SEELIE KAY: Postcards from The Ledge: This week in The Loft: Author Fiona Lehn!

Joining me today in The Loft is Canadian author Fiona Lehn. Fiona is the author of speculative fiction and romance. A Writers of the Future winner for "The Assignment of Runner ETI," she is also an acclaimed musician and songwriter, once touring with the Fiona Lehn Underground Band. Fiona also served on the editorial collective of Room, Canada's oldest feminist literary magazine. She lives with ME/CFS and serves a feline in perpetuity.

Author Fiona Lehn

S: Welcome, Fiona!

Why did you become a writer?

F: I was an avid reader from a young age and became dissatisfied with the roles of women in fiction and in reality. I wanted to change that. I wanted to see how women could live. So I began writing speculative fiction.

S: What attracts you to the romance genre?

F: Romance reminds me that love and goodness can grow out of the most challenging experiences and can flourish in the most unlikely places. Romance unveils the spark of magic in the mundane, it reveals hope when all is despair. I find that very attractive.

S: (Nods.) Love comes in all shapes and sizes. It is gratifying to be able to explore that.

Do you write in other genres?

F:  I tend to cross genres and upend tropes. I don’t consciously intend to rebel against genre classifications, this just seems to be the way I write. My fiction is speculative in nature, with strong female, LGBTQ+, and/or outsider characters. My adventure and quest stories are often romantic and/or humorous, my mysteries may be dramatic and/or psychological, and all seem to get an infusion of sensuality, heartwarming fluffy stuff, and/or low to medium heat. My genre-crossing results in distinctive and touching tales that I hope readers enjoy.

S: What’s your definition of romance?

F:  Spark. Magic. Light. Glass half full to overflowing. New beginnings. Electricity. Quaking, shuddering, gasping--in a good way. Unpredictable. Irresistible.

S: (Smiles.) That's certainly what many of us hope for!

What is your favorite thing about writing romance?

F: Getting lost in those moments of magic, those spark-filled beginnings. We can never have enough magic in our lives, in my opinion, and writing romantic scenes is a wonderful gift to me as well as to my readers.

S: If you had to do it all over again, would you still choose to write books?

F: I don’t think I had a choice, actually. I was born a writer, and writing is both a gift and a curse, but it’s a wonderful curse to have and I’m grateful.

S: Tell me about your book, "Transformation Junkies."

F: Here's the blurb--

A sensual, supernatural quest from the icy streets of Canada to the pastoral hills of Switzerland, Transformation Junkies tells the story of two women unwilling to compromise for love and satisfaction.

Chol enjoys a serene, independent life as a reclusive herdswoman, but when her cattle start disappearing, she must protect her home or lose it all.

Susannah leaves an unhappy marriage and her home country to become an electrician. When she fails, she loses herself in an addiction to transcendence, and a loser vampire makes her an offer that could solve everything—or just might dash her hopes forever.

An ancient god tries to help, but Chol and Susannah are the only ones who can save themselves—and maybe save each other in the process.

Romantic, fun, and adventurous, Transformation Junkies is a novel about generations of women compelled to fight beyond glass ceilings and limiting gender roles, fight to the death if they have to, to win the life and love they desire.