1--What is the title of your latest release?
A VERY BAD THING
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Who Killed Columbia Jones?
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
This one’s set in Colorado, New York, Nashville, and a very cool island off the coast of Maine—each chosen for the specific scenarios it provides. New York, especially—sometimes, a character just needs to get lost in the crowds! And of course, I have to have a Nashville connection.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Absolutely. Killing her was unbelievably hard. Columbia was a challenge to write because she’s gone. She couldn’t speak to me in the way the other characters do.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Elegant. Driven. Duplicitous.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
Oddly enough, that Mark Rothko committed suicide. I love his work, and every time we go to New York, I make it a practice to go to MoMA and look at his paintings in person. But I had no idea how he suffered for his art.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
Both. To get myself geared up for the writing day, I edit what I wrote the day before. So my drafts end up very clean, and then I tackle revisions.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Pizza. But I have celiac disease, so I eat Milton’s Cauliflower Crust, and it’s delicious!
9--Describe your writing space/office!
I have floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on two walls, a huge window on the third, and my desk on the fourth. It is a simple wooden slab facing a rather large TV that I hook into my laptop, so I have plenty of real estate to work with. There are French doors that I can close if I need total silence, too, but the cat prefers them to be open so she can stroll in and out. There’s also a large blue velvet reading chair that we fight over. It’s a good creative space.
10--Who is an author you admire?
All of them??? Any time someone has managed to capture a story and have it published, I am in awe.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
I’d have to go with Lolita. I was in college, and we read it for a class, and I was just awestruck by Nabokov’s use of language and narrative skills. To make you root for such a horrible person? That’s talent.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
My parents were visiting, and we love movies, so we were watching A History of Violence, and it was just at that wild staircase sex scene when the phone rang. I was relieved to step away. I saw the 212 area code and said a very bad word, because I knew we were on submission. My agent made a terrible joke about how there comes a time when an agent and author have to discuss their relationship, and I thought OMG, he’s firing me, in front of my parents! Then he said just kidding, we have a three-book deal. I called my husband, and told everyone at once, and just cried. To have my parents there was really cool.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
Thrillers and fantasy, primarily, though I will read anything and everything but Horror.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Gladiator. And the Harry Potter series.
15--What is your favorite season?
Fall. I love how the earth is done and rolling up the carpets for the night.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
With a trip somewhere! Preferably a beach.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Masters of the Air. Just an awesome show, the ultimate example of leadership, bravery, and courage in the face of an almost sure death.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Mexican. I can murder some queso.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
Golf, read, travel, preferably overseas.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
More of the same! Epic thrillers with complex family dynamics and a gothic flair.
From New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison comes a taut thriller about one author at the pinnacle of her career, whose past threatens to destroy everything she has—and everyone she knows.
A great writer knows when to deliver a juicy plot twist. But for one author, the biggest twist of all is her own murder.
With a number of hit titles and a highly anticipated movie tie-in, celebrated novelist Columbia Jones is at the top of her game. Fans around the world adore her. But on the final night of her latest book tour, one face in the crowd makes the author collapse. And by the next morning, she’s lying dead in a pool of blood.
Columbia’s death shocks the world and leaves Darian, her daughter and publicist, reeling. The police have nothing to go on—at first. But then details emerge, pointing to the author’s illicit past. Turns out many people had motive to kill Columbia. And with a hungry reporter and frustrated cop on the trail, her secrets won’t stay buried long. But how many lives will they shatter as the truth comes out?
Thriller Psychological [Thomas & Mercer, On Sale: November 1, 2024, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781662520310 / ]
J.T. Ellison is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than 25 novels, and the EMMY® award winning co-host of the literary TV show A WORD ON WORDS. She also writes urban fantasy under the pen name Joss Walker.
With millions of books in print, her work has won critical acclaim and prestigious awards. Her titles have been optioned for television and published in twenty-eight countries.
J.T. lives with her husband and twin kittens in Nashville, where she is hard at work on her next novel.
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