Aug 19, 2012

Author Spotlight: Ellie Rose McKee

Today I am welcoming Ellie Rose McKee, author of Still Dreaming for an interview. Enjoy...

Ellie Rose McKee is a Northern Irish born Author and Poet. She has lived in England on and off for the past 5 years and has a great love of art and photography. When not travelling or writing Ellie spends her time making YouTube Videos and training to be a Children’s and Youth Worker.

1. Let's begin with your book, can you tell us a few things about Still Dreaming?
Still Dreaming is the 1st collection of poetry and short stories I released, in May of this year. It includes some haiku and experimental fiction. I self published it, for international availability via Amazon (for Kindle), Gumroad (as a PDF) and Lulu (as an ePub and in Paperback).

The sequel, WAKE is due for release on September 28th 2012.

2. What triggered the idea of it?
I had built up a lot of shorter ‘works’ since I first started writing, many years ago, and wanted to do them justice instead of having them waste away on my hard drive. I also wanted to put together my work as a kind of portfolio, so I could showcase it to agents and/or publishers when the time comes to pitch my novel.

3. Where do you usually draw inspiration from?
I rarely set out to intentionally find inspiration. Often it just falls in my lap – triggered by a series of the most random thoughts. Writers block is not something I’ve ever experienced but sometimes having more ideas than hours in the day to write them down can be just as frustrating.

4. Do you have a specific writing progress you follow?
I’ll have an idea, sit down at my laptop and throw bits and pieces at Microsoft Word so I don’t forget anything I’ve come up with so far. Then I go back and fill in the gaps, rearrange paragraphs, read through about 5 times and then decide what to do with what I’ve created.

If I’m out, and nowhere near my laptop, I’ll write the idea(s) in a notepad and then add it to an Excel spreadsheet when I get home (more information about how I use spreadsheets in my writing process is on my blog- see here).

5. What do you think it's the best and what's the worst thing about being a writer?
You have the ability to create something you love and release it into the world – that’s a fantastic feeling! Unfortunately, however, some people do not respect the creative process – especially if you’re working from home. My family, for example, are either criticising me for spending too much time on the computer or asking me why my novel isn’t finished yet. It can be frustrating to say the least.

6. Do you have any tips for new writers?
As ironic as this may be - be careful whose advice you listen to. Do a lot of research and do not go searching for short cuts because most of the time, they’ll only set you back.

7. What should we expect from you in the future?
I’m currently finishing my first novel, a young adult dystopian romance entitled Rising from Ashes.

Where you can find Ellie Rose

Places to buy Still Dreaming

There is a giveaway running right now on Ellie's site so go enter to win Still Dreaming: 

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