Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work.
Today, Keelan Ellis – Keelan Ellis is an east coast girl for life (probably), a progressive, a lover of music and musicians, a mother of two very challenging girls, a loyal though sometimes thoughtless friend, a slacker, a dreamer and a bad influence. She likes true crime podcasts, great television and expensive craft cocktails made by hipsters in silly vests.
Thanks so much, Keelan, for joining me!
J. Scott Coatsworth: When did you know you wanted to write, and when did you discover that you were good at it?
Kelan Ellis: I always knew I wanted to write. I wrote a few things as a kid, including a play about civic responsibility that I wrote for a contest in second grade. I won twenty-five bucks. But mostly my writing wasnāt things I put on paper, but kept in my head. Making up stories has been the way Iāve fallen asleep since as long as I can remember. I always thought I could do it, but I didnāt start working on it as a craft until my late thirties. I donāt really know if Iām any good at it, to be honest. I donāt have any perspective on my own writing.
JSC: How would you describe your writing style/genre?
KE: I write stories about people. I value both plot and character, but itās important to me that the plot of a story serves to illustrate aspects of the characters. I donāt want to tie myself to one genre. I enjoy writing romance, but I do sometimes feel like it ties my hands. I like a happy ending too, but I donāt always want it to happen by the end of the first book. I want to write about characters who have interesting lives, full of many loves and experiences. I want them to find someone in the endāI think most of us want that for ourselvesābut most people donāt fall in love only once in their whole life. There are things to be learned through falling in and out of love, and through trying and failing to make a relationship work. I want to write about that sometimes, as well as the One True Love fantasy.
JSC: What was your first published work? Tell me a little about it.
KE: The first thing I published was a novel, Iāll Still Be There. I always have a terrible time trying to describe it. Itās partly a story about two young men, best friends, who encounter some horny ghosts. Itās partly about the lives of those ghosts, who died in the late nineteen-sixties and had some interesting experiences over the course of their own relationship. Itās two love stories in one. It also highlights some of the struggles and victories that gay people have faced over the last fifty or sixty years, both the personal and the political. Early on there is a raid on an underground gay bar, and the book ends with the wedding of two men. I didnāt set out to tell that particular story, but I realized that I had the opportunity to do that during the process of writing it.
JSC: Whatās your writing process?
KE: I have to let my little seedlings of ideas grow a bit in my head before I put anything to paper. Then I talk to my friend Morgan and she talks me through it, asks me questions and very often gives me ideas for what direction to take things. Then I write down a few details about the characters and make an outline that I never actually follow. Actually writing the first words is always scary to me. I have a huge fear of failure that kept me from writing for a very long time.
JSC: Tell me one thing hardly anyone knows about you.
KE: Well, if youāve had a few drinks with me, thereās basically nothing you wonāt know. Thatās probably what hardly anyone knows, now that I think about it. Iām an introvert and also pretty shy, so most of the time I play pretty close to the vest. What people donāt realize is that I have A LOT to say. I just need someone to listen and something to loosen my tongue.
JSC: Do you write more on the romance side, or the speculative fiction side? Or both? And why?
KE: I would say both, plus Other. My first two books have been about ghosts, and I also have a fairy tale to be submitted to an anthology soon. I have a dystopian novel in the planning stagesāthough my schedule for this year doesnāt currently have any room to write it.
I have a contemporary romance currently under review with Dreamspinner that Iām very happy with, plus two sequels to that planned. Right now, though, the thing Iām most excited about is a detective series. Iāve been working on a detective novel for the last three years. Itās actually the first novel I ever completed, but Iāve had a hard time finding a publisher. Iāve rewritten it three times. Itās not romance. The protagonist is a gay police detective, and he does have relationships throughout the course of the series, but the books donāt have HEAs and theyāre not structured like romances. I may have a publisher soon, finally, and it would make me so happy. That character is like a real person to me after living with him for so long. I know people will love him if they get to know him.
JSC: What pets are currently on your keyboard, and what are their names? Pictures?
KE: My dog Penny woke me up early this morning to go out and pee, so sheās sitting close by. Normally I have my coffee in bed while I write for an hour before my kids get up, and my feisty little girl cat, Begbie, sits on my husbandās pillow. Thereās also Edison, who was a feral kitten we rescued from a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike, and who is now a big fat fluffball who loves to sit on our laps and make our legs fall asleep. Over the summer we lost the sweetest cat ever. His name was Lloyd and we got him before we were married, in our first apartment together. He was seventeen.
JSC: Are you a plotter or a pantster?
KE: I used to be a pantser, but I discovered that being a plotter helps me get past blocks faster. So now Iām a very rough plotter, I guess. I make an outline but Iām constantly revising it as my characters continue to do whatever they please.
JSC: If you could create a new holiday, what would it be?
KE: It would be Writers Week. You heard meāa week. All writers would get an entire week where theyāre not required to attend to any responsibilities whatsoever, or even get dressed if they donāt feel like it.
JSC: What are you working on now, and when can we expect it?
KE: I made a schedule for myself this year! I have never done that. As far as life goes, I have always been a proud pantser, but this year Iāve decided to be a plotter (subject to my whims and whatever life throws at me). I have given myself through February to finish the Young Adult novel Iām working on. Itās basically a coming of age story, set in 1986. Thereās a first love, but thatās almost incidental to me. The main relationship is between the main character, a gay sixteen-year-old boy, and his uncle, who is estranged from everyone in his family except his sister and her son. I donāt want to say too much, although there are things you might be able to guess from the setting, but Iāve been thinking about this one for a long time. I came of age in the eighties myself, so itās been an interesting experience trying to put myself back there. Iāve been listening to lots of Smiths, Depeche Mode, New Order, etc. which has been fun. I listened to a Housemartins album yesterday and wrote 3Kāit was great. There are also things about the book that are not fun to write. The eighties were shitty in a lot of ways. I hope people of all ages will read the book and I hope they like it, but itās something I really wanted to write for kids coming of age now. As far as when youāll see it, I have no clue. I donāt self-pub (at least, I havenāt yet) so I donāt have a ton of control over it. I hope itās before the end of 2016!
And now for Keelan’s new book: Anywhere You Go:
Jess Early and Eli Dunn, owners of Ruthās Haven Bed and Breakfast, love married life. Every jealousy bump and insecure thought is just another expected growing pain. But with Jess redefining his relationship with his best friend and ex-fiancĆ©e Cassie and Eliās friend Travis staying with the guys while going through marital problems of his own, things havenāt been feeling quite right between them.
Not to forget, the homeās ghostly previous owners, Clay Bailey and Silas Denton, still reside in their former bedroom and delight in making their presence knownāincluding invading Travisās dreams in an attempt to help. They give Travis a vivid glimpse of their adventurous trip to Paris in the early 1960s and some insight about his marriage.
With tensions mounting, Eliās father suffers a heart attack. Now Jess and Eli must remain strong and at the same time confront their evolving feelings. The young coupleās struggles become a lesson in the true meanings of love, loyalty and marriage.
Excerpt
āWhat do you think, anyway? That Iām a terrible person and Elijahās some kind of glutton for punishment? I know Iām not any ray of sunshine, but I do love him. I do nice things from time to time.ā
Travisās face went blank for a second, and then he held his hands up. āNo, Iām sorry. I donāt think youāre a terrible person. I just–I donāt really know you, Jess. I know Eli, and I really like him. Heās a good guy, and I feel…I donāt know, kind of responsible for him in some way.ā
āWell, youāre not,ā Jess said flatly. āI am. Heās my husband, remember? Youāre his friend, and thatās great, everyone needs friends. And thatās why Iām being so goddamn nice and giving him the day to hang out with you. Donāt make me sorry I did, huh?ā He picked up his coffee cup and went inside.
He went upstairs to shower, but before he went into his room he turned to look at the door at the end of the hall. He wanted to talk to them, but it was dangerous to go in there with Travis still in the house. If he happened to come up to get dressed it could quickly turn into a disaster. Or maybe it wouldnāt; it seemed that Clay and Silas had a little more control over their actions than theyād originally claimed, or perhaps known. Still, it wasnāt a risk he should really be taking. He started to turn the knob on his door, then stopped. If he didnāt do it now, he didnāt know when heād get a chance. He damn sure wasnāt going to do it when his father-in-law was in the house.
That made up Jessās mind, and he went into his room the grab the key from the nightstand drawer. Heād be quick; he only needed to ask them one thing, anyway.
He couldnāt feel them at all when he first entered, which was pretty unusual. āHey. I only got a minute, can you talk?ā he said. A few seconds passed, and Jess thought about leaving. He was nervous being in there. āWhere the hell are you two?ā
Weāre here.
āOh. Well…good. Listen, did you guys do something to Travisās phone last night?ā
There was silence, and then there were two voices in his head, talking over one another.
We just wanted to scare him.
We didnāt know it would break.
At least in our day telephones didnāt break if you just dropped them on the floor.
Why doesnāt he have one of those…what do you call it, like you have on yours?
āA case,ā Jess laughed. āYeah, I donāt know. Pride goeth before a fall, I guess.ā
Is he very upset? He looked pretty upset last night. Can they fix it?
āHeās all right, just irritated. They can fix it, but this being the backwater that it is, he has to drive a few hours to get to a place that can do it. Elijahās going with him, so Iām sure heād thank you if he knew.ā
Sorry kid. Unintended consequence.
Jess smiled. āI told him to go. Iām trying to be okay with it. I am okay with it. Itās fine.ā He felt them laughing at him, so he said, āWhatever. You never felt insecure?ā
We should tell you about the time we went to Paris.
āIād love to hear it, but I need to get out of here before he comes upstairs.ā He started to leave then paused. āWhyād you want to scare him, anyway? Not for me?ā
He keeps getting calls from his man. He plays the messages out loud on his phone and looks sad but he never calls back.
āTheyāre having some problems. Maybe you should cut him some slack,ā Jess said, fully aware of the irony of him giving that advice.
They didnāt reply, but the temperature in the room suddenly dropped about ten degrees.
āOkay, fine. Talk to you two drama queens later.ā
Buy Links
Dreamspinner: Click Here
Amazon: Click Here
Author Bio
Keelan Ellis is an east coast girl for life (probably), a progressive, a lover of music and musicians, a mother of two very challenging girls, a loyal though sometimes thoughtless friend, a slacker, a dreamer and a bad influence. She likes true crime podcasts, great television and expensive craft cocktails made by hipsters in silly vests.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keelanellisauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KeelanEllisAuth
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13923273.Keelan_Ellis