Exclusive Interview About All the Pretty Girls

Alex Martin with Midas PR did a great job with this - check out more of their author interviews here.

ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS releases in the UK August 20, 2010

Do you consider yourself a success?

This question, among others, was posed to me a few weeks ago by social activist and researcher Haegwan Kim, who interviewed me as part of the ongoing project for his blog, The Law of Success 2.0.

Here is a transcript of the interview. Feel free to add your own feelings in the comments. Such a subjective topic, this could be interesting...

Do you consider yourself successful and why?

I absolutely do, but it has nothing to do with how many books I sell. I’ve been married for fifteen years, which is my greatest accomplishment by far. We’re happy, both pursuing our dreams, both self-employed and finding out what’s really important in our lives. It’s not money, it’s not success, it’s not fame. It’s love, and joy, and laughter every day. With that as a base, everything seems to fall into place for me. Plus my husband supports my career 100%, always has, and that makes my life easier. He understands when I need to hermit, or when I blurt out unimaginable scenarios in the middle of dinner, or that moment in conversations when I drift away because I’ve just had a great idea…

I’m also rather disciplined, which is helpful. I have an innate sense of guilt when I’m not working, so I tend to just go ahead and get the work done so I can play. And I’ve been careful to check my ego at the door, not get bogged down in things outside of my control. I have a great team around me, my publishers and editors and agent, plus my close friends, and they all keep me very grounded.

What is the most important element to be a good author?

Being a dutiful observer, first and foremost. I tend to see things that other people gloss over. Truth be told, I look at people and situations in a completely different way from most people. One of the things I hear in conversation over and over is “I didn’t notice that.” So paying special attention to your surroundings, to the faces, the eyes, the lips of people, is a great start. Stare. You’ll see so much. Actually make eye contact. Smile. It’s amazing what you can read off people when they respond to a smile.

Second to that is being a reader. I don’t know any successful authors who aren’t voracious readers.

How and where do you find your creativity for your masterpieces?

Everywhere, but dreams most of all. The entire plot of my debut novel came from a dream. I wish that would happen more often. But creativity, writing, is a job. I don’t wait for inspiration to strike me, I harness it and ride it to the ground. You can’t wait for the Muse to delight you, you’ll never make your deadlines!

What is your goal as a best-seller author?

To entertain as many people as I can, to write books that are fun, can touch people, scare people and make them think. It’s such a capricious industry, I focus on what I can control, which is writing the best book I possibly can every time around, and hope for the best with the rest.

Could you please give us your advice for being successful, not as an author but as general life?

Be true to yourself. You can’t be in life what your parents want you to be, or your spouse, or your friends. You must follow your heart, your gut and your soul to your rightful place. I know that sounds a big touchy feely, but it is so true. Happiness creates success. Contentment allows the creative process to bloom. Be happy with yourself and your success will follow. People think they need so much – new cars, bigger houses, better clothes, thinner thighs. If you stop and focus on what really matters, your true self will emerge, and you’ll be shocked at what you don’t need, and how creative and successful you’ll be as a result.

In the Handbasket Today

Morning, all!

I've been interviewed by the brilliant, talented and always stylish Laura Benedict over at her blog, Notes From the Handbasket. We discuss THE COLD ROOM, writing creepy scenes, and the correct response to happening upon bird-eating spiders.

Check it out here!

Update on 2010-05-01 20:18 by JT Ellison

Check this really cool analysis of the story behind THE COLD ROOM from today's Barnes & Noble Mystery Blog, written by Jedidiah Ayers...

Laura Benedict interviewed writer J.T. Ellison about her latest Taylor Jackson thriller, The Cold Room, on her blog yesterday. It’s the fourth title featuring the Nashville homicide detective and she’s up against a serial killer known as the Conductor, who kills his victims bloodlessly—once abducted, he starves them inside a glass coffin—before, (ahem), consummating the relationship. It’s, yeah, disgusting and horrible and creepy, but as Benedict puts it, “creepy is just what I look for in a killer novel.”

From their interview:

Laura Benedict: You've talked about how, after writing the first chapter of The Cold Room, you were so surprised (alarmed?) by the story's content that you had to take a step back from it for a while. What made you return to it?

J. T. Ellison: I was completely creeped out. The very idea of a man, so seemingly normal, revealing his true self—and that self is a very, very frightening human being—gave me chills. And the line was so innocuous on its surface, so simple and straightforward... I think I was a little surprised by my own capacity to tap into this guy’s mind so early in the process of a book. Normally it takes me a while to get into their heads, but Gavin, he was there right away.

But the Conductor isn’t through with them. Not yet. He proceeds to stage artistic scenes with his victims something that has also been happening across the pond. Is the Conductor working in Europe too? Are there more homicidally enthusiastic art collectors working in tandem? Competing?

Makes for a gripping book, but one so far outside of reality that you don’t get too uncomfortable reading it, right?

I dunno.

Craig McDonald's book Toros & Torsos created a link between some grisly murders early in the twentieth century (climaxing in the 1947 killing of Betty Short, the Black Dahlia), and the surrealist art movement (check out the can't-look-away Exquisite Corpse). Recently, McDonald, whose books are always rooted in lore and scholarly, “informed supposition” posted on his blog about new disturbing evidence that his own imagination is never going to trump reality. (Shudder) Who wants to end up matching a Dali anyway?

Any other wild premises that have caught you off guard when their true parallels have been revealed?

Jedidiah Ayres writes fiction and keeps the blog Hardboiled Wonderland.

My Book, The Movie

Marshal Zeringue, of the fabulous CAFTAR network, invited me to play a wonderful game - who would I cast if the Taylor Jackson books were made into a movie? I think we might be on to something, especially for our new characters McKenzie and Memphis. Here's the transcript from My Book, The Movie:

J.T. Ellison is the bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Taylor Jackson series, including All the Pretty Girls, 14, Judas Kiss, and The Cold Room. She was named “Best Mystery/Thriller Writer of 2008” by the Nashville Scene.

Here she sketches out some casting options for a big screen version of The Cold Room:

"I normally shy away from giving detailed ideas of who I think would be a good actor or actress to play my characters would they get made into a movie, because I don’t like to put someone in the mind of the reader before they have a chance to decide on their own.

But my wonderful readers have lots of ideas about who should play homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson, and FBI Profiler John Baldwin. Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron and Blake Lively are all favorite contenders, though I’d have to throw Amanda Righetti into the mix as well – she’s got the exact profile I imagine for Taylor. And Baldwin is always a clean-cut up Hugh Jackman, or Thomas Gibson, though Baldwin’s green eyes are one of his commanding features, so I’m not sure the perfect actor has been picked for him yet. I’ll throw a new thought out there… Depending on how he ages, Chace Crawford wouldn’t be a bad choice.

The Cold Room has a couple of new characters in it, namely Renn McKenzie, Taylor’s new partner, and James “Memphis” Highsmythe, the Viscount Dulsie, and Detective Inspector for New Scotland Yard. McKenzie is hard – he’s serious, and not everything he seems on the surface. Someone like Leonardo DiCaprio would be a good fit.

Memphis, on the other hand, leaps off the page at people. I based him on a very physical version of Daniel Craig and features of Trevor Donovan, but my editor, with no reservations whatsoever, immediately saw him as Simon Baker. We’re both big fans of The Mentalist, and ever since she said that, I haven’t been able to get Baker out of my head when I’m writing Memphis.

So there you have it. An Aussie to play an upper-class Brit. I bet he could pull it off!"

Learn more about the book and author at J.T. Ellison's website and blog.

My Book, The Movie: the Taylor Jackson series.

The Page 69 Test: The Cold Room.

The Sordid Junk

...that goes through a writer's brain...

Steve Weddle, from the cool blog DO SOME DAMAGE, interviewed me this past weekend in Charlottesville at the Virginia Festival of the Book. Enjoy!

JT Ellison interview with Steve Weddle from Steve Weddle on Vimeo.

(And yes, I am Italian.)