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.

Midwest Book Review on THE COLD ROOM

Reviewed by Christy Tiller French

Due to restructuring of the Nashville Metro Police Department, homicide detective Taylor Jackson's been demoted from her prior position of lieutenant. If that isn't bad enough, she's being pursued by a serial killer called the Pretender. Now another serial killer's in Nashville, one who abducts young black women, starves them to death and, after performing necrophilia, poses them per scenes from famous paintings. It isn't long before Jackson's fiance, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin, connects Jackson's serial killer to one he's been investigating in Europe named the Conductor. Jackson and Baldwin team up with Scotland Yard detective James "Memphis" Highsmythe, and the chase is on as the three try to determine if they're dealing with only one killer or perhaps two. As the investigation proceeds, Jackson's trying not to be distracted by the chemistry between her and Highsmythe, which is unexpected and confusing, and her superior's strange actions, which are hampering her efforts to investigate her case.

This fourth installment of the Taylor Jackson series is as suspenseful and intriguing as the first. This psychological thriller is gritty and realistic and filled with intense action. The chemistry between Jackson and Highsmythe, although not expected, is nicely delivered. Jackson's a great character, a woman who's tough mentally and physically but a real softy on the inside. The colorful backdrop of Nashville is a bonus to readers, as is Ellison's intelligent writing.

PW Review of THE COLD ROOM Audio Book

"Ellison's fourth Taylor Jackson thriller finds a serial killer murdering young women in both the United States and Europe. Such an international crime brings New Scotland Yard Detective/profiler James Memphis Highsmythe into the investigation, causing an unexpected hitch in homicide detective Jackson's romantic involvement with fiance FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin. But personal feelings or no, the trio must pool their resources to find the serial killer known as the Conductor in the United States and Il Macellaio across the Atlantic, before he can strike again. Joyce Bean is perfectly cast; her narration keeps the book moving at a steady pace and infuses the prose with just the right amount of menace and suspense. Her reading of the killer's chance encounter with a young woman destined to become his next victim is chilling. Even when the writing may be a little over the top at times, Bean's performance is down to the ground solid. A Mira paperback."

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

I'm so happy to see Joyce Bean getting the recognition she so richly deserves - I have been blown away by her reading of the first four Taylor books! She turns the words on the page into a rich, detailed story, with the perfect inflection. Thanks, Joyce, and thanks, Brilliance!!! (And PW, obviously...)

If you're interested in purchasing the audio books, click here.

Happy Birthday, Yeats

In honor of Yeat's birthday today, I thought I'd share a favorite poem, one that was instrumental in pulling together the plot of ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS. I remember reading this as a young girl and loving it, though I couldn't comprehend its meaning at the time. I still love it - the powerful imagery, the horror, the seductive voice... I happened across the sculpture in Rome, at an exhibit on Eros at the Coliseum. Seeing it live was a true highlight of that trip, especially since I had just finished writing ATPG and I'd used the poem as a clue. Stunning, powerful, evocative - that's my Yeats. LEDA AND THE SWAN A sudden blow: the great wings beating still Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill, He holds her helpless breast upon his breast. How can those terrified vague fingers push The feathered glory from her loosening thighs? And how can body, laid in that white rush, But feel the strange heart beating where it lies? A shudder in the loins engenders there The broken wall, the burning roof and tower And Agamemnon dead. Being so caught up, So mastered by the brute blood of the air, Did she put on his knowledge with his power Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?



Paradox of Choice

I have a dilemma.

Thankfully, it is neither life threatening, nor particularly important. It's really rather silly, truth be told. But it is a dilemma nonetheless, one that’s bothering me tremendously.

I have bought a ridiculous number of books over the past couple of years. Books of all shapes and sizes. Books that cover the spectrum of topics: crime fiction to theology, historical fiction to fantasy, productivity to ancient Roman wars. I’ve bought so many that my buying to reading ratio is in excess of about 20:1. And that’s being generous to the 1.

I have accumulated quite a beautiful library. It spills into four rooms. And that TBR pile, the one that I used to have panic attacks if it dropped below ten books, now numbers in the hundreds. So many that we were forced to buy three large floor-to-ceiling bookcases to hold them all. We jokingly call it the Ellison Family Lending Library. The term is more than applicable.

With so many books to choose from, I’ve suddenly lost the ability to make a choice. It’s like walking into a bookstore on any given Tuesday and being overwhelmed with the sheer numbers of books on the shelves. So many times, I end up buying something on coop or a wall because it's face out. It’s easier. I take chances on new to me authors all the time, but it gets too distracting to wander the stacks (and disconcerting, now that I know so many of the people I read. Every time a familiar name comes up, up pops the last conversation we had, or the realization that it’s been too long since we’ve been in touch, or…)

You get the idea.

I've lost the love of browsing.

When I started writing, there was something like 170,000 books published per year. Now that number has doubled, what with digital and self-published books on top of the slew of traditionally published novels. (And they say reading is dead. I beg to differ.)

New books that I want to read are thrown at me daily. Blogs, magazines, Facebook, Twitter – I’m constantly finding material I must have. It’s gotten to the point that I find myself loading the bookshelves (which are now overflowing, the non-fiction double stacked and the fiction forced into face-out coop) and promising myself I WILL NOT BUY ANY MORE UNTIL I FINISH ALL THE BOOKS ON THE SHELVES.

So we’ve established I have a book fetish. Okay then. Here’s where you come in.

It’s gotten so bad that I don’t know where to start. With names I know and trust? Alphabetically, starting with the As and working my way through? Or should I start at the end and work backwards? Next in series? New to me? Fiction? Non-fiction?

(Ahhhhhhhhh – screw it. I’ll just reread Harry Potter.)

Told you this was a ridiculous problem.

I told Randy of my predicament, and he said “Paradox of Choice.”

“Huh?” I asked.

“There’s a marketing concept called the Paradox of Choice.”

Then he went on, using small words so I could follow. Sometimes, his marketing stuff, especially the complications of statistical sampling, are well beyond my tender abilities. But this, this I understood immediately.

At it’s most basic, here’s the definition of the paradox if choice: if consumers have too many choices, they’ll either get confused and pass on making a decision, or will revert to brands that they recognize. Say you’re going to the bookstore, and you’re assailed (as I often am) with a plethora of choices. Too many choices. You see a James Patterson novel, and seize on it. You recognize the name—you’ve read his books before, you were satisfied, so you buy that. No searching, no discovery. Just a mindless choice. An easy choice. Because who has the time to put into making a decision anymore?

This is me. This is my dilemma. I have too many options, so I’m just not bothering and returning to the books I know will transport me, instead of taking a chance on something new.

Turns out there’s a lot more to this. A guy named Barry Schwartz wrote a whole book entitled PARADOX OF CHOICE: Why More Is Less. Here’s a great quote from the book that sums it all up pretty well:

Autonomy and Freedom of choice are critical to our well-being, and choice is critical to freedom and autonomy. Nonetheless, though modern Americans have more choice than any group of people ever has before, and thus, presumably, more freedom and autonomy, we don't seem to be benefiting from it psychologically.

Choice.

When I look at that quote, my life comes into sharp focus. Over the past year, I’ve been minimizing. Getting rid of the excess. Unitasking as much as possible. Trying to enjoy life, a moment at a time, rather than rushing forward into my future. We’ve given away half of our household.

We’ve cut our expenses, too. We only buy things that we need, and when we do buy something, it must replace an older version of itself. New shoes? Sure, but I have to get rid of at least two pairs first. iPad? As cool as it would be to have (and trust me, I LUST after it) I got a Nook instead. Cheaper, does what I need it to do, and gives me great pleasure, and no possibility of eye strain! iPhone 4.0? Absolute necessity – when my iPhone 3G dies or the Verizon rumors come true.

(Note on that last, I’m trying, very hard. I may cave, we’ll see. But why buy a new phone when mine is working fine??? )

We have been actively practicing the less is more mentality, so I find it ironic that I’m suffering from more is less with my reading material.

I long for the days when my reading order was determined by when the book was due back to the library. It was so simple. Or the days when I would not leave a book unfinished. I must have eight books lying around that I’ve started and lost interest in, or ran out of time, or simply couldn’t get into and put back on the shelf for another day. And that’s just in the living room.

So I ask you, if you had hundreds to choose from, and you were becoming paralyzed by your ability to actually commit and finish a book, where would you begin? Any and all coping mechanisms are welcome.

Wine of the Week: Heredad Ugarte Crianza 2005 Inexpensive and lovely.