, but the inspiration for writing a different sort of story – one that would require a different title and cover – happened there.

Without using spoilers, do you have any favorite scenes?

That’s an unfair question – sort of like asking me to choose between my children! I will say this, the Thanksgiving chapter was the easiest to write. My writing buddy gave me a fun little task a few Thanksgivings ago to see the holiday through Lu’s eyes. I took it a step farther and decided to write a chapter about it. At this point in writing the book, I’d just finished Chapter 12, and it was still summer in Lu’s world, so it was fun to project into her future. Where would she be by Thanksgiving, in her faith, and in her relationships? I wrote this chapter in just a few hours, and unlike the majority of the book, it remained relatively unchanged throughout the entire editing process.

If you could choose any of your characters to spend a day with, who would you pick and what would you do?

Lu! She’s an introvert, and I’ve always liked hanging with introverts. I think my extroverted self is always interested in the stories quiet people have to tell but rarely do. So, I would butter her up with some tasty coffee, and see if I could get her to chat.

Team Jackson or Team John?

Team Both. I completely crush on both.

What do you hope that readers will take away from Lu?

That God is real and deals with real people. No character in this book falls in the two-dimensional “good” or “bad” buckets, and their beliefs are not of the hook-line-sinker mentality. I think the stereotype is that Christians fall into one category and check their brains at the doors of their churches on Sunday morning. Lu counters that assumption.

Before you go, are you currently working on any other projects?

Yes! I’m 18 chapters into Lu2, and I’m also bandying about the idea of reading an audio version of Lu. That’d be a challenge, seeing as I don’t even like the sound of my voice on my voicemail, but … I’d like to say I tried.

About Lu.

“There’s great hope where the road meets the sky – maybe even an answer. But this road leads home. Just home. I thought I’d finished writing that story years ago, but then yesterday’s story happened – the one about the boy who cheats and the girl who leaves.” Lu Sokolowski never planned to return to her small hometown of Dunlap’s Creek, but it’s the only place she can think of to go after her boyfriend cheats on her. Moving back in with her family lets her run away from her problems, but it also means suffering their attempts to reassemble her failed life, including arranging a job as the wedding beat writer at the local paper and setting her up with Jackson, the divorced pastor of her family’s church. Unexpected success and friendships restore Lu to the family and faith she’d left behind. But when the small-town life Lu never intended shakes up, will she run again?

Lu’s story is a journey of a woman back to her family, her faith, and herself. It’s about second chances and the unchosen circumstances that press the point of who we are and what we believe. Are we the sum of our successes and failures, or does our identity rest in a greater hope?

Check out my review. |Add on Goodreads | Purchase your copy at Amazon

About Beth Troy

Beth Troy is a writer and lives in Oxford, Ohio with her husband, Matt, and their three sons, Jesse, Ezra, and Tommy. She’s the author of Lu, a novel about a woman finding her way back to her family, her faith, and herself. When she’s not drafting Book 2, she teaches Creativity + Innovation at Miami University.

VISIT BETH at her website, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

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***GIVEAWAY!!!***

Before you go, be sure to enter the giveaway! Beth is offering a paperback copy of “Lu.” to one of my lovely readers! (Open to both U.S. and International residents)

All you have to do is enter the rafflecopter below. You have to enter the rafflecopter to be qualified.

Click here to enter: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway opens Tuesday, October 17, 2017 at midnight and ends Friday, October 27, 2017 at midnight.

May the odds be ever in your favor.