ABOUT ME
Hello! I’m Fiona Lehn. I write creative nonfiction and speculative fiction, and I coach writers and people with chronic illness. I’ve spent some time in the spotlight and also some time in the dark. What I like most is creating and helping people to reach their goals and dreams. Here’s a nutshell of my writing and coaching career.
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A Writers of the Future winner and a past Science Fiction Writers of America member, I am also a former editor of Room literary journal. I edited three issues of Room during my tenure there, one of which celebrated feminist science fiction and fantasy, featured speculative fiction by Élisabeth Vonneburg, Michaela Roessner, Candas Jane Dorsey, and included an interview I did with the incomparable Ursula K. Le Guin. I have a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an MFA from Stonecoast, both in creative writing. Aqueduct Press published my first novella, THE LAST LETTER, which I wrote as an homage to the great Stefan Zweig's novella Letter from an Unknown Woman. My short speculative and creative nonfiction pieces have been published in various anthologies and journals, including Future Visions, Neo-Opsis, The Healing Muse, Room, and Flame Tree Publishing. McFarland & Company published my nonfiction book CENTRAL SENSITIZATION AND SENSITIVITY SYNDROMES: A Handbook for Coping under the pen name Amy Titani. I released the audiobook version in late 2023. My latest book is LIKE THE CAT: Feline Wisdom for Healing and Transformation, which I published through KDP.
I also write songs. From the late 1980s through the early 2010s, I wrote hundreds of songs and recorded and co-produced several albums. I have performed my music in almost every state in the USA and have received acclaim from both Dirty Linen and Billboard magazine. My songs have been licensed as far away as Poland. A member of the band Volt Flowers, I co-wrote and co-produced the single “Be Mine,” which is available online, as is my solo anthology album Florilegium.
I began working as an editor, proofreader, and writing coach in the early 2000s and had to stop in 2012 after getting M.E.—a debilitating, multi-systemic illness—along with a handful of other central sensitivity syndromes. I was unable to work for over a decade and found it meaningful to support others (albeit in limited capacity) contending with similar conditions. Thanks to several miracles of modern medicine, I can now offer full wellness coaching services to people dealing with challenges related to illness, injury, trauma, and/or old age. With over ten years of experience, I help clients decrease suffering and improve their quality of life and sense of well-being.
I am also once again able to offer my editorial and coaching services to writers, with a greater skill set than before. While contending with M.E., I learned how to write a book, or do most anything, in a mere five minutes a day. I know, it sounds like a gimmick, but it's true. I've mastered breaking down big goals into small manageable tasks. Passing this strategy on is just one more way that I help writers to reach their literary dreams.
