Meet Shannon Leigh, author of Ivona Knight: Vampyress, More Than Propecy, Immortal Desires and out soon Stairway to Heaven. She lives in Indiana and is happily married to her husband. She has four sons. Her pets include two cats and a chow chow named Aysia. Her hobbies are tole painting, drawing, reading, writing and watching vampire flicks. Besides that she loves to spend time with her family.

 

Past:

 

When did you start thinking about becoming a writer and when?

 I’ve written short stories since Elementary School, mostly silly stuff about magic and mystical beasts, which is what I mainly read at that time.  In middle school, I started reading romance novels.  I loved anything dealing with historical times, pirates, vampires, etc.  Then, in high-school, I tried my hand at writing my own.  Strangely, my first works in that genre were more contemporary.  While I loved having my friends read my work and give me feedback, I hadn’t at that time even considered publishing.  Once I started college, I really didn’t have time for writing or even reading.  My focus centered mainly on textbooks and clinicals—the longest and most torturous time of my life.  Thankfully though, it didn’t last forever.  About a year or so after graduation, the old writing fever snuck back up on me.  In 1997, I started working on a book that would become my second published novel.  Yes, second.  I’ll explain that in a minute. 

 

Did you follow any special writing courses?

As far as writing courses go, other than the required courses for high-school and college, I didn’t really take any targeting novel writing. 

 

How did it all start?

 The first book I started on was More Than Prophecy, a paranormal romance.  I was about ninety pages into it when I had one of those “ I have to write this now” idea for a different book.  I stopped work on More Than Prophecy and immediately began work on what would ultimately be my first published work, a vampire romance entitled Immortal Desires.  The writing for that was like a whirlwind.  I probably completed the first draft in about three months.  Not having a clue on how to go about publishing, I did what any normal person would do and opened the phone book.  I found a few “publishers” so I started making phone calls.  At the time, I had no idea there was more than one type of publishing house.  One place I called was a publishing house in Pennsylvania.  The man I spoke too seemed genuinely excited about my book and asked me to send him a manuscript right away.  Naturally, I did this.  I also mailed a copy to myself, as a safeguard for copywrite.  A few weeks later, I received a letter from this publishing house telling me how much they enjoyed my book and wanted to publish it.  At the bottom was a nice little list made out of how much it would cost—me.  If I remember correctly, it was somewhere in the vicinity of $11,000.  I about fell out of my chair.  My first thought was, “What is this?  Aren’t they supposed to pay me?”  That’s when I realized that publishing wasn’t going to be so easy.  I started getting online and quickly learned about the difference between subsidy publishers and traditional publishers.  I also learned that most traditional publishers, any worth publishing with anyhow, wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot pole unless you had an agent.  So I decided I needed an agent before I attempted to contact any more publishers.  Armed with a Writer’s Market, I started sending out queries for literary agent.  Unfortunately, this didn’t turn out to be so easy either.  Seemed agents didn’t want to represent anyone who wasn’t already published and an established moneymaker.  By this time, I was pretty bummed out.  If the agents didn’t want me, then the publishing houses likely wouldn’t either.  Thoroughly depressed and almost on the verge of giving up, I got back online to see if there was any angle I had overlooked.  I really wanted to submit queries to some of the big houses—Random House, Harlequin, Avon—but I was pretty much under the impression that if I didn’t have an agent then I was wasting my time.  Then I started noticing a lot of information on ebook publishers—something I hadn’t considered before.  I did a little research and decided, what the heck?  Why not give it a try?  I sent out a handful of queries, online might I add, which is so much cheaper than snail mail, and within a week, had one who wanted to read the entire script.  I ended up signing a contract to publishing my book with DLSIJ Press in both ebook and POD.  I never did send out that first query to the big houses.  And to tell you the truth, I’m glad.  I got to see my book in published format a whole lot quicker by going the epublishing route.

 

Now:

 

What is the average time you spend in writing a book?

 That really depends.  My first published book probably took about a year, after rewrites and editing.  The one I had actually started first took about seven years.  But I had stopped to do other things during that time.  Short stories generally don’t take me that long.  It really just depends on how much time I have to work on something.  I find other life responsibilities slow down my productive time.

 

What does a regular working day writing looks like?

 I try to squeeze in a little time each day.  Sometimes it might be only a few minutes, other times it might be several hours.  I have very little time to just sit and write without interruption.  Regardless of where I am, I’m constantly being called away from the computer to do other things.  About the only time I can sit and really spend a couple of hours without moving is during the night, after everyone else has gone to bed.

 

Do you plan before you write, write everything down in schemes?

 Not usually.  Sometimes I’ll play a scene out in my head.  But I very seldom use an outline to write.  I just kind of let my characters write their own story.  I sit on the sidelines and try to make sure they keep moving in some sort of logical direction.

 

What is on your schedule right now?

 I generally do some sort of research for each book.  Currently, I’m working on two short stories that I’ve already collected the information for.  Once I finish those, I’ve got two more short stories that I have to finish by October, so I’ll be back on the net to find some details to throw in.  I like for all my books to have some sort of grounded facts.  Even if my characters are beings on another planet, the weapons they use will likely be real weapons that I’ve researched so that I can explain them with clarity and reality.

 

You and your books:

 

Are your ideas or characters based on real persons?

 Not generally.  I make up all my characters.  My hero/heroine may have a job that is realistic, but I don’t use any people to base my characters on.  An exception to this is in my latest Dark Romance release from Chippewa Publishing: Ivona Knight, Vampyress.  While the main character, Ivona, isn’t based on a real person, I used a lot of history surrounding the real Vlad Dracula’s reign to explain how Ivona—the first vampyre—was created.  

 

What book of yours means the most to you, took the longest, needed the most research?

 Immortal Desires probably means the most because it was my first published.  To date, More Than Prophecy took the longest to write.  Ivona Knight, Vampyress required the most research.

What are your favorite authors/books?

My favorite books are those dealing with the paranormal genre.  I don’t have a specific favorite author.  There’s so many good books out there, that it’s hard to just center on one.

I do like Anne McCaffrey and Piers Anthony a lot.  The Dragon Riders of Pern and the Xanth novels were some of my favorite books growing up.

What is your favorite genre?

Paranormal/fantasy. 

 

The book genres you like writing on are they the same genres as the books you like reading?

Yes, I generally stick in this genre when I write.

Future:

 

Would you ever consider writing in another genre?

I plan to. 

What genre(s) would that be?

I want to venture into science fiction, maybe some horror, thriller.

Any future plans you would like to share with us?

I certainly plan on writing for a long time to come. 

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions Shannon!

Thank you for taking the time to talk with me.