Leslie Anne Alexander, a Delaware native and a 2002 graduate of Hayes High School, recently published “White Lantern,” a 400-plus-page supernatural novel about a woman named Audra Sullivan who can see ghosts.
Alexander said the idea for the novel came to her in a dream more than a decade ago.
“I started writing my book when I was pregnant with my oldest son (in 2009),” Alexander said. “I had a crazy pregnant fever dream about this girl who was able to see ghosts, but she kills her boyfriend in self-defense and she’s terrified of him haunting her in the spirit realm, so in order to avoid that, she puts up walls so she doesn’t have any contact. She lives a half life for several years then she has a freak accident and hits her head and when she comes to, all of the walls she’s built have come down and the first face she sees is of the boy she killed.”
Alexander said she wrote the dream down after waking up and showed it to her mother.
“I was obsessed with it,” Alexander said. “I wrote it all out because I didn’t want to forget it, and I gave it to my mom. My mom was like, ‘I need to know what else happens.’ I said ‘no, that was a dream,’ and she told me ‘no, this is a story, you need to write this.’”
Alexander said she’s been writing the novel off and on ever since.
“I picked it up and put it down and pulled it apart and dissected it and fixed it and it took about 12 years, but I finally did it this year,” she said.
Alexander said she self-published the book on Amazon earlier this year, and she owns the copyright and has been shopping the book out to other platforms as well.
The book is currently available in paperback and hardcover from Amazon and can be found at https://a.co/d/1qXIrx4.
Alexander said she wrote the book more to fulfill a personal goal and didn’t expect it to sell. She was surprised to learn how many copies the book has sold so far.
“I just wanted to do it,” Alexander said. “I wanted to check it off my list. I wanted to be like ‘I’m a published author before 40 and now I’ll move onto the next pain (in the neck) thing I want to tackle.’ I’ve sold over 100 copies when I thought I’d sell less than 20 … it seems astronomically big to me. Honestly, I didn’t think anybody would buy it outside of my friend circle and family. Other people have taken it more seriously than I did.”
At 7 p.m. on July 29, Alexander will participate in a book signing and reading at RISE, located at 256 S. Sandusky St. in Delaware.
Alexander said she’s excited for the event and the chance to talk more about the book with members of the public.
“I really want to know what kinds of questions come up from people who haven’t read it yet and those who have,” Alexander said. “(I’m excited for) the fact that I can get this mixed bag of people in a room and (hear) their questions and inquiries either about the process or the story or character insight. I kind of want to know how it strikes people. I want to know what they feel is important enough to talk about.”
Alexander joked that she could talk about her “imaginary world all day,” and she’s interested in hearing what others thought.
“Getting other perspectives and viewpoints on such a huge passion project for me is really intriguing,” Alexander said. “That’s what I’m most excited about.”
More information about the book signing event can be found at https://fb.me/e/27g7LIPsB, and Alexander said she’s having a second signing event on Aug. 11 at Dalton Union Winery, located at 21100 Shirk Road in Marysville.
