Featured Interview With Len Handeland
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in Massachusetts and lived in Europe (specifically Berlin, Germany) and upstate New York (in both Elmira and Ithaca). My late father was a decorated World War II and Vietnam veteran who was a Sargent Major in the army. He made the military his career. As a result of his enlistment and being deployed to many different locations, we moved around quite a bit. Eventually, my father retired from the army, and we settled in the town of Nashua, New Hampshire. Once I graduated high school, I moved to Manhattan with a short, successful career in modeling while attending FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) to study design and fashion illustration. Later I went into the hair industry and became a highly successful and sought-after Hairstylist and Hair salon owner (with one salon in San Francisco’s Union Square and two salons up in the town of Sonoma, in the Wine Country.)
My husband and I moved to Palm Springs a year and a half ago after experiencing the harrowing Northbay fires in 2017, where we evacuated our home at 2:15 in the morning and were out of our house for nearly two weeks, not knowing whether we would have a home to return to. We love living in Palm Springs and not having the threat of wildfires looming over us.
We have two tuxedo cats named Felix and Felicia. They are siblings.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
My fascination with reading and writing began at a very early age. Naturally, I read all of Dr. Seuss’s books as a child, and as I grew older, I became obsessed with reading Stephen King novels, Dean Koontz, and the late Anne Rice’s brilliant vampire chronicle books. As I became an adult and retired from hair to become a full-time author, I was drawn to writing fiction, specifically horror, whether that be vampires, ghosts, or gruesome murder crime dramas.
I started writing during my adolescence and kept a journal
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorite authors are Stephen King, Dean Koontz, the late Anne Rice, and Clive Barker. My favorite genre is horror, which is what I tend to write about as well.
My first book, “The Darkest Gift,” is a vampire paranormal romance novel set in Paris in the 17th and 18th centuries and Haiti and New Orleans in the 1980s. The late Anne Rice heavily influenced the writing style of my vampire book, which, unlike her vampire books, also includes paranormal activity and same-sex couples who are less ambiguous about their sexual identity and desires.
My second book “Requiem for Miriam” has been described by some readers as being compared to the writings reminiscent of Raskolnikov in Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment and the writings of Mary Higgins Clark.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
The latest book I’m writing is “Transplant,” which is the story of a young woman, Elizabeth Bennington, her privileged upbringing in Charlestown (outside of Boston), her loving and supportive parents, Harold and Betty, and how Elizabeth meets the man of her dreams after attempting suicide as a teenager filled with hopelessness, anxiety, and depression. Elizabeth’s father was a banker, and her mother a homemaker. Harold leaves the bank and establishes Bennington Enterprises and promises his daughter that once she’s old enough and has completed her studies, she will be welcomed by her father and join him at the firm, where she will ultimately assume the CEO position of Bennington Enterprises in Boston. Elizabeth seems to be a model child, an honor roll student, and a star athlete on her high school volleyball team. One major obstacle interferes and threatens all that is precious to the young adult and her parents. Elizabeth has dealt with a debilitating health issue since she was a small child. She was diagnosed with congenital heart problems and symptoms which ranged from dizziness, irregular heartbeats, and fainting spells, all brought on by stress, excitement, or any strenuous physical activity, especially during her tenure in her high school’s volleyball team. The young child becomes severely depressed and is sent to see a psychiatrist who prescribes antidepressants and other mood-altering medications, which does nothing for her health-related condition. As Elizabeth matures into a young woman, her health issues continue to worsen, as does her depression. Elizabeth’s grades plummet in school, she drops out of the volleyball team, becomes socially awkward, and in essence, an outcast by her peers. Seeing no other way out of her spiraling depression, she attempts suicide and almost succeeds in taking her own life. With the advice of her attending psychiatrist, Elizabeth is institutionalized for one year. She is closely monitored and given weekly sessions to deal with her anxiety and depression. Elizabeth makes progress during these sessions and is eventually allowed to leave the mental hospital under the care of her parents, Harold and Betty. She is given a new drug that appears to regulate her very irregular heartbeats and, at least temporarily, appears to have healed her condition. Her grades in high school excel once more, and she becomes an honor roll student with her depression and suicidal thoughts behind her. A year later, Elizabeth graduates from high school and furthers her education by attending the University of Boston, majoring in business management and earning an MBA; and meets the man of her dreams, Matthew Spengler; the couple later gets married. Elizabeth’s health through the birth of the couple’s daughter deteriorates to the point where Elizabeth must undergo a heart transplant. Unbeknownst to anyone is that the organ came from a serial killer who seems to have possessed his former heart altering Elizabeth’s personality and ultimately leading her to violence and mayhem with a tragic ending.
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