Amanda Leanne: The Comeback Kid

Life has not always been kind to Amanda, but she’s never let that stop her from pursuing her dreams. Having been to school to get degrees in criminalistics and forensics, she was on the fast track to getting her doctorate in neurological and forensic psychology before disaster struck and her health issues forced her to stop pursuing her degree. Set adrift, Amanda found solid ground again when she met her current husband, who encouraged her to pursue her writing career.

Amanda has written over 240 books for other people and organizations before eventually writing her own. She originally started with a traditional publisher, but quickly moved to self-publishing and has released 5 fiction books and 1 non-fiction. Now living in the Appalachians with her son, husband, and family of cats, Amanda describes herself as “a gamer, crafter, artistic type, musician, and very much so a sort of witch of the mountain.”

Here’s what she had to say about her winding path to writing her own books and dealing with all the things that life has thrown at her:

Q: Who has been your biggest supporter(s) throughout your writing career?

A: My son and my husband, by and far. They are always cheering me on and are excited for me, pumping me up when I am down and they are my biggest fans.

Q: Where do you draw inspiration from in your work?

A: My work is dark, bleak, and most of that comes from a life with a lot of hardships and darkness. A lot of people immediately see the theme of death being a constant and others slowly unravel other bits like abuse, mental and physical health issues, and various other hardships.

Q: What does it mean to you to be an author?

A: I learned to read when I was very young and it was pre-internet days; we had no money growing up for things like cable. I experienced some pretty bad things growing up and books became an escape, a comfort, something that was easily available. I wanted to be that for other people.

Q: What is your writing process like? Do you listen to certain music, snack, make loads of phone notes when inspiration randomly strikes, etc.?

A: I will keep my document open while I am watching TV or doing other tasks and add to it here and there. When I am sitting down for a good session, it’s with low lights, some incense, music, and sort of a deep breath and then dive in. I can be in that state anywhere from then minutes to five hours.

Q: Is there a genre or subgenre that you want to explore that you haven’t yet? Conversely, are there any that you’ll never write?

A: I would like to explore true crime under my own name, as it is part of my former career. I have ghostwritten analysis and case write-ups for people and organizations, but I would like to write my own. I also wouldn’t mind diving into some dark young adult fiction as well. I will probably never write any form of cozy anything as I am way too bleak and vulgar!

Q: What has been the hardest part of your career as an author so far?

A: The marketing and networking. I am an absolute introvert and I hate pressuring people and putting myself out there. I feel guilty every time I suggest my book or post a promo or ad; I just want to run and hide.

The other difficulty is that I am disabled and in a very low-income situation. So, I don’t have a lot of money to invest in marketing and my health can make writing one book take a very long time. I get exhausted easily these days and issues with my eyes, hands, and back can sometimes cause me great difficulty.

Q: What do you consider to be your greatest strength and weakness as an author?

A: I believe that my greatest strength is in my way of describing things and the imagery I can create, the dialogs that flow, and the overall rhythm of my works. I want to lure the reader down into the story. I want them there and fully immersed, and I feel I am capable of that.

My weakness is that I question myself too much and tend to write in a style that is more like older, classical works which isn’t well received in many of the mainstream communities. The expectation for action, gore, and spice can sometimes leave people dissatisfied with my more psychological and atmospheric approach. I have to tell myself sometimes that “I am god” (a quote from the movie, Biodome), and that the worlds and people I create are mine and truly anything goes.

Q: Who is on your radar as someone you’d love to wrk with?

A: Honestly, if I could help Melanie Rawn wrap up the Exiles trilogy, I would love to work with her on a project. I have been waiting since the 90s for that last book! There is a series called Nightworld by L.J. Smith that I would love to help finish or work on a similar project. I have a not so secret soft spot for YA stories. I am an Anne Rice fan as well and I spoke to her a few times before her passing. She was an amazing inspiration to me and I would have loved to work with her.

Q: At some point in out lives, we’ve all hears the negative comments: “You’re not good enough.” “You’ll never make it.” “This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen.” “You don’t belong.” How do you move forward when faced with negativity?

A: I am creeping up to my 40s; I will be 39 this year, and every year those bother you less and less. My first rejection letter when I was a teen put me in a hell of a depression for a bit, nearly gave up writing. But I did try again and again. I had a poem published in seventh grade and then, the night of the 9/11 attacks, I wrote a poem and posted it online. From my little swamp town in Florida, it made it to New York and was in the New York Times…and this was a big deal in 2001, not like how easy it is to connect to far away places nowadays.

It was put in several newspapers and people were amazing about it, and there was so much emotion that it really made me feel like I had a gift with words. I got in trouble in school for going way over word limits and my imagination, but I didn’t care. People could say bad things, but I knew that someone out there would feel something and even if it did that for one person, that was all that mattered to me. That thought, that knowledge, that someone would enjoy it, would embrace it, and it would mean so much, that always kept me going. One happy reader is my tsunami on a whole beach of naysayers.

Q: What advice would you give to women who are wanting to write, especially if it’s something others might perceive as “outside of the norm?”

A: Absolutely go for it. Never listen to the naysayers. As I was once told, what are they going to do? Carve you up and eat you? Go for it, do you all the way, embrace who and what you want to show the world because there is someone out there that it will connect with and the first time you get that review or message from a stranger saying how much they connected with your work, every little bit of everything is suddenly worth it. And it will happen.

Check out Amanda’s website and make sure you’re following her on Facebook and Instagram so you don’t miss out on any new releases!