Please tell us about yourself and your most recent project.
I’m a full-time writer, publishing under a half a dozen names in fiction and non-fiction. My plays are produced in New York, Massachusetts, London, Edinburgh, and Australia. I provide business writing and editing services for an international client base, and I teach both online and in-person all over the world.
My latest novel release is the second Jain Lazarus Adventure, from Solstice Publishing, called OLD-FASHIONED DETECTIVE WORK. The first one, HEX BREAKER, paired up hex breaker Jain Lazarus with cynical detective Wyatt East on the set of an independent film with some preternatural problems. In OLD-FASHIONED DETECTIVE WORK, Jain disappears after a romantic weekend with Wyatt, and he’s the prime suspect in her disappearance. He decides to use old-fashioned detective work to track her down, although he winds up dealing with shape shifters, teens with paranormal abilities, and a cantankerous mermaid. He and Jain also start revealing their pasts to each other and having to face the consequences — many of which ratchet up in book 4, LOVE AND FURY. Book 3, on which I’m currently working, CRAVE THE HUNT, is mostly from Billy Root’s point of view. He became a fan favorite after HEX BREAKER released, and there was more to his story after HEX BREAKER.
I’m also in the process of releasing a series of non-fiction Topic Workbooks, based on classes and seminars I teach (since I have to cut back my teaching schedule). They cover areas like SETTING UP YOUR SUBMISSION SYSTEM, THE SERIES BIBLE: CREATION AND MAINTENANCE, CREATIVE STIMULUS, and the like. They’re up on Smashwords.
Now for Devon’s answers to our ‘weird questions.’
1. What CD is in your CD player right now?
“Beautiful Wasteland” by Capercaillie.
2. What is the meaning of life?
Be kind, but don’t stand by and allow cruelty by others.
3. What do you want written on your tombstone?
I plan to be cremated and scattered in the ocean; but I hope people remember me as committed to positive change, and I hope they throw a big party in my honor and tell funny stories.
4. What time do you normally get to be on a working day?
When that day’s work is done. Writing is not a 9-5 job. When you have a deadline, you honor it, not matter what else is going to hell in a hand basket in your life. There’s no such thing as “no time to write.”
5. If you could be born into history as any famous person, who would it be and why?
Shakespeare. I’d love to live that level of brilliance from inside.
Blurb for Old Fashioned Detective Work:
Detective Wyatt East finds himself the primary suspect when hex breaker Jain Lazarus disappears after their romantic weekend in Vermont. In spite of the suspicions, Jain’s boss, Maitland Stiles, hires Wyatt to track her down, forcing him to face aspects of his own painful past and revealing more about hers. Saddled with two rebellious runaway paranormal teens, he’s embroiled in a shapeshifter pack disagreement, and must learn to work with both a caustic dragon and a cantankerous mermaid to not only find Jain, but help her help an old friend who’s in over his head. Wyatt learns he is not without psychic abilities of his own, although he prefers old-fashioned detective work.
Links:
The Jain Lazarus Website: http://hexbreaker.devonellingtonwork.com
Devon Ellington Work: http://www.devonellingtonwork.com
Ink in My Coffee, a daily blog on the ups and downs of the writing life: http://devonellington.wordpress.com
Twitter: @DevonEllington