Jeanne Marie Leach

Why I Started Writing:

I’ve always been a reader. While my brothers and sister were out riding their bikes in the summer, I never asked for a bike. I asked for books. Then as I grew older, I started a story in my head one day when I was bored. I kept it going for months, and it gradually grew into a saga that lasted for several years. One day I asked my father-in-law, a clinical psychologist, if this was normal.

He leaned forward and asked me if I was inflicting pain and harm to these characters I’d invented.

I told him that sometimes people got hurt, but it was part of the story.

He leaned even closer to me. “No, I mean do you envision yourself in these stories inflicting pain on these characters?”

It dawned on me what he was asking, and I gave a resounding, "No way!"

He sat back, crossed his arms, and simply said, “Well, the only difference between you and an author is the author writes down their stories.”

That planted the idea in my head I should write the stories down, and I finally did a few years later

Authors Who Have Influenced Me:

Grace Livingston Hill was the first Christian author I’d heard of, and I read as much of her writing as possible.

Then a friend told me about Jeanette Oke, and I voraciously read everything she wrote. I still have all those books.

And finally, Tracie Peterson became a sort of mentor to me and introduced me to the new Christian novels in 2000 and the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). I was the forty-sixth person to become a member.

Books I Have Written: