The author I’m interviewing today, Ellie Keating, is madly rushing around preparing for the launch of her new book “Cupid’s Contract”. Time is precious, as we all know, so thank you, Ellie, for taking the time to chat to me. Please sit down, get comfortable and let’s begin.

If there was a film or TV adaptation of your book, who would you like to see play your characters?
When I was writing the novel I pictured Rachel Bilson as the inspiration to Eve, and recently I fell in love with the tv show Containment, and the main character Jake Riley, who people may know as Kai from The Vampire Diaries. So if I had to cast characters, I would put Chris Wood as Drew Harper, because ‘damn, son!’ that boy is cute but he is also legitimately crazy. Maybe not in real life, but he certainly can straddle the border between insane and lovable.

Hmmm… I’ve not thought too much about this, but Marisa Tomei is the right vibe for Eve’s mom, especially if you curled her hair up. She’s fantastic at playing someone slightly unstable, vulnerable but strong, and attractive in a way that defies science. The woman get’s more beautiful with every line on her face.

How important are character names to you in your books? Is there a special meaning to any of the names?
Eve is a name I wanted to give my baby. That obviously isn’t happening anymore, because since I read Gone Girl, I’ve realised the danger in trying to create children from books, and vice versa.

I struggle with names because I may love a name, and love a character, but I won’t love the combination together, or they may seem perfect until the character does something out of my control, and then I realise that he isn’t a Stan, he’s a Carl, or something silly like that. Names are terribly important. I feel like an Ellie, but I’m sure people who know me would disagree… I’ve put too much thought into this question. Oh dear.

Have you always liked to write?
Since I was little, I have done nothing but read and write.

I have the strangest memory of a four/five year old me, coming down from my bedroom well after my bedtime, and my parents being angry with me for still being awake. I insisted that I was going back upstairs, but could they pleeeeease tell me how to spell rabbit. Was it two b’s or two t’s or both? I couldn’t go to bed until I finished telling my diary about our family pet escaping under the hedge that day.

My mom spelled it one way, my father another, and I remember being SO frustrated with them because FOR GOD’S SAKE they should know. So I stomped back up to bed, and being a total daddy’s girl I spelled it the way he told me, then decided it didn’t feel right and instead called the animal a ‘bunny’, and to this day I have never trusted either of them to spell anything for me again.

I was a real pain in the behind as a child. I still am today, as an adult, as well. Some people just don’t grow out of their horrible character traits.

What writing advice do you have for aspiring authors?
Just do it. I have no assurances that I won’t be rubbish and that I won’t fail, but at least I’ll have tried. I don’t want to be eighty years old, trying to pen an erotic novel about all the lovers I never had, despite carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis. I want to be eighty years old and penning my eightieth novel about all the adventures I have had.

What is your least favourite part of the writing / publishing process?
Marketing, obviously. I cannot comprehend the sheer volume of words involved in learning how to market.
Putting myself out there at all. It’s very scary to put something out there for people to judge, be it writing or painting or a cake you baked. I’m nervous about being judged but I also have to believe that anyone who would judge me probably isn’t for me anyway.

Do you have a favourite conference / convention that you like to attend? What is it?
This isn’t an author convention, but Comic Con sounds great. I need to try that. Ideally the one in California because, hello, California.

What are you working on now?
Romantic Suspense novel, and planning the sequel to Cupid’s Contract. Working title is Little Boy Blue, but Lord knows if that will stick. Similarly to naming characters, I also struggle to name novels.

Can you give us a few tasty morsels from your work-in-progress?
There was something dying in this basement. It was wretched and it was cold and every single breath seemed to echo the fact, cloudy puffs of fetid air.

Dying.

Dead.

The smell was pungent, like years of grime and filth had caked to the walls to hold in every ounce of evil that had ever conspired here. Like the cellar itself was in on the secret.

She didn’t know how long she had been here. Days, at least. Probably a week, if not more. She had lost count when she had lost sight of the moon through the small, iron-clad window. He had seen her looking at the window. Looking at the small rays of celestial light that gave her some sort of hope that perhaps someone would find her.

He had not liked her looking at the light.

He had not liked her looking at anything but him.

He had grabbed at her hands, her blue tinged hands, and demanded she look at him. But when she did that, he had not liked what he saw. The fear in her eyes, the disgust on her lips and the sweet innocent tears that had welled up at the shadow of him.

He had liked that even less.

The window had been covered, boarded up somehow while she slept and wept, and no light came in now. No errant beams of life and no hope. She could see nothing now, not even his haunting grey eyes.

There was something dying in this basement.

Yes, she was dying in this basement.

Describe what your ideal writing space looks like.
Clean. So clean and empty that there isn’t a single edge out of place to distract me. I’m slightly OCD. Give me a smudge and I’ll polish the surface until it can’t shine, because it’s now rubble.

Why did you choose to write in your genre? If you write in more than one, how do you balance them?
I’m currently writing in genres I actually read, because those are the ones I enjoy the most. Writing them comes more naturally to me, but also I am at a point where I struggle to find books that I want to read in the genres I LOVE reading. I know I haven’t actually read them all, so feel free to recommend some to me, but I started reading books and would be disappointed by what I thought was excellent plot points that didn’t happen. I would enjoy the book, the characters, but get to the end and my brain would be reeling, just thinking “BUT THIS COULD’VE HAPPENED AND BEEN GREAT!!!” So I thought, let’s just try it. I love romance and I love humour, so Chick-Lit is natural, and if I’m not reading Chick-Lit I’m nose deep in thrillers, so that feels great too, though certainly more intricate. I love fantasy as well, but I’m not ready to create a world that is so elaborate. I hope that comes with time, as I didn’t think I had the attention span or creativity for a thriller either, but I’m finding it extremely satisfying.

Where did your love of books come from?
My older sister was two years above me in school, and when I was in kindergarten, desperate to keep up with her, I started reading her homework and books. She wasn’t too interested but I was enamoured. I had devoured her entire Babysitter’s Club collection by first grade. My mom maintains that it was her sitting me in front of the tv, with Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah playing all day long, subtitles on, that started the ball running, but I think perhaps my parents had an influence even in their bedtime stories that may have sparked the flame. I’ve always been very introspective though, so some of it is innate, I think.

When you’re writing, do you listen to music or do you need silence?
Oh my God, COMPLETE silence. If I hear a whisper I’m off, looking for the distraction.

Who are your favourite authors, and why?
Jane Austen, naturally. I love J.K. Rowling, because I’m human. Never complain if I get a bit of Gillian Flynn or Jeff Wheeler, either.

Sophie Kinsella has been a large part of my Chick-Lit inspiration, also.

I’m sure there are others, but I’m drawing a blank right now.

Anne McCaffrey, T.R. Ragan, Rob Dugoni.

What do you find most challenging about writing?
Finding time to do it, and the confidence to pursue it. I struggle with the former due to laziness and the latter due to insecurity. Hopefully both are not so totally ingrained in myself that I’ll never overcome them.

Where can readers go to discover more about you and your books?
Website | Twitter