Today we’d like to introduce you to Leah Omar.
Hi Leah, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I’ve always wanted to be a storyteller and studied English Literature at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, MN with that goal in mind. But then life happened, and in my early twenties, I got a job in Corporate America. Before I knew it, twenty years had passed, and I still hadn’t written anything.
One day, I was taking a long drive to my family’s cabin, and a story popped into my head. And on that drive, I wrote the entire manuscript in my head. I couldn’t wait to arrive at the cabin so I could pull out my laptop and write the story down. I devoted a lot of time to writing that first manuscript. Once the first draft was complete, I knew I would never look back. I loved the feeling of creating and prioritizing fitting it into my life.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Writing for me is easy. When I have a story idea, I spend two to three weeks only drafting a 300-page manuscript.
The editing is much more challenging, and the hardest part in all of this for me is knowing when to let go of a manuscript and say it’s good enough to become a novel.
The other challenging part is knowing how to get my book in front of an audience. I’m not backed by big publishers, and there are so many novels that a reader can choose from. Not only that, but I’m not a marketer. That aspect has been challenging for me.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My day job is as a Compliance Officer for a Medical Device company. In this role, I partner with the business and communicate what the risks are, what the law is, and what our internal processes are to ensure that we always play by the rules. I’m known for my easy style of communication.
I’m direct but relatable. I think it’s my relatability that sets me apart. Some people see Compliance Officers as adversaries, but I want the businesses I work with to know that I work for them and my job is to ensure they are safe.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk-taking.
The riskiest thing I’ve ever done is to decide to become an author. It’s vulnerable to putting yourself out there in that manner and creating something that will be judged by everyone who reads it.
Once you hand that manuscript over to a publisher, or click publish on Amazon, your book goes out into the world, and you lose control over what happens with it from there. It’s been a scary process for me, and one that repeatedly teaches me to let go.
Pricing:
- A Labor of Love – $16.95
- A Labor of Love Kindle – $9.99
- Between Sunsets – $22.95
- Between Sunsets Kindle – $9.99
Contact Info:
- Website:www.leahomarbooks.com
- Instagram: @leahomarbooks
- Facebook: leahomarbooks
