Author's Books

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I was always writing stories as a little girl. However, it was not until I was married and my husband encouraged me that I began to take myself seriously. It was probably being an only child that drew me to writing stories. As an only child you tend to spend a lot of time on your own. I was either reading or writing and when I was doing neither, I was at the “pictures” drooling over life in the USA in the nineteen fifties, which seemed idyllic. After all I grew up in Manchester just after the war and lots of things were on ration and it was quite a gloomy place during most of my child. Come “Rock around the clock” and things suddenly brightened up, come Elvis Presley and the sun seemed to come out!

A love of history drew me to writing historical novels and I published seven novels with a British publisher. I then turned to contemporary romantic fiction and had five novels published with the same company. These I wrote under my Grandmother’s name, Ellen Noone.

I had a time when I did not write at all, I was busy working. It was a fellow Whiskey Creek Press writer who encouraged me to start over, Loren Teague, the author of HIGHLAND REBEL. I met her in New Zealand, and she told me all about the new phenomena of ebook publishing. I was pleased to be taken on by Whiskey Creek Press and I am not just saying that because I am sitting on their website, but they are a good team to work for and I really mean that. Jinger Heaston does great cover work and my two previous editors did sterling work. Marsha Briscoe as senior editor is superb too. Thank you all!

My first two Whiskey Creek Press novels were well received by readers too, FORTUNE’S FOLLY and EDEN’S CHILD, the latter the WCP Bestseller for March 2007. I was over the moon when I heard that. I have another novel, BELOVED DECEIVER out this year and later HIS OTHER WIFE will be published.

I have a lot of fun with my writing. I love to go to new places and usually allow my characters to lead me. Usually a situation will come into my head first of all, then the character – of course I ask myself what would I do if…then I look around for a character and let them decide the way they want to go. Writing about men is no problem, all my male characters are romantic and sexy, they can be macho and alpha but usually they are the way they are with some justification. I think that Nevis my character in EDEN’S CHILD was right to be suspicious about Maddy. After all, it was his wife that had caused him a lot of heartache in the past. I like there to be tension between a couple and lots of emotion. I take them on a roller coaster ride and it is a lot of fun that way. Romance after all is a fantasy of sorts. We all know that our lives are not perfect. That’s why I like to finish a romance and call it finished and not to go on with the characters. If I did that I would have to load them with the problems we all have in our relationships and then it would be “real life” and not romance!

In FORTUNE’S FOLLY, for example, Andreas had been terribly hurt by his wife leaving him; he is unkind to her because he fears his feelings for her. He does not want to be with this woman who “dumped” him. In his society it was a total humiliation, as some man told him at a party. “Andreas took the youngest mare from the stables and could not ride her!” Not a thing to be said to a man like Andreas.

In BELOVED DECEIVER there are sparks between the characters but Flora cannot believe that Mars could ever love her! She is not the usual glamorous girl that he usually goes out with. But really it is because she is not the “usual” kind of girl he meets that he finds her attractive…eventually! So it can be good to be an individual and not run with the herd.

My next novel HIS OTHER WIFE I chose to write about the West Country in England, a place I particularly like. I lived down in Cornwall for some time and it is a very mystical county with a stunning coast line. However, I set the novel in Devon, which is different again – wild and wonderful in parts and very distinctive. I wanted to write about two people who had been damaged somehow. Although my hero Saul would never admit that his mother’s rejection of him hurt him, he is too masculine to do that, I think it is there in his character. My heroine Roxanne is very spiky. She has had a very hard life and is somewhat bitter and has a slightly skewed view of the world. Roxanne has to learn to trust. I love these characters and hope my readers will too.

Writing for me is so exciting, I never have a story in my head from beginning to end, and I just get onto the rollercoaster and hope it will get me to where I want to be. Sometimes it is agony – just when I think I have speeded on down, I come to another rise and have to let the carriage take me there. It is exhilarating when you finally see that the ride is coming to an end.

I like to go on long walks in the beautiful Lake District which is about forty miles from my coastal home. I find going on these rambles helps keep my ideas flowing. It is amazing the things that come into my head, I might even be in conversation with someone but a character will knock on the door of my mind and beg to be let in. It unleashes something in me; I just have to get outside to be able to get the inspirational juices flowing.

My life is quite happy just now. I feel so lucky. I am married to John and have been for thirty five years. I have a wonderful son, a perfect daughter-in-law and three lovely grandchildren. The only fly in that ointment is that they live in America, so I only get to see them once a year. Never mind, I am lucky that I have them and give thanks every day that I do.

Right now I have books finished and one on the stocks and one I am not sure about. One thing is for sure, life is never boring – it is fraught at times but you need a little bit of stress to keep you on your toes!

If you want to get in touch please visit my website and write to me from there. You will also find me at the Whiskey Creek Readers Group. Come and visit some time. Happy reading, folks!