Voices for Voices®

Leanna Shields turns challenges into creative opportunities through her clean, cozy mysteries. | Episode 207

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 207

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Leanna Shields turns challenges into creative opportunities through her clean, cozy mysteries. | Episode 207

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Dyslexia hasn't stopped Leanna Shields from becoming a successful author of "cozy mysteries" and other genre fiction. From her earliest days creating elaborate imaginary friends to cope with bullying, Shields has transformed challenges into creative fuel.

The turning point came when her mother made the brave decision to homeschool her after the public school system failed to identify her dyslexia until fourth grade. "I actually learned I could learn," Shields reveals, describing how writing became her "recess" rather than homework. This perspective shift unlocked her potential and led to a prolific writing career spanning multiple genres.

Her flagship series, the Mystic Ranch Mysteries, brings much-needed Native American representation to fiction. Though connected to her heritage, Shields still conducts thorough research on cultural elements like Choctaw wedding customs. "It wasn't boring research," she explains, "for me it was just like, oh, input, input, input." This attention to detail enriches her clean, age-appropriate mysteries suitable for "junior high strong reader to up."

Beyond mysteries, Shields has authored science fiction, steampunk, and children's books (under the pen name Anna Lee Shields). She also hosts the podcast "Cappy's Cozy Chair," interviewing fellow cozy genre authors across various subgenres. Despite popular notions that writing is solitary, Shields emphasizes community: "I find it's absolutely the opposite," highlighting how she collaborates with experts and editors to overcome challenges like her self-described difficulty with punctuation.

Discover Leanna's books on Amazon, visit leannashieldsauthor.com, or listen to her podcast to experience stories that prove limitations need not define creative potential. Support an author who demonstrates that with imagination and perseverance, challenges become stepping stones rather than barriers.

Check out Leanna's website: www.leannashieldsauthor.com

Listen to Leanna's podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/2eYNif8jHHkJq6iZc29zVR?si=596ce5992084435a

Read/Listen to Leanna's books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/LeAnna-Shields/author/B005D74GYQ?ref

Chapter Markers

0:00 Introduction and Podcast Reach

1:27 Meet Leanna Shields: Author with Dyslexia

3:09 Creating Characters and Overcoming Bullying

5:26 Homeschooling Changed Everything

8:35 The Mystic Ranch Mysteries Series

14:07 Cozy Mysteries: Clean, Age-Appropriate Fiction

19:33 Other Books and Current Projects

23:01 Writing Process and Collaboration

27:56 Where to Find Leanna's Work

30:44 Closing and Call to Support

Please give us a thumbs up, subscribe, and share our content. If you're able to donate to our 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we'd greatly appreciate it as we work toward our goal of helping 3 billion people.

#cleanmysteries #cozymysteries #creativewriting #writinginspiration #authorsofinstagram #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #bookworm #booklovers #writerslife #writingcommunity #creativeopportunities #challengesturncreative #leannashields #Newepisode #newpodcastalert #podcastseries #podcastcommunity #voicesforvoicespodcast #donatetoday #501c3 #charityorganization #Podcast #donatetoday #nonprofitorganization #help3billionpeople #help3bill

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Justin Alan Hayes:

Welcome to another episode of the Voices for Voices TV film podcast. I'm your host. Founder and Executive Director of Voices for Voices, justin.

Leanna Shields:

Allen.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Hayes, thank you for joining us today and for tuning in to our well over 205 episode catalog of shows, and we are we're reaching global, over 50 countries, 150 cities. It really grows by the episode and still can't do this without you.

Justin Alan Hayes:

So thanks for tuning in wherever you're at, whether you're viewing this or whether you're listening on one of the audio platforms as well. So we're going to go ahead and jump right in to introduce our guest and we're going to, like we always do, have a conversation and share some information that I think some of our viewers and listeners may be interested in and hopefully will help her career in getting back on track due to, as you've seen on other videos, some unfortunate circumstances. So we want to introduce our guest. This is a Zoom episode, remote at home, that's why you're seeing a little bit of different in the background than in the studio or from other backgrounds, and so our guest is Leanna Shields. Thank you for joining us today.

Leanna Shields:

Thank you for having me on. This is a big honor to be on here.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Thank you to have you choose our platform to be able to share your message, awareness and a little bit about who you are and being a successful author. While also being dyslexic, I myself have quite a few mental challenges, from depression to anxiety, adhd and on the shorter spectrum of autism, with lights and sounds really bother me. With lights and sounds really, really, really bother me, uh. So it's good to uh somebody like like yourself who is really living it every day and you're dealing with that on top of whatever publicity good, bad and different it's it's going on, so you maybe share how you became an author.

Leanna Shields:

Oh, I've been writing since well. Okay, I could go further back and say I've been creating characters since probably the fourth grade. I was bullied a lot in grade school which what kid? Usually isn't at that age but I had created for myself around 20 different imaginary characters or imaginary friends, and they weren't like the average. I just use their quotes for podcast listeners. Imaginary friends One was like a winged lion that had three cubs let's see flying rams. There were. Just they were very unique and I was always interested in mythology and fantasy stuff. I call myself a mythology nerd. I like to look around at different cultures and see their mythology and sometimes I get really excited if I find similarities between two different cultures in their mythologies.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah, so when you got started, were you nervous, or was this maybe a little bit of an outlet that you were?

Leanna Shields:

it was more of an outlet because I was homeschooled and, while it does not sound like it, writing was my, my recess. Basically, I was homeschooled in high school. The public school system was not doing well for me and my mom took me out, decided to quit her job and start her own business to homeschool me best thing that ever happened I actually learned I could learn, because the public school system had not found out I was dyslexic. Until again the same age I started creating characters fourth grade. I had lost a lot of crucial learning in that time, so yeah, and I think that's, that's a big big part of what.

Justin Alan Hayes:

How like the optics of on the outside, it's, it's and.

Justin Alan Hayes:

I think it's still like that and in a lot of instances today, where people want to put individuals with a particular challenge and in a silo or in a box and say, if you have this, if you're dyslexic, then you have all these traits and you can't do this and we're not even going to try and we're going to do things kind of the way we always did things, as opposed to actually leaning in and finding out that you know that clearly you have a ton of talent, and not just for your for yourself, but but to be shared with the world. So for people on the outside to say, oh well, leanna is this or Justin is this, and I think it's half the battle, and so for you to persevere through that, I think it's huge for listeners and viewers. Life is obviously going to be rocky. There's going to be ups and downs, um, and it's harder to maybe at times persevering day at a time, minute at a time's. Sometimes all we can really do to continue on.

Justin Alan Hayes:

And then, as you did find that outlet, you started to understand more that you're able to learn and you're able to do a lot of things that individuals wanted to put you in a box and say, oh, she can't do this. So, like when I'm going to offer this particular subject or or this level, because, for whatever reason. So I want to say thank you for you know, persevering and even getting through that, because we're finding a lot of people that that that kind of holds people up, um, and saying, okay, well, what am I going to do about it? Who's going to listen to me? Who's going to be on my side? And that's part of the organization. Voices for Voices is to be able to give platform to people like yourself. That you're completely fine, we all are. Every human being has some thing going on, and whether it's diagnosed or not, so thank you for that. So that's, I think, a big thing to have persevered and kept that confidence with you to this day.

Leanna Shields:

Yeah, and when it comes to even the dyslexia, it has. Actually, I don't. One thing that's helped me is finding great editors. With writing is finding editors who actually love your characters and can see the the life in them. Shall we say, when I first started writing uh, my series mystic ranch mysteries which I love writing, by the way, it's one of my favorite things I ever wrote I I started with sci-fi and that was fun, but I am not well versed in the sci-fi world, shall we say.

Justin Alan Hayes:

I am more versed in the fantasy world, um, but actually Mystic Ranch was one of my scariest projects, for decided to write a Native American character because I don't see those very often in fiction right, agree, and you wanted to be, you wanted to have representation of your, your heritage, your background, and I think that's that that probably made things a little bit easier from that, because there's certain things you might not have to research as much because you have that innate knowledge of that oh, it was still a lot of research, because I was not as fully raised in it as as you might expect.

Leanna Shields:

Um, for, like my third book, I had to research. And don't get me wrong when I say research, it wasn't boring research, it wasn't slogging through. For me it was just like, oh, input, input, input, and I had to research, uh, the wedding customs for the chakta, like they they're used. They used to have a special wedding dance that was fascinating to research yeah, and I think what you just explained there where it's work.

Justin Alan Hayes:

But it was interesting work so it didn't as much feel it didn't feel as much like work where it's just looking into something that you have no idea about, that you're not interested in, and so by having that interest, I think that is. That is helpful, and I think some of our viewers and listeners can really just listen and watch and they don't always have to go super one way or another. There might be things that they're already doing, that they're a part of that they can do. That they can do. Maybe they don't have to have as much education or certificates or whatever those things may be. They might not have to have, and so that's great You're able to do that. And is that book available by chance, phil?

Leanna Shields:

Oh yes, all of the Mystic Ranch Mysteries, uh, book one through three, are currently available on amazon. Uh, book one is sparks of suspicion, book two is stock show stalker, and book three is curses and vows and how?

Justin Alan Hayes:

about how? Many pages, just for um ball.

Leanna Shields:

They run around 150 to 200 pages. Okay, sparks of Suspicion is the longest, because, well, it's the first book and has the most to say and the most to introduce, right yeah.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Right yeah, and by allowing us to be able to talk to you and speak with you and get your experience and what you love and what you like to do, and let people know about the work that you have done and then the work that you're you're still doing, because there's, as as we know, um, some publicity, some press that's out there and in in the space where, uh, where you're currently uh a little bit, and so we want to definitely wrap our arms around you to be able to highlight these types of things because your books are clean, they are for age appropriate, which is part of what the publicity and that's been with what our listeners and viewers have probably seen the last couple weeks heavily.

Justin Alan Hayes:

And so yeah so Leanna's books, they're clean, they're age-appropriate, so whatever ages she says they're for, that's where the content is. And so children, whatever those ages may be, and you can maybe explain a little bit of that um and and why it's so important to you to have well, I write cozy mysteries.

Leanna Shields:

Um, well, I write cozy mysteries and I I love them because they are as you said. They're clean, they um. A cozy mystery has a very set set of rules there. There's no sex on the page uh, keeping cussing to him too mild. If there is any, um, being murder itself is not seen on screen. Um, they're a very good way to just escape and you get a sense of a little community and getting to know the characters through their day-to-day and there just happens to be a little mystery that the main character has to solve. They're good for, I'd say, junior high strong reader to up.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Okay, yeah.

Leanna Shields:

And I only say strong reader, because I tend to get a little wordy sometimes. Oh, I do.

Justin Alan Hayes:

It's like condense, you don't need to.

Leanna Shields:

You can do it a different way.

Justin Alan Hayes:

So, yeah, I totally grasp that Junior high reader and above, and I think that's just so important to have good, plain written stories that actually align with what what age is and where they're at in school. Um, you know, we see advertisements on tv or youtube and everything's made to look the absolute best possible but then when you go to buy it it's like wait, that cheeseburger is not that big, or the fries or the car doesn't look as fine when I go to the dealer or what have you. And so there's a little bit of I think a little bit of bait there's. I understand more than you and David that fall into that boat. They're like, hey, we're writing good, clean stories and we don't want to be kind of caught up in what's happening, which is a little bit of the fruit of how this interview came about.

Justin Alan Hayes:

And again, thank you for allowing us to be able to just talk to you and get your feedback, good experiences, and then definitely be able to share, if there's other books, other stories, how people can get in touch with you, how they can get in touch with your work where they can find it, because we want to uplift people, we want to take people down. We want to uplift people, and somebody like yourself that is putting your hard-earned time, attention, resources into the work that you do deserves to have a fair shake on things. So yeah, other stories, other things that maybe are in the works.

Justin Alan Hayes:

People can look out for just kind of plug, whatever you want.

Leanna Shields:

Well, I have a lot of irons in the fire. Let's say say, um, I not only write, but I also run a podcast called cappy's cozy chair where I interview you all authors, in the cozy genre, which it goes beyond the mysteries that I write. Um, there's hey, if anyone out there writes cozy sci-fi, cozy romance, cozy spy fiction which I just learned is a thing please reach out to me through. I need to update my website for the show because I recently changed the name of the show from the cozy the sleuth to cappy's cozy cat, the cozy sleuthcom, and I will get back to you. Yeah, um, also, I'm.

Leanna Shields:

I've got tons of other stories out there. Uh well, not tons, but I do have my first ever science fiction book that I wrote when I was just getting out of college, and it's called the illustrious chronicles slaves redeemed. Um, that was a fun one to write. That was my first ever sci-fi. I also have a steampunk that was fun to write called the Clockwork Golem, and a steampunk mystery set in the 1920s called the Art of Facts. Kind of think Indiana Jones meets.

Leanna Shields:

I'm trying to think of something that A really good example of steampunk, but basically the main character is a black woman who's an archaeologist in the 1920s a steampunk, sci-fi 1920s and that one was a lot of fun to write. She goes to Australia to look at a mysterious cave and whole lots of adventures with that. I'm also currently working on I haven't named it yet, but the main character is a kind of a werecat who runs a music and ice cream parlor in a small corner of it's going to be another mystery, so I got a lot of stuff going on yeah, and it keeps you.

Justin Alan Hayes:

I bet it keeps you busy that well, maybe there's a holding pattern on one project. Because you're working on you know that we can only really truly focus on one thing at a time where it's good. And I find, like even with myself, if there's multiple episodes that I'm editing and getting ready, that I can be at a different point where, oh well, I have the, I have the watermark, or I have certain with GoPro cameras and others, where they actually put up a 30 minute show into usually three or four smaller segments, and so it's that whole. You got to merge all that together and it, and so there's just there's things that not everybody thinks about. They think they see, you know they see us and listen to us and and think they're like, oh yeah, like a podcast, a tv show, and you know, there there's not much to it and it's good to have that look, because that means we're doing something right.

Justin Alan Hayes:

But there is still other things, as as with with with writing and creating characters that you have to have a character name and there has to be, I'm sure, like a I don't want to call like a card, but like a little profile, and you know, as you're doing things, so it's not as easy as like, oh okay. Well, that would have been easy to write. It's a little bit more, a little bit more in depth than that absolutely, um, the way I write is.

Leanna Shields:

I found a quote once that I love for describing the way I write. I create the character and then from then on, I take dictation. So a character will come like, say, my current character that I'm working on Leorna McSell is is her name and she comes, tells me your name. The rest of it is just basically me following her and it's like okay, I see what funny, because, oh yeah, editing goes with it.

Leanna Shields:

So much I often say it's amazing that my editors aren't just shaking their fists at the screen cursing my name, because I am horrible with punctuation. I second that for me, I like to say, when it comes to my punctuation, I am ancient Greek. There is no punctuation. That's accurate.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah, and I think that's good for others to watch and listen to.

Justin Alan Hayes:

You don't have to be an expert on every single aspect that you know if your car's not working, you want to take it to a mechanic and the like the things that we're good at we try to do ourselves and things that we're good at we try to do ourselves, and things that we may need a little bit of help.

Justin Alan Hayes:

But it's not a bad thing If we need help. Obviously a book needs editing. So it's kind of like, okay, you're going to do it or ask for that help, and being able to streamline those types of like okay, are you going to do it or ask for that help and being able to streamline those types of things at this point in your career, those are probably things you don't have to think about as much Because you know when you get to a certain milestone, you know that, okay, at this point, here's who I have to reach out to, here's what I need to do, whereas when you got started in the early years, you're still feeling that out. I think that's important, no matter what it is. If it's writing a book, if it's mental health, asking for help is not a bad thing.

Leanna Shields:

Absolutely. People say writing is a solitary venture. I find it's absolutely the opposite. Just like anything, you need your community around you. You need those who are experts in punctuation in something that you're not an expert in. Like. At one time, I needed my character to ride through a certain kind of rodeo event. Well, I had a friend who raises horses and did rodeo events. I gave her that scene and it's like is this uh realistic? Is this accurate?

Justin Alan Hayes:

yeah, no, it's excellent. Um, and so we're coming to the close of our time. Can you reiterate your podcast? The books where they can be found and where to maybe get a? They're able to follow you if you want to share social media or whatever you would prefer.

Leanna Shields:

Of course, my show is Cappy's Cozy Chair. Um, my books are the Mystic Ranch Mysteries, all available on Amazon, and most of my books will come up. You can also follow me on my website, leannashieldsauthorcom. And oh, that's another thing I need to update and get a real hitch on on. But yeah, you're good you will get news about what's going on with my books all that yeah, I'm pretty easy to find and talk to on social media. I'm, I'm there and just find me yeah, and, and you write it's gonna.

Justin Alan Hayes:

You write under your name, uh, right, so I mean Leanna Shields is where people are gonna be able to find you, like ghost writing it is. Is that something that you have done or you? You prefer to have your, your name?

Leanna Shields:

I've never ghostwritten. I always write my. I always write my main books under my name. I did write a couple children's books um curly pugsley, curly and pugsley's big adventure and curly and Pugsley's Big Adventure and Curly and Pugsley's Christmas Adventure under a pen named Anna Lee Shields, to sound more children's book friendly, yeah.

Justin Alan Hayes:

No no great.

Leanna Shields:

Do we miss?

Justin Alan Hayes:

anything that you were trying to share and get the word out.

Leanna Shields:

No, I think we covered everything no.

Justin Alan Hayes:

I think we covered everything Okay.

Leanna Shields:

I think we covered everything.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Okay, well, thank you so much, leanna, for stepping out and talking. I mean, it's just a huge thing, no matter what, wherever somebody's at is, to come forward and to talk about the work, because there are good authors, there are good people that have books and content available that not everybody is in a different boat that there are. There's good people, and so that's why we wanted to have you on because you're you're a good person and thank you again for being on well.

Leanna Shields:

Thank you for the opportunity. It's been great, and I don't get to be on this side of the microphone very often right, yeah, you're opposite, so, yeah, well, great.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Well, leanna shield has been our guest today. Uh, whether you're watching, listening thanks again for for tuning in whether this is your first episode or you've been with us for the whole ride Check out Leanna Shields' work, help her. Check out her books. If you're able to make a purchase or two, uh, you'll please do clean books written for age appropriate, uh, age appropriate people and individuals. Uh, check out her podcast and and, uh, if you're, if you're interested, definitely, uh, follow her. Uh, check out her website and more to come on that. So more is going to be added, and so next time, until next time. Thank you for joining us and please be a voice for you or somebody in need.

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