Author Interview: Leanna Renee Hieber

Author Interviews / Promo

The Basics
– Leanna Renee Hieber
– Genre(s): Historical Fantasy / Paranormal / Fantasy
– Publisher(s): Leisure Books / Dorchester, Crescent Moon Press

To Other Authors

– What are the three MOST important pieces of advice you would give to a brand new author?

  • Persist in submitting your work, be willing to work respectfully and graciously with your editor and keep writing no matter what.

– What’s your favorite way to advertise?

  • Talking to people in person

– What hard-knock lesson did the publishing world teach you (can be your own experience or someone else’s that you learned from)?

  • After about a 9 year journey to get the ‘book of my heart’ to publication, I learned that you just have to keep believing in your work as the rejection pile starts growing and you think you’re out of options. Especially for me, with a cross-genre book that is, in truth, a Historical-Fantasy-Paranormal-Romance with YA and Horror elements. I knew the story I had written, I had to stay true to it but be flexible with it. My editor asked for a revise and resubmit. If you’re asked for this, do it. You’ll learn something. An editor and you might not have the exact same vision, but you and your work need to be adaptable for an editor to work well with you. Thankfully my characters, like talented actors, are really good at taking direction, and I, as an actor myself, am pretty good at taking direction from an editor. That’s a familiar dynamic to me. I think getting your book published is a mixture of flexibility and tenacity, having a really good book and some luck along the way.

For the Readers

– What are you reading, if anything, at the moment?

  • Non-fiction research books about Victorian era Cairo and about World War I, research for upcoming Strangely Beautiful books, four in all.

– Do you prefer ebooks or print for your reading pleasure?

  • Print

– Name three of your all-time-favorite, read-them-over-and-over books.

  • The Harry Potter series, Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet (because I’m always inspired by something different every time I read his words) and then it would be a tie between Sense and Sensibility and Lord of the Rings – That might give you a clue as to why I write Historical Fantasy. 🙂

Idle Curiosity Compels Me to Ask

– What inspired you to be a writer?

  • One of my most vivid childhood memories was telling a ghost story to a group of enrapt friends. I was always a storyteller, so theatre and writing were natural pursuits for me. As soon as I figured out how to complete a sentence with a pencil, I started writing stories so I really can’t remember not writing. I was first compelled to write stories when I was struck by characters in other literary works who were alone and needed friends. So I would write them friends, like the Phantom of the Opera or Edward Scissorhands. Writing was my favourite, consistent pastime and this gave me the discipline needed to write regularly and as my confidence grew, rather than just expanding other writers’ worlds for my own enjoyment, I began creating my own worlds.

– What do you do immediately after finishing a manuscript?

  • I have a good cry. Then I’ll treat myself to something, a celebratory dinner or trip out on the town with my boyfriend or my best friend, nothing terribly fancy but something fun.

– Do you talk to your characters or your muse or both?

  • My characters talk to me. Loudly.

Promo Section

~ Most Recent Release ~
The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy ParkerThe Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker
Leisure Books (Dorchester Publishing) Historical Fantasy
ISBN 13: 0-978-08439-6296-3

Blurb:
What fortune awaited sweet, timid Percy Parker at Athens Academy? Considering how few of Queen Victoria’s Londoners knew of it, the great Romanesque fortress was dreadfully imposing, and little could Percy guess what lay inside. She had never met the powerful and mysterious Professor Alexi Rychman, knew nothing of the growing shadow, the Ripper and other supernatural terrors against which his coterie stood guard. She knew simply that she was different, haunted, with her snow-white hair, pearlescent skin and uncanny gifts. But this arched stone doorway offered a portal to a new life, an education far from the convent—and an invitation to an intimate yet dangerous dance at the threshold of life and death….

“Tender. Poignant. Exquisitely written. A gem of a book.” – New York Times Bestselling Author C.L. Wilson

“A strangely beautiful tale indeed! An ethereal, lyrical story that combines myth, spiritualism and the gothic in lush prose and sweeping passion.” – USA Today Bestselling Author Kathryn Smith

“A compelling, engaging novel that drew me in from page one. Bravo!” M.J. Rose, bestselling author of The Reincarnationist and The Memorist.

~ Coming Soon ~
– The sequel in the Strangely Beautiful series: The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker From Leisure Books / Dorchester Publishing on Feb. 24th 2010! Details forthcoming on my website.

Learn More
– Website – www.leannareneehieber.com
– MySpace/Bebo/Facebook/Grouply/Shelfari et al – www.tinyurl.com/sbfbfan , www.myspace.com/leannarenee, www.twitter.com/leannarenee
– Blog/Newsletter – www.leannareneebooks.blogspot.com, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/L_R_Hieber_News/

Thanks, Leanna Renee!! Join me next week for N.D. Hansen-Hill.

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