Leeann Betts

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A Conversation With Leeann Betts

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Leeann Betts writes contemporary suspense, while her real-life persona, Donna Schlachter, pens historical suspense. Leeann has released eight titles in her cozy mystery series, By the Numbers, with A Deadly Dissolution as the most recent. She publishes a free quarterly newsletter; subscribe at www.LeeannBetts.com or follow Leeann at www.AllBettsAreOff.wordpress.com.

How do you connect with your characters?
Leeann: I usually end up writing a chapter of yak-yak-yak until I hit the ground running, but the conversation time helps me reconnect with my recurring characters, and start to develop a relationship with the new characters.

How do you come up with titles for your books?
Leeann: The funny thing is, usually the title comes first, then the book flows from that. This time around, the story was first, and I struggled with the title. I also struggled getting the story started, because without a title, I didn’t know where it was going. Once I figured out the title, the story flowed from there.

What’s your go-to when you need a pick-me-up to keep writing?
Leeann: Coffee. And chocolate.

What’s the weirdest way someone has died or been killed in your novels?
Leeann: I’m pretty much old-school, so I guess the weirdest way was drowned in two inches of water. That was in Petty Cash.

Current book: A Deadly Dissolution
Carly loses more than daylight when the total lunar eclipse and crime come to town. Can she figure out what’s going on before the suspects escape?

Connect W/Leeann
Website: www.LeeannBetts.com
Facebook: http://bit.ly/1pQSOqV
Twitter: http://bit.ly/1qmqvB6
Blog: www.AllBettsAreOff.wordpress.com
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2dHfgCE
Smashwords: http://bit.ly/2z5ecP8

A Conversation With Leann Betts

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Leeann Betts writes contemporary suspense, while her real-life persona, Donna Schlachter, pens historical suspense. She has released six titles in her cozy mystery series, By the Numbers, with Petty Cash releasing in December. In addition, Leeann just released her first Christmas-themed romantic suspense, In Search of Christmas Past.

What’s the hardest part of writing romantic suspense?
Leann: I think for me the hardest part is making sure there are equal parts romance and suspense. I don’t have a problem writing suspense—it’s the romance that always gets me. I usually come up with the suspense plot first, and then spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to weave the romance in.

When do you find time to write?
Leann: I don’t find time—I make time. I am blessed to not have to work outside the home, and I’m married to my biggest supporter, but that doesn’t mean I’m not busy. But I am very badge-oriented (read goal-oriented or project-oriented), so I give myself a deadline and stick with it. I think of every month as National Novel Writing Month.

How do you connect with your characters?
Leann: I tend to do it the hard way—I write about two chapters of backstory, then I end up going back, writing down what I discovered to use somewhere else in the story, then start my story where it really begins.

Current book: In Search of Christmas Past
Can Grace and Luke solve uncover the truth about their real feelings, or will their differences in goals and faith drive them apart?

Connect W/Leann
Website: www.LeeannBetts.com
Facebook: http://bit.ly/1pQSOqV
Twitter: http://bit.ly/1qmqvB6

A Conversation With Leeann Betts

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Leeann Betts, the pen name of Donna Schlachter, writes historical suspense and contemporary suspense.

aaaLeeann Betts_02 cropped-1What’s your go-to when you need a pick-me-up to keep writing?
Leeann: Coffee. And chocolate. Sometimes music. Sometimes a trip to the library. I keep an appointment every Monday morning at a local coffee shop to write.

What’s the weirdest way someone has died or been killed in your novels?
Leeann: Since my current series is a cozy mystery, the weirdest thing is someone killed a character, then put the body in a car and sent it off a cliff. But someone also tried to suffocate a character by stuffing rags down the vent pipe of their furnace.

How do you pick the location/setting of your romantic suspense novels?
Leeann: I write most of my stories set in fictional locations. In my cozy mystery series, Carly lives in a small town on the east coast. I grew up around small east coast towns in Canada, so I know about them. The stories set outside that town are set in places I’ve been. The second book, There was a Crooked Man, is set on a ranch in New Mexico that our church was once considering for a retreat center. The fourth book, Five and Twenty Blackbirds, is set in a fictional town in Arizona loosely based on the town where my dad and stepmother were married.

Current book: Broke, Busted, and Disgusted
How can a forensic accountant resurrect her financial reputation when somebody seems intent on destroying it—and her? This is the fifth book in the By the Numbers series.

Connect w/Leeann
Website: www.LeeannBetts.com
Facebook: http://bit.ly/1pQSOqV
Twitter: http://bit.ly/1qmqvB6