Ellie Morris Books

  • Books
  • Contact Ellie
  • Gallery

Archives for June 2016

Mansions of Glass Novella Available Now!

June 25, 2016 By Ellie Morris Leave a Comment

I’m so excited to say that my book, Mansions of Glass, is now available to buy on Amazon and here! Whilst it is a lot shorter than When the Summer Ends – which is why I’m calling it a novella rather than a novel – I’m pleased that I’ve got closure on the loves and lives of my characters, as When the Summer Ends ended at rather a tragic point. This book is much darker than the previous book, though I can promise that it ends happily!

Synopsis: Aika Rowland, struggling with undiagnosed Aspergers, has always known what it is like to be alone. But not quite like this. Locked away in her quarters of an 18th Century chateau by her domineering, abusive mother, Aika is left to her own devices of imagination and the letters from her long-distance lover, Carrie Knox, to keep her sane.
Disowned by his mother, Buddy Rowland is torn between his love for men and loyalty to his family. Kept apart from his younger sister and the rest of the unit for being a bad influence, he must leave France before his chances of love diminish.
A tale of two runaway teens from a problematic, dysfunctional family, Aika and Buddy set off to find their own idea of happiness and normality.

Excerpt:

Everything was so fragile in this mansion of glass. The slightest retribution, the littlest remark could cause everything to come shattering down like perilous confetti, the kind that instead of bringing joy, causes one to lose an eye or scathe the skin. Everybody crept around for fear of breaking the glass, speaking in whispers, if at all. Nobody dared to raise their voice or pull any punches. Not in this house of glass.

Warnings:

This book contains contents that may not be suitable for younger readers, such as sexual scenes and dark themes, including abuse. Please do not read if you are sensitive to or get triggered by such themes (I really don’t want to upset anybody!). 

Available on Amazon as an eBook now! I’ll post links in the future when it becomes available for purchase on my website through PayPal and on Lulu in paperback.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HJY7PCU

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: books, finished books, Mansions of Glass

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

Follow Me

  • My Personal Blog
  • DeviantART

Recent Posts

  • Please Follow Me on my New Blog!
  • Coming Back, Finally (I Hope)
  • Day One of Getting Serious
  • Formulating a Plan
  • Still Getting Creative Ideas

Archives

  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • September 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • November 2015
  • January 2015

Return to top of page

Copyright © 2023 CompleteLifeDigitalSolutions.com. Website designed by James Morris