Ellie Campbell is in fact the pseudonym for two sisters: Lorraine Campbell and Pam Burks. Their first novel, How To Survive Your Sisters, came out to favourable reviews:
“…makes sibling rivalry funny.” Cosmopolitan.
“…plot-twisting thrills and heart-warming nostalgia in equal measure.” Fiona Walker.
There upcoming novel, When Good Friends Go Bad, is to be released 30th July 2009, and I have a feeling it will be even better.
BCC: Welcome to Book Chick City, it’s a pleasure to have you both.
Lorraine & Pam: Thank you. It’s very nice of you to feature us on your website.
BCC: Having read the synopsis of your upcoming book, When Good Friends Go Bad’, I can honestly say I am very excited. It sounds like a really great read. Can you tell my readers a bit more about it and how you came up with the idea?
Lorraine & Pam: It’s really about four women who were best friends in school but have been torn apart by circumstances, lies and betrayals. When they’re all facing major life crises including divorce, three of them come together in a quest for their missing fourth member. Along the way loyalties will be continually tested, difficult choices made, the past revisited and shocking secrets unearthed.
We’d written our first book about sisters so friendship was an obvious second choice because best friends can be so important in your lives and when they let you down, it’s almost more devastating than being cheated on by a man. Also we were fascinated by all the stories of people who’d met their first love on Friends Reunited and ran off with them, sometimes leaving marriages of 30 years.
BCC: Do you have fun writing as a duo?
Lorraine & Pam: Yes. It has its challenges but we give each other a lot of support and encouragement and we often have a laugh thinking up crazy antics for our characters, even if some of them are too far-fetched to use.
BCC: How did you settle on the pseudonym, Ellie Campbell?
Lorraine & Pam: Campbell is our family name and Ellie just seemed like a fun friendly name. We wanted something short that we both liked.
BCC: Did you both want to be writers or did you drag each other into it?
Lorraine & Pam: We both probably wanted to be writers – we were always making up stories as kids – but Lorraine got started first when she worked for a literary agent and started selling short stories. Then Pam took some creative writing courses as a hobby and she sold a lot of twist in the tale type fiction to women’s magazines too. We’ve each individually sold about 70 short stories to a wide variety of magazines but we were writing them at different times in our lives.
BCC: What made you choose to write together rather than individually?
Lorraine & Pam: We’d often offer each other advice, maybe a plot twist or a character, and then we thought it might be fun to try writing a sitcom together for a competition. It didn’t win but we had some good feedback and we found that we enjoyed brainstorming and kept each other motivated. From that it seemed a natural step to start a book together.
BCC: Do you ever disagree about the plot or characters?
Lorraine & Pam: Yes, sometimes when we’re in the brainstorming stage, we’ll have different ideas on how the story should go and have to stop and talk it out. Occasionally even at later stages one of us might come up with a brilliant new plot that means losing or changing some of what we’ve already done. But if one of us really doesn’t like something, it has to go. We both have to be completely enthusiastic or it’s impossible to write.
BCC: How do you manage to write together when you live so far apart.
Lorraine & Pam: That’s actually the easiest part. We each write a section and then email it to the other who will edit it and add it to the total document, which gets sent back and forth daily, continually being edited as we go along. We talk a lot on the phone, discuss instant message on Skype, sometimes video conference. By the time Lorraine gets up in the morning and starts work, Pam’s usually winding down for the day so you could say that on a good stretch, the book’s being written around the clock, 24 hours.
BCC: Who are your favourite authors?
Lorraine & Pam: Marian Keyes, Nick Hornby, Sophie Kinsella, Fiona Walker, Ann Tyler, Amy Tan. We both actually read a wide variety of commercial fiction from thriller, murder, suspense, historical, and quite a bit of non-fiction. Pam always has an autobiography on her beside table and Lorraine usually has something about horse training or some wacky new age philosophy.
BCC: What are you reading at the moment?
Pam: The Secret Life of Evie Hamilton by Catherine Alliott
Lorraine: Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger.
BCC: Thank you both so much for taking the time to talk to me. Good luck with ‘When Good Friends Go Bad’ and all your future projects.
Lorraine & Pam: Thank you too. Great questions.
Look out for my review of When Good Friends Go Bad, coming soon!
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How To Survive Your Sisters
When it comes to sisterly rivalry, the MacLeod family has a long history and with the social event of the year looming, there’s bound to be some fireworks. Natalie wants the perfect wedding. Milly longs to be able to fit into something other than her maternity trousers. Avril secretly dreams of settling down with an unmarried man. And Hazel, the baby of the family, just wishes she was taken more seriously. Forced together for the first time in years, it’s not long before they slip into old habits and childhood squabbles. But when tragedy strikes and all plans have to be put aside, it’s surprising who’s there to lean on. But all the more surprising are the skeletons that are about to come out of the rather crowded MacLeod closet…
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 To Buy Click Here
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When Good Friends Go Bad
All through school tomboy Jen, snobby Georgina, hippy Meg and gentle Rowan were inseparable. But when a childish prank turned bad their friendship was torn apart. Twelve years later Rowan organized a reunion dinner and all did not go well. Rowan never appeared; Georgina’s shocking secret was revealed; Meg behaved outrageously; and Jen finally decided it was time to move on. And that’s just what she did for the following ten years…Until now, when in the midst of her divorce Jen receives a desperate call from Meg. On a personal mission to track down Rowan, Meg manages to convince Georgina and Jen to put aside their differences and help her. But none of them even begin to imagine the extent to which their loyalties will be tested as their past finally catches up with them.
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7 Comments
I really enjoyed their first book "How to Survive your Sisters" so am looking forward to their second book! Can't wait for my library to get it in! Great interview
Chloe
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I haven't read either, but will hopefully be getting the latest in the post soon. Will let you know what I think. Thanks for stopping by x
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Great interview! Thanks x
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Great interview! These two seem like alot of fun. I'm not sure I could write with MY sister, so I have to give them all kinds of credit for not killing each other!
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Thanks guys – I'm looking forward to reading their books. The second book looks really good. I couldn't dream of doing anything like that with my sister either, but then again maybe it works as one lives in the UK and one in the US, so it's not like they have to work together in the same room day in, day out.
Thanks to all for stopping by!
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Thanks for the interview I really enjoyed the first book and the second was even better. Keep up the good work!!!!!
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I really enjoyed How To Survive Your Sisters can't wait for the second to arrive in the post! Keep writing hope the next one will be just as good!
Laura =]
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