My YA historical novels, WAIT FOR ME (2017) and IN ANOTHER TIME (2018) were published in the US and the UK by Harper Collins. Both set in Scotland during World War Two, WAIT FOR ME won the 2014 Joan Lowery Nixon Award at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators in Houston, as well as the YA categories of both the Romance Writers of America Emily and Lone Star competitions. IN ANOTHER TIME was named a Junior Library Guild Pick in fall 2018. Both books were also featured in the TXLA Spirit of Texas High School reading program 2019. Since then I have been writing contemporary women’s fiction, and I’m involved in several ghostwriting projects too.

 

As well as working on my own fiction, I run my own writing business called CarolineLeechWrites… Under that banner I write for other individuals as a ghostwriter—fiction and non-fiction—and for businesses as a copy/feature/web writer, specializing in the performing and literary arts. I coach and mentor other prospective or established authors to conceptualize and share ideas on specific projects and on their general career plans, and I assist writers with developmental edits on their manuscripts.

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I also coach authors and illustrators how to present themselves and their books with both confidence and professionalism, through online webinars and one-to-one coaching. I host my own podcast, Authors & Audiences, in which I chat to authors, illustrators, booksellers, librarians, publishers and other randomly fascinating guests, and invite them to share the secrets of their public speaking confidence and their media/social media strategies, and I also share my own extensive knowledge of public speaking, storytelling, event planning and media strategy.

 

Since 2015, I have served on the advisory board of Inprint, Houston’s leading literary non-profit organization. In 2013, I founded the Inspiring Houston Women blog, and I have also continued to write feature articles on the performing arts for a number of newspapers and magazines in the US and UK. I design and present workshops on creative writing craft, social media strategy, and presentation skills for individuals and organizations such as the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Houston Grand Opera, Rice University School of Literacy and Culture, as well as schools in Houston ISD, across the US and in the UK.

 

Before I moved to Houston in 2007, I was an independent Press & Public Relations consultant and workshop leader in strategic press, media and presentation skills, working with performing and literary arts companies and arts trade organizations across the United Kingdom. My clients included Wales Millennium Centre/Mariinsky Opera of St. Petersburg, Sherman Theatre, Arts Councils of Wales and Scotland, Arts Marketing Association, Theatrical Management Association, Audiences Central and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. I edited the photographic book, WELSH NATIONAL OPERA – THE FIRST SIXTY YEARS (Graffeg, 2006) and produced the souvenir program for the presentation of Wagner’s Ring Cycle by Russia’s Mariinsky Opera at Wales Millennium Centre. Prior to that, I had been Head of Press and Public Affairs for Welsh National Opera and Senior Press Officer for Arts Council England in London.