Lois Walfrid Johnson
Author, Teacher, Speaker
website: www.LWJbooks.com
office: 320-846-0328
Lois lives in north central Minnesota
Publisher contact: Janis Backing, Moody Publishers’ Publicity Manager
e-mail: janis.backing@moody.edu
phone: 312-329-2108
Topic: The Story Behind the Story: Catching the Courage to Win
Author bio: Trusted friend of families Lois Walfrid Johnson is a speaker, teacher of writing, and former instructor for Writer’s Digest School. She is the author of hundreds of articles, 38 books, including Girl Talk, the Gold Medallion Book Award wining Let’s-Talk-About-It Stories for Kids series, the bestselling Adventures of the Northwoods mysteries, and the much-loved Viking Quest series. Readers from more than 40 countries have written to say, “I love your books. I can’t put them down.”
Most recent release: Escape into the Night, and the other five novels in the Freedom Seekers Series with educator helps and study questions in every novel.
Listener hook: Sometimes adventure is not a matter of choice.
Summary thoughts: Lois Walfrid Johnson has a track record with children, young people, and readers of all ages. She not only cares about them. She wants to make reading fun.
Possible interview questions:
- You’re known as a friend of families, an author who cares about your readers. In what way does that show up in your books?
- You’re written 38 books and hundreds of shorter pieces. Is there one thread—one theme that runs through everything you write?
- You have created a variety of high-interest time periods and settings all over the world. Why do your settings feel so real to us?
- Your newest releases are the six books in the Freedom Seekers series with the first novel being Escape into the Night. What happened that led you to write this series? How do you make your characters seem like people we know?
- When we read Escape into the Night it feels as if we’re in a real Underground Railroad site. Or that we’re living on the steamboat Christina. What do you do to make a you-are-there feeling become an important part of the story?
- This series is also coming out in German with the series title translated into English as The Adventure River and the first novel Escape during the Night. What kind of feedback are you getting from readers in Germany?
- Why do you believe this series is especially important for the time in which we live?
- You have received reader mail from over 40 countries. What is a common response from readers? What does that mean to you?
- Let’s think about someone who wants to be a writer. What would you say to that person? What do you tell young people who think they can’t possibly live their dream?