Author Genre: Thriller, Suspense, Fiction
Website: Leslie Wolfe
Author's Blog: Leslie Wolfe Contact Link
Twitter: @WolfeNovels
E-Mail: LW@WolfeNovels.com
Goodreads: Check Out Goodreads
Facebook: Check Out Facebook
Pinterest: Check Out Pinterest
Amazon Author Profile
Author Description:
Bestselling author Leslie Wolfe is passionate about writing fiction, despite spending a significant number of years climbing the corporate ladder. Leaving the coveted world of boardrooms for the blissful peace of the Florida-based "Wolves’ den," Leslie answers one true calling: writing. To date, Wolfe has published seven novels.
Leslie’s novels break the mold of traditional thrillers. Fascinated by technology and psychology, Leslie brings extensive background and research in these fields, that empower and add texture to a signature, multi-dimensional, engaging writing style.
Leslie released the first novel, Executive, in October 2011. It was very well received by the public. It was followed thereafter by Devil's Move (2014), The Backup Asset (2015), The Ghost Pattern (2015), Operation Sunset (2016), Dawn Girl (2016), The Watson Girl (2017), and Glimpse of Death (2017). Leslie’s latest novel, Glimpse of Death, offers unique insight into the dynamics of a serial killing team, as well as an exploration of modern DNA forensics, in an entertaining, chilling thriller.
Leslie enjoys engaging with readers every day and would love to hear from you.
SPOTLIGHT Questions and Answers with the Author
Congratulations on your book: The Watson Girl. What do you have on the drawing board next? Can you tell us the timeline for its release and give us a little tease?
Thank you! I’m working on a new serial killer crime thriller, this one featuring a team of two killers. It should be available around the end of March, maybe beginning of April – all things happen to run late these days, don’t they?
As for a tease, here’s the first paragraph:
“He watched her from across the street as she left the coffee shop. She was beautiful, this one. Her long, wavy brown hair coiled and bounced in thick, silky strands around her shoulders, dancing with every step she took. Her smile was dazzling, even from a distance, and her eyes were half-closed, the way they get when laughter touches them and lends them the glow of happiness. He licked his lips and swallowed hard. Soon enough, those eyes would be looking at him.”
You have a good following on twitter. Since you started before the social media buzz, what impact has social media relationships had on your current success? How did you build your following in your niche? How much has it changed your book launch process?
I grew professionally with social media as a play buddy; I guess you could say we grew up together, although social media reached a dimension no one expected. I value it mostly for the possibility to interact with my readers, to hear their thoughts first-hand, and outside the realm of public reviews. I receive praise and criticism, and learn from both. I get questions, suggestions, even plot ideas. This has been, for me, the biggest value of building a social media following.
Yes, it did change the book launch process. I have a social media strategy finalized before launching any new title. I know my fans are eagerly waiting for the next book, and that keeps me motivated.
Do you do any book signings, interviews, speaking and personal appearances? If so, when and where is the next place where your readers can see you? Where can they keep up with your personal contacts online?
Apart from social media and email interactions, I’m a veritable recluse. Email is the best and quickest way to reach me, and I was fortunate to build true friendships with readers over email. The majority of my readers ask me when’s the next book coming out, not when I’m getting out of the house, so I get the drift and I keep writing.
You have great covers. They carry a theme and your brand with them. How does your book cover creation process work? Do you hand over the basic theme or do you have more of a hands-on approach? Do you get your readers involved in its development?
It depends. Sometimes I hand over a theme, otherwise even the base image comes from me, because I feel strongly about the cover concept. But the rule has been that I let the experts be good at what they do, and they are! The process is highly collaborative, there’s a lot of back and forth, and countless revisions until we hit the spot. I also have a few beta readers who weigh in and help me choose between cover options.
Thank you for appreciating my marketing hero; I’ll be happy to convey the message. The series themes, the concepts, the Executive video, that’s all him.
You have several great book trailers. (See links below.) They look very professional. Do you know how much impact they have had on your book’s success? Tell us about the process that you used to create your trailers? Do you use the trailer in your character development? Are the pictures and background the way you see your characters and scenes?
Creating a trailer starts from creating a story board, which is, in turn, story-based. I see the video trailers as a great way to convey to my readers who I see the book in my head, playing like a movie ? so yes, it’s how I see the characters and scenes. Sound is also very important to me; the theme music, the special effects. It all has to fit together perfectly.
Several of your novels have been converted into audio books. What has been the impact on your regular sales? Has the audio books gained a new audience for you?
I’m not sure if they brought me a new audience, but I felt rewarded thinking readers could rest their weary eyes after a long day at the office, and take the story with them on the living room couch, with only a dim light and a hot cup of tea.
Between your book writing, blogging, marketing, family and all the other things that can get in your way, how do you manage your time? Do you have a set schedule or do you sort of play it by ear?
I have an incredibly strict schedule, inspired by my many years in corporate leadership. Everything I do is scheduled in Outlook, and I follow that schedule. My team appreciates that, because I can give them precise time estimates as to when editing will end, when the cover will be needed, when the new social media campaign hits, and so on. Writing might sound as a bohemian lifestyle, but in reality it’s a lot of hard work. Albeit, highly enjoyable!
What has been your experience in giving your books away free? Have you been involved in any other type of giveaways and how did that work out? What was your main goal in doing this? Did you run into any obstacles?
I run giveaways on Goodreads, and short story giveaways to my fan group on my monthly email. Sometimes I run free days promos on Amazon. I think of the giveaways as giving gifts to my friends, so I’m not actively pursuing a certain goal, hence, no disappointment! I also support a number of charities with donations in free books and audiobooks (i.e. visually challenged readers might receive free audible books). Again, for me, these are gifts for my friends.
Do you maintain a reader list? What are the methods you use to find your readers and create the list and the relationship? Do you use social media, forums, newsletters and/or support groups to build your list?
You could say I maintain a readers list. I stay in touch with the readers who contact me, or who sign up to download my books or short stories for free (i.e. Instafreebie). I never buy email addresses, and I never share the ones I receive. Primarily, my main focus is on writing, and on sharing my work with my readers.
What is your method of getting reviews for your novels? Do you seek professional reviews, use social media or do you rely on your reading audience to supply them?
I reach out to a small number of select Amazon Vine Voices and top reviewers. Other than that, I rely on organic reviews, on my audience, and on my fans. It’s been increasingly easy to secure a relative large number of verified reviews, because readers buy the books and leave reviews, without any intervention from me.
Author's Book List
The Watson Girl
- A Gripping Serial Killer ThrillerA GRIPPING SERIAL KILLER THRILLER
An entire family is murdered and, by a quirk, a young girl is left unharmed. For fifteen years, she believed the killer had been caught, and he’s now on death row, awaiting execution. While trying to be content with her adoptive family, she’s living in relentless uncertainty and the fear of remembering what really happened that night when she was five years old. She’s The Watson Girl.
A therapist has asked her to participate in regression session treatments to attempt to bring back those lost memories. The closer she gets to the truth, however, the less time she has to remain alive. Now, the real killer is going to silence her, before she can remember the details of that horrifying night, when she was an innocent witness.
Laura Watson is young, she’s beautiful, and she’s a serial killer's loose end.
Join the smart, relentless, and short-fused FBI Special Agent Tess Winnett and her team in a heart-stopping search for the serial killer who has managed to stay hidden for many years. Explore the inner workings of the murderer’s mind, and find out what motivates such predatory, blood-lusting behavior, while following every twist and turn of an existence spent taking lives.
Laura Watson’s family was murdered fifteen years ago.
That was only the beginning. His beginning.
If you’re the apple of his eye, you’re already dead.
Special Agent Tess Winnett will hold nothing back to stop the killer before he takes another innocent life. She never fails, no matter what’s at stake. Even her own life.
Order the Book From:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Dawn Girl
- A Gripping Serial Killer ThrillerA GRIPPING SERIAL KILLER THRILLER
Her blue eyes wide open, glossed over. A few specks of sand clung to her long, dark lashes. Her beautiful face, immobile, covered in sparkling flecks of sand. Her lips slightly parted as if to let a last breath escape.
Who is the beautiful girl found at dawn, on a deserted stretch of golden sand beach? What is her secret?
FBI Special Agent Tess Winnett searches for answers relentlessly. With each step, each new finding, she uncovers unsettling facts leading to a single possible conclusion: Dawn Girl is not the only victim. Her killer has killed before.
Hiding a terrible secret of her own, Special Agent Tess Winnett faces her inmost fears, in a heart-stopping race to catch a killer who’s getting ready to end yet another life. Will she find the killer in time? Will she be able to stop him? At what cost?
The rules of the game have changed.
So has the textbook definition of a serial killer.
Special Agent Tess Winnett is the bold, direct, and short-fused heroine of Dawn Girl. Putting her life on the line, she doesn’t pull any punches, searching only for the truth, and for the man who takes lives on her watch. Intelligent, resourceful, and uncompromising, Tess will take readers on a memorable, white-knuckled journey in this suspenseful, gripping serial killer thriller.
Order the Book From:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Audible
Operation Sunset
- A ThrillerNUCLEAR TERRORISM THRILLER
Private investigator Alex Hoffmann has a clear mission: to identify and eliminate the deadliest terrorist mastermind in history. She doesn’t know his name. She doesn’t know what he looks like. She only knows he’s Russian. The moment she learns more, it’s already too late. The timers are counting down.
This Russian’s plan doesn’t target a building, a person, or a city. His plan is targeting the future of the United States and its entire people, for decades to come.
She calls it the inconceivable scenario. Will she be able to stop him in time?
Terrorism has a new dimension. We’re under an unprecedented attack. There’s nowhere to run.
Alex Hoffmann returns as the heroine of Operation Sunset. Putting her life on the line and risking it all to hunt down the man who is threatening everything she cares about, Alex is uncompromising and resourceful, taking readers on a breathtaking roller coaster ride in this gripping, engrossing nuclear terrorism thriller.
Book Trailer: Operation Sunset
Order the Book From:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
The Ghost Pattern
- A ThrillerMEDICAL TERRORISM THRILLER
It’s the new age of terrorism, where enemy interests employ the use of modern tools, weapons, tactics, and theories to achieve goals that have destructive, bone-chilling, and disturbing physical and emotional effects. Today’s terrorists are tech-savvy, manipulative, powerful, well-funded, and supported by entire networks of global experts.
A Scottish offshore drilling platform in the North Sea becomes unresponsive to all communication attempts.
In Moscow, the Russian president and his top advisors seek the best, fastest strategies to defeat and ruin the United States. More recently, that includes government-sanctioned terrorism.
A commercial flight, carrying 423 passengers and 18 crew from Tokyo to San Francisco, disappears in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Why?
In the new age of terrorism, nothing is what it seems.
No one is safe. There's no willpower, no intelligence, and no spirit that won't succumb to the right mix of drugs.
A captivating and unsettling page-turner, The Ghost Pattern explores a new dimension of terrorism, one that happens around the world on a daily basis without making any headlines. Or without making the right headlines. That’s really going on behind the scenes?
Alex Hoffmann returns as the heroine of The Ghost Pattern. She embarks on a breathtaking expedition to stop a brilliant terrorist in his tracks. Risking her life and challenging everyone’s beliefs, she is relentless to find the truth and the man who threatens the core of human existence.
Join Alex on an explosive mission as she ventures behind enemy lines in a heart-stopping race against time and against all odds, in this fast-paced, riveting medical terrorism thriller.
Order the Book From:
Amazon
The Backup Asset
ESPIONAGE TECHNOLOGICAL THRILLER
Cold War II has started with a vengeance. Or, as the American president calls it, Cold War 2.0, reflecting the impact technology has in the new age of espionage. Our country is now in the crosshairs of a renewed, unstoppable enemy intelligence operation.
At Langley, a report causes turbulence, as it predicts Russia’s inconceivable plans based on apparently random incursions into other countries’ territorial space.
In Moscow, the relentless Russian president and his key military leader are planning retaliation for the Crimea sanctions.
America’s newest weapons system, the laser cannon, is ready to be installed on a Zumwalt-class stealth destroyer. This weapon has the ability to change the balance of power in the world, and give America and its allies the upper hand in any military conflict.
But there’s a problem. Someone stole the weapon’s plans and is ready to hand them to our country’s enemies.
Espionage has a new dimension. Everyone is gettable.
Order the Book From:
Amazon
Devil's Move
- Political Terrorism TechnothrillerIt is a presidential election year and things are changing. America is overhauling its voting system, making room for modern processes and innovative technologies, but also for conspiracies and murder.
The US presidential election system overhaul comes under fire.
A heart transplant is denied.
An accident claims the life of a consulting executive.
Here, at home, terrorism has a new target.
We know the day of the attack, Election Day.
We know very little else.
An unsettling page-turner, Devil’s Move dives into an intricate world of economic and political influences, and global conspiracies. Battling shadows in a game against covert players, Alex Hoffmann returns as the heroine of Devil’s Move. She embarks on a captivating adventure, riddled with danger and spiced with technology and science, in a breathtaking, exquisite political terrorism technothriller.
Order the Book From:
Amazon
Executive
- A ThrillerA friendly fire incident in Afghanistan takes a serious toll. A drone, out of control, brings death and wreaks havoc on a Florida highway. An apparently successful corporation comes under scrutiny.
A memorable incursion behind corporate closed doors, led by an up-and-coming executive on a mission to find the truth about the lives lost to the very technology that was mandated to protect them.
Our skies aren't safe anymore.
Book Trailer: Executive
Order the Book From:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Audible
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