Author Spotlight: William David Ellis

• a cozy fantasy/sci fi writer, who also writes Sherlock Holmes mysteries

Readers! Let’s give a good, hearty welcome to William David Ellis!

William David Ellis is a storyteller. Whether it’s weaving an old narrative into an entertaining and illuminating yarn or fashioning something brand new from wisps of legend, he can tell a story.

He is the son of an English teacher, the husband of an English teacher, and the father of an English teacher, in spite of them, he occasionally punctuates. He lives in East Texas and has breakfast with some of the people who inspired his books twice a week.

He writes columns in papers across Texas, short stories, and novels. Three of which are published and the rest of which are either shipwrecked on the shores of imagination or in the oven as we speak.

William David Ellis, thanks for agreeing to be here today. While most interviews start off with bios and such, and while I’ll get to that as always, let’s start with the important stuff!

If you could have any pet (real/fantasy/no-allergies/no worries about feeding it) what would it be?

Any pet? I would resurrect my friend and constant companion a hundred and fifteen pound German Shepherd Raleigh. You can read his story here.

Awww. I’m so sorry for your lost friend. I’m sure that’s a choice many of us would make — to have a beloved pet back with us.

What do you write? And how did you get started?

I didn’t start out to write for a particular genre, I started writing to tell a story then looked to see what genre it fit. My style would be wrapped around my voice. By that, I mean, I write how I and the people I cherish talk. East Texan. I write because I love words and I love stories. When I discovered people love my story telling, I took the risk and started writing to publish 

I think that’s how most of us roll. We follow the story more than a genre and voice is strong with the best writers — and the rest of us!

What do you like to read?

I read a wide variety of genres, depending on my mood, I have been known to have a pile of twenty one books lying at my bedside end table. A practice that greatly distresses my dear wife. The spectrum includes everything from the New Testament, to battlefield surgery, to Jim Butcher’s The Dresden files. I also read about gardening, and, oh yes, how to write and market and that sort of thing.

Ha! Sounds very similar to my to-read pile… except mine has graduated to a bookcase. In my case though, it runs in the family, my mother’s to-read pile is larger than mine!

Name one commonly accepted piece of writing advice that doesn’t work for you.

How to market using Amazon Ads

I bought to expertly written books on the subject only to discover they are polar opposites and even criticize  each other’s works!

If someone actually had the formula of selling stuff down, then they could make a killing. For now? People only know what worked and what helped. Timing and luck have just as much impact as all the skilled marketing in the world — so far as I know.

Name one commonly accepted piece of writing advice that they can pry out of your cold, dead hands.

Stop polishing and publish!

Most writers are such egotists they are afraid to risk bad reviews and so are always polishing works they never publish or submit to a publisher. As Jim Butcher says, 90% of authors self-terminate.

I think I’d call it us more ‘perfectionists’ because we always think there’s something we can fix. But I do get the occasional query or short story submission out there, I promise!

What do you consider the most important thing for an aspiring author to keep in mind as they begin their writing journey?

I’ve got several things to say!

Learn the craft. Read books about writing. 

Write, write write!  Writer’s block is in your head, not in your fingers, type when you do not feel like, even if you have nothing to say. You have to jump start some manuscripts some mornings,  but if you start writing, even if it is not very good, you will slip into the flow. Then you can come back and delete the first few sentences, but if you do not absolutely force yourself to put something on the screen you will wait for a flow that never comes. You have to drill a hole before you hit water.

Don’t worry about being a planner of a pantser, most writers are a bit of both.

And this final piece of advice… Other than stomping your foot and having a hissy fit, what do you do when you get a review that isn’t good?

I tell her to go to bed and stop being cranky, she is tired and I didn’t ask for her to critique my writing, it is not her book. I proceed down a dark path into psychotic scenarios… then repent and reread the review and see if there is any truth in it.

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Shameless Self-Promotion time!

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The Princess Who Forgot She Was Beautiful

Harry Ferguson has a problem. Dragons have come to his sleepy East Texas town.  

And it’s all his fault!

Torn, burnt, and bloody from a battle with a malignant old serpent, Harry and his dragon-shifter, lady love, Sarah Linscomb, were caught in a time stream and spit out a thousand years into the future. Harry landed and has grown old in a little bitty town in countrified East Texas. But that’s just the beginning of his troubles.

Time twisted on itself and transformed Sarah into a precocious, snaggled-tooth six-year-old with no memory of her past.

To make matters worse, their ancient nemesis, a dragon spawned from Satan’s own loins, has also ridden down the time stream to finish what he began:  kill Harry and take Sarah as his own.

One thing is for certain.  Moab, Texas will never be the same again.

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Angels, Saints and sinners, the Conversion of Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes scoffed at the notion of the supernatural. Till a demon stole Watson’s soul.

Forced by his own inescapable logic:  Eliminate the impossible and whatever remains however improbable is true, and the horrible scourge of a dark ripper haunting the hovels of London, Holmes faces the most disturbing and mind-altering adventures of his life.

Once that door opens, and he begins to see, all types of creatures, living… dead… and parts, make their way to 221B Baker Street.

 You’ll love this journey of the world’s greatest consulting detective from agnostic to practitioner,

Because if Holmes does not find a way, Watson is damned.

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Check William David Ellis out across the web!

Website | Facebook | Amazon | Goodreads