Ellen Whyte

Interview with Ellen Whyte

Ellen Whyte is a Scottish-Dutch columnist, author, and feature writer living in Malaysia. A Paul Collins interview.

Tell us about your background. Who you are, where you are from?

My real name is Ellen Whyte and I write romance and romance erotica as Storm Chase. I’m Scottish-Dutch, I’m married to my best friend Tom, who is from the US and we live in Malaysia.

I am a columnist, working for newspapers and magazines in Malaysia, Singapore, and other countries.

I’m also taking a Masters’s in Counselling on the side. I am snoopervised by two cats, Target and Guido, and have a passion for cooking and history.

Is there a particular feeling or experience that you hope to evoke in the reader?

There’s no message in my books! Storm Chase is about getting away from everyday life. It’s pure escapism. Wildcat in Moscow and Murder in Moscow are contemporary romances with thriller/murder elements. They’ve got kick-ass heroines, yummy heroes, and Happily Ever After.

My romance erotica is a mixed bag. There’s Max, the Goth composer who is allergic to “emo” who finds love in Kiev; Lucy, the domestic abuse victim who finds protection and love from Jack, a man with his own dark past; silly, sweet, gullible Cleo who is rescued from a Colombian jail by Connor…They’re all different but they have happy ever after endings.

What prompted you to be an author and did you have a specific inspiration in mind? Were you influenced by a certain person, artist, or genre?

Ellen Whyte- Writing pays the rent, and ensures my cats, Target and Guido, can have the life of luxury they crave! But it’s more than that. I write because I love it. Having a vague idea about a plot or character and making it all come to life in a novel is the best fun anyone can have. I write because it’s my passion.

If you could compare your book to any other existing works, which ones would it be and why?

Now that’s the million-dollar question! In my wildest dreams, I hope one day to be as good as Jilly Cooper in terms of romance or Tymber Dalton for romance erotica. Mind you, my heroines are a lot tougher than Jilly’s (except for Lucy in Blackmail Bride who’s a bit shy to start with) and I don’t write ménage the way Tymber does. But both are terrific storytellers, and that’s what I want to emulate.

Tell us about your latest work and what inspired you.

Murder in Moscow came out a few days ago. I think it’s easiest if I share the blurb with you:

When burned out ex-copper Cassidy Stone moves to Moscow, a favour for a friend leads her into a lethal ambush, and into the orbit of Dmitri Milyukov, a fun loving millionaire. Cassidy slowly learns to love again – until she stumbles on proof that Dmitri is a Red Mafia agent bent on robbing her employer. Worse, there is a gruesome murder, and everyone is convinced Cassidy is the killer…

Although this is a stand-alone story, it’s also a follow-up from Wildcat in Moscow. I wrote it because I wanted to see what happened to Dmitri, one of the secondary characters in Wildcat. He’s a lot of fun, very tough but very light-hearted, and I wondered what sort of girl would appeal to him. That’s when Cassidy popped up. She’s his antithesis in many ways. They’re like yin and yang.

Thanks for taking the time for this interview. All the best!

Thanks, Paul! Please come over and guest blog for me. I’ve also got a special offer for your blog readers!

Find Ellen on Facebook.