My guest is Victorian Gothic author, Leanna Renee Hieber. I had the opportunity to meet the irrepressible Leanna at a RWA writers' conference in September.Leanna is a sassy redhead and a lot of fun and she also knows the value of *presence* She did a fun and informative workshop on Direct Your Book--Using Theatrical Techniques. The gist of the workshop was to remember that while you're an author, you also are a Cinematographer, Director, Actor, and Marketing Director. Each plays a vital role in our writing. The workshop was great for visualizing your work and your characters.
Leanna has a unique way of looking at things in life and how they play into the writing process.
- Leanna, tell us a little about you:
Hello friends! I'm an award winning author, actress, playwright and author of the Strangely Beautiful series of Gothic Victorian Fantasy novels, beginning with The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker.
- I'm glad you were able to visit with us a bit today.
- Gothics used to be quite popular and then segued into mostly paranormals (with ghosts, other worldly creatures etc) and true atmospheric Gothics fell by the wayside. What drew you to Gothics and the Victorian period in particular?
As for why the Victorian era, another childhood obsession that I can only chalk up to a past life.The conflict and the strained romance of the time just adds so much delicious tension!
- You've given your Gothics a modern twist with fantasy/para, but would you still classify them with the old Gothics? How are they similar? Different?
Absolutely, I'd say I'm in the 'old school' Gothic style, but inspired healthily by Fantasy novels.
- I know of several who love and write dark Gothics but aren't seeing a lot of results. Your books seem to fit a niche and I'm seeing a resurgence of interest in Dark Gothics again.
I do think there's great timing for [Gothic] series right now, however I couldn't have known that when I started the book nine years ago.
- A case of writing what you love to read. I'm glad you persevered! It's a good book. What are some of your favorite things and do you use them in your writing?
I thought I'd make a list of all my favourite things because these are all things that have come up in interviews and when I look at this list, I realize it's a very important list to understanding me as a writer. I feel like singing a little Sound of Music here...
Except we don't have sound, Leanna, but I admit the song has been running through my head.
A (nearly comprehensive) list of Leanna's favourite things:
- British Accents
- British Actors-
- Greek Mythology (and Mythologies in general)
- Ghost Stories
- Writing (since I could hold a pen and finish a sentence, it’s my favourite thing to do with my time)
- Helpless romanticism
- Brooding, brilliant, magical men who seemed wicked but weren’t (Just like Anne of Green Gables says, she wants someone who isn’t wicked but has the possibility of being wicked. I’m so Anne... )
- Fantasy novels (Especially Harry Potter)
- Gothic novels/literature
- Jane Austen
- Theatre (everything about it)
- Gothic things (like architecture, music, clothes and all things under said title)
- Dr. Who
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Alan Rickman (the best actor in the known world)
- London- The Victorian Era and everything therein – (I have no idea why as a child I was flouncing around in doubled skirts and makeshift corsets, speaking in a British Accent in rural Ohio. I credit a past life because I don’t know how else to explain my long time love affair with the 19th century, or why London felt uncannily home when I went there.)
- Birds
- Pine forests (moonlit, please)
- Red wine or a dirty martini
- String music
- cheese
- Soulful singer/songwriters- Making things up that were utterly impossible and/or utterly non-traditional.
- Ghostbusters
- The Muppets (Particularly The Muppet Christmas Carol)
- A Garden-style graveyard
- Stained Glass (Particularly Louis Comfort Tiffany)
- Central Park
- Fine Art (particularly the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood)
- The BBC (Yes. I am an anglophile)
- My beloved pet rabbit rescued from a testing facility, named Persebunny
They say we are what we eat and I think we are also what we love. I'm so interested in the way that creativity meets our great loves in life, and to discuss that with writers and readers.
- Writers: What are your favourite things and does your list make it into what you're writing?
- Readers: Do you look for aspects of your list in what you read?
I hope you'll check out The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker. I've just announced the title and cover of the Strangely Beautiful sequel, The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker, which will release April 27th, 2010.
Come find me on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/sbfbfan
Twitter: www.twitter.com/leannarenee
Blog: http://www.leannareneebooks.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.leannareneehieber.com/
Blessings to you!
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Award-Winning author, actress and playwright Leanna Renee Hieber grew up in rural Ohio where her childhood memories are full of inventing elaborate ghost stories. Graduating with a BFA in Theatre from Miami University, a focus study in the Victorian Era and a scholarship to study in London helped set the course for her books. The dramatic, historic, spiritual and paranormal are the primary forces in her lyrical, eerie, atmospheric fiction.
While performing in the regional theatre circuit, her one-act plays such as Favorite Lady, were published, produced, won awards and continue to be produced in colleges and festivals around the country. She has adapted works of 19th Century literature for the professional stage.
She hit the fantasy fiction scene with her novella Dark Nest which won the 2009 Prism Award for excellence in Futuristic, Fantasy and Paranormal Romance. The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker is the first in her Strangely Beautiful series of ghostly, Gothic Victorian Fantasy novels published by Dorchester Publishing.
