Blogger of the Year Nominee: Leslie Langtry

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Welcome the fourth of five special
interviews with our 2011
Book Boost Blogger of the Year Nominees!

Today, we welcome nominated author Leslie Langtry to the blog. We chatted with her recently and asked 21 questions, here's what she had to say...


TBB: How and when did you become a professional author?

LL: When I got the first check addressed to “Leslie Langtry.” Someone actually paid me to make up stuff. Maybe technically, it was when I signed that first contract with the publisher. But seeing actual money for words I’d written, that was the clincher.


TBB: What do you find to be the most difficult aspect of writing a book (the creation/concept, writing, achieving publication, sales/promotion, etc…)?

LL: Promotion. Not public appearances or signings (I like that stuff) – but getting the word out there. I’ve never been very good at tooting my own horn. It’s like the horn has a mouthpiece the size of a dinner plate and is coated in lemon juice – and I have chapped lips.


TBB: Which of your books is your favorite and why?

LL: Probably ‘Scuse Me While I Kill This Guy. It was my first that sold, the first in the series and I wrote it just for fun. I do love all my books – each one has at least two scenes that if I could cobble them all together from all the books, would make one perfect book. Okay, so it wouldn’t make a lot of sense – but the book would be funny.


TBB: If you had to describe that book using ONLY ONE word what would it be?

LL: Funtroversy.

People have told me that my books are funny and controversial (I guess because they kill people). Funtroversy.


TBB: Looking back on your writing career thus far, if you could change one thing, what would it be and why?

LL: I probably would’ve started earlier. I didn’t start writing a novel until I was 38 and sold my first book a week after my 40th birthday. But then, maybe that’s a good thing. It could very well be that I wasn’t even remotely interesting until I turned 38.


TBB: Is there a message imbedded into your stories you hope readers will get? If so, what is it?

LL: Assassins need love too. Actually, my main goal is to make people laugh. If they can escape and laugh a little, then they get what I want them to out of the experience.


TBB: What has been your favorite fan letter or fan comment ever?

LL: At a signing in Michigan, these two really, really cute, young guys came over and made a huge fuss over me. I was signing with a couple of gorgeous romance authors so I was very flattered that they ignored them and were fawning all over me. Then one of the guys says, “I’m so excited you’re here! My Mom LOVES you!” The other guy nodded and said, “She really does – she loves your books!”

I will take what I can get.


TBB: What is your top writing career goal?

LL: I’d like to write all the books I have summarized in my head. That may actually be impossible. Hitting the lists would be nice, but mostly I just want to take all the stories swirling between my ears and share them with people.


TBB: Give me one quote (from yourself/by yourself) about being a writer.

LL: "When you are a writer – you’re never really alone…
in your head."

TBB: What do you dislike the most about being a writer?

LL: Not being recognized instantly in HyVee. Sorry, actually, it’s the isolation involved with writing. It would be fun to work on a book with another author someday. I’m not really sure how that would work – but it would be fun to bounce plot twists back and forth.


TBB: What other author would you most like to meet & have lunch with?

LL: John Scalzi (author of Old Man's War – read it!) and Libba Bray (Beauty Queens - read it!). I think we could be BFF’s.


TBB: Who, in your life, is your biggest source of inspiration and why?

LL: It would have to be my mom. She sacrificed a lot for us when we were kids and I’m lucky to have inherited her wacky sense of humor. I hope I inspire my kids like that some day. Right now I’m lucky if they do more than grunt toward me.


TBB: What is your favorite breakfast food?

LL: If I’m cooking - Chocolate Fudge Pop Tarts, toasted, with a glass of milk.

If someone else is cooking – French Toast with real butter, scrambled eggs with extra sharp cheddar, hashbrowns and very large Mimosas.


TBB: What is your worst habit?

LL: Procrastination. And unfortunately, my kids inherited it from me – which is kind of like karma, right?


TBB: What song lyrics get stuck in your head most often?

LL: “Mah Nah, Mah Nah,” from Sesame Street. If someone even says something close – like “phenomena,” I immediately respond with “Doo doo, de doo doo.” That might also qualify for worst habit.


TBB: If someone wrote a biography about you, what should the title be?

LL: The Things She Did For A Klondike Bar


TBB: If you were a t-shirt, what slogan would appear on you?

LL: “Make me some cake, and no one gets hurt.”

I really like cake.


TBB: Favorite place to visit?

LL: Disney World. I’ve been 3 times to DW and once to Disney Land and I want to go back over and over again. It’s like being on another planet – and I find that very satisfying.


TBB: Favorite time of year (or fave holiday)?

LL: Favorite holiday – Thanksgiving. It’s the only holiday that’s exclusively about food. I like to eat. At the end of the day, the house is clean, smells like turkey, and we have a fridge full of leftovers. Sheer bliss.


TBB: If you were a cartoon character, which one would you be and why?

LL: Archer from Archer. I’m like his twin. Except that I’m older and have breasts.


TBB: What is your least favorite interview question to be asked?

LL: What’s your writing schedule like? Because I literally have no idea from day to day. Some days I can write normally, other days I’m scrawling a sentence on the back of a bank deposit envelope outside of my kid’s trumpet lesson.


TBB: Thanks for joining us today, Leslie and congrats on your nomination. We enjoyed getting to know you better and appreciate your appearance at the blog in 2011.


If you'd like to learn more about Leslie and her books, visit her on the web here:


http://www.leslielangtry.com/


And don't forget to pick up a copy of Paradise By The Rifle Sights, click cover to purchase:























Be sure to check back for our last nominee interview on January 31st with J.F. Jenkins!


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