Books-n-Kisses is pleased to welcome for her first visit to our blog Emma Elliot.
Emma, can you please share with us a little about yourself?
I currently live on the east coast and consider myself a wandering homebody. I love to travel, and thankfully I have a job that affords me many opportunities to do just that. I have an indefatigable love of westerns and war movies, cold weather, good books, scarves, polka-dots, Irish wolfhounds (and just dogs in general), yoga, cardigans and button-up blouses, hand-written letters, pillows, Burt’s Bees lip balm, hiking, and Williams-Sonoma’s peppermint hot chocolate.
Have you always wanted to be an author?
Truthfully, I cannot remember a time when I didn’t love the cadence and rhythm and wonder of language. To write has been a life-long goal and dream of mine.
Some of my first memories are of sitting on my father’s lap and, at the age of three, reading to him from the children’s book Are You My Mother? I have loved words from the time I realized that scribbles on a page were connected and, when grouped together with skill and imagination, could form worlds and lives, love and loss, magic and music and something able to transport and uplift and broaden the scope of our existence. I think there is little as powerful as story. History has shown that with the tradition of tales told and recorded throughout the ages. If there is anything that connects all of humanity, it is our love of stories.
At this point in my life, it’s not my career, but eventually I would like to be able to write fulltime.
Are you a plotter or a pantser? And you explain the difference?
Strangely enough, as obsessive about order and details and lists as I am, I’m a pantser when it comes to writing. At least to some extent. I have a rough idea of where the story will eventually end up and the hurdles through which the characters have to jump to get there, but I don’t plot or outline or create storyboards or conduct the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator on the characters. Perhaps I should, though…
What is your most interesting writing quirk?
I have this pair of wicked purple ankle boots with a four or five inch heel that a friend gave to me for my birthday not too long ago. Don’t ask me why, but I had to wear them when I did my own revisions of the rough draft. Whenever I was editing that first draft, I wore those shoes, and it wasn’t as if the rest of my attire matched. Usually it was something like a fuchsia t-shirt, blue skiing penguin pajama pants, and said wicked purple ankle boots with the killer heels.
Can you please tell us about your latest book(s)?
At its heart, A Thin, Dark Line is about family, perpetuated secrets, revenge, and redemption.
Eloise Carmichael, a librarian and a member of the most well-to-do family in Dogwood, Ohio, hires Cormac O’Malley, a man viewed as the town’s pariah after spending over a decade in prison, as a handy-man. His return is the catalyst for a series of murders, and Eloise finds herself in the role of Cormac’s defender even as she uncovers long-buried secrets that may destroy everything she knows and prove him guilty.
How did you come up with the idea for this story?
My original idea was of a young woman who feels as if she’s at a crossroads in her life, who is lonely despite the love of her friends, whose life intersects with a man who has always been on the outskirts of society and who is hiding volatile secrets that could destroy everything she knows. The germ of the story came to me on a Wednesday morning in April 2010. I was a nanny at the time, and I was sitting on the floor with Elizabeth in my lap at our local library for the weekly children’s story time when Eloise and Cormac showed up in my head. Elizabeth and I went home, I prepared lunch for her, read her a few of her favorite books, settled her down for a nap, and then started writing.
Can you share with us your current work(s) in progress?
I have a couple of different projects in the works right now. One is an historical, set in Wyoming territory, near Yellowstone in the 1870s. It revolves around a group of men who have banded together and are attempting to save bison from being hunted into extinction—and around the woman who stumbles into their lives. The other is related to A Thin, Dark Line, but it’s still in the idea phase, so I don’t want to say too much about it.
Who is the one author that you would love to meet someday and why?
That’s difficult to choose, because there are so many I would have loved to meet, if they were still alive today. Mary Stewart is my absolute favorite author in this era of fiction writing. I love all of her books: her seamless blending of subtle, classy romance and breathless suspense; the rich descriptiveness of places, so much so that the settings are entities unto themselves; the strong secondary characters. I wrote her a letter once–she’s in her nineties now—and she replied with a handwritten note. I have it framed. I would love to sit in her garden with her and talk over a cup of tea.
What is the best piece of advice you would give to someone that wants to get into writing?
If you’ve a passion for writing, you can make it happen. I don’t have any sage words to offer on how to accomplish it, because writing is such a solitary, personal endeavor that’s different for everyone. But I think perseverance and discipline are essential.
Can you share with us something off your bucket list.
I’d love to visit the Marquesas Islands—a remote part of the French Polynesia—one day.
What is in your To Read Pile that you are dying to start or upcoming release you can’t wait for?
I’m ashamed to say that as busy as I’ve been this summer with work, I haven’t been keeping up with new or upcoming releases. I hope once the summer traffic slows down I’ll be able to begin stockpiling books again.
What is one book everyone should read before they die?
My favorite book is “The Night Country,” by Loren Eiseley, and everyone should have the pleasure of reading it. The book is a collection of archeological/anthropological essays, which sounds dry, but it is a brilliant, poetic pondering of the nature of man.
What is your favorite time of year & why?
Autumn wins out over winter by only a slight margin. I love the skiing and the cold and the silence of snow-laden forests of winter and that I can get away with wearing my unfashionable LL Bean snow boots all season. In autumn, there’s the chill in the air that warrants a scarf and mittens, but you can still get away with defying a coat. The leaves are burnished, the air is crisp, festivities abound, and there’s the excitement for the coming winter. I love everything about the fall.
Who is your Celebrity crush? And what would you do if you ever meet them?
Tom Selleck, especially in his younger days. He has tall, dark, and craggily rugged down to an art. If I were to ever meet him, I’d ask him if he knows where I can find a copy of High Road to China, one of my favorite movies of his. I’d probably be uncouth and ask if he would sign it as well.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Thank you for hosting me today! It was a pleasure.
Learn more about Emma here:
Blog: http://emmaelliotauthor.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/elliotemma.author
Twitter: https://twitter.com/emma_elliot
Fun interview – didn’t know about the Williams Sonoma Pepermint Hot Chocolate – I’ll have to get some to try:) I am a huge fan of Mary Stewarts too – especially her book The Ivy Tree – read it as a young teen and still remember it to this day. I love the sound of A Thin Dark Line – I’ll have to give it a try.
Great interview!