Author Interview: Aliya Leigh

Aliya Leigh

Today we are happy to welcome the multi-talented Aliya Leigh to our blog.  Aliya is a fiction writer, director, producer, animator and voice over actress.  She even has an entry on the Internet Movie Database!

Today we are going to have an interview with Aliya and tomorrow an excerpt from her novel, Mystery.

Please welcome Aliya, we're so happy to have her here:

1. Have you always wanted to be a writer?

I  always wanted to be a storyteller because I think it was in my blood.  By being half Native American, my great aunt used to tell me stories about my culture and I would sit there and listen.  I use to do the same with my dolls and sharing my active imagination with them and it was a source of entertainment.  So, as I grew up, I enjoyed having an audience and telling my stories and seeing the excitement and wonderment on people faces.  That’s when, I knew I had a gift for being a great story telling.  

2. Can you tell us a little bit more about your novel?

My novel is about trying to find your soul mate before it’s too late.  Jeremy is a  man who don’t believe in love and is piss off with the world.  He decides to take a road trip to Las Vegas from New York City.  While on his road trip, he meets a woman named Mystery, who has black beautiful skin and crystal blue eyes.  Mystery needs to disappear because her abusive boyfriend is trying to find her, so Jeremy decided to take Mystery with him to Las Vegas.  During the road trip,  Jeremy falls in love with Mystery but Mystery has a secret.   

  

3. What brought you to this genre?

Edgar Allen Poe. I am a big fan of his work. His always grabbed my attention in a story.  I wanted to be like him, so I got involved writing Mysteries.  Horror is my passion because it’s part of me. I can’t explain it.  With horror, you have thriller to keep the audience attention.   

4.      What inspired you to write this particular book?

My aunt inspired me to write this book.  She was always searching for love and married three times. Her third husband murdered her.  It had a profound impact on me about love and marriage. I always had my guard up when I was dating because I was in fear if this person who I decide to marriage will kill me in the end.  I saw my parents marriage and it never seemed genuine. They are still married today, but I never saw that love between them.  To me, it seemed that it was more of a business relationship than love.  So, story taught me about finding that true love, your soul mate before it’s too late.  

5. Describe your novel in five words.

Romance, hope, survival, adventure, mysterious

6. Where can people find out our more about you and your books?

“Mystery” – http://aliyaleigh.sharedby.co/share/TcH4zn

“Deadly Profession” –  http://www.deadlyprofession.com

“Merchandise” – http://www.zazzle.com/puzzleme

“My podcast” –  http://aliyaleighlive.libsyn.com/

“Twitter account” – @aliyaleigh

“Cypher Pirates” -  https://www.facebook.com/cypherpirates

“Shadow Creatures” - shadowcreatures.wordpress.com

“Interview” - http://workingwritersandbloggers.com/2011/02/21/interview-aliya-leigh/

“The Aces” - http://natasharamsey.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/the-aces/

7.  Are you working on anything else at the moment? Tell us about your future works.

I have been working on blog  called “Shadow Creatures”.  The story is based on my family and my childhood.  Shadow Creatures is a about a young teenage girl named E who is trying to understand the meaning of life and finding her position in a family which is damned by God.   E is me because I have always felt like an outsider in my colorful and insane family.  

I am planning to put my book “Cypher Pirates” on Facebook.  “Cypher Pirates” is about an unlikely popular teenage snob becomes a hero.  Rumors of an underground Internet game surface at school, leaving a team of elite snobbish hackers anxious to play. If lucky enough to be invited, you are given a subject and must find the software through this clue.  It's a game within a game and Emma is thrilled to discover she has been selected, and elated when she is successful in solving the problem, leading to her acceptance as a player in the mysterious game of "Reality".  The only down side is the rule of secrecy, forbidding the players to discuss the details of the game amongst themselves. When Emma realizes the game is not what it seems, she’s on a mission to unplug her friends from the game’s nightmares.  Will her inner strength and cocky attitude save friends and herself?

I am working on an animated web series called  Deadly Profession  about a drug and sex addicted medical doctor who practices euthanasia for a fee. After performing an assisted suicide on her grandmother, Mercy has been re-thinking her medical practice and her own morals. Her racist drug dealing Island maid named Rasta, the ghost of her best friend Chris, her booty call Dr. O, her Coach Bag and The Devil himself are her only friends.

I will be working with the film director Joe Guinan on three projects, “Ghost Aliens”, “Before the Thunders” and “Casting Office Paranormal”.  

I am blessed to have Robaire W. Estel as a mentor.  He is an amazing and successful screenwriter and producer who is knowledgeable in the film industry.   

I am doing voice-overs for commercials, video games, web shows and TV.  

I have been selected to direct anime project for a talented scriptwriter.  It’s a children story about using a normal toy that tells the future.  When funding is final, I will be start film.  I am with  Janette Anderson from Janette Anderson Entertainment. 

I am available to do guest blogging.  

I am working with a group called “Zero Suicide Learning Collaborative” with the Suicide Prevention Resource Center in Washington.  

8.  Do you have any advice to other authors who would like to be published?

I believe, God is the answer to everything and he will guide and direct you in your life. With complete faith and trust in God, he has given me strength to endure anything even through the most difficult times in my life.  My advice is to believe in God and to be nice to people.  

People have the power to make you an unemployed or a successful writer. They are your fan base.  Without them, you are nothing but a person, so be nice and show how much they mean to you.  Always be humble and think outside the box.  

 Just for fun.

1.  What’s your guilty pleasure?

My guilty pleasure is eating candy. I love candy.  I could eat candy all day and night. 

2. Chocolate or Ice Cream?

I would like both please. [I'm with you! - SET]

3. What’s your favorite music?

My favorite music is heavy metal, death metal, alternative music, Christian Rock and Mozart.

4. If you could visit anywhere in the world where would it be? Why?

I would love to visit the Middle East so I could see where ancient Babylon used to be.  There is so much history there and it upsets me that people are destroying ancient history over religion, power and oil. 

5.  Who would you pick to date? The bad boy/girl or the perfect gentleman/lady? Why? 

I will have to pick a lady because I’m gay. I do have a partner and she is wonderful she is perfect for me.

6. If you had a super power what would it be? Why?

If I had a superpower it will be mind reading. So I don’t know what people are thinking.  I will know what they really are thinking instead of what they’re saying.

7.  What are your pet peeves?

My pet peeve is you think you know everything without asking any questions. You assume everything and is not true of what you assumed.

8.  Do you believe in ghosts? Why?

I do believe in ghosts. When I was a little girl, I was laying on my bed with my night light on as normal.   I was very still in my bed, then a black woman appeared in my room.  She looked like a black slave from the south as if she was a field worker with a scarf around her head.  She was pregnant.  She paced back and forth in my room as she was rubbing her belly.  All I could do was stare at her.  I made a slight noise and she stared back at me.  I didn’t know what to do.  I prayed and she walked towards my second story window and disappeared. I had to be around 7 years old.  

Two years ago,  I was in my apartment with a friend.  The bedroom was dark and the light we had was from the TV.   A shadow figure walked into my bedroom.  He was a tall and big black man with tight curly hair and full lips.  He was not solid,  only a shadow.  He walked around the room as my friend and watched in silence.  He stared at us and walked out of the room.  I looked at my friend and he looked back at me.  We were both in shock.  So,  yes I believe in ghosts. 

Thank you, Aliya! And tomorrow an excerpt from her novel, Mystery.