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Fresh Inspiration and Excellent News

November 29, 2016 By Ellie Morris Leave a Comment

Life has been busy recently, and I haven’t had any time at all for writing, unfortunately. In other news, recently I’ve been sewing, doing college work, and some great things have happened; I visited Prague earlier this month, and last month I got a girlfriend, whom I like a lot and have been spending my weekends with. I’m having a lot of fun and feel very happy lately, despite not having much time to write or blog.

However, this weekend, Stella (my girlfriend) and I visited Waterstones in Lancaster and came across a lovely range of children’s books, all bright, cheerful and gorgeously illustrated. In all, we spent an hour and a half in the store,  milling through for illustrations, nostalgia and classics. It was brilliant fun, and I was filled with inspiration and the urge to pick up my art again.

I also found one illustrated book that I particularly liked, called The Liszts by Kyo Maclear and Julia Sarda; the style is very interesting, and I love the colour palette. Stella and I read it together, and we both really enjoyed it despite it being more aimed at children. It has inspired me to want to draw covers for my books myself, and do some illustrations for the chapters too! I’m pretty excited thinking about it.

I’ve had the idea that I can re-release When the Summer Ends and Mansions of Glass as special editions, filled with my own illustrations (perhaps three for each chapter, if I’m lucky) in a style that I can work with. After all, I am an art student at the moment, and although I’ve been off drawing for a while, I’m very inspired now! The edition will also be edited and revised to make it the best it can potentially be. I’m getting a new graphics tablet for Christmas, so I shall get to work during the holiday season, around writing Roses for Margaret and future books!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: books, illustration, personal, When the Summer Ends

Interview With Urban Lit Magazine!

June 1, 2016 By Ellie Morris Leave a Comment

Urban Lit Magazine, ran by Danielle Urban, is a new magazine promoting and helping self-published authors. The issues are available on Amazon, and feature interviews with authors, book reviews, articles on writing, and prompts to get you writing!

I’ve been fortunate enough to have an interview featured in issue five of Urban Lit, the June magazine. Here are the questions and answers, shared here with permission from the magazine.

 

ULM: Can you briefly tell us, readers, what your debut novel, When the Summer Ends, is about?

EM:
When the Summer Ends is about a young girl, Aika, who grows up facing a lot of uncertainty and anxiety due to her dysfunctional, selfish parents and estranged brother. At the time, Aspergers and Autism Spectrum Disorder weren’t commonly diagnosed for those that were very high functioning, at least not as we know it today, so she struggles blindly with friendships and the other things that life throws at her until she meets Carrie Knox, her first friend and love.

ULM: Who were your hardest characters to create and which ones were your easiest?

EM:
For me, Aika Rowland was the easiest character to write as we are both on the Autism Spectrum and go through similar challenges; her perks and interests also closely mirror my own, and we have a very similar personality and reactions to certain things. Despite being my polar opposite, Carrie was extremely fun and easy to create, as I imagined her to be my ideal kind of person, a person that I could get along with easily and find myself falling in love with. I just wrote her as I imagined my ‘perfect’, dream best friend to be: fun, outgoing, hilariously awkward and lovably clumsy, as well as a buccaneer adventuress! Celeste – the absent mother – was also rather straightforward to make up, as I could simply go all out and create the harshest, most self-absorbed person I could think of; she may have been a mix-up of film and book characters I had seen before, but I can’t help but love to hate her.
As for the hardest characters to create, these had to be some of the minor characters, such as the brothers Pierre and Buddy, as at this stage I hadn’t explored options or futures for them, and therefore I got a bit of a blank whenever it came to write from their perspectives. In the upcoming book – Mansions of Glass — however, Buddy gets more of a voice.

ULM: What are three words you would use to describe your novel?

EM:
Painful, dramatic, and honest. Painful because there is a lot of heartbreak and stomach-churning trepidation in Aika’s world, dramatic because there is always something furtive and wrong going on in Jubilee, and honest seeing as I didn’t want to tone down the themes of social marginalisation, mental illness, and adolescent love. I wanted to tell it as it is, at least in my heavily dramatized imagined town and interpretation of the 1950s.

ULM: What are your three tips that you would give to other writers?

EM:
I would say, allow the characters to explore their own avenues after a period of time. No plot is set in stone, and sometimes other, better ideas can come in from the most unexpected sources. For example, the end of When the Summer Ends came to me in a dream, and it taught me to count all ideas as possible outcomes. Usually I hate changing things, but this time it was for the best.
Also, keep a diary, notebook or even an art journal full of all the ideas that pop into your head. Writing things down is always a good idea, as every little thought counts and could contribute to a really interesting future story.
As I mentioned above, an art journal or a sketch book is also an excellent idea, even if you have no skills in drawing. I was once stuck on a certain chapter and didn’t know how to set about typing the beginning, when I sat down to draw a picture of how Aika would look, her expression and how she would hold herself, as well as what she was wearing and where other characters were located in relation to her. This helped me put pen to paper and describe what was going on. Or if you can’t draw, perhaps even pasting down words from newspapers or scribbling colours to set the mood could generate some ideas. Mind-mapping is also a great idea for beginning.

ULM: What are your future plans for novels, if any, that you can share with us readers?

EM:
Mansions of Glass is currently in the works, the second novel that takes place from where When the Summer Ends trails off. At the same time, I’m also working on and editing two other books – Carrie’s Valentine, a novel about Carrie’s life written in collaboration with a good friend, and Roses for Margaret, a story about life in an all-girls school and coming to terms with illness and sexuality. Most of my future novels will deal with themes of mental health and LGBT romance, as these are themes that interest me the most.

ULM: Where can readers connect with you and find your work online?

EM:
My main, official website is elliemorrisbooks.com. I also use Tumblr: http://elliemorrisbooks.tumblr.com/ and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/elliemorrisbooks/

 

Thank you so much to Danielle for the interview! I’ve been very pleased with the whole experience, and grateful for all the help. You can buy the magazines here if you are interested.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: interview, magazines, Urban Lit Magazine, When the Summer Ends

Paperback Copy of When the Summer Ends Available Now!

May 6, 2016 By Ellie Morris Leave a Comment

Through Lulu, my book has been converted to paperback and it arrived today! I’m so excited, and it seems to be okay! If you’d like to order When the Summer Ends in paperback, you can find it here.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Lulu, paperback, When the Summer Ends

Tumblr and Role Playing Blog

April 14, 2016 By Ellie Morris Leave a Comment

Recently I’ve created a new Tumblr blog, specially for my books and role-playing as my book characters. I used to be a really big role-playing fan on Tumblr, playing as characters from Stephen King books, such as Annie Wilkes from Misery. Since then I had a huge break from Tumblr due to exams and real-life getting in the way, but now that I’ve got a smaller schedule (college, writing and sewing), I’ll be able to get some use out of my writing blog!

Drop me a line on Tumblr if you’d like to have a RP with either Aika or Cherry – I can do anything, really, such as OCs and certain fandoms (Wizard of Oz, Jeeves and Wooster, Stephen King’s It – these are what I’m into at the moment, as I’m not a big fandom person), horror, romance, drama, etc.

So far I’ve got a RP with Patrick Hockstetter on the go, with my good friend Angie, and perhaps another RP through emails using original characters. It’s a good way to gain inspiration and make friends.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: RP, Tumblr, When the Summer Ends

The When the Summer Ends Drinking Game

February 29, 2016 By Ellie Morris Leave a Comment

Through editing I’ve realised that many of the themes in When the Summer Ends gets repeated an awful lot. Perhaps that is a good thing? Is it symbolism? I don’t know (and I should).  Either way, here is a drinking game you can play whilst reading the book (with tea, of course!).

Take a sip whenever:

  • Aika gets nervous
  • Somebody cries
  • Somebody creeps around, scaring everybody
  • Cherry swears
  • Buddy does something aggressive
  • Cissy is mentioned to be wonderful
  • Cissy sings
  • There is a Jeeves and Wooster reference

You’ll end up either very intoxicated or sick to death of tea. Make sure to eat plenty of cakes, too!

 

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: drinking game, just for fun, When the Summer Ends

When the Summer Ends On Sale Now!

January 11, 2016 By Ellie Morris Leave a Comment

After weeks of proof-reading and nerves, I’ve finally taken the plunge and published my first novel to Amazon! I’m thrilled, and at the same time, nearly fainting with anxiety, hoping very much that at least some people will like it.

You can get it from Amazon now for 2 pounds and six pence ($2.99), or free on Kindle Unlimited in a few days (I’ll let you know when I’ve sorted the ins and outs of Kindle Unlimited). Reviews are incredibly welcome, especially of the kind and positive ilk! Here it is.

Hope you enjoy it! Give some love to Nami, who illustrated the cover at her Instagram!

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: finished books, When the Summer Ends

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