What’s your name or pen name?
Laura Lynn Monk (romance) Lovenia Leapart (Fiction)
What are your genres?
Romance & Fiction
What have you written?
Marked by Temptation (romance) and Girls Don’t Play Guitar, available for pre-order.
When did you begin your writing career?
In 2004 when I decided to get a MA in English/Creative Writing
Are you a full-time or part-time writer? How do you make time to write?
Part-time, but I’m in going through the somewhat extreme process of trying to turn it into full-time.
What’s your writing process? (Number of days you write per week, a.m. or p.m., specific music you play while writing, or anything else that you feel is a vital part of your creative process.)
I like to write during the day, mornings are ideal (hence my strong desire to make the transition to full-time). My ideas for characters are often birthed while listening to music, especially while driving. When I’m writing dialogue, I often have instrumental (or very soft vocals) music playing in the background. When I need to render an emotional scene, I like to listen to music that helps me get into that emotional space. But when I’m working on plot, I need silence and I often work that out while walking.
Do you keep a journal? If so, for how long? Do you find it helpful for your professional writing?
Not really, though I know I should and that I’m breaking a major writers’ rule by not doing it. That being said, I do often do morning pages as prescribed by Julia Cameron in the Artists Way (my creative living bible)
What’s your inspiration?
Music and Life
What kind of legacy do you expect your writing to leave?
I have no idea, but whatever it is, I hope it includes messages of inspiration.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
To read and write as much as often as you can. And to continually surround yourself by things and people that affirm your aspirations.
What’s on your bookshelf or in your e-reader library?
Who Asked You – Terry McMillan and A Week in Winter – Maeve Binchey
What are you currently working on?
My novel, Consolation Prize
Latest release and book blurb?
Girls Don’t Play Guitar, which is a short story in an Anthology entitled, Our Lives in Sketches.
Blurb –“I was twelve years old when I first experienced my own soul.” This line from Lovenia Leapart’s“Girls Don’t Play Guitar,” captures the spirit of this collection of short fiction by new and emerging writers. The stories survey a variety of issues affecting African American women through the theme of searching for one’s self and identity.
Tell us about your main character? What actress or actor would you cast to play him or her in a movie about your book?
The main character in Girls Don’t Play Guitar is a female jazz musician who has had to go against the grain and embrace the calling to play the guitar during a time when being a woman and and having an interest in jazz music meant either learning to play the piano or being a vocalist. A good actress for this part would be Jada Pinkett Smith, I think. The main character in Marked by Temptation is a librarian who’s recently been laid off. She’s smart, full-figured, and a bit too shy for her own good. I think Sanaa Lathan would be great for this role.
How can we purchase your work?
Girls Don’t Play Guitar at Plenarybooks.com (publisher’s website) and Marked by Temptation at Amira Press (publisher’s website), Amazon, or Barnes & Noble online for download as it is an eBook.
How can we stay in touch with you?
Website: http://www.loveniais.com/
Facebook: Lovenia Annisa
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