In my last email to you, I asked your opinion on pen names. I was surprised by how many responses I got and the differences of opinions over pen names when changing “pairings” and genres.
The consensus was evenly split. One side said that I should keep Cyan LeBlanc because my writing is my writing. They’d read my books based on the theme and synopsis and skip what doesn’t interest them.
On the other side of the coin, many said that I should use a different name or find a way to differentiate between Sapphic and non-Sapphic. There were suggestions on how to do that, so… here is the final outcome of this:
Cyan LeBlanc writing as Leif Garrison. This allows the reader that I am behind the pen name. Readers will learn that Leif Garrison is horror writer that includes penises in their books. While I will still market them in my substack and newsletters because they are my works, it’s easy to see this is a separate genre all together.
“Good Clean Fun” is queer horror book that I am currently writing. I am debating on setting this up for serialization, but I am not far enough along for this to be a regularly scheduled release. The book takes place on a vacation island where couple Heath and Liam meet some shady characters who violently torture residents because the law has a loophole.
If you are interested in reading this as a WIP/serialization online, let me know and I might consider adding this to the upgraded plan on Substack.
Next on my “works in progress” list is a rewrite of 2021’s NaNoWriMo novel which was a fictional-style memoir of my life. This was written before I started my publishing career-before I met all of you. I never thought my life was interesting until my wife told me to write about myself and my escapades of being a music fanatic. It’s not solely about music but as I dived into my life, I touched on the traumas and heartache that I felt a lot of my life.
I asked the editor-in-chief at Undertaker Books to come up with a cover that describes me and the book’s underlying theme. Rebecca nailed it. I am revamping this to be a full on memoir, told in first person instead of third. And am using all the names of the parties in question. I’m not censoring my life and the people in it. They did the crime, now they can do the time.*
*Hopefully, I will not be sued for slander. If you’d like to see this posted here as a “work-in-progress,” let me know.
And finally… I know GA Rea will probably kill me for “cover revealing” early, but here it is. The next book in the Velvet Legacy series.
At the beginning of the year, GA and I parted ways on the last two books of the series—GA would have been releasing them on her own. Not because the relationship went south, but more so because my life has been seriously chaotic. With the new job(s) and new hours, my time and creativity had been taxed to the max. Now that life has evened out, I have a bit more of a routine in place.
As of today, I have punched open the working file and spent the afternoon plugging away at what GA had already written in Book 2, called ADYTUM. She has done an amazing job with what I have seen and am looking forward to getting in there and making a fucking killer book with GA. More details will come once the first draft is complete.
UPDATE 10/21/24: This project has been shelved, at least by me. We currently have irreconcilable differences over the writing process. At this time, I will not be moving forward on the last two books of the series.
The girl/Mistress Expanded Edition is still going strong. I am releasing a couple chapters a week on this new version with additional scenes, cleaner edits, and an overall in depth dive into the stories.
These chapters are posting on Substack in the girl/Mistress tab at the top of the website, and you can enjoy them as I release them with your upgraded subscription.