Morgan Leshay Held Hostage For 11 Days!
Posted by Morgan
I’m Back!
Where’ve I been? Well, first off, the hubby and I took off for a short vacation back on the 7th. Went and seen a few sights I hadn’t seen even though I’ve lived in the area my whole life. Of course, he hadn’t seen them either, so we both enjoyed our short jaunt into restfulness. 
But we’ve been home since the 11th. It’s funny, but when we got home, we had to take a few days to “recuperate from resting”. Any of you ever done that? <nod> Then you know what I’m talking about. We were exhausted from vacationing. Guess it was a little too much fun, huh? LOL.
Anyway, you’re probably wondering about the topic of this post, about me being held hostage. Well here’s the skinny. Not long after we got home, I got hit by some nasty mutant alien bug (combination of food poisoning, strep throat, and a case of hypertension from hell.o) that brought me down in a hurry.
7 days…for seven days I was practically unable to get myself out of bed, and then I’ve spent another 4 trying to restrengthen muscles enough to stand upright for longer than three minutes at a time. Sheesh. Yep. I’ve been feeling pretty miserable. But I’m happy to say things are looking to be on the up-side now. I’ve been able to check my email, answer MySpace requests, and even write this blog this morning so yeah, I’d say I’m finally feeling better.
On the book front, I’m still waiting to hear from my publisher with the final galleys of THE LEGACY OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. Once those are gone through, next step is: I’ll be able to hold my book in my hands! Finally! Woohoo!
I’m really looking forward to it.
Clearing the Calendar for Vacation and Writing
Posted by Morgan
Yep, it’s time for me to get all my work caught up (actually, I’m pretty much caught up, come to think of it, except for some reading) before vacation. The hubby and I are thinking of driving around to visit some of the “gardens”. Calloway, Barnsley’s, and maybe a visit to Dallonegha (yes, I know I probably botched the spelling of that).
Wherever we decide to go, I’ll be carrying my laptop because I’ll be writing on my next book in the evenings. It’s going to be fun…something I think you all will enjoy. I can’t say too much about it right now because my editor is waiting for chapters even as I type, so I better not spill any beans just yet, but I promise to tell you more as soon as I can.
Anyone seen the latest Johanna Lindsey novel in Wal-mart? I keep checking at both my local Wal-mart stores for it, but they don’t have it. Waaa! Wonder if it has something to do with the fact it’s in hardback? Guess I’ll have to coerce the hubby to drive me down to Barnes and Noble and get it there.
Oddly enough, I’m not as excited about getting my hands on it as I am the upcoming Karen Marie Moning book, FAEFEVER. Any of you signed up to receive her newsletters? My daughter is, and everytime she gets one she makes sure I read it…and darn it all, those teasers just drive a body nuts! I don’t wanna wait anymore. I just want to read the story!
Morgan
Sneak A Peek Inside The Legacy Of Sleepy Hollow!
Posted by Morgan
Yes! This afternoon I got the “go ahead” from my EIC at LBF Books to post an excerpt from The Legacy Of Sleepy Hollow on my website and I’m so excited about it!
This is the first I’ve been able to give readers a sneak peek between the covers of the book, and I’m dying to know what you think about it so you all go over to www.morganleshay.com/thelegacyofsleepyhollow.html and give it a read-through, please! Then (if you don’t mind) come back over here to the blog and let me know your thoughts. I’m kinda going nuts to hear what other people think about this story, so I’d love to hear from you.
Oh, about the “potato salad” scene…
Um…well…we’ll talk about that in another post I guess. I will say this though…today Jodi (LBF’s EIC) said it’s “priceless!” LOL. I think it is really cool, but I’m debating whether or not to post it too. What do you think? Wanna read the “Potato Salad Teaser”?
Okay, okay, go read the excerpt! We’ll talk potato salad soon.
Morgan
Why Choosing An Excerpt From The Legacy Of Sleepy Hollow Sucks - Or The Legacy Of Sleepy Hollow Edits Are Done
Posted by Morgan
Except for reading through after the copyeditor has a go at my manuscript, the edits for The Legacy Of Sleepy Hollow are done! Yes! And in reflection, I’m wondering why so many authors profess to hate editing. It was fun…and easy. But I think Michelle (my editor) had something to do with that.
Oh wait. After my last rant, you were probably thinking my editor was Dr. Jeckyl/Mr. Hyde, right? LOL.
Turns out Michelle was having technical/computer problems from heck, or we’d have had these edits done a lot faster! Bless her heart. When I finally discovered what was going on with her (blowed router, bad line, all sorts of techie stuff that mostly goes right over my head), I felt bad for being in such a rush. Really bad. I’d have been pulling my hair out if I’d had to deal with all that. Sheesh!
But anyway, edits are all done… and now I’m obsessing over the teaser and excerpt.
What should I use?
. . . thinking . . .
. . . still thinking . . .
After I read through The Legacy Of Sleepy Hollow three more times, and was still no closer to making a decision on which parts of the story to use for an excerpt and teaser, I called my daughter into my office for help. Since I love every single little bit of the story, I just couldn’t choose.
Bree loves the story too, she does. All of it. But it was still no surprise, really, when she said, “I like the potato salad scene.”
<Groan>
The “potato salad” scene?
It’s good. It’s really good. In fact, I love it! Romance readers will love it, too. But what about all the rest?
What about the other readers, I asked her. The ones who are going to want to see something, some hint, of how The Legacy Of Sleepy Hollow ties into the original Washington Irving classic, The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow?
So… I go through the manuscript again, to the “potato salad” scene, and thankfully yes, it’s in there. The tie-in to the other Sleepy Hollow that I just know everyone’s going to be looking for. So I decide the “potato salad” scene will be fine for the teaser my publisher asked for (although it’s a little long in word count). Now that decision is made, but…
What about the excerpt?
Obsess, obsess, obsess…
Well I finally did manage to choose. It was a difficult decision, and I may wish a thousand times over that I’d chosen a different one later, but for now, I think the excerpt I decided on is a good one. If you’re an author and you’ve ever had to do this for your own book, I’m sure you can understand.
For those who aren’t authors, choosing only a small portion of your story to let readers sample is like showing off a picture of your baby or grandbaby…but the only thing that shows up in the pic is the eyes. Or the hand. Or… you know what I mean, right? It’s just not the WHOLE picture.
<sigh>
But it’s enough, I hope, to intrigue you.
Anyway, I have to be sure it’s all approved by the publisher first, but as soon as I get word that it is, I’ll post a link to the excerpt so you can read it. Until then, keep wondering…potato salad??? LOL
Morgan
There Are A Few Places I Don’t Mind Doing It…
Posted by Morgan
Waiting, that is.
The line at the register in Wal-Mart, anywhere reaching the front of the line means I have to give someone else my money, really.
But I hate waiting for email. Drives me NUTS! Like now. I mean, how hard is it to click “attach”, type a subject, then click “send”? Hmmm?
So what’s got my feathers ruffled this time?
For the last week or so I’ve been waiting to finish up my edits for The Legacy, but for some reason, my editor insists on sending me only five chapters at a time. Me? I want it all, right now, so I can go through while the kiddies are sleeping and send it back to her-complete-yesterday.
But no…
I think she’s playing some cruel, evil editor trick on me, don’t you? I mean, she *has* the edits done already. What is the big deal with sending them all on over, hmmm? LOL.
Okay, okay, for any of you out there who think I’m seriously dissing my editor, let me hit you over the head with the fact that the above was all said “tongue-in-cheek” for the most part.
I’m impatient. My editor knows this (she’s probably laughing maniacally at me right now while she takes my edits email *back out* of the queue for today!) but she also wants to make sure we do a good job with the story. Gotta make sure the “I’s” are dotted and the “T’s” crossed, right? If we rush, we might miss something. Besides, patience is a virtue, and I’ve asked for it, certainly, but whoever’s dispensing it needs to hurry up!
So anyway, while I’m sitting here obsessing over wanting the edits email and not getting it, I thought I’d ask what you’re all reading lately…anything majorly good? Tell me about it, please!
There’s a few books I’m waiting on, but dang if they don’t come out months from now (well, except for the new Johanna Lindsey, which I think comes out this month). I WANT FAEFEVER! Anybody else diehard KMM fans? Also waiting on … ahem … Acheron (looking around to make sure Bree didn’t hear me say that!) from Sherrilyn Kenyon. What are you waiting to read?
Let’s chat about it!
That Can’t Be Romance!
Posted by Morgan
Some days I can’t help but be amused by the way life will turn things around on you.
I’m not sure if you read where I told about my daughter Bree saying I couldn’t make a romance from Sleepy Hollow, but if you did, you’ll remember how I got a major kick out of it because it only took a few seconds and a few possible details from me about a story I was just thinking about writing at that point to completely change her mind and light up her eyes with eager anticipation for the story to come.
Well guess what happened to me this morning?
From about 1:00 AM I’d been thinking about this old story I’d read once, about one character in particular. Nothing major, though. Just his name and a vague image popping into my thoughts once or twice. I pretty much ignored it…until I’d tried for the fourth time to go to bed and sleep.
Around 5:30 AM, I was still awake, still restless, and now something was urging me, pushing me, to GET BACK OUT OF BED AGAIN and go read this story online. I didn’t want to. I wasn’t interested in the least, but at this point, I finally realized what was going on. “G” was pointing me toward another story idea, another book he wanted me to write.
I thanked him, of course, although I didn’t know “what” story he was pointing me toward at the time. But anyway, at 5:30 AM, I gave up, and with a sigh, flung my legs over the bed to trudge back to my office…again…to do a Google search.
Took less than a minute to find what I was looking for, and still uninterested and vaguely annoyed for having been needled to go read when I wanted to sleep, I propped my chin on my hand, my elbow on my desk, and started to read. An hour later, I was done, but I didn’t get it.
There was no way I could make a romance out of what I had read! Or so I thought…
Much like I had with Bree about Sleepy Hollow, “G” said to me, “Really? Not even if…” and “…and what if…” (I’m not giving details yet because although I’ve contacted my publisher about this new tale, I haven’t heard back from her on it) and it was almost as if I could feel my own eyes light up with excitement, just as Bree’s had when we first discussed The Legacy Of Sleepy Hollow not so long ago.
Soon, my hesitant, momentary excitement was followed by sheer awe. I hadn’t known anything about some of the details that were being revealed to me! And now that I did, now that I’d been given some “insider information”, I wanted to run downstairs and wake Bree up…to tell her RIGHT THEN about the new story I was going to write.
<...shakes head...>
I didn’t. Not that she needs her beauty sleep or anything. She’s gorgeous (but don’t tell her I said that. Her head will swell and she’d float away). I didn’t tell her because I just wanted to think about a few things first. I wanted to “be sure”.
With this story coming to me so swiftly on the tail of the last one, I wanted to be sure the excitement I was feeling at that time wasn’t a momentary thing…fleeting…that would disappear once the sun was high and I’d had a few hours of sleep. But it didn’t go away, and as a matter of fact, with each new detail I discover, my eagerness to get started on the writing of it grows.
I can’t wait to tell you more!
Toying With Life?
Posted by Morgan
Last night I had a dream about a game. Seriously. Not a game that has already been created, but one that took shape while I was sleeping. What spurred this dream? Well, about an hour before I was finally able to hit the hay, I watched a trailer for the first book in a series my editor is writing, and I know that’s what made me dream what I dreamed.
Anyway, let me tell you about this game…
There was a spinner card with four faces on it. You’d spin the spinner to determine which character would be playing the upcoming part (I guess it was kind of a “plotting game”, though the details are really vague now that I’m awake–don’t you just hate it when that happens?) and then, there was a “mood card”. The mood card not only determined the character’s mood for the upcoming segment of the game, but also what “supernatural powers” he would have.
Sounds like it could be fun, but the part I remember best right now (dang it, I forgot most of the details as soon as I woke up!) are the sexy hunks who were the characters. Long hair, lots of visible tanned skin, and abs. Ooo, la, la! Love those abs. LOL Can you guess I’m an ab girl? Funny, huh?
Back to the game…and the title of this post…
Somehow, with a flick of the spinner on the spinner card and the slide of a trailing fingernail down the mood card, you could toy with these four characters lives–like some mythological god from the storybooks we so love to read. I’m sure there was more to the game than that, but hey, if I were a character and someone could toy with my life, that would be more than enough for me. How about you?
Mich, if you read this, rush right out and get thee a game created for your series. It’d be fun! LOL
Okay, enough about the game already. I hear you. So I’m outta here. Ya’ll enjoy your day!
The Story Behind The Story: The Legacy Of Sleepy Hollow
Posted by Morgan
Last night I was laying in bed, thinking about my blog and I decided to write something I don’t normally write about…real life. You see, somewhere in my mind I have the idea that no one wants to know the stories behind the stories, but just for today I’m gonna take a chance and write about it anyway.
What am I talking about? I’m talking about “the story” behind how my latest romance novel THE LEGACY OF SLEEPY HOLLOW came into being.
Any of you ever had panic attacks? Nasty little buggers that live in your mind like fiends of the unsure, preying on every little uncertainty you feel, plaguing you when you least expect them to pop up. After my 3rd child was born (that would be Trevvy), I started having them, defeated the suckers once I learned to notice the signs of one coming on, and didn’t have them again for 13 years!
Well, as luck would have it, when those 13 years ran out (around August of last year?) I started having them again…only this time the fiends disguised themselves using the then current uncertainties in my head–breathing. When one would come on, I would feel like I couldn’t breathe. I thought something was wrong with my throat. But there wasn’t a thing wrong, nothing was different…except my thoughts.
See, a few years ago, my youngest daughter (Kat) got a bad case of the croup. I didn’t know it was croup. I thought it was larangytis. She had the whole squeaky voice deal like you have, and I thought it was, well, just larangytis (sp?). Turns out it was CROUP. she woke up coughing in the night, and suddenly, she couldn’t breathe. She REALLY couldn’t breathe. I thought we were going to lose her. I was terrified. But she is a fighter, our little Kat, and she pulled through fine in just a few hours. We rushed her to the ER, she had a few breathing treatments, we came home, bought a humidifier, and she’s been fine ever since.
But mommie here was riddled with feelings of guilt. How could I not have known she had croup? Why didn’t I realize it BEFORE it got bad? There were things I knew I could have done if I’d only known, but…if you’re a mom, you know how your thoughts (especially ones of guilt) can plague you.
The truth is, it all happened so fast, over the course of several hours, there was really nothing I could have done, even if my thoughts wanted me to think differently at the time. Still I couldn’t seem to get over it, couldn’t get the terror of it out of my mind…It’s no wonder then that the panic attacks surfaced again (around August of 2007) as they did…by making me think I couldn’t breathe.
Okay, that’s the back story for the back story. Things kinda came to a climax in October 2007. That’s when I made my own trip to the ER…because I couldn’t breathe.
Oh, I could breathe, it just felt like I couldn’t. But I wasn’t having trouble taking in breaths at all. It was just the panic attacks. I’d been having them since August, but one afternoon in October while I was trying to watch Pirates Of The Caribbean 3: At World’s End with the family, I had the mother of all panic attacks. I knew what it was, but my mind held just enough uncertainty on the matter to make me think the worst. I thought I was dying. So I called my mom, and off we went to the ER.
A few hours and a nerve pill later, I could breathe again. But I HATE to take medication, so I was determined I would take as few of the pills as possible (the doc gave me 10, I’ve only taken 3…and I took them in halves, LOL). So I did what I always do when I need someone to talk to (which is pretty much all the time)…I talked to God. Yep. And I prayed. I asked God to give me something to take my mind off the things that were triggering the panic attacks, a project I could sink myself into so deeply I wouldn’t keep concentrating on trying to do for my body what it does for itself without me even thinking about it…breath.
I prayed constantly for something, anything to focus my thoughts on. And in January 2008, God sent me a project that was so exciting, so involving, and so absolutely FUN I forgot about the rest. I felt better. I could breathe. I was happy! And for the first time in more years than I care to admit to, I was enjoying doing what I used to love to do…writing.
Not only was I writing, the big man upstairs had given me a story that was simply amazing! Every night I went to sleep thinking about it. Every morning I woke up ready to write the next scene, the next segment. The characters seemed so real, their lives played out in my thoughts so vividly it was almost as if I had moved into Sleepy Hollow and was living out the story right alongside my characters.
When the story was finished and I had to type “The End”, I cried.
Seriously. I’d enjoyed the journey so much, I didn’t want it to end. I didn’t want to leave my “friends”. I didn’t want to leave the past, leave Sleepy Hollow. And I got scared. Now that the story was over, would the panic attacks come back? Well, they tried. But you know what? I “get it” now. I know what was causing them, and now I have the power to defeat them. Now I am concentrating on something else…YOU.
That’s right, I’m concentrating on you, my readers, and I am so excited that you will soon be able to read the story that I wrote, the story that has taken over 100 years to surface…the story of what happened in Sleepy Hollow after Ichabod Crane disappeared, after the Headless Horseman’s last ride, the story of how one man’s nemesis later becomes salvation. And of course, the story of two hearts coming together as one.
So there you have it…the story behind the story, behind the writing of THE LEGACY OF SLEEPY HOLLOW.
Pre-Order The Legacy of Sleepy Hollow!
Posted by Morgan
OMG, I’m so excited!
As of this morning, The Legacy Of Sleepy Hollow is available for Pre-Order through the publisher at: http://www.lbfbooks.com/proddetail.asp?prod=TheLegacyofSleepyHollowPrint
Why should you rush over and pre-order your copy? Here are the Top 3 reasons:
1. You want to be among the first to know what *really* happened the night Ichabod Crane disappeared from Sleepy Hollow (my version of it, anyway)
2. You can’t wait to read more about the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow
and
3. You love reading!
Okay, so those may not be YOUR Top 3 reasons for pre-ordering today, but whatever yours are, just make sure you get over there to that link and reserve your copy today…and you’ll be among the first to get your hands on the story people have been waiting over a hundred years for…the story of what happened in Washington Irving’s Sleepy Hollow after the Headless Horseman’s famous midnight ride!
After Redemption-The Legacy Of Sleepy Hollow
Posted by Morgan
Let’s catch up a little…
My first published romance is called REDEMPTION. The story idea came to me while sitting outside my local Wal-Mart (folks should get a kick out of that, huh? Where do you get your ideas, Morgan? Uh…Wal-Mart). I started writing when I got home that night, and for the next three days I wrote for 18 hours straight. When those three days ended, the first draft of REDEMPTION was done.
Anyway, if you ever wanted to know what happens when an angel meets the devil and is tempted to sin, check it out. You can read more about it at my website: http://www.morganleshay.com/redemption.html
After REDEMPTION, I kinda fell out of the loop. Life has a way of throwing things at you sometimes and in my case, it decided to throw its whole bag of tricks at me at once. The past few years have been a little odd, but I’m happy to say I woke up one morning not so long ago and said, “Hey, it’s calmed down a little!”
On January 30th, 2008, an idea kinda slipped in unexpectedly. At the supper table, I turned to Bree (my daughter, who also writes romance as Brianna Somersham) and asked, “Do you think Washington Irving’s Sleepy Hollow could be a romance?”
She snorted. “No. No, no, no. Mama, Sleepy Hollow is so…horror. Not romance. Nope, can’t be done.” Fat lot she knows, eh? I said, “Really? Not even if you set the story 25 years later, and it’s about Brom and Katrina’s daughter and the son of Ichabod Crane?” I went on with a few other details (very few at that point because, hey, I’d just thought of it!) and her eyes lit up.
Yeah! Hello computer, good-bye sleep! I spent the next several days planning, plotting, writing, and emailing Carole at LBF. On February 7th, 2008, I emailed my submission to LBF Books: query, synopsis, and first chapter. On February 20th, 2008 (13 days later…at least I think I got the math right) I got ”the CALL” (the email actually) from Carole Spencer. She wanted to publish my book!
I’m pleased to announce that my upcoming romance (also to be published with LBF Books-woohoo!) is called THE LEGACY OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. In it, you can find out what happened in Washington Irving’s Sleepy Hollow after the Headless Horseman’s famous midnight ride! The book will be available in October 2008 (just in time for Halloween!) and I can hardly wait! You can read more about THE LEGACY OF SLEEPY HOLLOW at: http://www.morganleshay.com/thelegacyofsleepyhollow.html