Leslie Keller Books

Being that I am suffering from the worst cold (any maybe the only cold) I've had this year, I'm having a hard time contemplating the act of writing.  But in the interest of entertaining myself and hopefully my readers of this blog, I wanted to focus on the effect the inclusion of sounds have on us while reading. Sneeze - a small peep that escaped from the squeezed together nostrils of a sweet southern belle or  an explosion that started as a deep intake of breath and shattered eardrums within ten feet? Cough - the raspy sound made by a two-pack a day cigarette smoker, which makes your own healthy lungs hurt by association, or a dry hacking sound a cat makes when trying to dislodge a hairball? Sniffle - Tears streaming down the fat cheeks of a child, sniffling in between the gasps for air while in the midst of a hurricane force temper tantrum or the floor littered with used tissues at the bedside while repeating "I can't breathe!" sound? If you ...

What is better than a nap by the fire?  My friend Lauren's beloved Hank is enjoying his nap and not even bothering to lie down - it's easier to fall asleep sitting up than to make the extra effort.  Perhaps he enjoyed a bit too much eggnog?  Leslie

As I prepare to head to the east coast to visit my family for the holidays I know I will be occupied and it's doubtful I'll have time to do much, if any, writing.   For me time has been the biggest obstacle.  I work at least a forty hour week at a paying job.  When that is done I have to get some exercise (because I do love my chocolate) and spend time with friends.  In between there are meals to cook and laundry and all the fun stuff that you have to do if you don't have a live in maid and cook.  Oh wait, that's my other job! I envy people who are able to shut themselves off from the world and focus on writing.  Sometimes I may be my own worst enemy because I would rather watch an hour of mindless television or read someone else's work than to try to be creative.  Since I work at a job that requires me to be tuned in from the moment I hit the desk until I shut it down for the day, and then sometimes even after hours, I feel drained of energy ...

I have heard different things from different sources about whether if you are writing a series if you should start on the second book if you haven't found a publisher for the first one.  Based on the initial information I received I decided not to write the second book in the Jayne Stanford mystery series.  However after speaking with a publisher who recommended I write the next one, and getting the feedback on Menu for Murder, I have started it. Cocktails at Sunset which is the working title picks up where we left Jayne at the end of Menu for Murder.  Initially I was concerned that I wouldn't have enough ideas for Jayne but that was unfounded.  As I work on the Outline (I absolutely must use an outline), my real difficulty has been narrowing down what I want my heroine to experience.  Can't throw everything at her at one time, now can we? It's been exciting to continue her saga because I really like this character and I'm able to have fun writing her....

Every time I read a book my mind runs comparisons between the author's work and my own.  In some cases I am inspired to do better by the prose and some in cases I am surprised at the quality of the work.  I mean surprised as in "This is why the author self-published". I don't intend to cast a critical eye on the work but I believe it's an unavoidable practice.  Case in point, I recently read a mystery by a self-published author.  The dialog was poorly written and the plot had major holes.  I'm sure the author worked very hard on the manuscript but it does make me wonder if anyone read it before it went to press.  I constantly hear from published authors that it's necessary to be part of a writer's group in order to get feedback on your work.  I'll be honest that concept scares me more than the first Alien movie did.   When you spend hours, days, weeks, months and sometimes even years to complete the work, it's a part of you and allowing s...

On this week of Thanksgiving, when we are already being bombarded with Holiday decorations, gift ideas and movies, it is sometimes hard to live in the moment and celebrate the holiday that is next.  I admit that my mind is already off in gift shopping land and I'm thinking about my trip home to visit my folks.  Despite jumping ahead to the next holiday, I am excited to celebrate this year with a small dinner on Thanksgiving with a few of my friends.  I lay in bed a few nights ago, thinking about how much I have to be thankful for due to having them all in my life.  They enrich my experiences constantly and I'm very  grateful each one of them wandered in - whether because they were walking in the 60 mile walk with me or playing Bunco or by some other happenstance.  I've been truly blessed through the years to be able to celebrate each and every day with these wonderful people. And although some of them don't know I,t they provide me with inspiration...

It was a few degrees warmer in Minnesota when we biked but seems like just yesterday.

One thing that I have avoided is sending my word to an editor.  I know that I'm motivated by fear that an editor may find so many faults with the work that I would be heart broken.  I hope that the reality is that it's mostly grammatical errors which need correcting and not the entire storyline. Everyone knows that you need another set of eyes to review your work.  A professional set of eyes who can catch the obvious and not so obvious flaws is a necessity in order to show the work in it's best light.  So my question is - what is more important, my fear of someone finding the flaws or the fear of not finding them?  If I want to be published, which of course I do, then I must overcome this fear and move forward. What things in your life have you not done because fear has held you back?  Start that diet, climb that mountain, quit a job that you hate and try for something that fulfills you?  I will admit to frequent episodes of clucking (yes, I c...

Menu for Murder has been completed for months and now I have to find a great editor.  I don't want a good one, I want a great one.  Someone who does this for a living but yet won't try to change my characters but rather tell me what I need to do to further enhance them.  Someone who can find my grammatical errors, which may be many, and make the difference between a story that is good and one that captures the reader. In the meantime, I continue working my nine to five job so I can pay my bills.  I squeeze in lots of other fun stuff and spend time with my lovely group of ladies.  Invariably, however the conversation will touch upon my book and the question will be asked, "So, when are you going to publish it?" I try to bite my tongue and smile politely but inside I'm churning.  If it was so easy to write a full size manuscript and then just pop it off in the mail to a publisher, everyone would do it.  It if didn't require hours pulling characters out...

In the middle of another busy "real" work day, I have promised myself to take the time to jot down a few thoughts in this blog, especially what's been rolling around in my head for days. I caught myself thinking in terms of rewards.  How I reward myself with chocolate primarily and for all the wrong reasons.  I had a long day so I can have some chocolate.  My day was especially stressful, so I can have some chocolate.  I didn't each any (okay, change that to "much") chocolate yesterday so I can have some chocolate.  I hiked the mountain, I took a breath.... and you get the general idea.  Whatever my rationale at the moment, it always ends with the word chocolate.  That has been my reward for doing whatever I do on a daily basis. And in the words of Oprah Winfrey, one day the light bulb just went off in my head and I had that "Aha" moment.  I make no secret of my chocolate addiction but rather than using it as a reward for doing what I should, ...

I recently attended the Southwest Writer's Conference in Arizona for a day of learning and motivation.  I was sorely in need of the motivation, as lately it's become more and more difficult for me to commit myself to doing what I love to do. When I write those words it shocks me.  If I love writing as much as I believe that I do, why then is it so hard for me to find the time to do it?  I don't enjoy going to the gym - okay I actually dislike it greatly - but I do it more regularly lately than I write.  It doesn't make me feel good about myself to admit that, but it's the truth. As I left a very enjoyable conference I had mixed emotions.  Part of me was thrilled that I had spoken with a local publisher and received some excellent advice about the Jayne Stanford series.  The other part of me was disappointed that so many days slip by me like the second hand on a clock.  Seconds lost that I cannot recover. I can easily excuse some of my lost time d...

One of my best friends Philomene and I at the Phoenix Walk for Hope.  Team Goddesses and their male supporters walked to help find a cure for breast cancer.

My niece, who just turned thirteen, is an avid reader.  It makes sense because she comes from a family of readers.  Both of her parents love to read, as do her Aunts and Uncle and her grandmother (my mom).  What is exciting to me is that at her age she also loves to write.  When I was younger than her I wrote my first short stories.  They were about horses and young girls and summer camp.  They reflected my very limited world view and although I can't remember much about them now, I think they were rather rudimentary. Hannah writes about a lady who loves fashion and her exotic shoe collection.  She writes fantasy and suspense.  Every one of her short stories I have read I have fallen in love with.  Not just because I am her Aunt but because for her age she writes amazingly well.  Her latest composition stunned me and led me to enter her in a writing competition.  It is the story of a lady who lived her life alone until th...

It pains me to admit that I have done absolutely nothing which involves writing for most of this month.  I don't know where the time went, except for the long weekend I spent visiting family in the mid-west.  For the rest of the month it seems I've done nothing at all. This situation makes me wonder just how dedicated I am to writing and getting my work published.  Wouldn't you think for someone who has one novel finished, another one outlined and begun and a short story only mere words from completion that she would be anxious to move forward?  I lay blame on my other job - the one that gives me a paycheck on a regular basis for taking up my time and leaving my brain exhausted at the end of the day.  I blame my desire to celebrate life and enjoy my free time by doing activities that take me away from the keyboard.  I blame my partner for having a birthday, okay I don't really blame him for that!  But to be totally honest, I blame myself ...

As a breast cancer survivor I don't think about cancer one month a year.  I think about it every day of every month of every year.  Once you have been touched by this disease it never completely leaves your mind.  I don't obsess about it but I never completely forget about it either.  In my family we have four survivors - my step sister Beth who was diagnosed over twenty years ago at the age of 28.  Myself, having just celebrated my eleven year anniversary of being cancer free.  My sister-in-law, Carolyn who is a two time cancer survivor and is at her nine year mark.  Lastly my youngest sister, Laura who has just passed her two year mark.  You've probably heard it said but when one person in your family or immediate circle is affected with cancer of any kind - everyone is affected.  It's not just the person fighting the disease it's everyone who knows her. Although I was far from my family geographically when I fought my battle, I was ble...

I had to post this picture from the Barcelona farmer's market.  For some reason every time I look at it I have to chuckle because he seems to have an expression of absolute distaste for his surroundings.  Poor little fish was caught by a fisherman and now has nothing to smile about. Leslie

I just realized I never published this post so here it is better late than never I suppose. I'm getting ready to take a vacation, yes another trip when it seems like I just returned from Las Vegas.  That trip was only a long weekend and I've told myself it doesn't count as a real vacation.  This one I'll be out of commission for ten long, luxurious, sight-seeing filled, food and drink overdose crammed days.  Yahoo! With the above on my mind, and my mind already two steps away from checking out, I'm trying to wrap up some work and contemplating just how to get it all done in time. I never like to leave things until the last minute, in fact my bags are almost completely packed and I have still over a week to go before I enter fantasy vacation mode.  With so much jammed into my head about my trip, how can I focus on what is really important at the moment, such as completing the short story I need to submit before I leave town?  I still have to wrap ...

I can't believe my last post was on September 5th and it's now the 27th.  I have no idea what happened to this month except that I was in vacation mode for the last three weeks, even if my actual vacation didn't last that long.  So now that I'm back and trying to get myself motivated again I have to wonder what is a vacation really for. This is the first time in a very long time that I had a structured vacation.  Seven nights on a cruise ship, traveling to Europe and back, shore excursions every day and no time to rest.  Did I enjoy myself - yes.  Would I do it again - never.  Is this how a person should vacation from work and the stress of daily life?  For me it may have been more stressful to try to do everything that was scheduled.  My usual vacation involves some time at the beach doing absolutely nothing.  Okay the truth is there might be one or two margaritas too. Silly me actually thought I might do a little writing at some point i...

In my last post I wrote about trying to find my inspiration for a short story in the Romance genre.  I used my real life experiences of late and molded those into a storyline.  I'm halfway through the manuscript and I'm excited to find out where my protagonist will wind up.  Nice when it's even a surprise to the author! So here is a brief excerpt from the early draft.  I hope you like it. Three Loves and a Wedding               The invitation arrived in Monday morning’s mail, peeking out from beneath a handful of bills and stuck to the back of a sale flyer.   Her hands trembled as she sliced open the verbena colored envelope and the soft scent of lavender wafted over her, alluding to the romantic content tucked within.   Devon slid the card out and holding her breath she read the content. Trisha and Spencer joyfully invite you to attend the celebration of our wedding and the ...

Lately I've been thinking about past loves.  I use the term "loves" loosely because I'm not sure I was really in love with any of them but maybe at the time I was infatuated.  At any rate, I've been thinking about them because apparently they've been thinking of me.  In the last few months I've been contacted by three men I dated in the past.  The first came as a voice mail message while I was out of the country.  Thankfully, I missed that call because I'm not sure how I would have responded.  It gave me a chuckle and I had to listen to it about ten times to be sure I didn't imagine it.  The second came as a birthday wish electronically from a guy I dated more than ten years ago.  The third I received just today via Facebook from someone which I had a sort of dating, sort of just friends relationship. Lastly my long time friend is getting married this weekend.  Her third and his second marriage but I hope it's the last for both ...

My partner has retired from the work force and now spends his days at the gym and learning guitar.  That is nice for him but I'm still dividing my time between the job that pays me a salary and the job I love to do - writing.  The difference between the two of us and how we allocate our time has made me thing of the topic for today's blog which is about having a clean house, literally and figuratively. Let me first say that although he has raised a family, run multiple businesses and lived on his own, the process of cleaning the house is still relatively foreign to him.  He gets a lot of credit for trying and I do understand that the tasks I ask him to do are ones he hasn't focused his time on in the past.  In my family the girls did the housework and even the outside yard work but we all pitched in.  In his family it was "woman's work"  and he never really paid much attention to it.  Even in our years tog...

Yes, today is my birthday - woo hoo?  I am unable to decide it that makes me happy or sad or if I should be way, way beyond celebrating the years.  I wonder if it's a good idea to be staring into this magnifying mirror and counting the wrinkles like the rings on a tree. I won't even try to count the gray hairs which are now popping up in my eyebrows and eyelashes! What is it about getting older that we love until we hit thirty and then it's pretty much all downhill?  Looking back I have very few regrets about how I spent the years getting to this point and in reality I don't mind being my age - but I wouldn't mind being ten years younger either.  But seriously, where has the time gone?  I swear it seems like only a few years ago that I moved to Arizona and the reality is that I've been here almost twenty years.  My mind still thinks I am that same person but I'm relieved to say that I am a much wiser version. Having said all of that my question today is...

My biggest challenge lately has been setting aside time to write.  Alright I'm lying.  My biggest challenge lately has been how to break my sugar addiction.  I was serious when I made the commitment to not buy anymore candy or chocolate or sugar laden foods but truth is I haven't been very successful. I love sugar but not in every form.  For example, I won't drink sweet iced tea despite having lived much of my life in Virginia.  I don't like dark chocolate - it's too healthy and way too bitter to be enjoyable.  But my favorite addiction is milk chocolate covered raisins.  They are chocolate and chewy and could pass for health food.  I can eat them until I'm ill but I love every second of it. I'm afraid if I can never eat another bite of chocolate I will simply dream about it and probably gain more weight than if I actually eat it.  And, I rationalize by telling myself that life is way too short not to eat chocolate. You may wo...

The question of the day is should you write what you already know or should you write about what you don't know but want to learn.  If I had my dithers I would write all day, every day and never have to do anything but that.  No other job, no laundry, no grocery shopping or cooking or any of the mundane daily tasks we must accomplish.  My second choice would be to go to school forever - and be graded on my work!  I love learning that much.  Having made that statement it's imperative that I now answer my own question.  It is my belief that you should write what you know with a BUT.  I know about the restaurant business so Menu for Murder has that as its setting.   I know about women - being one gives me a distinct advantage in that area.  I know central Arizona and the small towns I portray in the novel.  And here is the BUT.  I have never seen a murder, never been involved in a murder, never gone further than what I ha...

When I first started the writing process as a "serious" author I wasn't aware of the vast resources available to me.  I took some college courses in writing and attended a few seminars.  They were a great place to get me started and I learned some valuable skills. As one website led to another I discovered the world of writer conferences. If you look there is probably a conference opportunity a month.  Some are small and attended by only a few writers and agents but others, well those are the ones that may cost significantly more to attend but make it well worth your time. You'll have the expense of travel to the city where the conference is held, the hotel room and at least a few meals that aren't included in the registration.  And maybe some add on costs for extra pitch sessions with agents or special functions or seminars.  My advise - get out the credit card or do whatever it takes but go to at least one of these conferences a year.  The b...

Today I will admit to a brain null of any useful thoughts except how soon do we leave for Las Vegas.  Car is partially packed - road trip snacks will go in tomorrow in the early morning hours.  Several (let's not say more than that) pairs of shoes are crammed into the overnight bag along with enough outfits to give me options.  Lastly I threw in my iPad because despite email access via my phone I have developed an irrational fear of being without internet access for more than two hours.  What would happen if I needed to blog about something important that happened or I get a great idea for the next manuscript or changes to Menu for Murder?  The logical side of my brain scoffs at these thoughts because I'm relatively sure that once I hit Vegas I won't be thinking about much more than lounging by the pool, dropping a few coins in a slot machine and deciding which shows to see.  But you never know when the urge to write may hit you and even though the iPad...

If you have never written a full length manuscript or even begun to write one, you may not comprehend the enormity of the task.  When I first started my novel I had an idea that tugged at me write it down.  Putting the words to paper was the easy part.  At least it seems so now when I look back!  As I worked through the beginning I learned that an outline was a good idea.  That  job was fairly easy since I knew where I wanted my character to go.  Finally I finished the novel and then came the query process to find an agent.  Which, although incredibly time consuming, is not too daunting a task. What does take up my time these days?  Editing, editing and more editing.  I wish I could say that I wrote it perfectly the first time.  That would be a lie.  Despite having read it myself from cover to cover at least one hundred times, I still find issues every time I read it again.  This is d...

Up to this past week only a very few select people whom I know personally had been permitted to view my first novel.  It's really silly when I think about it because the whole point in writing it was for people to read it.  Why then have I guarded it like the crown jewels?  My guess would be because I'm paranoid that the person reading it won't like it.  What if she hates it?  What if she thinks it's horribly written and that becomes awkward?  It's much easier to accept rejection from agents or strangers than it is from someone you know.  I hope that agents won't hate my work but if they don't immediately call me and beg to represent me, I'm prepared for that.  If a good friend or family member reads what you've toiled over for months and hates it, how do you deal with that? First, for your sake (and mine) I hope you never get that kind of reaction for your work.  My feedback has been very positive and I thank you all for that (huge sigh ...

If you are a writer, and by that I am including anyone who writes anything from a personal journal to an article for the New York Times, what motivates you on a regular basis to allow the words and thoughts to escape from your mind and onto a page? In the years when I didn't blog or work on a novel, I used to keep a daily journal.  For me my motivation was strictly therapeutic.  It helped me purge the stress of my day and work out whatever was bothering me.  The more difficult my day, the more determined I was to write it down.  Of course, there were times when it also helped me remember how to be grateful for all of the blessings in my life.  Now when I know I should be writing or blogging or spending my time wisely, I am often tempted to read someone else's book or watch some "reality" television.  Sometimes I have more difficulty tuning out the rest of the world and focusing on the work.  So I am curious as to how others turn off the nois...

After all the hours I spent on the old website I changed the hosting company and had to start over.  Despite the fact that I consider myself to be a pretty technical person, creating a website seems to tap all of my energy.  I would much rather spend my time writing a manuscript than writing website content.  Why is it that as soon as I have to generate website content my mind goes totally and completely blank?  Talk about writer's block!  Actually I shouldn't complain because the web builder was easy and it didn't take me two weeks for the redesign only two days.  I can guarantee it will go through at least five more revisions (similar to writing a manuscript) before I'm satisfied. So here is the URL.  I hope you have a chance to view the website and I'm open to your feedback.  It's your first chance at a sneak peak of Menu for Murder. www.lesliekellerbooks.com

If you look up the word premise in my American Heritage Dictionary from 1982, you will find this as one of the definitions: A proposition upon which an argument is based or from which a conclusion is drawn. Wikipedia lists the definition as, "...a premise is an assumption that something is true." In writing my novel, I used premise to ask the question of "what".  What must my hero overcome to accomplish her goals?  What if a clumsy waitress is accused of murder and has to figure out whodunit?  What if I took some of my real life experiences in the restaurant industry and added a touch of "what if"?  Basically what is the novel about, what is the foundation on which the story is based? I like to use this thought process when I'm sitting in the airport waiting on my flight to depart.  What if the woman in the business suit is really a spy?  What if the man and woman traveling together are actually both married to someone else?  As you can probabl...

I would like to say that I never, ever get writer's block.  The truth is that I don't get it because unless I can really focus on the work, I simply refuse to start.  Is this a bad habit?  Absolutely!  There are probably hundreds of ways to get over writer's block.  There are classes offered on how to write your novel in thirty days and I've even seen one that suggested you could finish in a weekend.  I disagree with the "sit down and force the words onto the page" philosophy - to a degree.  I have found that if I schedule the time and make the commitment to work then the words do come.  Not all of them are the best but at least I am putting them on the page.  Later on I can go back and polish the prose but at the minimum getting something down is a good start. Unfortunately for me I am sometimes the most creative at midnight or very early in the morning while I'm still partially asleep.  I have written more of my novel by stayi...

There's a commercial which is popular now and my partner and I constantly imitate it.  The little girl describes how she wants "more".  If you like something you want more, more, more. I will admit to having very little patience and in today's fast paced lifestyle, I think that I am not alone.  Most of all I dislike being left on hold.  I don't just mean on hold on the phone but on hold for anything in my life. So you may ask, how do the two seemingly unrelated paragraphs fit together?  Lucky for you I will answer the question! I want more in my life - I want faster answers to my questions, I want my week to go by quicker so I can enjoy the weekend (of which I want more, more, more), I don't want to wait on hold while I'm trying to accomplish a task as I listen to a dozen different recorded messages asking me to press this number for that feature.  I want more chocolate and less calories, or at least less that show up on my bathroom scale.  I wan...

I'm excited to say that I've received my first positive response from an agent, asking for the full manuscript.  Fingers crossed that this will be the start down the road to publishing.  I'm also realistic in that this is just the first review and it doesn't necessarily mean I'll get Jayne's story published. The bad news is that I've been so busy since we moved that I've not sent the manuscript out to many agents.  I suppose that is also good news in that out of the few agents I've queried that I got a response. Leslie

Finally got myself in gear and started sending out the manuscript to a few agents.  It was rewarding to receive some very positive feedback on my synopsis from an author site.  Let's just hope I get the same response from the agents!