Welcome to Fallen Angel Reviews, Ellen! We are glad you are able to take the time to answer a few questions about your book Love Remembered and writing in general.

Thanks very much for interviewing me, Miriam. I’m glad to have discovered Fallen Angel Reviews. It’s a gorgeous site with great reviews!

How long have you been writing seriously? What inspired you to take the plunge into the publishing world?

I wrote a historical romance in college—a full four hundred pages of horrifically bad writing. After college I put it away and forgot about it, to the unending relief of a grateful world. (This book was a real howler, I kid you not.) I quit writing and got a “real” job as an insurance underwriter. When I was twenty-four, however, I went through the worst year of my life. My husband of only eight months was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, a form of cancer, and at the same time my mother was dying of breast cancer. To say I was stressed would be an understatement. I started writing a historical romance as a form of therapy. Even after the stress let up, I kept writing, although since I was writing my book around my job, along with courses I was taking to get my CPCU (Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter) designation, it took me years to finish it.

How long did it take to find the right publisher for your works?

Once I finished that book, The Light in the Darkness, I sent it off to all the big New York publishers. (This was in 1997, and at that time I had never heard of e-publishing.) I got the usual flood of form rejection letters, plus two letters from editors asking me to send the full manuscript. One of those publishers, Bantam, purchased it. Unfortunately, they didn’t like my followup historical, so I was back to square one. I tried all the New York publishers again—a long, slow, tedious process-- then gave up in disgust and wrote a contemporary instead. Eventually I pulled out my historical, read it again, and got honest with myself… the ending sucked. To paraphrase The Wizzard of Oz, it wasn’t just merely bad, it was really most sincerely bad. Which was unfortunate, since the rest of the book was really pretty good, I thought. I rewrote the last fifty pages, along with some other scenes, and submitted it to New Concepts Publishing, and within six weeks they bought it. Before long they’d also bought my contemporary and two more books.

Love Remembered takes place in pre-Revolutionary America. What is it about this time period inspired you to use it as the setting?

Well, I was born in Virginia, only a mile from a beautiful colonial-era house (the Francis Land House, built circa 1740). My mother wrote for the local newspaper, and she loved to write about Virginia historical sites, so I spent my childhood visiting various places ranging from George Washington’s birthplace to the Adam Thoroughgood house. I went to the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg (the colonial capital of Virginia and a restored historical village), and I even worked for Colonial Williamsburg for a few months after college. So what other period and setting could I possibly have used??

Do you outline your stories or do you just write as you go?

I have some vague idea of where my story is headed, but for the most part I just write and see where it takes me. This means that I sometimes have to go back and rewrite to make things fit, but for the most part it’s amazing how easily the plot falls into place. I’ve tried to use outlines, but they just don’t work for me.

Gwaltney and Cordelia have a unique relationship in Love Remembered. It seemed some inspiration came from the Shakespearian play Taming of the Shrew. How did it feel writing such a strong willed woman and her perfect match?

LOL… I’m glad you noticed the similarity to Taming of the Shrew. That was deliberate. I wanted to write very different characters from my first book, which featured a rather meek woman and a seriously alpha hero. So I deliberately set out to write a difficult heroine and a more likable hero. Cordelia is not the nicest heroine ever, but she has her reasons for behaving the way she does, and she was loads of fun to write… I loved writing her sarcastic, acerbic, wickedly clever remarks. (I’m too nice to actually say half of the things I think. Cordelia’s not.) I also adore my hero, Gwaltney, who is strong and courageous, yet vulnerable at the same time. (And hunky, which is a very important trait in a hero!)

Do you feel as if the characters live with you as you write? Do they haunt your dreams?

Actually the basic idea for Love Remembered really did come to me in a dream, believe it or not. A lot of my ideas seem to pop up fully formed from my subconscious. Sometimes I go to bed wondering how to resolve a plot problem, and when I wake up I know exactly what I want to do. Also, I don’t consciously write my dialogue; when I have two characters I really like they just start talking to each other, and I simply type whatever they say. So yes, it’s almost like living with two people and writing down everything they say and do.

Do you read often, and what do you like to read? Who are some of your favorite authors?

I read all the time. Nowadays I read mostly romance, but with some science fiction and “literary fiction” mixed in. (I also read a lot of juvenile fiction so I can see what my eight-year-old daughter is reading… but I can’t keep up with her. She reads at the speed of light!) In my romance reading, I like to switch back and forth between fairly serious historicals and sexy, humorous contemporaries. My favorite historical authors are Lisa Kleypas, Gaelen Foley, and Julia Quinn, and my favorite contemporary authors are Rachel Gibson and Susan Andersen.

Do you believe in ‘writer’s block’? If so, have you ever suffered from it?

Well, just as I like to switch subgenres in my reading, I do the same thing in my writing. I usually work on a couple of books at one. If I get bored writing a historical, I switch to writing a romantic comedy for a while. If I really don’t feel like writing at all, I revise. I do a whole lot of editing, and when I think a book is perfect I get my husband to read it… and he points out a million and one places where it could be better! So I always have work to do.

But yes, I believe in writer’s block. Another phrase for it is “having three kids.” Nothing wrecks a sex scene faster than having my kids come into my office screaming and arguing!

How has being published changed your life, if at all?

I love knowing that someone else is going to read my stories and, hopefully, like them. I’m always thrilled to get fan mail—a few months ago I actually got a fan letter from Italy! It’s amazing to realize something I wrote could be read by anyone anywhere in the world.

Congratulations on the release of Love Remembered in October 2003. Do you wish to share some teasers with the readers?

The hero of Love Remembered, Gwaltney Harris, is an outcast. He was born into poverty, and despite the fact that he’s amassed a great fortune, Virginia society looks down on him. So he decides to gain respectability by marrying an upperclass woman, Cordelia Ashton. Unfortunately, Cordelia isn’t thrilled about the notion of marrying him, or anybody, for that matter. She wants to quietly live as a spinster, tending her father’s tobacco plantation and painting, and she’s cultivated a shrewish persona in order to drive suitors away. Gwaltney sets out to convince her to marry him… but when he succeeds, will he regret it?

What books can we expect to see from you in the coming year?

In February, 2004 NCP will release All I Ever Wanted, my first contemporary. It’s a romantic comedy starring Maxfield Sinclair, the author of a popular series of science fiction novels, and Drew Cooper, a professor of literature who thinks science fiction is hopelessly dumb. Later in 2004 NCP will release Never Love A Stranger, my first time travel romance, about Annie Simpson, who discovers a gorgeous, totally naked man sitting on her kitchen table. (Lucky Annie!) The hero of Never Love A Stranger is very unusual… I don’t want to spoil the book, so I won’t elaborate. But he’s definitely not your usual romance hero. I’ve also just signed a contract for Isn't it Romantic?, a romantic comedy novella, but it hasn’t been scheduled yet. Isn't it Romantic? is about an out-of-work actor, Kipling Stanton, who falls for the girl next door and finds his life turned upside down as a result.

Are you working on anything right now?

I’m still working on Never Love A Stranger (I’m about two-thirds of the way through) and just finishing up Isn't it Romantic? I loved writing a novella—it was great fun to write something short for a change!

Where do you see your writing career five years from now?

Five years? I want to be rich, famous, and the next Nora Roberts… Seriously, I want people to read my books and enjoy them. In five years, I’d like to have produced a reasonable number of good books and acquired new readers with each one. And I’d like to have made a lot of readers laugh and cry at my stories.

Any advice for aspiring authors?

You can’t sell a book you haven’t written. So step one is to get the book written. Step two is to revise until it’s perfect. (Another pair of eyes is always helpful. I have my husband review my work before I submit it.) And step three is to have a whole lot of patience. Waiting for publishers to read your manuscript can be a long, slow process that makes you want to pull your hair out by the roots. Do your research on publishing houses and figure out who accepts the kind of book you write BEFORE you submit, and who is currently accepting manuscripts. And finally, be willing to try alternate roads to publication, like small press and e-publishers (but not subsidy publishers).

Anything to add, like a website?

I’d like to invite your readers to visit my website at Ellen Fisher.com to read excerpts of my upcoming novels and find out when my books will be released. And readers can write to me at Ellen Fisher. I love to hear from readers!

Thank you so much for interviewing for Fallen Angels, Ellen!

Thank YOU, Miriam!!

Interviewed by: Miriam