Interview with Sasha Leigh

1. Give us a brief description of your book.

Alyssa Frank dies during a brutal attack brought on by students from a neighboring school. She wakes up in an "in-between" and soon learns that second chances exist. Sent back to relive the last week of her life, she tries to turn the week from hell into the very best days of her life. But when she learns of what she failed to see the first time around, her easy-go-lucky ambition turns into a fight to make things right.

Fate’s Exchange is a story of right and wrong, love, friendship, and the consequences that every decision you make reveals. Being marked by Death leads to only one outcome: dying. But when the Sisters of Fate have other plans, tasking angels to protect Alyssa, anything is possible.

2. Where did the idea come from?

A few years ago, I wrote a synopsis for a book like this. I think the initial idea came from a dream I’d had—or that state in between being asleep and waking up. When I decided to start writing it, I couldn’t find the synopsis, but the idea was still quite clear. Initially, it was a way to get my head out of another series, but "pantsing" my way through, the story developed as I wrote it, and eventually became the series it is now.

3. Who was the hardest character to write for and why?

Mr. Tinsley was difficult to write about, not so much in what he does, but who he is and how others view him. To get away with what he’s done for so long he has to be charismatic and unassuming while in the public eye, but then he also has to have the Creep Factor that makes Alyssa suspicious. There were a lot of rewrites and fine-tuning to his character i.e. what he says, how he says it, and the way he carries himself.

4. When did you decide you wanted to write?

Writing definitely wasn’t something I thought about seriously growing up. I always had my nose in a book, and members of my family have some notable accomplishments for writing, but I was more into writing poetry and drawing than stories. Before really sitting down to write, I penned two novels that found the delete button just so I could get the story out of my head.

Going back to university changed things for me, I think, though not right away. After a lot of humming and hawing, and then a lot of research (about writing fiction, plots, characters, etc.), I started to really start writing approximately a year ago.

5. What are you working on now?

I am simultaneously writing the fifth novel for Twisted Fate, Fate’s Disguise, and the third novel for Cast from Power, Casting Light. My day job and daughter take up most of my time, but when I’m not writing or working, I am blogging, updating my website, or figuring out marketing for Fate’s Exchange by methods of trial-and-error—does anyone ever get that down pat?

6. Where can readers find you online?

All of my information, including links to Author Central and Goodreads, can be found on my blog: http://www.MythicWords.blogspot.ca