Roger Leslie
Dr. Roger Leslie is a scholar in the fields of success and education. Through major literary houses, medium and small presses, and his own publishing house, Leslie has published fiction and nonfiction books in multiple genres: historical fiction, inspirational self-help, spirituality, writing and publishing, movie reference, teaching and librarianship, biography, history, and memoir.
Leslie has won numerous national awards including ForeWord Book of the Year, The Ben Franklin Award, and Writer’s Digest’s #1 Inspirational Book of the Year. At its inaugural event, Leslie received the Houston Literary Award for his body of work.
Leslie is in demand as a teacher, coach, and keynote speaker. He leads FLY (First Last Year) courses based on his blockbuster memoir, My First Last Year. He draws from decades as an author, editor, and publisher to coach writers in groups and individually. He is also a sought-after speaker for his lively, entertaining keynotes relating award-winning movies to any topic or group.
In every book and presentation, Leslie entertains, inspires, and empowers people to live the life they dream and soar toward their own ideal of success.
Marina Raydun: You have quite a resume and write across multiple genres. Do you enjoy any one vocation more than another? And do you have a preferred genre?
Roger Leslie: Every professional activity I’ve ever done revolves around books. I love all the work—writing, publishing other authors, coaching new and seasoned writers, editing fiction and nonfiction. Each role helps me become a better writer because one informs and strengthens the others. But by far, my number one passion has always been writing my own books. Striving to write the best books I can is always the most gratifying, challenging, exciting, and demanding activity I am lucky enough to spend every workday pursuing. When I first felt inspired to become an author at age 13, I expected to become exclusively a novelist. Years later, when I started writing nonfiction, I was delighted to discover how much creativity excellent nonfiction requires, too. I enjoy every genre in which I’m inspired to write. For example, I felt the spark of inspiration about two years ago to write a Christmas novel. Until then, I never even thought about writing one. But I dove in and just started. This June, No Stranger Christmas will be released. I used to love writing movie reference books. McFarland published my most recent one, Oscar’s Favorite Actors, in 2017. I hadn’t worked on any new ones since. Then this week, an idea struck, and I’ve been writing it furiously every day. Ideas are even waking me up in the middle of the night. I’m having a blast! Part of the fun is tackling different genres. If I haven’t written it before, I’m drawn to the challenge of that new experience.
MR: First Last Year is a fascinating premise. What inspired it?
RL: One night I had a dream where I was given specific instructions to live a year as if I would never experience those calendar dates again. Even as I was dreaming, I remember feeling anxious. I didn’t know if that meant I was going to die in a year! But during the dream, the instructions continued. I was told to write about my experiences as I lived that year and publish my observations and insights as a book. Finally, I was guided to then teach others how to live, really live, as I would learn to do that year. I jumped out of bed and began my First Last Year immediately. After the book was published in 2015, I began teaching the FLY (First Last Year) classes.
MR: Light Come Out of the Closet: Memoir of a Gay Soul is a book many can benefit from reading. What was the writing process like for this one, given how personal the subject matter is?
RL: In my writing book, From Inspiration to Publication, I offer a unique perspective. Instead of writing what you know, as most authors recommend, I suggest writing what you want to know. For most of my adult life, I didn’t think much about my tween and teen years because they were so painful. I left the religion of my youth because it condemned me for who I was. In recent years, I began to appreciate that my parochial education actually provided some of the moral foundation that helped form my character. So, in Light Come Out of the Closet, I decided to revisit those formative years and explore my journey from hiding from the judgment and cruelty of some of my family, my religion, and society to deciding for myself who I am and what I’m worth. As you can imagine, though painful, the experience was exalting.
MR: I imagine you travel a fair deal as a speaker. Have you ever gone on any literary pilgrimages?
RL: Throughout my years as a high school teacher and librarian, I was always writing, publishing, and speaking, and doing part-time what I dreamed would one day be my full-time career. Months before I retired, I had been booked to speak at a national principals’ conference. The month I retired from public education, I flew to Nashville and checked into the Opryland Hotel where the conference was being held. I was scheduled to speak the following afternoon. My first morning in Nashville, I got myself a cup of coffee, opened my laptop on the balcony of my hotel room overlooking a lush interior courtyard of the massive hotel, and spent the morning writing. A favorite memory of my life is sitting there writing, knowing I’d be speaking later, and thinking, Wow! This is it. I’m living the life I dreamed.
MR: Do you have a daily writing practice?
RL: I call my daily practice, “Getting into the P.E.W.” Every weekday, I pray (P), exercise (E), and write (W). I must do all three every day in order to rest my head on the pillow each night and think, I’ve had a great day. I may do the activities at different times, in a different order, and for different amounts of time, but I must do each. Generally, I start with prayer as a way to clear my conscious mind and free my subconscious to write. Then I go directly from my meditation to my writing. When I start to feel mentally taxed, I usually stop writing to work out. After a shower and lunch, I then go back to work, either to write more or to conduct related business.
MR: What is your favorite genre to read?
RL: I love personal stories that uncover the essence of the central characters layer by layer. Those types of plots most often occur in general and historical fiction. But, just as I love to write in so many different genres, I love to read them, too. I find autobiographies and memoirs especially fascinating because they offer two layers of revelation: the story of their lives, and the author’s perceptions of that story. For fun I read mysteries, and to feed my soul, I’m always reading self-help and inspirational books.
MR: What is your preferred medium when it comes to reading--a physical book or a digital one?
RL: I love both. As an author who writes at the computer and an editor who reads and responds to manuscripts on my computer, I spend most of my worktime reading digital manuscripts. It helps my brain and my eyes to get away from the computer or eReader afterhours. So, for pleasure, I usually read physical books.
MR: What does literary success mean to you?
RL: The joy is in the journey. I am eternally grateful for the awards I’ve received over the years. From most organizations, as your followers probably know, the publisher must apply for award consideration. But I’ve also received some prestigious awards unexpectedly. A few years ago, a major public library chose me as one of their inaugural honorees for a career achievement award. We were feted at a formal dinner that felt like the Academy Awards to me. While that kind of acknowledgment is extremely gratifying, to me the most meaningful success is sitting at my writing desk, day in and day out, getting to do what I love.
MR: What is the best and worst review you’ve ever received?
RL: As a rule, I don’t focus much on reviews. My theory is, “If I believe the good ones, it’s only right that I should believe the bad ones, too.” Also, once I’ve completed a book and it’s published, feedback about it doesn’t help me make it any better. So, I don’t think much about reviews of books already out because I’m already immersed in writing otherbooks. My publicist does send me the reviews that my books get from the major review journals or on Amazon or GoodReads. I will look them over to pull out quotations to use for testimonials. But I try not to take personally any comment, glowing or disparaging.
MR: What do you think about when you’re alone in your car?
RL: My car is one of the few places I listen to music anymore. So, I’ll connect my phone to the car radio and start one of my playlists. As I listen, I think about the lyrics. Sometimes I just listen to be inspired. For example, recently I’ve been listening to the Broadway cast album of Sunday in the Park with George. “Sunday” and “Move On” touch my artist’s soul. Beyond marveling at Stephen Sondheim’s brilliance with words, my mind generates new ideas I can incorporate into whatever books I’m writing. Bottom line—no surprise—even when I’m not at my desk, my mind is working through a plot or developing a character or remembering a small moment I will use during my next writing session.
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