I would like to welcome Ella James to the blog today!
Ella James is the author of Stained and Stolen, books one and two in the Stained Series; HERE, book one in a sci-fi romance trilogy; and Before You Go,
a romance YA beach read that tells the first meeting of Logan and Margo, who will be featured in her upcoming adult release, Over The Moon. She has a YA paranormal romance release scheduled for every month of 2012, including Chosen (Stained Book Three) in June and the second HERE book in July.
Please welcome Ella to my page!
1. When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
My dad was state president of his professional organization when I was in second grade. He had a big briefcase filled with papers, and I remember I took it under my parents' bed to go snooping. I was reading one of his "papers" - I guess some kind of letter or report. My dad is Southern - I am from the South - and although he does speak professionally, he doesn't speak the way he writes. I remember being totally smitten with his writing, and I felt this powerful urge to imitate the pretty words. 
2. How long does it take you to write a book?
Now THAT is a million dollar question. It really varies! Back in my single, pre-mama days I could write a book that had been loosely plotted in maybe a week or two if I was putting in long days. Basically, if the book isn't giving me trouble (those darned books!) and there are no major distractions, I can write a book of about 55k words in something like 50-60 hours. Give or take. Add another 30 or so for me to edit it. And that's before I give it over to my editor.
3. What do you think makes a great story?
Great characters with something to do (some kind of mission) and something at stake. The mission and the stakes can be lots of things... (one of my favorite books is Evening, by Susan Minot - and she artfully fills the mission and stakes blanks in her own way, even though the book is very literary). I also think the plot needs to be believable and feel authentic. And, of course, there's the writing. I know this is the most artsy fartsy meaningless-seeming language, but if I can't FEEL each scene, it's probably not a good book.
4. What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
I like to work in blocks... so in an ideal world, which is probably not ideal because my family probably doesn't exist, I would write 9 or 10 hours one day, 7 or 8 the next, almost none the next... and repeat. That's how I used to do it. Now if I can write five or six hours on a Saturday and two or three most weeknights, I'm doing well.
5. How do you balance family and writing?
Haha. Add PR, spending time with my husband, and the editing my alterego does for a publishing house... I don't sleep that much, never do anything social, and am constantly behind in all areas of life. I try to do PR in the day when I'm home with my son and write at night and on weekends. I also edit on weekends. It's not easy... which I'm sure is what everyone says.
6. Where do you get your information or ideas for your books?
I usually start out with one visual image, like, for HERE, a girl finding a lost guy in the field behind her house. Then I let my imagination go wild and I see where it goes. I could start out at a fruit stand and end up on another planet. Or start out in a principal's office and end up in a vampire's dungeon. I'm just drawn to paranormal. One of my books, though, the TBR YA sci-fi romance Azalea & The Makers of Zen, came to me in a dream, Stephenie Meyer style.
7. What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
To me it's almost all surprising. I guess the biggest surprise is that I can do it and do it pretty easily. For most of my early life I was only a reader... worshiping my favorite authors.
8. How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?
I've written Stained and Stolen, books one and two in the Stained Series. Book three is almost finished - it's called Chosen. I've written 80 percent of Azalea & The Makers of Zen. Before You Go and HERE are the other books out right now, so that brings the total to four plus 75 % of Chosen and 80% of Azalea. Then Over The Moon is a super long adult romantic suspense... and it's completely finished. I've written some of the second in the Princeps (Princes, in Latin) series that OTM kicks off, and some of HERE's book two...
9. Are your characters based on anyone you know?
Sometimes they start out that way, but they usually never end like that. I have just started plotting a Christian romance, a contemporary Christian romance for adults, and right now the hero has the name of someone I know and the heroine is kind of a mix of me and my childhood best friend. My characters' parents are for some reason never mine... they're me or my siblings or friends. Most of my characters aren't me, either. There is one character I consider almost 100 percent me... and actually he's a HE - and I'm not going to say who it is until that book is out. For some reason it seems like really personal information to give up. Probably because of what kind of character he is.
10. Do you have a favorite place you love to write?
Anywhere where the door is closed and I know I have a chunk of time that's just for writing...
11. How hard is is to get published?
I guess it depends on what kind of published. Traditionally published - in my experience it was really hard. I have all the same tales everyone else does about that - only it was really frustrating because the last two times I'd submitted stuff to agents I had gotten super close to representation. I was actually offered representation only to have the person have to un-offer because they were taking a leave of absence due to family issues. Not. Fun. My current publisher is a small Southern publisher - very new - and so that was easier. Being published by someone small, or self-published, has its own challenges... mainly the time it takes to do PR.
12. What do your family and friends think about your books?
Most people are really supportive or show at least a little bit of interest. My sister, my grandmother, my parents... they're all awesome. To be honest, though, I don't think a lot of people understand what it's like on the road to publication... or being an ebook author. Most people assume it's not nearly as big a part of my life as it actually is. Really it's almost all I do.
13. What do you like to do when you are not writing?
I'm kind of a movie/TV snob, but I enjoy "good" movies and TV (good according to me, anyway!) I read a ton... almost all on my Kindle. I'm really into running and hiking, so I like going on trails and that kind of thing. I have a 9-month-old son who's so fun to play with, and I'm married to a great man who shares almost all my interests, so we have fun. I also really love to travel. I guess I should mention that I'm also a huge nerd, so I spend a good bit of time reading scholarly or psuedo-scholarly stuff. I have a few dorky interests like space and certain medical things... Haha. It would bore everyone to tears, but let's just say I also read a lot of nonfiction.
14. Do you have any suggestions to help aspiring writers better themselves and their craft? If so, what are they?
Write a book. A whole one. You don't know if you can write a book unless you write a book, and if you're naturally inclined toward writing, the hardest part is probably going to be figuring out how to plot and execute your plot (by WRITING THE BOOK). Do that enough times and you will become good at it.
15. As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
Funnily, I always considered myself a writer, so I didn't really feel the need to say that's what I would be. I just assumed I would always be writing books... and I have a lot of interests, so I usually listed something like if someone asked. I wanted to be an astronaut, a veterinarian, a doctor, a journalist, a school counselor, and a priest. At one point I think I wanted to be a librarian. As it turns out, I'm horrible at almost everything but writing, so I've wisely settled on that. (And medicine. I would like to go to medical school at some point).
16. What are your favourite books and which authors inspire you?
Mmm... I tend to crush on books. My crushes at the moment are Fifty Shades, Set in Stone, whatever Anne Eliot is putting out next, DM McDaniel's sequel to Broken... and I guess my own books. The U-PLOT-IT project, a shifter book, is on my mind a lot, as is a YA futuristic romance called Azalea & The Makers of Zen. All-time favorites include Chronicles of Narnia, Time Traveler's Wife, Evening, Harry Potter, Wuthering Heights, J.R. Ward's BDB, and some of Lisa Kleypas' stuff. I'm sure I'm forgetting something - I have a horrible memory.
17. For an aspiring writer what do you feel are certain do's and don’ts for getting their material published?
Yeah, definitely. And guess what?! A lot of the "dos" are really nebulous, so you've gotta feel around in the dark some and basically just focus on perfecting your work as best you can. Professional presentation is really important - like no typos, proper formatting, etc. Good, solid web page. Characters HAVE to be relatable and sympathetic. Plot needs to move and have purpose and be exciting. I can get into teacher mode if you let me, so I'll spare y'all that. The main thing I would say is make sure your characters and plots are awesome and if you don't get it right the first, second, or third time, keep trying. In the meantime, put your stuff on Amazon and make a little money.
18. What are you working on now?Ahh! What am I not working on now? SIGH. That's a good sigh. I think... Chosen, the sequel to Stolen, third in the Stained Series. The next thing I will write is the fourth Stained book... the final one. Followed by book two in the HERE series. Followed by either Azalea & The Makers of Zen, my futuristic YA romance, or the U-PLOT-IT shifter book. I'm putting out Over The Moon, an adult book set in the Before You Go universe, soon, but I'm not working on it technically. My editor/husband has it... and it's almost ready for publication!
Thanks so much, Ella!!! I really enjoying reading all your answers to my questions! Ella will be featured again on my blog with review of her books Stained and Here in August...be on the look out!
And now, Ella has been generous enough to offer an copy of her book Stained! Just fill out the Rafflecopter below!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
I mean, this was always a dream of mine, to be a writer. When I was in high school I was serious about it. I wrote all the time in spiral notebooks and then would sit on our family PC and type up all of that scribble scratch. To this day I still have a box at home with all of my 3.5” floppies, each one marked with a story title (even though I no longer have a PC that will read them.) I queried publishers, spent the little money I had from part-time jobs on books about how to write, how to query, how to pick character names, etc.
I don’t even remember when I “forgot” that I wanted to be a writer. It just sort of drifted away. Maybe it was too many rejections. Maybe there was too much of “life” going on around me. Who knows? Then a few Christmases ago my boss bought me a kindle. *sighs* I love my kindle. It has opened up a huge new world of writers to me – Indie writers. When I read the story of one of those authors and her journey to self publishing, a little red blinking light started to go off in the back of my head. Then came the realization that I would be turning 35 that next year. Inside I began to panic. What happened to my aspirations of being a writer? I would soon be the big 3-5. Only five years to 40. OMG!
So, I joined a writer’s group on facebook. I lurked in that group for a long time. Observing, following posts, soaking up all that was going on. I remember the first time I posted something on that site… I read and re-read and re-re-read that post over and over to be sure it didn’t sound stupid and that it was grammatically correct. It was like hitting that post button was going to propel me into a new galaxy or something. Boy, was I ever right.
I can’t believe that just a year and 6 months later I am a twice published novelist. More than that, I’ve established a connection with some very special writers – these people, I believe, are now my life-long friends. I can’t imagine a day without hearing from them. And the most important thing I’ve been blessed to get out of this experience is the chance to connect with other “would-be” writers. It’s an honor to chat or message someo
ne just starting out and give them a little push towards some dreams of their own.
So where am I going? I have no idea. I’m just going to keep chasing these dreams. Because even if dreams get lost for a while, as soon as you find them you should never let them out of your sights again!
~Olivia
Olivia Hardin realized early on how strange she was to have complete movie-like character dreams as a child. Eventually she began putting those vivid dreams to paper and was rarely without her spiral notebooks full of those mental ramblings. Her forgotten vision of becoming an author was realized when she connected with a group of amazingly talented and fabulous writers who gave her lots of direction and encouragement. With a little extra push from family and friends, she hunkered down to get lost in the words. She's also an insatiable crafter who only completes about 1 out of 5 projects, a jogger who hates to run, and is sometimes accused of being artistic, though she's generally too much of a perfectionist to appreciate her own work. A nativeTexasgirl, Olivia lives in the beautiful Lone Star state with her husband Danny and their puppy Bonnie.
Posts
