Interview with Wendy Eli!

Please help me welcome fellow Lyrical Press author Wendy Ely to the Paranormal Romantics blog.

SS: Tell me a little about yourself. How long have you been writing? Have you always wanted to be a writer?

WE: I’ve been writing since I’ve been able to hold a pencil but started to take my self seriously as a writer last year. I treated writing as a hobby before then.

SS: What genre do you like to write best in?

WE: Romance for sure but romantic suspense is what I’m going towards now. It’s interesting to write and keeps me on my toes. I do have some contemporary romance book ideas ready to go for when the mood strikes.

SS: How do you find ideas for your books?

WE: Every where! If I see an interesting person while out in public, I’ll jot it down in the my idea notebook. News stories, conversations I overhear, a picture, a feeling… I never know when an idea will strike. I have notebooks full of them.

SS: How difficult is it for you to get into “writer’s mode”?

WE: I’ve trained myself to write every day so unless something is really bothering me, I tend to go into writer mode quickly. I’m super busy with my day job and full time college so I have to grab moments to write when I can.

SS: Speaking of day jobs, how do you balance both “worlds”?

WE: I run a small childcare. During the day, I get two hours usually of uninterrupted writing while the kids nap. I also work in the evenings but since I’m a single mom, this is hard sometimes.

SS: Do you have a specific place where you write?

WE: Usually on my couch with a laptop. Sometimes I’ll go to Starbucks to write but it’s rare.

SS: You’ve just had a book release. Tell me about it.

WE: Here’s the blurb for Jesse’s Brother : One woman, two men: a single summer to choose between them.

Sacrificing a summer to fix her relationship with her mother and find out what’s troubling her father isn’t so bad...right? Wrong. Or so Samantha learns upon her return to Portland.

As if family drama wasn’t bad enough, first comes Noah. Then comes Jesse. Samantha is torn between the way her heart skips a beat each time Noah looks at her, and the way Jesse’s touch make her yearn for more.

SS: Nice! How did the inspiration for this work come to you?

WE: I was dating two guys at the time. While having dinner with one of them, the other had called while my date was in the bathroom. I answered but kept the call short. Once off the phone, I started thinking how bad it could get with the two guys… and now we have Jesse’s Brother.

SS: Do you identify with the characters you write about?

WE: I guess I could identify with some of them. In Jesse’s Brother, Samantha sort of feels lost since she doesn’t know what to do. I’ve experienced those feelings before.

SS: You’ve recently signed with a new publisher. Can you give me some details?

WE: I’m new with Lyrical Press Inc. but have some other work under consideration with some other publishers. I really like Lyrical though. They do an amazing job with the books and are always there for their authors. With Lyrical Press, I have Jesse’s Brother, Confessions, and the rest of the Confession series once it’s finished. I plan to submit more to them in the future.

SS: You have several books in print/e-print. Do you have a favorite?

WE: I love Jesse’s Brother but Confessions would be my favorite. I could see how I’d changed as a writer in the past few years since writing Jesse’s Brother.

SS: Sounds like you're busy. What is your next project?

WE: I have a lot going on. I’m revising New Year’s Resolution to resubmit to two publishers, am writing a new story for a contest, and working on the series to send to Lyrical Press.

SS: Just for fun, what’s the most quirky name you’ve given a character and why?

WE: The hero in Dangerous Flames is named Mikolas Russo.

SS: Thanks so much for joining me today.

Still interested in learning more about Wendy? Visit her website at http://www.wendyely.info or drop her an email at wendy_ely@wendyely.info