About

Get to Know Leslie Johansen Nack

AboutLeslie Johansen Nack2023-10-02T09:03:36-07:00

Leslie Johansen Nack’s debut Fourteen, A Daughter’s Memoir received five indie awards. Her debut novel The Blue Butterfly, A Novel of Marion Davies was released in 2022 and has won six indie awards.

Before she started writing, she raised two children, ran a family business, took care of her aging mother, and dreamed of writing. She did everything late in life including getting her degree in English Literature from UCLA at age thirty-one.

Author-Photo-2021

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My friend Gina Cameron @ginanataliecameron has pub

My friend Gina Cameron @ginanataliecameron has published her memoir WHO’S MY DADDY?Exposing the Roots of Family Secrets, about the search for her biological father after a relative casually mentions that she and her sister have different dads. A shocking and heartbreaking revelation and yet Gina has written a heartwarming story about her journey through the process.
Available everywhere

#memoir #genetictesting #ginacameron

The Blue Butterfly, A Novel of Marion Davies is av

The Blue Butterfly, A Novel of Marion Davies is available across all eBook platforms for $2.99.

https://www.amzn.com/B09CDB1MV8

Love the novel? Give it as a gift!
Haven’t read it yet? Here’s the perfect opportunity.

“When I saw that this novel was about Marion Davies, I knew I had to read it. I wanted to know the real story behind the woman who was the model for Susan Alexander, the film character who brings down Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane, and what a story it is! Davies grows up believing she has only one option for financial security: to find and marry a wealthy man. She catches the eye of the wealthiest man in the world in the form of William Randolph Hearst — a newspaper publisher, a movie mogul, and a builder of castles all in one.

“The problem is that he is already married with five sons. This fact does not stop him from relentlessly pursuing the blue-eyed blonde, promising that someday he will marry her. He doesn’t. Instead, he lives two lives—one with his family and one with Marion and her family. While Davies does enjoy Hearst’s money, she has the misfortune of also being in love with him. For Marion, the humiliation of being the mistress is excruciating, but she’s clever and hardworking and eventually makes a name and fortune for herself on the silver screen.

“Nack has chosen a wonderful subject for a novel. The book reads as if it really is Davies’ autobiography. The actress was not highly educated, but she was smart and spirited, qualities that make the reader root for her. This story is also a timely reminder of what women would have been up against in Hollywood. Marion Davies was no simpering Susan Alexander. She was a brave and complex figure, whose true potential was stifled by a powerful, overbearing man.”
--Historical Novel Society

#mariondavis #historicalfiction #biographicalhistoricalfiction #lesliejohansennack #Thebluebutterfly #williamrandolphhearst

On a train in Italy tooling along listening to THE

On a train in Italy tooling along listening to THE PARIS BOOKSELLER by @kerrimaherwriter. There’s nothing better than staring out at the gorgeous countryside while listening to such a rich tale. And even though I’m not in Paris at Shakespeare and Co. I am in Italy headed for the Amalfi coast. ❤️

Have you read or listened to this book? I know it’s been out a while but I’m just getting to it. I’m enjoying it immensely.

#parisbookseller #historicalfiction #kerrimaher

For memoir readers, here are two memoir recommenda

For memoir readers, here are two memoir recommendations:

HIGH ACHIEVER, The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life by @jugglingthejenkins.
Tiffany Johnson is funny, poignant, and brutally honest in her retelling of how she got sober after being arrested at her home and charged with multiple felonies. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and laughed out loud at her antics and could relate to her desperation as an addict who ran out of time.

WAVEWALKER, A Memoir of Breaking Free by @suzanneheywood1
Hats off and mad respect for Suzanne Heywood, for not only living through this adventurous and unusual childhood but then to write about it is nothing short of amazing. She sailed around the world again and again with her family from age 7 to 17 sometimes against her will, as she pined away for school and life at home in England. I was enthralled and enjoyed every minute of the story, being a child who was raised on a sailboat as well.

#memoir #highachiever #wavewalker #sailinglife #soberlife

The wonderful people at @bedsidereading interviewe

The wonderful people at @bedsidereading interviewed me about what inspired me to write THE BLUE BUTTERFLY, A Novel of Marion Davies. Active link in bio.
https://www.bedsidereading.com/author-spotlight

#bluebutterfly #historicalfiction #biographicalhistoricalfiction #lesliejohansennack

What vegetables are you eating this week? #veggies

What vegetables are you eating this week? #veggies #letsgethealthy

The long and winding road. 38 years sober today. G

The long and winding road. 38 years sober today. Grateful for AA who taught me how to live in this world without alcohol or cocaine.

#soberliving #alcoholicsanonymous #thetwelvesteps

This post is for everyone who had a mother who was

This post is for everyone who had a mother who was not there for them, who used and abused them, who didn’t honor the sacred bond between mother and child, and who was a mother they weren’t proud of.

Today would have been my mother’s 85th birthday and if she were still here I would have taken her to dinner and baked her a cake and maybe, if I was feeling okay, bring her flowers.

I’m sure she was hopeful at the beginning of her marriage to my father. Giving birth to three little girls in rapid succession is a lot to handle in a time when men did not help. My mother struggled with depression, and more, going in and out of mental hospitals every few years during my childhood. These facts make me feel compassion and love for her.

What is harder to reconcile is the manipulating, division, narcissism, and hurt she caused sometimes on purpose when she “seemed” normal. Being sabotaged by your mother is a difficult thing to reconcile while growing up. As a teenager I struck out at her in ways I am not proud of today. My living amends to her was taking care of her the last twenty years of her life.

We will go to her favorite restaurant tonight, Texas Roadhouse Grill, and remember the good times with her. Happy birthday mom!

PS The first three pictures are self explanatory, but the fourth is of my younger sister throwing a bottle over the side of our boat as we sailed to Tahiti. It was February 18, 1975 and we all wrote notes to our absent mom, giving it to the ocean and celebrating her on that day too.

#mentalillness #challengingmom #missingapiece #memoir #nineteenamemoir #forgiveness #dysfunctionalfamily

Mood as I dive back into my manuscript this mornin

Mood as I dive back into my manuscript this morning - book 2 in my memoir series - tentatively named NINETEEN, a Daughter's Reckoning and Recovery.

I have a fully formed manuscript now. A beginning, middle, and end, although I'm still shaping the end and the Epilogue. I've re-written the beginning and it's stellar now. Why are beginnings and endings so hard?

#nineteenamemoir #lesliejohansennack #mentalhealth #addiction #recovery #comingofage #neverthelessshepersisted #elizabethwarren

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