Prolific Hinckley author’s passion for writing is no mystery; Mary Ellis will be at meet-the-author event March 14 at Valleaire Golf Club

by Erica Peterson

After publishing 25 fiction books, you might think coming up with new story ideas would be tough. But that’s the easy part for Hinckley author Mary Ellis.

Ideas can come from anywhere, she said. “I can go to the grocery store and overhear something, and that can become part of a story,” Ellis said.

The more difficult part happens after the story is written.

“For me, the hard part is going back through, editing and rewriting certain parts, like half of a chapter here or there, because a plot point is out of sequence or I don’t like how something sounds,” Ellis said.

That’s the part of the process she is on for the third book of her “Marked for Retribution” mystery series. The second book, “Sweet Taste of Revenge,” is being released this month.

She will speak about both “Sweet Taste of Revenge” and “Hiding in Plain Sight,” her first book in the series, at a meet-the-author night on March 14, at 7 p.m., at Valleaire Golf Club, 6969 Boston Rd., Hinckley. Small bites and soft drinks will be provided, and a cash bar will be available.

Ellis and her husband Ken live with their “pound puppy,” a rescued dog named Chloe. The two have been in the township for about 30 years.

“Our friends built a house in Hinckley, and we really liked it,” she said. “We bought some land here, built a house and have been here ever since.”

Ellis started writing full time around five years ago, after retiring from teaching math to middle-schoolers in Sheffield Lake and working as a sales representative for Hershey’s chocolate.

She writes around six hours a day, six days a week, taking Sundays off.

Ellis took her first stab at fiction writing in her 20s, mostly short stories. “And then life got in the way, as it does,” she said.

After a friend started writing a book, Ellis was drawn to writing again in her 40s. It was challenging, she said, as finding time was difficult between working and acting as caretaker to her parents and aunt.

“But if I waited until my life slowed down [to write], I’d be in my 90s,” she said. “I eked out time every day, before or after work.”

It took her two years to finish her first book, “Something Very Wicked,” a murder mystery set in New Orleans.

“I liked to read mysteries, so when I decided to try my hand at writing again, I gravitated toward what I like to read,” Ellis said

It was released in 2006 through a small publisher to decent reviews. “Not enough to quit my day job,” she said.

She wrote two other mysteries, and then her agent steered her in a different direction. Ellis enjoyed visiting Ohio’s Amish country, so she suggested that she try writing Amish fiction.

Ellis describes the genre as “sweet romances with wholesome stories that you could give to your teenage daughter or grandmother and not set their hair on fire.”

Readers of Amish fiction are voracious, she said, which led to her publishing 12 such books. She enjoyed the genre immensely, but after a time, she was ready for a change. It was challenging to continue coming up with complex characters and clever plot twists about people who pride themselves on their simple lives, she said.

“The Amish don’t, by popular standards, live exciting lives,” she said.  

Ellis then wrote historical fiction set during the Civil War. But she has since returned to her first love, mysteries.

“It’s a lot of work,” she said about mystery writing. “At the end, you have to go through the story a second time, dropping in clues and foreshadowing. It’s more difficult to write than the Amish fiction.”

Ellis takes writing classes, attends conferences locally and nationally and is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, Romance Writers of America and Sisters in Crime for women mystery and crime writers. Such groups offer solid information and practical resources for every level of writer, she said.

All the work is worth it, Ellis said, especially when she is doing research and getting the flavor of a location. She goes to the area she wants to write about and starts talking to the locals, making connections.

“People will open up to you,” she said. “Start asking local people, ‘What is that over there?’ And they will tell you a story about what is over there.”

She recalls visiting Georgia and asking a resident about some pelicans she saw roosting.

“We ended up talking for two hours,” Ellis said. “People are anxious to have someone listen to them.”

Featured image photo caption: Hinckley fiction writer Mary Ellis, who has published 25 books, has returned to mystery writing. Photo courtesy of Mary Ellis