Rebels & Saints: Catching Freedom (Train Hoppers Book 3) received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Lena Gibson.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
Rebels & Saints: Catching Freedom (Train Hoppers Book 3), publication date: April 24, 2025.
What’s the book’s first line?
“The broken, snow-capped dome of Mount St. Helens jutted upward, dominating Elsa’s view.”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
Elsa and the rebels sneak back into GreenCorps territory, hoping to free the populace from GreenCorps once and for all. The corporation fights back, forcing those who’ve stayed neutral to choose a side.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
I had a few inspirations for writing this book.
Most of all, it was inspired by my grandfather’s stories of train hopping during the Great Depression. His parents lost their farm in Kansas when he was a teenager, and they loaded up their car “Grapes of Wrath” style and moved to Utah to live with cousins. My grandfather didn’t stay there long. He hopped a train and traveled back and forth a few times to California for other work to send his wages home.
The second source of inspiration was reading a picture book called Ada’s Violin, which caused me to delve deeper into the story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay. The children live in a landfill slum outside a major city, and when a music teacher offers lessons, they learn to play. However, they can’t practice, so he finds a carpenter who helps make instruments from the trash so the orchestra members can have their own instruments. The group now plays worldwide and has toured with Metallica.
I also worry about corporate influence and fear the direction things are going in America. I keep thinking about what if a natural disaster or another pandemic or something new, pushes the country over the brink and society collapses. This story is set in a piece of what’s left of civilization after such a collapse. I have other stories that take place in different regions.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
I wanted to write another story about hope and resilience in the face of adversity. Go underdogs!
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
I have five point-of-view characters, three of whom should be familiar to readers from Switching Tracks: Out of the Trash and/or The Long Haul: Pursuit of Hope, so I’ve probably written about them before.
I also have two important new characters. Janna grew up poor in a generational work camp and was sold into prostitution. Her anger motivates her to fight with the rebels. Clark is a disillusioned writer who lays the blame for the death of his brothers and parents on the rebels and their fight with GreenCorps.
Janna was Elsa’s neighbor growing up. She was meant as a reminder of what could have happened to Elsa if she hadn’t found the key to the seed bunkers and escaped SoCal with Walker.
Clark’s family grew up in rebel Utah near Mason, and his older brother was Caitlyn’s first husband. Both Janna and Clark represent those whose lives have been damaged by GreenCorps.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
This is the first series I’ve written, but not my first book. Rebels & Saints: Catching Freedom is the third and final book in my Train Hoppers series and my sixth published book. In addition to my Train Hoppers series, I have two post-apocalyptic romances and a time-slip women’s fiction with other speculative elements that have become series, even if the first books were written as standalones.
Being published in August 2025 is Racing Towards Destiny (Love on Track #1), a sports romance about a young woman with autism who leaves everything behind to start over as a writer in Spain. She takes a job as an umbrella girl on the MotoGP racing circuit, where she falls in love with a professional motorcycle racer.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
When I’m not writing, my day job is as a fourth and fifth grade teacher in Canada, where I have been teaching at the same school for almost thirty years. My mission in life has been to inspire a love of reading and writing.