Leeann Betts Interview

Q: How long have you been writing and what other careers or jobs have you had?
A. I’ve been writing all my life, but seriously since about 1997. I first wrote children’s stories, devotionals, greeting cards, poetry, and magazine articles, then switched to novellas and novels. I’m trained as an accountant, and have worked as a bank teller, a loan collection officer, and managed an accounting department in a law firm and an advertising agency. I’ve also delivered flowers, newspapers, and worked as a local courier; worked on making vacant apartments ready for occupancy; and managed rental property.

Q: Would you tell us about your current book release Petty Cash?
A: This is book 7 in By the Numbers series, featuring Carly Turnquist, forensic accountant. On a late summer vacation with family in Cape Cod, Carly stumbles upon a body, a local mystery, and a counterfeiting operation. The real question is: which one will get her killed?

Q: Where did you get your inspiration for this story?
A: My parents owned a timeshare in Cape Cod, and I’ve always wanted to set a story there. This seemed like the time. I’ve also done some reading about haunted lighthouses, so had to include one.

Q: What is the main thing you hope readers remember from this story?
A: As with all my stories, I want readers to know that God is bigger than our mistakes. This is the third book in the series where I’ve delicately introduced God and His tender mercies to my readers.

Q: How do you choose your settings for your books?
A. Always a place I’ve been that I loved, and I always make up the location from bits and pieces of other places.

Q: Do you base your characters on people you know or are they totally made up?
A: Yes. Carly and Mike tend to be autobiographical, sort of, since I’m an accountant and my husband is a computer programmer. Other characters are combinations of people I’ve met.

Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now?
A. Sure. Book 8 in the series, which I think will be called A Deadly Dissolution. Carly is back at home in Bear Cove during the lunar eclipse of 2004, when her grandson goes missing, along with a pile of money, and a journalist is found dead.

Q: If money were no object what vacation would you like to take and why?
A. Hawaii. Because money is what has kept me from going.

Q: What is the silliest thing you have ever done?
A. So here is where I have to sift through the silliest and the stupidest. The stupidest is a long list. Silliest? Depends on who you talk to. But I would say the silliest thing I’ve ever done is carry a dog from my eighth grade classroom down the hallway, with half the school looking on, and all the while, I didn’t realize his back leg hooked in the hem of my skirt and—well, you can imagine the rest.

Q: What is the hardest thing you have ever done?
A. Say good-bye to my dad. But also the happiest, as he accepted Christ just three weeks before he passed. I know he’s saving me a spot at the banquet table.