Leslie Keller Books

Unfortunately, once again I am distracted by life's events, making it difficult for me to focus on writing.  A very dear friend of thirty-five years has been diagnosed with cancer.  Her fight is preoccupying my mind and my heart. What I want to do is spend precious moments in her company, hopefully provide a distraction for her and maybe even make her laugh.  What I must do is perform my daily tasks, one of which is to complete a certain amount of work in the second novel. I don't have an answer for how an author can put aside the trials and tribulations of daily living in order to shut down the distractions.  This is a challenge I have yet to resolve. What I do know is that every day brings us an opportunity to embrace those experiences, to absorb them and to at some point take the emotions, feelings, laughter and tears and pour that onto the pages. I pray that the outcome will be positive for my friend and I hope that you and your family are never touched...

Unless you are writing nonfiction you need to create characters which are interesting and unique in order to capture and keep the reader's interest.  What makes your characters stand out?  What makes them different from the hundreds of other characters already out there? First you need to know your characters.  You need to know their strengths and their weaknesses.  As I have posted before, using an spreadsheet may help you keep track of their distinguishing traits. However, more than simply logging what color eyes your characters have you need to take it a few steps further.  You need to think about how your characters express their uniqueness. Let's take for example a character who is constantly nervous.  Would you simply write, John felt nervous, or would you show behavior in John which demonstrates this instead?  Instead of the earlier text, try this: John's fingers twitched on the trigger and his leg jiggled non-stop as his eyes darted arou...

Chance has a very tough life.  Here he refuses to get out of bed and is hoping I will serve his breakfast where he has snuggled under the covers.

When writing it can be easy to forget that the setting is a character in itself.  If you are writing a historical, futuristic or current piece you need to be aware of the role setting plays regardless of what the genre in which you are working. Let's take for example a romance - does it take place in a worn torn country, on a family farm or in the heart of a major city?  Each situation offers vastly different environments even though they are still about a romance between two people.  Keeping with those concepts does our couple meet while fighting on opposite sides, while trying to save a family farm or to take it away for development or while each having drinks with someone else in a chic Manhattan hot spot?  The next concept to consider in setting is what does it reflect about your characters?  Take for example the Manhattan location - does one of the characters thrive while the other pulls at his collar uncomfortably?  What would that setting tell yo...

Once in a while I feel compelled to veer off the topic of writing and blog about something totally unrelated.  Hopefully you won't be discouraged by my wanderings and will return and read the next post which I promise will be writing related. A friend of mine (the wonderful Lauren Steinberg) has recently started a pet wellness center in Monroe, NY.  I'm so excited about the concept that I felt compelled to share it with my readers.  Monroe Animal Hospital and Pet Wellness Center focuses on taking care of our four legged children the way we should.  Their mission statement is: Our center's philosophy is to promote healing and well being, to contribute to animal welfare issues and to give back to the animal and human community By offering services we might expect to see provided for humans I believe they have taken pet care to the next level.  Despite the fact that many of us who share our lives with animals are positive that they speak to us, the ...