1. If you could work with any other author, who would it
be and why?
First
off, let me thank you for inviting me onto your blog. I love all that your
passion for books and all that you’re doing to share that love! So wish I could be there in person to answer these
questions with you!
Okay,
what other writer would I want to work with?
Well, he’s not a novelist, per se, but he is a story creator, and his
work does routinely rock my world: JJ Abrams, the mastermind behind Alias, Lost
and Fringe. I absolutely love the way that man’s mind works, his fascination
with mystery and possibility, with the unexplained and the bizarre, with
history and prophecy and human interactions. I’d love to brain-meld with him
for a day—or get him to hire me to work on one of his shows!!!
2. What would be a typical working day for you? When and
where do you write?
I love writing. I
love creating. I love exploring story-worlds. My mind is always spinning,
whether I’m at the computer or not. Typically I’m at my desk 4-5 hours per day,
5 days per week, with “mind work” happening the rest of the time. I’m
constantly grabbing my phone and recording voice messages or jotting random
notes. I’m not sure why, but my absolute best thoughts come to me at times when
it’s hardest to jot them down: in the shower, while driving, and while running.
Most of the time I work from my office space in the upstairs
of our house, with a lovely east facing window to my left and a door to the
rest of the house to my right. Initially, I had my workspace situated so that
my back was to the door, but I HATED that. I just never felt comfortable, kinda
like I never feel comfortable in a restaurant if I’m not sitting with my back
to a wall. (I think maybe in a former life I was a warrior who met a grim fate
through a sneak-attack from behind!)
Anyway, I have to have my back to the wall—and I really,
really prefer a neat and tidy workspace: for me, clutter in my office= clutter
in my mind. However, with young kids,
I’m constantly tripping over stuffed animals and race cars!!!
Here’s what the floor of my office looked like as I
approached the deadline for FRAGILE DARKNESS (book 3 in the Midnight Dragonfly
series)!! Sometimes it really helps to sit down and spread everything out!
When planning my workspace, I consulted Feng Shui for paint
color and ended up with a blue-green that is supposed to stimulate creativity.
I also have an entire wall dedicated to inspirational sayings, such as Shoot for the Moon. Even if you miss you’ll
land among the stars and Don’t
believe everything you think!, as well as a display of my books.
3. What is the hardest part of the art of writing for
you?
That’s a great
question. I love playing around in story worlds so much I think the hardest
part is letting go. I could fiddle with my stories forever, letting my
characters turn left instead of right and exploring what happens next. There
are so many possibilities, it’s tough to choose one and run with it. With every
book I’ve written, there’s something I’d love to change, all the way from
adjusting an existing scene to scrapping it altogether and replacing it with
something completely different. In fact, just last night I woke up around 3:30
in the morning with a killer idea for my book which coming out later this year
(Fragile Darkness)…but it’s far too late for changes!
4. When and why did you first start writing?
When
I think back to what inspired me to start writing, I can’t isolate any specific
event or point in time that serves as a trigger. A librarian’s daughter, I’ve
been writing stories as long as I can remember. I think I wrote my first
fan-fic before I was five! I would fall
in love with characters and not want their stories to end, so I’d keep them
going. It wasn’t just fan fic, though. I had my own creations, such as Monster Falls In Love and Jacquie and the Swamp. In middle school
and high school I was always writing poems (and even songs!) for my friends,
usually about something romantic, and something dangerous! Growing up in
Louisiana, my stories always took on a mystical feel, featuring ghosts and
danger and all sorts of things that couldn’t be explained, and always, always a
healthy dose of star-crossed lovers. When it was time for college, my mother
and I were discussing majors, and I asked what I could major in that would
involve writing. She said journalism, so journalism it was. Of course, writing
obituaries for my news-ed class wasn’t quite what I had in mind, but everyone
has to start somewhere, you know?
5. How did you come up with the idea for the book
‘Shattered Dreams?’
It was one of those
bizarre, unplanned things. A few years ago I wasn’t getting much sleep and woke
up one early one morning from one of the most incredibly detailed, vivid dreams
I’d ever had. I’d more than just seen a group of teen sneak into an old
abandoned mansion—I’d been with
them. I’d gazed into the darkness, and
smelled the decay. I’d felt the fear, and the crazy blast of excitement at the
prospect of a game of truth or dare. My
heart was still racing when I woke up. The images lingered. I kept thinking
about what I’d seen, and from the questions came: What happened next? What if one of the teens was a psychic? What if she
saw something…something bad? What if she had a premonition? What if what she
saw actually happened? What if no one
believed her, or at least, no one but the last guy she should let herself begin
to fall for
As I answered those
questions, the Midnight Dragonfly books were born!
6. Are you a big reader? If so, what are you reading
now?
Yes! I read everything! I read
magazines and catalogs, medicine bottles and instruction labels…anything I can
get my hands on at a given moment. I always have a few books going at one time,
generally one fiction and several non-fiction. (I’m totally in love with books
like The Power of Now.) Presently I am sooo lucky to be reading an
advance copy of a book coming out this fall, The Trouble With Fate , by a super talented new author, Leigh Evans.
(Mark your calendar for this fall. You’re going to want this one, as well as Ashes of Twilight by Kassy Tayler!)
7. Do you have any advice for other aspiring writers?
Yes! Believe in yourself
and never give up. Each of us has stories to tell, and only you can tell them.
The writing life can be incredibly hard. You spend tons of time alone,
creating, and then you toss your creation out to the rest of the world, to see
what they think. Some will love it, some won’t. That can take a toll of your
confidence and your dream. But I have a plaque across from my desk that reads,
“You’ll miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,” and I essentially live by those
words. You have to believe in yourself and follow your dreams. It’s the only
way they can come true.
Deb, thank you so
much for sharing my books in your café!
About Ellie James
Most people who know Ellie think she’s your nice,
ordinary wife and mom of two young kids. They see someone who does all that normal
stuff, like grocery shopping, walking the dogs, going to baseball games, and
somehow always forgetting to get the house cleaned and laundry done.
What they don't know is that more often
than not, this LSU J-School alum is somewhere far, far away, in an
extraordinary world, deeply embroiled in solving a riddle or puzzle or crime,
testing the limits of possibility, exploring the unexplained, and holding her
breath while two people fall in love.
Regardless of which world Ellie’s in, she loves
rain and wind and thunder and lightning; the first warm kiss of spring and the
first cool whisper of fall; family, friends, and animals; dreams and happy
endings; Lost and Fringe; Arcade Fire and Dave Matthews,
and last but not least…warm gooey chocolate chip cookies.
About the Midnight Dragonfly Series
The firstborn
daughter, of the firstborn daughter, of the firstborn daughter, sixteen year
old psychic Trinity Monsour has a connection to the Other Side. She knows
secrets and truths she shouldn’t, feels emotions that do not belong to her, and
see events that have yet to happen. They come to her as glimpses, shadowy,
disjointed snapshots that flicker through her dreams. Some terrify: a girl
screaming, a knife lifting, a body in the grass. But others--the dark, tortured
eyes and the shattering kiss, the promise of forever--whisper to her soul.
They come
without warning. They come without detail.
But they always
mean the same thing: The clock is ticking, and only Trinity can stop it.
Find out how in Shattered Dreams, available from
QuercusKids!
