Author Interview (and a Giveaway!): Jerusha Agen & Rising Danger

I’m so excited to chat with author Jerusha Agen today about her new romantic suspense, Rising Danger – which releases TODAY from Love Inspired Trade. yay! Happy book birthday, Jerusha!

Jerusha Agen imagines danger around every corner, but knows God is there, too. So naturally, she writes suspense infused with the hope of salvation in Jesus Christ.

With a B.A. in English and a background in screenwriting, Jerusha is a speaker, writing instructor, and Fear Warrior who sounds the call to battle against fear in our everyday lives.

Jerusha loves to hang out with her big furry dogs and little furry cats. You’ll often find her sharing irresistibly adorable photos of them in her newsletter and on social media.

Get a free suspense story from Jerusha and find more of her thrilling, fear-fighting novels at www.JerushaAgen.com.

You can also connect with Jerusha on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter.

RISING DANGER
GENRE: Inspirational Romantic Suspense
PUBLISHER: Love Inspired Trade
RELEASE DATE: May 25, 2021
PAGES: 324

It’s up to a K-9 handler and her canine partner to stop a bomber before it’s too late.

Someone’s planting explosives on dams in the Twin Cities, and Bristol Bachmann and her bomb-sniffing dog must move quickly to find them before everything ends up underwater. That means relying on the dams’ supervisor—an ex-boyfriend Bristol never thought she’d see again. Hopefully Remington Jones has grown up from the rakish charmer she knew in her academy days. Because lives now depend entirely on them…

It’s an environmental terrorist who wants the dams gone, and his bid to set the waters free has lethal consequences. When he sees Bristol and her K-9 working to stop him, he sets his sights on them. Can they evade him in a lethal game of cat and mouse and protect the cities from devastating destruction before the clock runs out?

affiliate links used

Buy it at Walmart

Hi Jerusha! Welcome to the blog!

Jerusha: Winter! I adore snow and cold and the absence of bugs.

Carrie: Me. Too. We are few and far between though haha

Jerusha: Both! I used to think I was more of a dog person, but then learned how incredibly special the bond with a cat can be, too. So now I enjoy the best of both worlds!

Carrie: aww that’s a great answer!

Jerusha: Mountains. They’re so beautiful and often have snow all year round!

Carrie: yes please!

Jerusha: Always print. After staring at a computer screen for work most of the day, there’s nothing like the joy of holding a physical book and reading off real-life paper.

Carrie: i do love hugging my print books but i’ve developed a fondness for reading ebooks too.

Q: Around here I like to say that reading is my superpower. If YOU had a superpower, what would it be?

Jerusha: Empathy. Sometimes feeling the experiences of others in a deep way can be a burden, but it’s also a gift—especially when it comes to writing fiction.

Carrie: so true!

Q: Which books are ‘on your nightstand’?

Jerusha: I keep my TBR books on a set of shelves in my office, and there are a LOT waiting to be read there! Here are the five I’m most excited to pick up next: The Sowing Season by Katie Powner, Relative Silence by Carrie Stuart Parks, The Red Canary by Rachel Scott McDaniel, At Love’s Command by Karen Witemeyer, and To Love a Prince by Rachel Hauck.

Carrie: I totally relate to the TBR bookcase (I have several lol) and all of those are on my list as well 🙂

Q: If I sneaked a peek in your purse right now (which I would never do, I promise!), what would it tell me about you?

Jerusha: That I strive to be organized and prepared for anything! I carry hand sanitizer (I did this long before the pandemic!), along with tissues, lip balm, cough drops, basic medications, bandages, pens, paper clips, nail clippers, stain remover, emergency whistle, and a pocketknife. Might be the suspense author in me or the fact I was raised by a mom of four who was always prepared for the worst we could throw at her. 😊

Carrie: haha love it!

Q: Did you have the whole plot outlined before you started writing Rising Danger, or did you let the characters dictate what came next?

Jerusha: I had a detailed outline figured out before I started writing Rising Danger. Though I don’t particularly enjoy the outlining process, I’ve found that writing from an outline saves me SO much time so I can produce finished novels faster. And I loathe rewriting more than anything in the writing process, so an outline is worth the effort because it usually prevents the need for big rewrites.

Carrie: that’s a great reason to have an outline, for sure!

Q: Some authors like to hide little things in their stories. Is there anything you have hidden in Rising Danger?

Jerusha: I love to use symbolism in my stories, so you’ll find elements of hidden meaning in Rising Danger.

This book also features a team of five women at the Phoenix K-9 Security and Detection Agency, which is named after the owner, Phoenix Gray. Phoenix and several of the other women have mysterious pasts that are hinted at in this book with some obvious clues and some not-so-obvious hidden elements (their stories will be told more fully in the rest of the Guardians Unleashed Series that will follow Rising Danger).

And lastly, I included a hidden reference to my own grandmother. My heroine Bristol has a special relationship with her grandma, Jessica, and some elements of Jessica’s character were inspired by my grandma. I included a special reference that was a hallmark practice of my grandmother and makes me remember her. Hint: Look for the tissue!

Carrie: I was blessed to have a special relationship with my grandmas too – I can’t wait to find the reference to yours in the book 🙂

Q: What do you most want readers to take away from Rising Danger?

Jerusha: I’ve long struggled with anxiety over things I can’t control. Loss, danger, pain—these are all things that are easy to fear. And perhaps now more than ever, many people share my tendency to fear as we become more and more aware that we aren’t really in control of anything.

Thanks to a tragic event in her childhood, Bristol struggles with this fear, too. She’s structured her adult life in such a way that she can control everything—especially the possibility that catastrophe could strike again. But when a bomber threatens to flood the Twin Cities, her grip on the illusion of control is shaken. And she must face the truth we all have to: only God is in control.

For some, that’s a frightening truth. But what I hope readers will take away from reading Rising Danger is the empowering, freeing, fear-crushing realization that the God Who is in control is also good. He is always good, even in and through tragedy. And because He is good and in control, we have nothing to fear. I hope this truth is especially comforting to readers during these times.

Carrie: love this! Amen ♥

Thank you so much for taking time to talk with me! 🙂 Before we say goodbye for today, tell us what‘s coming up next for you.

Jerusha: I’m so excited about my next book, which will be the follow-up to Rising Danger and official launch of the Guardians Unleashed Series! I’ll be introducing some new members (a special lady and some K-9s) to the Phoenix K-9 team and giving readers another suspense-filled story about the women and dogs of the Phoenix K-9 agency. Look for the new release later this year!

Jerusha Agen is offering a print copy of Rising Danger to TWO of my readers! (US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What about you? What makes you want to read Rising Danger by Jerusha Agen?