Leslie Lee Sanders

Leslie Lee Sanders (born February 18, 1982 in Phoenix, Arizona), is an African American author.

Biography

Sanders grew up in the poverty stricken Avondale, Arizona, with six sisters and one brother. Sanders began writing stories in elementary school. By middle school one of her school counselors began encouraging Sanders to write scary stories for a young adult magazine.

Although Sanders did not publish any of her stories, it did not stop her from getting her education. After acquiring her High School Equivalency Diploma in 2000, Sanders enrolled in Apollo College and graduated in 2001 as a Medical Assistant with a 4.0 GPA.

After working in the healthcare field, Sanders became a Caregiver for disabled adults and has been in that field for over three years.

In 2005 Sanders finished her first manuscript and published Three's A Crowd: The Beginning with iUniverse, inc. The tale of three individuals in a forbidden ménage à trois produced interesting feedback from her family and friends.

With the debut of her second novel : A dark but vivid glimpse into a life of Dissociation, Self-Injury, and Incest through the mind of an adolescent, published in the spring of 2006, Sanders got much more notoriety as an author.

Her third novel Bittersweet: The Diary of Brandy Morgan was published in early 2007, immediately after Sanders enrolled in Longridge Writers’ Group in late 2006.

As of 2007, Sanders resides in Mesa, Arizona, with her family, and is working on more novels.

Writing style

The reoccurring element in most of Sanders’ novels is the element of controversy. In her first novel Three’s A Crowd: The Beginning, the raw sexual attractions and explicit sex scenes were enough to get people talking. In The Sky Is Falling, the main character’s father’s ill-mannered expectations really pulled some nerves with her audience. And in Bittersweet: The Diary of Brandy Morgan, simply touching on racism in today’s youth got readers to open their eyes to what’s surrounding them.

Sanders understood the responsibility she has as a writer, especially when her last two novels were marketed toward adolescents and teens. Sanders included facts about the subject matter of her particular novel in the back of each book to help teens understand the subject better.

Sanders enjoys learning more about the skill of writing each day. She reads at least an hour a day and writes at least an hour a day. She believes that reading and writing on a regular basis is what makes a good author.

Characters

Most of the main characters in Sanders novels have the personalities that Sanders has herself. She creates her main characters out of parts of herself, while the antagonists of her stories are parts of other people she knows or knows of. Her purpose for putting parts of herself into her characters is so they seem more realistic and the reader can identify with them.

*Smart characters that enjoy reading or are very artistic in other ways.
*Characters that have absent fathers or abusive fathers.
*Mostly loners or introverted characters with trust issues.
*Characters that are considered different and eccentric, and have untraditional beliefs.

Plot

Sanders' first three novels all take place in schools. Because most of her readers are in school, Sanders wants to start the character out in a familiar location. But most of her characters wonder off to secret places.

*Either they have a secret place of their own, or they make friends and together share a secret place away from their peers.
*Characters live on a college campus, or frequently go to high school where most of their problems occur.

Themes

Sanders writes about serious themes that are usually overlooked in today’s society. Her purpose is to raise discussion and awareness in adolescents of today.

*Homosexuality.
*Infidelity.
*Self-esteem.
*Self-injury.
*Physical abuse.
*Psychological abuse.
*Sexual abuse.
*Incest.
*Rape.
*Racism.
*Hate crimes.
*Discrimination.

Sanders provides information on these subjects in the back matter of her novels.

Bibliography
Novels

*Three's A Crowd: The Beginning (April 12, 2005)
* : A dark but vivid glimpse into a life of Dissociation, Self-Injury, and Incest through the mind of an adolescent (March 9, 2006)
* Bittersweet: The Diary of Brandy Morgan (March 22, 2007)

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