By Kyonë Morris…

My name is Kyonë and I have been asked to say a few words about my, friend Ileandra. I refused at first – who wants to talk so deeply about their close friends for all the world to see?! – but when it became clear that she’d bite me if I didn’t, I though I’d better give it a try.

So… these are my thoughts on Ileandra, from me, to you.

Ileandra Young is a twenty eight year old nut job with the following obsessive and unhealthy fascination complexes:
• The colour purple (yes, the colour, not the film)
• Vampires
• The number 12
• Cats (particularly cute and fluffy ones)
• Cheese
• Doughnuts

She lives happily, gratefully and often noisily in the beautiful city of Leicester, having decided after university that it was too much bother to pack up her room of meagre belongings (a computer, about 100 books and 50 DVDs) and move back to north London with the rest of her family. The city has recovered as well as it can from her continued presence and now swirls blithely and inexorably around (and over) her, like a river around a stubborn rock.

Six years on, with university well and truly behind her, Ileandra spends her work days under another name entirely, tirelessly handling complains in the head office of an up and coming card acquiring company. It is only when she comes home however (after thoroughly hugging her partner and switching on her computer) that she begins to show her real skill. Word processing, complaint handling and people management skills aside, Ileandra feels that she is most at home, most challenged and most happy when writing; be that for play-by-post roleplay games or novels. Even into the pies of script writing and poetry has Ileandra occasionally dipped her fingers, though she prefers third person prose to these forms.

Though in possession of an undergraduate degree, Ileandra stubbornly maintains that the most useful lessons of life are yet to learn, and makes no secret of the fact she makes things up as she goes along.

“The trick is, just to say things firmly – and loudly – as if you know what you’re talking about. Do that and people generally just assume that you do. The second trick is not to tell people the about the first trick!”

~Ileandra on ‘how she knows so much.’

Therefore this website and most of all, the blog, are a means for her to share the lessons of her journey with you; the helplessly ensnared reader. Her writing career is just beginning and she wants you to be part of it.

Ileandra has ‘come out of the closet’ as a writer and for the first time revealed to the world parts of her self that previously only a scabby computer and several hundred 3.5 floppy discs were privy to. Fourteen years of near constant writing have left a long trail of novels in her wake, some of which may never see the light. Many are the backbone of some grand and exciting future project, while others form a core of ‘pet projects’ that Ileandra has been perfecting for many years. Several excerpts of her work are available to read within the pages of this site and others are accessible through links to external sites. It is a selection that is constantly growing.

Besides writing, Ileandra enjoys throwing her voice across the reaches of space through a loud, eclectic and often plain silly, internet radio show. She is a keen reader, a geeky gamer and an aspiring sketch and cell-block-colour artist. Ileandra also occasionally fumbles with an acoustic guitar, in the hopes of one day not sounding like a strangled cat with a phlegmy cold.

Her current goals, other than the completion and publication of her WIP Silk Over Razor Blades, include visiting Skegness again (and/or Blackpool), learning to drive, purchasing the Wii version of Guitar Hero 5, finding a web cam compatible with Vista, understanding the male obsession with breasts and bums (nice though they may be!) and the swift acquisition of a kitten that she might then name Squishy, or, if she is feeling slightly more merciful, Bubbles (please note, that this is nothing to do with Michael Jackson’s famous monkey; instead, both are references to the fabulous Disney film Finding Nemo).

Regardless of all these peculiar eccentricities, Ileandra Young remains perpetually cheerful, open, keen and determined. You are invited to subscribe to the RSS feed or to email updates to stay up to date with her blog entries, thoughts and plans. You can also use the comment boxes at the bottom of these pages to leave your words of support/amusement/confusion/irritation/bafflement/enjoyment of her work. The contact forms also offer you a means for speedier and more private contact should you wish it.

In the mean time, I would merely suggest that you keep your eye on her; its always the quiet weird ones you want to look out for (and they’re usual the most interesting – and funny – to observe anyway).