'Tis my Birthday

'Tis my day of birth.

I was born just a few hours into Cancer:












from Gemini (ooh, pretty);














so as I like to say with a grin, I was born to hate myself.

Nah, I've got the best of both crazy. :) Cuspy, crazy-good.

My friends and I had a rockin' good gothy time this weekend. (translation: my friends humored me a lot) For two delightful narratives, visit Marianne Mancusi's Blog and The Rebels of Romance a la Liz Maverick blog to see some great photos. As I've been saying lately, if you want to know what I'm doing, check out my friends' blogs, they're often a lot better about keeping track of what I'm doing than I am.

Get Your Ghost #2... Spectral Spectacles

I've been behind in my "Get Your Ghost" postings that I had promised myself I'd be dilligent about. A book release will do that to you...

So anyway,

Ever wonder what it would be like to have Ghostbusting eyewear? Spectral Spectacles?
Well the folks over at Ghoststudy.com did, and they're working on some projects...

http://ghoststudy.com/new10/important_notice.html

I quote directly:

"SEE GHOSTS WITH SPECIAL EYE GLASSES
We are working on a type of eye glasses that will allow the wearer to see certain types of supernatural beings. If the individual is wearing these eye glasses in a haunted location, that person will see ghosts! Particularly the shadow ghosts that you normally can only see out of the corner of your eye. The principle is relatively simple and with the proper funding, they can be tested in several haunted locations throughout the USA." -- GhostStudy.com

However I might refrain from wearing them as a fashion statement.

I dunno about you guys, but hey, sign me up.

Think I could dig out my old plastic View Master with the little circular paper disks with slides and modify those into ghost glasses too? See many ghosts in Technicolor settings via the press of a lever! Or maybe I could retrofit my plastic 3-D glasses from the re-release of Nightmare Before Christmas, the possibilities are endless...

What do you think? I know people who can see ghosts without any sort of augmentation...

"Behind the Scenes" #7 Lori Foster Wonderfulness

So the Lori Foster Reader & Author Get Together was incredible. Go to the link and check out the numbers raised for charity!!!

Thousands of dollars will be going back into my hometown, going to wonderful causes like children's health, animal shelters, troop donations, and The Power of Love anthology proceeds going to a battered women's shelter in Cincinnati.

It was an incredible meeting of minds, hearts, industry and fans, beginners and seasoned professionals, with everyone maintaining an across-the-board nice.

And I won some SWEET industry raffle prizes. A critique from a great publishing house that will be very useful, AND a 12 month author sponsorship from We Write Romance.com! I'm so thrilled to be in such great company, check out their comprehensive site including many resources for writers and readers! Thanks to Heather Reed and everyone at We Write Romance for this opportunity!

And did I mention it was my first booksigning?! Since DARK NEST just came out in print, it was a wonderful opportunity for my first ever booksigning. It was quite a treat.

Here's my best friend Marijo and I! (She's the good one looking at the camera, I'm the space cadet)

More wonderful support here below (My grade school English / math teacher and her family, happy that I finally put all my talking in class to good use...)

OMG Barbara Vey drive-by-videoed me!

Oh, wow.



So I'm here, with my Mom, at the wonderful Lori Foster Reader and Writer Get Together to meet other writers, readers, connect, and give back to my hometown of Cincinnati with events sponsored for charity, and to do my first BOOKSIGNING! And guess who I cornered; the awesome Barbara Vey of Publisher's Weekly.



I walked up, introduced myself and handed her a copy of Dark Nest. She responded with what may become my first publicity coup. All I have to say is my terrified Mom was a total trooper and took one for the team to promote her daughter. I love you Barbara, and Mom. Lookie:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/blog/880000288/post/390027839.html

Leave a post on Barbara's blog and tell us what you think!

DARK NEST available in PRINT at Barnes & Noble!

For those who prefer print books to eBooks, wait no longer:

DARK NEST is now available in Print at Barnes & Noble.com! I'm very excited! For those who have Barnes & Noble nearby, you can also order one directly from the store for pick up! Huzzah!

The print copy not only includes DARK NEST, but also Sea-Found, my twisted lil' ghost story, also published by Crescent Moon Press.

Find a DARK NEST excerpt here at Crescent Moon, where the eBook will remain available and is the current bestseller on the site!

"Behind the Scenes"#6 Interviews, Quotes and Revisions, oh my!

A flurry of stuffs... Interviews, Quotes and... *scary music* Revisions!!

1. I have a comprehensive new interview up at Manic Readers!

2. I have author quotes for DARK NEST from REAL multi-published, award-winning authors!
Thanks, Colby, Isabo!

"Leanna Renee Hieber creates a fantastic new world full of endless possibilities in Dark Nest. Kristov is a hero to die for and Ariadne is a heroine that every reader can relate to. I can't wait to read more of this fascinating world." - award winning author Colby Hodge

"Fabulous read! Once I started I couldn't stop until the very satisfying end!" Isabo Kelly, award-winning author of Marshall's Guard

3. I have vertigo from revisions to my gothic victorian fantasy novel that I'm working my rear off to get published. Here's how I feel:


During massive restructuring of my narrative, shifting around whole chapters like rearranged puzzle pieces, I found that I sort of went into Matrix bullet-time. It was as if the text of my whole book was just scrolling, scrolling, scrolling down the pages of my mind like all those little green numbers... Am I alone here??


Authors? Tell me about your "Highway to the Revision Zone": Do you go to a zen place? Do you go into a tailspin? Anyone else have this matrix feeling? Or an Alice in Wonderland rabbit-hole and you're just ingesting things that say "Eat" and "Drink me" until your book is fabulous? I want to know. Tell me.

When DARK NEST characters sit down for a pint...

Two of my favorite DARK NEST characters, Sergeant Maric North and my heroine, Chief Counsel Ariadne Corinth, have come out to play outside of their novella
at the mysterious POND PUB....

Writers, the Pond Pub may be a neat place for your characters to come out and play too, it was a wonderful way to think outside of the structure of my worldbuilding. Just ask Clover Autrey for an invite.