Leigh McKnight also known as Minnie Dix and author of From My Front Porch is launching a brand new book due out in October 09! Based off of the hit, From My Front Porch, Sinners Never Sleep is bound to rock the boats of love.
For those who missed From My Front Porch, a southern lady falls in love and then loses her heart when she finds that cheating is the name of the game. This first book has been mentioned on The Oprah Winfrey Show as well as made the Ebony Magazine bookshelf, and that means that it must be good!
Now, Leigh McKnight is bringing the power of relationships back to us in Sinners Never Sleep. She has agreed to check INN THE BASEMENT with me to discuss this upcoming book and more!
Mirika (ITB): Thank you, Leigh, for checking INN THE BASEMENT with me. 
I am so very excited about this new book, Sinners Never Sleep, and I can’t wait for the release. Now for everyone who doesn’t know, I love my girl, Leigh whom I refer to as Minnie! She is actually one of the authors that I met prior to the authoring of my own books, and Leigh gave me such a big hand it things…amazing and truly a blessing.
Now off of me and you, and just about you! Leigh, the title Sinners Never Sleep is an earful, and it already has my senses alert! Rayanne is the character in the first book, From My Front Porch, and it looks as though she is getting ready to find herself the man of men! What made you decide to continue on in this second book with Rayanne’s love and life?
Leigh McKnight (Minnie Dix): This is the easy question. Front Porch originally started out as one large, self-published book, 458 pages in fact. Back in the year 2000, Pool and Smith Publishing Compan
y, a small family owned business located in Richmond, Virginia, signed me to a contract to put Front Porch in hard cover but unfortunately the owner and financial backer for the company died which rendered contract null and void. In November of 2006 My agent telephoned me and asked me how long would it take to write a synopsis for From My Front Porch, I asked why, that the book was almost ten years old at that time. Her answer was that Urban Books was interested in buying the rights to the book. My response was that I could probably do it in 30 minutes. Once contract was signed and work began on book, I had a choice of trimming 90,000 words or turning original book into two books. I opted to turn book into two books. That’s really how Rayanne’s story continued into the second book.
Mirika (ITB): Okay so now I am going to get personal! Don’t hate me, but just wondering, Leigh, have you suffered through any type of relationship heartbreak, and if you have, how did you shake the sucker off? Was it through the love of another man?
Leigh McKnight (Minnie Dix): Yes I have suffered through relationship heartbreaks, and though many have said ‘the quickest way to forget one man in a relationship gone bad is to be with another, I haven’t thought that rebounding was the healthiest thing to do. I try to keep busy reading, watching movies and writing. Although, writing may not have kept me warm on those cold and lonely nights, if only for a moment, writing had a way of propelling me into a place that was comfortable for me. Being creative, I get so involved with my characters that find myself being in that place and that time as I said, even if only for the moment. And really, that really is what it is all about…Time. Time is a great healer until I am ready to commit tot another relationship.
Mirika (ITB): Sinners Never Sleep is obviously the stone cold truth. ‘Sinners’ don’t sleep! Though a fiction novel, do you find a correlation between it and your own life deeply within the pages at all? Does your own background – being from the south and moving to NY – actually help you to write such a novel?
Leigh McKnight(Minnie Dix): Right, sinners don’t sleep much. Too busy sinning. lol. Although I hadn’t previously thought I was in any of the lives of my characters, I believe that since we create them even as female authors of male characters, we are in there somewhere. And yes, being from the south and moving to New York, I was able to draw from southern landmarks. And to add some reality to the NY part of the story I definitely set the story there because there was a lot of familiar places I was able to add to the book that added that authenticity, even though my life is so different to the lifestyle of the characters. I would’ve love to be able to have the attitude of Ivory; that wise cracking, devil may care, live today and let tomorrow take care of itself, Ivory lived. I thought that girl rocked. Those people live longer, I think. Just kidding..lol…
Mirika (ITB): Okay so I found out about Looking For Mr. Tonight, Leigh! What’s all this about, honey? This looks to me like a new book coming forth and in the works right now! Can you give me a sneak into what this book will be about without telling it all. The title well tells me off the top that whoever she isn’t looking for a Mr. Tomorrow or Mr. Future…just for one night and that night is Tonight! Am I close?
Leigh McKnight (Minnie Dix): Looking For Mr. Tonight…Yep, you got it. Camille Taylor, the workaholic and co-owner of a real estate company wasn’t looking for a Mr. Tomorrow or Mr. Future. After a failed relationship, spent so much time getting her business off the ground and making a success of it, that she didn’t take time out to enjoy her success. After a realty conference in Myrtle Beach, she decided to spend the remainder of the week there, getting her sexual par-tay with a different man each night before going back to Atl and business as usual, with her best friend and business partner screaming that she shouldn’t put her health or reputation in jeopardy…There she ran into the man she’s never forgotten..the one who left her heartbroken ten years earlier. (By the way I love how you phrased that, not Mr. Tomorrow or Mr. Future..nice. I think I’m gonna be using those words on back cover. I stealing it from ya.)
Mirika (ITB): Steal on! Thank you so much for talking it over with me while checking INN THE BASEMENT, Leigh aka Minnie Dix. It is so great talking with you about your books, and you know I am a fan. Are there any words that you have for aspiring authors/writers out here being that you are so accomplished?
Leigh McKnight (Minnie Dix): The thing I’d like aspiring authors to remember is to not allow the words to overwhelmed them. Stay in control, Don’t allow the words to control them. After all, the words can only do what we allow them to do. Every action that is taken is done so by our command or our direction. It can always be overwhelming when a writer sits down to write and he/she thinks of the entire project; how they are going to get from the beginning to THE END. Sometimes they become discouraged. Think about the story and the characters, what you want to say, but focus on one part of the story, do it in small increments. Start off slowly and work into a faster pace. Aspiring writers have told me they have surprised themselves by starting off writing 10 minutes a day has helped them. This has worked for me.
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And that is Minnie Dix aka Leigh McKnight, author of Sinners Never Sleep, From My Front Porch and another future release, Looking For Mr. Tonight and the one thing that you are going to want to do is get your hands on all of these books at least one night for yourself! Great person and wonderful writer…Leigh McKnight. Find out more and to purchase at leighmcknightonline.com.