Lene Fogelberg

Lene Fogelberg is the author of her Beautiful Affliction, a Wall Street Journal bestseller, a national gold medalist in 2016 Independent Publisher Book Awards, and a finalist in the 2015 USA Best Book Awards and the 2016 International Book Awards. Her second book, a debut novel, The Lightning Tree will be released March 29, 2022.

Lene who grew up in a small town on the Swedish west coast developed a love of poetry and reading. She studied languages and creative writing at the University of Gothernburg and the Stockholm Academy of Writing. She lived in France, Germany, the USA, Indonesia and Malaysia. She now lived in Sweden with her family.

Welcome Author Lene Fogelberg

Thank you for being a part of my meet the author series! I’m so honoured to have read your memoir Beautiful Affliction and now your novel The Lightning Tree. Could you tell us a little more about yourself?

I know you lived in Malaysia for a while, it must’ve been an experience to learn various cultures. How long were you there? And did you enjoy the local Asian cuisine?

—We lived in Kuala Lumpur for a little over four years, until we moved back to Sweden in the Spring of 2020 when the pandemic hit. We loved it there! We loved everything, the wonderful people, the warm weather, the beautiful nature and of course the amazing Asian cuisine. Kuala Lumpur is such an amazing city, with such rich and diverse cultures from all over Asia gathered together into this glittering, bustling metropolis.

What do you do when you are not writing?

—I love to read, paint, travel, go for long walks in nature, and hang out with my family and friends.

Do you like reading books by specific authors?

—I love to read a lot of different books, but lately I’ve mostly read young adult fiction, since that’s what I’m writing. Some of my favorites are Leigh Bardugo, John Green, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Markus Zusak.

Inspiration for writing
The Lightning Tree

In Beautiful Affliction your memoir, a beautiful story about your life, one word stood out for me, your intuition is strong. In The Lightning Tree your novel, relationship is the word that pops up often. Both are amazing themes connected to your story and I couldn’t stop reading them. I keep wanting to know what happened next.

I love how you write poetically, like a rhythm that draws attention to details in each scene. Where did you learn to write like that?

—Thank you! I love to read and write poetry, and devoured everything by for example Swedish poets Tomas Tranströmer and Edith Södergran in my youth. I have always been fascinated with the rhythm and musicality of language and the way a single detail can evoke an emotion. When I started to write, I focused on poetry and my writing evolved from there into longer works of prose and fiction.

Could you let readers know what inspired you to write The Lightning Tree?

—I love being in nature, and all of my life I have enjoyed going for walks in the woods or by the sea. When we lived in Jakarta, Indonesia, this was hard to do, because the city is huge, but also because the air was so polluted. After four years in Jakarta, we moved to Kuala Lumpur where there was less pollution and we could go for long walks in the jungle. I often pondered what it would take for mankind to take deforestation and climate change even more seriously, and then it hit me: what if nature started to strike back? I looked at the huge trees surrounding us in the jungle, and the idea for The Natural Intelligence Revolution trilogy started to take form in my mind.

What would you like readers to take away from your story?

—I hope I can share my love of nature, and that the book invites to a dialogue about how we take care of our planet for future generations. Writing this trilogy was a labour of love. A love of nature and humanity alike. It was also a way for me to channel my sorrow over mankind’s often brutal and cruel exploitation of our beautiful planet. But most of all, it is a love letter of sorts, to nature, to the strength of today’s youth, and to the generations that come after us.

Who would you like to see cast as Flora, Fauna, Carl and Ava in a movie?

—I would love to see them in a movie! That would be so cool. As Flora, I’d love to see Abigail Cowen, and Sadie Sink as Fauna. Jordan Calloway would be perfect as Carl, and Sarah Paulson as Ava.

What’s next for Lene Fogelberg

I’m excited to read the next instalment after The Lightning Tree. Could you share a little more about it?

—Yes, in book 2 of the trilogy we will follow Flora and her crew as they search to learn more about nature’s uprising, while at the same time having to battle problems that they run into. We will meet new characters that will join the gang, and also get to know Flora’s father. All in the same fast-paced action as the first book. Oh, and we’ll of course see how Flora and Carl’s relationship develops…

When is the expected publishing date?

—September 4, 2022.

What advice would you give anyone wanting to become a writer?

—Try to dig deep and find the WHY within you. Why do you feel the need to write this story? What is it deep inside of you that wants to take shape in words? If you can let your own heart pulsate to the rhythm of your words, it will surely resonate with the readers you seek to connect with. Reading and writing is all about connection, we read to know that we’re not alone. Another way to approach this, is asking yourself when holding your manuscript: Could anyone else have written this? If the answer is no, you have managed to write something that is uniquely yours, and it will be just as interesting to the reader as meeting you in real life would have been.

Connect with Lene Fogelberg

Readers, Lene would love to hear from you. You can connect with her here.

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