Meet Ellie Raine: Award-Winning Fantasy Author

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ellie Raine and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ellie, what’s one piece of conventional advice that you disagree with?
Any aboslute statement claiming there is one ‘correct’ way to create art. It’s something you’d think is a no-brainer since art is a way to express oneself, but where there is any group of people, there is also an elitist culture within that group. Those who claim it’s not ‘true’ art unless a certain criteria is made. Maybe they think it’s not true art if it’s hyper-realistic. Maybe they think it’s not true art if it’s so abstract you can’t tell what it is. But the honest truth is, it’s all about preference of styles. This is also the case for writing. There are many genres and writing styles that don’t speak to me as well as others, but that doesn’t mean those books aren’t well written. It’s a preference. I will never forget one experience I had years ago where I pitched my book to two agents at a conference. The two started arguing with each other over how I should start my pitch. One insisted I should start with the explanation of the world and the magic systems. The other pushed for me to start with the plot of the characters. Both hated the other’s preference. It was awkward for me at the time, who didn’t know what to do other than sit quietly and wait for them to finish their argument, but it taught me that it didn’t matter WHAT you did with your story. There will always be someone who hates it, and someone who loves it. There is no one way to make art. There is no one way to write. Anyone who tells you otherwise might need to remember that not everyone likes the same things.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My books are the NecroSeam Chronicles, a high fantasy series that follows twin necromancer brothers who set out on an epic quest to cure a mysterious curse that has trapped their souls in one body. It’s been one wild experiment from day one. Now that I’ve finally completed the last book in the pentalogy, it’s hard to believe it’s over. I’d spent more than a decade plotting and writing this series, it had become my routine and a major part of my life and identity. If there is one thing I’m proud of myself for, it’s finally completing this series. I never thought I would make it to this point, but here I am, not even thirty yet with a completed epic fantasy series, awards from Writer’s Digest and Readers’ Favorite, and a strong defiance to keep my ‘feminine’ author name displayed in full to ward off the people in the speculative fiction community who have a problem with woman fantasy authors. Yes, this is unfortunately a real obstacle for both men and women (depending on the genre). For example, if men want to write ’emotion’ based romance novels, they receive more positive feedback if they take on female author names. Likewise, if women want to write sci-fi and fantasy, they’re less criticized if they take on male author names, or initials. It’s an awful truth to discover is very real, and I doubt there is much we can do to change this deep-seeded mentality right now, but there will always be those who push through it and prove that your gender doesn’t determine if you can write good fiction. A good story is a good story. I was well into the third book in my series some years ago when I attended a convention as a guest author. I was waiting to speak at a panel and while I was up there, someone from the audience asked me “So, let me guess: the first three pages of your book are really cool, and then the rest is a bunch of stupid romance, isn’t it?”… This was someone I didn’t know, who had never read my books, nor even heard of me. He immidiately made that assumption before asking me anything else. THIS was the first thing he decided needed to be addressed about my career as a fantasy author. There was no “So, what is your book about?” or “What’s your favorite book?”. Nothing. He only cared about how much romance was in my book. Now, understand, I love romantic sub-plots, but that’s as far as I can go before I lose interest. I prefer them as SUB-plots. Not the main plot (and of course, that’s just my preference, there is nothing wrong with romance at all). I’m not a romance reader and I’m not known for my romance. Turns out, I’m known for my action scenes and worldbuilding (which I’m absolutely okay with because those have always been my love when it comes to storytelling anyway). But even when I was first starting out, I had too many people who hadn’t yet finished their own manuscript give me ‘advice’ on how to finish mine (despite the fact I had completed 3 manuscripts at the time) and strangely, how to “keep a man and marry him” (despite the fact I was already married and wearing my wedding ring). Each time, none of them bothered to ask where I was in my career. None of them bothered to ask for my name, let alone where I was coming from and what stage in the process I was in. They approached me at the hotel bar of the conferences while I was enjoying a margarita by myself, texting my husband in peace. One by one, every time, they didn’t bother asking me anything. They came, they gave “advice”, and if I didn’t sit there and listen to it, I was the one being rude. They made assumptions. Wrong assumptions. Sorry, but I’m not going to be held accountable for someone else’s mistake. They need to learn to ask basic questions before giving advice to anyone. Based on those experiences, I had a suspicion I might be missing sales because I refused to put my author name as initials, but even now that I’ve confirmed those suspicions were true, I don’t see it as a negative thing. The way I see it, if someone doesn’t want to read my work because I’m a woman, I doubt I want people like that to read my work in the first place. I’ve seen enough toxic culture in too many fandoms to know I would rather not associate with those people, so I’m perfectly fine with keeping that toxicity out of my fans as much as possible, thank you very much. Still, it’s infuriating to see it happening to people I care about. Recently, a sci-fi author friend of mine (her name is A.K. Duboff and her books are amazing, so I encourage you to check her out) put out a facebook ad for her books and received the comment “Warning: woman author”. Turns out (according to an alarming number of toxic forum threads out there) if a woman writes the smallest bit of a romance sub-plot, we ruin the genre. Yet, male authors can write as much romance as they want and be hailed as kings of the genre. Never mind fantastic authors like J.K. Rowling, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Robin Hobb. Likewise, a man writing romance will get outrageous backlash for even daring to tread in the genre, while a woman writing romance can have the worst romance ever made and be endlessly praised (and for that, I offer Shakespear, Nicholas Sparks, and Edgar Allen Poe as examples of great romance). This presumptious mentality is annoying, yes, but again, I would rather keep that toxicity out of my fandom, so if my full name steers them elsewhere, I say good riddance. If there is one thing I want the world to know about my brand and my story, it’s that I live to break preconceptions. I enjoy the laughing surprise in readers’ faces when I set up a misdirection that seems predicatble, and then slam on the breaks and crash the whole car into a building that leads to a new path they never saw coming. Things aren’t always what they seem, and that’s something I hope others will see in real life as well as on the page.

Any great local spots you’d like to shoutout?
If we weren’t in quarantine right now, I would say start them off with a lovely dinner at Sushi Mito in Peachtree Corners. It’s one of my favorite restaurants out there. Then I’d take them to JeJu Sauna in Duluth for a relaxing night, and the next day would be had at Kura Revolving Sushi. The next day would be spent at the Forum in Peachtree Corners for a nice walk, fantastic food, and of course, Barnes and Noble visits. The Mall of Georgia is another great place to walk around and have a good time. We would definitely need one dinner spent at Iron Age Korean BBQ in Duluth, also. There would be a couple visits to Stone Mountain, and we’d finish the week off with a fun day at Six Flags.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are too many people to list in full that have helped me through my career. There is my family, my friends, my bandmates, my college professors… I can’t think of a single person I’ve interacted with that didn’t affect the way I look at life today. But if there is one person who I feel deserves the largest spotlight of all, it’s my husband. When we were in college and I was obsessing over the first chapter of my manuscript, he was the one who told me to stop re-writing and re-writing the first chapter, and to keep moving forward. I honestly believe I would still be stuck on that first chapter to this day if he hadn’t snapped me out of that cycle.