Leanna Renee Hieber is Awesome

part of this was written on Thursday, the other part today (Friday)

So even though the title is pretty much self-explanatory, I still would like to try to explain to you just how awesome Leanna Renee Hieber is.  I'm not completely sure if it can be put into words.  My attempt will probably fail, but I'm going to give it my best shot.

Leanna's third installment of the Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker (The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess) was released this past Tuesday, and the local signing was tonight.  I was pretty down-right excited for this book, even though I usually have a hard time reading prequels.  The fact that these are totally different characters really interests me and after listening to Leanna read a portion of it at the signing, I just wish I could listen to her read the whole book.  She's so theatrical and such a great speaker, she's going to have to do my readings at my book signings (hopefully, one day) because that is a skill I definitely lack.  :)

I love that Leanna is so down-to-earth and she deeply cares about her readers.  She's so incredible, not only in what she writes and how she speaks, but also by the size of her heart.  I don't know the last time someone held a meaningful conversation with me about writing and the challenges of writing - not only paranormal, but also with just the difficulties of jumping from one world to the next.  I am so excited to get writing more, and maybe it just took a kick from her to get a part of me back that I've so desperately been missing.  I feel like since last August, I've slowly been losing part of me each day, instead of getting parts of me back.  I used to read and write all the time, and now I don't have the motivation to do that.  But now, I just want to stay up all night and write.  (Too bad it's Thursday...)  Maybe it's just that I'm still afraid that if I don't write that Leanna's ghosts will haunt me, or maybe it's just that I remember who I was when I last read these books last year, or maybe I just have been reminded of how inspirational Leanna is to me.  Being from Small Town Ohio, it's really hard to find someone that has accomplished the things they most want, such as being published.

Meeting Leanna has been a huge blessing in my life, she makes me feel like I can honestly do anything that I want with my life.  Although everybody has always told me that since I started writing it, I honestly never really believed that until last night.  This is something that I can never thank Leanna for enough.  She has either given me or given me back a piece of myself that I never realized I had or never realized I was missing.  She is just truly amazing. 

And, Leanna, if you're reading this, I hope you know that I can never repay you for everything you've done for me - I cherish all of the material things, as well as the 'spiritual' ones - but I will surely try my hardest to pay you back.  I love you.