Web-Mistress for The Quiet Corner & Romance Novelist

Born and raised in a small Rhode Island town, Leanne Elise Smith discovered her ability to write at an early age. She was just fifteen years old when she began her first novel.

Two years earlier, at age thirteen, she'd begun suffering from a strange and disabling condition known as agoraphobia. The illness prevented her from attending school, as terrifying panic attacks grew progressively worse. To the surprise of her friends and family, Leanne had fought against the attacks all her life. No one who knew her had any idea what the illness was, nor what to do for her. To everyone’s disbelief, it seemed she was losing to the mental illness. She was forced to drop out during her eighth year of school, and soon she was completely trapped within the walls of her five-room home.

Throughout the next few years there was little entertainment in her life. Television, radio, and books became her only form of escape from the boredom of her home. One series of books called Silhouette Special Edition became her first passion. The company that produces them was offering a free trial of four books if you signed up to receive four books per month. The books arrived like clockwork each month. She’d read and re-read each one several times while waiting for the new installments to arrive. She soon received other offers from Zebra Books, Harlequin and Avon. Seeing how much she enjoyed them, her family also tried to help in buying from the local yard sales and convenient stores from week to week.

But, by the age of fifteen, she began growing frustrated with reading. In two years she had read one hundred and eighty different romance novels. She was completely bored with their content. There were too many predictable story lines and so many weak endings. It seemed that many authors wrote such strong novels with great passion, yet most of the time the story lines dwindled by the third quarter of the book to the same predictable lull.

That was when Leanne started daydreaming about a love story of her own. The idea of it played over and over in her head as she memorized the character’s conversations or the drama of their shared laughter and tears. In her mind she could see each of their faces and knew the plot of the story by heart. She had little else to do for entertainment. Dreaming of that story proved almost as satisfying as watching a good movie or reading any of her romance novels.

She started working on writing the novel, and she continued to play with it until she was seventeen. She had grown an extensive vocabulary and understanding for the structure of novels over the years. Her family encouraged her with praise and surprise at her newly discovered talent. No one could quite believe that she had learned such a complicated art without the help of school. The novel she created was called Silent Mysteries. She jumped back and forth between that book and several others she was working on writing at the time. But, Silent Mysteries was her favorite and it had grown the largest by far.

Then at seventeen, Leanne's family finally sought help for her. Months of counseling sessions and medication slowly helped her rebuild a normal life, forcing her to put Silent Mysteries on hold for a while. She relished her newly discovered freedom for all it was worth, having denied for so long that she really cared that she was missing so much outside the house.

The years past quickly as Leanne maintained a job and moved on to college. For a while she was forced to push aside her former dream of becoming a famous author. Boyfriends, girlfriends and real world experiences helped fill the void of so much that she’d missed. And, then she started to settle down. Only now as she reaches thirty is she writing full-time again. And, though it took time, at last her first book in nearing completion.

Sacrificing some of her personal time, Leanne created a web site called Intersoap Magazine. It was her first attempt at writing for the general public. But, while she gained a lot of notoriety and enjoyment for her work, she still longed for something more. Intersoap Magazine was fun to work on, but it lost its sparkle when Leanne finally had her first child—the one thing that had still been missing in her life. Her daughter filled every last void that remained in the wake of such a lonely childhood.

But, now Leanne is back with a second attempt at writing for the public. The Quiet Corner is intended to be just that! Leanne’s corner—and anyone’s corner who reads it—away from the woes of the world. Silent Mysteries shall be the first of several novels that will hopefully sweep you away to another time and place, helping fulfill your need for drama and excitement.

You are welcome to stop by The Quiet Corner as often as you like, and you can stay as long as you want. Please feel free to participate in shaping the future of each novel as you read it. Contribute your own words of advice from time to time. Email the author and tell her what you’d like to see happen! It is Leanne’s hope to build the most compelling romance novel the world has read in ages. While it can’t possibly be the next Gone With The Wind, Leanne hopes you will find her work just as satisfying to read.

Somewhere behind the scenes of this monumental plan, Leanne continues to write Silent Mysteries, hoping to earn a living doing the one hobby she has come to enjoy more than anything—writing!

This author welcomes your thoughts regarding The Quiet Corner. Please email me with any comments, questions and/or suggestions:

The Quiet Corner

Last updated:    Wednesday, May 06, 2009