Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
In a previous life, I was an Associate Director in a small consultancy firm in London (focusing on Sustainable Development and Climate Change) running research projects and writing client reports. I don’t actually find fiction writing too dissimilar in process but I get to use my imagination considerably more!
One part of my dream has already come true; I currently live in the south of France with my small daughter (I’m British) where we’re both navigating the French subjunctive! The second part would be to see my book in my local English bookstore. I’m an avid reader and have wanted to be an author ever since I discovered Enid Blyton and The Hobbit in a corner of my classroom; I’m working hard to make that wish come true. The Sham is my first book.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Sham is a YA contemporary thriller. The idea came to me in a nightmare… It was so vivid. I imagined I was 17 again, at school, in the same group of 4 friends that I used to hang around with. We were involved in a murder. I started writing partly as a way to get it out of my head and then the characters turned into real people… and Emily and Jack were born.
As some of the early reviewers have stated, it is quite extreme in chapter one, and necessarily so. This is the incident that sets up the whole book; something awful happens that sets off a train of events for the characters. This book is a mystery in two ways in that we’re: 1) trying to find out who killed Emily’s classmate; and 2) trying to work out who Jack is.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m not as bad as Victor Hugo: he apparently wrote in the nude, telling his butler not to give back his clothes until he had written enough! I can procrastinate a little too much but I don’t really have any unusual habits. I like to write as I listen to music.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I am a fan of a very diverse range of authors: I love the complexity of Donna Tartt (The Secret History more than The Goldfinch); the realism of Laurie Halse Anderson (Wintergirls is one of my favourite YA novels); John Green’s YA voice (The Fault in Our Stars); pretty much anything by Lionel Shriver (but A Perfectly Good Family and We Need To Talk About Kevin are on my list of books I wish I had written); and the page turning abilities of good YA authors such as Rick Yancey, Veronica Roth and Siuzanne Collins.
What are you working on now?
I have just started writing a new YA thriller but I’m very superstitious and I won’t discuss it until it’s a little more formed in my head. I plan to write the crux of it for NaNoWriMo in November and hope that it falls out of my brain and onto the page in a perfectly formed fashion!
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
You tell me! I published my book in September so I’m only in month #2. I’m trying lots of things at the moment, mostly getting reviews but it’s hard work and very labour intensive. I am, however, forming a gameplan for book number 2 that will be much easier because I’m hoping that I’ll know what to do by then!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I’m still a new author myself but there are several things that I have found invaluable:
1) You need to be constantly reading. As Stephen King says, “reading is writing”;
2) You need to read Stephen King’s book “On Writing”. It was the singularly most helpful thing in getting started; and
3) There are several websites that I love (amid a great deal of dross – the irony in reading advice on writing that isn’t well written!). The BBC Writer’s Room is brilliant as it has lots of tips, examples of great writing and tons of information on where to submit your work. The BBC was the first place to which I submitted anything (I wrote a piece for their “afternoon play” slot) and I got to the critique stage and received a full explanation of what worked and what didn’t. It really encouraged me to continue. I always try to keep up to date with the Guardian and Telegraph book sections too. From the US, I keep an eye on writersdigest.com and I find most of the posts on Mary Kole’s blog really helpful (kidlit.com).
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I think writing is like a lot of cultural careers in that you need a body of work behind you and maybe you will get lucky and find a solid audience with one piece more than others. Unlike singers, or poets for example, it can take years to write a book with no financial reward. You do it because you love it, because you simply can’t not write.
So, I think the best advice (particularly these days when everyone needs to market themselves) is to treat it like a career. One that you love. As Lionel Shriver says, “don’t make it a mystical process. Treat it like a job and get on with it”.
What are you reading now?
I’m reading several things at once. I normally have a book on the go with my daughter. Currently it’s “A Bridge to Terabithia”. I’ve just started Stephen King’s “Dr Sleep”, the sequel to The Shining, and am reading a YA novel, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”. After that I want to read “Sharp Objects” by Gillian Flynn, the YA book “Not a Drop to Drink” and start a Michael Morpurgo with my daughter. I’ve also ordered “The Hobbit” from my local french library as I want to do a re-read.
What’s next for you as a writer?
To see if I can write 50,000 words of my new book in November as part of NaNoWriMo. I like the idea of the challenge, although my daughter’s school holidays run simultaneously and I always find it much harder to write in those two weeks for obvious reasons; I’m with her!
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
This is tricky. I’m assuming that I wouldn’t be allowed paper to write with, i.e. empty books?
I couldn’t risk taking books that I hadn’t read before with one exception; I’d probably take the complete works of Shakespeare as I’d have time to read it! I would also have to take Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice because it’s my “go to” comfort re-read. Then I’d have to be practical and take a book on survival – how to make tents from a tree, how to skin crocodiles, how to make spears to catch fish, how to design clothes from coconut husks, etc. I’m not sure which one but possibly something by Ray Mears. If I was allowed one more, I guess I’d need one on vegetation/fauna; I’d have to know what to eat and which berries to avoid. I wouldn’t want to die before I’d been rescued and written my bestselling memoir “Notes from a desert island”…
Author Websites and Profiles
Ellen Allen Website
Ellen Allen Amazon Profile
Ellen Allen’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account