Author Interview–Leslie Kelly @lesliekelly

What is hardest – getting published, writing or marketing?

Marketing. I was very lucky to sell the first book I wrote to a publisher, and now I’m successfully indie publishing along with my traditional publishing. But oh, I really hate the “business” side of things–marketing is the pits. I’d much rather be locked in my office, and locked in my head, creating my stories.

Is your family supportive? Do your friends support you?

Yes, incredibly supportive. My husband reads most of my books, my daughters have done everytyhing from editing to writing “bibles” for the connected books in my various series. I’d love to someday work on a dystopian new-adult with my middle daughter, who reads them avidly and would like to try her hand at writing one!

Do you plan to publish more books?

Oh yes. I have contractual obligations to my traditional publisher, and have a whole slew of ideas for my indie efforts. I’d like to continue the Veronica Sloan series past book 2. I also just got the rights back to my popular Black CATs series, which was published by Penguin-Putnam in 2009. I am updating and revising them now and will indie publish them later this year, following up with a brand new fourth book in 2014.

What else do you do to make money, other than write? It is rare today for writers to be full time…

That’s it. I am fortunate enough to have made a living with my writing for many years. I hope to continue that for many more.

If you could study any subject at university what would you pick?

History. I love history. It’s a bit surprising that I’ve never tackled a historical novel…maybe someday!

If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

Ireland. I visited several years ago and absolutely loved it. Beautiful country, lovely people, just a wonderful “vibe.” If i had my druthers, I’d buy a cottage on the shore and spend half the year there.

How do you write – lap top, pen, paper, in bed, at a desk?

I have serious back issues, which have necessitated surgery in the past. So I should write at my desk, with my extremely ergonomic chair that my husband got for me. (He’s a workplace health & safety expert!) But I am just as often found on a recliner with my laptop, or sitting at my dining room table. It totally depends on how close I am to deadline! The closer the deadline, the more likely you’ll find me in my office, with the door closed, and earplugs in my ears. I truly can’t write with any extraneous noise–I know others like music or background noise, but I need total silence. Even if nobody is in the house, I wear earplugs. If I could write in a sensory deprivation chamber, I would.

Where do you get support from? Do you have friends in the industry?

I am fortunate enough to have a lot of wonderful writer friends. I have a multi-author blog with three of them, who all sold around the same time I did. We’ve helped each other through every stage of our careers.

How much sleep do you need to be your best?

I’m terrible, I love to sleep. I often sleep until ten. But that’s because I’m a night owl and can never turn off my light until at least 1-2 a.m., after reading or writing until I nod off.

Every writer has their own idea of what a successful career in writing is, what does success in writing look like to you?

I’d love to have a strong enough career that I could hire someone to do all the things I don’t feel like doing. Bookkeeping, correspondence, marketing. If I made enough money, I’d ask my husband to quit my job and work for me doing those things! He’s told me many times he’d be happy to do it.

It is vital to get exposure and target the right readers for your writing, tell us about your marketing campaign?

Tell us about your new book? What’s it about and why did you write it?

Don’t Look Away is a very dark thriller with some romantic elements. It is set in the very near future, about 9 years from now, in Washington D.C. But the country is very different from today, because in 2017, a terrorist attack wiped out much of the nation’s capitol and killed the president. The U.S. retreated within its own borders, building walls and refusing to take a place on the world’s stage, earning peace for itself while other countries fell into more violent confrontations. So the country is peaceful and prosperous…at the cost of its own self-image as “the good guys.” My heroine, Veronica Sloan, is a D.C. police detective who really doesn’t like the way things have turned out. Having lost several members of her own family in the attack, she has a thirst for justice, so when she has the chance to become part of a top-secret experiment that should help national security and crime-solving, she jumps at it. She is now an OEPIS (pronounced oh-piss) investigator. She and several thousand other Americans have cameras implanted into their brains which record visual impressions every second of their lives. her job is to take those impressions and use them to solve or prevent crimes. And in her very first case, she’s got to solve the murder of a woman who was brutally killed in the basement of the under-reconstruction White House.

It’s a very dark book. Very edgy. But there is an element of romance between Veronica and her partner, FBI Agent Jeremy Sykes. I had a fantastic time creating their characters and this strangely-familiar, and terrifyingly-possible new world.

When you are not writing, how do you like to relax?

I am a big theater buff and while it’s not necessarily relaxing, it’s something I love doing.. My husband and I met doing community theater many years ago and we still do it. In fact, we opened our own theater troupe this summer, and produced the musical Into The Woods. It was a smashing success, and we are talking about doing it again next year.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre - Thriller

Rating – R

More details about the author and the book

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Website http://www.leslieAkelly.com/