Sowards is a graduate of Moses Lake High School and Brigham Young University. She swam competitively for sixteen years, including while she was in college. She found it more entertaining to think of plot ideas while following the black line up and down the bottom of the pool than having a song in her head that restarted with every flip-turn. Sowards currently lives along the Wasatch front with her amazing husband and her adorable twin toddlers.
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LDSWBR: Do you find it easier or more difficult to write during the summertime? Why?
A.L.: I think it’s easier, but I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because I’m outside with the kids more, so they get tired and take better naps. It also helps that I’ve recently given myself a no-internet-during-nap-time rule, so I’m getting good chunks of quality writing time almost every day.
LDSWBR: Would you rather be in the pool or next to the pool?
A.L.: In the pool. Between swim team and life guarding, I practically lived at the pool most of my youth. This summer I’m not swimming too many laps, I’m just catching my two-year-old twins when they jump into the water.
LDSWBR: Ice cream or slushie? What flavor?
A.L.: I’m going to have to say smoothie, because my daughters and I have smoothies for lunch at least once a week. It’s an easy recipe, so I’ll pass it on: 1 cup milk, 1 cup frozen strawberries, 1 cup yogurt (just about any type works, and if it’s a single-serve size yogurt, I just dump it in without measuring it), 1 banana. Sometimes I add a baby food jar of pureed carrot to add some nice color and some good vitamins (yes, we still have pureed vegetables at our house, because my kids still eat them. Anything I can do to get more vegetables into them…). Blend. Add straw (if desired). Enjoy.
But don’t let that fool you–I’m a total chocolate addict.
LDSWBR: Thank you so much!
Espionage by A.L. Sowards
DESERET BOOK | SEAGULL BOOK | AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE
France, 1944: Nobody expects Peter Eddy to survive his first commando mission—to retrieve a code book stolen by the Nazis—so when he does come back alive, his success is rewarded with an even more daunting assignment. Partnered with French Resistance leader Jacques Olivier, Eddy must identify which of three Allied contacts in Calais is a double agent and use the traitor to help implement a strategic Allied diversion that might win the war. Eddy and Olivier secretly cross the English Channel to confront their suspects one at a time, but what appears to be a clean assignment soon turns disastrous, and a shocking betrayal leaves Eddy in the grip of the Gestapo. With the courageous aid of Olivier and his sister, Genevieve, Eddy evades his captors with a dangerous escape plan. But as the Allied invasion approaches, treachery in the least likely places leads to fresh graves in the bloodied European soil—and only the power of loyalty and love can transform tragic endings into new beginnings.
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Book prizes donated by the authors include:
Reality Check by Karen Tuft
Cold Justice by Kathi Oram Peterson
Journey to the Fringe by Kelli Nielsen
Dangerous Favor by Joyce DiPastena (choice of print, Kindle or Nook)
Twitterpated by Melanie Jacobson
Of Grace and Chocolate by Krista Lynne Jensen
Espionage by A.L. Sowards