What happens when a multi-genre author who blends paranormal mystery, steampunk, and cozy fiction meets two of the most dynamic literary voices in the indie author world? Pure creative magic — and a conversation you won't want to miss. LeAnna Shields, Colorado-based author of the beloved Mystic Ranch Cozy Mystery series and host of The Cozy Sleuth podcast, welcomes the iconic "And I Thought Ladies" — award-winning pop culture poets, authors, and media powerhouses Wilnona Marie and Jade Dee — for a candid, inspiring deep dive into the art of genre mixing in modern writing. LeAnna is no stranger to blending genres herself: her Mystic Ranch series seamlessly fuses paranormal women's fiction, cozy mystery, and Indigenous mythology into something entirely its own. She brings that same bold, boundary-breaking energy to this conversation as she explores what it truly means to defy genre conventions with two women who have been doing it for years.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello everyone, and welcome to the end.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I thought podcast, and for once in my life, I
didn't actually have to wonder which podcast it is which
I just got wrong, because I just decided it will
be a writing class podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Yeah, that's what happens when you have four of those things.
You just be like, well, which one is it? Today?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I feel like we're gonna learn a lot about writing,
So writing class it is. And if we don't learn
a lot about writing, I'll just keep asking writing questions
until we learned something about writing.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
That's what happens when you're the host, I guess I think.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Anyway, I'm well knowna and high five to meet for
remembering to introduce myself with a slow mode dance like
as an R and B song. And I have no
rhythm nor can I dance, so I need to stop that.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
What is that? What is that? Anyway? I wrote books?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, there was supposed to be a segue there, but
I wrote books. Is the segue this? And I thought
divorce was bad, and I thought being grown up was easy?
If only are me a memoir and verse foreign Coffee
with a webs and widows debt for all of y'all
keeping count that is six six audiobooks, so you can
get those wherever audiobooks are found. But this is another
twenty one of those things. Don't you love how I
(01:18):
decide that I'm gonna call my writing those things, and
you can find those on www. Dot and I thought
ladies dot com. You know, having and I thought and
then adding ladies to it makes it a whole title.
So you know, put a dot com on it, and
there you go. You'll find books on second thought. You
may not find books on that website, but go there
and try anyway.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Oh, oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Unfortunately you're not here to listen to me make a
fool of myself, which is sad. You're here to hear
from my guests. I don't know how I feel about that,
so let me shut up on that one. Oh my goodness,
But wonderful guests, would you like to introduce yourself?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Hi, wonderful guests, Leenna here. I am a cozy mystery author.
I write fantasy based cozy mysteries. Another funny fun thing
about myself is that I love capabaras and I also
(02:21):
have a dog who likes barging in on conversations.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I mean, what is the point of having a pet
if they're not going to march in on your conversation
and then para try to either sit in your lap
or get into the conversation because you're not paying attention
to them. Absolutely, and also they give us humorous things
to write about because of what they do.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Ooh, I have no pets in any of my writing.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Just in case you were wondering, Oh, what made you
get started in writing?
Speaker 1 (02:53):
In general?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
I have always had a very active imagination. From way
back when I was a little kid, I had more
imaginary friends than real friends, and that just kind of
continued on through from elementary school to middle school, high school.
(03:22):
I got taken out of school to homeschool because public
education was failing me. I had Undie Lake diagnosed dyslexia,
which is a miracle that I even became a writer
in the first place, because, yeah, but my mom let
(03:45):
me start writing as kind of a recess thing where
it's like one the one time, my grammar, punctuation all
that would not be graded or judged or.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Oh that's amazing, you just get to tell the story.
It's amazing how many of us, right, but we're not
great at grammar or.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I was like someone, I wrote something for someone the
other day. They were like in punctuation.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
I'm like, that's what editored for.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I'm then to go get it edited. It came back beautiful.
They're like, this is nice. I was like, yeah, we
tell stories.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
They made sure it works.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Not the people who are stuck there that are actual
the civil engineers, we do not do that.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
We come up with plans for cities. They put in
roads and bridges anyway.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
But then you've gone into fantasy cozy mystery. So normally
when I think fantasy, I'm like big world building, heavy
lifting on descriptions, but cozy mystery, it's like small and
how does this work?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
It actually works really well. When I started my series,
The Mystic Branch Mysteries, first thing that came up was, okay,
I'm a huge fantasy mythology nerd. If I were on
the right show, i'd probably do the whole thing on mythology.
I am not on the right show, so you are
(05:25):
all spared of that. But it then started with I
started looking into different mythologies. And I'm also part Native Americans,
so I started looking into my Native American mythology. And
that's when I came across something that it's almost similar
(05:46):
to elves, So I thought, okay, this could be fun.
A Native American Elf character. Next thing I know, she's
got a ranch in southern Colorado in a small town,
and everyone in the small town is a different mythical creature.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Okay, that's cool. I add so many other questions, but okay,
that's cool. I had to come first. Next question.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Obviously, your worlds of fantasy cozy mystery takes a lot
of imagination and a bit of cross genre jumping. How
do your imagination to keep your characters fashion you're writing crisp.
This is something I should be asking myself right now
as I write a book.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
When it comes to keeping my characters crisp. It's okay,
I'm gonna sound very weird when I say this, but
it is all them. I One of my favorite sayings
I came across is I create the character and from
then on I take dictation. So I am basically following
(06:55):
around my character Sabia with my laptop saying okay, what
are you doing now?
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Okay, that goes perfectly with like the characters always like
take the league and they'll be going down roads, exploring,
chomping off of the woods. You're like, I really, really,
this is not this is not where you're to be.
They're picking up leaves, collecting stones. You're like, come on now.
But at the end, when they get to the end,
(07:26):
you're like, this is much better. Yes, this is a
thank you. Hated the ride, love the end. So what's
where did your character go? That was just like, oh
my god, why are we here?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
That was okay. There were two instances like that. One
was when I was first writing the first book, Mystic
Branch Mysteries Sparks of Suspicion. Uh. That actually started with
the original name character was going to be Sabia's best
friend who runs the local coffee shop. Well, Centaur got
(08:07):
shy and she said, no, go focus on my friend
Sabia over here, and that led to Sabia being the
main character. The second instance was in the second book,
Stock Show Stalker, and I had a side character who
(08:28):
decided she was very much the main one of the
bad guys.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
So isn't it fun? Though? It's like having a kid
find their own little voice, like, uh, how I want
to be And you're like, I had plans for you
they were ghost and the like my life, my story.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
So if you were to jump into another genre, what
genre do you think it would be?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Oh? I would actually love to backpedal my genres back
to sci fi. I started out as a sci fi nerd.
I love still love Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon Five,
all those, and I would just love to try taking
(09:23):
one of those worlds and cosifying it.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Please please, please do that. I'm okay, so I was.
I'm not gonna lie you, guys. I woke up from
taking a nap. So if you're wondering what on earth
is Willana just like mm hmm to your regular host today,
that's why. Because it snowed and I'm literally stuck in
my house, but on the television running in the background
is Star Trek, and I can just imagine cosifying it,
(09:52):
like really.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Getting down there and making a cozy local coffee shop,
like oh, oh, the local.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Doctor, the busy bodies, Oh yes, yes, this has to happen.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Maybe yeah, maybe making that coffee shop kind of based
off of oh what was the barkeep's name in Enterprise?
WHOOPI Goldberg played.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That's exactly what I was thinking when I said, you know,
like the bar that they have. But let's I mean,
the bartender needs to I feel like the bartender needs
to be a little wilder less about seeing.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, absolutely, officers, Let's let loops like you have that
crazy night there and that is one of the reasons
you start a mystery in the first place, because someone
left there or didn't leave there one of these things.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah. Yeah, maybe make her more like my my character
that owns the coffee shop, the lime green hair, the
gauged earrings. This centaur is a punk rock her by
night exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
That would be great. I'm loving this cozy world. Thank you.
And when you email me, oh, absolutely sure, which is
saying a lot because I try not to read that much.
I got a lot of writing nothing, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
I read first rule of being of writing you have
to read, which brings up y'all.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
I'm about to segue, So celebrate this.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Celebrate the segue since we were just talking about writing,
which brings me to a writing question. Author, were to
do a cross genre or a blind what are the
three pieces of advice do you have to give for
them to you know, start off doing that blend, because
right now you do fantasy and cozy.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
What if someone tries to do like noir and a
little sci fi.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Know the genres you're crossing, be a fan of those
genres you're crossing. Honestly, a sci fi war could do
wonders if you know. I'm not saying you have to
be an expert from like Dashel Hemmett to whoever the
currents no our writers are now, but at least no
(12:17):
say you're thin Man from I'm just going off movie
titles right now, but you're thin Man from the Maltese Falcon.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Or I'm loving both of the movies. Thank you. Yea,
so Star Trek is gonna get cut off and I'm
gonna start watching movies now.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Thank you. By the way, y'all, this is yeah, this
is yeah. That's what's supposed to be happening for me.
And then, of course my follow up question for genres is, oh,
never mind, I'm just blinked. Nope, we're going to what
snacks do you have?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Do you have a writer.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
But snacks?
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Because oh, the author has snacks that they eat.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Oh yeah, and I am a chocoholic.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
All them.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Actually writing that thirty thirty day push in November is
basically an excuse for me to eat chocolate because for
every twelve twelve hundred words I got written, I'd allow
myself a piece of chocolate.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
You have to have for me. It's a balance with
sweet and the salty. So I have freak gushers and y'all,
I'm sorry fire Bungians. Those flavors not go together, but
they like balance out nicely. I guess like you're eating
them and you're like, you know, I need something sweet
and that gusher just needs everything sweet.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Doesn't it taste fright at all? Even that every time
I'm like, oh god, m.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Okay, of course, even only need one gushion for like
every sixteen funiins.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
You nice ratio, going.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Yeah, you gotta have that balance. You gotta have the
balance yours.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
This chocolate per every twelve hundred words. This is the
racial makes us move otherwise we yeah done? Okay, I
do remember that question.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
By the way, what tropes do you think should definitely
be included if you're meshing together two genres for you,
specifically cozy and uh fantasy.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Uh. Cozy tropes definitely have your your amateur sleuth. They
are fun no matter how incompetent. They make your local
police force look and for fantasy. I did incorporate the
(15:07):
magic of fantasy, but I gave it modern twists, like
I have one character who is a techno mage. They
can go into say you have your cell phone that
be that guy dropped. You don't know how to get
into it. They can just wave their hand over it,
(15:27):
strings of lime green ones and zeros roll around them
and you got your data right.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
It also takes out the research of the technology. You
don't have to do that.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Yeah, Oh my good.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
So I had a question about that I wanted answered.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Oh yes, Is there any way to ride a cozy
without having the police force in it?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Hmm, pretty much at all.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Yeah, it's possible. All you need really is the amateur
sleuth and just make sure justice gets served at the end.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Do we note it? And I'm going to work harder
on that. Thank you. Okay, So can you tell us
a bit about your favorite book in your series?
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Oh? That's tough. I love all of them, but really
I think my favorite is the third, which is called
Curses and Bows, And that is because I work so
much of Choctaw traditions and things into the story. My
(16:51):
main character has a wedding dance done because it is
her wedding day and.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
That is awesome. Oh you sound like you have a
blast researching though.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Oh I love I love researching for these books. They're fun.
Currently working on the fifth book, trying to get my
editor moving on the fourth book. But the fifth book
is going to involve Selkies, which are an Irish mermaid.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Okay, we got mermaids and a town with coffee shops.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
That feels colorado ish. I'm looking forward to seeing how
this works out.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Well, in this case, it won't be set in Colorado.
The main character is off to a family union in Seattle,
one of the islands off the western coast.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
So, okay, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, could
I could see that the Sulkies being there. I was like, okay,
so we have a large pond. I'm assuming you're a
lake with it. Where are the mermaids? Yeattle, the whole cows.
That makes much more sense.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
So you also have a podcast, by the way, which
we were on.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Oh kay, thank you. By the way, that was awesome,
this wonderful chit chat. You guys should go check that
episode out. Why don't you start a podcast? How much
fun are you having running it.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Oh, I love running Okay. The podcast started out being
called The Cozy Sleuth because Cozy's detectives all that, But
as I started looking more into the cozy genre, I
found there were more branches that people need to hear about.
So I opened it up and called it Cappy's Cozy
(18:45):
Chair now one, because capa Bara's are my favorite animal.
In fact, right next to me, I have a Capabara lamp,
and so yeah, check me out on Kappy's Cozy Chair.
(19:09):
And I love talking to authors about their cozy worlds.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Yeah, Unfortunately, I don't think we talked much about our worlds.
We just laughed.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Oh that was a blast, And I love those episodes too,
where it's just kind of like, hey, I'm having fun
with my writer friends, and.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Well, it was like, one day I'm gonna get good
at action selling the product I should have want a
podcasts to do, But that day wasn't it.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Trust me, it seems like writers are never really all
that great about selling their own products.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Oh my god, this is so true.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
So I want to thank you so much for being
here with us today, But can you tell us before
we leave where you find out more information about you
about your podcast, about your books.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
You can find information about me on Amazon dot com
my author page Leanna Shields Uh. Be sure to check
out my books Mystic Ranch Mysteries. Those are great. You
can also you can also find out more about me
on Facebook on my coffee site coffee dot com slash
(20:27):
kapies Cozy and yeah, that's where you can find me.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Thank you for telling us so that we can get
into the Mystical Ranch. Oh my goodness, it sounds so awesome.
All right now, I'm like, man, I need to like
read these more.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Thank you for this.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
I have something that you know, you have a TVR
pile that never ever gets done.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Oh yeah, that thing is That thing is something you
will to the next generation.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Pretty much and then you watch them read it from
the afterlife.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yeah, what happened in that book? Anyway?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Shoot, there we go that like has a good job,
grand helps a good job.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Oh your goodness, I should wrap this up for me.
Go figure.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I'm Anona and I'm one of the Anti Thought Ladies,
one half of the Anti Thought Ladies. And again you
can find everything your ladies are up to at www
dot Anti thought Ladies dot com. While you're there, go
down to the bottom of the page and you can
see the charities that we probably support. Be asked, did
you take a little moment and support them too. That
does not always have to mean a monetary donation. You
can get your hands dirty and go over to Ethiopia
(21:42):
and build an orphanage, or you know, you know, call
them up and see what kind of information knowledge.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Gap they have. Maybe you can be able to fill that.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Whatever you decide, however you decide to help them, we
thank you in advance for that.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Remember that wisdom is all around you if you've been
to fighting it and accepting it. It's a peace and
love you guys from Monona in the miss seen Jake,
Oh yeah, thanks for listening.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the end.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I thought podcast, and for once in my life, I
didn't actually have to wonder which podcast it is which
I just got wrong, because I just decided it will
be a writing class podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Yeah, that's what happens when you have four of those things.
You just be like, well, which one is it? Today?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I feel like we're gonna learn a lot about writing,
So writing class it is. And if we don't learn
a lot about writing, I'll just keep asking writing questions
until we learned something about writing.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
That's what happens when you're the host, I guess I think.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Anyway, I'm well knowna and high five to meet for
remembering to introduce myself with a slow mode dance like
as an R and B song. And I have no
rhythm nor can I dance, so I need to stop that.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
What is that? What is that? Anyway? I wrote books?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, there was supposed to be a segue there, but
I wrote books. Is the segue this? And I thought
divorce was bad, and I thought being grown up was easy?
If only are me a memoir and verse foreign Coffee
with a webs and widows debt for all of y'all
keeping count that is six six audiobooks, so you can
get those wherever audiobooks are found. But this is another
twenty one of those things. Don't you love how I
(01:18):
decide that I'm gonna call my writing those things, and
you can find those on www. Dot and I thought
ladies dot com. You know, having and I thought and
then adding ladies to it makes it a whole title.
So you know, put a dot com on it, and
there you go. You'll find books on second thought. You
may not find books on that website, but go there
and try anyway.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Oh, oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Unfortunately you're not here to listen to me make a
fool of myself, which is sad. You're here to hear
from my guests. I don't know how I feel about that,
so let me shut up on that one. Oh my goodness,
But wonderful guests, would you like to introduce yourself?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Hi, wonderful guests, Leenna here. I am a cozy mystery author.
I write fantasy based cozy mysteries. Another funny fun thing
about myself is that I love capabaras and I also
(02:21):
have a dog who likes barging in on conversations.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I mean, what is the point of having a pet
if they're not going to march in on your conversation
and then para try to either sit in your lap
or get into the conversation because you're not paying attention
to them. Absolutely, and also they give us humorous things
to write about because of what they do.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Ooh, I have no pets in any of my writing.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Just in case you were wondering, Oh, what made you
get started in writing?
Speaker 1 (02:53):
In general?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
I have always had a very active imagination. From way
back when I was a little kid, I had more
imaginary friends than real friends, and that just kind of
continued on through from elementary school to middle school, high school.
(03:22):
I got taken out of school to homeschool because public
education was failing me. I had Undie Lake diagnosed dyslexia,
which is a miracle that I even became a writer
in the first place, because, yeah, but my mom let
(03:45):
me start writing as kind of a recess thing where
it's like one the one time, my grammar, punctuation all
that would not be graded or judged or.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Oh that's amazing, you just get to tell the story.
It's amazing how many of us, right, but we're not
great at grammar or.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I was like someone, I wrote something for someone the
other day. They were like in punctuation.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
I'm like, that's what editored for.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I'm then to go get it edited. It came back beautiful.
They're like, this is nice. I was like, yeah, we
tell stories.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
They made sure it works.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Not the people who are stuck there that are actual
the civil engineers, we do not do that.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
We come up with plans for cities. They put in
roads and bridges anyway.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
But then you've gone into fantasy cozy mystery. So normally
when I think fantasy, I'm like big world building, heavy
lifting on descriptions, but cozy mystery, it's like small and
how does this work?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
It actually works really well. When I started my series,
The Mystic Branch Mysteries, first thing that came up was, okay,
I'm a huge fantasy mythology nerd. If I were on
the right show, i'd probably do the whole thing on mythology.
I am not on the right show, so you are
(05:25):
all spared of that. But it then started with I
started looking into different mythologies. And I'm also part Native Americans,
so I started looking into my Native American mythology. And
that's when I came across something that it's almost similar
(05:46):
to elves, So I thought, okay, this could be fun.
A Native American Elf character. Next thing I know, she's
got a ranch in southern Colorado in a small town,
and everyone in the small town is a different mythical creature.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Okay, that's cool. I add so many other questions, but okay,
that's cool. I had to come first. Next question.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Obviously, your worlds of fantasy cozy mystery takes a lot
of imagination and a bit of cross genre jumping. How
do your imagination to keep your characters fashion you're writing crisp.
This is something I should be asking myself right now
as I write a book.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
When it comes to keeping my characters crisp. It's okay,
I'm gonna sound very weird when I say this, but
it is all them. I One of my favorite sayings
I came across is I create the character and from
then on I take dictation. So I am basically following
(06:55):
around my character Sabia with my laptop saying okay, what
are you doing now?
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Okay, that goes perfectly with like the characters always like
take the league and they'll be going down roads, exploring,
chomping off of the woods. You're like, I really, really,
this is not this is not where you're to be.
They're picking up leaves, collecting stones. You're like, come on now.
But at the end, when they get to the end,
(07:26):
you're like, this is much better. Yes, this is a
thank you. Hated the ride, love the end. So what's
where did your character go? That was just like, oh
my god, why are we here?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
That was okay. There were two instances like that. One
was when I was first writing the first book, Mystic
Branch Mysteries Sparks of Suspicion. Uh. That actually started with
the original name character was going to be Sabia's best
friend who runs the local coffee shop. Well, Centaur got
(08:07):
shy and she said, no, go focus on my friend
Sabia over here, and that led to Sabia being the
main character. The second instance was in the second book,
Stock Show Stalker, and I had a side character who
(08:28):
decided she was very much the main one of the
bad guys.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
So isn't it fun? Though? It's like having a kid
find their own little voice, like, uh, how I want
to be And you're like, I had plans for you
they were ghost and the like my life, my story.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
So if you were to jump into another genre, what
genre do you think it would be?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Oh? I would actually love to backpedal my genres back
to sci fi. I started out as a sci fi nerd.
I love still love Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon Five,
all those, and I would just love to try taking
(09:23):
one of those worlds and cosifying it.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Please please, please do that. I'm okay, so I was.
I'm not gonna lie you, guys. I woke up from
taking a nap. So if you're wondering what on earth
is Willana just like mm hmm to your regular host today,
that's why. Because it snowed and I'm literally stuck in
my house, but on the television running in the background
is Star Trek, and I can just imagine cosifying it,
(09:52):
like really.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Getting down there and making a cozy local coffee shop,
like oh, oh, the local.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Doctor, the busy bodies, Oh yes, yes, this has to happen.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Maybe yeah, maybe making that coffee shop kind of based
off of oh what was the barkeep's name in Enterprise?
WHOOPI Goldberg played.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That's exactly what I was thinking when I said, you know,
like the bar that they have. But let's I mean,
the bartender needs to I feel like the bartender needs
to be a little wilder less about seeing.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, absolutely, officers, Let's let loops like you have that
crazy night there and that is one of the reasons
you start a mystery in the first place, because someone
left there or didn't leave there one of these things.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah. Yeah, maybe make her more like my my character
that owns the coffee shop, the lime green hair, the
gauged earrings. This centaur is a punk rock her by
night exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
That would be great. I'm loving this cozy world. Thank you.
And when you email me, oh, absolutely sure, which is
saying a lot because I try not to read that much.
I got a lot of writing nothing, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
I read first rule of being of writing you have
to read, which brings up y'all.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
I'm about to segue, So celebrate this.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Celebrate the segue since we were just talking about writing,
which brings me to a writing question. Author, were to
do a cross genre or a blind what are the
three pieces of advice do you have to give for
them to you know, start off doing that blend, because
right now you do fantasy and cozy.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
What if someone tries to do like noir and a
little sci fi.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Know the genres you're crossing, be a fan of those
genres you're crossing. Honestly, a sci fi war could do
wonders if you know. I'm not saying you have to
be an expert from like Dashel Hemmett to whoever the
currents no our writers are now, but at least no
(12:17):
say you're thin Man from I'm just going off movie
titles right now, but you're thin Man from the Maltese Falcon.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Or I'm loving both of the movies. Thank you. Yea,
so Star Trek is gonna get cut off and I'm
gonna start watching movies now.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Thank you. By the way, y'all, this is yeah, this
is yeah. That's what's supposed to be happening for me.
And then, of course my follow up question for genres is, oh,
never mind, I'm just blinked. Nope, we're going to what
snacks do you have?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Do you have a writer.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
But snacks?
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Because oh, the author has snacks that they eat.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Oh yeah, and I am a chocoholic.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
All them.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Actually writing that thirty thirty day push in November is
basically an excuse for me to eat chocolate because for
every twelve twelve hundred words I got written, I'd allow
myself a piece of chocolate.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
You have to have for me. It's a balance with
sweet and the salty. So I have freak gushers and y'all,
I'm sorry fire Bungians. Those flavors not go together, but
they like balance out nicely. I guess like you're eating
them and you're like, you know, I need something sweet
and that gusher just needs everything sweet.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Doesn't it taste fright at all? Even that every time
I'm like, oh god, m.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Okay, of course, even only need one gushion for like
every sixteen funiins.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
You nice ratio, going.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Yeah, you gotta have that balance. You gotta have the
balance yours.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
This chocolate per every twelve hundred words. This is the
racial makes us move otherwise we yeah done? Okay, I
do remember that question.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
By the way, what tropes do you think should definitely
be included if you're meshing together two genres for you,
specifically cozy and uh fantasy.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Uh. Cozy tropes definitely have your your amateur sleuth. They
are fun no matter how incompetent. They make your local
police force look and for fantasy. I did incorporate the
(15:07):
magic of fantasy, but I gave it modern twists, like
I have one character who is a techno mage. They
can go into say you have your cell phone that
be that guy dropped. You don't know how to get
into it. They can just wave their hand over it,
(15:27):
strings of lime green ones and zeros roll around them
and you got your data right.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
It also takes out the research of the technology. You
don't have to do that.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Yeah, Oh my good.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
So I had a question about that I wanted answered.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Oh yes, Is there any way to ride a cozy
without having the police force in it?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Hmm, pretty much at all.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Yeah, it's possible. All you need really is the amateur
sleuth and just make sure justice gets served at the end.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Do we note it? And I'm going to work harder
on that. Thank you. Okay, So can you tell us
a bit about your favorite book in your series?
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Oh? That's tough. I love all of them, but really
I think my favorite is the third, which is called
Curses and Bows, And that is because I work so
much of Choctaw traditions and things into the story. My
(16:51):
main character has a wedding dance done because it is
her wedding day and.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
That is awesome. Oh you sound like you have a
blast researching though.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Oh I love I love researching for these books. They're fun.
Currently working on the fifth book, trying to get my
editor moving on the fourth book. But the fifth book
is going to involve Selkies, which are an Irish mermaid.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Okay, we got mermaids and a town with coffee shops.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
That feels colorado ish. I'm looking forward to seeing how
this works out.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Well, in this case, it won't be set in Colorado.
The main character is off to a family union in Seattle,
one of the islands off the western coast.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
So, okay, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, could
I could see that the Sulkies being there. I was like, okay,
so we have a large pond. I'm assuming you're a
lake with it. Where are the mermaids? Yeattle, the whole cows.
That makes much more sense.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
So you also have a podcast, by the way, which
we were on.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Oh kay, thank you. By the way, that was awesome,
this wonderful chit chat. You guys should go check that
episode out. Why don't you start a podcast? How much
fun are you having running it.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Oh, I love running Okay. The podcast started out being
called The Cozy Sleuth because Cozy's detectives all that, But
as I started looking more into the cozy genre, I
found there were more branches that people need to hear about.
So I opened it up and called it Cappy's Cozy
(18:45):
Chair now one, because capa Bara's are my favorite animal.
In fact, right next to me, I have a Capabara lamp,
and so yeah, check me out on Kappy's Cozy Chair.
(19:09):
And I love talking to authors about their cozy worlds.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Yeah, Unfortunately, I don't think we talked much about our worlds.
We just laughed.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Oh that was a blast, And I love those episodes too,
where it's just kind of like, hey, I'm having fun
with my writer friends, and.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Well, it was like, one day I'm gonna get good
at action selling the product I should have want a
podcasts to do, But that day wasn't it.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Trust me, it seems like writers are never really all
that great about selling their own products.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Oh my god, this is so true.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
So I want to thank you so much for being
here with us today, But can you tell us before
we leave where you find out more information about you
about your podcast, about your books.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
You can find information about me on Amazon dot com
my author page Leanna Shields Uh. Be sure to check
out my books Mystic Ranch Mysteries. Those are great. You
can also you can also find out more about me
on Facebook on my coffee site coffee dot com slash
(20:27):
kapies Cozy and yeah, that's where you can find me.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Thank you for telling us so that we can get
into the Mystical Ranch. Oh my goodness, it sounds so awesome.
All right now, I'm like, man, I need to like
read these more.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Thank you for this.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
I have something that you know, you have a TVR
pile that never ever gets done.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Oh yeah, that thing is That thing is something you
will to the next generation.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Pretty much and then you watch them read it from
the afterlife.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yeah, what happened in that book? Anyway?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Shoot, there we go that like has a good job,
grand helps a good job.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Oh your goodness, I should wrap this up for me.
Go figure.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I'm Anona and I'm one of the Anti Thought Ladies,
one half of the Anti Thought Ladies. And again you
can find everything your ladies are up to at www
dot Anti thought Ladies dot com. While you're there, go
down to the bottom of the page and you can
see the charities that we probably support. Be asked, did
you take a little moment and support them too. That
does not always have to mean a monetary donation. You
can get your hands dirty and go over to Ethiopia
(21:42):
and build an orphanage, or you know, you know, call
them up and see what kind of information knowledge.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Gap they have. Maybe you can be able to fill that.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Whatever you decide, however you decide to help them, we
thank you in advance for that.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Remember that wisdom is all around you if you've been
to fighting it and accepting it. It's a peace and
love you guys from Monona in the miss seen Jake,
Oh yeah, thanks for listening.
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