Voices for Voices®

Co-authoring and Cultural Awareness: A Conversation with Leanna Shields and David Solomon | Episode 230

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 230

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Co-authoring and Cultural Awareness: A Conversation with Leanna Shields and David Solomon | Episode 230

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What happens when authors choose to tackle difficult social issues through fiction? Two talented writers reveal their philosophy on storytelling with purpose in this thought-provoking conversation.

Authors Leanna Shields and David Solomon return for the second part of their discussion, diving deeper into their writing processes and the social responsibility they feel as storytellers. The conversation begins with both authors sharing their extensive bibliographies – Leanna discussing her Mystic Ranch mystery series, steampunk novels, and other works available on Amazon, while David mentions his impressive output of 40 published books under his name and approximately 400 ghost-written titles.

The dialogue takes a nostalgic turn as both writers reveal how the Young Jedi Knights series from the Star Wars expanded universe profoundly influenced their writing styles. They share a preference for crafting accessible novels of moderate length (150-200 pages) rather than overwhelming readers with excessively long works. This discussion evolves into a candid critique of publishing trends, including books featuring extremely brief chapters and the controversial use of second-person perspective.

The most powerful segment emerges when Shields reveals how her publisher rejected content addressing missing and murdered Indigenous women from her cozy mystery series. This prompts Solomon, who has personal connections to Indigenous communities, to emphasize the life-saving potential of stories that raise awareness about marginalized groups. Both authors passionately discuss how fiction writers wield tremendous cultural influence, comparable to film and television, with the ability to shape public perception and potentially drive social change.

Throughout their conversation, these thoughtful writers demonstrate how contemporary storytellers can balance entertainment value with social commentary, addressing issues from human trafficking to mental health awareness. Their insights will resonate with writers, readers, and anyone who believes in the transformative power of stories.

Ready to discover how fiction can change the world? Listen now, then share your thoughts on how storytelling has influenced your perspective on important social issues.

Find Leanna's books on Amazon and visit her website at leannashieldsbooks.com. Look for David Solomon on Amazon, known for titles like Melonheads, Bathing New Mexico, and more.

#MythicalCreatures #ChristianValues #SpiritualFantasy #FaithAndImagination #MythologicalInspiration #ChristianFiction #FantasyAndFaith #ReligiousAllegory #CreativeSpirit #SpiritualJourney #MythicExploration #FaithfulFantasy #ChristianCreativity #MythologicalVisions #SpiritualArt #voicesforvoices #justinhayes #justinalanhayes

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Justin Alan Hayes:

Welcome to another episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I am your host, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes. Thank you so much for joining us, whether this is your first episode or you've been with us the whole way. We couldn't do this without you. We couldn't do this without you. We couldn't be stretching our voices to the ends of the earth. With again getting close to 60 countries and close to 700 cities. It's really remarkable and it's really humbling to be at this point, to be speaking to you, whether you're watching or you're listening to our show. That it's just a real blessing to be able to have your ear. Have're everywhere audio platform, wise, video, we're on Rumble and YouTube and you can find all episodes on all those platforms. We have that put together and we just want to want to thank you for sticking with us. If you're able to give us a thumbs up like share, subscribe, that really helps us out to get closer to helping those 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. And I couldn't also do this without our fabulous guests that we brought on in this episode.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Another episode just like that.

Justin Alan Hayes:

This episode is a second part from a first that we had with authors Leanna Shields and David Solomon.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Leanna Shields and David Solomon Talked about a wide variety of topics as they relate to co-authoring and encouraging each other At different points of the process and, again, being supportive, which, as we know, just in life, a lot of people have egos, they want to do things themselves the whole time and the idea of working with somebody else isn't really an idea that they want, because they want full credit. So it's really humbling to hear these two authors talk about, you know, sharing, sharing that, um, that connection and working together. So we ended up our first part, uh episode on the the cozy genre, uh, that leanna was talking about, and we were conversing before we got shut off by Zoom, but that happens. But before we jump into that, I want to make sure I give our guests the ability to plug their social medias, their books, where they can be purchased and all those good things. So, Leanna, if you want to start, and then we'll go to David and then we'll jump back into the cozy conversation.

Speaker 2:

Well, hi, great to see you all again, great to see you all again.

Speaker 2:

I'm Leanna Shields Wow, it's really hard to say that and not try and slip into my own podcast voice, which I have a podcast called Cappy's Cozy Chair, mainly because I'm a fan of capybaras and find them the coziest animal you can think of. But I also have, oh, a series, series, not a series, but I've written seven books, a series of three so far. Uh, the mystic ranch mystery series. Book four will be out soon. Uh, the title a year in the crime, which is a really cool name, yeah, the title A Year in the Crime, which is a really cool name.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And you'll be able to find that on Amazon. You can find all my books on Amazon and if you want to take a look at things I've worked on, my website is leannashieldsbookscom.

Speaker 3:

Okay, and you can find our other series on Amazon too. I always butcher that because I have dyslexia, the alien one that I can't pronounce.

Speaker 2:

The Alestrian Chronicles yes. That one is a duology. It was supposed to be a trilogy, but my character stopped talking to me after the second book.

Speaker 3:

I get that, and then your cyberpunkpunk one, the old one oh, my steampunk one yeah yeah, cyber nuts yeah yeah, the clopper golem.

Speaker 2:

You can find that also on amazon. And also there is a 1920s steampunk which true fit well, not true fans. But some stickler fans of the steampunk genre would probably say that's more diesel punk. But uh, it's called the artifacts and that's also on amazon and it's really good.

Speaker 3:

I have read that one, um, and you've been running your own podcast. You can find Leanna sometimes doing her own campaigns, like D&D sort of things, correct?

Speaker 2:

Well, those I don't share live yet, but I am planning on expanding things, and that includes right now. I am want to record myself playing, even though I am horrible at video games.

Justin Alan Hayes:

I'm right there with you.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I like video games, but only to a certain extent. Like I like Zelda, Super Smash Bros, Spyro was really fun.

Speaker 2:

I loved Spyro yeah, those quests.

Speaker 3:

Star Wars I was an old Star Wars junkie for oh, what was it? Jedi Knight and Jedi Academy I was a junkie for those.

Speaker 2:

One of my favorite Star Wars games I had was a computer version of Star Wars Monopoly.

Speaker 3:

Yes, I remember those.

Speaker 2:

And I loved the fact that whenever Han Solo went into bankruptcy, he basically had a little pouty fit yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you know what's really funny. You've seen the sequel trilogy right.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 3:

They just announced. So one of the characters when I was working at, uh, kind of that whole dark horse era before disney bought star wars um they just announced, one of the old characters that I helped with is going to be in a new animated show called Maul.

Speaker 2:

Oh, awesome.

Speaker 3:

And they're remaking some of the canon. So you remember Jason and Jaina, the children of Han and Leia from old canon.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, I grew up reading Young Jedi Knights.

Speaker 3:

Yep. So those of you who do not know Young Jedi Knights, so those of you who do not know Young Jedi Knights is a series that predated Baby Kylo Ren's fits. I say that with care, but no, seriously. It predated, and what was it? 1997, I think the Golden Globe. Oh ouch, you're going to make me age myself, but yeah, I know I read Young Jedi Knights in 06, I think when I started getting into writing and I just loved it. I loved the Maasai trees, jason and Jaina Zeke. I was rooting for Zeke oh.

Speaker 2:

I know.

Speaker 3:

Oh man. And he became the Shadow Knight. And then I remember the Knight Sister Academy. It was really good. Tenil Ka, I think, was her name, and she lost her arm. That was really cool, like they had a character with disabilities. But point being is, that really made me want to strive to write books like that.

Speaker 2:

Me too Me too, it's what got me into writing sci-fi myself.

Speaker 3:

Oh, that's what inspired it. Okay, I get it now. Um, I, I really loved it like it was. I like the movies, I do, but there was something magical about young jedi knights. It was not in the movies and it was just so cool to live in those characters and watch them mature. I just. And the books weren't long. They weren't these giant Lord of the Rings books. They were like 150 to 200 pages. Yeah, it wasn't bad. Some of them were shorter than that. Actually of them were shorter than that actually. Um, and I guess that's what really got me into the idea of creating shorter novels which you can relate to, because your books are not 400 pages long, you know no, they are not.

Speaker 3:

I like keeping them shorter and and that's a good thing Some readers' attention spans can get really annoyed with a 400-pager. I like to hook my readers. Originally when I go through, I was writing really long novels, but then I saw the drag of it. There's only so much you can do in a 400 page book where a character is like he said, she said, they said and that, oh, the wall was green and the wall was gray. And now we're getting redundant in chapter 46 and we're repeating ourselves, man. So I like to have a little bit of variety and be like okay, let's have one story be 100 to 200 pages and call it a day, put a bow around it, wrap it up, that's done. And let's have another story as the sequel and let's not kill our readers eyes and go oh wow, this is 500 pages. Yeah, I'm not going to pick that up, and especially in like today's society, attention spans are just really bad.

Speaker 3:

I speak from experience. I read fourth wing and it is like 700 pages and by the time I got to the end I just I put it this way I really miss Young Jedi Knights at that moment in time. Interestingly enough, I read the Anubis, which means like three of them were together. So it was 600 pages. But you had that break in between where it said book one and then book two and then book three, and you felt good. When you finished book one you felt like you accomplished something in your life. Yeah, I get that. Um, there's nothing wrong with long books if the story is justified, but if it just goes on and on and we're just repeating, oh dear. So like, something I really admired about your series is they're always not too long but not too short, something you called me out on the other day actually. You were like, yeah, I'm not really digging these short chapters and I was like, yeah, I get that, I'm not digging it either. I need to rewrite this. This. This is crud Shoot.

Speaker 3:

There was a story I picked up a few months ago in a Walmart. No joke, the chapter was one page and it kept changing in every page. The lady had like 500 chapters in the beginning where it says introduction, and I'm like this isn't a long book. This is shorter than Leanna's. This is 125. How can you do that? And then I found out that she split some of the chapters to half pages. So, like chapter 15 is this simple?

Speaker 3:

I went to the store and I saw him and he smiled at me and then I kissed him and said will you marry me? And he said yes, and then his wings came flapping and he took my hand and flew me out Chapter 16. When we were over the clouds. So that was like something I had never seen. And then the other day I picked up a book and I'd never seen this style. You would think that you could do this, but you couldn't. You would think that you could walk that fast, but you know that you can't. How redundant is writing in that style? And those are short chapters, those are like two pages and she has like 800 chapters. This is a bestseller. I'm not going to name dates wow like that.

Speaker 3:

That's what secular fantasy is doing right now. By the way, they're they're doing the style of you did this and you did that and forget I and forget they. It it's you, second person. Isn't that what they taught us to stay away from?

Speaker 2:

I will admit, I tried to write second person perspective before and I just could not do that.

Speaker 3:

So I was taught from a young age never to write second person. When I was doing a novel for a TV show I was doing at the time, the person was like, just write it in second person and call it a day. And I was like no, no, no. And so then I wrote it third person and first person and my editor went how dare you? You're going to hell Rewrite this. Rewrite it right now, and it's frowned upon to do that, unless you pull it off. Good, I mean, it was about Green Arrow and I got excited. I was like okay, I had to become someone else, something else. I was trapped on an island. That's how the TV show is, but that's not how the book is.

Speaker 3:

It's Oliver was trapped on an island and he knew that he had to become something else, someone else, and if he didn't, he would have been marooned on there forever. Yeah, I had to go back to third person in order to please the editor. Go back to third person in order to please the editor. Something you can relate to is pleasing editors, which is not an easy task, and more than once they told you to rewrite something.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, actually, with my third book, I started touching on a subject that my editor and my publisher both thought was not particularly a cozy subject, which is I don't know if I should bring that up right now, but I mean I brought up everything right, but the missing and murdered I mean I brought up everything Right but the missing and murdered Indigenous women issue.

Speaker 2:

I touched on that a little bit in my third book originally, but both my editor and my publisher both agreed oh, this doesn't really belong in a cozy, and I ended up rewriting it and now because of that.

Speaker 3:

You're going to include that in the future in something else you're up to.

Speaker 2:

Yes, it is a subject that I definitely want to cover in a future book.

Speaker 3:

It's it's real.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's very real. Actually, yesterday was the day to not acknowledge, but kind of memorialize I guess might be the wrong word, but that cause.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, remember honor. Yeah, yeah, I, uh, I was gonna, you know, post something on it, but I I didn't. And, uh, as a survivor of human trafficking, uh, it's very dear to my heart. Um, I was in Canada with my mom in 2017, and I got to meet with one of the Indigenous people ahead of that, and it's so sad, In Canada alone, the statistics for that are so high.

Speaker 2:

Oh, it's horrible. I forget what the statistics are, but it is awful.

Speaker 3:

Where I grew up, originally Columbus Falls, my mom would tell horse stories. We lived where a lot of natives were. We lived in a good land and my mom was native and you know we saw the horror. Like people would go missing. Like walking to school back in the day, someone would pick you up. It would happen. And even right now, even boys, not just girls anyone who's indigenous, who's a minor boy you get snapped up.

Speaker 3:

Uh, one thing, leanna, that I touch up on in in a story, uh, that will be coming sometime. Uh, I do touch up on that because I've seen more indigenous women become like uh, I guess I can say this in the industry strippers and prostitutes, and you hear about it and you see it on the street when you drive by seattle or portland. You see it, you hear it and you know how they got there. You know someone took them or sold them. You know, and it's not talked about where do these women go and what happens to them? Do they survive? Do they get out? Is there hope for them?

Speaker 3:

And there really are no stories of redemption for them, and that's a subject my mom was very prominent about, and so I applaud you on that and I really encouraged you to to tell those stories, even if your publisher wouldn't. You need to tell those stories because those stories will save a life, and that's kind of why we have a responsibility. Uh, we're not only writers, you and I, but we're kind of like newscasters, right like we're. We're trying to tell the news, basically, of what's going on to an audience that really just doesn't want to hear it, kind of. Would that be correct?

Speaker 3:

yeah, uh, yeah, I can see where you're going with that and, yeah, I'd agree yeah, like um, in one of my stories that you helped edit, I told about ukraine. You know I didn't say, oh, people are dying everywhere. I said you know, he lost his wife there and you, you honored that moment and you brought awareness and so, like I believe, I called up Holly Black and other authors in that genre because I believe our responsibility as storytellers is to make people aware of problems. People aware of problems.

Speaker 3:

Not many people know this, but do you know that movies and tv like have so much impact that they kind of run this country and kind of run the world? Honestly, if you look at the different impacts that they've had in the different monumental moments that they've had on culture and history, and you look at that and go, wow, that's how powerful a storyteller can be. They can bring awareness to this issue, they can talk about this, they can show this. Those are powerful moments for storytellers and it changes the culture, it changes the country, it changes the atmosphere of sensitivity and we've been desensitized as a culture from indigenous missing kids or women or men. I mean, do you see any indigenous TV shows?

Speaker 2:

Not really, Though actually the Choctaw reservation have had a few faces in current movies.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I keep forgetting that movie. It was fairly recently with Leonardo DiCaprio Murder of the Flower Moon or something like that, I know what you're talking about? Yeah, they actually filmed in Oklahoma around the reservations there there is some representation going on, yeah? There's a new one I heard word of. I think it's called researching it as a thing, because there's a Disney movie by the same title, but I think it's called Brave.

Speaker 3:

Yep, it's nothing like the Disney movie either.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 3:

There's also the CW series Trickster, oh and it, uh, it's canadian, it's about the uh the coyote and the native american trickster. A friend of mine did it. I kind of got to help a little bit on the folklore of it. And uh the, the son finds out his dad was a trickster and he can shapeshift. Now the son can and it's. It's pretty fun.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I love that Actually. Okay, I'm going to veer off topic, but it's one of the things that got me into writing. Mythology is back in late nineties, early two thousands. There was a cartoon, gargoyles, oh yes, and one of the story arcs was the Avalon story arc.

Speaker 3:

Yep.

Speaker 2:

And they hit a lot of mythology from African to which was where I first heard of like werecats to Native American.

Speaker 3:

Navajo trickster which is yeah, that was on Toon Disney. I remember that episode. I love that show so much that really spawned you to write about the genre yeah yeah, now we haven't had gargoyles in our stories, shockingly.

Speaker 2:

I actually have. Well, it's interesting you mention that because I do remember putting a gargoyle in kind of a side character in the first book. She runs the jewelry store.

Speaker 3:

Oh, okay, never mind, but she wasn't like a main character. That's why it didn't stand out.

Speaker 2:

I do kind of want to work on one that gives her maybe a little if not her another one a little bit more prominence.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, because Gargos are really cool yeah.

Speaker 2:

And the series was phenomenal. They want to reboot it, by the way.

Speaker 3:

Oh, that scares me so much. It scares me a lot because disney messes up everything.

Speaker 2:

I mean you you talk about how stories can really impact current events and things like that.

Speaker 3:

The episode where Broadway accidentally shoots Elisa and the things that were going on with gun violence at that time was just kind of like it parallels to now, yeah, and like at that time was just kind of like it parallels to now, yeah, and like that's why I think it's really important to stay relevant in our storytelling. I just really feel that's a need for today's world. We can impact people to have a better outlook, but also make better choices and be a better person. From human trafficking to drugs, to mental awareness, to what faith is, these are real issues that are going on in our world and no one wants to address them.

Justin Alan Hayes:

I think it's a good spot. We've got about a minute left. David, do you want to just jump in? I know it just goes fast. It's fantastic. We'll definitely have to revisit this in the future. It's fascinating. I love it. David, if you want to touch on how people can learn about you, your work, that kind of current state.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so you can look me up David Solomon on Amazon. I'm trying to rework a lot of those titles on there, but I'm well known for Melonheads, bathing, new Mexico, seaman, gatekeepers, but there will be some new stuff on there that's more in the Christian genre. I've written over 40 books on Amazon, but in total probably about 400 ghostwriting there and there. And, and then the book that I helped with, leanna. That is book form, what's it called?

Speaker 2:

That is called a year in the crime.

Speaker 3:

Yep, and that is in the mystic ranch series and you can find that available uh, later this year under liana shield's amazon good.

Justin Alan Hayes:

uh, this has been really eye-opening for me, learning, educating me on so much of the writing world on the world, unfortunately and it does kind of guide society for better or worse. And I think that the work that both of you are doing is and will be continuing, to tell the story, tell the voice of individuals, of groups, not to marginalize them but to uplift, and the hope and thoughts are that we'll be helping more people than others are not helping. So we want to thank both of you for both of these awesome episodes Leigh Annis Shields and David Solomon. Thank you for joining us and we'll definitely be connecting in the future.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's been great.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Awesome. So until next time, please be a voice for you or somebody in need.

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