An Interview With Morgan Leshay…
Posted by Morgan
Hey, sorry to break up the Sleepy Hollow press releases (I know you’re all following the story!) but here’s a link to an interview with moi as the interviewee. Thought you all might enjoy it. Check it out! 
Morgan
http://michys-book-reviews.blogspot.com/2008/10/author-interview-with-morgan-leshay.html
Romance Author “Wigs Out” Over The Legacy Of Sleepy Hollow’s Headless Horseman
Posted by Morgan
You know, coming face-to-virtual-face with the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow would probably most definitely be a “hair-raising” experience…
I’m thinking this must be how Katherine felt when she saw our illustrious Horseman for the first time, but I could be wrong.
A friend promised to pay me $500 to post this picture. Don’t even begin to think I’d have done it without massive persuasion of the monetary sort - or at the very least - a dare!
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
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!
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
Hello New Blog Design!
Posted by Morgan
Okay, this is the new design. I’ll be working on adding stuff over the next days, so check back often!