Friday, March 27, 2009

Are you crazy or what?


Hi. I’m Leann Harris and I write suspense. Sometimes when I hear a news story about a missing person or about a murder, I ask myself, “What if…”
That’s what writer’s do. Give me a scene and I want to know what happened to these characters to get them to this point in their lives. I usually try to make it as miserable as possible and as hopeless as I can, then they can work themselves out of the hole they dug themselves into. Someone asked if my characters talk to me. Nah, I’m not that crazy, but I will confess that in one book I wanted the hero to leave the heroine at a critical junction. Well, he flat out refused. No matter what I tried to do that man would not do what I wanted. But as I thought about it, what I wanted him to do was completely out of character for him. He was the reluctant hero, but he was the hero, and what I asked him to do went against the grain. I was wrong. When I knew he wouldn’t leave the heroine, the book started flowing again and he acted.
What can I say? I’m crazy. I’m a writer.

4 comments:

Mystery and Mayhem said...

Leann, that's a great picture! What are you standing in front of?
And if you're crazy, then so am I.

Pat Davids said...

Leann,
It's great being an author because otherwise they would put us on medication.
Not crazy, just creative.
Pat

Leann Harris said...

Barbara, that picture was taken close to my daughter's house in the next suburb over. My son was the person who took it. He takes all my publicity photos.

It nice to have others who understand my weirdness.

Leann Harris said...

Pat,
It took me a long time before I ever confessed to being a writer. I do murder, and I worried there was something wrong with me that I couldn't come up with a plot without a dead body. Then I met other writers who do mystery. We understand each other perfectly.