J.T. Ellison is the international award-winning author of seven critically acclaimed novels, multiple short stories and has been published in over twenty countries.
Ellison grew up in Colorado and moved to Northern Virginia during high school. She is a graduate of Randolph-Macon Woman's College and received her master's degree from George Washington University. She was a presidential appointee and worked in The White House and the Department of Commerce before moving into the private sector. As a financial analyst and marketing director, she worked for several defense and aerospace contractors.
After moving to Nashville, Ellison began research on a passion: forensics and crime. She has worked with the Metro Nashville Police Department, the FBI, and various other law enforcement organizations to research her books.
Her short stories have been widely published, including her award winning story "Prodigal Me" in the anthology Killer Year: Stories to Die For, edited by Lee Child, "Gray Lady, Lady Gray" in the anthology Surreal South '11, edited by Pinckney Benedict and Laura Benedict, "Killing Carol Ann" in First Thrills, edited by Lee Child, and "The Number of Man" in the forthcoming anthology Thriller 3, edited by Sandra Brown. Her novel The Cold Room won the Thriller award for Best Paperback Original of 2010 from the International Thriller Writers (ITW).
Ellison is a member of several professional writing organizations, including International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America and Romance Writers of America. She has an active following on Twitter under the name @Thrillerchick, and a robust Facebook community.
She lives in Nashville with her husband and a poorly trained cat, and is hard at work on her next novel. To learn more about her please visit http://www.jtellison.com or follow her on Facebook at Facebook/JTEllison.
Questions for J.T. Ellison
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
The first female firefighter in Denver. Someone else beat me to it. I was crushed. Crushed. When that dream was taken away, I learned to never, ever plan for the future. I made my first five-year plan last year.
Do you ever scare yourself?
I totally scare myself. All the time. But I figure if it scares me, it will scare the reader. I’m very, very careful to make sure there isn’t anything gratuitous in my work. But when I look at what people are capable of, how they hurt one another, I can’t help myself. I want to find out why. I want to dig into their minds. And doing that leads me to some very frightening places. The funny thing is, I hate to be scared. Hate it. I won’t watch scary movies or read scary books. The last horror novel I read was Peter Straub’s GHOST STORY, and that was when I was 10. I knew then and there I could never read another book like that again.
What is your favorite indulgence, treat or reward?
People who know me know I’m not much of a girly girl. But without a doubt, the reward I enjoy the most are facials. It is a wonderful place to meditate on story. If I could, I’d do it every day. Instead, I save them to celebrate milestones - books finished, on sale, contracts signed, etc. Going to the symphony is another, I adore classical music. The great masters most of all - Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Beethoven, Liszt, Bach, Berlioz. Mahler is growing on me.
Do you watch TV and if so, what do you watch?
I do - I love shows that relate to my work. Criminal Minds, The Mentalist, Prime Suspect, Justified, Dexter, Castle, Mad Men and Californication all rank high on my list. I also love Weeds, Game of Thrones, the new show Once Upon a Time, and (cough) Gossip Girl. My editor got me hooked back in season one and now it’s just my dirty little indulgence. Perfect for folding laundry.
Is there something you can share that readers might not already know about you?
I learned to golf and to ski the same year, when I was five. I did both voraciously until we moved from Colorado to Virginia, where I was the only girl on my high school’s all male golf team. I was pretty good, actually, my father offered to let me skip my first year of college if I wanted to try out for the LPGA Q School. I sadly chose to go to college instead - what a dummy I was. I could have played golf for a living! I also threw shot put and discus, and had scholarship opportunities in both. But that kind of pressure wasn’t for me. So I played on my college golf team, and focused on school instead. I do enjoy an afternoon out on the links, though. That’s another indulgence reward.