Photo by Jay Kenton Manning
Thanks for visiting!
I am an award-winning novelist living in the Southeastern United States, surrounded by Spanish moss dripping over ancient graveyards, the sweetest folks on the planet, and two rivers ripe for sailing!
A bit about my writing life:
*I received my BA in Theatre from California State Long Beach, the primary focus on play-writing and directing.
* I taught high school and college English for nine years and currently work as a private tutor.
* I pound the keys four days a week without fail.
* I am blessed to have an amazing literary agent.
Who am I outside of work?
* The happy wife of an adorable artist.
* The middle child in a family of all girls (You were a champ, Dad!).
* A lover of all that is newsworthy, historic, musical, heart-warming, kitty-catish, or super-duper weird.
* A traveler who enjoys a backpack slung over a shoulder, a chunk of cheese to eat on the train, and a stout beer waiting at the other end.
What I am working on in 2023:
* Agent is shopping a bildungsroman novel.
* Recently adapted a YA novel into a stage play.
* Just finished editing a supernatural YA novel.
* Currently editing a literary Adult novel.
* Gearing up to write a new adult novel, fall, 2023.
Random junk:
* At nineteen I moved from Maryland to California to become an actress.
* By twenty-three I had become an award-winning waitress.
* I did not discover I was a writer until the age of thirty-four.
* I traded the Wild West for the Sleepy South for artistic inspiration.
* My first novel hides in a box and has never been seen by my agent.
* I have never EVER had writer's block.
Listen to this fun podcast discussing my women's fiction novel, GAGA, which is a Self-e Library Selection.
Or this podcast on StoryBeat, with the amazingly gifted and knowledgeable host Steve Cuden.
Check out this television interview where I discuss my Young Adult novel, Upside Down in a Laura Ingalls Town (forward to 30:30), winner of the Sarton Women's Literary Award the North Carolina Author Project Award, Story Monsters Certificate of Excellence, and a Taleflick Road to Development Finalist. Also now a stage play!
Thanks to FOLKS Journal for giving me this spread. (Pages 20-23).
Listen to this podcast of my one-act play USED, performed by the talented Open Door Playhouse:
www.opendoorplayhouse.org/plays/used
Other cool places you can find me:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Leslie-Tall-Manning-Writer/236448826562926
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LTManningWriter
Instagram: https://instagram.com/leslietallmanning
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/leslietallmanni/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslietallmanning