Ask the Author: Ellen Read
Answered Questions (5)
Ellen Read
My inspiration came from a few different directions. Many years ago, I visited Werribee Mansion in Victoria, Australia and I absolutely fell in love with it. I thought that one day I would like to write a story with a house like that in it. So, this house inspired me to create Thornton Park, which is the home of the Thornton family.
Another source of inspiration came from a short story I’d written many years ago about an Indian antiques dealer who visited a manor house in England. He brought a tiger statue to sell to his client. Murders started happening and the daughter of the house suspected the tiger came to life and killed people. The antiques dealer was involved in a cult that demanded sacrifices. So, I thought I might take that basic idea. However, I have since written a book with tigers in it, and I didn’t want to repeat it. Instead, I chose a dragon. When I think of dragons in the real world, not fantasy, I think of Chinese dragons. This led me to think Ming Dynasty Dragon statues. I have always had a love of antiques.
Another source of inspiration came from a short story I’d written many years ago about an Indian antiques dealer who visited a manor house in England. He brought a tiger statue to sell to his client. Murders started happening and the daughter of the house suspected the tiger came to life and killed people. The antiques dealer was involved in a cult that demanded sacrifices. So, I thought I might take that basic idea. However, I have since written a book with tigers in it, and I didn’t want to repeat it. Instead, I chose a dragon. When I think of dragons in the real world, not fantasy, I think of Chinese dragons. This led me to think Ming Dynasty Dragon statues. I have always had a love of antiques.
Ellen Read
The first draft took 2 months. Further drafts, editing again and again, and the publishing process together brought the length of time to 14 months.
Ellen Read
I’m editing my new novel, which is set in Victoria, Australia in 1927. I chose that year as it is after the Great War (that we now know as World War I) and before the American Stock Market crash of 1929, which signalled the beginning of the Great Depression of the 1930s. It was a hedonistic time when young people knew they could enjoy life without the threat of war hanging over them. It has mystery and romance in it.
Ellen Read
I was in the middle of packing and moving house and wanted something smaller to write than the novel I was revising. I looked through some short stories I wrote years ago and found Love The Gift. It was very short and it needed some revision. It was set in England in the early 1900s. I decided I'd like to set it in Australia and Sutton Forest appealed to me as just the right location for the house and Charlotte's walled garden. I'd been there a couple of years before. It is such a beautiful place. As I started thinking about the story, I felt I wanted it to have a contemporary setting with a time shift to 1905.
Ellen Read
I never sit at the computer and stare at a blank document waiting for inspiration to come to me. I think ahead about what I'm writing for the day. However, sometimes the characters or the story starts to go in a different direction to what I intended, which may seem odd but it happens. When it does and I need to think things through, I always leave the computer and walk around, or have a coffee, or read someone's else's book for a few minutes. Then I can go back to the computer feeling refreshed.
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