The first step to any successful endeavor: take inspiration to action. You will learn much more on your journey than you ever will planning it. As soon as you are inspired to do anything, start it. While pursuing a dream, enjoy the journey. There is some short-lived exhilaration at the fulfilment of any great goal. But the lasting joy pulsates throughout the pursuit.
Roger Leslie’s mission in life is to inspire people to live their dream and to empower them to follow their own unique spiritual path. A writer since the age of thirteen, Roger has written in many genres, non-fiction and fiction. He’s a former classroom teacher, high-school librarian and professor, who is now dedicated to writing.
Lyndi: As an encourager of young writers, I was glad to hear you wrote at a young age. How did you come to write at a young age?
Roger: As a tween watching the movie, Murder on the Orient Express (1974) the first time at the theater, I felt exhilarated by the extraordinary writing. As I watched the movie the second time a few weeks later, my inspiration shifted from, I love this movie to I want to impact others the way this movie’s writing is impacting me now. So young, I didn’t know to take inspiration immediately to action. So life helped me. Days later, my English teacher gave my class a creative assignment for the first time—ever! She said we could do anything we wanted. I knew immediately I would write my first story. When I turned it in two weeks later, I had written a 50-page mystery. For a grade school student, I felt that I had done something significant. Ever since, I have challenged myself to achieve as an author what I’ve never done before. What an exciting journey that goal has made my entire career.
Lyndi: Your inspiration for your first memoir, My First Last Year, came about in a fascinating way. How did it come about?
Roger: One night I had a dream where I was told to live the next 365 days as if I would never experience those calendar dates again. I wasn’t told I would die in a year (but I wasn’t told I wouldn’t, either). I was to pack every experience I wanted to have in my lifetime into that year so that when I reached the end of my life I would have no regrets. Also, during the dream, I was instructed to journal my experiences and publish them as a book and then teach others how to get the most out of their life as well. Those instructions led to my award-winning memoir, My First Last Year and the FLY (First Last Year) courses I teach.
Lyndi: Now, you have a new book coming out that speaks specifically to your younger life. Why was it important to write Light, Come Out of the Closet: Memoir of Gay Soul?
Roger: For most of my adult life, I have remembered the stage of my life I cover in this book (ages 11-17) as the dark night of my soul. Recently, however, I had begun to appreciate how the personal struggles I faced during that time gave me the resolve to live my dreams and trust my own spiritual path. Because I believe that perspective determines our fate, I decided to revisit that stage of life to see if the pain it brought also gave me blessings that inspired me to live my dreams and empowered me to trust my own soul.
Lyndi: In addition to being a writer, you are Ted Talk presenter and a sought-out speaker. What messages do you like to communicate?
Roger: You were born with a purpose and mission. Over the years I’ve taught FLY courses, I’ve had many FLYers confess that they’ve never discovered their passion and can’t identify their personal mission that makes life meaningful. But the clues to your passion and mission reveal themselves to you daily by what you do, what you think, and what makes you happy. We decide our fate. We determine for ourselves whether we are living to our fullest. We don’t have to find our passion and mission because they find us. Notice what makes you happy. Notice what excites your mind to generate creative ideas. Those feelings and thoughts are the result of your passion, and your passion directs you to your life’s mission.
Lyndi: You’ve taken your writing and publishing experiences and developed them into other services? What do you offer?
Roger: My doctoral research found the seven qualities that all successful people share. One of those qualities concerns helping others. Once we start making our own dreams come true, we naturally want to help others do the same. After many years, I finally realized my dream of being a successful, published author. It soon occurred to me that I had the skills to make other authors’ journeys easier and faster than mine was. In that spirit, I became a professional editor. Because I write in so many genres of nonfiction and fiction, I was uniquely qualified to provide helpful feedback to a wide range of writers.
Thanks to my years as a teacher, I had the skills to offer coaching sessions to aspiring and seasoned writers. Because of my varied background in the publishing field, I coach others in writing, in publishing, and in any other tasks related to being a successful author.
After I started my own publishing company, I decided it wasn’t enough to publish my own books. I wanted to help other authors whose manuscripts fit my mission to inspire and empower readers by publishing their books as well. As a hybrid publisher, I facilitate authors’ financial success by working with them to launch and market their books, and then let them reap 100% of their book’s royalties. Everything I would have loved to find in a publisher when I was a young, struggling author I now offer others.
Lyndi: What marketing methods have you found to be effective for selling your books?
Roger: Public speaking is a powerful way to share a message with the world. Fortunately, careers as a teacher, professor, and librarian gave me a lifetime of practice to hone my skills and feel comfortable presenting to crowds. My first love is still the writing. But public speaking offers its own exciting challenges and rewards. Further, the experiences are so different, one gives me a break from the other, which helps keep both fresh and fulfilling.
Finally, aspiring authors are well served to decide what kind of marketing they love doing and what kind they can hire someone else to do. I believe anyone who wants to really can do it all. But to do anything with excellence takes commitment, energy, and time. So, I recommend prioritizing. Do what you’re passionate about, what makes you happy, and what makes you a better writer. For the rest, including various marketing strategies, hire someone trustworthy who understands your vision and will fulfill those other tasks to let the world know what you’ve written and what’s being published next.
Dr. Roger Leslie is a scholar in the fields of success and education. Through major literary houses, medium and small presses, and his own publishing house, Leslie has published fiction and nonfiction books in multiple genres: historical fiction, inspirational self-help, spirituality, writing and publishing, movie reference, teaching and librarianship, biography, history, and memoir.
Leslie has won numerous national awards including ForeWord Book of the Year, The Ben Franklin Award, and Writer’s Digest’s #1 Inspirational Book of the Year. At its inaugural event, Leslie received the Houston Literary Award for his body of work.
