SHORT and SWEET:
I write fun, lower YA fiction (time-travel and merfolk). I’m
fond of Lindt’s sea salt dark chocolate and hiking in good weather. I’m married
with four children and divide my time between British Columbia, Canada, and
Germany. I also writes upper/mature YA (historical and science fiction) as Lee
Strauss. Visit me at www.ellestraussbooks.com
When it comes to writing, I'm a bit of a late bloomer. I got married after two years of college, had four children in a row and when it became too difficult to paint (little kids into everything) I decided to try my hand at writing.
I wasn't very good but I definitely caught the bug. I read every book on writing I could get my hands on, and every single issue of Writers Digest Magazine. I devoured information on craft and industry. I wrote. I queried. I got rejected.
My family moved to Germany for two years where I polished a women`s fiction novel, and surprisingly got it published there in German (translated from English). Only problem, I don`t speak or read German and neither do my Canadian friends and family. Side note: I was born in Chicago, but raised in British Columbia, Canada. Another side note: I`ve done a lot of traveling, mostly in Europe but also USA and Mexico.
It was also in Germany that I wrote my first time travel manuscript. That one will never see the light of day.
After we moved back to Canada, I sort of put writing away for a while. In all honesty, the whole query/rejection process just sapped the life out of me. Though I kept writing a little on the side, I stopped telling people I was a writer.
Then we moved to Boston for a year where I wrote my first YA historical about a boy who grows up in Hitler Youth. I do plan on publishing that book one day.
Back in Canada I was inspired again to write time travel. I can't remember what triggered it, but I think it was Tiger, my cat.
Anyway, that's when I wrote CLOCKWISE and it's pretty darn good, if I do say so myself! :) I got my first agent with this manuscript. Unfortunately, editors weren't biting. It also happened to be the time of the recession, the digital explosion and the folding of Borders.
But happily, Indie Publishing is the next big wave and I'm ready to ride it. CLOCKWISE is the first of several books I've launched and plan to launch in the future.
So, excited!
