Interview with Devon Ellington

Devon Ellington’s writings are as diverse as she is talented. Devon publishes under a half a dozen names in both fiction and non-fiction. Her work appears in publications as distinct as FEMMEFAN, NEW MYTHS, ESPRESSO FICTION, THE ROSE AND THORN, GRIT, WILD CHILD, EMERGING WOMEN WRITERS, TOASTED CHEESE, VISION, THE SAVVY GAL, BLESSED GARDENS, HAMPTON FAMILY LIFE, THE ARMCHAIR DETECTIVE, and ELLE.  She writes the column The Literary Athlete for THE SCRUFFY DOG REVIEW, and her plays are produced in New York, London, Edinburgh, and Australia. Work appears in anthologies including PERFECTLY PLUM, SIMPLE PLEASURES OF THE KITCHEN, and FULL CIRCLE.  The first book in the Jain Lazarus series, HEX BREAKER, released in August 2008, and the second book, OLD-FASHIONED DETECTIVE WORK, will release in Spring of 2009.

 

Devon, your work certainly has been varied.

 

I’d like to discuss the origins, the process and the early days of your writing.

 

Where do you think your writing comes from?

 

It’s the way I process life, so the writing comes from life experience, wondering what makes people tick, exploring motives and psyches, asking “what if?” all the time.  And from character.  Characters start “talking” to me, telling me their stories, and then I go back and structure it to make it stronger.

 

When and why did you begin writing?

 

 

I’ve been writing since I was about six years old, to make sense of the world around me.  I started reading when I was about two, and it was a natural extension.  I got away from it in college, because I worked in the technical end of theatre and film, but got back to it seriously in the mid 1990’s.

 

How do you come up with your ideas and settings?

 

 

Sometimes it’s a character, who comes to me and starts telling me the story.  Sometimes I’ll see a small item buried in the newspaper that gets the creative juices flowing, or visit an historical site and want to know more about the people who lived here.  Sometimes a place inspires me, and then the characters appear and tell me their stories.  I use Scotland, Northumbria, New England, and Iceland a lot in my work, because they evoke a great deal of passion in me.

 

 

What is your process? Do you have any rituals? Do you adhere to a writing schedule?

 

 

Because this is how I make my living, I don’t have the luxury of writer’s block, so I definitely have a schedule.  I get up early in the morning, feed the cats, put on the coffee, do my yoga, grab the coffee, and then do my first 1K of the day.  I need to do the creative work before I’m “tainted by the day”.  Then I jump back and forth all day between projects.  If I’m not working a show at night or out with friends, I might have another writing session at night.

 

Your writing career has been diverse and exciting. What motivates Devon Ellington?

 

 

I’m interested in almost everything except math and anchovies.  Writing is a way of living the many lives I won’t be able to live in real life.  But I can immerse myself in other lives and live them while writing the book. I can be many people in one.

 

Tell us about the early days in your writing career. What was the first piece you wrote? What inspired you?

 

 

The first piece was a poem for my dad’s birthday that I wrote when I was about six.  The early days of my career were mostly writing monologues for actors with whom I worked, and then those evolved into plays which are done in places like New York, London, Edinburgh, and Australia.  Again, inspiration comes from everywhere.  As a writer, every single thing we experience on any level is potential material.  When we do our jobs properly as writers, it often evolves far from the actual kernel of inspiration, but almost anything in life can set off the creative flame.

 

What do you read for pleasure? What’s the book sitting on top of your to read pile?

 

 

I read several books a week, both as a paid reviewer and for pleasure.  Plus, I read a lot of science, biography, and history as research for my work.  Right now, the top of my TBR pile is a book called THE FRONTIER WORLD OF DOC HOLLIDAY that I’m reading as background for a western that’s on deadline.  This western is set slightly earlier than a few others I wrote, and I have to get the details right.

 

What has influenced you the most in your writing career?

 

 

Curiosity.  I want to how things work and why people behave the way they do.

 

What’s on your desk right now?

 

 

Too much!  Piles of correspondence, papers to be filed, computer disks, my guardian gargoyle, notes jotted down at odd angles.  On the shelf above that holds my big printer, I have some Halloween decorations scattered, a small statue of the Eiffel Tower, some crystals, a laughing Buddha, a Ganesh, a picture of violets, and an ankh.

 

 

What’s in your future? What are you planning to do next?

  

I’m juggling a bunch of projects on deadline, preparing to launch a short fiction site called Penny’s Dreadfuls (http://pennysdreadfuls.devonellingtonwork.com), working on another ebook for writers, and more Jain Lazarus work.  I’ve got a couple of novels out on submission, about three more almost ready to go, and I’m just crazy enough to do Nano again this year.  Plus I have to juggle the freelance business and article writing to pay the bills.

 

Now I’d like to discuss Hex Breaker, your first Jain Lazarus action/adventure/-paranormal/romance.

 

 

What is the premise of Hex Breaker? Tell us a bit about the book.

  

Jain Lazarus is a professional hex breaker.  She’s got experience working in wardrobe (as I do, although that’s about all we share), so when her friends call her from the set of a cursed film, she comes to help out.  She winds up partnering with a very practical detective named Wyatt East and they have to deal with things like zombies, ceremonial magicians, the town wife-beater, and the messenger of the gods.

 

 

How did you come up with the idea for Hex Breaker?  

 

 

The opening scene came to me in a dream.  I have a friend named Randy who is a fellow wardrobe person (and whose name and cadence I borrowed for the book), and he was also in the dream.  We laughed about it the next day at the show.  The scene where Jain decapitates the zombie and the scene where she, Billy, and Nick are chased late at night in the car came to me late one night as I returned from long days on a television project.  Jain then appeared to me and started telling me her story, and it kind of flowed from there.  She tied everything together.  Originally, I thought it would be a one-off, but these characters had so much more to them, it turned into a series.  That was not the intent when I first submitted it to its current publisher, but it kind of grew, and, bless her, my publisher rolled with it.

 

I love the names of the characters in Hex. How did you come up with them?

 

 

My characters often name themselves.  Sometimes I pick names that have a thematic meaning within the story’s context, but, in this case, they named themselves.  I wanted to change a few names, but the characters said, “Um, I’m sorry, I know what my own NAME is, thank you very much.”  So I gave up. 

 

With Jain, I knew her last name would be “Lazarus” for the connotation of rising from the dead, since Jain works with the dead.  “Jain” went well with that, especially in the unconventional spelling.  “Jane” just didn’t quite work.

 

 

Did you know from the beginning how you would end the book?  Are you a methodical plotter or do you let the book lead you?

 

I had a vague idea where I’d go with it.  I knew where I wanted to end it, but the how revealed itself as I wrote.  Wyatt East wasn’t even supposed to be in this book.  Jain’s foil was supposed to be the actor, Billy Root.  Wyatt kind of strolled up in chapter two and took over.  I seriously considered killing him off at one point, to clear the way for Jain and Billy, but none of the characters were having it.  And, truthfully, Wyatt’s a better match for Jain.  OLD-FASHIONED DETECTIVE WORK, which releases next spring, is told through Wyatt’s eyes, and the third book will be told through Billy’s eyes.  It all worked out.

The longer I write, and the more I write on contact, the more I tend to plot ahead.  I plot ahead less with the first drafts of the Jain Lazarus books, because the characters tend to lead me in interesting directions.  I do have an overall idea of the arcs and the points I want to hit, but I fill in as I go.  With a lot of my other work, I do much more detailed plotting.

However, I can’t write much about my characters before the first draft, or I lose them.  Once I’ve written the book and it’s off to the publisher, I go back and fill in the details in a character notebook for the series characters, so I can keep the continuity from book to book, but if I write down a lot of character information before I start, the character leaves.  I’m bereft.  Some people do dossiers on their characters prior to writing.  I can’t.  I can answer the most obscure question about any of them, as long as I don’t write it down.

 

 

Is there a message in the book you’d like your readers to grasp?

 

Both Jain and Wyatt are strong and resourceful.  They’re friendly and helpful and care about the people around them, but they’ve also shut down from genuine intimacy and trust.  Through these stories, I think they’re learning to trust again. They’re both learning it’s okay to accept help as well as give it, which I think a lot of people have trouble with. Wyatt’s also learning that he can be practical AND open to paranormal perception. 

 

 

 Where can we learn more about Devon Ellington?

 

I’m juggling a lot of sites right now, so there’s a wide variety of options!  I publish under a half a dozen names – nothing like being six different people before lunch, right?

My blog on the writing life, which integrates most of the different projects, is Ink in My Coffee:  http://devonellington.wordpress.com

The site for the Jain Lazarus Adventures, with excerpts, downloads, etc., is:  http://hexbreaker.devonellingtonwork.com, and HEX BREAKER can be purchased through FireDrakes Weyr Publishing at www.firedrakesweyr.com and hop into the bookstore section.

My main Devon Ellington website is:  www.devonellingtonwork.com.  That also features pages for some of the other pseudonyms such as Ava Dunne, Christy Miller, and Christiane Van de Velde.  The e-books geared to helping writers improve their work are also available on the “Bazaar” page of that site.

The new site for retro-futuristic-pulp short fiction that will launch in November of 2008 is Penny’s Dreadfuls:  http://pennysdreadfuls.devonellingtonwork.com

I’ve got a blog about reading, writing, book buying, author interviews, etc.:  http://biblioparadise.blogspot.com

There’s a site to help you set goals for your creative life:  http://goalsdreamsresolutions.wordpress.com

I write about tarot, hearth magic, etc. under the Cerridwen Iris Shea name, that site is: www.cerridwenscottage.com.  I’ll have a page up there shortly for “The Merry’s Dalliance” which is a set of pirate fantasy stories on a ship named The Merry’s Dalliance, captained by Kit Erskine.  NEW MYTHS published the first story of the series in their Fall 2008 issue.

The business writing site, which also lists workshops and other services, is:  www.fearlessink.com

MySpace pages:

http://www.myspace.com/devonellington

http://www.myspace.com/jainlazarusadventures

Thanks so much for including me!

 

 

 

Thank you, Devon. And for more about Devon Ellington, follow the links above.

Thank you for reading and come back to see us again.

 

All the best,

Joyce Adair