Leslie Keller Books

When I first started writing everything I read discussed how to determine what genre you were writing.  At that time I had no idea that YA meant young adult or Middle Grade meant the middle school grades but I did know what a cozy mystery was.  I will admit this was due mostly to the fact that I prefer to read mysteries over just about everything else.  It seems as if there used to be only a couple of options.  You wrote a mystery or a romance, for example.  Now we have such interesting sub-genres as utopian and dystopian fiction, speculative fiction, cosmic horror and chick lit, to name just a few.  How do you determine what genre you are writing with such a vast range of options? The answer is one word - simplify.  If you aren't sure if you are writing a mystery, a thriller or a cozy start at the top and work your way down  by answering these questions: 1. Does my manuscript have a crime which needs to be solved?  If there is no crime then it's probably not a mystery. 

As an author have you ever wondered what your characters might say to you if given the opportunity?  Do you know your characters well enough to take the chance? As I developed my protagonist in Menu for Murder, (Jayne Stanford) I learned more and more about her.  Jayne has become a very real person in my mind and I believe I could have a conversation with her, should she decide to pop off the pages and perhaps join me for dinner sometime.  Jayne:  "So nice of you to finally invite me out." Leslie:  "I felt it was time we met in person and I've taken the liberty of ordering your dinner." Jayne:  "I'm sure you know all of my favorites but be aware that if you mess this up you'll need to go back to page 167 and do some re-writes." Actually I wouldn't expect the conversation to be anything similar to what I've written above but posting that did give me a laugh.  Jayne is a piece of me as well as a conglomeration of many of my wo

Another picture of my backyard wildlife.  Ludwig visits every evening and he and Chance have a stare off.  I think it might actually be love.  Stranger things have happened! Leslie

How do you find inspiration?  Do you listen to a particular type of music, sit in your favorite chair, read someone's work other than your own or do you simply wake up every day filled with ideas? For me it is a combination of all of the above - and probably a few others that I can't think of right now.  I could be driving down the highway when a song comes on the radio that lights up my brain and starts the ideas flowing.  Some days just before I am completely awake an entire scene will play out in my head forcing me out of bed in the early pre-dawn hours to jot it down before it slips away. Hardest is when I try to force the words on to paper - when my mind has jettisoned off to another place and time or when all I can think about is the list of one hundred other things to which I still need to attend.  But having said that, I also find that even when I don't feel like I can put forth a single thought, sometimes I do my best writing. Do you need to feel inspired to

As a person who thrives on organization I cannot imagine trying to write a novel without an outline.  For me it comes as natural as breathing.  Having spoken to other authors it seems this process can be intimidating to many. When I started the first Jayne Stanford book I initially just wrote whatever came to mind and then tried to piece it together to form Acts one through three.  The more I learned about the process of writing the more committed I became to using an outline.  It wasn't exactly a deliberate act as much as it evolved into an outline.  As I tried to keep facts straight I found I was having to search the manuscript for particular scenes.  That quickly became tedious. When I took a break from Jayne's life and started on my second book, Wife for Rent having an outline happened without any forethought. Since I was moving away from the mystery genre into women's literature I wanted to know where the main character was going from the beginning. On the secon

For those of you who may have never seen one, this healthy fellow is a Chuckwalla.  He is native to central Arizona and completely benign.  Although he may appear fierce and has exhibited a great deal of strength when he pulls branches down from my backyard plants, he is generally shy. The males have the bright orange body with a yellow tail and the females (alas as is usually the case) are not colorful. Most people know about our rattlesnakes and scorpions but we have a large number of other species which are infinitely more interesting. Leslie