In 2024, at the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop in Dayton, Ohio, I met Leslie Noyes, a terrific writer and person who is also really funny. It comes naturally to Leslie. She even read a piece at one of the stand-up hours to the delight of the conference attendees. Leslie is also quite prolific, having released the seventh novel in her Happy Valley series. I know you’ll enjoy this interview with Leslie Noyes.
Leslie Noyes grew up in the panhandle of Texas many, many years ago. She married her high school sweetheart, and they now travel full-time in a motorhome with their cat, Gracie. When she’s not writing, Leslie is either reading or trying to decide on their next destination. She and her husband have two grown children and five way-above-average grandchildren. She dreams of having them all in one place at the same time.
Renee: Hi Leslie. Thank you for being on my blog today.
Leslie: First, thank you so much for inviting me to your blog. I’ll try to be on my best behavior.
Renee: I’m sure we won’t have any behavior issues. LOL. With seven novels in this series, you clearly love to write. When did you know you wanted to be an author?
Leslie: I’m fairly certain I knew by the time I was seven or eight that I wanted to be a writer. My earliest memories are of my mother reading to me. Thanks to her, I spent a lot of time daydreaming and scribbling my own tales. And then as a second grader, apparently I wrote the great American novel: “Kathy and the Cats” Yes, it took up only a single page in an Indian Chief tablet and included several large, poorly drawn illustrations, but my teacher bragged on my burgeoning writing skills so much that I began to believe I might really have some talent. I craved more of that kind of adulation. It was a little addictive. I started telling everyone who asked about my future plans that I would be an author one day, but I had no idea it would take me more than five decades to realize my goal. I should get a Late Bloomer tattoo.
Renee: Do you have any promotions or is one in the works?
Leslie: In honor of being the featured guest on your lovely blog, I’m running a 99¢ promotion on book one in the Happy Valley series through March 11.
Renee: Wow! That is a terrific deal and a wonderful way to be introduced to your novels. Thank you for offering it. How do my readers take advantage of this offer?
Leslie: It will be available on Amazon.
Renee: A lot of writers have difficulty writing humor into their scenes, something you do very well. Does this come naturally to you, or do you work at finding humor in everyday life?
“I was drawn to Erma Bombeck’s column at a young age. Her writing was a huge influence on me.”–Leslie Noyes
Leslie: Thank you! What a great compliment! As I recall, like you, I was drawn to Erma Bombeck’s column at a young age. Her writing was a huge influence on me. Still, I’m always surprised at the quirky things my characters say and the humorous situations that pop up in my books. But I’m married to a really funny man whose one-liners could fill a book. I also come from a tribe of funny people, so maybe I’ve absorbed some of that. I couldn’t imagine writing a book without humor. I just hope someone will make my obituary funny when the time comes. Renee—start working on that, would you?
Renee: Oh my gosh, no pressure there. Do you have a favorite author? If so, who and why?
Leslie: A favorite author? That’s a tough one because my reading tastes are all over the genre map.
Favorite horror novelist? Stephen King, who understands and communicates internal dialogue so well.
Favorite science fiction/fantasy author? Adrian Tchaikovsky because he mixes those two genres seamlessly.
Romance? This is an oldie, and I don’t know if anyone else is familiar with the works of Roberta Gellis. Ms. Gellis wrote bodice rippers with depth and passion. I learned more about medieval military tactics from her than I did from any textbook. And I liked it! I might’ve learned other stuff as well from those spicy books of hers, but we won’t go into that.
Louis L’Amour is my favorite writer of westerns. His ability to describe a setting without overdoing it is what sold me on him.
And mysteries? I have so many, but there are a couple of indie authors I really like: Darin Miller who writes the Dwayne Morrow series and Lori Roberts Herbst who writes the Callie Cassidy mysteries.
I know I’m leaving something or someone out, but those are the biggies.
Mayhem at the Happy Valley Motor Home Inn and Resort:
How well can a wife ever know her husband? Paula Arnett would swear she knows everything there is to know about hers, that is, until she gets the call that the love of her life was involved in a freak accident. She doesn’t think things could possibly get any worse. But after his funeral, she’s blindsided when their lawyer informs her that, several months before, her husband liquidated their assets and purchased a run-down fishing resort in east Texas! Worse yet, while searching for answers, Paula discovers a note from a mysterious woman whose name gives her reason to believe that her husband may have actually been married to this woman at the same time he was married to Paula! Determined to learn the truth, Paula enlists the help of her best friend, Cassie, and together, they go undercover on the road trip of a lifetime.
Renee: What inspired you to write The Happy Valley series?
Leslie: I was having a glass of wine on the porch one summer evening when a phrase popped into my head: Mayhem at the Happy Valley Motor Inn and Resort. I had no idea what it meant, but I wrote it down and let it roll around in my head for a while. A couple of weeks later a name came to me: Paula Jean Purdy Arnett. All I knew was that something awful had happened to her, but I didn’t know what. I started writing and the first chapter more or less poured out of me like it had been waiting to be set free. I’d love to say that from there I rapidly wrote the entire book, but from that point until I actually published it, more than twelve years elapsed. I didn’t settle in to write full-time until the COVID pandemic.
Renee: Well, that is at least one good thing that came from the pandemic. Your series takes place in a Motor Home Park and Resort, and your bio mentions your travels by motor home. Do you write about your experiences in your novels?
Leslie: When I wrote the first six books in the series, my only experience with RV living came from secondhand accounts. During COVID, I became obsessed with having a motorhome of my own. My husband, unfortunately, did not share that dream. But we started watching YouTube videos of others who were full-time RV’ers and by the time my husband retired, I’d sold him on the idea. We recently bought an older Class A Beaver motorhome and have set out on an adventure to tour the U.S. for at least two years or until we get tired of each other. That could happen any day now.
I now realize how little I really understood about RV living and now almost feel compelled to rewrite some of the books to include all the things that can go wrong. Did you know that the only thing guaranteed in RV life is that every day something weird is bound to happen? My characters have it way too easy. I’m planning ways to subject them to some mild RV torture in the next novel.
“Did you know that the only thing guaranteed in RV life is that every day something weird is bound to happen?“–Leslie Noyes
Renee: Did you know you’d write a second, third, up to the seventh book in the series when you began?
Leslie: I laughed at this one. I had NO idea. My intention was to get “Mayhem at the Happy Valley Motor Inn and Resort” in published form and then go about my business. That’s part of the reason it’s a little long for its genre. I wanted it to end just so. But I had such fun writing it, and when readers began asking “what happens next,” I started book two. And then three, and so on. They’re like potato chips. Only less crunchy.
“They’re like potato chips. Only less crunchy.”–Leslie Noyes
Renee: See, readers. I told you she was funny. But on a more serious note, if you could spend one hour with anyone, living or deceased, who would it be and why?
Leslie: I’d want to spend time with my mom. She was only fifty-five when we lost her, and she never got to see any of my scribblings published. She’d be so proud of me; although, she’d want to know why I wasn’t writing psychological thrillers. Those were her thing.
Renee: If you could give other writers one piece of advice, what would it be?
Leslie: I’d advise others to write a little every day, even if it’s only a few hundred words. Don’t be afraid to write stuff that’s just awful or ridiculous. Find people who support you in your endeavors, but who aren’t afraid to tell you the truth when the finished product is either awful or ridiculous or both. That’s more than one piece of advice, I know. Dang.
Renee: What are you working on now?
Leslie: I’m working on “Festival at the Happy Valley Motor Inn and Resort,” book eight in the Happy Valley series. I love writing books in which some fun event is central to the plot. And in book eight, it’s a fall festival filled with food trucks, a 5K, a sip and stroll, a craft fair, and more. Big things are happening at the resort, not the least of which concerns my characters dealing with a rash of escalating hate mail from an unknown source.
Renee: How can my readers connect with you?
Readers can connect with me on my website and through my newsletter: https://leslienoyesbooks.com.
My Facebook author page: The Happy Valley Motor Inn and Resort and More
And on Amazon to keep up with new releases.
This was fun! Thanks for making inviting me and for forcing me to think. I should do more of that.
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Renee Canter Johnson was born in North Carolina, where she still resides. She has a BS in Business Management from Gardner Webb University. Johnson studied Creative Writing in France and Italy, was awarded two terms at Noepe Center for Literary Arts on Martha’s Vineyard, and completed a Novel Intensive Study at the University of Iowa. Johnson loves spending time with her family and fur babies, and when she is not with them, you will find her reading or writing.
Join her at reneejohnsonwrites.com for insights on travel destinations, books, authors, and living a creative life.
Published author with The Wild Rose Press, blogger, and lifelong voracious reader, with the belief that novels conquered the world of virtual reality long before technology made it possible. The next adventure is just a click away!
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