Hello Leigh, welcome to BrandEducation and The RV Book Fair 2025! How has your background in psychology and holistic care influenced your writing?
Both have had a profound impact on my writing. At the core, psychology is about feelings. To be a great psychologist, you must have empathy. In the role of Counselor/School Psychologist, you might be the first person to talk to families that their child might have a condition that could impede their ability to thrive in academics and/or social interactions. This isn’t easy. Many times, counselors are part of the team directly interacting with the child to help them learn appropriate social skills. I wanted to work in the schools so that I could help children who might not have the ability because of financial or other reasons to get help. But both jobs entail “hand holding” for families as they work through the process of learning how to relate better with their child. Part of this is also to help a child overcome the stigma of needing help and making myself available to the student privately, or in groups.
Wholistic health, the very name explains why it fits in with being a writer. Usually, when you are in the field, you are frequently working with people who have found that traditional allopathic medicine is failing them. Like counseling, you need to learn about each person that you work with. Sometimes it might be traditional deep tissue massage, or sometimes “energy work” is best, especially when you work with someone with more serious medical or emotional issues. Like psychology, you must meet the client where they are at. To be successful you must develop trust with your client and have empathy. I would say the latter was more my specialty, because it was bodywork plus. The touch was gentle. I learned “Polarity”, the earlier version of Reiki. It taught me about pressure points, nutrition, emotions and even astrology. I just felt like I had more in my bag to help people.
Which of your professional experiences- schools, hospice, or nonviolent social change-shaped your storytelling most?
Hospice, by far. Working with people in the last stages of life is an intense but tender time. I volunteered with two families whose loved ones had brain cancer. Often, they were agitated when I arrived; I used therapeutic touch and some energy techniques, and each time the client was much calmer when I left. That gentle touch, truly a universal language, seemed to let the brain rest. Hospice gave me firsthand understanding of how to respond in intense situations and let me see family dynamics up close, where desperation and fear are palpable.
That experience shows up directly in my fiction. In Journey Back to You, Caroline, Kathleen’s depressed mother, and Brook, Jase’s brother, are in physical and mental decline; if left unchecked, they are going to die sooner rather than later. Writing from hospice taught me how to portray not just the person in crisis but the circle around them- the younger characters who must learn what’s happening and how to be present. It helps me show children and teens making better choices, deciding to be supporters rather than drifting toward the dark side.
How has being a mother of four influenced the themes you explore in your work.
Self-sacrifice- not as a victim, but as a practice- has shaped me most. As a parent, you make choices based on your children’s needs even when you’d rather do something else. As a writer, you do the same: you find a system and use your free time to write instead of watching a movie.
Acceptance and support matter just as much. Children grow up, become college students (or enter trades or full-time work), leave home, and become parents too- but they never really leave us. They carry bits of our parental wisdom with them. Our job is to listen, learn from them, and support them.
I’ve lived the need for acceptance from the other side. I became a massage therapist and assistant director of a large massage school at a time when “massage” was often equated with sex. My mom even told me that “they closed all of them,” mistaking me for a prostitute. To my parents’ credit, they listened, came to the school, and learned what my work actually was.
Most of all, I believe in listening. It isn’t the same as offering support; it’s quieter. We need to close our mouths and simply listen. Often our children want to be heard, not judged, and sometimes they need a quiet place to talk. It can be challenging, depending on the subject, but when we get it right, we’re giving one of the greatest gifts we can.
What inspired Kathleen’s Journey of rediscovery
I’m including a bit from before college, but mostly from what follows. We meet Kathleen on page one and quickly feel why she needs to break free: she’s bored, even though her father is the richest man in Hilltown, and she finds her friends shallow—content to party their last months away.
Then she meets Jase Thompson, a man who rocks her world. He works at the mill her father owns, is widely respected, and is a “townie,” which means he wouldn’t be allowed to date the owner’s daughter. Nevertheless, they begin seeing each other. When the real world crashes in, Kathleen and Jase have a falling out over social difference. Kathleen goes to college and tries to leave the summer behind.
On the outside, she is meeting all her father’s goals: she joins an acceptable sorority, becomes an honor student in the business school, and, most importantly, starts dating Richard Sunners, whose parents are extremely wealthy. But Kathleen has changed. Clothes no longer interest her. Fraternity parties seem silly. She may be in the business school, but she is also a psychology major. She is committed to helping others rather than ignoring them as if they mean nothing.
She has not seen Jase since their breakup. She’s hesitating; she doesn’t know what she will say. She hasn’t spent any time in Hilltown since she left Jase for college. These tensions—what she’s expected to want versus what she actually values—are what inspire her journey of rediscovery.
Why did she choose a return to her hometown as the path to self acceptance.
Kathleen has never stopped caring about Jase, and she knows they must meet. She’s scared to, but she needs closure so she can move on. Soon, a situation propels her back to Hilltown: Richard wants to take their relationship to the next level- getting pinned, then engaged. Kathleen knows she doesn’t love him, and she doesn’t really like him, so she calls and breaks off the relationship. Richard hangs up, cursing. She hangs up feeling liberated.
She decides to fly to Pittsburgh, rent a car, and drive back to her old house. She hopes to see her friends at the mill, but most of all, she has to find Jase. When she was interning with Jase, she met many mill families and stayed close to her “grandmother” Sadie.
It is dark when she arrives, and there’s a rental Mercedes in the driveway. She walks in and finds covered furniture and lots of packing boxes. Her parents look like they are moving. No one bothered to tell her. Instead of finding a restful, empty house, she walks into a situation.
How did you approach portraying family dynamics and past relationships authentically.
One of the most fun parts of writing a book is the characters. I didn’t have Journey Back to You perfect while I was writing it. The book “grew up,” like Kathleen.
I write in the first person, so the story is from Kathleen’s perspective. In this book, she is sometimes a narrator, but she is usually the eyes and ears of everything. Everything is seen through her—her ideas and background are illustrative.
A quick example: “When I walk into the house, my father is sitting in the den with a scowl on his face… The mill production must be down.” This happens at the beginning of the book. That small moment tells us Kathleen knows her father is upset, and why—mill production is down. We’re left with the understanding that her father values money.
My path is to create at least the narrator and have him or her comment on whatever is going on. The action is the sight, smell, taste, and touch as seen through Kathleen’s eyes, or information she might get from gossip or past memories. This makes it easier to move through the past, present, and future.
Find out more about Leigh at: https://www.hilltownseries.com/ and https://www.relatable-media.com/the-rv-book-fair