Author Interview ~ Mary Ellis

Mary Ellis

 Mary Ellis has written twelve award-winning novels set in the Amish community and several historical romances set during the Civil War. Her latest, Midnight on the Mississippi, first of a new mystery series, Secrets of the South, is set in New Orleans. Before "retiring" to write full-time, Mary taught school and worked as a sales rep for Hershey Chocolate, a job with amazingly sweet fringe benefits. Mary enjoys traveling, gardening, bicycling and swimming, and lives in Ohio with her husband, dog and cat. She can be found on the web at: www.maryellis.net or on Facebook.

TBB: Hello, Mary! Welcome to The Borrowed Book. How long were you writing before your first publication?

ME: I started writing around fifteen years ago, finishing two historical romances set during the American Civil War. At a writing conference I was able to land an agent who had faith in my work. She suggested polishing the first manuscript which I did to the best of my abilities. She, however, was unable to find “a home” for my books. Although I received positive feedback from several publishing houses, I was also told “there was no market” for Civil War romances. My agent suggested a genre change and I took her advice. After publishing a dozen romances set in the Amish culture, my publishing house decided to publish my historical romances, although the current books bear little resemblance to my freshman efforts. I learned much about writing over the years, and both books were completely rewritten. However, I’m proud to say nuggets of my original inspiration remain today in all their glory.

TBB: Are you a morning person? A night owl? How do you arrange your schedule to allow the most efficient, productive time for writing? 

ME: I am definitely a morning person, but the creative muse only visits after several cups of coffee. I start out with emails, social media, and promotional endeavors, and then open my work-in-progress and give-it-a-go, as my British friends would say. Evenings are for relaxation and family. As far as nighttime? I’m usually in bed by nine-thirty, so a “night owl” I am not.

TBB: Do you ever read your dialog aloud to see how it sounds? Have you ever performed an action you want one of your characters to carry out in order to help you visualize or describe it? Have you ever embarrassed yourself doing this? 

ME: I usually read my dialog aloud for a realistic feel. Often when I walk my dog, I talk to myself and work out plot twists and conversations between two key characters. I find this helps me once I return to my computer. My neighbors initially thought me quite mad, however, I’ve lived on this dead-end road for so long, everyone has more or less gotten use to me. My husband and I are still invited to our quota of neighborhood get-togethers.

TBB: If you felt the Holy Spirit urging you to quit writing, would you do it? 

ME: Absolutely, I would. The Holy Spirit, which dwells in my heart, is never wrong. Every time I heed the Holy Spirit I thrive. And each time I attempt to “go it alone” I flounder. So if the Holy Spirit was urging me to quit, I would do so.  So far that hasn’t happened, but our Lord knows His children and what is best in each “season” of their life.

TBB: Do you prefer writing the initial draft, or do you enjoy the revision process more? Do you revise as you write, or do you first produce a big mess that you later have to fix? If your first draft is rough, do you usually have to cut out a lot of dead wood, or add flesh to the bare bones?   

Harvest House, 2015

ME: Oh, my…what an easy question! I absolutely hate revising. So I must edit as I go along. Yes,

it’s slower that way, but I can’t stand having a mess on my hands when I get done with my story. That’s not to say the book doesn’t need a thorough “going over” before I send it to my editor, but I do fix a lot of errors as I go along. I have left all the “editing” until the end, and I almost pulled out every hair on my head trying to untangle the ball of yarn. Everyone writes differently, but after twenty or so books, this works best for me.

I hope you’ll look for Midnight on the Mississippi at your favorite bookstore or online retailers.

Available at CBD:

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And at Barnes &Noble:

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Meet Author Sandra Merville Hart

Sandra Merville Hart loves to find unusual facts in her historical research to use in her stories. She and her husband enjoy traveling to many of the sites in her books to explore the history. She serves as Assistant Editor for DevoKids.com and is a contributor for a collection of stories about answered prayer in Jesus Encounters, (Spring, 2015.) She has written for several publications and websites.

Listen in as she answers a few of our questions.

Has your writing affected your reading habits?

I love to read, but now I notice how authors build tension. I notice their descriptions of people and settings. I guess reading has become another opportunity to learn the writing craft.

That's very true! You said you've always loved to read. Did you always want to be a writer?

I wanted to be a writer in elementary school but received no encouragement. My dad told me I'd starve to death as a writer. I buried the dream, but it returned to me about ten years ago. I love creating new characters and plopping them into historical settings. I'm having a great time!

Who inspires you? (Not Dad, obviously, though his advice was quite practical.)

I'm inspired by great authors. I've read several books by Mark Twain recently because I write historical fiction. This master storyteller inspires me.

I'm inspired by the courage I find in people who face insurmountable challenges and somehow find a way to get through it.

I'm inspired by those who cling to their faith when it's all they have left to hold on to.

I'm inspired by a friendly smile, a warm welcome, and how good old-fashioned hospitality feeds the soul.

I find inspiration anywhere and everywhere, if I only take time to discover it.

What in particular gave you the inspiration for your Civil War romance, A Stranger on My Land?
While researching for another novel, I discovered that local citizens lived in caves on Lookout Mountain when armies remained near. I wondered what it would have felt like to find a wounded soldier on your property after a Civil War battle. It surely happened. Would you walk away and leave him to die if he fought for the other side? What if members of your family fought for the opposite army? Does that change anything? Suppose you help them anyway and fall in love?

These questions sparked the idea for the story.

Your book is a Christmas romance set during the Civil War. Can you tell us more about it?

It's an inspirational novella that released on August 21, 2014.

Carrie and her little brother, Jay, find Adam, a wounded Union soldier, on their land after a battle near their Lookout Mountain home. Carrie takes Adam to the cave where her family has been hiding from the soldiers. Before long, she falls in love with him, but she can't save his life. He requires a surgeon. Carrie weighs the potential danger of revealing her family's hideaway with saving Adam's life.

What is your current project?

I'm writing my first romantic suspense novel. I'm having a lot of fun with it, but, as I don't outline before I write, the characters are letting me know the story. Just last week I discovered two clues at the same time as my characters!

I have the same experience. Those characters tend to take over sometimes. What's your favorite genre to write?

My favorite genre to write in remains inspirational historical romance. My next project is another Civil War romance. This one will be set in Gettysburg.

Thank you, Sandra, for taking the time to visit with us!

Readers, if you'd like to know more, you may find Sandra blogging at DevoKids and The Barn Door Book Loft, or on Facebook, Pinterest, or Goodreads.

Want to buy A Stranger on My Land? You can find it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in print or ebook format.

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Notes from the Beach by Author Dorothy Love

Though I’ve lived most of my life in landlocked states—the exception being the years I lived in Southern California—I have always been a beach girl. My perfect day begins with a pre-dawn walk on the beach, hands wrapped around my coffee mug, my eyes on the frothy swirl and retreat of the tide as I look for whelks, angels’ wings and other gifts from the sea. Then the awe-inspiring first seam of fiery light on the horizon as the sun comes up, sending a shimmer of pink and gold light across the water. 

It’s a little slice of heaven right here on earth and one that I’ve recreated in my new novel, Carolina Gold.  Set in and around Georgetown, South Carolina and on Pawleys Island, Carolina Gold is inspired by the life of Elizabeth Allston Pringle. After the Civil War, Mrs. Pringle returned to Chicora Wood, her family’s sprawling rice plantation on the Pee Dee River to resume cultivating the superior strain of rice called Carolina Gold. In the two books she wrote about her life and work, she describes in detail the necessary annual move from Chicora Wood to the family’s beach cottage on Pawleys Island to avoid yellow fever, which the planters called the “country fever.”

Yellow fever was the scourge of the South in the 19^th century; every summer, port cities such as Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, Memphis, and New Orleans braced for the onslaught. In some years the death toll soared into the thousands. Families who could afford to get out of town for the summer did so, either to the beach, to Europe, or to the resorts of Saratoga, New York.  

Each year, sometime in May or June, the rice planters on the Pee Dee and Waccamaw rivers loaded their household furnishings, livestock, and personal belongings onto flatboats and made the journey to Pawleys Island.  There they remained until the first “black frost”—a hard killing frost that got rid of the mosquitoes and made it safe to return inland.  As one of the Allstons wrote:  “To remain in the country during the summer would be suicide.”

The distance from Chicora Wood to the family’s home on Pawleys Island was only four miles as the crow flies, but to get there required a seven mile trip by boat and another four miles by land. 

For Elizabeth, called Bessie, the trip was worth all the planning and time it required.

“I was born at the seaside,” she wrote, “and from that time until I was eighteen, the move from the plantation to the sea beach at the end of May, and the return home to the plantation the first week in November were great events and a perfect joy...To me, it has always been intoxicating; that first view each year of the waves rolling, rolling, and the smell of the sea, and the brilliant blue expanse: but then I was born there and it is like a renewal of birth.”

Bessie’s words served as the perfect metaphor for the life journey of my fictional character Charlotte Fraser in Carolina Gold.  Like the real-life Bessie, my Charlotte returns to her family’s plantation after the war, virtually penniless but determined to keep the promise made to her father: to restore the plantation to its former glory and resume growing rice. But the house is in ruins thanks to the Yankees, the slaves are free, and everything of value has been stolen, right down to the bed linens. When summer comes, Charlotte makes the journey to her family’s cottage on Pawleys Island.  It is there that she experiences a renewal of her own and regains her perspective on the events that have altered her world forever, and it is there that she finds love with Dr. Nicholas Betancourt, who is harboring deep wounds of his own. 

I look forward to my annual trip to the South Carolina sea islands. They are indeed intoxicating. I loved writing about the haunting beauty of the Lowcountry, its convoluted and tortured past, the endless mysteries of the sea and the simple pleasures it affords. I hope readers enjoy their virtual “beach time” in the pages of Carolina Gold. 

Dorothy Love is the award-winning author of numerous

books for adults, preteens and young adults. Her popular Hickory Ridge series, set in her native Tennessee marked her return to her writing roots in historical fiction and introduced readers to her trademark blend of history, mystery and romance. Love’s latest release, out this month, is Carolina Gold. Her next book, a romantic mystery set in antebellum Savannah, will be published in 2014. She lives in Texas with her husband and their golden retriever and welcomes readers at www.DorothyLovebooks.com and at www.facebook.com/dorothylovebooks.  

Come back Friday for a chance to win a copy of Dorothy's newest release, Carolina Gold!

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Got Popcorn? We Have a Video

We're excited about a new release this month by our own S. Dionne Moore.

A Heartbeat Away is a civil war romance that takes place in Sharpsburg, Maryland. This is right near her home turf, the beautiful Cumberland Valley in South Central Pennsylvania.

The book is Sandra's eleventh title altogether (three of which have been Carol Award finalists), and the seventh in the Quilts of Love series by Abingdon Press.  Her other books include the three very fun Latisha Barnhart mysteries as well as seven historical romances set in Pennsylvania and Wyoming. Interested? Check them out here on her website.

But before you do that, we've got a special treat for you: a trailer for Sandra's new book:


       
AHeartbeatAway - Medium from S. Dionne Moore on Vimeo.

Make sure to stop by tomorrow to enter to win a free copy of A Heartbeat Away!

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The Myth of Writer's Block by Author S. Dionne Moore

        I hate to say this, but writer’s block might just be another way of saying “undisciplined.” It’s hard to write when the words aren’t flowing. I’ve been to that store and shopped in their gift store. Those days feel like walking through heavy, wet snow, at least 12” inches deep in the blowing, frigid wind, with a wind chill factor of 0 degrees. Getting the picture?             
       The point is no one likes hard days. We want everyday to be a 2500 word count goal accomplished-within-3-hours type of day. But life just doesn’t work like that, and as creatures prone to emotion, we often find ourselves unproductive not because we can’t be productive, but because it’s easier not to be. 

Ask anyone who writes for a living, with multiple deadlines, and they will tell you that they don’t have time for writer’s block. These are the people who will be productive and make progress consistently. They are also those who new or young writers will hold in awe. “You do 2500 words a day? I wish I could do that.” Well, you can. There is no secret to breaking through writer’s block except just doing it. Sitting your soft spot in a chair, focusing on your story, and tapping out the words, one sentence at a time. 

The process of writing a marketable product doesn’t come magically but only with experience. The more you write and participate in classes on writing--absorbing the subject as a whole--the more honed your storytelling will become. You begin to understand the connection between backstory and characterization, as well as the power of defining goal, motivation and conflict before you start. Does this do away with seat-of-the-pants writing? No, absolutely not, but it is much easier to stay within the parameters of your story when you have built the framework for the character’s journey ahead of time.

Many times a writer becomes discouraged one-third of the way into writing the story and claims writer’s block, but those are the times your subconscious is probably turning you back toward your GMC and synopsis. Exploring these outlines often hold the key to the reason why the story has become derailed. This is why you need this backbone--a synopsis--pounded out before you begin writing. It will save you from deleting a lot of words. And it will become the map you use to write your story and avoid becoming mired in the myth that is writer’s block.

Moore enjoys life in the historically rich Cumberland Valley where traffic jams are a thing of the past and there are only two stoplights in the whole town. 

A three time Carol Award finalist, Moore is celebrating the release of her tenth historical romance, A Heartbeat Away, part of the Quilts of Love series by Abingdon Press. Visit her at her site: http://www.sdionnemoore.com

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