Before she took pen to paper, Ellen Schreiber was an actress. She attended a local university majoring in theatre and spent a summer in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts where she learned about the "Old Bard" from amazingly talented teachers.

When she returned from London, she relocated to Chicago and lived there for 5 years. She graduated from the Second City Training Center and performed improv, Shakespeare, comedies, and dramas--she even sang and danced on a cruise boat. A classmate from Second City and Ellen created and performed a two-woman show for a year before Ellen braved it alone doing stand-up comedy. It was during that time that she began to write an adult novel about a rock star.

Fast forward a couple of years along with a move home and she read a young adult book her brother found and thought she'd like to read. As she read the book, she thought, 'I can do this!'

And she did. She wrote JOHNNY LIGHTNING, a young adult novel about a rock star. Her writing mentor edited the book and was kind enough to send the manuscript to his publisher in Belgium and they published it! In Dutch!

She was on a new life path!

Ellen joined a writer's organization (SCBWI) hoping she could get group insurance. In the back of their monthly mag they posted important publishing news. A fabulous editor would be accepting "unsolicited manuscripts" for a short time. Ellen sent in TEENAGE MERMAID.

A few months later, she got the letter of a lifetime. She still has it framed and hanging on her wall. In 2001, Katherine Tegen at HarperCollins made Ellen an offer she couldn't refuse. HarperCollins was going to publish TEENAGE MERMAID, in a language she could read and put it in book stores Ellen could walk into.

Ellen showed the editor her other books and HarperCollins also bought VAMPIRE KISSES and COMEDY GIRL, but Ellen had to wait two long years until they came out.

After VAMPIRE KISSES, the editor asked for a sequel, and there began the evolution of the series. And of manga for the series.

When she's not writing about the love affair between vampire obsessed, goth girl Raven and her favorite mysterious dark-eyed hottie, Alexander Sterling, Ellen enjoys working on her other novels, shopping for Hello Kitty items on Ebay, and attempting to gain control of the remote from her husband.

VAMPIRE KISSES 8: CRYPTIC CRAVINGS is releasing in mid-May.

Website: http://ellenschreiber.com/home.htm

  

 

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Eastern USA Time.....7 PM

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The Writers Chatroom at:  http://www.writerschatroom.com/Enter.htm

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