Live Your Favorite Things! Advice and Insights Designed for Any Artistic Individual!

 Check out this really fun interview with Actor, Teacher & all around gifted lady Kate Glasheen! In this interview I talk about a life in the arts and everything that has made me tick as a writer, performer & creative individual. Tips & insights for any and every artistic person! 

A SUMMONING OF SOULS videos! Launch Party Conversation, Theatrical Readings! Rave Reviews!

Greetings, kindred spirits! Since we weren't able to have an in-person book launch, we recorded some readings and author conversation to celebrate the Spectral City finale, A SUMMONING OF SOULS, now available in digital and trade paperback wherever books are sold! Check out these release week theatrical readings and author conversations! 

First, Leanna reads a fun tidbit from the Summoning of Souls prologue!
Second, Leanna reads a cute scene from everyone's favorite slow-burn couple, Eve Whitby and Detective Jacob Horowitz, leading into a discussion with Spectral City series sensitivity reader and talented author Brina Starler. The two authors discuss the process of sensitivity reading, answer what a sensitivity reader is and how it can make books better and other craft and process insights. They also discuss their love of New York City and writing about it! 
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Praise for A SUMMONING OF SOULS from Avalinah's Book Blog: 

"I really enjoyed the whole Spectral City series, as well as its ending, A Summoning of Souls. I really can say that I recommend this series to you wholeheartedly! It’s full of warmth and hope, and it’s just a book that may give you back some belief in the world. It is respectful, diverse, soft and very, very sweet!" - Avalinah's Book Blog - read the full, glowing review here! 

The Gothic Library, who always does an incredible deep-dive discussion on Gothic tropes and themes, does a positive, comprehensive review of A SUMMONING OF SOULS! A highlight: "I love the way that Leanna often defies Gothic genre conventions that tend to be rooted in sexism" - read the full review here!

Due to printer delays due to the pandemic, the physical shipping of the books have been delayed so THERE'S STILL TIME to get a signed copy of A SUMMONING OF SOULS and enter to win the grand prizes for both US and International Readers! All orders via WORD Brooklyn will be automatically entered to win a custom made accessory from Torch and Arrow! If you've ordered via another retailer and/or digitally, send proof of purchase to preorders at leannareneehieber dot com and you'll be automatically entered to win! One international reader will be chosen to win custom digital art! Contest ends Aug 3rd, winners drawn by Random.org. 

This is a really hard time for artists and for independent bookstores, ordering from WORD helps a whole community! Thank you! 

Cheers and Happy Haunting! 

Today at the Taco Church: In Which Tequila Makes Leanna (think she is) Genius

Hello Dear Readers,

Today is my day to blog at the Holy Taco Church, a site for recipes and authorly love. Today I talked about the backstory of my piece "Charged" featured in Queen Victoria's Book of Spells (which is up for a Locus and a World Fantasy Award for best anthology!).

Peruse, be amused.

Cheers and happy haunting!

L

The Novelists' rebuttal to "The Novelist"... A humorous answer to Elle Magazine.

When Elle Magazine did a spread of a wardrobe feature of a "Novelist" (with a total price-tag of about $7k)... Some of us novelists reacted, (read: laughed), and author Lynne Kelly gathered our responses. Here is our rebuttal. I promise it shall amuse, enlighten, and entertain.

The Author's Wardrobe For Real

You'll note my offering sticks out like a great, black hole. *snicker* I am infamous for my Victorian Gothitude. But even all my corsetry combined would not add up to a $7K outfit (which would wipe out more than one of my advance checks in one fell swoop). No, the working author is not living Sex and the City style, that's Hollywood. (No way could Sarah Jessica Parker have afforded that beautiful Manhattan apartment on a columnist's salary alone). We're living, working, struggling artists, and while I'd not trade the author's life for anything in the world, let's be real about it.


But, writing aside, all this does make me think I need to start my Gothic Style Guide feature I've been meaning to do for quite some time...

Writing Process Blog Tour! Eterna Files, YA and more: In which Leanna explains why she does what she does...

Thanks to YA author Lynne Kelly for getting me involved in the Writing Process Blog Tour! Here we answer some basic questions about our process. The questions may be basic, but writing a book is far from it, and every author's process is as unique and as individual as the array of books throughout history. I love talking shop, so here goes....

1.      What am I working on:

Book 2 of The Eterna Files, a Gaslamp Fantasy saga set in featuring two rival teams of secret agencies between New York, each tasked with finding the ‘cure for death’ on behalf of their respective governments. A teaser novella for the series launches this fall and book 1 launches February 2015. Close on Eterna’s heels, my acclaimed, award-winning and bestselling Strangely Beautiful saga (also Gaslamp Fantasy in nature) re-releases. Both series are with Tor/Forge. I’m having such fun with The Eterna Files, which takes and runs with all the themes I’ve been working on throughout my career; the spaces between life and death, the fine lines between faith, belief, spirituality and doubt, the arcane, the magical and the unfathomable mysteries of the human heart. I’m so in love with infusing the paranormal into a ‘realistic’ Victorian world and I’m blessed to have had the opportunity to do so book after book. Some of my Magic Most Foul characters will appear in Eterna, and in the finale of the series, The Double Life of Incorporate Things, I introduce two of Eterna's stars. I love weaving all my characters through different series to show them all from different angles.

2.      How does my work differ from others of its genre:

I love this question because it’s in my particular brand of Victorian Gothic Fantasy that I truly hope to make a lasting mark. Readers and reviewers tend to compare my books to 19^th Century Gothic authors rather than contemporary authors, mainly because my style borrows so heavily from my Gothic forefathers and foremothers. While I don’t utilize the density of 19^th century style, between my themes, interests and the bent of my language, my work is entirely entwined with a dark, dramatic, dare I say ‘strangely beautiful’ tradition.

What I attempt, while honouring and valuing my Gothic forefathers and foremothers, is to allow for my female characters to have a broader range of experiences and agency in my work. Most women in the traditional Gothic are victims and/or trapped by their material confines of the age, of expectations, mores, roles and more. The women of my novels are tasked with saving themselves and others, rather than being a less dimensional plot device. 

3.      Why do I write what I do:

This is closely tied to how my work differs from others of its genre. I feel called to voice the Victorian Era that I love so deeply, but to do so via a modern lens, and allow for voices that would have been marginalized by the constraints of a classist, excessively patriarchal society. I do so not because I think our society ‘knows better’ than the Victorians (we have just as many skeletons in our modern closets as they had in theirs, in some ways more insidiously considering the pervasiveness of modern technology), but I do have current freedoms and platforms a Victorian version of myself would have chafed heartily against. So much of the freedom, laws and safety we take for granted today were changes born of the constraints, injustices and traumas of 19^th century pedagogy, changes that people fought and died for.

And yet, we live in a new gilded age in terms of income inequality and the rapidity of technological advancement mirrors the industrial revolution in an uncanny way. There are beautiful ways to parallel the past and the present and those connections keep me coming back time and time again to the themes of my work and the fascinating complexities of the Victorian era and the resilient human spirit throughout time.

4. How does my writing process work?

*Chortle* I am entirely haphazard. Such a pantser. While I have to know a general arc and trajectory of where I'm going, every book is as mysterious to me as the last. Every book is new, every book's process feels like I'm back to square one and every time I wonder if I can cobble a book together out of the quilt pieces laid out before me. The only common theme is that I write non-linear, out of order, I write the scenes that compel me and keep me up at night. (Beloved characters are the anti-sleeping-pill).

I write what I want to write first, daydream about all the things the book needs, and eventually I put in all the connective tissue, which is the most exhausting part of the process, making all those pieces make sense. That's when it feels like work. The initial process of the book is like taking a vacation into a foreign land and I'm seeing it through the eyes of my characters, it's rather magical, really, but then the connective tissue is where the muscle comes in, and the editorial part of my brain needs to make the hard choices about making sure none of my characters have run away with the storyline too far off the core course, which has happened a few times in my career. That's where critique partners and editorial staff come in so handy, as a book that's only seen your eyes and mind alone just isn't as capable of a story as it is when it's gone through multiple revisions and some trusted viewpoints.  

All in all, writing books is what I love most in life and feel is my purpose in life, and so writing process, for me, isn't just something I do, it's something I live. And I hope you'll enjoy my books!

DARKER STILL (Magic Most Foul book 1: http://tinyurl.com/darkerbn  )
THE TWISTED TRAGEDY OF MISS NATALIE STEWART (book 2: http://tinyurl.com/twistedbn )
THE DOUBLE LIFE OF INCORPORATE THINGS (book 3: http://tinyurl.com/tdloitaz )

I tag my darling Alethea Kontis, award-winning, NYT Bestselling author and certified Princess on this tour, catch her responses next Monday on her blog!
 

So You Want to Be A Writer

Hello folks,

(With updates 10/2019)
I've been meaning to write this post for a long time. I'm out and about in the world in so many different and dizzying capacities, and there's a topic that comes up all the time.

For those who don't know me, I'm a multi-published, award winning and bestselling author of the STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL saga and the ETERNA FILES series for Tor Books, and the Magic Most Foul YA series beginning with DARKER STILL as well as lots of novellas and short stories and the new Spectral City saga with Kensington, beginning with THE SPECTRAL CITY and continuing with A SANCTUARY OF SPIRITS. I am an actress (proud Member of Actor Unions AEA and SAG-AFTRA), a playwright, a floor director at a Manhattan TV studio, a licensed New York City tour guide working for Boroughs of the Dead, I travel constantly on the Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Steampunk and Historical convention circuits and I create unique Gothic, Neo-Victorian and Steampunk accessories on Etsy. I am more busy than I can begin to describe, all on looming deadlines and rotating 5 freelance jobs in the most hectic of cities. And as you can imagine, being out and about and all over the place, I get asked all the time: "So... I want to be writer. How do I do that?"

So for all you wonderful folks who want to be writers, I want you to be a writer too! I will cheerlead you with the best of them.

Disclaimer or my agent and editors will kill me: While I will be your cheerleader I am limited in my capacity to help. I cannot read and/or critique your novel as I barely have the energy to read my own, I'm actually a very slow reader. And I can't give out free copies of my books, I don't have stock of them to give away. Please note: This is not a resource for self-publishing. That hasn't been my preferred route so I'll not be helpful there. All that being said, on to the good stuff!

I'm going to share a bit of my story as an example and then offer up some genre resources.

It took me years to get my first contract. Nearly 9 years from inception to publication. My stack of rejection letters from both agents and editors is huge. No, the sting of rejection never goes away, especially when you've published and you still get rejection letters. It is not easy. Nothing worth doing is easy. You have to want your work out in the world more than you fear rejection. I can't stress that point enough. If you do not try to pursue your writing, your characters will die and that is tragic. You have to want them to live more than you fear them being rejected.

The life of a writer is a marathon not a sprint. When you get your first contract is is not "over" and you are not set for life, the race continues. My first publisher folded leaving my successful first series, The Strangely Beautiful saga, in the dust, along with all the money (royalties) owed it. I thought my career was over two years after it had just begun. But the Magic Most Foul saga helped pick me up from the ruins and now I work with a house I've always dreamed of working with Tor Books, (a division of Macmillan) who have worked to reissue STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL in a revised, author-preferred edition as well as launch my latest ETERNA FILES. There is always another place to turn, always another chance provided you don't get discouraged and quit. Kensington came to me, asking if I had a series to place with a new line, and I had the Spectral City proposal package at the ready to offer.

Publishing is full of ups and downs and uncertainties. You have to put on your armor and trust you can fight the good fight no matter the battle. Rise from the ashes, like the phoenix that factors into my Strangely Beautiful saga. Perseverance. You have to want to keep writing more than the pain and uncertainty, financial and emotional, that surrounds all of it.

How I started: I started learning about the publishing industry by perusing the Writer's Market, scouring it really, and by talking to a few writer friends I met while touring the country doing theatre. The Writer's Market is like a phone book for the publishing industry and contains useful structural advice on how to craft query letters and proposal packages. The most important skills in the next step towards publishing. Finish your full manuscript before you begin to query. This does not apply for non-fiction but for all fiction. Once you've published a few novels you might be able to sell just on synopsis or sample chapters but it is not recommended for debut authors. Have the best first three chapters you can possibly write, because you cannot resubmit after rejection unless you are asked to.

Preditors and Editors: A great resource for pros and cons of certain publishers and agents: http://pred-ed.com/ (Currently under revision) 

Check WRITER BEWARE: https://accrispin.blogspot.com/ - for tips and advice! Great site, highly recommended.

For agent listings, check out http://agentquery.com and Publisher's Marketplace listings: http://publishersmarketplace.com/. The Writer's Market also has agent sections. Some New York publishing houses will accept un-agented submissions, most will not. Independent and smaller presses often accept un-agented submissions. Do your homework. Don't just send mass letters. Personalize them with the proper names to the proper attention. Another thing I can't stress enough. Query and submit how each house and agent prefers. Do not submit to agents/houses not looking for your work or not accepting submissions, it just wastes everyone's time and energy. Many people get rejected outright because they didn't follow simple submission instructions and so their manuscripts get rejected without even a glance. Submission instructions are found on publisher and agent sites, they vary from house to house and by individual. Following agents on Twitter has created some great pitching and querying opportunities. Keep an eye out for scams. Anyone asking you to pay them up front is not legitimate. Agents get a cut after they sell your work and negotiate your deals and contracts. Twitter has some drawbacks but it is very connected in terms of authors, editors, agents, publishers and publicity departments.

Genre organizations:

If you are writing Childrens' Fiction / Kid Lit / Middle Grade / Young Adult: www.scbwi.org
I have many YA author friends who swear by SCBWI group, have credited it with their work getting better, finding critique groups, getting agents, contracts, etc. Join the local chapter, go to meetings, go to their conference, etc. Networking is key. Local chapters around the country.

Science Fiction / Fantasy: At some point once you've either short story or novel sales under your belt, you'll want to join http://sfwa.org - one of my favorite resources and I've been a member from the moment I could join. Even before you qualify to join, make yourself familiar with the resources on that site. Peruse the list of "qualifying publishers" - a lot of Fantasy authors get their start by writing short stories in the market and then moving on to novels. The "qualifying publishers" list means these are publishers known for paying their clients industry standard prices, abiding by proper copyright laws, decent contracts, etc. I may be a little biased but one of the best Sci-Fi/Fantasy houses also has one of the best online presences: http://tor.com You can really get a sense of what's trending and going on in the industry by following them. Short vs. Novel: Personally, I published novels first and then began publishing short stories. there's no right way or silver bullet, other than continuing to hone your craft, take constructive criticism and keep submitting.

RWA National: http://www.rwa.org/ - If there's any romance in your stories, even just as a sub-plot you should join RWA. Romance Writers of America, the most comprehensive and up to date resource in all of genre publishing. Romance is a huge market and a great way to network, with opportunities in digital publishing abounding. If you're making the investment, this is all worth it to join ( and a tax write off ).There are local chapters all around America and Romance writer societies in England and Australia as well. I recommend the Futuristic / Fantasy / Paranormal chapter: FF and P, runs the national Prism Awards, http://romance-ffp.com, there's a YA chapter as well as every subgenre. So once you join RWA, join the sub-genre chapter that applies to your books, there's a chapter for everyone, both in your state and online. Find your local chapter and go to meetings in person. It was RWA that helped make everything happen for me out of the gate and remains a critical resource. RWA is an OPEN organization. You do not have to be published to join. Most other writers' organizations have eligibility requirements. But like I said with SFWA, peruse their sites for resources, author information, conferences, networking opportunities. From RWA as a hub, the other resources flow outward like spokes of a wheel.

Mystery writers: http://mysterywriters.org/ They have chapters all around the country, joining MWA was one of the best things I've done! Tons of opportunities and networking!

Historical Writers: (Fiction, non, Historical Fantasy too) Join the Historical Novel Society! (I'm a member of this too!) http://historicalnovelsociety.org

Horror writers: http://horror.org/ (Horror, in addition to Sci-Fi/Fantasy also has a good deal of short story markets)

Thriller writers: http://thrillerwriters.org/ - Also keep track of http://criminalelement.com as a fantastic resource!

Events: Sign up for the mailing lists of your local bookstores for their author events. Stores doing programming offer great book talks, signings, and aspiring writers can learn a lot from panels of published authors, as everyone is going to have a different story and their own advice. While you are at the bookstore, take note of what publisher is publishing what kind of book so you can familiarize yourself with the industry. What covers draw your eye? Who publishes them? Follow your favorite publishing houses and your favorite authors and see how they do what they do and learn from those you admire and respect, but always with the sense of your own craft, style and stories.

Go to conferences. Invest in them. I've gotten most things in my life by networking, being in the right place at the right time, responding to opportunities when they come up, being ready and always being seen and active. Be generous to your fellow author, as best you can. Be nice. Be nice. Be nice. Karma is real. Be professional, be willing to learn. Keep learning. Never think your book is "perfect" because then you'll be a holy terror to editors. But get it to the best it can possibly be. And then look to your editor as if they're a director and you're an actor, it's their job to make you look good on the stage that is publishing. I have very vital relationships with my editors and they always make my books better for their input. I still network and do events as much as I did when I began, they remain as vital now as then.

Find local writerly Meetup Groups. Yes, writing is solitary in the act itself, but utterly collaborative in getting anywhere.

 

Hopefully that's a start on some resources, thoughts, general tips, the business side of it is really a lot like auditioning for a show, I learned that from all my years as a professional actress. Having a good query letter and sample chapters is like an audition. Organizations like SCBWI and RWA, because they are open to aspiring authors in particular, will be very helpful in cultivating good query letters, synopses, proposal packages, etc, and allowing you opportunities for workshops in those areas. That first Writer's Market I started with also had great query letter tips and examples.

The most important aspect of course is to dream big, respect your craft and just be persistent. Perseverance wins the day. You don't have to write every day. But most days. Discipline is key. Find out your process and work with it. There is no "right" way. I do not write in a linear fashion. I am all over the map. I have met every kind of writer. The only kind of writer who ISN'T a writer is one who is never ever writing. 

Write whatever needs to get out from your head and onto the page, you can fix it later. Don't second-guess yourself to death. Find one or two trusted critique partners and set deadlines for yourself. Take constructive criticism well. Be willing to edit. Make yourself accountable for progress. Give yourself treats when you hit a goal. Be flexible. 

The industry requires 3 Ps: Perseverance, Patience (publishing houses take forever to get back to you), and Passion. If you don't care about your work and career, no one else will.

And then on that blessed day when your book is on that shelf there is nothing like it in all the world. Trust me. But, then of course, steel yourself. Not everyone will love your book. Some people will HATE your book and tell everyone they know to burn it. You just can't let it phase you. No one likes everything, that's why taste is subjective.

Don't let anyone tell you NO or belittle your dreams, whether that applies to writing books or any passion, anyone who does that is just jealous they are not pursuing their own dreams. Being a writer is hard. It takes more discipline than I have to give every day, and yet it is what I am called to do. Being a writer may be hard, but it is not stupid or silly. I am shocked by stories of my fellow writers being put down or discouraged by unsupportive people in their lives. Storytelling, in my humble opinion, is one of the most noble professions in the world. Again, nothing that's ever worth doing isn't full of a lot of hard work and suffering in the hope of triumph. 

Blessings and best wishes to all the aspiring writers of the world, I am cheerleading for you and with you. Cheers and happy haunting!

Leanna Renee

Please visit my website for more about my books, enjoy free reads and stories, goodies and such. And I'm usually around on social media one way or another, so feel free to give a greeting!

Cheers and happy haunting!
Leanna on Twitter: http://twitter.com/leannarenee
FB: http://facebook.com/lrhieber
Instagram: http://instagram.com/leannareneehieber.com
Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/torchandarrow

Guest Post: Author Helen Le Mesurier on "Finding Hayley Finding Me"

I'm thrilled to host author Helen Le Mesurier as she discusses her non-fiction book Finding Hayley, Finding Me. As an actress and author, it's true that I understand both sides of Helen's interesting journey, and I'm so glad it's brought her to us here today. Take it away, Helen!

ACTORS INFLUENCE OUR LIVES

Today is the 2nd day of my virtual book tour for my newly released book “Finding Hayley Finding Me” (My Life-Changing Journey to Actress Hayley Mills).

I am grateful to Leanna for allowing me to be a guest blogger on her blog today.  As Leanna is an actress as well as an author she shares an understanding of the world I entered when I met Disney star of the 1960’s, Hayley Mills.

Actors influence our lives.  They help us break away from our daily life and enter a world of escapism, and, at the same time, they also take us into our everyday life, allowing us to reflect from the vantage point of the narrative, assisting us in navigating our own circumstances; they stir our empathy, inspiring us to relate to the characters they are portraying; and they spark our imagination by allowing us to consider the many selves we too could contain.

For some of us a particular actor draws us more than others.  Often we connect with the actor themselves rather than just the roles they play, appreciating their acting abilities and/or their charisma.  Chances are you have an actor about whom you feel this way – for a while I thought I did too.

For me it was Hayley Mills. I had my bedroom plastered with posters of Hayley and I avidly collected every magazine article and all photos of her I could find. She was the big Disney star of my day, much like Hilary Duff, Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez have been more recently.  (Unlike some Disney stars, Hayley maintained her wholesome image throughout her teen years). I’m sure this is a familiar thing for a lot of you who have also found an actor whom you’ve held in high esteem, such as my daughter did with Barbra Streisand and Johnny Depp.

Hayley Mills comes from a very famous family of thespians.  Her father was Sir John Mills, the biggest star of English film through the 1930s to 50s and maintained a very active acting career right up until his death in 2005. Her mother, Mary Hayley Bell, was also in the business, as is her sister, Juliet Mills (of Passions fame).

As I grew older one would have expected that this teenage admiration would pale into insignificance and become something that I would have outgrown (my daughter’s room is no longer covered in Johnny Depp posters).  This did not happen for me.  I sensed something deeper, that I couldn’t explain.

Thirty years later, my sense of connection to Hayley remained as strong as ever, so when the opportunity came to meet her I couldn’t let it pass.  It took many phone calls where I was rebuffed, rebuked and rejected. I stood at stage doors. I travelled across Australia.  But after much effort, my persistence paid off and I finally met her.  This opened up a world I had not expected to find.  Her warmth and acceptance of me changed the way I saw myself, and I uncovered the reason why I had felt such a strong connection with her. The connection I felt did indeed run deep. So deep, in fact, that one lifetime did not contain the answers.

I invite you to accompany me on the remainder of the book tour by clicking the link below to follow my daily schedule: http://www.findinghayleyfindingme.com.au/book-tour-schedule/

In Love and Light,
Helen Le Mesurier

Happy World Goth Day! Rhapsodic on Poe Part 2

Hello friends, In my last Waxing Rhapsodic post on Edgar Allan Poe I said I'd share my thoughts on the film The Raven at a later date. What better date than World Goth Day?! A strangely beautiful World Goth Day to all of you! Hug your favourite black-clad soul, (yes, I count, I'm one of that deliciously and delightedly melancholy lot) and do yourselves a favor and play my favourite Goth band, VNV Nation, REALLY LOUD and dance around your house and the city streets like galumphing Tim Burton animation figures today. Remember, I'm one of those Perky Goths so have ridiculous fun with your emo self! By the way, I can't wait to share my upcoming novel The Twisted Tragedy of Miss Natalie Stewart with you, because I've created an 1880s Goth club and IT IS FULL OF AWESOME!

All right. So let's talk The Raven. No, it wasn't exactly historically accurate. (At all). But we knew that. Positing Poe as a detective in the last harried, mysterious days of his life is utterly fiction. In reality he was likely far less cogent, probably a lot farther off the deep-end and perhaps a bit less sympathetic. But no one can say his early death was not a tragedy. I would have craved as many more stories and poems as his broken heart and sad soul could have offered us. But, like many gifted persons, his candle simply lost flame.

What I loved about the film was the visual landscape. It was Gothic and stunning as I'd hoped it would be. I enjoyed Cusack's performance. He looked delicious. Bring on the men in tightly-fitted frock coats and billowing black great-coats! I liked seeing Poe as an active rather than reactive figure, I enjoyed the energy and animus the film gave to his character, and I appreciated those who appreciated him. I appreciated that the film dealt with his struggles, vices and those who misunderstood him. I loved being reminded of his creepy stories, I loved his written lines having a new voice and knowing his words will never lose their power. I could have done without the gore, Poe manages gore far more elegantly and delicately than Hollywood. I was pleased in that I did not find the film predictable, I was engrossed and entertained. Did I mention Cusack looked delicious? :)

Whatever allows for us to let Poe further into our lives, and to appreciate him on whatever level we can in popular culture, so be it. Huzzah. Celebrating him on the silver screen is better than relegating him to the shadows in which he lived. He shines brightly in dark splendor in my soul; the light of my muse. I am not covetous of that darkening light and hope it shines for all to see.

None of us should look to Hollywood for definitive accounts. This wasn't posited as the truth, so we must give it leave and license. We look to movies for imagination, and this film hardly lacked imagination and beauty, it was rife with both. I'd like to think Poe would have been greatly amused. (Not to mention he'd probably demand a few drinks and some royalties, rightfully so.)

Should you wish to know where the film derailed from truths, here's a wonderful resource from  "Philly Poe guy" Edward Pettit to help you distinguish fact from fiction.

I enjoy historical, fantastical fiction more than any other genre. I write it, I live it, I breathe it and I'm not entirely accurate either. I make choices for effect and storytelling. The film inspired me to hold fast to my great loves, write more of the Gothic tales I adore, and to continue to honor my muse, Mr. Poe. Evermore.

Join the inimitable Nancy Holder and I on May 26th at Romance at Random and you'll hear her take on the film along with mine, and how Poe influences our work.

Waxing Rhapsodic on Poe, Part 1

When I first found out about the movie The Raven, I was thrilled. I'm not one of those historical purists that fears when Hollywood gets hold of anything. If I were a historical purist, I wouldn’t write historical fantasy and gaslight Gothic works where history is a framework for my own eerie tales, but not a constraint.  

 I was over the moon at the prospect of the film because Poe is my muse and I’ll take any excuse to get more of him in my life. I want him to continue to be popular, to grow in estimation and appreciation, for his historic sites to be preserved. I want interest in Poe to be kindled in a whole new generation. If it takes a somewhat cheesy Hollywood film to do it, sign me up. I enjoyed the heck out of it. And yes, John Cusack was HOT, running around all intense and billowing in black fabric. (Those of you who have read my Strangely Beautiful saga know I like my men in black, billowing fabric.)

When I was in grade school literature class at a small, progressive education program in Ohio, a teacher who I credit as influencing me most, Mrs. Church, introduced me to Edgar Allan Poe and my life would never be the same. Some of my earliest memories are of making up ghost stories to scare my friends, so when I “met” Poe, I met a kindred spirit and his poetry broke open the sky and unlocked my boundless creativity. I always had a fierce inner dark side. This still freaks out my parents a bit, who wonder where it came from. I’m not sure. I had a very happy childhood. But even happy, optimistic, perky people like me can have intense dark sides and can be as equally fascinated with dark and eerie things as we are energetic. I always found strange things to be beautiful (Hence the series title of my first series, the Strangely Beautiful saga) and nothing as romantic or stimulating as a dark and stormy night.

Poe made my world come alive. In his voice I found my own. In his poetry and stories my world-view coalesced. A strangely beautiful world. I adored his poetry, found it deliciously, morbidly romantic, unique and deeply personal. I really couldn’t get enough of it. I’ll never forget my first tattered paperback collection of his stories and poetry- a watercolor raven on the cover- I’ve gone through many editions through the years. This first great literary love affair made me into the Goth girl and Gothic author I am today. I remember hearing about Poe’s sad life, his love for Virginia, and knowing I’d have been his friend (if not his girlfriend) back in the day. (Yes, I know, I’d have gotten fed up with the addiction and drinking, but I wasn’t thinking of that in my pre-teen years.)

My freshman year of high school I was the only freshman cast in the play POE’S MIDNIGHT DREARY, cast as Fortunato the fool who gets bricked up behind a wall. I screamed brilliantly. That childhood love came back full force as I spent rehearsals and performances living in his amazing, twisted work, and I took to writing again. I had been writing stories ever since I could hold a pen or pencil and complete a sentence, so this renewed connection with my muse informed and spurred on my then novel-in-progress, a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. (Don’t ask. It was bad. But it can’t have been any worse than "Love Never Dies”, surely...)

My love affair with Poe kept on burning like a candle in an attic window. Poe lives in the back of everything. I’m still a Goth girl, I’m now a multi-published, award-winning Gothic novelist, and my long term boyfriends have all been black haired with black goatees. Hmm. Just realized that one.

I've a prominent jewelry collection featuring his image as well as a host of ravens on clothes, figures, things in my home. His influence can be seen in small and large ways in my Gothic tales. I’ve a Raven as an important familiar in the Strangely Beautiful saga, elements of Poe crop up all over my work, especially in the Magic Most Foul saga, DARKER STILL and the upcoming THE TWISTED TRAGEDY OF MISS NATALIE STEWART. Natalie even feels she's trapped amidst a Poe tale herself. When you credit an author as being your foremost and most formative influence, it’s hard to see all the ways in which that author crops up in your own work. I’m a lot more direct about it in the Magic Most Foul saga than I am in Strangely Beautiful, which is more inspired by classic Fantasy authors than Poe’s more intimate horror and sad romance. I feel his presence like a guiding hand in my upcoming short stories, “Too Fond” for Tor.com and “Charged” for QUEEN VICTORIA’S BOOK OF SPELLS (Tor 2013). 

I'll share more specific thoughts on The Raven film in part 2 of waxing rhapsodic, but I've got to get back to my word count for the day. I've stories of my own to write and new projects that I hope to announce soon. Stay tuned, on May 26^th, New York Times and Stoker Award winning author Nancy Holder and I will be sharing snippets of our mutual thoughts on The Raven as fellow Poe fangirls, and how Poe inspires us, over at Sue Grimshaw’s Romance at Random blog!

Nevermore,

Leanna's Marketing Smackdown #4 - Tips for Writers

About the Marketing Smackdown:
Last year I wrote a quarterly column for my local RWA Chapter, RWA NYC, in their Keynotes Newsletter. Since then, several of the articles have been reprinted by other RWA chapters and since I'm continuing the column this year, I thought I'd offer the 2010 posts here too. While I'm not remotely a Marketing expert, I do spend a lot of time on various marketing strategies and happen to have a lot to say about it. I hope writers might find this useful, and that readers and fans might find it interesting (or perhaps daunting) to know some of the many things we authors are doing while trying to juggle everything else in our life.

Leanna’s Marketing Smackdown #4 - Social Media Don’ts.


Copyright 2010 Leanna Renee Hieber

I’ve watched enough meltdowns to know,

Do Not:

10. Rant / rave / criticize your publisher. Anywhere. Ever. Stuff lives online forever, even if you take it down, somehow it still may live, especially if the gossip-mavens get to it and you don’t want to be forever haunted by your bad mood. Every publisher has things that will irritate the hell out of you. Deal with it privately.

9. Criticize another author, not in public at conferences, not online. Bad karma. Unless they come out as like some Neo-Nazi or something. In that case, fire away.

8. Pick for your branding / voice / look / style something that you’re not comfortable with. That discomfort will show. Be yourself. In person and online.

7. Fail to give credit. If you’ve learned something from another site, take a second before reposting to say where it came from, link to it on your website. Online stuff is about sharing, not taking, and who knows, a beautiful exchange may occur. Example: My Haunted London Blog tour was greatly indebted to Richard Jones, who has written my favourite, go-to books about London ghosts, he’s the scholar of the subject. I didn’t know him, but thanked him as an inspiration in my blog post, and somehow (likely Google Alerts) he saw the posts, contacted me, is the kindest person in the world, and said if I was ever in London to come be a guest on his tours. Which I did. He kindly came to my London signing and I maintain he's the neatest guy ever.

6. Assume all social media sites are created equal. Like any club or society, each different venue has a different culture and vibe. I treat my Facebook Fanpage differently than my Twitter. A fanpage is just that, it’s a fanpage, it’s all about me and the Strangely Beautiful series, so everything I post there is really me-centric. Twitter, however, is more personal and interactive, so I can’t just make it about me me me all the time – I mean, 80 to 90 percent of the time, sure- but stop to Re-tweet someone’s good news or call someone out on something good occasionally, tweet about whatever book you’re reading and loving, etc.

5. Take people for granted. This is a harrowing business and no one expects us to be selfless angels all the time, but just try and keep that in mind, it’s a constant balance I try and strike myself.

4. Do not leave a website / blog / untended or with outdated information. You don’t have to blog often but at least tend it once a month. If this isn’t possible, then ditch the blog and stick to a more static website where the info on you and your latest releases is up to date.

3. Do not be mean.

2. Do not give yourself a good review under your own or under a different name that might still route back to you. That’s what friends and chapter-mates are for.

1. Do not ever ever ever ever post a reply to a bad review, it just makes you look bad, no matter how snarky / misspelled / terrible / mean / wrong the review is – it’s gotten many a good author into trouble. Let it go, there will be plenty of good reviews.

Happy Writing, happy selling!




Tweet? @LeannaRenee



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Leanna's Marketing Smackdown #3 - Tips for Writers

About the Marketing Smackdown:
Last year I wrote a quarterly column for my local RWA Chapter, RWA NYC, in their Keynotes Newsletter. Since then, several of the articles have been reprinted by other RWA chapters and since I'm continuing the column this year, I thought I'd offer the 2010 posts here too. While I'm not remotely a Marketing expert, I do spend a lot of time on various marketing platforms and happen to have a lot to say about it. I hope writers might find this useful, and that readers and fans might find it interesting (or perhaps daunting) to know some of the many things we authors are doing while trying to juggle everything else in our life.

Why do I call it the smackdown? Because it's me versus time versus deadlines versus marketing. All the time.

Marketing Smackdown #3 - A Few of my Favourite Things!

Copyright 2010 Leanna Renee Hieber

These are a few of My Favourite Social Media things:

10. Tiny URL – when posting long links to things, in group posts, or on twitter, the long URL’s get cut off, broken, hard to manage and use. www.tinyurl.com converts a long URL into something manageable, for free. It rocks. I use it all the time. Create one for your books at Barnes & Noble and such, you can create it so that you remember it, for example, I created www.tinyurl.com/tdlffppbn which is the letters of my absurdly long title plus the letters b and n for Barnes & Noble; that’s my pre-order link for The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker! I did the same thing for Amazon and Borders so that if I’m writing blog posts I can always pop those into links by memory rather than having to look them up every time and copy/paste. Also good? Bit.ly.

9. Publishers’ Forums. Forums are great places where fans loyal, say, to the Publisher’s book club, will go for news, for contests, for community. If you’re targeting a publisher, see what everyone is talking about on their forums and perhaps track some of their authors, learn from them! A great example of this? Sourcebooks Teen Fire site: http://teenfire.ning.com/

8. Facebook Fanpages: Easy, free, user friendly, a nice way to separate out your personal self’s facebook page from that which is a “Product” – To get a product i.e. fanpage, go to one that’s established, I’ll give you my own, for example: http://tinyurl.com/lrhieber . In the lower left hand corner there’s a button “Create a Page” – follow the prompts, and you’re off! You can also follow prompts from the Facebook homepage.

7. Book Trailers – I had such fun with mine, and using targeted advertising on YouTube was affordable and gained a lot of views (I have over 10,000 views of the first Strangely Beautiful trailer now) – for more on this, see my Do It Yourself Guide to Book Trailers .

6. Google Alerts! Go to Google, go to “More” and go to Alert and type in your name and the title of your book and what email you want the alerts to go to (You have to have a Google account to do this, if you’re on You Tube, Blogger, gmail, etc, you already have one). Alerts mean when all your lovely reviews pop up (well, and ugly ones too, you don’t have to click on said link if you see a sentence you don’t like) you know about it. You do need to know where you are on the web and when, and if someone has posted a lovely review you link to it, etc, you need to figure out what blog / online community has discovered you and also, argh, when your book is getting pirated.

5. Digg / Yahoo buzz / all those little options when you click the button that says “Share This!” - ok, the whole list is overwhelming. But if you just sign up for a couple, like for me, I do Digg and I’m already on Yahoo with my mail, so you can “vote” for content. When someone posts a nice book review, “Digg” or “Buzz” it! (Get grandmothers and family members who are bored at work to do this for you too), every ‘vote’ for online content gets it tracked to things like Google and it shows up on searches more easily.

4. Get your friends to “Like” the nice Amazon reviews, it puts them to the forefront. If someone has written a snark-tastic mean review, you can tell your friends to “dislike” the review, but DON’T respond to the review yourself in any way. Ever. That spells certain doom. Oh, and Amazon reviews will not make or break you anyway. Again: DO NOT RESPOND TO BAD REVIEWS. EVER. PERIOD. It makes you look unprofessional and always ends up turning out for the worse. Also, get your friends to Facebook "Like" your books on Amazon and also on Barnes & Noble and anywhere your book is sold that has a "Like" button. Likes breed other likes on Facebook, they're like marketing rabbits.

3. Book Tour.com! This wonderful site is the perfect place to list your events, plus it routes all your events to your Amazon Author page (which you do have to claim but don’t have to upkeep) and to your Goodreads (www.goodreads.com) page. Again, claim this but you don’t have to upkeep it or maintain presence there other than having your info there, which leads me to…

2. Claim your author pages on Amazon and Goodreads! If you have an ISBN then you have an author page waiting for you at both of these venues, claim them and route your blog to it, link to your websites, etc, (just follow the prompts) its pretty user friendly! And your events will route there too, it’s lovely!

1. Again, Twitter – I know, Twitter is way old hat. It's so not new. And yet, I am serious, folks, it’s the very best tool of all. It is easy, gets you interacting with people, I found all my fave new book bloggers there and it continues to drive more traffic to my website than any other venue. I'm @LeannaRenee.

Happy Writing, happy selling!

Leanna's Marketing Smackdown #2 - Tips for Writers

About the Marketing Smackdown: Last year I wrote a quarterly column for my local RWA Chapter, RWA NYC, in their Keynotes Newsletter. Since I'm continuing the column into 2011, I thought I'd offer the 2010 posts here. While I'm not remotely a marketing expert, I do spend a lot of time on various marketing strategies and happen to have a lot to say about it. I hope writers might find this useful, and that readers and fans might find it interesting (or perhaps daunting) to know some of the many things we authors are doing while trying to juggle everything else in our life.

Marketing Smackdown #2 - Top Ten Marketing Musts

Copyright 2010 Leanna Renee Hieber

10. Have a website. Even if you’re not published. This is non-negotiable. Blogs like Wordpress and Blogger are free and have some flexible templates, are user friendly and they’re great places to start and you can buy a domain name and have it routed to the blog. It’s a great place to begin saying who you are, what you write, what organizations you belong to, and begin to create the network that will support you when you are published.

9. Have something other than your website where you can interact with readers, and at least have a jumping-off point. This can be a blog, Facebook Fanpage (free, I recommend it), etc. Have several ways people can find you and follow what you’re doing, but pick the ones you like. Just like there are 1,000 social networking sites out there, different people like/use different things. You don’t have to be ON all of them, but at least have a page up with basic information on several. (Example: I don’t like MySpace but I keep it up because some readers are only there. I update it randomly, but it has all the critical info people need to know to find me and my books elsewhere where I’m more active).

8. Leanna’s opinion: You hear me say this a lot. Twitter. It’s easy, low maintenance, low word count, great way to find out about industry stuff and link to content like blog posts, articles, etc and interact with other readers and authors in a vibrant way – it’s a big world-wide bulletin board and I’ve already mentioned it drives more traffic to my website.

7. Do some sort of advertising. Print advertising options are expensive and few and far between but a Romantic Times ad in their ‘debut author’ spotlight might not be a bad idea. Online advertising can be affordable (If you have a book trailer YouTube is an affordable way to advertise, Facebook has advertising options, The Romance Studio is great, a lot of romance blogs / forums have ad space, find some sites you like and see if they’ve advertising packages). Don’t go overboard on promo items but do have one useful item that you like that showcases your work; i.e. bookmarks, excerpt booklets, etc.

6. Think outside the box. What skills do you offer and what are your networks to rely on? What expertise do you have and how can you make that work for you? Example: My “Direct Your Book” workshop that I’ve now taught for several RWA chapters because of my theatre background which is a unique approach to thinking about writing. What we do outside of writing can be a great interest / tool / audience. Get the word out: Let your Alma Mater know what you’re up to, your hometown radio station, a local Meetup group, a bowling league, whatever.

5. Contests. People love free stuff. It doesn’t have to be extravagant, but people will show up to your blog, website, twitter, etc, for free stuff. This is a way to build a mailing list. But you have to find a way of getting the word out about said contest. This is where things like twitter / facebook, etc come in handy. If your publisher has a forum, post contest info there.

4. Lose some sleep. It’s true that the more time you put into marketing in an online presence or at live events and conferences, the more you will get out of it. You don’t have to lose as much sleep as I have in the past year. *blink* *blink* but a month before your release day and your release week, give yourself a nice big push, as much as you can.

3. Find time for personal touches. I got a great response from readers who entered my contest who didn’t win but yet I sent them a signed bookmark as a token of appreciation for their interest and many wrote back, saying how much they appreciated it and were looking forward to my books. Balance live events (conferences, signings, etc.) with online presence. Face-time in both places is a good idea.

2. If a book blogger wants you to do an interview / Q and A with them, say yes. It’s free advertising for you, make time for it, it doesn’t have to be a lengthy piece, but book bloggers have an incredible network online and it’s a great place for people to discover you. My relationship with book bloggers has served me very well thus far, and they cross promote each other’s sites like nobody’s business.

1. Be nice. There’s nothing more important than this. People will offer you opportunities, share your work, get excited with you, etc. if you’re nice. We all love to write (otherwise we’re in the wrong business and should get out now) so let that love shine through. Love this mad business rather than fight it, you’ll have a better and healthier momentum with which to market your work with grace and flair.

Happy Writing, happy selling!

Tweet? Follow me @leannarenee

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Leanna's Marketing Smackdown #1 - Tips for Writers

Last year I wrote a quarterly column for my local RWA Chapter, RWA NYC, in their Keynotes Newsletter. Since then, several of the articles have been reprinted by other RWA chapters and since I'm continuing the column into 2011, I thought I'd post the 2010 columns here. While I'm not remotely a Marketing expert, I do spend a lot of time on various marketing strategies and happen to have a lot to say about it. I hope writers might find this useful, and that readers and fans might find it interesting (or perhaps daunting) to know some of the many things we authors are doing while trying to juggle everything else in our life. That's why I call it the smackdown, because it's us, battling our own limitations, battling time, battling to get our books noticed. I hope you enjoy! (These top ten lists will repeat either monthly or bi-monthly, depending on how many I'm able to create.)

So, here goes:

Leanna's MARKETING SMACKDOWN #1 - Managing Expectations

Copyright 2010 by Leanna Renee Hieber

Before you embark on marketing yourself and your work, it's good to check in with your friend and foe: Expectations.

1. No matter how awesome your publisher, they’ll likely not do all the marketing you’d like them to do – pick up the slack and know your fellow authors are all doing the same.

2. No one else cares as much about your book and your career as you do. Realize that and use it as motivation.

3. Manage your expectation of yourself – be honest about what’s reasonable and feasible for you in the following categories: costs, time, travel, workload, sanity.

4. Manage expectations of others: Friends are awesome. If you ask them (nicely) they will likely buy your book and tell their friends to buy your book. Just realize karma is a huge key word, so be thankful for all that everyone does – don’t just expect too much every time. Prioritize how you utilize your personal and immediate network lest you burn them out early on in your career.
5. Social networking is free but it does take time. And it takes some reciprocity too. People won’t follow you on twitter / facebook, etc, without some reciprocity – comes back to, Karma. Re-tweet other authors’ good news, interesting tidbits, run contests, etc – make your social networking interactive and suddenly you’re in community. Pick the social networking sites that appeal to you and use them – don’t waste time on a platform you hate, find the ones that work organically for you and that seem to generate some sense of result.

6. Expect that you will get tired. Rest, and start again.

7. Expect that people will love (and hate) your book. DO NOT go off the deep end on Amazon, twitter, etc. Career-ending mistake.

8. Expect not to make money right away. Or soon. You’ll have to invest more than you’ll immediately receive. Think of it like starting your own small business – you are.

9. Readers will have expectations of you too. Know how you fit within your genre or how you stretch the boundaries of your genre.

10. Throw a lot of stuff at the wall and see what sticks. A lot of great marketing is a ‘right place right time’ thing and not every strategy will work for every person. See what feels right to you – instincts are a good asset.

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Happy writing, happy selling!

Tweet? Follow me on Twitter @LeannaRenee

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