Creative Minds and the Need for Sleep by Mary Ellis

Read any author interview or listen to any conversation between writers and you will hear one universal theme: There aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. Between day-jobs, families, houses that need to be cleaned, and meals to get on the table, how does a writer find time to write? Once published, authors must find time for editing, publicity, research, and coming up with ideas for a saleable proposal. But wait…what about email and social media, that lurking Goliath ready to devour every minute? Writers become ingenious at squeezing more into their day, but sleep often gets short-changed. 

Instead of slipping under the covers at a decent hour, writers network into the wee hours and face the next day sleep deprived. Besides bags under our eyes and crabby dispositions, there’s another downside to consider. Sleep-time is also dreamtime, and there is no better way to recharge your creative batteries than dreaming. During REM sleep, dreams are often vivid enough to jump into and direct the outcome. The more writers dream, the more they revitalize the right side of their brains. I’m no dream therapist, nor do I play one on TV, but for years I’ve noticed my writing is better after a good night’s sleep. Creativity thrives on rest, not extra caffeine. So authors, the next time you find your story stuck with characters having nothing to say, don’t reach for another cup of coffee. Instead brew a cup of chamomile tea, turn off your phone and catch some zzzz’s. Your writing will thank me in the morning. 

Mary Ellis is a former schoolteacher turned USA Today bestselling author who’s written twenty-six novels including Amish fiction, historical romance, and suspense. Her first mystery, Midnight on the Mississippi, was a finalist for the RT Magazine’s Reviewer’s Choice Award and a finalist for the Daphne du Maurier Award. First of her current series, One for the Road, is available in Kindle for $10.99. Also available in hardcover and CD’s. Book two, One Hundred Proof Murder just released in hardcover. She enjoys gardening and bicycling and lives in Ohio with her husband and dog. www.maryellis.net or www.facebook.com/Mary.Ellis.Author

Amazon.com: One for the Road (A Bourbon Tour mystery Book 1) eBook: Ellis, Mary: Kindle Store

What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Win a free copy of One for the Road on CDs

Happy Spring, Readers! Mary Ellis here. Ever wonder what could go wrong while researching/writing a book? Covid, that's what!

Readers familiar with my writing know I do a lot of research before, during and after the book is finished. My first visit to an area is to envision the basic storyline and flesh out the characters. I accomplish this by asking questions of everyone I meet connected to a certain vocation, B&B or sect of people. My second and third visits are during the writing to pull together subplots or flesh out secondary characters. My final visit is to answer the multitude of questions that come up during the writing. For One for the Road, book one of the Bourbon Tour Mysteries, I chose Kentucky, the bluegrass state, for my setting. Although I'm not a bourbon drinker, I heard from several friends that bourbon tours have grown very popular. Hordes of tourists arrive weekly to tour the distilleries. Some tours offer overnight stays with paring dinners. There’s even a train you can take with bourbon tasting along the way. Sounded like a fun getaway weekend with friends. And a distillery sounds like a great place for murder…speaking as a mystery writer, of course.

I planned two trips to Kentucky to research the small (craft) distilleries and interview the master distillers. Then I made plans for an extended visit to the Louisville area to tour eight major production plants. My friends and I planned to take tours, ride the train, go to paring dinners and of course, at least taste the bourbon. Reservations had been made and tickets purchased, then the Covid pandemic hit and everything was cancelled. No more tours. Luckily, most of my book, One for the Road, takes place in a small craft distillery and I had finished that research and was thus able to write the story. But things better open back up before I put the finishing touches on One Hundred Proof Murder, book two of the series, or this writer will be creating a lot more fiction than usual.

Please leave me comment about how the pandemic changed your life for a chance to One for the Road on audio (CD's) Winner drawn in one week. You must leave your email address. Sorry, US readers only.

Links: www.maryellis.net or
www.facebook.com/Mary.Ellis.Author

Buy link: Amazon.com: One for the Road (A Bourbon Tour mystery Book 1) eBook: Ellis, Mary: Kindle Store

A Day in the Life of My New Character ~ Drawing to win a free book too!

Happy New Year, lovers of mystery and suspense! Today I invite you to get into the head of my favorite character from One From the Road, book one of Bourbon Tour Mysteries.  Leave me a comment and you could win a book from my previous series...your choice! 

My name is Jill Curtis and I’m a travel writer for a syndicated Chicago news service. What I’m I looking for? A break—one big, attention-grabbing story that will move me into my dream job of investigative reporter. And where is the boss sending me and my videographer? Certainly not London, Paris or Rome. No, Michael and I are headed to some small town in Kentucky to discover why thousands of tourists line up to tour their famous distilleries.  Maybe we’ll find some delicious vittles to eat and some tasty spirits to sip, but I don’t smell a Pulitzer Prize in the making.

What the boss and Michael don’t know is that my grandmother’s cousin lives in Roseville, home to two bourbon distilleries, and the woman owns a charming B&B. Who wouldn’t rather stay in a rambling Victorian mansion rather than a low-end chain motel on the outskirts of town? Although Granny hasn’t spoken to Dot Clark, the innkeeper, in years due to a teenage argument, I plan to mend fences between the two old ladies while I’m there. After all, what else do I have to do in rural America after the sun goes down?

Turns out the innkeeper’s husband is the master distiller of Black Creek, the smaller of the two distilleries we had planned to tour. With any luck Michael can shoot behind-the-scenes video, while I might be able to interview the head honcho of Black Creek in person. That would be so much better than the canned tour available to the general public. After all, who can turn down a long-lost relative who’s also your houseguest?

What I didn’t bargain for is meeting the handsome son of the master distiller at Founder’s Reserve…or tripping over a dead body during tour number-two.

Back cover of One for the Road: Travel writer Jill Curtis loves her job, but she desperately needs a break if she’s to achieve her dream of becoming an investigative reporter. Sent to Kentucky by her boss to find out why thousands of tourists flock to Bourbon Country every year, Jill’s dream seems to be slipping further away. After all, nothing interesting ever happens in rural America . . . does it? Staying at an estranged relative’s B&B, Jill’s plan to uncover what makes the state’s bourbon tours so popular goes awry when she discovers a body at one of the distilleries and quickly becomes a suspect in a brutal murder. Can she navigate high-stakes bourbon rivalries, centuries-old family feuds and ill-fated romance to catch a killer?

Buy it here

Now...leave me a comment about your new year's plans for a chance to win a copy of Hiding in Plain Sight, Sweet Taste of Revenge or Island of Last Resorts. Have a great 2021!!! 

What's Hot in Inspirational Suspense by Patricia Bradley

 

Wondering what's new in inspirational suspense and mystery?

Today our own Mary Ellis has a book recently released!  

Travel writer Jill Curtis is drawn into a deadly blend of rivalry, resentment and romance gone wrong when she stumbles into a bourbon war between two Kentucky families in this first in an intoxicating new cozy mystery series.

Travel writer Jill Curtis loves her job, but she desperately needs a break if she’s to achieve her dream of becoming an investigative reporter. Sent to Kentucky by her boss to find out why thousands of tourists flock to Bourbon Country every year, Jill’s dream seems to be slipping further away. After all, nothing interesting ever happens in rural America . . . does it?

Staying at an estranged relative’s B&B, Jill’s plan to uncover what makes the state’s bourbon tours so popular goes awry when she discovers a body at one of the distilleries and quickly becomes a suspect in a brutal murder. Can she navigate high-stakes bourbon rivalries, centuries-old family feuds and ill-fated romance to catch a killer?


You can purchase One for the Road here.