All posts tagged: author

Leslie’s 2019 Reading Round-Up: From memoir to speculative fiction, you’ll find all of my favorite reads right here

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By Leslie Lindsay It’s that time of year again–I start reflecting on my favorite reads. For the last several years, I’ve set pretty ambitious reading goals for myself. Fifty books? Sure. Seventy-five? Bring it! Eighty? Okay. Eighty-five? Yep. Once I thought I could eek out ninety books in one year, and no. That cannot be done. Not with a busy writing and reviewing schedule. I’m so very grateful for all of the wonderful books I’ve had the opportunity–the privilege–to read, review, and often, host their authors right here on my Wednesdays with Writers Author Interview Series. I could list every book I read this year here–because they ALL have merit. But a few absolutely stand out, for various reasons. Here are those reasons:  It makes me want to talk about it with someone who is not reading it. My husband knows it’s an ‘it’ book when I say, “Babe, I gotta tell you about this book I’m reading.” It makes me *want* to write. It makes me fly through the pages at lightening speed. Because, …

WeekEND Reading: How quickly life can spin out of control…Jennifer Kitses talks about this, how she is constantly buying books, her literary inspirations, time loops, and more in this stunning look at 24-hours in a suburban marriage SMALL HOURS

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By Leslie Lindsay A tipping point of a novel with tense domestic vignettes leading each character deeper and deeper into destructive behavior.  SMALL HOURS is a slow-burn, ‘tinderbox’ of a debut novel (Matthew Thomas, WE ARE NOT OURSELVES) in which we are just waiting for the inevitable to explode. We follow the lives of a married couple, Tom and Helen for 24-hours. Told in alternating POVs (Helen and Tom), we dive into a myriad of secrets, promises, deadlines, children, neighbors, etc. It’s one small step into the danger zone with each paragraph read, with each flip of the page, each turn of the hour. I kind of wanted to shake these people. Perhaps that is what makes Jennifer Kitses’s debut so palpable. We can *feel* the tensions arising, see the outcome before her characters and we just want to thrust an arm out and say, ‘Stop!’ But the reading is propulsive; I wanted to keep reading. It was like a bad accident on the side of the road: you don’t want to look, but you do. Tom …

Write On, Wednesday: Author Kimberly McCreight of RECONSTRUCTING AMELIA (2013) with GIVE-A-WAY!!

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By Leslie Lindsay I am super-excited to spend some time chatting with NYT bestselling debut author, Kimberly McCreight of RECONSTRUCTING AMELIA.  While this book was a Target Book Club pick and my local book discussion group selection, I am in awe as to how this literary wonder woman does it all.  She’s a mom to two young girls, runs marathons, and has several unpublished manuscripts just lying about. Oh, and she’s a former attorney. To accomplish all of that, you’d have to say the woman is driven, hands down. RECONSTRUCTING AMELIA appealed to me for several reasons: it’s been compared to Gillian Flynn’s GONE GIRL, has a Jodi Picout-like quality in that it alternates between view points, and perhaps most importantly, the storyline is ripped right from current trends in mean girl behavior, also know as social aggression–a trend I am not proud to associate with the female culture. So, without futher ado…please welcome Kim McCreight. LL: Thank you, Kim for taking the time to chat with us about your book, RECONSTRUCTING AMELIA (Harper Perennial, 2013). …

Happy New Year!!

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By Leslie Lindsay (image source: http://www.okwalls.com/rgb-happy-new-year-2013-hd-wallpaper/rgb-happy-new-year-2013-hd-wallpaper/) Happy 2013!!  I’m Leslie–a mom, wife, blogger, basset hound lover, and author of SPEAKING OF APRAXIA (Woodbine House, 2012).  The book was most definitetly a labor of love as my oldest daughter–now 7 1/2 years–and doing great–struggled with CAS.  There’s also a companion Facebook page for the book.  Check it out here:  http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=hp#!/pages/Speaking-of-Apraxia-A-Parents-Guide-to-Childhood-Apraxia-of-Speech/235772599837084 Are you also walking the CAS path?  A pediatric SLP?  Follow along on “Apraxia Mondays.”  Have ideas for this segment of the blog?  Want to be featured as an “apraxia parent?”  Would you like to highlight some of your SLP achievements, tips, and ideas as a guest blogger?  Just shoot me an email or leave a comment.  leslie_lindsay@hotmail.com I am feverishly working on my second book–a novel (women’s fiction), which is a big shift from my first book.  You’ll see glimpses of this work-in-progress on my “Fiction Friday” blogs.  And since I write, I read.  You may benefit from that , as I often get inside scoops on the next up-and-coming books and authors.  Sometimes I post author interviews, …

In My Brain Today: The Help

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By Leslie Lindsay When the book, The Help (Kathryn Stockett, Berkeley, 2009) first came out a couple of years ago, I’ll admit–I didn’t really have much interest in reading it.  I was in the midst of running around like a chicken-with-her-head cut off raising two little girls then 2 and 4 years old.  Like I had time to read.  Pfff…it was more like me who needed the help.   But now I am in the middle of the book.  (Well, not exactly the middle).  And I love it!!  I can’t get enough.  It makes me want to read all day.  (Of course, duty calls and I can’t).  But I am utterly amazed at how author Kathryn Stockett can weave together the lives and stories of these southern women.  It makes you feel like you’re right there alongside of them like a fly on the wall.  Not only does the author bring you right into the colorful world of Aibileen, Hilly, Celia, Millie…she breathes life into their voices.  Her point-of-view is absolutely to die for; those …

Write on, Wednesday: Published Author

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By Leslie Lindsay Lately, I have been getting a little nervous about the idea of becoming a an author.  I have been so “in the zone” of writing and researching, and trying to find a suitable publisher and now editing that well…I guess I sort of lost track of the fact that all of this hard work will really come to fruit in the form of a book.   It will transform me into “just a mom” to published author. What, me?  Really?!?  Couldn’t be.  Ah, but it is…. But here’s the thing:  I won’t change.  Nope.  It’s still me.  I didn’t decide to become a writer.  It was just one of those things that happened.  It’s always been a part of me; it wasn’t really a conscious decision.  I wrote because I wanted to learn.  I wrote because I needed more information on how to help my daughter with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), I wrote because I figured if I had questions, then others probably did, too. So, I get a little bubble of …