Amanda Leanne began reading at a very young age and has been writing since grade school. She is a prolific reader, book collector, and writer with an interest in all aspects of art including sewing, painting, sculpting, jewelry design, soapmaking, and various other hobbies. After spending nearly a decade working on her degrees in forensic sciences, abnormal behavioral science, and neurological psychology with the prospect of joining the FBI ViCAP unit, Amanda’s health took a turn for the worse. Daily struggles with her medical issues hasn’t stopped her from pursuing her childhood aspirations to become an author. She currently lives with her spouse (Kris), her son, and their menagerie in the mountains of Northern Alabama.
Leanne writes non-fiction as well as fictional novels. Her non-fiction books and articles delve into topics such as medical conditions, true crime, psychology, and crafting. Her fictional stories delve into horror, psychological, mystery, thrillers, eerie tales, science fiction, and paranormal worlds.
Author Links:
Website: amandaleanne.com
Find her on most social media platforms @theAmandaLeanne
You have a number of books out, but let’s talk about Darkling Cloud, which is a standalone. What inspired this book and its titular feline?
We have seven cats, but the oldest is this Maine Coon mix with the tortoise shell coat that always sticks out in crazy directions and she has this constant look like she is fixing to rip your face off, and yet she is a complete baby.
My love for our felines, all rescues from various times, made me want to write a book about some sort of crazy cat creature. Then I had this amazing photo of Luna walking toward me and I edited it to look super cool and then started to formulate.
I used my husband’s story of how he found Luna crouched up in the tire well of his truck as my starting off point for this supernatural tale about a man and his cat.
What rep can we find in Darkling Cloud, and how have your own experiences shaped your writing and explorations of this rep?
Darkling Cloud has several Cherokee characters and references to their language and lore spurred by part of my own ancestry.
There is also a point where Caleb, the main character, makes mention of trying to hook up with a woman and says he has been with both men and women but at the moment that was his preference, something that I am familiar with due to my own pansexuality. Sometimes I want to be with one gender over another depending on my preferences at the time.
Can you talk us through your process to creating your characters? E.g. How did you develop your MC, Caleb, and has Caleb changed much from the first draft of this novel? If so, how?
Caleb is very loosely based on my husband but his personality became his own very fast. He starts off as a simple man with a very simplistic life just getting by day to day.
As Darkling Cloud comes into his life and he begins to experience all the crazy supernatural stuff, he starts to fill out with his own feelings toward morality and survival really shaping who he becomes as a person. His interactions with other characters and his growth was something the BETA readers really liked.
One of your WIPS is Iris, a Gothic Horror set in the 19thC. This is a very different setting to contemporary Appalachia! What is your process here for working in a more historical setting? What kind of research and reading do you do?
My love for horror started with Poe, Shelley, Jackson, and Stoker. I have a fondness for the Victorian gothic aesthetic, something highly embraced in my own personal style and in my home, and I have been wanting to write a book in that setting for a long time.
Much of my research is due to my reading of so many books and stories that takes place in a more historical setting.
Even books like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre as well as the historical settings in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles helped color my views of a gothic world.
You have described Iris as Beauty and the Beast X genderbent Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde – how are you blending romance and horror, and what about that combination appeals to you?
As a little girl, the neighbor girl and I played “vampire countess” instead of house. We were in a pretend castle and were vampires with our vampiric husbands. In the late 80s and early 90s we didn’t have the internet to entertain us and my mother was a big fan of horror movies and books. My earliest exposures to anything romantic were things like Annabelle Lee, Dracula, and Interview with the Vampire.
The entwining of dark and even villainous characters with a romantic plot line was something I fell in love with very early on. I grew up in a community of eccentric and alternative people, a biker group my parents were a part of, and so weddings were black leather and black lace. It stuck, I suppose! I also felt there wasn’t enough representation of lesbians in a dark gothic fairy tale like setting and wanted to explore the idea of both the morally gray and even occasionally evil character falling in love with the damsel in distress.
Share with us some of your favourite reader responses to your work so far!
I recently got one of those bucket list check mark reviews that compared me to Stephen King and the Twilight Zone and it made me so happy I cried. With Darkling Cloud, the BETA response was profoundly positive. The development of Caleb’s character and of course the amazing Darkling herself was absolutely adored. I love my twists and have gotten mostly very positive responses to them, and Darkling Cloud has been no different. One person told me that they couldn’t stop thinking about my story for days afterward and that is truly a compliment to any author.
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