Please welcome Leigh M. Lane to the 2013 Wicked Women Writers Challenge. Here is a wonderful interview with her about her experience in this year’s event and where we can find more of her work.
Be sure to listen to Leigh M. Lane’s podcast entry titled – Enter the Corruption this year. You can also read along with her story while enjoying her fantastic performance.
How did you first hear about the 2013 Wicked Women Writer Challenge?
I learned about the challenge from a post you made in a Facebook group we both belong to.
What drew you into the fun of this challenge?
I loved the idea of creating a sort of audio play, like the old-fashioned radio shows. I followed the link to your 2012-winning podcast and thought it would be fun to make one of my own.
The Norns were pretty challenging this year – what did you think as soon as your assignment came through?
My first thought was, “Wow … how am I going to piece all of these together?” However, when I thought about the nanotech horror I’d written last year, “The Corruption,” the idea of using that as a springboard for a prequel seemed like the logical direction to take.
You used sound effects and music in your production extremely well. What was your favorite part? Hunting down the sounds to complement your words? Engaging sounds to escalate emotion? Have you recorded podcasts before? If so, where can we hear more from you?
Thanks! This was my first podcast, so I had to learn as I went, but I enjoyed playing around with different sounds—most specifically, the Corrupted vocals—and experimenting with Audacity’s different sound effects. Hearing it all come together was also pretty fun.
What was the hardest part about your challenge? What did you like best? Did you learn something new about yourself while doing this challenge? (Personally, I learned how much I loved putting my words to audio and truly making the story come alive.)
The hardest part was getting a smooth recording of the vocals. I have blind spots in my eyes, and because my right eye is better than my left, sometimes I jump ahead of myself when I’m reading. I must have tripped over my words a hundred times before I’d gotten to the story’s end. Going through it and editing out all of the mistakes was very time consuming. I loved taking that rough track and building on it with the sound effects and music. I also learned that I enjoy doing audio, and it’s definitely something I’d like to do again.
Tell us more about YOU, your past stories, books, other artwork, your current project, and what’s on deck in 2014?
I got my start in publishing through an erotic romance press that released six of my novels: an erotic horror trilogy and three space operas, one of which was featured on the Home Shopping Network back in 2009. I had to spice them up a little more than I’d have liked, but I learned a lot about the industry through that experience. I went on to publish several short stories through the same press before I decided it was time I started to pursue my true passions, horror and sci-fi with a literary slant. I opted to self-publish four novels under a variation in my name in order to delineate my serious work from the erotica (similar enough to be transparent about it), and have since placed a handful of short horror stories in anthologies edited by authors I respect greatly.
I’m currently shopping a prequel to my corporate dystopia, World-Mart, with the hope of getting a decent publisher to back it. While I love self-publishing, and may still go that route, it would be nice to have a little more clout to broaden my readership. I do a little drawing and painting, although I’m admittedly a mediocre artist, and I sang in a few bands back in the ’90s. Twenty years ago, I sang the National Anthem for the opening of a Dodger’s game with my twin sister. I’m also a black belt in Shorin Ryu, an Okinawan style of karate, although I’ve had to slow my training significantly over the past few years due to health issues.
If you win 2013 Most Wicked, have you given any consideration to what your theme might be for when you hostess the 2014 Wicked Women Writer Challenge?
Since I loved my topic so much, I think I’d go with “The Monster Inside Me.” I think there many unique directions the Norns could take with that challenge-wise.
You can find my horror and dark sci-fi books on Amazon by visiting my author page: http://www.amazon.com/Leigh-M.-Lane/e/B0055DSE6Y
I have a website and a decently active blog: http://www.cerebralwriter.com.
Readers might also be interested to know that I’ve dropped the Kindle and Nook prices for all of my Cerebral Books novels to .99 through the end of summer (September 21). I’ll also be participating in Amazon’s upcoming Matchbook program, through which readers can access a discounted or free Kindle copy of any of my Cerebral Books novels when they buy a copy in paperback.
Check out Leigh’s Books on Amazon!
