 THE WINNER OF LEANNA SAIN'S BOOK, RED CURTAINS,IS NOEL FROM NC. CONGRATULATIONS, NOEL! Many thanks to all who entered. Today I am honored to have as my guest, Leanna Sain, an award-winning and prolific author. She has written four novels with Red Curtains as her newest release. AT THE END OF THIS INTERVIEW, LEAVE A COMMENT FOR LEANNA AND YOUR NAME WILL BE ENTERED IN A DRAWING FOR A PRINT COPY OF RED CURTAINS. GOOD LUCK! WINNER ANNOUNCED ON THIS WEBSITE NOVEMBER 7, 2016. Tell us something interesting that most people don’t know about you. I ran my first ½ marathon when I was 53 years old. That is quiet an achievement! How and when did you begin to write? My writing journey began with a gate. Yes, a gate. Let me explain. It was Halloween and we were invited to a friend’s house for a party. After dinner, we all grabbed flashlights and glow-sticks and hiked out to a spooky old cemetery. It was a perfect Halloween night with a big, face yellow full moon shining over the landscape. On the way back to the house, my flashlight glanced over to the right of the path, spot-lighting a wooden gate. Now, gates on farms are nothing new. Kind of goes with the territory, but this gate wasn’t attached to any fence. It was just the gate…all by itself. And it struck me as odd. I mean why would you keep a gate without a fence? “What’s up with your gate?” I asked my friend. She shrugged, “Don’t know. It was here when we bought the place.” “Dum, dum, DUM…The gate to nowhere.” I announced in my scariest sounding voice. She laughed. “Sounds like the name of a book. Why don’t you write it?” Hmmm. “Maybe I will.” It was as if a cork was pulled out of a story bottle in my brain. The story sort of glugged out of me and wouldn’t stop. The end result was my first novel, Gate to Nowhere. (The story actually ended up being a trilogy, simply because I couldn’t let go of the characters I’d created and come to love. I wanted to know how their story ended.) Can you give our readers a short description of your latest book? Red Curtains is a contemporary romantic mystery set in Savannah, GA, featuring three main characters: Cleo Davis, a senior art major at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) who needs a model for her art project or she’s not going to graduate; Lily Telfair-Gordon, a homeless woman who has witnessed a murder and discovered a bag of counterfeit money in a garbage can; and Jonas Holmes, a reporter for the local paper who is trying to find out why bodies of homeless men keep showing up in the Savannah River. They all need each other, but don’t know how much or why, until it’s too late. What led you to write it? While my husband and I were in Savannah, GA celebrating our 26th anniversary, we saw “Lily” from the story. We were waiting for a tour bus and this homeless person (I think it was a man, but I’m not entirely sure. I made the character a woman, in any case) wearing ragged clothes, and a flamboyant court jester hat walked up a nearby mailbox and sprinkled some invisible substance around the base of it, all the while chanting words I couldn’t understand. As soon as I got on the bus, I scribbled notes as fast as I could get them on paper. I didn’t have my little notebook with me (don’t know how that happened., so the bones of the story got jotted on every piece of paper I could find in my purse. I could hardly wait to get to my laptop. What are you working on now? Another book in my GRITS (Girls-Raised-In-The-South) series. The working title is Glass Tears. It’s set in Graham County, NC at the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The idea for this book came from a friend’s dream. I’ve changed so much of it, he probably won’t even recognize it, but that’s where the story seed came from. Thanks, Paul Do you have any advice for beginning writers? Just write. Don’t wait until you have the entire story idea worked out, Write. Now. How can my readers find out more about you and your work? Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Leannasbooks Twitter: Leanna Sain@Leannasbooks Website and blog: http://leannasain.com Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/LeannaSain Buy link: http://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/all-titles/4594-red-curtains.html https://www.amazon.com/Red-Curtains-Leanna-Sain-ebook/dp/B01L5R53U8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/red-curtains/id1149202885?mt=11 http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/red-curtains-leanna-sain/1124412152?ean=2940156862825 https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/red-curtains North Carolina native, Leanna Sain, earned her BA from the University of South Carolina, then moved back to her beloved mountains of western NC with her husband. Her “Gate” books have stacked up numerous awards, from Foreword Magazine’s Book-of-the-Year to the Clark Cox Historical Fiction Award from the North Carolina Society of Historians. Sain’s fourth novel, WISH, is a stand-alone, YA crossover. Her Southern romantic suspense or “GRIT-lit,” showcases her plot-driven method of writing that successfully rolls the styles of best-selling authors Mary Kay Andrews, Nicholas Sparks, and Jan Karon into a delightfully hybrid style that is all her own. Regional fiction lovers and readers who enjoy suspense with a magical twist will want her books. She loves leading discussion groups and book clubs. For more information or to contact her, visit: www.LeannaSain.com RED CURTAINS
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 I have a collection of handbags. The ones I treasure the most are ones from my great grandmother and my mother’s oldest sister, Aunt Tate. In my first book, Agnes Hopper Shakes Up Sweetbriar, Agnes always keeps a favorite one close by her side: A big, red purse soft as a baby’s behind that she discovered at a garage sale. In book two of the series coming out early next year, Agnes Hopper Bets On Murder, she continues to value that same pocketbook.
Do you remember your mother or grandmother carrying a particular purse? Did she drop her coins in a small, snap purse, probably made of black cloth? Do you have a favorite handbag of your own? Drop a line and let us know. |
