A Little Inspiration

I have exactly 48 days to hand over my completed manuscript to the editor. I’m knee deep in revisions for Book 2, and to keep me focused my husband ordered me the perfect inspiration - Lyla’s favorite pizza! A box of Lou Malnati's pizza is snuggly resting in our freezer.

The oven is getting hot and the inspiration is definitely flowing now!

A little more detail please...

Coming to the end of a great week. I am in Orlando enjoying some sun in between speaking at a conference, planning another speaking event, and working on content for my website upgrade. The weather has been beautiful, the conference audience was great to me, even asked questions after my presentation, and really seemed to enjoy the presentation. Speaking at the conference has been great; it is so rewarding to talk with other people who do what I do, and truly understand the world I work in every day. It’s also AWESOME to hear thank yous for giving such a “great” presentation and be asked for your card because they want to learn more from you about how to fix their own processes. Sometimes the consulting world can be pretty rewarding.

But now on to the exciting stuff. I had a conference call with my web design team this week. We talked through current state, expectations, themes, colors, things I like about other sites, things I hate, a million other little things. And at the end of it all I started to hear about their ideas for the new direction of my website (currently A Marked Past, to become The Mercer Legacy Site). They asked for more content, way more information, about me, about the books I read, about the characters themselves, other things I written, and what I'm currently working on. It should be amazing when they are done. I can’t wait to see what they come up with!

Here’s a picture of my web design team hard at work. (Thanks guys!)

Web Design 101

My days are buzzing again, slipping into evenings and then into midnights, and I’m not a full time writer. I am a full time thinker, doer, consultant, planner, part time baker, and overtime dreamer. What this means is, that I am packing for an upcoming business trip and finalizing reader review markups at the same time. But, just when I think I’m slipping under the surface of the literary lake I have built for myself, a bit of sun shines through and I climb back above the water, ready to doggy paddle for a bit longer.

Today that light came in the form of a phone call from Ed. He and I are working on the design concept for Book 2. We’ve gotten an amazing photo to consider for the cover and have started kicking around ideas for a website upgrade. So, because Ed is brilliant, he throws out an idea that I love to help define the new design. He’s going to poll his art students, maybe hold a contest of sorts, to see what concepts they have for marketing a second book in a series, my book – A History Renewed!

Of course I said YES. I love this idea! It merges so many things that are important to me, promoting A History Renewed, helping students gaining real world experience, sharing successes with young people, giving students the opportunity to showcase their artistic talents in a real setting.

College changed my life, it gave me a future that I would not have had otherwise. It didn’t change who I am, just gave me a few more rungs the same ladder. I’m so excited to be giving someone else an extra rung in their ladder, a line on their resume, and a real world experience that will benefit us both.

I’ll be sure to share news along the way!

Highway run, Into the midnight sun…

I have been asked many times in the past year when I started writing but no one ever asked why. I have a lot on my mind today so I think it’s time to share that..

I started writing because I had something to say that I knew I shouldn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t ever say out loud. I wanted so much to get my words out, to express what I wasn’t supposed to be feeling, that, I had to find a way to give them life, so I wrote.

When I was younger, I overheard things that my parents talked about, things that I wasn’t supposed to know, things about my aunt. She was young and defiant, and slowly getting lost in a world of darkness. I was nine, and I wasn’t supposed to know about any of it, but I could see the dark circles under her eyes and the tremor in her hands.

I can remember a time when her fair skinned, freckled hands would pull my hair into pig tails and then she’d kiss my cheek. I can remember the sun shining through her auburn hair and her crooked smile greeting me, her ripped blue jeans and her blue eyeliner, and singing Journey songs on the steps of my front porch with her when I parents would go out at night. She was fun, and loving, and young, so very young. Those are the memories I carry of her with me.

But it was the dark memories, the whispers, the bad things that were happening to her, the running away, and the drugs; that made me write. She ignited a fire in me that still burns. I have put a lot of miles between me and those memories, a lot of pages filled with millions of words. And no matter how far away, or how much time has passed between us, she is still a part of what I am now – a writer.

And now, as her life hangs in the balance, I close my eyes and listen for the opening notes of Faithfully by Journey, and I remember those gentle hands, those faded blue jeans, and that blue eyeliner, and her crooked smile, but never the darkness.

Highway run

Into the midnight sun
Wheels go round and round
You're on my mind…


Journey - Faithfully

A Marked Past FREE GIVEAWAY

One lucky winner will win a physical copy of "A Marked Past" and another lucky winner an will win an ebook. Thats right, this giveaway will have two winners and it's INTERNATIONAL!

There are no super complicated rules in order to enter, all you have to do is read my interview and comment on what you thought about the interview, GFC Follow, and follow Leslie Deaton on Goodreads. Thats it!

Register here for the A Marked Past Give Away

Creating Characters

I can admit when I am spoiled and after living in Northern Virginia for almost twelve years. I am spoiled. *My Ohio friends and family may want to skip over the next few lines* The temperature rarely gets below 20 here. For the most part, I can cruise around in the winter with a heavy sweater, a scarf, and some gloves, but this week it’s cold. Like in the teens cold and I am freezing. Ok, whining over, and on to book stuff.

I’ve been getting some reader questions about where the characters of A Marked Past came from so I wrote up a guest blog about them. Check it out!

Leslie Deaton Guest Post: Creating Characters

Weighing In

It’s that time of year, the new year, when we all dust off our ‘what should I try to do differently’ and pull on our ‘I’ll try to be better at’. I’m not one for resolutions, but even I find myself considering change on the first morning of 2012.

What will I do differently? I will walk more. Healthy hearts are few and far between in my gene pool and I need to work on keeping mine in shape. You can do anything for 30 minutes. Walk, run, stretch, sweat, whatever, commit 30 minutes 3x a week and just do it. I am.

What do I want our country to do differently? Look internally for solutions. Stop routing my calls off shore, route them to small towns in the South where well mannered, polite, AMERICANS can help me resolve my banking, insurance, or IT issues. Also, when we come home from a place, bring our funding too. We need it here.

What do I want the world to do differently? Live among one another. Acknowledge difference but ignore, forgive, abandon hate, whatever it takes, just let the other guy be the other guy. Also, focus on making your little world the best it can be, achieve more, fight less, unless there’s a bad guy, then ban together and take him out.

In the meantime, I'll keep working, writing, and walking. Here’s hoping we can all make a small difference in a big world.