Consistency, Authenticity & Going Viral

An accidental Instagram post about The Inevitable Undoing of Zahara Douglass went viral (174K+ views and counting), and in this episode I share what happened, what it did for pre-orders, and the surprising "secret sauce" behind it.

I also open up about giving my Blitches WIP some space, getting back into dance after 30 years, and my upcoming writer in residence role for Howard County, MD schools. 

Mentioned

• Ink & Magic Mastermind (online, Sept 4–6, a few spots left) - https://inkandmagicretreat.com/

• Howard County Poetry & Literarture Society - https://hocopolitso.org/

• PEN/Faulkner Foundation - https://www.penfaulkner.org/

• Pre-order The Inevitable Undoing of Zahara Douglass (out Aug 11) + download the first three chapters free - https://lpen.co/zaharaexcerpt

• My Viral Instagram Post! https://www.instagram.com/p/DaEMBPPFBtp/

• Expand Summit (July 22–25, free) — My workshop Doubling Down on Being Human: Building a Distinctive and Authentic Writing Voice — https://expandsummit2026.heysummit.com/?ac=mBuQDzGT

• Writing From Your Why workshop with Jane Friedman (July 29) — https://janefriedman.com/writing-from-your-why-with-leslye-penelope/

• Fiction Makers Conference — live and in person in Baltimore, Aug 22, 2026 — https://lpen.co/fictionmakers

• Michaela Coel's Emmy speech quote: "Write the tale that scares you, that makes you feel uncertain, that isn't comfortable, I dare you."

The My Imaginary Friends podcast is a behind the scenes look at the journey of a working author navigating traditional and self-publishing. Join fantasy and paranormal romance author Leslye Penelope as she shares insights on the writing life, creativity, inspiration, and this week's best thing.

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Music credit:
Say Good Night by Joakim Karud https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud
Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported— CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/SZkVShypKgM

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