New York Times bestselling YA author and Castlemaine local Ellie Marney is back with the electrifying sequel to None Shall Sleep; Some Shall Break with a new compelling and dangerous case for junior FBI consultants Travis Bell and Emma Lewis to solve.
The award-winning author, teacher and mother of four sat down with the Castlemaine Mail to talk about her 11th book due to launch at Readings in Carlton on June 6.
“It’s such intense subject matter and I try and keep my writing style clean, using the old crime noir writing style,” Ellie told the Mail.
“I think it was Chekov that said to connect with the reader you need to be cold and leave enough clues for the emotional tone to allow the reader to flood the gap.”
Ellie is now celebrating a decade of writing, beginning her journey when her youngest child was three in 2013.
“I found motherhood to be a creatively inspirational time. You start wearing your heart on the outside of your body and it opens something so you’re able to access your emotional core.”
“I write for young adults because I never really grew up,” Ellie laughs. “Plus, teaching teenagers and having four large teenage boys occupying your house really helps.
“Writing YA is exciting, there’s a real sense of emotional urgency and you’re exploring a lot of uncharted territory with a lot of firsts.
“I had to do a lot of research on Pittsburgh to write Some Shall Break. There was a lot of time on google maps and cross-checking and research into the FBI and juvenile serial killers. It’s interesting as both a reader and as a writer because serial killers don’t think like we do.
“I also had to do a lot of research about the 80s. The FBI Behavioural Unit first began in 1975 and using juvenile consultants was so outlandish, it only could have happened in the early days when they were still doing whacky things.”
Ellie notes that her latest book has a real focus on women’s struggles from experiencing and recovering from trauma and sexual violence. Some Shall Break explores institutional perpetuation of trauma and themes of mental illness, emotional co-dependence and twisted understandings of romance, love and marriage.
“This makes Some Shall Break a more psychologically difficult read, but perhaps a more truthful depiction of the horrors of these kinds of forensic investigations,” commented Ellie.
“It was never supposed to be a series, but as soon as I finished the first book I started writing Some Shall Break and I’m working on the third book at the moment.”