Murder and Mystery and Mayhem -- oh my!

By now you will have seen on Facebook or Twitter, or heard through my newsletter, that I, Leeann Betts, am retiring as Donna Schlachter's pen name as of December 31st, 2021.

If you subscribed to my newsletter in the past, you will receive my final newsletter on December 31st, and beginning January 2022, you will receive a monthly newsletter containing information about both contemporary and historical books.

If you are visiting to subscribe to my newsletter, please go to www.DonnaSchlachter.com and sign up there.

You can still check out my blog posts at my old blog site, www.AllBettsAreOff.wordpress.com but I'd sure appreciate if you'd go to Donna's new link at www.DonnaSchlachter.com/blog

And if you followed me on social media, please follow Donna at:



If you're coming here to sign up to guest blog, please go to Donna Schlachter's website at www.DonnaSchlachter.com and sign up there. She will host clean (think G-rated) historical and contemporary books on her blog now.

Reasons for discontinuing use of a pen name are many and varied, depending on the day and my mood, but suffice it to say that Donna and I write sweet and clean stories that just happened to be set in different time periods. That's the only difference. And we just figured out that readers are smart enough to know the difference.

So, don't waste any more time here. Hop on over to www.DonnaSchlachter.com and check out the new look.

******************************************************************


Welcome to my website and thanks for stopping by. If you hang around long enough, you'll figure out that Leeann Betts is the pen name for author Donna Schlachter. Why two names, you might ask? Well, Donna writes historical and Leeann writes contemporary. That was the deciding factor.

But since Leeann's "birth", Donna has also figured out something else that is both a blessing and a curse: having two personas provides twice the opportunity to promote, but also requires twice as much time and effort.

All that aside, as Leeann, I have the opportunity to be a little wilder and a little funkier than I might otherwise be. Not to mention that I get to wear cool hats (see the picture above and to the left).

That doesn't change the fact that as Leeann Betts I write stories to brighten your day. Story is at the core of our heritage and our connection with each other. What's the first thing you do when you meet a friend? You fill them in on what's happened since you last saw them. A story.

My love of story probably began in childhood when I was fascinated with books of any kind. A voracious reader,I bicycled to the library on a Saturday, filled my bike basket with books, cycled home, and be incommunicado until Monday morning, when I would repeat the process. My biggest problem was finding a librarian who would let me read above my grade level.

Writing soon followed. My head filled with the stories I'd read, I never had any trouble meeting the required page quota -- teacher asked for a two-page story? I wrote four. A three-page book report? I  regurgitated scenes and character sketches by the notebook full.

But life got in the way, and soon marriage and family shoved stories and writing onto the back burner. Until 2002, when she took her first NaNoWriMo challenge to write a novel in 30 days. Not a good novel, just 50,000 words. And she was hooked--again--with storytelling.

While I don't hold any degrees in writing, English, or literature, I figure I have written enough books to fill an 18-wheeler, at least by my own estimate.

I am represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management at www.akalm.net.

AKA Literary, LLC

Terrie is always looking for a great book that keeps her up at night. If you're looking for representation, email her at: info@akalm.net

And if you're an editor who is interested in one of my prepublished works, please contact Terrie by email or by phone: 719-368-6390


Happy reading!