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Interview with Leanna Floyd
What inspires you to write?
Tragedy inspired me to write. There are several life alternating tragedies that influenced my series, but there are two that have had the greatest impact on my writing. The first event was the murder of my cousin. She was such a young, beautiful, and vibrant young woman with her entire life ahead of her. She was a mother, a daughter, a granddaughter, a cousin, and a friend to so many. Her life was brutally extinguished at the hands of someone she loved and trusted. Sitting through the trial of her killer lit a fire deep within me, and I desperately needed to express the whirlwind of emotions that were dangerously swirling inside me. I can vividly remember the first day of the trial, and the judge asked my aunt and grandmother to leave the courtroom due to their crying having an impact on the jurors. There was no way I was going to leave my aunt’s side, and I vowed that I would swallow my pain and tears to be strong for her. These horrible emotions that floated to the surface during different stages of the trial were strangling me, and they were bursting at the seams to escape. After the trial, there was a flood of emotions and thoughts that swept over me in an uncanny way, and I was compelled to write ferociously for months on what, unbeknownst to me at the time, would be the beginnings of my debut novel, Over the Borderline. The second life changing event was working at a Florida prison where I was stalked by a male inmate, told that he would kill me, and trapped in a room with inmates who encircled me and almost devoured me. Working at the prison was part of my clinical training to obtain my doctorate in psychology. At the prison, I had a job to do, to counsel and help inmates process and deal with their issues, and for me, quitting was not an option. Additionally, I did not have the full support of the staff in regards to curtailing negative behavior by the inmates, which further exacerbated the negative emotions associated with being in fear for my life. I had no voice while working in the prison, which further fueled and inspired my writing. All of us have different life experiences that have shaped and molded us, and I have found over the past two decades that it is in these hard times that we grow and become the best versions of ourselves. Writing has given me a voice that was buried deep within me. A voice that, at one time, I was too afraid to speak due to potential negative repercussions and rejection from others who held my destiny. Writing, in a way, brought me back to life, and it gave me the voice that was once silenced.Tell us about your writing process.
As mentioned previously, my stories came flooding to me in bursts of flowing thoughts that seemed to bombard me. After my cousin’s death, there were so many ideas that just oozed out of me. I had numerous legal pads on which I had written the story that was begging to be released from deep within me. I couldn’t stop the ideas from coming. This was the start of my writing career. I wrote Over the Borderline several years ago, and I wasn’t intending on publishing the book. It was something that was birthed from tragedy, and in a way, it gave me life; I was able to express the pain that I buried. For my sequel, my writing process is a little different. The story picks up where the first book left off, and it’s a continuation of my life experiences dramatized in a fictional format. For this book, I started with a detailed outline, and I delegated a specific amount of time each week to write. I prefer to write in spurts when I feel inspired or when an idea bursts through to the surface. I find that following my general outline helps me to stay focused too. However, I also like to leave room for additional scenes and plot twists, so I am flexible in regards to my original outline. Also, I have a close-knit circle of other authors with whom I share my writing ideas, and they act a as great sounding board.Did any of your characters inherit some of your own quirks?
Yes, one of the main characters, Brooke, has pieces of me sprinkled throughout her character. Like me, Brooke has a passion for helping put back together the broken and rejected pieces of people in the world. From a very young age, this character has had a huge heart for people. She has devoted a large majority of her life pursuing a degree that allows her to make a difference in the lives of others. Brooke also has an interest in more pathological issues such as those found in serial killers. Like Brooke, I have a fascination with the psychological profiles of killers. This became an interest when my own life was threatened by a killer in prison, and I was determined to uncover and master through my studies and my training what “makes” a serial killer. Specifically, I wanted to understand the mind of a killer, and I wanted to uncover the unique and dysfunctional quirks and ticks that make these individuals hunt their prey. There were many questions that I explored such as: What is the psychological profile of a killer? Are there genetic components such as a lack of development in certain brain regions like the frontal lobe that make one more predisposed to killing (i.e., lack of empathy, poor impulse control, lack of inhibition)? Is there a stereotypical face of a killer or can he/she be anyone? Our neighbor? Pastor? Father? Mother? And what life events influence the dysfunctional thinking of individuals who lack empathy and devalue human life? Finding the answers to these questions, in a way, gave me control over situations in which I felt helpless. Overall, Brooke’s passion for understanding and helping individuals suffering with different pathologies, her love for people, and her desire to help people are at the core of who I am.
What is your most interesting writing quirk?
My most interesting writing quirk is that when I have a block in writing, I will lie in bed and close my eyes and let different story lines and scenes dance through my mind. When I am in bed, I am able to shut out the rest of the world and unplug, which seems to allow my creativity to flow more vividly and easily. Things that were blocked from my consciousness are able to freely float around in my mind and seem to flow with ease. I keep my phone by my night-stand, and I will sometimes write an entire chapter in the Notes section on my phone. Also, I tend to prefer writing scenes that are inspired by events in my life while sitting in a particular chair in my house. There’s a security in being in my comfy over-sized chair and typing into my phone some of the more vulnerable scenes in my story. Over the years, I have shifted from writing out my stories by hand to typing them on my phone or on the computer.What is the best piece of advice you would give to someone that wants to get into writing?
The advice that I would give to individuals who want to get into writing is to let their voice be heard, to tell their story, and to not let negativity or rejection keep them from reaching their dreams. I would tell them to keep fighting the fight even on the hard days and to let every setback be a stepping stone to propel them to their future. I would tell them to never give-up! Additionally, I would tell them not to take to heart others’ negative opinions of them or their work. All of us have our own unique lens through which we view the world. Our life experiences, the good, the bad, and the ugly, all affect the way we feel and react to various events and situations. When reading a book, these experiences ultimately affect how the reader interprets and visualizes a story. The lens through which readers view the world can shift and influence the way they read others’ work. This lens has the ability to tap into various subconscious places that can take readers on their own unique journeys. Additionally, everyone has an opinion, and new authors can find value in others’ opinions, even when they aren’t in line with their own views or beliefs, and they can try to see the silver lining, even in criticism.How do you spend your free time? Do you have a favorite place to go and unwind?
In my free time, I love to read. Books are an alternate world that allow me to escape the mundane and rote and enter into a new world with different characters, places, and experiences. Books allow me to expand my current views and the traditional paradigms that I have, and they allow my mind to escape to different places in time. Books provide an alternate world that inspires me on many different levels, and they challenge me to expand the lens through which I view the world. When I’m not reading, I like to go to the beach. The beach has always been a sanctuary for me. I have fond memories of going to the beach as a child; the sun and being near the ocean have always had an addictive pull on me. I love the sound of gulls squalling overhead and the heat of the sun on my skin. Being at the beach takes me away from the stress of life, and, like books, takes me to an alternate reality.Tell us three fun facts about yourself.
1. I have a doctorate in clinical psychology. During my clinical training in a Florida prison, I worked firsthand with narcissists, borderlines, and killers.2. I have lived in six states and two countries.
3. I love photography, and I have traveled all over the world taking pictures. I have studied photography with a talented photographer who did work for National Geographic.
What do you have in store next for your readers?
My sequel is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. The sequel will pick up where the first book left off. There will be more twists and turns, and all of the readers’ Surfside Killer questions will be answered. The sequel will also give an insider’s view of pathological characters in such a way that the readers’ emotions will be pushed and pulled, and they will find themselves loving and hating pathological characters. This book will have even more pieces of me and my life experiences in it, and it will give one of the main characters the ultimate vindication. The ending will force readers to question whether or not they could be pushed to the brink of sanity and take another’s life.About the Book:
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| Check out the book on Amazon |
Brooke Douger has a knack for helping others with their broken lives, which explains her interest in criminal psychology and profiling. She convinces her childhood friend, Jacob, to move to Tampa after his latest fiasco, where he finds a job at a legal firm, which is defending Zach Barton, a rich, young entrepreneur who is accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend. When Brooke has to provide expert testimony in Barton’s trial, Jacob and Brooke end up on opposite sides of the courtroom. As Brooke prepares to testify, she discovers a pattern of violent, impulsive behavior in Barton’s past, eerily similar to those of the Surfside Killer, the case she has been asked to help profile for the FBI. Brooke is swirling in dangerous waters with the killer lurking on the fringe of her life. Who will be his next victim? Will Brooke’s knack for profiling be enough to keep her safe?
